Holy Floating Easter Egg – A Bonus WDTCF

Oi Oi Oi! How y’all doing? So last night I was perusing my town just enjoying building design (seriously… check out the bits and bobs… there’s a lot of cool detail) when I chanced upon the tropical island. I wrote a whole origin post for it but failed to notice something specific in it on the first go around. Not only does the island have Santa’s sleigh, but there’s a particular teddy bear lying on the beach… could it be Bobo?

I certainly think this is Bobo.  Of course, not every tapper is a humongous Simpsons nerd like yours truly but it’s fair to say we like The Simpsons or our addicitons wouldn’t make any sense, right? Right? I saw Bobo marooned in my sea and was one ecstatic fuzzball. Bobo… Burns’ teddy… something from the early days of the show as a bonus to a prize I was sort of meh about.. Woo hoo! Holy floating Easter egg Batman! I thought it might be fun to do a bonus where did THAT come from (WDTCF) for Bobo. If that sounds like your bag… let’s head off…

This bear originally comes from “Rosebud” (S5:E4). Mr. Burns is having a restless night in his palatial manor complete with Winkie guards. He’s dreaming about his lost bear, Bobo. He used to be a young boy named Happy but gave up his innocence and his bear to live with a twisted, loveless billionaire. He left his loving parents and brother George Burns and poor Bobo was left in the snow.

Burns can’t sleep moaning for Bobo (not Sheriff Lobo). His birthday is coming and he knows he won’t get what he really wants. Sure he had The Ramones (funny that Burns thinks they’re the Rolling Stones) play his birthday party. Sure he has Excalibur, a rare nude photo of Mark Twain, a draft of the U.S. Constitution with the word “Suckers” in it, the Venus de Milo but all he wants is his bear. He’d give anything to know what happened to Bobo.

(cue flashback) Bobo survived the winter (much like us tappers) and fell into a river. He somehow made it to 1927 New York where he was found by Charles Lindbergh. Lindy took Bobo with him on his trans-Atlantic flight to Paris on the Spirit of St. Louis where he threw Bobo into a crowd. Surprisingly, Bob found himself in the arms of Adolf Hitler. Stupid Hitler blamed Bobo for the fall of his regime in 1945 Berlin and got rid of the bear. Bobo then found his way to the North Pole in 1957 on a submarine voyage. In 1993, ice harvesters dug up Bobo and he was delivered to the Springfield Kwik-E-Mart in a bag of ice and bought by Bart Simpson. Apu should really charge more than a buck a bag if workers keep getting lost on ice expeditions. Bart gives the found teddy to Maggie.

After some hilarious bits of Burns searching for his bear and Homer being dumb not realizing Maggie has Bobo, the Simpsons realize they have Burns’ precious teddy. The family decides to extort Burns. Burns finally accepts an offer of one million dollars and three Hawaiian islands (good ones, not the leper one) but Maggie is super attached to Bobo. Homer can’t make his baby sad… he decides Bobo stays with the family.

Meanwhile Burns decides to get Bobo back ninja style… fail. Next up, suction cup invasion… another fail courtesy of 64 slices of American cheese. Homer is the geek who values his family’s happiness more than money. Burns decides to take out his Bobo anger on Homer at work. Burns’ ultimate play is to take over every TV channel and stop all alcohol shipments to Springfield to get his bear. A mob forms to get the bear but even they can’t bear Maggie’s sadness.

Burns’ last effort is some Smithers groveling. Homer explains the bear isn’t his… it’s Maggie’s. Burns tries to chat with Mags. He can’t take it from her (literally) so he decides to let her keep it with the promise she always holds on to the bear and doesn’t make the same mistake as him. In an incredibly sweet moment, Maggie gives Bobo back to Monty. Burns decides from now on he’ll always be good and kind to everyone. Unfortunately Smithers didn’t have a pencil to take down the note. As a Simpsons nerd, I really think this failure of Burns to pay forward true kindness is the reason Maggie shoots him later in the finale of Season 6 (Bobo was even mentioned in the episode lol). Just my nerd theory.

Returned to Monty and tucked in to bed with him, Burns wonders what the future holds for Bobo? Easy… it’s 1,000,000 A.D. and Bobo is found on the Planet of the Apes under a pile of rocks. Burns is still alive… his head is kept intact in a robotic contraption and Smithers is a Robodog. Burns may say it every century, but he’ll never leave Bobo behind again.

Besides the future, Bobo has appeared in other episodes too. Bobo is seen in a flashback of Burns life as he lays dying in “Burns’ Heir” (S5:E18). In “Homer the Smithers” (S7:E17), we see Bobo at the end of the episode hot from the dryer and looking to be in much better shape minus one eye. In “Double, Double, Boy in Trouble” (S20:E3), Bobo is seen again in an old photo of Burns’ siblings who all died before him… trampled by a horse, poisoned potato, shot, stabbed, poisoned potato, spontaneous combustion, fell down a well, potato, potato and impaled on the Chrysler Building respectively. Bobo even appeared in the couch gag of “Exit Through the Kwik-E-Mart” (S23:E15). The Game of Thrones inspired gag featured lots of characters.  A bunch appeared super fast on the ribbons that cut each scene. Bobo is one of them.

It’s fair to say that Bobo is iconic as far as The Simpsons and Mr. Burns are concerned. He even was included in “The Simpsons Guy” aka the Family Guy Simpson mashup which started FG’s 13th season. When the Blue Haired Lawyer is litigating the Duff Beer vs. Pawtucket Ale trial… the scene pans among character comparisons between the two shows which is very funny. Mr. Burns and Bobo are right next to Stewie and Rupert. Both are evil personified with teddys they love.

So that’s a little back story to Bobo who now graces the shores of a lot of tappers Springfields. Do you agree that it’s him? Hopefully you’ll look at your Tropical Island a little different every time you see it. I know I certainly will. Hope life is good for everyone and stay as classy as possible.

TTFN… Wookiee out!