Tennis the Menace

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The Simpsons episode
"Tennis the Menace"
Image:Tennis the Menace.JPG
Episode no.	260
Prod. code	CABF07
Orig. airdate	February 11, 2001
Show runner(s)	Mike Scully
Written by	Ian Maxtone-Graham
Directed by	Jen Kamerman
Chalkboard	"I will not publish the principal's credit report"
Couch gag	The living room floor is frozen over. The Simpsons ice skate to the couch. When Homer sits down, his side falls right through.
Guest star(s)	Andre Agassi as himself Pete Sampras as himself Venus and Serena Williams as themselves
Season 12 November 1 2000 – May 20 2001
Treehouse of Horror XI A Tale of Two Springfields Insane Clown Poppy Lisa the Tree Hugger Homer vs. Dignity The Computer Wore Menace Shoes The Great Money Caper Skinner's Sense of Snow HOMR Pokey Mom Worst Episode Ever Tennis the Menace Day of the Jackanapes New Kids on the Blecch Hungry, Hungry Homer Bye Bye Nerdie Simpson Safari Trilogy of Error I'm Goin' to Praiseland Children of a Lesser Clod Simpsons Tall Tales
List of all The Simpsons episodes
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"Tennis the Menace" is the twelfth episode of the twelfth season of The Simpsons which originally aired February 11, 2001. It was the second episode of The Simpsons to be made with digital coloring, with a complete transition to digital animation made in Season 14.

1 Plot
2 Continuity
3 Cultural references
4 External links

[edit] Plot

The Springfield Retirement Castle holds a talent show, which the Simpsons attend. Grampa wins the show after doing a bad version of "What's New, Pussycat?" His prize is a free autopsy, so the Simpsons go to a funeral salesman. Instead, Homer realizes that a certain kind of cemetery monument uses the same amount of cement as a tennis court, and so Homer decides to get the house a tennis court, even though they can hardly afford their own house. The court is very popular with Springfield's residents, and yet, these residents mock Homer and Marge for losing all the time due to Homer's absent-mindedness. (Lou calls them the "Los Angeles Clippers of backyard tennis"). Marge gets even by entering Krusty's celebrity tournament, the "Krusty Kharity Klassic", with Bart as her new partner. Homer is outraged that he was abandoned for a ten year old. He receives a nightmare where Bart is married to Marge and he is a wall trophy, after being beheaded at a guillotine factory. He gets even by entering the tournament with Lisa as his partner. Marge and Bart antagonise Homer and Lisa, who play it cool (well, Homer panics at the thought of losing).

The tournament takes place and in the stands are tennis pros Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Venus Williams and Serena Williams. At the tournament, Homer dumps Lisa with Venus Williams. In response, Marge replaces Bart with Serena Williams as her partner. Ultimately, Serena and Venus replace Marge and Homer with Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, respectively. This forces the family to go back to the bench and resume their normal places in the family, agreeing that it is better to watch things than to do things.

[edit] Continuity

In this episode, Homer thinks tennis is similar to foxy boxing (or as Homer calls it, "the sport where the chicks wail on each other"). Homer mentioned foxy boxing before (and it was implied that he knew the difference between tennis and foxy boxing) in the season six episode Lisa on Ice, when he tells Lisa that "...if the Bible has taught us anything -- and it hasn't -- is that girls should stick to girl sports, such as hot oil wrestling, foxy boxing, and such and such..."
In the episode Funeral For A Fiend, Homer says Bart has a fear of being locked in caskets, as shown in eariler in this episode.

[edit] Cultural references

The title is a play on the comic strip Dennis the Menace.
The episode is notable partly for the competition that emerges between Homer and Bart over Marge, and Lisa indeed makes a reference to Oedipus.
When Andre Agassi introduces himself at the tennis match, Homer comments "The wrestler?," confusing him for professional wrestler André the Giant.
Grandpa sings the "What's New Pussycat?" theme by Tom Jones at the talent show, replacing "whoa whoa whoa" with "ow ow ow," having injured himself attempting to dance.