Brother from the Same Planet
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"Brother from the Same Planet" is an episode of The Simpsons from the fourth season.
Synopsis
After playing soccer, Bart waits for Homer to pick him up. However, Homer forgets, and Bart is left alone as a storm approaches. When Homer finally remembers after a dream about seeing Bart's skeleton on a soccer field, he rushes out to pick up Bart and tries to put the issue behind them, but Bart isn't buying.
When they return home, Bart watches TV when the Big Brothers commercial comes up. This gives him an idea and he goes to the Big Brothers Agency disguising himself with accent as a brave young boy whose father left him six years ago. Afterwards, Bart is assigned a big brother called Tom whom Bart first meets when he comes to school to pick Bart up by letting him ride on the back of his motorcycle. Later on, Bart and Tom meet up for Tomato Day at the Springfield Stadium. Afterwards, they go to lift weights and watch Ren and Stimpy. Eventually, Homer finds out about Bart's Big Brother and goes to the Big Brothers Agency where he is assigned the child Pepi. Homer then shows Pepi the garage door, "a wonder of modern technology" and then the two look at the stars together.
Meanwhile back at the Simpsons household, Marge finds a $378.53 phone bill for calls made to the Corey hotline. Because of this, Marge headed up to talk to Lisa who was hiding in her room, as the entrance was decorated with a Corey poster. Marge tells Lisa that she understands what she was going through and that when she was a girl she had a crush on Bobby Sherman, which causes Lisa to laugh uproariously. Even so, in the end Lisa agrees to never make anymore calls. However, Lisa continues to make the calls until eventually she stops after taking Marge's advice in that if she could make it until 12 o'clock without calling, she would have conquered her addiction.
Elsewhere, Homer takes Pepi and Tom takes Bart to Marine World to attend Big Brothers Day. There, Homer meets up with Tom and the two fight because Tom was angry after hearing Bart's stories about his father being a gambling drunk. In the end, Homer ends up in a stretcher leaving Tom without a child to take care of and Pepi without a Big Brother. Seeing this, Bart makes an obvious conclusion, telling them that Tom should become Pepi's big brother. Afterwards, Bart and Homer reconcile and the episode ends with Homer and Bart sitting on the couch.
Memorable quotes
- Dealer: Nineteen.
Homer: Hit me.
Dealer: [deals another card] Twenty.
Homer: Hit me.
Dealer: [deals another card] Twenty-one.
Homer: Hit me.
Dealer: [deals another card] Twenty-two
Homer: D'oh! - Bart: You've been really great to me, but there's probably some other kid who needs you even more.
Tom: Bart, I could kiss you. If the Bigger Brothers didn't make me sign a form promising I wouldn't. - Homer: Hey, boy. Where ya goin'?
Bart: Father-son picnic. [leaves]
Homer: Have a good time! [pauses] Wait a minute… - Administrator: And what are your reasons for wanting a Little Brother?
Homer's brain: Don't say revenge! Don't say revenge!
Homer's mouth: Uh, revenge?
Homer's brain: That's it, I'm gettin' outta here. [footsteps, and a door slam]
[We can then see that the card lists 5 possible reasons - spite, malice, revenge, boredom, profit. The administrator ticks Revenge]
Administrator: Welcome aboard Mr. Simpson. - Bart: Dad, remember when Tom had you in that headlock and you screamed "I'm a hemophiliac" and when he let you go, you kicked him in the back?
Homer: Heh heh heh. Yeah?
Bart: Will you teach me how to do that?
Homer: Sure, boy. First, you gotta shriek like a woman and keep sobbing until he turns away in disgust. That's when it's time to kick some back! (he and Bart laugh) And then when he's lying down on the ground...
Bart: Yeah?
Homer: kick him in the ribs...
Bart: Yeah?
Homer: step on his neck...
Bart: Yeah?
Homer:Then, run like hell. (Bart and Homer laugh together) - Pepi: I love you, Papa Homer.
Homer: I love you too, Pepsi.
Pepi: Pepi.
Homer: Pepi. - [Homer's watching TV] TV Announcer: Tonight on Wings...(apathetically): ah, who cares?
- Bart (as he's watching Tuesday Night Live go to commercial break): I miss Joe Piscopo.
- Homer (who is bent backwards over a fire hydrent following a punch from tom): This is even more painful than it looks.
- Marge: Homer, I'm heading down to the store. Remember, pick up Bart.
Homer: I'm on my way.
[Instead of answering Marge, Homer was reading the 'phrase' puzzle from the tv screen which showed he was watching Wheel of Fortune]
Trivia
- Bart's telephone only has buttons from 1 to 9 with no zeroes or punctuation marks.
- According to the commentary for this episode, the role of Tom was written with Tom Cruise in mind. However, after being repeatedly turned down by Cruise, the producers went with Phil Hartman.
- The episode's title is a play on John Sayles' movie The Brother from Another Planet
- Milhouse writes "Trab pu kcip" on the wall, which is "Pick up Bart" backwards, a reference to the child writing "red rum" which is "murder" backwards, in The Shining.
- While Bart is stuck in the storm waiting for Homer, a nun is lifted up by the wind, a reference to the TV series The Flying Nun.
- The grapefruit scene is a reference of the James Cagney movie, The Public Enemy.
- When Bart tells himself "Eye of the Tiger, Bart" he is making a reference to what Rocky says to himself in Rocky III.
- When Homer tells Bart "You've been flouncing around with that bigger brother of yours, haven't you? Haven't you!" he is making a reference to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? when Richard Burton accuses his wife of adultery.
- Skinner makes a reference to the movie Psycho when he says "Oh... there's mother now."
- During the part where Bart watches "Tuesday Night Live" (an obvious jab at NBC's Saturday Night Live), Bart comments that he misses Joe Piscopo. It parodies how the loss of a cast member or members from the long running show has been a precursor of a turnover season yet to come, most notably a bad season.
- Krusty's line during Tuesday Night Live, "We've got a great show, except the last half hour is a real garbage dump" is a jab at SNL putting on weaker, less funny sketches and performances in the last half hour of the show.
- Another reference to SNL comes when Krusty is in a sketch called "The Big Ear Family", which could be a reference to either the Coneheads (a family of space aliens played by Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin and Laraine Newman) or the Widettes (a family with really big rear ends, played by Jane Curtin, John Belushi, Gilda Radner, and Dan Aykroyd). Krusty's line, "This sketch goes on for 12 minutes", is a jab at SNL trying to milk out humor from one-joke sketch premises, which was a complaint from SNL fans in the 1990's (and still is to this day).
- At one point, Bart tells Homer that he would fake the excitment he would have when Homer pushed him on the swing and demonstrates it, to Homer's horror. This is a reference to the infamous fake orgasm scene in When Harry Met Sally.
External links
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