(outside the Simpsons' house, Jimbo, Kearney, and Dolph are singing 'My Sharona'; music from The Knack. Homer throws his arm wrestling trophy through the window. They stop singing) Homer: That song is a pop music footnote! (beat) I didn't say 'stop'! (the bullies continue singing. End episode and roll.

'G.I. (Annoyed Grunt)', also known as 'G.I. D'oh', is the fifth episode of The Simpsons' eighteenth season. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 12, 2006. It was written by Daniel Chun and directed by Nancy Kruse, while Kiefer Sutherland makes his first of two guest appearances this season. Maurice LaMarche does additional voices.^[1] In its original run, the episode received 11.43 million viewers.^[2]

Plot[edit]

At the Springfield Mall, Bart and Milhouse torment the bullies as they work in a shoe store. When the manager leaves however, they are stripped to their underwear by the bullies and hung in the store window. Two United States Armyrecruiters fail to tempt Jimbo, Dolph and Kearney. Realizing that even the dumbest teenagers in the dumbest city in the dumbest US state do not want to join the Army, they decide to start targeting children. During a surprise assembly at Springfield Elementary, the recruiters show a short movie depicting the Army as a high-tech adventure. According to the film, soldiers fly around in helicopters destroying evildoers by day and rocking out in front of thousands of screaming fans by night. The students are easily swayed and quickly line up to enlist.

An excited Bart comes home from school and shows Homer and Marge his delayed entry program form. Though Homer is impressed, Marge is appalled at the idea of Bart joining the Army when he turns 18, prompting her to send Homer down to the recruitment center to get Bart out of his contract. Homer reluctantly forces the two recruiters to tear up Bart's paperwork, though he apologizes for it, saying that it was Marge who told him to do so. Upon learning this, the recruiters prey upon Homer's gullibility and convince him to enlist instead. At the post Homer infuriates his new hard-nosed colonel (Kiefer Sutherland). Homer loves the sound of the colonel's noticeably 'awesome' gravelly voice. While the majority of recruits are assigned to the infantry, Homer, and a group of stupid recruits, are assigned to a rehabilitation platoon. During field training exercises, Homer and the other stupid recruits are given the role of the opposing force, (China). Upon learning that it is a live fire exercise, with the weapons to be tested on them, the unit tries to hide. Homer, mistaking gunfire for Chinese New Year, accidentally exposes his unit's location by launching a flare. The flare blinds the colonel and his men, who were all wearing night vision goggles. Homer and his unit soon escape into Springfield while the Army gives chase.

As the colonel and his troops patrol Springfield searching for him, Homer sneaks back home. Marge and Homer are surprised by a camera equipped toy helicopter and (in a scene reminiscent of many classic cartoon chases) Homer attempts to avoid it, running through the entire house, eventually leading the helicopter into a downstairs closet full of TNT and dynamite. He locks the door behind the UAV and the closet explodes. To avoid the army, Homer reluctantly hides out at the Retirement Castle. Marge rallies the Springfield community in coordinated resistance to the occupiers through a word of mouth campaign. The citizens spike the town reservoir with alcohol, intoxicating the occupying forces. The colonel's resulting hangover is so great he reluctantly surrenders to the townsfolk, stipulating only that Homer finish his enlistment. Homer does so by becoming a recruiter.

During the closing credits, a martial scoring of The Simpsons theme plays and the colonel voices 'frontline infantry' assignments to nearly every cast and crew member (one exception being Kiefer Sutherland, who is assigned to the United States Coast Guard), as the credits roll over the usual black background.^[1]

Cultural references[edit]

The episode title is a reference to G.I. Joe.^[3] The army video game shoots down Osama Bin Laden, Adolf Hitler, Jason Voorhees and a 'deadly hurricane'.^[4] The music is taken from Prokofiev's score for Eisenstein's Alexander Nevsky. Marge references an earlier episode with a similar plot, 'Simpson Tide', in which Homer joins the U.S. Navy.^[4] The episode parodies several scenes from Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket (1987). Homer wonders if the drill sergeant will ask the recruits 'what our major malfunction is' (Homer's is he cares too much). The drill sergeant gives Homer the nickname 'Snowflake' (in the film Full Metal Jacket one of the black recruits is nicknamed 'Snowball' by the drill sergeant as an ironic jibe). Later, Homer receives a punishment of being made to eat doughnuts while the other recruits have to do push-ups.^[3] Homer mentions Stripes when heading for Moe's basement,^[3] Homer imagines the greatest leader as Cap'n Crunch.^[4] The scene with Homer being chased by the mini helicopter parodies the style seen in many Looney Tunes cartoons.^[3] The scene makes a nod to Bugs Bunny, the Road Runner and Tom and Jerry.^[3] The scene ends with a computer monitor showing the 'That's All Folks!' end title card, with the early closing of The Three Stooges shorts from the 1930s.^[3] The episode also contains the melody of Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye. The song that the U.S. Army plays on stage during the video shown at the school is a variant of 'Communication Breakdown' by Led Zeppelin though most likely changed for copyright purposes. During the training scene, the Martika song 'Toy Soldiers' plays. The episode also includes a reference to the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison when Homer says that the Army will strip people naked, put a bag over their face, and have hicks laugh at them.

