The Springfield Files vs. Itchy and Scratchy: The Movie

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The Springfield Files

Leonard Nimoy begins the episode hosting a show about alien encounters. He talks about an encounter in a town called Springfield.

At Moe's on a Friday night, Homer drinks ten beers, and after insisting he takes a breathalyzer test where Homer reaches "Boris Yeltsin" level, Moe declares that he is drunk and will not let him drive. Homer decides to walk home, but takes a wrong path and ends up in the woods. In a clearing, he sees a glowing thin-boned alien. Although the alien says "Don't be afraid", Homer panics and runs home screaming.

The rest of the family do not believe Homer's story, believing it to be a drunken hallucination, and his attempts to report the alien sighting to the local police are dismissed. Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully of the FBI hear of the sighting and go to investigate. After receiving no results from their psychological tests of him (which involved Homer making a polygraph explode and jogging on a treadmill (which served no purpose other than Scully wanting Homer to lose weight), Homer fails to provide any proof that he actually did see an alien, including bringing the agents to the clearing where he saw the alien, which only succeeds in coming across a lost and confused Grampa. Homer is ridiculed by most of the neighborhood; even Marge refuses to believe in his claims and demands he forget about it, but Bart admits that he does believe what Homer is saying. The next Friday night, the pair camp out in the forest. The alien arrives and promises peace, but Homer scares it away when he accidentally steps on their camp fire and screams in pain. Fortunately, Bart captured the entire incident on tape, and Homer thanks him, cheering for the evidence of the alien in their hands.

Leonard Nimoy tells the viewers goodnight. He is then reminded that the show still has ten minutes left by an off-screen Squeaky Voiced Teen, at which point he runs to his car and leaves. The Squeaky Voiced Teen takes over the narrating duties.

Following the successful capture of the alien's existence, Homer and Bart present it to the media. Although Bart's tape is only three seconds long and is mostly static, everyone in town finally believes Homer, including Marge, who apologizes to Homer for doubting him. Lisa, on the other hand, refuses to believe this and maintains that there should be a more logical explanation. Friday comes again and everyone, including Leonard Nimoy and Agent Scully, goes to the forest. Sure enough, the alien appears again, promising love. The townspeople begin to riot, and charge at the alien. Lisa and Waylon Smithers stop them just in time, showing that the "alien" is actually Mr. Burns. Smithers explains that Burns receives longevity treatment once a week in order to cheat death for a further seven days; this leaves him twisted and disoriented, as well as giving him a soft, high pitched voice as a result of a vocal cord scraping. Back to his normal self, Burns reveals that his green glow is due to many years of working in his nuclear plant, and then renounces his promises of peace and love and instead says that he now intends to bring fear, famine and pestilence, shortly before receiving another booster injection from Dr. Nick. He instantly reverts to his "alien" self; he begins to sing "Good Morning Starshine", with the entire crowd (including Mulder, Scully, and Chewbacca) joining in as the sun rises over the clearing. Squeaky-voiced Teen closes the episode by telling the viewers to watch the skies (he momentarily mispronounced it as skis).

Itchy and Scratchy: The Movie

Marge and Homer attend a parent-teacher night at Springfield Elementary School. Although Ms. Hoover tells Homer that Lisa is doing well, Ms. Krabappel tells Marge that Bart is continually causing trouble. Urging Homer and Marge to enforce stronger discipline on Bart with the idea that he could grow up to become a Supreme Court Justice if he turns his life around, the two return home to find that Bart stole and broke Grampa's false teeth. Therefore, Bart is sent up to his room without dinner as punishment, but Homer sneaks up and brings him some pizza, making Bart promise to behave. However, Bart continues to get in trouble and Homer's attempts to discipline him fail. Eventually he promises Marge to make the next punishment stick.

It is announced that there will be an Itchy & Scratchy Movie and in anticipation, Bart buys himself a ticket. Later on, Bart is left to babysit Maggie and he neglects to watch her as he is distracted by the history of Itchy & Scratchy, leaving her to take Homer's car for a joyride and crash into the wall of Springfield Prison, releasing the prisoners. Therefore, Homer angrily blames Bart and punishes him by banning him from ever seeing The Itchy & Scratchy Movie. He tears up Bart's ticket to prove that he means business. Bart begs to be given another punishment, but Homer refuses. After the film's release, Bart becomes angry and sad that he is the only kid in Springfield who has not seen it. Two months later, the film is still being shown in theaters as Marge and Lisa beg Homer to change his mind, with Marge claiming Bart has been punished enough. However, Homer still denies this and makes the punishment stick. Bart attempts to secretly watch the film by paying for a ticket, but finds out that Homer went to the theater and requested that the employees there not sell a ticket to him. Eventually, the film is removed from theaters and Bart tells Homer he won, to which Homer replies by saying they both won because by using his punishment Bart is in no doubt headed for a better life.

40 years later, Bart, now Chief Justice of the United States, and Homer, a senior citizen, walk down the street and discover the film is back in the local theater as a classic re-release. Homer decides that Bart has learned his lesson and the two watch the movie happily together

[Norah]

Who thought a whale could be so heavy?

[Norah]

Going with Itchy and Scatchy: The Movie. But Homer the Heretic easily beats both of these.