It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Marge
Encyclopedia
"It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Marge" is the twenty-first episode of The Simpsons
eleventh season
. It first aired in the United States on the Fox network
on May 14, 2000. After a failed marriage attempt with Otto, Becky (played by guest actress Parker Posey
) stays with the Simpson family. However, Marge begins to get paranoid at her family's newfound love of Becky, and begins to think that she is seducing Homer.
The episode was directed by Steven Dean Moore
and written by Larry Doyle. Doyle was assigned to write the episode based on actress Drew Barrymore
's desire to appear in a Simpsons episode; Barrymore instead appeared in a later episode and the guest role of this episode was given to Posey. The episode is notable for its poor reception among fans.
's class is given a video camera for a school project to create a movie. Otto
drives the school bus to a drive-through
restaurant where his girlfriend, Becky, works. Otto proposes to her, and she accepts. On Bart’s suggestion, they decide to have the wedding at the Simpson house
and sends out flyers. Marge
reluctantly agrees, since she still has everything from Apu's wedding
. The wedding is a success up until the point when Otto gets a Poison
tribute band (called Cyanide) to play "Nothin' but a Good Time
". Becky admits to Marge that she hates heavy metal music
. At the wedding, Marge suggests to Becky that she gives Otto an ultimatum: it is either her or heavy metal. Otto chooses heavy metal and breaks up with Becky.
Becky stays with the Simpson family
on Bart's suggestion. Marge consoles her, but when Becky begins to help out around the house and is praised for her contribution, Marge begins to worry that her family likes Becky more than her. Eventually, she becomes paranoid
and suspects that Becky is trying to kill her after her car will not stop on a steep road. Later, Becky and the rest of the family meet without Marge at an ice cream
parlour, and Becky tells everyone that she has found a new apartment and is moving out. After she buys an unusually large bowl of ice cream, Homer freaks out upon the presence of so much ice cream and suddenly collapses. Becky gives him mouth-to-mouth but Marge comes in thinking she is kissing him. She grabs a cone and smashes it like a glass bottle to attack Becky. She is arrested and declared insane
.
When Marge escapes from the courtroom and goes to the library to see who Becky really is, she realizes that she is insane and being unfair to Becky, after finding nothing bad about her and a newspaper tablet of how Marge ruined Becky's marriage. Finally, she returns home, only to find Homer tied up, Lisa's
arms and legs stuck to the wall, Maggie
stuck in a cage, and Becky holding a knife in her hands. When she is about to "kill" Homer, Marge snatches the knife from her and attempts to strangle her. It turns out that Bart is filming a scene in his movie for the school (now a music video
). Homer also reveals that while he was fixing Marge's car, he accidentally drained the brake fluid. Marge apologizes to Becky, but Becky admits she was going to kill Marge and steal her family, but decided not to after she had no shovel. The mental hospital doctors show up and shoot three tranquilizer darts into Marge's neck, which do not take effect. Homer finally shoots an additional dart into her to make her fall asleep after she orders Homer to do scrubbing and mopping, which finally knocks Marge out.
wanted to guest star in the series and pitched several possible episodes for her. These included what became the plot of this episode, with Barrymore voicing Becky, as well as another which would see her voice Krusty the Clown's daughter. The latter idea was used for the season twelve
episode "Insane Clown Poppy
", with Barrymore appearing as Krusty's daughter. American actress Parker Posey
was selected to voice Becky instead. Larry Doyle wrote the episode's script and named Becky after his first wife.
Posey came in for at least two or three sessions worth of recording. For Cyanide, the Poison
tribute band, the producers unsuccessfully attempted to get Poison lead vocalist Bret Michaels
to play the singer. Marc Wilmore
, a writer on the show, voices one of the psychologists, formally known in the script as "Extra Guy". Scully gave the guest role to him as a thanks for his practical joke he played on fellow writer Matt Selman
regarding East St. Louis and the season ten episode "They Saved Lisa's Brain
". The producers got a censor note for the scene where Chief Wiggum teachers Ralph how to hold a gun in order to achieve a "kill shot".