Reception[edit]

In its original run, the episode received 11.43 million viewers,^[2] and garnered mixed-to-mostly negative reviews.^[4][5] Adam Finley of TV Squad praised that the episode was entirely random, and enjoyed the parody of Looney Tunes.^[4] Dan Iverson of IGN however, hated the episode, giving it 3.5 out of 10, calling it 'painfully unfunny', and 'the show's attempt to satirize the state of the U.S. military simply crossed the line of good taste'. He concluded that it was 'by far' the worst episode of the season, and 'quite possibly' the worst episode in the entire of The Simpsons history. He did, however, enjoy the Looney Tunes parody and Sutherland's guest performance.^[6] Conservative commentator Michelle Malkin criticized the episode, writing, 'the mockery of Army recruiters and enlistees is absolutely disgusting.'^[7]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abcd'HOMER BECOMES A JARHEAD ON 'THE SIMPSONS' SUNDAY, OCTOBER 7, ON FOX'. The Futon Critic. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
2. ^ ^abRatingsArchived May 8, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
3. ^ ^abcdefCultural references for 'G.I. (Annoyed Grunt)'
4. ^ ^abcdeTVSQUAD Review
5. ^Community reviews
6. ^Canning, Robert (2007-06-14). 'The Simpsons: Season 18 Review'. IGN.com. Archived from the original on June 22, 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-15.
7. ^'The Simpsons pull a John Kerry', Michelle Malkin, November 13, 2006, MichelleMalkin.com

External links[edit]

• 'G.I.' on IMDb
• 'G.I.' at TV.com

'E-I-E-I-(Annoyed Grunt)', also known as 'E-I-E-I-D'oh', is the fifth episode of the eleventh season of the American animated sitcom The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 7, 1999. In the episode, inspired by a Zorro movie, Homer begins slapping people with a glove and challenging them to duels. However, when a real Southern gentleman accepts Homer's request for a duel, the Simpsons run off to the old farm Homer lived in with his parents and breed a dangerously addictive but successful tobacco/tomato hybrid called 'tomacco'. The episode was written by Ian Maxtone-Graham and directed by Bob Anderson.

The episode received mixed reviews.

Plot[edit]

The Simpsons go to the Springfield Googelplex Movie Theaters to see The Poke of Zorro. Afterwards, Homer, imitating Zorro, frightens Snake away by challenging him to a duel by slapping him with a glove when he insults Marge; he then uses his dueling glove to get anything he wants from people. When a gun-toting Southern colonel at the Kwik-E-Mart actually accepts Homer's 'challenge', Homer finds himself bound to a duel at dawn the following day.

The next morning, the colonel and his wife waited outside the house in their RV. The Simpsons sneak out with Homer clinging to an old Christmas tree and search for a temporary home. They find Grampa's old farmhouse on Rural Route 9 outside of Springfield, where, despite the land's poor reputation for growing crops, Homer becomes a farmer following a visit to the general store. After failing to grow a thing for a month, Homer calls Lenny and requests they send plutonium. The crops eventually grow, but since Homer had accidentally mixed the tomato seeds with the tobacco seeds, a new product is created. Homer calls the mutated crop 'Tomacco,' which tastes terrible, but is highly addictive. Homer and Marge set up a stall, Homer providing tomacco and Marge, fresh-baked mincemeat pie. While the pies do not sell well, the tomacco is such a success that executives from Laramie Cigarettes offer to buy the rights to tomacco for $150 million.

Arm Wrestling Travis Bagent

Lisa protests that the Simpsons cannot accept the tobacco executives' money, but Homer misinterprets this statement and rejects the offer as insulting, demanding $150 billion for tomacco, which they refuse. Dumped back at the farmhouse, the family sees tomacco-addicted animals from other farms eating their crops. With only one plant left, the family runs into the house, where Lisa urges Homer to destroy it, but Homer refuses until the livestock breaks in. He tosses the plant into the air and it lands in the hands of a Laramie executive. The executives' helicopter leaves, but a tomacco-addicted sheep has sneaked on board and attacks them. The helicopter crashes, killing everyone on board except for the sheep and destroying the final tomacco plant. The Simpsons return home to find that the Southern gentleman and his wife are still waiting for Homer to go through the duel. Homer does and is shot in the arm, but declines to go to the hospital until after eating one of Marge's mincemeat pies.

