"The Italian Bob" is the eighth episode of the
seventeenth season of the American animated television series ''
The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer Simpson, Homer, Marge ...
''. It first aired on the
Fox network in the United States on December 11, 2005. Serving as a sequel to "
The Great Louse Detective
"The Great Louse Detective" is the sixth episode of the fourteenth season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons''. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on December 15, 2002. In the episode, the Simpson f ...
", it features
Kelsey Grammer in his ninth appearance as
Sideshow Bob and is the first time the Simpsons visit
Italy.
The episode is a reference to the 1969 British caper film ''
The Italian Job
''The Italian Job'' is a 1969 British comedy caper film, written by Troy Kennedy Martin, produced by Michael Deeley, directed by Peter Collinson, and starring Michael Caine. The film's plot centres around Cockney criminal Charlie Croker, re ...
''. Among the locations the Simpsons visit in this episode are
Pisa,
Pompeii,
Tuscany,
Rome and
Venice.
Plot
After
Mr. Burns
Charles Montgomery Plantagenet Schicklgruber "Monty" Burns, usually referred to as Mr. Burns, Monty, or C. Montgomery Burns, is a recurring character and the main antagonist of the animated television series ''The Simpsons'', voiced initially by ...
gets teased about his old car by the kids at
Springfield Elementary School, he sends
Homer to pick up a brand new ''
Lamborg otti Faste rossa'' car (a parody of the
Lamborghini Gallardo) in
Italy. The family flies over on
Alitalia
Alitalia - Società Aerea Italiana S.p.A., operating as Alitalia (), was an Italian airline which was once the flag carrier and largest airline of Italy. The company had its head office in Fiumicino, Metropolitan City of Rome Capital. The ai ...
, and have a great time touring the country, despite Homer and
Bart
Bart is a masculine given name, usually a diminutive of Bartholomew, sometimes of Barton, Bartolomeo, etc.
Bart is a Dutch and Ashkenazi Jewish surname, and derives from the name ''Bartholomäus'', a German form of the biblical name ''Barth ...
's mockery of the culture and
history of Italy.
Lisa Lisa or LISA may refer to:
People
People with the mononym
* Lisa Lisa (born 1967), American actress and lead singer of the Cult Jam
* Lisa (Japanese musician, born 1974), stylized "LISA", Japanese singer and producer
* Lisa Komine (born 1978), ...
tries to pass the family off as
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source o ...
to avoid potential ridicule from Europeans who believe Americans make stupid choices, though this backfires when Homer brings in an American flag to smooch off the other passengers. After one huge food wheel made of
mortadella
Mortadella () is a large Italian sausage or luncheon meat ('' salume'' ) made of finely hashed or ground heat-cured pork, which incorporates at least 15% small cubes of pork fat (principally the hard fat from the neck of the pig). It is tradi ...
lands on their car and crush the hood, they slowly push it into a small (fictional)
Tuscan village nearby called Salsiccia (
sausage), and are told that the mayor speaks English.
The Simpsons are shocked to find out that the mayor is none other than
Sideshow Bob, who is equally shocked to see them. He explains that after he
last attempted to kill Bart, he wanted a new life away from Springfield. Bob decided to get a fresh start elsewhere by using a knife and globe to "randomly" settle on a new destination, eventually choosing Italy (but only after passing over
Orlando,
North Korea,
Shelbyville and, ironically, "Bartovia"). After a rough start, the Italians warmed up to him when he helped them crush their
grapes into
wine using his enormous feet. After that, they elected him as mayor of their tiny village. As a result, Bob has resisted all intentions of killing Bart, and he reveals that he has a family. He introduces them to his wife,
Francesca
Francesca is an Italian female given name, derived from the Latin male name ''Franciscus'' meaning 'the Frenchman' It is widely used in most Romance languages, including Italian, French and Catalan, and place of origin is Italy. It is derived f ...
and his son,
Gino. They know nothing about his past life in America, and Bob begs the Simpsons not to tell anyone in order to have the car fixed, which they agree to.
