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"Margical History Tour" is the eleventh episode of The Simpsons' fifteenth season. The episode aired on February 8, 2004. This is one of several Simpsons episodes that features mini-stories.
Contents |
Plot
Marge takes Bart, Lisa, and Milhouse go to the library to study. When they go inside, they realize that the library has removed all the books except for the popular ones. Marge makes the best of this situation by telling stories about history.
Henry VIII
King Henry VIII (Homer) is unhappy that his wife, Margerine of Aragon has borne him a daughter, Mary I (Lisa). Unable to execute Margerine because her father is the king of Spain, Henry attempts marriage counseling. Margerine then files for a divorce, forcing Henry to split his kingdom. Wanting a son to inherit the throne, Henry marries Anne Boleyn (Lindsey Naegle); nine months later, Anne tearfully apologizes to Henry for having borne him another daughter, Elizabeth I and is summarily executed. Henry goes through many wives, resulting in more and more daughters. Finally, after many years and executions, Henry is old and sick, lying on his bed, with Margerine by his side. He asks for her forgiveness for having locked her up in a dungeon and asks her to be his queen again. She accepts tenderly and then smothers him to death with his pillow. Elizabeth then becomes queen of England.
After the story, Milhouse leaves eagerly to start his report on Henry VIII, only to be tripped by Nelson, who steals the Milhouse's notes from Marge's story to use for his own report.
Lewis and Clark and Sacagawea
Meriwether Lewis (Lenny) and William Clark (Carl) are assigned to explore the West by President Thomas Jefferson (Mayor Quimby). They meet a tribe of Native Americans led by Homer as the tribal chief, who offers them the guidance of his daughter, Sacagawea (Lisa). Sacagawea gives them many tips on how to survive the land, including how to scare a cougar, but quickly becomes fed up with Lewis and Clark's antics and stupidity. Finally, she leaves them and sets off back home. She encounters a cougar, but before it can attack, Lewis and Clark save her using the advice she gave them. The party arrives at the Pacific Ocean and a heavy downpour begins, prompting Lewis and Clark to name the rain-soaked place Eugene, Oregon. The two explorers reward Sacagawea by creating the Sacagawea dollar which - Marge explains - can be exchanged at the bank for a real dollar.
Mozart and Salieri
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Bart) is a big hit in Vienna, playing sonatas on the grand piano as if he were at a rock concert. Antonio Salieri (Lisa) is resentful of Mozart's good fortune, especially when Mozart wins the best composer award. At Mozart's next opera, Salieri serves the Emperor (Montgomery Burns) wine spiked with a sleeping potion. The opera is a success until the crowd hears the Emperor snoring in the balcony. The failure of his opera leads to Mozart's fall from popularity, after which he develops a high fever and becomes deathly ill. At Mozart's deathbed, Salieri tells him she wanted to ruin his life, not kill him. Mozart confesses that he thought highly of Salieri's work, believing that it would be remembered more than his - but his youthful death ensures he and his music will be immortalized forever. He then dies, but not before saying "Eat my pantaloons." The next day, Salieri visits the Emperor's court to submit her musical work, but the court is already focused on Ludwig van Beethoven (Nelson). Befuddled, Salieri hails a carriage to the mental asylum, gets in, and laughs hysterically as the carriage draws away.
Lisa realizes that Marge's telling of the lives of Mozart and Salieri is not the real version, noting that Mozart and Salieri had better relations in their time, and says that the story is based on the movie Amadeus. Homer says that the person who played Mozart also starred in Animal House, and he sings the theme from that film over the credits.
Epilogue
At the end, there are words that read:
Henry VIII still holds the world turkey-leg-eating record.
Sacagawea went on to great riches posing for butter boxes.
Mozart's burial site is now the most popular gas station in Vienna.
That night, Homer watched 'Animal House' again. He went to work the next day in a toga.
Cultural references
- The title is a take off of the song, Magical Mystery Tour by The Beatles.
- Some items seen in the library are Everyone Poops: The Movie, Yu-Gi-Oh! Price Guides, and Itchy & Scratchy books on tape.
- Henry wipes his mouth with the Magna Carta, an important document in the 1200s. This is not the only time that Homer wipes his mouth with an important document, as he also does so with the sacred parchment at a meeting of the secret Stonecutters society in Homer the Great. In Make Room for Lisa, he licks the Eighth Amendment off the Bill of Rights.
- When Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn are making love, she says "Oh, Henry!" Which is a possible reference to the candy bar, Oh Henry!
- Homer says to Bart in his dream to "get out of my dreams and into my wife", a reference to the song, "Get Outta My Dreams, Get into My Car, which in turn was inspired by a line in the song You're Sixteen.
- Homer sings a variation of "I'm Henery the Eighth, I Am".
- Marge says that one of he good things about Elizabeth I's reign is the fact that it gives various British actresses a chance to play her when they reach a certain age, a reference to the frequent portrayals of Elizabeth in film and television by famous actresses such as Glenda Jackson, Helen Mirren and Judi Dench.
- The music in Bart's opera is in fact Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik with lyrics referring to flatulence. "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" isn't an opera however.
- The three more talented brothers of Lisa are three members from the Jackson Five.
- Nelson's laugh imitates the opening bars from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.
- Reverend Lovejoy says "In the name Henry, the Hank and the holy Harry". The latter two are references to cast members Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer.