Production[edit]

The episode was written by Ian Maxtone-Graham and directed by Bob Anderson as part of the eleventh season of The Simpsons (1999–2000).^[1] The American rock band The B-52's guest starred in the episode as themselves singing the song 'Glove Slap'^[2] The process of making tomacco was first revealed in a 1959 Scientific American article, which stated that nicotine could be found in the tomato plant after grafting. Due to the academic and industrial importance of this breakthrough process, this article was reprinted in a 1968 Scientific American compilation.^[3]

Themes and cultural references[edit]

The Simpsons go to a screening of The Poke of Zorro, which is largely a parody of the Zorro film The Mask of Zorro (1998). Jonathan Gray wrote in Watching with The Simpsons: Television, Parody, and Intertextuality that The Poke of Zorro 'ridicules the outlandishness of Hollywood blockbuster fare', especially its 'blatant historical inaccuracies' which sees the film feature Zorro, King Arthur, the Three Musketeers, the Scarlet Pimpernel, the Man in the Iron Mask and ninjas in nineteenth century Mexico.'^[4] The film's credits list, actors John Byner, Shawn Wayans, Rita Rudner, Cheech Marin, Gina Gershon, Curtis Armstrong, Eric Roberts, Spalding Gray, Anthony Hopkins, James Earl Jones and Meryl Streep, singer Victoria Beckham, wrestler Steve Austin, soccer player Pelé and producer Robert Evans as having roles in the film, and, amongst others, thanks publisher Bob Guccione and hockey team the Philadelphia Flyers.^[1] The Buzz Cola advertisement shown before The Poke of Zorro is a parody of the opening Normandy invasion sequence from the film Saving Private Ryan (1998).^[1][4] Gray writes that it 'scorns the proclivity of ads to use any gimmick to grab attention, regardless of the ethics: as an indignant Lisa asks incredulously, 'Do they really think cheapening the memory of our veterans will sell soda?'^[4] Amongst the other films advertised at the theater is My Dinner with Jar Jar, a reference to the character Jar Jar Binks from Star Wars and the 1981 film My Dinner with Andre.^[5]

The song 'Glove Slap' is a parody of the song 'Love Shack'. The B-52's sang both the original and the amended version used in the episode.^[1][6] The music playing during the sequence where the Simpsons begin farming is the theme tune from the television series Green Acres.^[1] The addicted animals attempting to break into the house to obtain the last Tomacco is a reference the film Night of the Living Dead (1968) and the zombies' attack.^[1] A farmer is shown using an elephant to measure his corn plants' height; this is a reference to the song 'Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin' in the musical Oklahoma!, which features the line 'the corn is as high an elephant's eye'.^[1] The Southern colonel's accent is similar to the Warner Bros. character Foghorn Leghorn and he uses Foghorn's phrase 'Sir, I say sir!', while the mudflap on his RV features a picture of him in a similar pose to Warner Bros. character Yosemite Sam.^[1] Additionally, his horn plays the opening few notes of the song 'Dixie'.^[1]

Release[edit]

The episode originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 7, 1999.^[1] On October 7, 2008, the episode was released on DVD as part of the box set The Simpsons – The Complete Eleventh Season. Staff members Mike Scully, Ian Maxtone-Graham, George Meyer, and Matt Selman participated in the DVD audio commentary for the episode.^[2]

While reviewing the eleventh season of The Simpsons, DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson commented that 'E-I-E-I-(Annoyed Grunt)' provides 'the kind of episode typical of the series’ 'post-classic' years. While it doesn't become a dud, it lacks the spark and zing typical of the best Simpsons. We get a mix of decent moments but nothing that elevates the episode above the level of mediocrity.'^[7]

In the July 26, 2007 issue of Nature, the scientific journal's editorial staff listed the episode among 'The Top Ten science moments in The Simpsons', writing: 'Homer's attempts to be a farmer in 'E-I-E-I-(Annoyed Grunt)' involve using plutonium as a fertilizer. DNA from tobacco seeds and tomato seeds blend to produce a fruit that tastes like ashtray, but is nonetheless 'refreshingly addictive'.'^[8]

