American History X-cellent (S21, E17-458)

Here we go again, making a parody of another movie while forgetting to make it funny.

Plot Summary
In prison, three guards go to retrieve a prisoner: Mr. Burns.  Burns then narrates how this situation came to be, going back to when he forces his employees to give him a decent 4th of July party.  Homer, Lenny and Carl can't deal with Burns' tyranny so while they're at Burns' manor for the party the three sneak into Burns' wine cellar and get drunk on top-notch wine.  The three make their way into an art room where they make a mess.  The cops are called in, where Lou notices one of the paintings is stolen, and Burns is arrested for grand theft.

Burns goes to prison for his misdeed, and he gives control of the plant to Smithers, who decides to be a much nicer boss than Burns was.  He even goes out to have a drink with Homer, Lenny and Carl but when Smithers goes out to take a call, he hears the three making fun of his generous nature behind his back.  Smithers turns sour on the three of them, losing faith in humanity in the process, and works the three of them like dogs.  They get tired of this and decide to bust Burns out of prison, because even he'd be better than Smithers at this point.  Burns, in the meantime, is met by a large, The Green Mile-like cellmate who cleanses Burns of his evil and makes him a born-again Christian.

Meanwhile, Bart is asked by Marge to spend time with Lisa, who is working on an ant farm.  Bart tries to help out, but the ant farm is ultimately shattered as the two bicker over it and the dog swoops in to eat every ant that comes out, save one.  The two team up to take special care of the final ant, but they realize its final days are near, and let it loose outside, but the dog comes to eat that one up as well.

Homer, Lenny and Carl disguise themselves as guards somehow and enter the prison to retrieve Burns, who now isn't willing to leave the prison.  His cellmate tries to stop them as well, but Burns reveals not all of his evil was purged during the cleansing and he now wants to leave with the others.  So, Burns take back the plant from Smithers and he wonders what poor soul his old cellmate is trying to convert now.

Quick Review
This episode has some moments, but overall its nothing special.  The sidestory with Bart and Lisa was particularly unnoteworthy and given how short it is, it seemed pretty unnecessary to have at all.  The episode is at its best when Smithers takes over the plant, but even then the comedy is limited.

Final Score: 6.8