QUICK SYNOPSIS

Homer is forced to spy for the IRS after an audit, but when he is asked to retrieve a trillion dollar bill from Mr. Burns, he switches sides and the two flee to Cuba for refuge.

POINTLESS GUEST STAR(S)

None. It’s all Homer all day, baby.

WHY THIS EPISODE SUCKS

Nah, let’s start with the good. Most of the first act is flawless and promising. Ned and Maude Flanders being asleep at midnight on New Year’s Eve. Ned starting his taxes immediately upon seeing the fireworks. Telling his son that taxes pay for trees and sunshine. Hibbert mailing death certificates for holiday-related fatalities (“Heh heh heh heh heh!”). The mob at the post office submitting their taxes at the last minute. Kent Brockman’s accountant scrambling at the 11th hour. And, later, one of my favorite Chief Wiggum jokes of all time: “Be on the lookout for a maroon 1932 Stutz Bearcat.” “Eh, that’s really more of a burgundy.”

Once we get focused on Homer, the plot starts thinning out. Why would Marge trust Homer with doing the taxes, knowing that there was still a giant “to-do” pile beside the couch for three months? Why would the IRS entrust Homer, the biggest idiot this side of Idiot Town, with help apprehending a man who stole one trillion dollars from the government? It gets even worse once Homer arrives at Burns’ mansion. While there are a few good gags (Burns allowing Homer into his home by saying “perhaps I can find something to scald you with”), it runs off the rails pretty fucking quickly. Soon enough, Mr. Burns is trusting a man, whom he thinks is a magazine reporter, with knowledge about where he keeps the stolen $1,000,000,000,000 bill. He and Homer, with Smithers in tow, buddy up to escape the country to Cuba where Fidel Castro steals the money from Burns’ hands. The three of them end up on a raft in the middle of the sea where the episode ends and status quo will assuredly be restored. It’s all very stupid.

What also bugs me about episodes like these is mischaracterization. Never mind Homer, who now serves to be the main plot vehicle in almost every case, but you have Burns, an extraordinarily wealthy man, who hates the very government that helps keep him rich? Who is now so stupid that he doesn’t even realize he’s the one flying an airplane, let alone trusting Homer with sensitive information about a felony? Why isn’t Marge more concerned that her husband is one of the most wanted men in the world? Why does the family think they are the trillionaires now just because Homer embroiled himself in a zany scheme? Everyone is dumb now to the point of inanity.

And don’t expect it to get any better.

IMDb TRIVIA FUNHOUSE!

In one of his many characteristic anachronisms, Mr. Burns thinks that Homer is a reporter for Collier’s magazine, which ceased publication in 1957.
Good to see that Zombie Simpsons can be smart once in a while without shoving the joke explanation down your throat. In Season 17, Homer would probably say that it ceased publication in 1957, to which Mr. Burns would do a Kickflip McTwist or something out of the room.

Originally, Homer was to learn that he was a Native American, and would try to exploit it to not have to pay taxes. The idea had been going well for a few days, but the staff did not actually know whether Native Americans had to pay taxes. When the writers found out that they did, the whole plot had to be scrapped.
Way to go, Ivy League writers. A bunch of smarties in the room couldn’t figure out that American citizens had to pay taxes? Maybe they should write for Family Guy.

Mike Scully’s brother Brian Scully pitched the idea of the trillion-dollar bill, which they accepted, as they were out of ideas.
‘Nuff said, folks. That’s my cue to exit!

FINAL GRADE
C-