Margical History Tour
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"Margical History Tour" is the eleventh episode of The Simpsons' fifteenth season. The episode was first broadcast on February 8, 2004. This is one of several Simpsons episodes that features mini-stories.
Contents
Plot
Marge takes Bart, Lisa, and Milhouse 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 a gluttinous slob who stuffs his face while singing, "I'm Henery the Eighth, I am." When his wife, Queen Margerine of Aragon (Marge), tells him to stop singing, Henry wipes his face with Magna Carta and gripes that Margerine has born him only a daughter (Lisa). That night Henry dreams of a son (Bart Simpson) and strangles him, screaming, "Get out of my dreams and into my wife!"
When Anne Boleyn (Lindsay Nagle) promises to produce a son were she his wife, Margerine intervenes and drags Henry to a marriage counselor (Doctor Hibbert). Henry explains that he wants to marry Anne, but can't execute his wife because her father is the King of Spain. The counselor tells him that while his feelings are valid, marriage is hard work. Henry then threatens to behead the terrified counselor, who says, "And who needs that? I say trade in that lemon and get bus-ay!" Henry shouts, "Woo hoo!"
The Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas More (Ned Flanders), objects, "Divorce? Sire, there's no such thing in the Cath-diddly-atholic Church! But it's the only Church we got, so what are you gonna do?" King Henry retorts, "I'll start my own Church... Where divorce will be so easy, more than half of all marriages will end in it!" Sir Thomas responds, "Your Majesty, I work for the Pope and I think a celibate Italian weirdo knows more about marriage than you." The King puts his arm around Sir Thomas' shoulder and says, "I understand and because you stuck to your principles, I'm going to cannon-ize you.". Sir Thomas is then shot out of a cannon from the roof of Hampton Court.
Henry's new Church divorces him from Margerine and marries him to Anne Boleyn. As the ceremony ends, Reverend Lovejoy alters the Sign of the Cross by saying, "In the Name of the Henry, the Hank, and the Holy Harry. Amen."
Nine months later, Anne tearfully apologizes to Henry for having borne him another daughter. Henry promises to love their daughter as much as he loves her now. Seconds later, Anne is beheaded on Tower Hill. Henry marries a total of six times, still fails to produce a male heir, and executes his wives whenever he tires of them.
Finally, Henry is old and sick, lying in his bed with Margerine by his side. He apologizes for having locked her up in a dungeon and asks her to, "forgive an old head chopping fool," and become his Queen again. Margerine accepts tenderly, then violently smothers Henry with a pillow and crows, "See ya in Hell, fat man!"
Milhouse leaves eagerly to start his school report on Henry VIII, only to be tripped by Nelson, who steals his notes.
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, whose chief (Homer) offers them the guidance of his daughter, Sacagawea (Lisa), whose name means, "Little know-it-all who won't shut her maizehole."
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 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. Salieri (Lisa) is resentful of her brother's talents, especially when Mozart wins the award for best composer. At Mozart's flatulence-themed opera, The Musical Fruit, Salieri serves the Emperor (Montgomery Burns) drugged wine. The opera is a success until the foppish audience sees the Emperor asleep and mimics him. Stunned, Mozart declares, "People bored by opera? No way!"
The failure of his opera leads to Mozart's fall from popularity, after which he develops a high fever and becomes deathly ill. At her brother'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 shouts, "Eat my pantaloons", and dies. The next day, Salieri visits the Emperor's court to submit Mozart's Requiem as her own. The Emperor, however, is already focused on Ludwig van Beethoven (Nelson Muntz) and declares all other music obsolete. Crushed, Salieri throws the Requiem away, boards a carriage filled with lunatics, and laughs maniacally as it drives away.
Epilogue
Lisa realizes that Marge's telling of the lives of Mozart and Salieri is clearly based upon the movie Amadeus. She calls the movie completely inaccurate, explaining that Mozart worked hard on his music and that Salieri was a celebrated composer in his own time. Homer recalls that Tom Hulce starred both in Amadeus and in Animal House, and he sings an inaccurate rendition of the Animal House theme over the credits.
The episode ends with a facetious epilogue accompanied by Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik:
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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
Some items seen in the library are Everyone Poops: The Movie, Yu-Gi-Oh! Price Guides, and Itchy & Scratchy books on tape.
The title of the episode is a satire of The Beatles' movie, song, and album Magical Mystery Tour.
When King Henry first appears, he is gorging himself while singing the 1911 music hall song I'm Henery the Eighth, I am. The lyrics, however, are altered to refer to the King's enormous appetite and reputation for gluttony. Henry also wipes his face with Magna Carta, a document which limits the power of the Monarchy and forms the basis of the Constitution of the United Kingdom. During King Henry's dream about his son, a brief snatch of the song, "Greensleeves" can be heard. While in the marriage counselor's office, Henry is reading a magazine called The Yorker, a send-up of The New Yorker, until Margerine reminds him that they've come to talk about their problems. The Sir Thomas More subplot is a satire of Fred Zinnemann's Academy Award-winning film, A Man for All Seasons, starring Paul Scofield as Sir Thomas and Robert Shaw as King Henry. Later, in a dig at Tudor anti-Catholicism, Henry watches a Punch and Judy-style show in which Itchy & Scratchy accuse each other of conducting an illegal Catholic Mass and for refusing to sign the Act of Supremacy. When Henry first notices Jane Seymour, he asks whether she'd like to be, "Queen for a day." This is a reference to Robert De Niro's line in The King of Comedy, "Its better to be king for a night than a schmuck for a lifetime."
As Lisa points out at the end of the episode, the Mozart segment is a satire of Peter Shaffer's stage play Amadeus and Milos Forman's Academy Award-winning film of the same name. During Mozart's first concert, Otto Mann calls out a request for "Sonata in A, K.331". In reality, the K numbering system for Mozart's work was not introduced until 70 years after Mozart's death. Later, Salieri is recommended compared to the three "untalented" Mozarts -- Randy, Jermaine, and Tito from the Jackson Five. Mozart's opera "The Musical Fruit", is a satire of both The Magic Flute, and the children's song, "Beans, Beans, the Musical Fruit." A fragment from the movement Lacrimosa from Mozart's Requiem can be heard while Mozart is dying. When Salieri arrives at the Imperial Palace, the Emperor is listening to Beethoven perform the Ode to Joy from his 9th Symphony on the piano. When the Emperor declares all other music obsolete, Beethoven points at Salieri and "Haw Haws" to the opening of his 5th Symphony.
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