Skinner's Sense of Snow
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Skinner's Sense of Snow is the eighth episode from season twelve of the animated TV series The Simpsons.
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[edit] Plot
While the Simpsons attend a French Canadian circus, a freak blizzard (specifically, a "classic nor'easter meeting a classic 'sou'wester'") hits Springfield, turning it into a winter wonderland overnight. However, Springfield Elementary School is the only school that did not declare a snowday. Only some students from both Bart and Lisa's classes show up while Skinner and Willie are the only faculty members to still be working. To pass the time, Skinner plays the ultra-boring movie "The Christmas That Almost Wasn't, But Then Was". While they are watching the movie, the snow piles up and traps everyone in the school.
Skinner, whose incompetence in not closing the school due to the blizzard caused everyone inside the school to be trapped, quickly determines that they will be unable to get out and will have to remain there for the duration of the storm. The kids complain about things they have to go home for, but Skinner firmly declares that no one can escape. The kids are forced to eat relish and mayonnaise. After Nelson fails in an escape attempt, the kids begin to go beyond Skinner's control. Reminded of when he could maintain order in his army days, he dons his old uniform. Meanwhile, Homer and Ned set off to rescue the kids. When Homer decides to use Ned's car, Ned protests by asking what happened to Mr. Plow, Homer's old snow removal service; Homer is oblivious, despite wearing the jacket. While driving, they hit a fire hydrant, encasing their car in ice. They allow carbon monoxide to enter the car, and suffer hallucinations.
In the middle of the night, Bart tries to dig a tunnel to get everyone out. He gets caught by Skinner, who orders Willie to destroy the tunnel. Willie refuses, and when Skinner insults him, he quits. Skinner decides to destroy it himself, but he again messes up and gets trapped in the cavern. The kids take advantage of this and take over the school. Skinner uses the school hamster, Nibbles, to get a message to the outside world. Nibbles makes it to Ned and Homer, which breaks the ice and frees them. Homer releases the wheel after turning on the car's cruise control, causing the car to lose control and crash into a salt silo. However, Homer's blunder fortunately releases a massive amount of salt that melts the snow around the school, freeing the kids, but rusting the car's body completely. A camel version of Lisa (from Homer's CO-inspired visions) wishes viewers a Merry Christmas.
[edit] Trivia
- The episode is based on an event that happened to writer Tim Long in elementary school. He was trapped in Exeter Public School, in Exeter, Ontario, Canada.[citation needed]
- Ned referencing Homer's old snow plow seems like an in-joke to the fact many plot points (the Simpsons' pool from "Bart of Darkness", for example) disappear and are never discussed again. However, at the end of Mr. Plow, Homer was put out of business due to an unseasonably warm winter and the Repot Depot towed Homer's plow away because he didn't make payments on it. This is why Homer doesn't have it in this episode (he does, however, have the jacket, according to the end of "Mr. Plow" and a short scene in season 11's Days of Wine and D'oh'ses, even though the jacket wasn't prominently featured between the time that Mr. Plow aired and the time this episode aired).
- In 22 Short Films About Springfield, Sideshow Mel says that his bone got stuck to his hair as he was trying to get chewing gum out of it, but in this episode he takes it off easily and uses it as a weapon.
[edit] Cultural references
- The episode title is a reference to Smilla's Sense of Snow, a book by Peter Høeg.
- The circus "Cirque du Puree" is a parody of Cirque du Soleil.
- The movie The Christmas That Almost Wasn't, But Then Was is a parody of Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, which is considered one of the worst movies ever, and possibly the worst holiday movie ever. Skinner says the film is about "a Grinchy character who tries to steal Christmas", which gets the children excited as they think he is referring to How the Grinch Stole Christmas!.
- Other people note this film is much more similar to the 1934 film Babes in Toyland.
- When the kids ride on the school bus that is swerving on the ice, Bing Crosby's version of "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" plays.
- Bart refers to an episode of The Itchy & Scratchy Show where "they finally kiss", parodying a much-anticipated incident in The X-Files between Fox Mulder and Dana Scully which finally occurred (for American viewers) five months after this episode's broadcast, in May 2001. This line was later referenced by Comic Book Guy in Lisa's level in the video game The Simpsons Hit & Run.
- Bart tortures Principal Skinner by poking him with a stick and shouting at him in Vietnamese, reminiscent of the way the soldiers were treated in Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter. In Vietnamese, đi đi mau means "go fast". It should also be noted that Skinner is a Vietnam veteran (despite that he went by a different name in The Principal and the Pauper).
- Homer claims he wrote Bad Company's song "Feel Like Makin' Love" as a tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Al-Fayed, who died four years before.
- Bart Simpsons's PA announcement at the school is similar to all the PA announcements on M*A*S*H.
[edit] External links
| The Simpsons Portal |
- "Skinner's Sense of Snow" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
- "Skinner's Sense of Snow" at the Internet Movie Databasees:Skinner's Sense of Snow