Steven Dean Moore
directed the episode. The episode's couch gag involves Korean animators coloring blank paint-by-numbers figures of The Simpsons; these caricatures are based on Korean animators who worked in the United States at Film Roman
, the show's animation production company. The jimmies that Marge throws at the busboys are all variations of the character design that was used for the Squeaky Voiced Teen since the series' inception. At the time, the Simpsons writers thought the word "usurper" was funny, hence its numerous appearances in the episode. Selman, in the episode's audio commentary, recalled that it was hard to write so many misunderstandings; Scully commented, "It gives us a new appreciation for Three's Company
."
. In the episode, Otto meets Becky at Woodstock 1999
, where he is on fire and the fire is put out by the water in her water bottle. This was a reference to a controversy about the high cost of water at the festival, and Otto on fire references the large number of fires that occurred. Otto holds up a boombox and blares Poison's "Every Rose Has Its Thorn
" whilst proposing to Becky. When Otto plays air guitar, it is completely accurate fingering: John Achenbach, a storyboard artist on the show, is an accomplished guitarist and provided demonstrations for the animators. When Krusty interviews Marge, it is a television static image of her face with an impersonator's lips in place of hers; this was an homage to a recurring skit from the show Late Night with Conan O'Brien
in which Robert Smigel
's lips would be placed on Bill Clinton
's, or other celebrities. The idea was created by former The Simpsons writer Brent Forrester
, who, in the early days of Late Night, sent the joke to Conan O'Brien
, also a former The Simpsons writer. Patty and Selma's line "the bitterness is strong in this one," is a reference to Darth Vader
's line "the Force is strong in this one" from the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
(1977).
for the episode. Deleted scenes from the episode were also included on the box set.
According to the participants in the audio commentary, the episode received poor reception from fans of the series. While reviewing the eleventh season of The Simpsons, DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson commented that "Unusually,
'Mad' provides a pretty concise focus on only one story. The lead bit with Otto directly leads to the Marge plot, and it doesn’t go off on the usual tangents [...] And it works pretty well. 'Mad' isn’t the most inspired tale, but it does fine for itself."
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
eleventh season
The Simpsons (season 11)
The Simpsons 11th season originally aired between September 1999 and May 2000, beginning on Sunday, September 26, 1999, with "Beyond Blunderdome". The show runner for the 11th production season was Mike Scully...
. It first aired in the United States on the Fox network
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
on May 14, 2000. After a failed marriage attempt with Otto, Becky (played by guest actress Parker Posey
Parker Posey
Parker Christian Posey is an American actress. She became known during the 1990s after a series of roles in several well-received independent films. As a result, she has often been referred to as the "Queen of the Indies"....
) stays with the Simpson family. However, Marge begins to get paranoid at her family's newfound love of Becky, and begins to think that she is seducing Homer.
The episode was directed by Steven Dean Moore
Steven Dean Moore
Steven Dean Moore is an animation director who has directed 35 episodes of The Simpsons, in addition to several episodes of the long running Nicktoon programme Rugrats...
and written by Larry Doyle. Doyle was assigned to write the episode based on actress Drew Barrymore
Drew Barrymore
Drew Blyth Barrymore is an American actress, film director, screenwriter, producer and model. She is a member of the Barrymore family of American actors and granddaughter of John Barrymore. She first appeared in an advertisement when she was 11 months old. Barrymore made her film debut in Altered...
's desire to appear in a Simpsons episode; Barrymore instead appeared in a later episode and the guest role of this episode was given to Posey. The episode is notable for its poor reception among fans.
Plot
Each student in BartBart Simpson
Bartholomew JoJo "Bart" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the Simpson family. He is voiced by actress Nancy Cartwright and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
's class is given a video camera for a school project to create a movie. Otto
Otto Mann
Otto Mann is a fictional character on the animated TV series The Simpsons, voiced by Harry Shearer. He is the school bus driver for Springfield Elementary School...
drives the school bus to a drive-through
Drive-through
A drive-through, or drive-thru, is a type of service provided by a business that allows customers to purchase products without leaving their cars. The format was first pioneered in the United States in the 1930s but has since spread to other countries. The first recorded use of a bank using a drive...
