Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily

Infobox Simpsons episode
episode_name = Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily


image_caption = Homer and Marge watch helplessly as their communication with their children is cut.
episode_no = 131
prod_code = 3F01
airdate = October 1, 1995
show runner =
Bill Oakley
Josh Weinstein
writer =
Jon Vitti
director =
Susie Dietter
blackboard = "No one wants to hear from my armpits"
couch_gag = Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, Maggie, Grampa (who’s sleeping), Santa’s Little Helper, and Snowball II are in a nine-square grid as seen in the opening credits of "The Brady Bunch". Everyone (except for Grampa, who is still sleeping) runs to the couch, which is located in the center square.
guest_star =
Joan Kenley as the telephone lady
commentary = Matt Groening
Bill Oakley
Josh Weinstein
Jon Vitti
Susie Dietter
season = 7

"Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily" is the third episode of "The Simpsons"' seventh season, which originally aired October 1, 1995. It was the first episode where Bill Oakley & Josh Weinstein served as show-runners

Plot

Homer gives Marge a surprise trip to a relaxation center, leaving the children under the ineffective care of Grampa. Meanwhile, Bart has gotten lice from Milhouse's new pet monkey, forcing him to have his clothes burned in the school furnace. Lisa has had her prescription shoes stolen by her former friends, who say she has cooties. After Lisa denies this, the school intercom announces for Lisa Simpson to report to the nurses office for head lice inspection. The children go home wearing potato sacks, finding that their parents are not home, and the child welfare agency, prompted by Principal Skinner, has taken offense at the poor conditions of the house. Most of the work needing to be done has simply been postponed, but the agency misinterprets such signals as a stack of 20-year-old newspapers obtained for Lisa's history project. Homer and Marge arrive as the two snobbish welfare agents take Bart, Lisa and Maggie, convinced Marge and Homer are bad parents.

The Simpson kids are taken to a foster home - right next door, at the house of Ned Flanders. The kids have to get used to Flanders' style nachos (cucumbers with cottage cheese), bedtime at seven-o-clock with the sunlight still out, and hours of Bible bombardment. Bart and Lisa hate it, but Maggie enjoys being there as she gets more attention from Ned than she did with Homer. When Ned finds out that none of the Simpsons were baptized, he faints and takes it upon himself to give the kids an emergency baptism.

Meanwhile, there's no way for Homer and Marge to talk to their children, even by phone. They are forced to attend parenting classes, where they learn home care, such as putting garbage into garbage cans and leaving milk either in a refrigerator or a cool, wet sack. Marge is genuinely humiliated, while Homer seems to have learned a lot. After some blood tests, they are declared decent parents. When they go to pick up the kids, they see only a note at the Flanders' saying "Gone Baptizin'". They quickly head for the Springfield River. Homer gets there ahead of the others, just as Flanders is about to pour holy water on Bart's head. (Baptism as practiced by Protestant and Evangelical congregations tend not to involve the use of holy water at all.) Homer dives at Bart, shoving Bart over and the holy water splashes on Homer's head, baptizing him and apparently burning him. Homer has a moment of grace after his baptism but quickly reverts back to his old self and angrily reclaims his kids from Flanders. Nevertheless, Maggie would rather stay with the Flanders than with her real family until Marge shows up. The Simpson family is back together again, and they head home together, mocking the old paint cans in Ned's garage.

Censorship

*On the flashback of how Bart first got lice (where he's playing with Milhouse's pet monkey), Milhouse originally said the monkey was found in a wicker basket at Pier 1. Because of complaints from Pier 1 over the insinuation that they have monkeys in wicker baskets, a later rebroadcast of the episode redubbed "Pier 1" with "Trader Pete's". The UK airing kept in the Pier 1 reference since Pier 1 isn't known in the UK. American syndicated versions and the season seven DVD version have the Pier 1 reference intact as well (though the subtitles do have the "Trader Pete" reference instead of Pier 1).
*Loogans Channel cut the part where Marge does pass the Child Wellfare Program, but needs to just use the L.S.D. drug.
*Simpsons and Futurama Channel cut the "My only son" saying in the "Itchy and Scratchy" episode and just leave in the "Why, why? (sobbing)".

Cultural references

*The title is a reference to the popular saying "home sweet home".
*While the Flanders were driving to the Springfield river with the Simpsons' children, Maggie, who was sitting at the front row, spun her head around to look at Bart and Lisa. This is a parody of the infamous head-spinning scene from "The Exorcist".
*Milhouse being sick after playing with a capuchin monkey is a reference to the 1995 film "Outbreak".
*Lisa mentions that the Flanders' house is similar to the Simpsons' except for a Pat Boone-ish quality.
*The Flanders sing their own version of Sonny and Cher's "I Got You Babe" to Maggie before she goes to bed. Their version includes lyrics about Marge and Homer's alleged negligence issues.
*This Itchy and Scratchy episode title is reference to the grindhouse movie "Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!"

External links

*snpp capsule|3F01