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381
"
Please Homer, Don't Hammer 'Em
"
|
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- "
Homer, it's time people knew the truth: I'm doing the work and I want the credit.
"
- ―
Marge Simpson
"Please Homer, Don't Hammer 'Em"
|
Episode Information
Episode number:
|
381
|
Season number:
|
S18
E3
|
Production code:
|
HABF20
|
Original airdate:
|
September 24,
2006
|
Couch gag
:
|
We see a vending machine with the family and several other characters inside of it instead of candy. Ralph walks up and orders Homer, bites off his head and leaves.
|
Showrunner
:
|
Al Jean
|
Written by:
|
Matt Warburton
|
Directed by:
|
Mike B. Anderson
Co-director:
Ralph Sosa
|
|
"
Please Homer, Don't Hammer 'Em
" is the third episode of
season 18
of
The Simpsons
and the three-hundred and eighty-first episode overall. It originally aired on September 24,
2006
. The episode was written by
Matt Warburton
and directed by
Mike B. Anderson
and
Ralph Sosa
.
Synopsis
[
edit
]
- "
Marge
gets a job as carpenter, but every man thinks she is going to ruin everything she fixes because she is a woman, so
Homer
pretends to be the carpenter while Marge does all the work, until he starts receiving too much credit for doing nothing.
"
Plot
[
edit
]
The
Simpson family
make a trip to the
Springfield Mall
, which is derelict and run down due to
Mayor Quimby
's father being killed there. As they go past several run down stores, they arrive at the remains of a
JCPenney's
, which has now become a collection of candle kiosks and Persian CD stores. A
Persian man
then approaches the family, trying to sell a copy of
Uma Shang Shang: The Flower Song
by
Nabil
, singing
the title song from the album
. Homer is unconvinced at first buy purchases it after he throws in a free tube of
Sunni Smile
. Meanwhile,
Bart
went to
Captain Blip's Zapateria
where he played
Triangle Wars
. After Homer and
Marge
popped into a sweet shop where Homer bought old gummy worms, they visit
Rock Bottom Remainders
, a book shop. Whilst here, Homer buys
The Time Life Carpenter's Library
, which excites Marge as she thinks Homer is going to start being handy around the house.
At home, Marge gets a letter from the
school
telling students not to bring peanut-based food in as someone in school is deathly allergic to peanuts. Marge then goes through Bart's lunchbox and removes all peanut-based food, and a copy of
Good Grief, More Peanuts
. In the living room, Homer is watching TV, with his feet up on his new books, claiming that he made a footrest. Marge gets annoyed at Homer not following through on anything and goes upstairs to their bedroom. In the bedroom, Marge stands on a loose floorboard which knocks over the nightstand so Marge uses one of the carpentry books to help repair them both. Upon realizing she was good at this, she started to build other objects from the books. Marge then decides to start a carpentry business, but when every customer realizes that she's a woman, they refuse her services.
In bed that day, Marge comes up with a plan to have Homer pretend to be the carpenter and Marge does all the work whilst the customers aren't around. The two of them do work for
Professor Frink
and
Kent Brockman
. After finishing Brockman's gazebo, Homer asks him how he would feel if a woman had done all the work, and Brockman reacted negatively to it. At school, Bart tries to find out who the kid with the peanut allergy is. He then finds from
Willie
that it was
Principal Skinner
and spies on Skinner and Willie in Skinner's office. Whilst this is happening, Marge is shopping at
Builders' Barn
when
Helen Lovejoy
and
Lindsey Naegle
tease her about helping Homer rather than doing the work, which angers Marge. At home, Marge tells Homer that she is annoyed with how much credit Homer is taking for the work.
Marge repairs the tracks as Homer rides the
Zoominator
.
At school, Bart goes bowling with trophies, which angers Skinner. As Skinner gets ready to punish Bart, Bart pulls out a peanut on a stick to torment him with. Bart puts Skinner through humiliating experiences whilst scaring him with the peanut. Meanwhile, Marge was working on making a windmill for
Lenny
. As Lenny and
Carl
approach, Marge gets back into the toolbox and Lenny and Carl talk badly about women, which angers Marge. After this incident, Marge decides that she's had enough and Homer has to give her credit, which he refuses to do. Homer also mentions that they had been hired to repair
The Zoominator
, a wooden roller coaster. Marge refuses to help, so Homer tries to hire contractors. Once the contractors he hires find out that he doesn't have money, they leave Homer to fix the roller coaster himself.