restaurant where his girlfriend, Becky, works. Otto proposes to her, and she accepts. On Bart’s suggestion, they decide to have the wedding at the Simpson house
742 Evergreen Terrace
742 Evergreen Terrace is the fictional street address in Springfield of the Simpson family home in the animated television series, The Simpsons and in the feature film The Simpsons Movie. In the series the house is currently owned by Homer Simpson...
and sends out flyers. Marge
Marge Simpson
Marjorie "Marge" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the eponymous family. She is voiced by actress Julie Kavner and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
reluctantly agrees, since she still has everything from Apu's wedding
The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons
"The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons" is the seventh episode of The Simpsons ninth season, that originally aired on November 16, 1997. It was written by Richard Appel and directed by Steven Dean Moore. The episode sees Apu Nahasapeemapetilon marry Manjula, and incorporates several aspects of Hindu...
. The wedding is a success up until the point when Otto gets a Poison
Poison (band)
Poison is an American glam metal band that achieved great success in the mid-1980s to mid-1990s. To date, Poison has sold over 30 million records worldwide and have sold 15 million records in the United States alone. The band has also charted ten singles to the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100,...
tribute band (called Cyanide) to play "Nothin' but a Good Time
Nothin' but a Good Time
"Nothin' But a Good Time" is the first single from the second Poison album Open Up and Say...Ahh!. The B-sides are "Livin' For the Minute" and "Look But You Can't Touch"....
". Becky admits to Marge that she hates heavy metal music
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
. At the wedding, Marge suggests to Becky that she gives Otto an ultimatum: it is either her or heavy metal. Otto chooses heavy metal and breaks up with Becky.
Becky stays with the Simpson family
Simpson family
The Simpson family is a family of fictional characters featured in the animated television series The Simpsons. The Simpsons are a nuclear family consisting of the married couple Homer and Marge and their three children Bart, Lisa and Maggie. They live at 742 Evergreen Terrace in the fictional town...
on Bart's suggestion. Marge consoles her, but when Becky begins to help out around the house and is praised for her contribution, Marge begins to worry that her family likes Becky more than her. Eventually, she becomes paranoid
Paranoia
Paranoia [] is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself...
and suspects that Becky is trying to kill her after her car will not stop on a steep road. Later, Becky and the rest of the family meet without Marge at an ice cream
Ice cream
Ice cream is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, and often combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavours. Most varieties contain sugar, although some are made with other sweeteners...
parlour, and Becky tells everyone that she has found a new apartment and is moving out. After she buys an unusually large bowl of ice cream, Homer freaks out upon the presence of so much ice cream and suddenly collapses. Becky gives him mouth-to-mouth but Marge comes in thinking she is kissing him. She grabs a cone and smashes it like a glass bottle to attack Becky. She is arrested and declared insane
Insanity
Insanity, craziness or madness is a spectrum of behaviors characterized by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity may manifest as violations of societal norms, including becoming a danger to themselves and others, though not all such acts are considered insanity...
.
When Marge escapes from the courtroom and goes to the library to see who Becky really is, she realizes that she is insane and being unfair to Becky, after finding nothing bad about her and a newspaper tablet of how Marge ruined Becky's marriage. Finally, she returns home, only to find Homer tied up, Lisa's
Lisa Simpson
Lisa Marie Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons. She is the middle child of the Simpson family. Voiced by Yeardley Smith, Lisa first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987. Cartoonist Matt Groening...
arms and legs stuck to the wall, Maggie
Maggie Simpson
Margaret "Maggie" Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons. She first appeared on television in the Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987. Maggie was created and designed by cartoonist Matt Groening while he was waiting in the lobby of James...
stuck in a cage, and Becky holding a knife in her hands. When she is about to "kill" Homer, Marge snatches the knife from her and attempts to strangle her. It turns out that Bart is filming a scene in his movie for the school (now a music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
). Homer also reveals that while he was fixing Marge's car, he accidentally drained the brake fluid. Marge apologizes to Becky, but Becky admits she was going to kill Marge and steal her family, but decided not to after she had no shovel. The mental hospital doctors show up and shoot three tranquilizer darts into Marge's neck, which do not take effect. Homer finally shoots an additional dart into her to make her fall asleep after she orders Homer to do scrubbing and mopping, which finally knocks Marge out.
