Episode Recap: Much Apu About Something

Hey hey friends! Wookiee back and at my usual antics with another episode recap for my favorite Addicts. This episode, Season 27, Episode 12: “Much Apu About Something”, was a lot of fun because of the episode tie-in for TSTO. How cool is it that we knew more about the episode before it aired on January 17th? I love looking for things we saw before all the non-TSTO players. Anyhoo… one of the features we like to have on this site is recaps of new Simpsons episodes for all our friends who can’t watch them immediately or like our silly reviews of them. I love when there are new episodes of the Best. Show. Ever. on TV. It’s my privilege to not only watch new episodes, which I would do with or without this awesome site, but then break them down for all of you. Without further ado… here’s my thoughts.

To start this off for accidental clickers who just prefer the synopsis, here’s what TVGuide.com says about the episode:

“Sanjay turns over the Kwik-E-Mart to his son, Jay, who goes against tradition, modernizes the store and makes it a cool health-food market. Bart, who has given up pranking, is enlisted to return to his playful ways and bring down the new establishment.”

Now on with the random recap observations of yours truly. I’m liking the new format of doing a quick typing of the recap during my first watch and then once more to clean up my mistakes and incomprehensible notes. I think this makes the observations more funny but maybe that’s just me liking randomness.

So the first thing I thought about as the episode started was how some may not realize the significance of the title.  In Season 7, there was an episode entitled “Much Apu About Nothing” that you might recognize from All-American Apu or the Bears in TSTO. Obviously this is going to be a Nahasapeemapetilon episode but I was curious what something would be vs. nothing. Nothing turned out to be immigration laws. Guess I should also note that the title is a Simpsons Shakespeare pun.

So it all starts with no intro (this usaully means a good episode as they needed the extra time) but Shary Bobbins does fly by and then it goes right into a Springfield commercial dissing the Lincoln Memorial, Liberty Bell, Tomb of the Unknown Solder, and Mount Rushmore.  I guess I’d be aghast if it wasn’t just so Springfield to do something like this.  The history nerd in me laughs at comments like “hasn’t rang since 1846”, “who is this guy?”, and “not in chronological order”. Springfield has “more handicap parking spots for fat guys than any non-Chicago city” and is unveiling a new state of the art statue of Jebediah Springfield at their Founder’s Day Parade. The one in the commercial is awesome.

The kids and Homer are excited to get out of the house and go to the unveiling. There’s no celebrity guest because Springfield didn’t pay for the second night but Homer’s favorite part is going to the Kwik-E-Mart and laughing at all the people who forgot to bring parade supplies… like him.  Apu and Sanjay are having a parade supplies blowout and everything is accordingly marked up.  Jerky that tastes “like a delicious shoe tongue” whether it’s beef or pork.  Sun block costs thirty dollars.  In fairness, Apu did offer Chalmers a Philadelphia 76ers hats for free

So the new statue is awful and already dubbed Quimby’s folly.  It’s a metal version of the old statue with wavy arms and a voiceover by Quimby endorsing the Springfield Auto Lube.  “Err, uh, I am Jebediah Springfield brought to you by Springfield Auto Lube.  Chuck, Ernie, and Arturo are there for you.”  Even those guys know the ad was a bad call.  So happy this is not one of the items picked for TSTO. Not a complete loss though since in the parade, the Springfield PD is showing off their new SWAT tank, an urban pacification vehicle funded by Homeland Security.  “Gaze in wonder at America’s debt.”  And hilariousness that the next part of the parade is Gays in Wonder with Julio.  “We loved you Officer Puffin Stuff.”

Next up Springfield’s true heroes… the Springfield Volunteer Fire Department. It’s the one good thing Krusty does and their engine can do a cool water show. Wiggum thinks it’s “grand theft thunder” but I love Krusty asking, “Hey cops. Does SWAT stand for short, wide and tubby.”  Bart ends up jumping on the fire truck and squirting Wiggum as a prank resulting in Wiggum turning the tank around to face the Firemen.  He’s “gonna hit them so hard, their dalmation loses its spots.” Skinner and Krusty deploy their “fiercest weapon… foam.”  The foam makes the tank slide out of control.  Lou would help but Wiggum is stuck in the turret and they careen out of control right into the Kwik-E-Mart.

Bring on the classic Bart line of “I didn’t do it, nobody saw me do it, can’t prove anything.”  I laugh as Homer points out he did see it and can prove it with footage he caught on Ned Flanders Go Pro.  Homer plans to turn it in so Bart can rot in jail and only come out to see the dentist.  Bart is worried.  “Do you know the kind of things they’ll do to me at the dentist?”  Sorry but that cracks me up.  The only other option is for Bart is to never prank again.

Bart: “C’mon man.  If I don’t do these pranks soon, when I’m older they’ll be crimes.”

Homer: “Promise me.”

“I promise.”

“Say it like you mean it.”

“I promise.”

“Now say it like you’re talking to a dying soldier who was with you all the way from D-Day and you gotta take his St. Christopher medal back to his mother. Take me there.”

“I PROMISE!”

“Whoa!  Calm down Pacino.”

At the Springfield General Hospital (If You Died Here, You’d Be Home Now), Apu and Sanjay are layed up and Homer and Marge are visiting.  Homer isn’t surprised Apu lived since he has nine lives.  Apu has to explain that he is not a cat but as a Hindu he has infinite lives of which only some would be nine life cat lives. Sanjay no longer wants customers to come again.  He’s through.  He’s abandoning his brother like they abandoned their little brother in India. Sanjay is giving his share of the store to his son Jamshed who has gotten older and graduated with a business degree from Wharton.  Apu is going to “miss looking into (his) tired, sunken eyes during (their) wordless shift changes.” Sometimes they even nodded.

