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| Oh look its characters with the same voice actor meeting each other. Again. |
The Simpsons go to the mall the day after Christmas to return Bart's calenders. There, Lisa spots that there is a new "Mapple" store, and the family checks it out. Lisa wants to get a "Mypod" badly, but doesn't have nearly enough money to get one. Fortunately for her, Krusty walks in displeased with his Mypod and just gives it to Lisa. Meanwhile, a message from Steve "Mobs" pops up on a big screen, which Bart hijacks for amusement. The rabid employees there learn of what Bart did and attempt to give him hell. Bart is able to run away, ending up far away from the mall. He smells some kind of meat being cooked, and goes to investigate. He finds a young boy cooking lamb and Bart decides to befriend him. The boy, Bashir, and his parents are from Jordan. Bart tries to get Bashir accustomed to school, but when he learns Bashir is Muslim, Bart has to make sure Bashir doesn't get beat up just for being different, successfully warding off bullies to protect his new friend.
Later, Homer meets Bashir and takes a liking to him. However, at the bar, Homer's friends convince him that because Bashir is Muslim, that automatically means bad news. Following a stream of advice in his head from Lenny, Homer invites Bashir's family over for dinner in an attempt to out them as terrorists. Bashir's family doesn't like Homer's attitude and demeanor, and leave the dinner. Marge chides Homer for his intolerance, and forces Homer to go to their house and apologize. Homer goes to the house but before he knocks, he notices something going on in the garage, and spies Bashir's father preparing dynamite. Homer rushes home to tell Marge, but she's less than interested and Homer is content on telling her about it tomorrow. Homer then has a dream where the similarly voiced Genie from Aladdin appears to turn everything Muslim. Homer can't deal with it, and decides he has to stop the supposed terrorist plot.
Homer spies Bashir's father leave, overhearing only that he's going to suicide bomb a building, not that he's actually going to blow up a building in a safe, approved manner. Homer infiltrates the house by having Bashir's mother invite him in for a talk, then going off on his own to find a laptop that features an image of the Springfield mall next to a TNT detonator. Homer panics, and rushes over to the mall to warn everyone (save his sisters in law) of an unspecified danger. Just then, he sees Bashir and his father, along with Bart whose hands are on a detonator. Bashir's father has set up dynamite to blow up the old mall across the street, which is abandoned. Regardless, Homer rushes into the building, removes all the dynamite, and tosses it into a nearby river. The dynamite drags the detonator, forcing it to trigger just as the dynamite reaches a bridge, blowing it up. Some time later, Homer hosts Bashir's family again in yet another "sorry for being intolerant" barbecue. Lisa is missing, though, as it turns out she downloaded so many songs on her Mypod she ended up with a $1200 bill, and has gone to Steve Mobs himself for forgiveness, but has to pay the bill off by putting on a costume and handing out pamphlets on a street corner.
Quick Review
This episode was better than I thought it'd be. Given this is zombie Simpsons, you would think an episode that focuses on Muslim culture AND Apple culture would be a recipe for disaster. True, Lisa's "Mapple" adventures dragged the episode down some, as pretty much that entire bit wasn't funny. However, Homer's newest intolerance spree provided a level of comedy I wasn't expecting, and salvages the episode. Even with the lame Apple parodies I didn't find a whole lot wrong with the episode save for the continued lessened quantity of jokes.
Note: for those a bit confused with the caption, Dan Castellaneta voiced the Genie in pretty much everything that wasn't the original Aladdin movie. Robin Williams voiced Genie in that movie but Dan took over from there.
Final Score: 7.1
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