"Mother Simpson" is the eighth episode of The Simpsons' 1995-1996 and reveals the identity of Homer's mother.

Plot

On a beautiful Saturday, Mr. Burns has got all his workers to clean up a highway, maintained by his company. His workers are understandably ticked off about this. Homer seems to be missing, but he shows up on top of a nearby cliff. On his way down (to work), he slips and falls and "dies", much to the shock of his co-workers. In reality, Homer pushed a dummy, in his likeness, off the cliff, so that he can spend the Saturday having fun with his family.

The next day, news of Homer's "death" spreads and soon Marge starts getting condolences from prominent Springfieldians. So Homer goes to the Springfield Hall of Records to get the whole "misunderstanding" sorted out. There, after his problem is taken care off, he sees in the record that his mother is still alive. Incredulous, he goes to his mother's grave (or so he thinks it is) and discovers that it is Walt Whitman's. Nearby, he sees his own grave and falls into it. His mother (Mona Simpson) arrives suddenly at the gravesite, and they have a rather emotional reunion after 27 years.

He takes her home to meet the family, which causes quite a stir. She bonds with Lisa, being on the same intellectual level. Suddenly, a police car drives by and Mona runs inside the house, making Lisa a little suspicious. She shares her suspicions with Bart, who had raided Mona's purse and found driver's licenses with different names and Mona's photo. Lisa wonders whether Grandma is a con artist. The family decides to interrogate Mona about her shady past. She decides to tell them the truth.

The story switches to the 60s, when she was still with Homer and Grampa. Obviously, she and Grampa do not share the same interests. So she joins a group of hippies, who protest Mr. Burns' germ lab. They detonate an "antibiotic bomb" inside the lab, killing all the germs and curing a lot of Wiggum's ailments. Burns, angry about the destruction of his precious germs, manages to identify Mona as one of the perpetrators of the deed. So Mona has to go into hiding. She sent care packages to Homer, but he never received them as he never tipped the letter carriers at Christmas.

At the post office, Burns recognizes her and calls the FBI. At the Simpson home, Grampa gets the shock of his life when he visits and meets Mona. After a tense exchange (see below), Abe begs for sex. Meanwhile, the FBI and Burns track her down, through a cab driver, a gravedigger and Patty and Selma.

Homer and Mona escape, thanks to Wiggum, who is grateful to Mona for curing his ailment. She has to go underground again. It is here fans finally learn where Homer gets his trademark expression: as Mona whacks her head while getting into the van, she cries out "D'oh!"

The episode ends with Mona driving away while Homer sits on his car and looks up to the stars as the credits roll.

