"Eight Misbehavin" is the seventh episode of the
eleventh season of the American animated television series ''
The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is a Satire (film and television), satirical depiction of American life ...
''. It originally aired on the
Fox network
Fox Broadcasting Company, LLC (commonly known as Fox; stylized in all caps) is an American commercial broadcast television network serving as the flagship property of Fox Corporation and operated through Fox Entertainment. Fox is based at Fo ...
in the United States on November 21, 1999. In the episode, after
Manjula gives birth to octuplets that were the result of fertility drugs, she and
Apu unintentionally allow a zookeeper to exploit their babies in exchange for help raising them.
Reception of the episode from television critics has been mixed.
Plot
The family visits Shøp, a parody of
IKEA
IKEA ( , ) is a Multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in Sweden that designs and sells , household goods, and various related services.
IKEA is owned and operated by a series of not-for-profit an ...
, and run into
Apu and
Manjula. Manjula is entranced by
Maggie
Maggie or Maggy is a common short form of the name Magdalena, Magnolia, Margaret, or Marigold.
People Maggie
* Maggie Adamson, Scottish musician
* Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock (born 1968), British scientist
* Maggie Alderson (born 1959), ...
and the couple decide to have a baby. With the help of
fertility drugs, Manjula gives birth to octuplets. This makes headlines across
Springfield, with local companies giving the Nahasapeemapetilons free products. However, when nonuplets are born to a family in
Shelbyville, the gifts are revoked. Apu and Manjula are soon exhausted, raising eight children at once.
The owner of Springfield Zoo, Larry Kidkill, offers to help if the parents sign a contract permitting him to display the children. They reluctantly agree, but discover that he is going to use their children in a show called "Octopia" several times a day. Apu wants to liberate them, but Kidkill will not allow him to break the contract, and
Chief Wiggum refuses to help having been bribed by Kidkill with free peanuts. Apu and
Homer
Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...
sneak into the zoo at night and steal the babies back.
They rush the octuplets to the Simpson household but Kidkill tracks them down. Homer makes a deal with Kidkill: he will perform instead of the octuplets. He rides a
tricycle
A tricycle, sometimes abbreviated to trike, is a Human-powered transport, human-powered (or gasoline or electric motor powered or assisted, or gravity powered) Three-wheeler, three-wheeled vehicle.
Some tricycles, such as cycle rickshaws (for pa ...
with
Butch Patrick on his shoulders, both dressed as
Eddie Munster, among venomous
cobras. Onstage, Homer and Patrick are mercilessly attacked by cobras and by a
mongoose
A mongoose is a small terrestrial carnivorous mammal belonging to the family Herpestidae. This family has two subfamilies, the Herpestinae and the Mungotinae. The Herpestinae comprises 23 living species that are native to southern Europe, A ...
put in to contain them.
Production and themes

"Eight Misbehavin' was written by
Matt Selman and directed by
Steven Dean Moore
Steven Dean Moore is an American animation director. His credits include 65 episodes of the animated television series ''The Simpsons'' and several episodes of the Nickelodeon series ''Rugrats'' (1991–2004). Moore was also one of four sequence ...
as part of the eleventh season of ''The Simpsons'' (1999–2000).
Guest starring in the episode were
Jan Hooks
Janet Vivian Hooks (April 23, 1957 – October 9, 2014) was an American actress and comedian. She was best known for her tenure on the NBC sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'', where she was a repertory player from 1986 to 1991. After le ...
(as Manjula),
Garry Marshall
Garry Kent Marshall (November 13, 1934 – July 19, 2016) was an American screenwriter, director, producer and actor. Marshall began his career in the 1960s as a writer for ''The Lucy Show'' and ''The Dick Van Dyke Show'' until he developed the T ...
(as Larry Kidkill), and
Butch Patrick (as himself).
[ According to Jonathan Gray in his 2006 book ''Watching with The Simpsons: Television, Parody, and Intertextuality'', the episode makes fun of the "conflation of real time and occasional predilection for time jumps" often seen in sitcoms.] He further noted that in "Eight Misbehavin", "in order to fit a character's pregnancy into one episode, we skip nine months." Gray wrote in his book that "Here, we are treated to a parody not only of how awkwardly time jumps are proposed, but also of how ultimately irrelevant any sitcom time is — nothing really changes, after all — and finally, of the sort of plots that traditionally fill sitcom time." The title "Eight Misbehavin' is a reference to the song Ain't Misbehavin', by Fats Waller
Thomas Wright "Fats" Waller (May 21, 1904 – December 15, 1943) was an American jazz pianist, organist, composer, and singer. His innovations in the Harlem stride style laid much of the basis for modern jazz piano. A widely popular star ...