Six weeks later, Apu is back to the K-E-M  but Jamshed has turned it into a Fresh ‘N’ Easy, err I mean a Quick & Fresh.  “Who spells Kwik with a ‘Q’?”  Jamshed prefers to be called J-Now and just “bitch slapped your Kwik-E-Mart into the 21st Century.”  I bet his TSTO appearance makes more sense now I suppose.  Apu is not happy with the upgrade.

The new store is now healthy with softer lighting but is getting a better class of criminal… Bond-style criminals.  They no longer serve heart attacks shaped like wangs.  While Sanjay enjoys his retirement eating popcorn and watching golf on TV, Jamshed is the future.  It really doesn’t matter that Apu doesn’t like the improvements either since Sanjay owned more of the store than Apu.  Back in the day when Apu was younger and had no mustache, he won $25 dollars on a scratcher starting an addiction.  Unfortunately he never scratched a winner again even after being “hospitalized briefly with Scratcher’s Lung.”  Apu paid his brother back for his losses with parts of the store.  Jamshed owns eighty percent… and Apu is still addicted.  His current scratcher of choice is the Big Bang Theory… and Wolowitz is the losing icon.  Scratching three Sheldons wins 1 mil.

Meanwhile Bart is retired from pranking even when he has the chance to drop a beehive on a naked sunbathing Chalmers.  No pranking of Skinner either as the princi-pal untangles the American flag.  Bart somehow turns down sending Skinner to his hilarious doom in the Springfield Gorge and instead makes it safer by chalking it with a brick. Milhouse is officially Springfield’s bad boy I suppose. Homer and Marge are off to cheer up Apu with dinner and Homer is uninterested in Bart geting an A in citizenship.  Lisa commiserates with Bart about not having an achievement recognized… a problem in the Simpson household. Bart now understands why Lisa is so mad all the time.  Nothing moving their mouths without making a sound to drive Grampa nuts won’t fix.

At Luigi’s, Apu is getting drunk and makes a scene when Jamshed shows up with friends.  Jamshed is embarassed by Apu being such a stereotypical Indian.  “Why don’t you go back to the Temple of Doom Dr. Jones.”  And the funny reveal that Apu worked three months on that wonderful movie and you could only see his hand in one shot. Apu feels like Jamshed is a stereotype too “spouting stupid hipster buzz words.”  Leave it to the writers to pull in Luigi for more jokes about sterotype-ahs.

Apu is working in the Quick & Fresh and Jamshed ends up firing his uncle for still being a stereotype.  His nephew even takes away his lucky vest with a bullet hole for every time he was shot.  Moe invites Apu to his bar and the barflys want to get Apu his job back.  Moe’s solution is for Bart to prank the store. Homer likes that he’s straightened out his son and “was hoping he’d stay that way until the Marines take him” but ends up deciding to help Apu after some banter back and forth about Apu gouging the town after the hurricane, not holding them responsible for the looting and pointing out that he sponsors their little league teams and sells Christmas gifts at 9am on Christmas morning.  Apu is one of them and “what do we have children for if not to sacrifice them for our needs.”

Homer drunkenly tells Bart he needs him to prank for Apu.  Bart doesn’t miss pranking and is happy he can sing again since Homer doesn’t strangle him any more.  He even likes singing hymns.  Homer changes his mind since he likes well-behaved Bart but Bart realizes he might be able to get a later bed time and stares at Homer Clockwork Orange-style.  Homer never should have gotten him that video for his fifth birthday to help him tell time… he’s awoken a monster… and also Lisa who had a drama-filled imaginary friend who moved away.

Bart plans to cut the power of the store for thirty seconds to make the non-perservative food in the Quick & Fresh go bad.  Lisa tries to stop Bart with unconditional love but it only tells Bart he can do whatever he wants.  After all, unconditional love implies no conditions to it.  His prank works too well and causes the store to catch fire.  The Volunteer Fire Department shows up but they used all their water during the parade.  Thus ends the Quick & Fresh which I must point out was much smaller than our giant TSTO version.

Apu apologies in the ruins of the store for karma catching up to him.  All he has left is two dollars to buy a Big Bang scratcher that didn’t burn up.  He uses the penny from the take-a-penny leave-a-penny tray and actually wins… THREE SHELDONS!  What a genius clown move. Apu is able to rebuild the Kwik-E-Mart with the winnings.  All it took was Homer giving Bart a little nudge in the wrong direction to get Apu his store back and Apu rewards Homer with a golden Jumbo Squishee cup… refillable for perpituity and only costing Apu three bucks in the long run.  Not so fast though… Wiggum crashes into the store with the tank again. This time it’s because he let Ralph drive.  The last scene is Quimby getting rid of the new Jebediah Springfield statue. Wiggum uses the new tank to fire on it but the shell rebounds and just destroys the tank.

So that’s the new episode.  I have to admit this is one that is better watched then written about.  There are a lot of jokes crammed throughout it and I have to say I really enjoyed the episode but probably didn’t do it justice with this recap.  It was a simple story and all the different storylines coincided with each other nicely. I love when jokes from one part end up connecting later like the Fire Department. Lots of stuff actually going on throughout but I laughed a bunch during my viewings.  One has to wonder if it was a better idea to keep Bart as a non-prankster but The Simpsons wouldn’t be what it is if that had happened.  I’m sure Apu fixes up his store and maybe we’ll see J-Now in future episodes.  At least we now know the origins of the episode tie-in items.  What did you think of it all? Happy we got the items we did in TSTO?  I’m hoping the fire department makes an appearance in our games in the future.  Sound off in the comments with your thoughts and happy tapa-tapa-tapping.  I’m off to blow up the K-E-M.

TTFN… Wookiee out!