Who Shot Mr. Burns pt 2 vs. The Front

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Who Shot Mr. Burns pt 2

As Mr. Burns fights for life at the hospital, the Springfield police are working to find his assailant. Smithers wakes up the next morning and vaguely remembers shooting someone the night before in a drunken rage. Guilt-ridden, Smithers heads for a local church, and is promptly arrested when the confessional turns out to be a police sting. While passing the media in his way to the police station, Smithers makes a witty remark that Sideshow Mel recognizes from an episode of Pardon My Zinger that aired at the same time as the shooting. Mel realizes that Smithers must have watched it as well, giving him an alibi. As Smithers' memory clears, it turns out that he had actually shot Jasper in his wooden leg.

With one of the prime suspects cleared, the police, aided by Lisa, eliminate other suspects, including Tito Puente (whose revenge took the form of a "slanderous mambo"), Skinner (who was busy applying what he thought was camouflage make-up at the time of the shooting), Willie (who cannot fire a pistol due to arthritis in his index fingers), and Moe (who is cleared via polygraph test). After a surreal dream about Lisa, Wiggum finds an eyelash on Mr. Burns' suit which matches Simpson DNA. At the same time, Mr. Burns wakes up from his coma and cries, "Homer Simpson!"

The police raid the Simpson home and find a gun under the seat of their car, covered with Homer's fingerprints and loaded with bullets that match the one fired into Mr. Burns. Homer is arrested for attempted murder, but escapes from the paddywagon when it overturns while the police are trying to pick up a Drive-Thru meal. Smithers offers a reward for his capture.

At the hospital, it is revealed that "Homer Simpson" is the only thing that Mr. Burns can say, suggesting that his supposed "accusation" may not have actually been one. Hoping to clear Homer's name, Lisa returns to the scene of the crime to investigate and figures out the identity of Mr. Burns' true assailant. At the same time, Homer arrives at the hospital to confront Mr. Burns and demand that Burns exonerate him, despite being somewhat impressed that Burns finally remembered his name. After a police bulletin reports Homer's location, the police, Lisa and many other citizens of Springfield all race to the hospital. Upon entering Mr. Burns' room, everyone finds an enraged Homer vigorously shaking Burns and demanding that he take back his accusation. Homer's shaking him returns Mr. Burns's ability to speak normally, and he quickly asks who the person shaking him is. Apoplectic with fury at Burns again not remembering who he is, Homer grabs Wiggum's gun and aims it at Mr. Burns' face, demanding that Burns recant his accusations. Mr. Burns then laughs at the idea and confirms that Homer did not shoot him. He then reveals the true assailant: Maggie Simpson.

Mr. Burns reveals that, after leaving the town meeting, he came across Maggie eating a lollipop in the Simpsons' car. Mr. Burns decided to try stealing candy from a baby, but Maggie would not let go of the lollipop, resulting in a struggle. As he finally yanked it away, his gun slipped from its holster into Maggie's hands and fired at Burns. The gun and lollipop both then fell beneath the car seat; Homer would later unknowingly leave fingerprints on the gun while feeling around under the seat for an ice cream cone he accidentally dropped. Lisa guesses that with his last strength, Burns must have pointed at the "S" and "W" on the sundial (with the "W" appearing as an "M" from his perspective), to identify his assailant; Mr. Burns corrects her, saying that he was actually swallowing his gold fillings to protect them from being pilfered by the paramedics. The "S" and "M" were purely coincidental.

Mr. Burns demands for Maggie to be arrested for the crime, but he is dismissed by Chief Wiggum, who says that no jury would convict a baby for a crime, except "maybe Texas". Marge also adds that the shooting must have been an accident, considering the fact that Maggie does not know how to operate a gun. The final shot shows Maggie with shifty eyes suggesting it may not have been an accident after all.

The Front

After being disappointed by a new episode of Itchy & Scratchy, Bart and Lisa decide that they can write a better one themselves. Inspired by the sight of Homer accidentally slicing Marge's hair off with hedge shears, they write a script titled "Little Barbershop of Horrors", but their episode is rejected by Roger Meyers Jr., head of Itchy & Scratchy International. Correctly guessing that Meyers did not take them seriously because they were children, they resubmit the manuscript under Grampa's name, leading Meyers to hire Grampa as a staff writer. Bart and Lisa inform Grampa about what they did and the three of them conspire to continue passing off Bart and Lisa's scripts as Grampa's own, splitting the money three ways.

For his work on Itchy & Scratchy, Grampa is nominated for an award for Outstanding Writing in a Cartoon Series. When Grampa sees Itchy & Scratchy for the first time in a clip show introducing the award, he is appalled at the violent humor, and turns his acceptance speech into an assault on both the cartoon and the audience amused by it. He storms off the stage amidst boos and thrown vegetables. Grampa gives the award to Bart and Lisa, and Bart swears never to watch an award show again, unless Billy Crystal is featured.

In the subplot, Homer and Marge attend their "Class of 1974" high school reunion, where they have a great time and Homer wins a variety of humorous awards. However, Principal Dondelinger interrupts the ceremony to announce that Homer never graduated high school because he failed a remedial science course, leading Dondelinger to revoke Homer's awards. Determined to win back the accolades, Homer retakes the course and passes the final exam, finally graduating.

The conclusion of the episode features a brief segment, complete with its own theme song, entitled "The Adventures of Ned Flanders". In the sketch, Ned is upset with his sons for not wanting to go to church, until they inform him that it is Saturday and the family laughs together

[tragabigzanda]

The Front, purely because the Everyone Loves Ned Flanders short is better than the entirety of WSMB2.

[Simple Torture]

WSMB Part 1 is way better; the payoff was never going to match the setup. That being said, I'm not even a huge fan of The Front, which relies on a bunch of in-jokes that the writers probably find hilarious. But I do love the Homer subplot.