In 2011, Keith Plocek of LA Weekly's Squid Ink blog named 'E-I-E-I-(Annoyed Grunt)' the tenth best episode of the show with a food theme.^[9]

Legacy[edit]

A Simpsons fan, Rob Baur of Lake Oswego, Oregon, was inspired by the episode. Remembering the article in a textbook, Baur cultivated real tomacco in 2003. The plant produced offspring that looked like a normal tomato, but Baur suspected that it contained a lethal amount of nicotine and thus would be inedible. Testing later proved that the leaves of the plant contained some nicotine.^[10] Both plants are members of the same family, Solanaceae or nightshade.^[11] The tomacco plant bore tomaccoes until it died after 18 months, spending one winter indoors.^[11] Baur appeared on the episode's DVD commentary, discussing the plant and resulting fame.^[12]

The 2004 convention of the American Dialect Society named tomacco as the new word 'least likely to succeed.'^[13] Tomacco was a wordspy.com 'Word of the Day'.^[14]

Homer Simpson Arm Wrestling Episode

A store by the name of 'Sneed's Feed & Seed', which appears for a short time in the episode, has been the source of intense debate among fans of The Simpsons. Debate centres around the store's name, citing the possibility of a salacious joke within the episode.^{[citation needed]} The writer of the episode, Ian Maxtone-Graham, has come out on Twitter to confirm that the store's name is, in fact, a reference to oral & penetrative intercourse, implying the store was once a brothel by the name of 'Chuck's Fuck and Suck'.^[15]

References[edit]

Simpsons Homer Arm Wrestling 2017

1. ^ ^abcdefghijkBates, James W.; Gimple, Scott M.; McCann, Jesse L.; Richmond, Ray; Seghers, Christine, eds. (2010). Simpsons World The Ultimate Episode Guide: Seasons 1–20 (1st ed.). Harper Collins Publishers. pp. 530–531. ISBN978-0-00-738815-8.
2. ^ ^abJane, Ian (November 1, 2008). 'The Simpsons – The Complete Eleventh Season'. DVD Talk. Retrieved October 2, 2011.
3. ^Bio-Organic Chemistry, on page 170. ISBN0-7167-0974-0
4. ^ ^abcGray, Jonathan (2006). Watching with The Simpsons: Television, Parody, and Intertextuality. Taylor & Francis. p. 2. ISBN978-0-415-36202-3.
5. ^Chernoff, Scott (July 24, 2007). 'I Bent My Wookiee! Celebrating the Star Wars/Simpsons Connection'. Star Wars.com. Archived from the original on July 24, 2011. Retrieved August 28, 2011.
6. ^Druckenbrod, Andrew (September 18, 2007). 'Record Review: 'Simpsons' music may suffer in translation'. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved September 3, 2011.
7. ^Jacobson, Colin (November 19, 2008). 'The Simpsons: The Complete Eleventh Season (1999)'. DVD Movie Guide. Retrieved October 2, 2011.
8. ^Hopkin, Michael (July 26, 2007). 'Science in comedy: Mmm... pi'. Nature. 448 (7152): 404–405. Bibcode:2007Natur.448..404H. doi:10.1038/448404a. PMID17653163.
9. ^Plocek, Keith (November 11, 2011). 'Top 10 Simpsons Food Episodes: Tomacco Ribwich with a Side of Guatemalan Insanity Peppers + Skittlebrau'. Squid Ink. LA Weekly. Archived from the original on November 13, 2011. Retrieved November 12, 2011.
10. ^Philipkoski, Kristen (November 7, 2003). 'Simpsons Plant Seeds of Invention'. Health. Wired. Retrieved October 22, 2008.
11. ^ ^ab'Homer Simpson inspires man to grow 'tomacco''. CTV.ca. November 13, 2003. Archived from the original on November 21, 2011. Retrieved October 10, 2010.
12. ^Baur, Rob (2006). The Simpsons The Complete Eleventh Season DVD commentary for the episode 'E-I-E-I-(Annoyed Grunt)' (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
13. ^Summary of 'Among the New Words', American Speech, Volume 79, Number 2, Summer 2004.
14. ^Word Spy – tomacco
15. ^Ian Maxtone-Graham [@ianhmg] (February 26, 2017). 'Tweet answering 'Sneed's Feed & Seed'' (Tweet) – via Twitter.

Simpsons Homer Arm Wrestling Tournament

External links[edit]

• 'E-I-E-I-(Annoyed Grunt)' at The Simpsons.com
• 'E-I-E-I-(Annoyed Grunt) episode capsule'. The Simpsons Archive.
• 'E-I-E-I-(Annoyed Grunt)' on IMDb