Quotes

• (Lenny and Carl narrate dummy Homer's fall down the cliff).
  Carl: Oh no! He's going over the falls!
  Lenny: Oh good! He snagged that tree branch.
  Carl: Oh no! The branch broke off!
  Lenny: Oh good! He can grab onto them pointy rocks.
  Carl: Oh no! Them rocks broke his arms and legs!
  Lenny: Oh good! Those helpful beavers are swimming out to save him.
  Carl: Oh no! They're biting him, and stealing his pants.
• Homer: I thought you were dead!
  Mona: I thought you were dead!
  Grave digger: Oh dang blast it, isn't anyone in the daggabbing cemetery dead!?
  Hans Moleman: (Opening the lid of his coffin) I didn't want to cause a fuss but, now that you mention it. (His coffin is slowly lowered into the ground)
• (At the Springfield Hall of Records)
  Homer: (looking at his records) "Wife, Marjorie. Children, Bartholomew, Lisa" -- Aha! See? This thing is all screwed up! Who the heck is Margaret Simpson?
  Bureaucrat: Uh, your youngest daughter.
  Homer: (mockingly) Uh, Your youngest daughter!
• Mona: You know, Lisa, I feel like I have an instant rapport with you.
  Lisa: (gasps) You didn't dumb it down! You said "rapport."
• Mona: You didn't have to tell Homer I was dead!
  Abe: It was either that, or tell him his mother was a wanted criminal! You were a rotten wife, and I'll never, ever forgive you! (beat) Can we have sex? Please?
  Mona: (disgusted) Oh, Abe.
  Abe: Well, I tried. What's for supper?
• Wiggum: Put out an APB on a Uosdwis R. Dewoh. Uh, better start with Greektown.
  FBI Agent: That's "Homer J. Simpson," Chief. You're reading it upside down.
  Wiggum: Cancel that APB. Oh, but bring back some of those gyros.
  FBI Agent: Chief, you're talking into your wallet.
• FBI Agent: Freeze. FBI. The jig is up.
  Abe: All right, I admit it! I am the Lindbergh baby. Waah! Waah! Goo goo. I miss my fly-fly dada.
  FBI Agent: Are you trying to stall us, or are you just senile?
  Abe: A little from column A, a little from column B.
• Homer: Don't forget me!
  Mona: Don't worry, Homer. You'll always be a part of me. (hits her head on the doorframe) D'oh!
• Abe: "Look at Namath's sideburns, he looks like a damn girl. Look at Johnny Unitas! Now there's a haircut you could set your watch by."
• Mona: (singing "Blowin' with the Wind" with Lisa) How many roads must a man walk down, before you can call him a man....
  Homer: (interrupts out of nowhere) Seven?
  Lisa: No Dad, it's a rhetorical question.
  Homer: (trying to think) Rhetorical, ey....Eight?
  Lisa: Do you even know what 'rhetorical' means?
  Homer: Do I know what "rhetorical" means?
• Taxi Driver: Yeah I might've seen her, it's hard to tell from this old picture ya know.
  FBI Agent: Well according to our computer ageing program she should look about... 25 years older!
  Taxt Driver: Yeah I seen her! That is to say I saw her.
• Burns (in a tank): I've been waiting twenty-five years for this moment.
  (Burns puts a cassette the tank's player and it begins playing "Ride of the Valkyries". About five seconds in, it is abruptly changed to "Waterloo" by ABBA)
  Smithers: Sorry, sir. I must have taped over that.

Trivia

• The radical group Mother Simpson becomes involved with is loosely based on the Weather Underground Organization.

• Mr. Burns driving a tank towards the Simpson house, wearing oversized headgear is a reference to a similar public relations stunt by Michael Dukakis in 1988; a similar scene occurred in the episode "Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish," when Burns was running for governor.

• The song originally intended to be taped over Mr. Burns's cassette of Ride of the Valkyries was Wake Me Up Before You Go Go, but was unclearable (too expensive), and ABBA's "Waterloo" was selected instead.

• When Mother Simpson hits her head on the van at the end of the episode, the "D'oh!" she yells is not actually her voice. Glenn Close couldn't get the sound right, so Pamela Hayden was dubbed in her place.

• When Maggie is shown dancing in her diaper and covered in slogans, it is a parody of Goldie Hawn (and other female castmembers like Ruth Buzzi and Jo Anne Worley) dancing in a bikini on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In.

• Walt Whitman's grave is in Camden, New Jersey.

• Jerry Rubin, Bobby Seale, and Tom Hayden; all 1960's liberal radicals are mentioned by Mona Simpson. Simpson obtained employment from these figures while on the run. Many will note the irony- "Selling diet shakes for Jerry Rubin, proofreading Bobby Seale's cookbook, and running credit checks at Tom Hayden's Porsche dealership"

• Two popular songs from the 1960's appear in this episode: Sunshine of Your Love, by Cream (released in 1967) and All Along the Watchtower, by Jimi Hendrix (released in 1968).

• In 1996, Treehouse of Horror VI was the series' submission for the Emmy. It would eventually lose to Pinky and the Brain. According to several different DVD commentaries, the writers feel that if they had submitted this episode to the Emmy voters in 1996, as opposed to Treehouse of Horror VI, they would have won the Emmy.
• Martha Stuart is one of Mona's fake I.D's.
• Grandma's hair was brown in the past, but light blue in the

External links

Simpsons episodes