The Fat and the Furriest
Encyclopedia
"The Fat and the Furriest" is the fifth episode of The Simpsons
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...

' fifteenth season
The Simpsons (season 15)
The Simpsons 15th season began on Sunday, November 2, 2003 with "Treehouse of Horror XIV".The season contains five hold-over episodes from the season 14 production line...

, which originally aired November 30, 2003. The episode is about Homer fighting a bear.

Plot

Having bought Marge the same thing as Bart for Mother's Day Homer goes to Sprawl-Mart, and he buys her a "Kitchen Carnival" on the advice of Patty and Selma, a machine that produces cotton candy, caramel and deep fried things. Eventually Homer uses it to make a giant ball of deep-fried, caramel-covered, cotton candy. The ball is much too big for the family to eat, and it gets dirty. Finally Marge insists Homer should get rid of it. He takes it to the dump, and is confronted by a large, angry grizzly bear
Grizzly Bear
The grizzly bear , also known as the silvertip bear, the grizzly, or the North American brown bear, is a subspecies of brown bear that generally lives in the uplands of western North America...

, from which he cowers. The bear eventually wanders off without attacking, apparently disgusted by Homer's tearful cowering.

Homer becomes a nervous wreck, hallucinating and seeing bears everywhere, like: Winnie the Pooh, Paddington Bear, Little Bear, even a crowbar-wielding Care Bear, etc. To make things worse, a tape was made of him cowering from the bear in the news, and his coworkers and Bart's friends make fun of him incessantly. Grampa tells him to confront his ursine assailant, and Homer eventually does so, contacting a hunter named Grant, who has revealed to place an electrical prod on the bear to exact his location. He then makes a suit of armor out of household junk. Refusing Marge's insistence that he not fight the bear, he sneaks out of the house, is joined by Bart, Lenny and Carl, and goes to fight the bear.

The four of them make camp in the woods. As his homemade armor is hot, Homer eventually takes it off and bathes in a stream, where he is again attacked by the bear. With Bart, Lenny and Carl dancing to the radio and paying no attention, the bear drags Homer to his cave. Deciding to die facing the bear as a man, Homer later discovers that the bear is only angry and hostile because of the painful electrical prod that Grant attached to his ear. To make sure of it, Homer takes the tag off the bear and tries it on himself, resulting in lot of pain before taking it off.

Freed of the electrical prod, the bear and Homer become friends. In the meantime, Marge and Lisa have discovered Homer, Bart, and the suit of armor missing, and Marge hires Grant to help track Homer down, though Lisa disapproves of Grant's methods to take down the bear. Homer decides to take the bear to a nearby wildlife refuge, but on the way, they are attacked by Grant and some other hunters. To ensure the bear's survival, Homer dresses the bear up in the homemade armor, which resists the gunfire and allows the bear to reach the wildlife refuge — where he is promptly attacked by Stampy the elephant, but then fights back against him for good. It was then the whole family declares to be proud of Homer for his efforts of saving the bear, to which he responds that he loves nature.

Oldcoot.com

In one scene, Grandpa shows Homer his own website - Oldcoot.com. The domain name is a real-life website owned by Samuel L. Bowman. Some fans of oldcoot.com suggested that Bowman sue The Simpsons, though Bowman ultimately decided not to pursue legal action, as it wasn't the "character of the company".

Inspiration

The creation of bear-proof armor after surviving a bear attack (but not Homer's public cowardice) was inspired by Troy Hurtubise
Troy Hurtubise
Troy James Hurtubise is an inventor and conservationist from North Bay, Ontario, Canada noted for his often bizarre creations that he tests on himself in spectacular ways...

 whose story was told in the documentary Project Grizzly
Project Grizzly
Project Grizzly is a 1996 National Film Board of Canada documentary about the lifelong project of Troy Hurtubise, a man who has been obsessed with researching the Canadian grizzly bear up close, ever since surviving an early encounter with such a bear....

.

Cultural references

The name title is a parody of the movie The Fast and the Furious as well as the 2001 film of the same name
The Fast and the Furious (2001 film)
The Fast and the Furious is a 2001 street racing action film starring Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster. Directed by Rob Cohen, The Fast and the Furious was the first mainstream film to feature the Asian automotive import scene in North America. It is the first film...

