The Italian Bob

Infobox Simpsons episode
episode_name = The Italian Bob
episode_no = 364
prod_code = HABF02
airdate = December 11, 2005
writer = John Frink
director = Mark Kirkland
blackboard =
couch_gag = A pair of cartoon hands deal out a royal flush, consisting of the jack of diamonds (Bart), the queen of diamonds (Marge), the king of diamonds (Homer), the ace of diamonds (Lisa), and the joker (Maggie)
guest_star = Maria Grazia Cucinotta as Francesca and
Kelsey Grammer as Sideshow Bob


image_caption = Sideshow Bob and his wife Francesca.
season = 17

"The Italian Bob" is the eighth episode of "The Simpsons'" seventeenth season. It first aired on December 11, 2005 in U.S.A. and March 14, 2007 in Italy. This episode is the ninth appearance of Sideshow Bob. 10.4 million tuned into this episode.

Plot

After Mr. Burns gets teased about his old car by the kids at Springfield Elementary, he sends Homer to pick up a brand new "Lamborgotti Fasterossa" car in Italy. The rest of his family goes along with him and they fly over on Alitalia. After they pick up the car, they have a great time touring the country. During the trip, Homer and Bart manifest limited knowledge of the history of Italy and the Italian language. After a huge wheel of Mortadella lands on their car, they slowly push it into a small Tuscan village nearby called Salsiccia, which means sausage in the Italian language. When they get there, they ask an elderly woman for help, and she tells them that the mayor speaks English. The Simpsons find out the mayor is none other than Sideshow Bob. They are shocked to find him there, and he feels the same way. Bob explains to them that after he attempted to kill Bart, he decided to get a fresh start elsewhere by settling on his new destination of Italy. After a rough start, the natives warm up to him after he helped them crush grapes into wine (using his enormous feet). After that, they elected him mayor of their tiny village. Bob no longer has any intention of killing Bart, and it is revealed that he has a wife and son, Francesca and Gino, who know nothing about his past life in America. Bob begs the Simpsons not to tell anyone, and they agree in order to have the car fixed.

The Simpsons enjoy spending time in the village, and they continue to keep Bob's past a secret. However, when Lisa gets intoxicated at a party, she starts to spout off about him being an attempted-murderer. He leads her away from the table, but as she stumbles backwards, she rips off his suit and everyone can see that underneath is his prison uniform. The village finds out the Bob is an attempted killer, and they sack him as Mayor. The Simpsons take off in the fixed car, and Bob swears vendetta on them.

When the family flees, Bob follows them on a motorcycle. Homer drives into a ditch and drives onto a Roman aqueduct. When they fall off the end of the aqueduct, the car lands on top of Trajan's Column in Roman Forum. Bob's wife and son meet him, and Francesca tells him that they will kill the Simpsons together as a family.

Meanwhile, the Simpsons are wondering what they should do next, since they are in a foreign country, have no car and no money whatsoever. Lisa spots a bus with a poster advertising Krusty the Klown's performance in "Pagliacci". They meet up with him at the Colosseum, and he puts them in as un-noticed extras. However, Bob, Francesca and Gino find them and corner them on the stage while Krusty, who went through a trap door, flees the stage, allowing Bob to perform the climax of "Vesti la Giubba". Before Bob and his family could finish off the Simpsons, though, Krusty's limo picks them up. Krusty needs them to smuggle an ancient artifact back to America. The Terwilligers walk away, grinning maliciously and plotting revenge.

Cultural references

*The episode title is a reference to the 1969 and 2003 films "The Italian Job".
* Sideshow Bob's prisoner number is HABF02, the production number of this episode.
* Lisa's Canadian sticker on her luggage and comment about Europeans feeling that Americans have made stupid decisions over the last 5 years refer to concerns in the U.S. about anti-Americanism abroad over the policies of the George W. Bush Administration.
*The Lamborgotti Fasterossa is virtually identical to the real-life Lamborghini Gallardo. As a play on the names of Italian exotic cars, the Fasterossa's name is also derived from the Ferrari Testarossa and the manufacturer Bugatti or Maserati. The badge is of a horse (which appears on the Ferrari badge) but is in the stance of the bull on the Lamborghini badge. Also, Sideshow Bob chases the Simpsons with a motorcycle that looks like a Ducati 999.
*The song Lisa chants as the cheeses bounce towards the Fasterossa is to the tune of "Italiano Calypso", a song on "The Seven Hills of Rome".
*As he stomps the grapes, Sideshow Bob sings his own version of These Boots Were Made For Walking, popularized by Nancy Sinatra.
*The 2-year old town drunk sings a bit of Mambo Italiano, first recorded by Rosemary Clooney and later by Dean Martin.
*In the Italian cop's book "I Criminalli Americano", the criminals shown are:
**Snake Jailbird - Invasione Di Casa
**Mayor Quimby - Drink 'o' Drive-o
**Peter Griffin - Plagiarismo
**Stan Smith - Plagiarismo Di Plagiarismo
**Sideshow Bob - Homicidio Attento Multiple
*When Homer struts on the balcony in Salsiccia, Lisa tells him not to act like Mussolini. Homer says he thought he was acting like Donald Trump, the host of the then-popular NBC reality TV show "The Apprentice". Interestingly, John Belushi also parodied the exact same behavior (which is seen in historical footage) from The Cabildo in New Orleans during the "Saturday Night Live" prime-time special from 1977.
*As Krusty reads the libretto of the opera Pagliacci, gets upset of knowing it has 2 acts. The actual opera was requested to be in one act, but the author failed to do it.
*Krusty Sings Aria to the tune of Vesti la giubba from the opera Pagliacci at the Colosseum, but instead of the Italian verse, he sings "No more Rice Krispies! We are out of Rice Krispies." When Krusty's attempt at stand-up comedy fail, he is dropped down a trap door. Sideshow Bob then appears from the trap door opening and concludes with the last stanza from Vesti la giubba.
*As in Pagliacci, the audience is unaware that the action on stage is real.
*In a quote, Lisa compares Bob to Jean Valjean from Victor Hugo's novel Les Misérables, who is an ex-convict who becomes the mayor of a small town and becomes popular among the townspeople.

Awards

* Kelsey Grammer won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for his voice portrayal of Sideshow Bob in this episode. This marks the third time a credited guest star for the show has won an Emmy, the other two being Marcia Wallace and Jackie Mason.
* This episode won the 2007 Writers Guild Awards in the animation category.

External links

* [http://www.thesimpsons.com/episode_guide/1708.htm "The Italian Bob"] at The Simpsons.com