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| The question mark really makes it a thinker. |
Homer, for once, is ready for Marge's birthday. He's getting her a food processor she likes, which is endorsed by a cook she likes, and Homer is going to a new grocery store nearby where the cook will be singing stuff so he can have the cook sign Homer's present to Marge. While at the new store, Homer meets the cook who tells Homer she'll call Marge during her live show as an added birthday bonus.
Meanwhile, Apu is there checking to see just how many people are going to this seemingly reasonable store rather than the cesspool that is the Kwik-E-Mart, and after learning most of them are okay with leaving Apu's business, he goes nuts. At a later point, the store hires a seemingly reformed Snake, who in an ironic twist, hyuck, gets held up by Apu desperate for cash, though the experienced Snake calms Apu down. Calmed yet defeated, Apu begins to close down his store when Manjula gives him good news: the new store is forced to shut down after its learned it was replacing chicken products with monkey meat. Apu's business is saved and he can go back to lamenting his family.
Back to Marge's birthday, its going pretty swell. Bart gets her a live rabbit not unlike one she had as a little girl, but Homer is thrilled to finally be ready for a birthday for once. Homer readies for the phone call from the cook, but it never arrives. Several hours later, Homer in frustration reveals his now ruined plan, but upon trying to angrily call the cook, he finds the phone isn't working. Slowly, the family learns that the new rabbit ate the phone's wires just before the call was supposed to take place, and that the cook had actually called Marge several times, eventually getting so angry over supposedly being shunned she openly mocks Marge on her show. Marge's birthday is once again ruined, and Homer pins the blame on Bart for bringing in the rabbit in the first place, shoving him into the rabbit's cage as punishment, then forcing him out when Bart enjoys himself in there.
Bart particularly doesn't like how Homer treats him here, and decides to get back at him by displaying graffiti across town with part of Homer's face with the word 'dope' underneath it. With Milhouse his willing lacking, Bart litters the entire town with hundreds of dope tags, nearly swallowing the entire city. The next day, Homer is unaware he's the target of the graffiti, and on TV Chief Wiggum basically taunts the vandalizer to do something even bigger. Bart decides to do just that, but in the process he and Milhouse are confronted by four adults who reveal themselves to be "street artists", led by Shepard Fairey, an actual guy. They convince Bart that his work is real art and that he should display it in a museum. Bart agrees to do so, but later Milhouse's bumbling leads to Homer finally figuring out who the man in the dope graffiti is: him.
Homer can't even muster the anger to strangle Bart, simply saddened that Bart views him the way he does. On the night of the museum unveiling, a remorseful Bart sprays Homer's car, increasing its value, and Homer makes up with his son. However, the museum display was actually a police trap, set up by Wiggum with help from Fairey, who works with the police because he's a sellout or something, I dunno. Marge convinces Wiggum not to arrest Bart, but Wiggum still needs to punish Bart for the act, when Homer comes up with a perfect solution: putting Bart back into the rabbit cage where he can sign autographs for his show even though its technically phony.
Quick Review
Season 23 finally has a solid episode, and that's despite the fact that there were two things working against it: the Game of Thrones couch gag that I really couldn't care less about, and the inclusion of the "street artists" whose appearances did little to improve the lackluster main plot with Bart.
However, I was happy to finally see Apu do something funny again. Its been so long, it seems, since Apu has been involved in any Kwik-E-Mart related shenanigans, as nearly every joke involving him during the past several years has involved his less than pleasant wife and kids, and I mean 'less than pleasant' from both his point of view as well as a comedic one. In this episode, Apu going nuts over the new store and his attempt to mug Snake were the episode's highlights and I wish the episode focused more on it than the lame graffiti storyline especially since the episode is titled after it. Combined with some good stuff from Homer, and it is one of the season's best episodes, which is relatively not that great still.
Final Score: 7.1
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