The Simpsons/You Only Move Twice

You Only Move Twice
Season 8, Episode 2
Airdate	November 3, 1996
Production Number	3F23
Written by	John Swartzwelder
Directed by	Mike Anderson
← 8x01 Treehouse of Horror VII	8x03 → The Homer They Fall
The Simpsons — Season Eight

You Only Move Twice is the second episode of the eighth season of The Simpsons and is the one-hundred and fifty-fifth episode overall. Homer gets a new job with Globex, but little does he know that the company is just a front for the boss's schemes to take over the world, starting with the East Coast.

Special Guest Voices: A. Brooks (Hank Scorpio)

Also Starring: Pamela Hayden (Globex woman, woman in video, Milhouse Van Houten, Milhouse's double, Hank's secretary), Tress MacNeille (Agnes Skinner, Remedial Teacher)

Plot Overview

While walking to his job at the power plant, Mr. Smithers is accosted by a woman in a limosene offering him a job with Globex, an upstart company looking for experienced workers in their nuclear division. He declines their offer, so they move on to the next most senior employee: Homer. He accepts their offer, even though it will require them moving to Cypress Creek upstate. Marge complains because she doesn't want leave the rut she's dug for herself in Springfield. Homer manages to convince his family to move using a video tour of the city which is clearly nicer than Springfield.

They put the house up for sale, but it's falling apart and the only people interested are Otto, who can't afford it, and Apu who just comes by to mock them. In the end, they decide to nail a plank reading "Abandoned" over the door and leave town for their fancy new home. As soon as they get inside, the president of the company, Hank Scorpio, is at the door with a giant fruit basket and a personal welcome. Clearly, things in Cypress Creek are very different from how they work in Springfield. The next day, Homer leaves for his first day at work and their high-tech home cleans itself, leaving Marge with absolutely nothing to do. He's led to a room with three technicians who clearly know more than he does about nuclear power that he attempts to suitably motivate.

At school, Bart quickly becomes popular, but loses the respect he gained with armpit noises after revealing that he can't read or write cursive or do multiplication or division. The teacher of the class winds up putting him in a remedial class. Meanwhile, Marge turns to drinking wine and Lisa attempts to enjoy the wilderness. After work, Homer buys Tom Landry's hat from a sports memorabilia store to help motivate his crew but finds that they're exhausted from pushing themselves. He decides that they need hammocks. When he goes to Scorpio, several businesses are suggested before Scorpio walks off briefly to threaten the UN and hold the world ransom with his doomsday weapon. It turns out that Hank Scorpio is a notorious supervillain and terrorist.

Sometime later, while looking for sugar, Homer stumbles into one of the restricted areas of GlobeX, which contains the aforementioned "doomsday weapon." While in the chamber, Homer apparently dooms France and knocks out a James Bond knockoff who nearly escapes from Scorpio's slow death by lasers. Meanwhile, Lisa is allergic to everything in the woods and the family collectively decides that they want to go back to Springfield.

Begrudgedly, Homer goes to Globex and tells Scorpio that he's going back to Springfield with his family. But while he's doing this, Hank's doomsday office is under siege by the American military. Scorpio recommends that Homer do what's best for the family and goes back to fighting off soldiers with a flamethrower and grenades.

Back in Springfield, they find Otto and his girlfriend squatting in their home and a newspaper reading "Supervillain Seizes East Coast," with Scorpio's picture on it. After kicking out Otto, Homer gets a telegram from Scorpio, thanking him for his involvement with "Project Arcturos" and the Denver Broncos in his yard. But Homer is less than excited about owning the Broncos.

Notes

Title Sequence

• Blackboard: "I did not learn everything I need to know in kindergarten." The final line cuts off at "kinde."
• Couch Gag: The family parachutes down to their couch, but Homer's didn't open. He slams into the ground in front of the TV.

Music

Scorpio Theme Lyrics

Scorpio!
He'll sting you with his dreams of power and wealth.
Beware of Scorpio!
His twisted twin obsessions are his plot to rule the world
And his employees' health.
He'll welcome you into his lair,
Like the nobleman welcomes his guest.
With free dental care and a stock plan that helps you invest!
But beware of his generous pensions,
Plus three weeks paid vacation each year,
And on Fridays the lunchroom serves hot dogs and burgers and beer!
He loves German beer!