That night, Principal Skinner had a nightmare involving
Mr. Peanut
. Later that day, Bart made Skinner go to
The Android's Dungeon
to breastfeed
Bilbo Baggins
in the shop window. In the store,
Comic Book Guy
tells Skinner about
Superman
's
Kryptonite
, which gives Skinner the idea to find what Bart is allergic to. Skinner breaks into
Dr. Hibbert
's office and finds that Bart is allergic to shrimp, which he uses to stop Bart from forcing him to do stuff. The two of them then have a fight across town, riding on the top of the
school bus
, until they enter a
Thai Food Factory
. The factory had a vat of
Peanut Shrimp
which they both fall into, both getting allergic reactions. Meanwhile, Homer unveils the newly repaired Zoominator, which immediately starts to fall apart again. Annoyed at everyone's reactions, Homer decides to get on the roller coaster to prove them all wrong. However, the tracks start to break, which Marge jumps to repairing. As the roller coaster reaches the end, it collapses and falls onto Homer.
In hospital, Marge forgives Homer for everything that happened between them. She also tells Bart not to risk his own life saving his principal, which Skinner objects to as that wasn't how it happened. Bart and Skinner then start throwing peanuts and shrimp at each other, leaving Marge to go look at the new babies instead of dealing with it.
Production
[
edit
]
One of the first jokes that was written for the episode involved the decrepit mall.
[1]
The episode was co-directed by
Ralph Sosa
, who was originally the assistant director. This was because main director
Mike B. Anderson
had to work on
The Simpsons Movie
during production of the episode, leaving no assistant director for the episode.
[2]
Sosa took over as the director after storyboards were completed and they were moving onto layouts. The episode was Ralph Sosa's first time directing and not having an assistant director was a handicap.
[3]
Sosa and animation timer
Robert Ingram
worked to finish off the show, and were nervous about showing off the final product.
[2]
The name of the
Rock Bottom Remainders
book store is a reference to the band
Rock Bottom Remainders
, which featured
Matt Groening
.
[1]
The episode is loosely based on
Big Eyes
, which was about a man taking credit for his wife's paintings.
[4]
Before the episode,
Al Jean
had to tell people to not feature butt cracks or cleavage so much after the
Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy
. So director
Mike B. Anderson
had to work to make Homer's butt crack look less like a butt crack. This led to them compromising with a double-cleavage butt crack.
[2]
The producers licensed the song "
Duel of the Fates
" from
Star Wars: Episode I ? The Phantom Menace
to be used in the episode. "
We Will Rock You
" by
Queen
was also licensed.
[1]
After the Zoominator collapses on Homer,
Moe
shows up. He was supposed to have a line, but it was cut.
[1]
Reception
[
edit
]
Dav Iverson of
IGN
said that the episode was "yet another good episode from the season that critics were all worried about". He praised the main Homer and Marge story, saying that it could have been "preachy and boring" but the show "handled the issue in a silly enough fashion that it didn't feel like you were being hit over the head with the theme". However, Iverson also thought that the Bart and Skinner storyline "wasn't as entertaining".
[5]
As of February 2020, the episode has a 6.7 rating on
IMDb
[6]
and an 8.2 rating on
TV.com
.
[7]
References
[
edit
]
- ↑
1.0
1.1
1.2
1.3
Jean, Al (2017). Commentary for "
Please Homer, Don't Hammer 'Em
", in
The Simpsons:
The Complete Eighteenth Season
.
- ↑
2.0
2.1
2.2
Anderson, Mike B. (2017). Commentary for "
Please Homer, Don't Hammer 'Em
", in
The Simpsons:
The Complete Eighteenth Season
.
- ↑
Sosa, Ralph (2017). Commentary for "
Please Homer, Don't Hammer 'Em
", in
The Simpsons:
The Complete Eighteenth Season
.
- ↑
Price, Michael (2017). Commentary for "
Please Homer, Don't Hammer 'Em
", in
The Simpsons:
The Complete Eighteenth Season
.
- ↑
IGN - "The Simpsons: "Please Homer Don't Hammer 'Em" Review"
- ↑
IMDb - "Please Homer, Don't Hammer 'Em"
- ↑
TV.com - "Please Homer, Don't Hammer 'Em"