Production
The writers of The Simpsons were told that actress Drew BarrymoreDrew Barrymore
Drew Blyth Barrymore is an American actress, film director, screenwriter, producer and model. She is a member of the Barrymore family of American actors and granddaughter of John Barrymore. She first appeared in an advertisement when she was 11 months old. Barrymore made her film debut in Altered...
wanted to guest star in the series and pitched several possible episodes for her. These included what became the plot of this episode, with Barrymore voicing Becky, as well as another which would see her voice Krusty the Clown's daughter. The latter idea was used for the season twelve
The Simpsons (season 12)
The Simpsons 12th season began on Wednesday, November 1, 2000 with "Treehouse of Horror XI".The season contains four hold over episodes from the season 11 production line. The show runner for the twelfth production was Mike Scully. The season features three episodes that were produced for the...
episode "Insane Clown Poppy
Insane Clown Poppy
"Insane Clown Poppy" is the third episode of the twelfth season of The Simpsons. It aired on November 12, 2000 in the US. In the episode, during an outdoor book fair, Krusty finds out he has a daughter , but loses her trust after gambling away her violin to Fat Tony, prompting Homer and Krusty to...
", with Barrymore appearing as Krusty's daughter. American actress Parker Posey
Parker Posey
Parker Christian Posey is an American actress. She became known during the 1990s after a series of roles in several well-received independent films. As a result, she has often been referred to as the "Queen of the Indies"....
was selected to voice Becky instead. Larry Doyle wrote the episode's script and named Becky after his first wife.
Posey came in for at least two or three sessions worth of recording. For Cyanide, the Poison
Poison (band)
Poison is an American glam metal band that achieved great success in the mid-1980s to mid-1990s. To date, Poison has sold over 30 million records worldwide and have sold 15 million records in the United States alone. The band has also charted ten singles to the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100,...
tribute band, the producers unsuccessfully attempted to get Poison lead vocalist Bret Michaels
Bret Michaels
Bret Michaels is an American musician, actor, director, screenwriter, producer and reality television personality. He first gained fame as the lead vocalist of the glam metal band Poison. Besides his career as lead singer, he has several solo albums to his credit, as well as one chart single...
to play the singer. Marc Wilmore
Marc Wilmore
Marc Wilmore is a television writer, producer, and actor. In the early 1990s, he was a writer for In Living Color, and became a regular cast member in the final season, widely considered the worst season of the show. From 1999-2001, he served as a writer for the claymation series The PJs, and...
, a writer on the show, voices one of the psychologists, formally known in the script as "Extra Guy". Scully gave the guest role to him as a thanks for his practical joke he played on fellow writer Matt Selman
Matt Selman
Matthew "Matt" Selman is an American writer and producer. Selman grew up in Massachusetts, attended the University of Pennsylvania and was editor-in-chief of student magazine 34th Street Magazine. After considering a career in journalism, he decided to try and became a television writer...
regarding East St. Louis and the season ten episode "They Saved Lisa's Brain
They Saved Lisa's Brain
"They Saved Lisa's Brain" is the twenty-second episode of The Simpsons tenth season. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on May 9, 1999. After writing a thoughtful letter to the Springfield Shopper, Lisa is invited to join the Springfield chapter of Mensa...
". The producers got a censor note for the scene where Chief Wiggum teachers Ralph how to hold a gun in order to achieve a "kill shot".
Steven Dean Moore
Steven Dean Moore
Steven Dean Moore is an animation director who has directed 35 episodes of The Simpsons, in addition to several episodes of the long running Nicktoon programme Rugrats...
directed the episode. The episode's couch gag involves Korean animators coloring blank paint-by-numbers figures of The Simpsons; these caricatures are based on Korean animators who worked in the United States at Film Roman
Film Roman
Film Roman is an animation studio founded by Phil Roman, best known for producing the animation for The Simpsons, King of the Hill for 20th Century Fox, as well as the Garfield and Peanuts animated TV specials....