Trivia

The Show

• Dated Joke: On the sign for the school, the web address "www.studynet.edu" can be seen. This is a joke about how the school is so advanced that it even has its own website, a rarity in 1996 when the episode aired. Of course, since then, most schools have their own websites. Josh Weinstein believes this is the most dated joke in the show.
• Lifelong Dreams: For those keeping score, this episode has Homer's tenth lifelong or boyhood dream. The previous nine were:
  • Manage a beautiful country singer
  • Eat the world's biggest hoagie
  • Live in the woods and keep a journal of his thoughts
  • Be a monorail conductor
  • Run out on a baseball field during a game
  • Be a blackjack dealer
  • Appear on The Gong Show
  • Work in a bowling alley
  • Gain weight so he can work at home
• Springfield: Although it's clear that Springfield does not exist in a location relative to the actual United States, this episode implies several things about where it would be if it were relative. It is clear that the state is not on the East Coast because of Scorpio's conquering of it, and that the state must be longer vertically than it is wide, like Illinois or Indiana. Also apparent is that Springfield is in the lower part of the state, rather than the higher.

Behind the Scenes

• Story Production: This episode's story came from Greg Daniels and is meant to consist of three broad concepts. The first was of the family moving out of Springfield (which writers hoped to fool audiences into believing it would be permanent), the second was to give Homer a modern boss in a Silicon Valley style city to contrast against the older style of Mr. Burns (like Steve Jobs vs. Rockefeller) and the fourth was to make the new boss a great guy.
• Slip-Up: In the animatic phase of production, animators forgot to include Santa's Little Helper and Snowball II, forcing them to go back and add them even though neither factored into the story.
• Creative Direction: In the scene where Scorpio and Homer and doing the trust exercise, director Mike B. Anderson was forced to make some odd changes to make the shots he wanted work. Because he wanted Homer and Scorpio to talk with no-one else in frame, the three techs were animated so that they had their heads down on the table to keep their heads out of the shot. When Hank says that someone has eaten his lunch, they can be seen leaning back to a normal position.
• Reception: This episode has been considered to be one of the best guest star run episodes in the series. IGN declared it the best of the eighth season and named Albert Brooks as the best guest star of the series.

Allusions and References

• Barney and Friends: Bart's class at his new school sings a song resembling "I Love You, You Love Me," the signature song of the children's TV series aired on PBS.
• Robert Fulghum: His famous essay "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten" was the basis of the chalkboard gag, where Bart writes, "I did not learn everything I need to know in kindergarten."
• James Bond
  • Casino Royale: A woman killing a man (modeled after Norman Schwarzkopf) with her thighs is like Mrs. Goodthighs doing the same to a high-ranking army general in the 1967 movie.
  • Goldfinger: "Bont" being strapped to a table and an industrial laser beam slowly advancing toward his crotch area to kill him is the same as from the 1964 movie. Bont's Scottish accent is akin to Sean Connery. Also, the excessive violence used to kill others is referenced, such as four armed men surrounding the prone Bont with high-powered assault rifles and shooting him repeatedly, presumably continuing for several minutes, long the fatal wounds were inflicted. Also, the song "Scorpio" played over the closing credits mirrors the closing theme to Goldfinger by Shirley Bassey.
  • You Only Live Twice: The episode title is a play on the 1967 movie. Much of its plot – a supervillian trying to provoke World War III between world superpowers – is used in this episode.
• National Football League:
  • Dallas Cowboys: Homer says that it's been his lifelong dream to own the Dallas Cowboys. The Dallas Cowboys are an American football franchise based out of Dallas, Texas. The team was founded in 1960 and played their first Super Bowl in 1971. They won their first Super Bowl in 1972. Also mentioned in this episode is coach Tom Landry, who wore the hat Homer bought as a trademark and helped turn the Cowboys into a major presence on the field.
  • Denver Broncos: Much to Homer's disappointment, Scorpio gives him ownership of the Denver Broncos. The Broncos, have the dubious honor of being one of three teams at the time that had lost four Super Bowls, one of which (their first, Super Bowl XII) was lost to the Cowboys.
• Secretariat: At the sport memorabilia store, Bart comments in awe of the baseball made out of Secretariat, the race horse that won the 1973 Triple Crown and was considered to be one of the greatest race horses of all time.

Quotes

• Bart: So, what are you in for?
  Gordy: I moved here from Canada, and they think I'm slow, eh?
  Dot: I fell off the jungle gym and when I woke up I was in here.
  Warren: I start fires.

• Hank: Good afternoon, gentlemen. This is Scorpio. I have the Doomsday Device. You have 72 hours to deliver the gold or you'll face the consequences. And to prove I'm not bluffing, watch this.
  [An explosion occurs near the UN building]
  Man 1: Oh, my God, the 59th Street bridge!
  Man 2: Maybe it just collapsed on its own.
  Man 1: We can't take that chance.
  Man 2: You always say that. I want to take a chance!