Finally, we have Homer’s nightmare. When the kids, scared by their own dreams, run into their parents’ bedroom to sleep with them, Homer groans, looking at the clock, “Four AM? I have to be up for work in a few hours. Work… work…” And so his nightmare involves his job. And we are able to welcome, for the first, but by no means the last time, to
The Treehouse of Horror, Springfield’s very own scary fiend, Charles Montgomery Burns.
And Smithers.
Treehouse of Horror episode: 2
Year: 1991
Season: 3
Segment: 3 of 3
Segment title: “If I Only Had a Brain”
Writer(s): Al Jean, Jeff Martin, Mike Reiss, Sam Simon, George Meyer, John Swartzwelder
Characters:
Main*: Homer, Smithers, Mr. Burns
Supporting: Lenny, Carl, Willy, Marge, Maggie, Bart, Lisa
* You know what? Fu
ck this idea of levels of characters. I'm programmed to be far too busy for this. Plus it's a pain in the arse. I'm returning to main and supporting characters.
Homage to? Frankenstein duh. Also elements of Burke and Hare and (it says here)
The Beast with Two Heads. Sure. Better than the beast with two backs I guess.
Basic premise: Mr. Burns wants a brain for his new robot worker, and who do you think is first on the list?
Best quotes: Smithers: “What corpse should we unearth, sir?”
Burns: “I don’t know. I feel like a kid in a candy store!”
Smithers: “Did you hear that sir?”
Burns: “No I didn’t. What is it? Frankenstein? The Booger Man?”
Smithers: “The, uh, the man in the bag sir. I think he’s still alive.”
Burns (bashing bag with spade): “Bad corpse! Bad corpse! Scaring Smithers! Better?”
Smithers: “Thank you, sir.”
Burns: “Damn it Smithers! This isn’t rocket science! It’s brain surgery!”
Burns (with Homer’s brain on his head): “Look at me! I’m Davy Crocket!”
Burns: “Oh Smithers, I was wrong to play God! Life is precious, not a thing to be toyed with! Now take out that brain and flush it down the toilet!”
Smithers: “Sir, his family might appreciate it if you’d return the brain to his body.”
Burns: “Oh come on! It’s 11:45. Oh Smithers, when you look at me with those puppy-dog eyes of yours!”
Smithers: “You know what this means, sir? He was alive!”
Burns: “Ooh you’re right, Smithers. I guess I owe you a Coke.”
Type of ending: Scary-ish and funny
Synopsis: After being fired for sleeping on the job, Homer takes a job as a gravedigger, but old habits die hard, and he again falls asleep while digging a grave. Meanwhile, Mr. Burns has a scheme to replace his workers with robots, but for the prototype he needs a human brain. So off he and Smithers go to the cemetery at night, prowling through the graves looking for a fresh corpse. They find Homer asleep, and assume he is dead. They bring him back to the lab and take his brain out, putting it in the robot body. But Homer’s brain takes over, and the robot worker ends up sitting with his feet up on the console eating donuts.
Angry, Mr. Burns abandons the project, and Smithers convinces him to return Homer’s brain to his body. However, the robot falls on Burns and crushes his body, so he has Smithers graft his own head onto the shoulders of Homer. Two heads are definitely not better than one in this instance!
Rating: A-
Trivia: Perhaps giving the episode its title, while removing Homer’s brain Mr. Burns hums the tune “If I Only Had a Brain” from the movie
The Wizard of Oz.
The obvious question here is, how is Mr. Burns suddenly a brain surgeon? He’s shown no indication of such talents before, and even had he those talents, he’s a little old and frail to be handling sensitive medical instruments! How is a robot body able to eat donuts, and why exactly is Homer given back his job when he was fired (though I suppose that could be seen as a “generous” gesture on behalf of Burns for having tried to turn him into some sort of automated monster!)? Also, as I moaned about on the
Twilight Zone episode “The Mighty Casey”, how can a human brain be put into a robotic body? Yeah yeah, I know: I’m going. But I’ll be back, you may be assured of - oh, you’re gone.
Score
Story: 5
Laughs: 5
Originality: 2
Ending: 8
Longevity: 2
Total: 22