.
Cultural references
Several references to popular culture are featured in the episode. The episode's plot is loosely based on the life of the Dionne quintuplets. The store Shøp is a parody of the Swedish furniture business IKEA
IKEA ( , ) is a Multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in Sweden that designs and sells , household goods, and various related services.
IKEA is owned and operated by a series of not-for-profit an ...
, and the name is a reference to the similar business STØR. The songs played during "Octopia" are "Drop a Beat" by Moby
Richard Melville Hall (September 11, 1965), known professionally as Moby, is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, disc jockey, and animal rights activist. He has sold 20 million records worldwide. AllMusic considers him to be "amo ...
, " Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1985 as a merger of local bands L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose. When they signed to Geffen Records in 1986, the band's "classic" line-up consisted of vocalist Axl R ...
, '' Ride of the Valkyries'' by Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...
and " R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A." by John Mellencamp
John J. Mellencamp (born October 7, 1951), previously known as Johnny Cougar, John Cougar, and John Cougar Mellencamp, is an American singer-songwriter. He is known for his brand of heartland rock, which emphasizes traditional instrumentation ...
. Homer's act is set to the song " Danger Zone" by Kenny Loggins
Kenneth Clark "Kenny" Loggins (born January 7, 1948) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. His early songs were recorded with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in 1970, which led to seven albums recorded with Jim Messina (musician), Jim Mess ...
. In the octuplets room there is a picture of the character Babar the Elephant
Babar the Elephant ( , , ) is an elephant character named Babar who first appeared in 1931 in the French children's book ''Histoire de Babar'' by Jean de Brunhoff.
The book is based on a tale that Brunhoff's wife, Cécile, had invented for ...
dressed as former Prime Minister of India
The prime minister of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the head of government of the Republic of India. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and his chosen Union Council of Ministers, Council of Ministers, despite the president of ...
Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru (14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat, and statesman who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20th century. Nehru was a pr ...
.
Release and legacy
"Eight Misbehavin' originally aired on the Fox network
Fox Broadcasting Company, LLC (commonly known as Fox; stylized in all caps) is an American commercial broadcast television network serving as the flagship property of Fox Corporation and operated through Fox Entertainment. Fox is based at Fo ...
in the United States on November 21, 1999. On October 7, 2008, it was released on DVD as part of the box set ''The Simpsons – The Complete Eleventh Season''. Staff members Mike Scully, George Meyer, Matt Selman, Julia Thacker, and Steven Dean Moore participated in the DVD audio commentary
An audio commentary is an additional audio track, usually digital, consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with a video. Commentaries can be serious or entertaining in nature, and can add informatio ...
for the episode, as well as guest voice Garry Marshall. Deleted scenes and concept drawings from the episode were also included on the box set.
The episode has received mixed reviews from critics.
While reviewing the eleventh season of ''The Simpsons'', DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson commented that "With such a silly concept, he episodeprobably should flop. However, it actually works pretty well. The best moments come from those that feature the kids at the zoo, but a mix of other amusing scenes emerge. Though the show often threatens to falter, it usually succeeds."
Nancy Basile of About.com
Dotdash Meredith (formerly The Mining Company, About.com and Dotdash) is an American digital media company based in New York City. The company publishes online articles and videos about various subjects across categories including health, hom ...
, on the other hand, listed the episode as one of the worst episodes of the season—the episodes that "made me cringe because they included blatant gimmicks and outlandish plots".
The episode has become study material for sociology courses at University of California Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkeley ...
, where it is used to figure out what it is "trying to tell audiences about aspects primarily of American society, and, to a lesser extent, about other societies."
Homer's quote "Kids are the best, Apu. You can teach them to hate the things you hate. And they practically raise themselves, what with the Internet and all", entered ''The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations'' in August 2007.
References
External links
*
*
{{The Simpsons episodes, 11
The Simpsons season 11 episodes
1999 American television episodes
Television episodes written by Matt Selman
Television episodes directed by Steven Dean Moore