One month later, Bob hosts a farewell party in the village for the Simpson family. However, that goes awry when Lisa gets drunk on
wine and 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 to reveal his prison uniform. The village finds out that Bob is a robber and attempted killer, and they sack him as Mayor. Bob is so angry at this that he swears a murderous
vendetta
Vendetta may refer to:
* Feud or vendetta, a long-running argument or fight
Film
* ''Vendetta'' (1919 film), a film featuring Harry Liedtke
* ''Vendetta'' (1950 film), an American drama produced by Howard Hughes
* ''Vendetta'' (1986 film), an ...
on not just Bart, but ''all'' of the Simpsons. The family flees in the fixed car, but Bob follows them on a motorcycle (a
Ducati 999
The Ducati 999 is a sport bike made by Ducati from 2003 to 2006. It superseded the Massimo Tamburini designed Ducati 916, Ducati 996 and Ducati 998 range of superbikes. This motorcycle enjoyed great success in World Superbike, and was raced i ...
). This leads into a high-speed chase in a highway until Homer drives into a ditch and onto a Roman aqueduct, eventually landing on top of
Trajan's Column in the
Roman Forum. Bob's wife and son catch up with him, and Bob, fearing her disappointment, tries promising to give up his new vendetta. Francesca professes her love and loyalty to Bob and offers to help him take revenge ''as a family''.
Meanwhile, the Simpsons are wondering what they should do next, since they are in a foreign country with no car and no money whatsoever. Lisa spots a bus with a poster advertising
Krusty the Clown
Herschel Shmoikel Pinchas Yerucham Krustofsky (; ) better known by his stage name Krusty the Clown (sometimes spelled as Krusty the Klown), is a recurring character on the animated television series ''The Simpsons''. He is voiced by Dan Caste ...
's performance in the opera ''
Pagliacci''. They meet up with him at the
Colosseum in Rome, and he puts them in as unnoticed extras. However, Bob, Francesca, and Gino find them and corner them on the stage while Krusty flees the stage through a trap door. Lisa warns the audience that the Terwilligers are about to actually kill her and the family, but Bob tricks the audience by performing the climax of ''
Vesti la giubba
"" (, "Put on the costume", often referred to as "On With the Motley", from the original 1893 translation by Frederic Edward Weatherly) is a tenor aria from Ruggero Leoncavallo's 1892 opera ''Pagliacci''. "" is sung at the conclusion of the fir ...
''. Before Bob and his family can finish off the Simpsons though, Krusty's
limousine picks them up; Krusty needs them to smuggle an ancient artefact back to America. The Terwilligers are disappointed at first, but then walk away
plotting revenge together, with Gino chasing a
butterfly
Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprises ...
and Bob grinning maliciously with Francesca.
Reception
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
Marcia Karen Wallace (November 1, 1942 – October 25, 2013) was an American actress and comedian, primarily known for her roles in television situation comedies. She is best known for her roles as receptionist Carol Kester on the 1970s sitc ...
and
Jackie Mason
Jackie Mason (born Yacov Moshe Maza; yi, יעקב משה מזא; June 9, 1928 – July 24, 2021) was an American stand-up comedian and actor.
His 1986 one-man show ''The World According to Me!'' won a Special Tony Award, an Outer Critics Circ ...
although Wallace and Mason both won theirs as a joint win with the rest of the main cast the first time the category was awarded in 1992.
John Frink won the
Writers Guild of America Award for Outstanding Writing in Animation at the
59th Writers Guild of America Awards for his script to this episode.
In 2009,
IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa dist ...
's Robert Canning placed "The Italian Bob" last on his list of the "Top 10 Sideshow Bob Episodes" (at that time, ten episodes revolving around the character had aired). Canning wrote that the episode "falls lowest in the ranking for a few reasons, but the biggest of these is the fact that Bob had no intention of killing Bart. Plus we're in Italy. Plus Bob is married and has a son. All the things we love about a Sideshow Bob episode—the vengeance, the familiar settings and characters, the elaborate scheming—were missing from this half-hour. Without it, Bob wasn't nearly as entertaining, and the episode didn't result in a whole lot of laughs."
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Italian Bob, The
The Simpsons (season 17) episodes
2005 American television episodes
Television episodes set in Pisa
Tuscany in fiction
Television episodes set in Rome
Television episodes set in Venice
Television episodes about vacationing
Television episodes about murder
Television episodes about revenge