, the show's animation production company. The jimmies that Marge throws at the busboys are all variations of the character design that was used for the Squeaky Voiced Teen since the series' inception. At the time, the Simpsons writers thought the word "usurper" was funny, hence its numerous appearances in the episode. Selman, in the episode's audio commentary, recalled that it was hard to write so many misunderstandings; Scully commented, "It gives us a new appreciation for Three's Company
Three's Company
Three's Company is an American sitcom that aired from March 15, 1977, to September 18, 1984, on ABC. It is based on the British sitcom, Man About the House....
."
Cultural references
"It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Marge" features several references to popular culturePopular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
. In the episode, Otto meets Becky at Woodstock 1999
Woodstock 1999
Woodstock 1999, also called Woodstock 99, performed July 22–25, 1999, was the second large-scale music festival that attempted to emulate the original Woodstock Festival of 1969. Like the previous Woodstock festivals it was performed in upstate New York, this time in Rome, New York, around 200...
, where he is on fire and the fire is put out by the water in her water bottle. This was a reference to a controversy about the high cost of water at the festival, and Otto on fire references the large number of fires that occurred. Otto holds up a boombox and blares Poison's "Every Rose Has Its Thorn
Every Rose Has Its Thorn
"Every Rose Has Its Thorn" is a power ballad by American glam metal band Poison. It was released in 1988 as the third single from Poison's second album Open Up And Say... Ahh!. It is the band's only number-one hit in the U.S., reaching the top spot on Christmas Eve in 1988 for three weeks . It was...
" whilst proposing to Becky. When Otto plays air guitar, it is completely accurate fingering: John Achenbach, a storyboard artist on the show, is an accomplished guitarist and provided demonstrations for the animators. When Krusty interviews Marge, it is a television static image of her face with an impersonator's lips in place of hers; this was an homage to a recurring skit from the show Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Late Night with Conan O'Brien is an American late-night talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien that aired 2,725 episodes on NBC between 1993 and 2009. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, and musical and comedy performances. Late Night aired weeknights at 12:37 am...
in which Robert Smigel
Robert Smigel
Robert Smigel is an American actor, humorist, comedian and writer known for his Saturday Night Live "TV Funhouse" cartoon shorts and as the puppeteer and voice behind Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog.-Early life:...
's lips would be placed on Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
's, or other celebrities. The idea was created by former The Simpsons writer Brent Forrester
Brent Forrester
Brent Forrester is an American writer, who wrote several episodes of the animated television sitcom The Simpsons between 1993 and 1997. He has also worked as an executive producer on King of the Hill, and a writer on The Ben Stiller Show, Mr. Show with Bob and David, Undeclared, and The Office...
, who, in the early days of Late Night, sent the joke to Conan O'Brien
Conan O'Brien
Conan Christopher O'Brien is an American television host, comedian, writer, producer and performer. Since November 2010 he has hosted Conan, a late-night talk show that airs on the American cable television station TBS....
, also a former The Simpsons writer. Patty and Selma's line "the bitterness is strong in this one," is a reference to Darth Vader
Darth Vader
Darth Vader is a central character in the Star Wars saga, appearing as one of the main antagonists in the original trilogy and as the main protagonist in the prequel trilogy....
's line "the Force is strong in this one" from the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, originally released as Star Wars, is a 1977 American epic space opera film, written and directed by George Lucas. It is the first of six films released in the Star Wars saga: two subsequent films complete the original trilogy, while a prequel trilogy completes the...
(1977).
Release
The episode originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on May 14, 2000. On October 7, 2008, it was released on DVD as part of the box set The Simpsons – The Complete Eleventh Season. Staff members Mike Scully, George Meyer, Ian Maxtone-Graham, Matt Selman, Larry Doyle, and Steven Dean Moore participated in the DVD audio commentaryAudio commentary
On disc-based video formats, an audio commentary is an additional audio track consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with video...
for the episode. Deleted scenes from the episode were also included on the box set.
According to the participants in the audio commentary, the episode received poor reception from fans of the series. While reviewing the eleventh season of The Simpsons, DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson commented that "Unusually,
'Mad' provides a pretty concise focus on only one story. The lead bit with Otto directly leads to the Marge plot, and it doesn’t go off on the usual tangents [...] And it works pretty well. 'Mad' isn’t the most inspired tale, but it does fine for itself."
External links
- "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Marge" at The Simpsons.com