.

In the articles with bears can see a Snuggle
Snuggle
Snuggle is the brand name of a fabric softener sold by Sun Products in the United States and Canada. It features as its mascot, a teddy bear, named Snuggle the Fabric Softener Bear or "The Snuggle Bear", previously voiced by Micky Dolenz and originally voiced by Corinne Orr...

 bottle, Gummi bears
Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears
Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears is an American animated television series that aired in the United States in the mid-1980s through the early 1990s...

 bag, Teddy Grahams
Teddy Grahams
Teddy Grahams are bear shaped graham cracker snacks created by Nabisco. Introduced in 1988, Teddy Grahams come in two distinct shapes: bears with arms up and legs closed, and bears with legs open and arms down. When first introduced, Teddy Grahams were available in honey, cinnamon and chocolate...

 box, Winnie the Pooh, Super sugar crisp box and in 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...

's books she has The Bear Went Over the Mountain, The Berenstain Bears and Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

The song in radio is Jarabe tapatio
Jarabe tapatío
The Jarabe Tapatío dance in its standardized form was first choreographed by the Mexican, in the early twentieth century to celebrate a government-sponsored fiesta that commemorated the successful end of the Mexican Revolution....

.

Also whilst sitting in the corner frightened, Homer is confronted by many Bear characters, such as Gummi Bears
Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears
Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears is an American animated television series that aired in the United States in the mid-1980s through the early 1990s...

, Paddington Bear
Paddington Bear
Paddington Bear is a fictional character in children's literature. He appeared on 13 October 1958 and was subsequently featured in several books, most recently in 2008, written by Michael Bond and first illustrated by Peggy Fortnum....

, a Care Bear
Care Bears
The Care Bears are characters created by American Greetings in 1981 for use on greeting cards. The original artwork for the cards was painted by artist Elena Kucharik. In 1983, Kenner turned the Care Bears into plush teddy bears...

 and two bears wearing the Chicago Bears
Chicago Bears
The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...

 jersey and helmet.

In the scene where Homer makes his bear-fighting suit, the Survivor
Survivor (band)
Survivor is an American rock band formed in Chicago in 1978. The band achieved its greatest success in the 1980s with its AOR sound, which garnered many charting singles, especially in the United States. The band is best known for its double platinum-certified 1982 hit "Eye of the Tiger", the theme...

 song Eye of the Tiger
Eye of the Tiger
"Eye of the Tiger" is a single by American rock band Survivor, from their third album Eye of the Tiger. It was released as a single on May 29, 1982, the same year as the album. It was written at the request of actor Sylvester Stallone, who was unable to get permission for Queen's "Another One Bites...

 is heard.

The song that Lenny, Carl and Bart are singing and dancing to is Afternoon Delight
Afternoon Delight (song)
"Afternoon Delight" is the title of a song recorded by American group, Starland Vocal Band, featuring close harmony and sexually suggestive wordplay. It was written by Bill Danoff, one of the members of the band. It became a number-one U.S. Billboard Hot 100 single on July 10, 1976...

 by Starland Vocal Band
Starland Vocal Band
Starland Vocal Band were an American pop band, known primarily for "Afternoon Delight", one of the biggest-selling singles in 1976.-Career:The group began as 'Fat City', a husband/wife duo of Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert. The band was also composed of Jon Carroll and Margot Chapman...

.

In the shopping mall, they were showing Biblical characters depicted as vegetables
VeggieTales
VeggieTales is an American series of children's computer animated films featuring anthropomorphic vegetables in stories conveying moral themes based on Christianity...

 on TV with King Rameses
Ramesses II
Ramesses II , referred to as Ramesses the Great, was the third Egyptian pharaoh of the Nineteenth dynasty. He is often regarded as the greatest, most celebrated, and most powerful pharaoh of the Egyptian Empire...

 depicted as a yam and Moses
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...

 depicted as a pickle pleading "Let my pickles go."

External links

  • "The Fat and the Furriest" at the Internet Movie Database
    Internet Movie Database
    Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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