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| I like how there's a carrot in Fit Tony's hand, as though we wouldn't get that he's fit otherwise. |
It's New Years Day, but unfortunately for Homer, he gets pinned by a slew of Springfield's new laws meant to tax the hell out of people. Piling up $1000 worth of fines, Homer gets advice from Moe to place a bribe at window #9 at the courtroom. Homer tries to do so, but nobody is at the window at the time so he leaves his ticket and a bag with the word "bribe" on it at the window. Of course, a short time later Homer is arrested for the bribe and is given a 10 year jail sentence.
Homer is about to begin his sentence when Chief Wiggum reveals a way Homer can get out early: become a mob informant. Homer meets up with an agent of the FBI, who informs Homer he's been on Fat Tony's tail for 20 years, trying to catch him smuggling Belgian guns. He wants Homer to get close to Fat Tony, wearing a Fonzie-like wig which contains surveillance equipment as a disguise. With Tony and his cronies currently in prison, Homer is sent in as Nicky "Blue Pants" Saxophony, and befriends Louie after he 'defends' Louie from a 'guard' (the FBI agent). Louie takes Homer's act as genuine, and soon introduces Homer to Fat Tony, who decides to break out of prison. As the prison was made by the mafia, Tony quickly crumbles a nearby wall and the group easily escapes.
Tony and Homer become fast friends, but before Homer can get any closer, Tony wants Homer to whack Moe, who mistakenly believed Tony's innocent mis-dial was a prank call. Tasking Homer to burn down Moe's Tavern, Homer is saved when Moe does the deed himself rather than install a ladies' room. Tony doesn't see this and only assumes Homer actually did it, and therefore lets Homer into the family, a gesture Homer fully accepts. Soon, though, Homer is taken to a dock where Tony tells Homer about a Belgian gun shipment that's about to come in. Homer tries to warn Tony, and as authorities start moving in, Tony finally figures out that Homer was a rat. Unable to deal with the betrayal, Fat Tony has a heart attack, and dies right there.
With the FBI agents rather cold towards Homer, Homer is let free and is able to go home. Still, he can't let go of his time with Fat Tony, and visits his grave where he gets whacked with a shovel. Upon coming to, he thinks he hears Fat Tony's voice, but its actually the voice of his cousin, Fit Tony who, as the name implies, looks like a much fitter version of Fat Tony. Fit Tony planned on killing Homer, but after seeing Homer's genuine sorrow and grief towards Fat Tony's death, Fit Tony decides not to kill Homer, believing that Fat Tony's memory will live on in him. Homer narrates the rest, as Fit Tony takes over the Springfield mafia. However, Fit Tony has a hard time dealing with the pressure of being a mob boss, and starts overeating to lessen his woes. Eventually, he gains enough weight to be called "Fitfat Tony" and then just "Fat Tony", even wearing the same clothes as the original one. Still, Homer is glad to be back with his family even if the only person in said family to ever shoot a gun was Maggie.
Quick Review
I remember seeing this episode when it first aired, and I remember hating it. I gave a pass to The Principal and the Pauper back in Season 9 for its blatant screw around with established canon, but for some reason having Fat Tony die only for him to be replaced by his cousin Fit Tony who ate so much he became the new Fat Tony just bugged me badly.
Watching it again, the episode isn't as bad as I originally thought it to be. Leading up to the big moment, the episode actually fares pretty decent, as well as most other Season 22 episodes thus far anyway, and the segment where Homer infiltrates Fat Tony's crew was entertaining. Hell, the moment Fat Tony dies wasn't bad either by itself, I didn't have a problem with that and the gag with Homer's self-destructing hair added a nice but not overboard comical touch to it.
Still, though, the inclusion of Fit Tony, and using him to maintain a Fat Tony character for future episodes seems like such a cop out, even by Armin Tamzarian standards. Its like the writers wanted to make an impactful episode, complete with a characters death, this time with meaning unlike a previous episode, yet they were mandated not to kill anyone off so they threw together a nonsense of an ending to keep canon intact, even though it loses all of the impact of the death. It seems so pointless and it just ruins the episode.
Final Score: 6.4
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