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"Much Apu About Nothing" is the 23rd episode of The Simpsons' seventh season. The title is a spoof on the William Shakespeare play Much Ado About Nothing.

Synopsis

Template:Spoiler On an ordinary day, a bear strolls onto Evergreen Terrace. Ned Flanders, scared on seeing the grizzly visitor, slams his car into a tree, and runs home terrified. With Maude too panicky to open the door, Ned panics and jumps inside through the window, while the bear calmly watches, without having moved since it saw Ned first. Kent Brockman, in a helicopter reports about the huge bear-like animal ("most likely a bear"). While his family watches the bear playfully maul their mailbox, Homer prefers to watch it on TV, feeling sorry for the "Impson" family. He feels there's nothing to fear as long as they have beer, but, on opening the fridge, he finds there's no beer and freaks out. He sneaks out through a window and climbs onto the power line attached to the house. The power line snaps and he gets swung around. Bart grabs onto his pants, causing Homer to lose them and hit the ground near the bear.

The bear is subdued by the police, but not before they tranquilize and capture Barney Gumble (though he seems to enjoy it). Homer rants about these "constant bear attacks", even though this is the very first bear Ned has seen in his thirty odd years of living on that street. Homer then leads an angry mob and demands that Mayor Quimby do something about this. The mob make their way to the city hall chanting, "WE'RE HERE, WE'RE QUEER! WE DON'T WANT ANY MORE BEARS"! Soon, the Bear Patrol is created, a useless organization which makes use of helicopters, police cars, even a B-2 Spirit. Homer feels happy to know that the Bear Patrol is doing their job, as there are no bears around. Lisa calls it "specious reasoning" and tries to explain, with the help of a rock "that keeps tigers away", that since there are no tigers around, the rock must be working. Homer contemplates this and offers to buy Lisa's tiger-repellant rock, to which Lisa agrees knowing better than to try and explain further.

Homer then gets just as shocked when he saw the bear when he discovers that taxes have been raised five dollars to maintain the Bear Patrol. This warrants yet another visit by the angry mob to the Mayor's office. To calm down the ignorant citizens of Springfield, Mayor Quimby pins the blame for the high taxes on illegal immigrants. He then creates Proposition 24, which will deport all illegal immigrants from Springfield.

At Springfield Elementary, Nelson picks on Uter, the German exchange student, for being an illegal immigrant. Even Principal Skinner refuses to help out poor Uter, much to Lisa's dismay. At home, she tries to talk about the benefits of immigration, and how the Simpson family itself were immigrants, which prompts one of Grampa's stories of how they immigrated to America. But it has no effect on Homer, who still supports Proposition 24.

At the Kwik-E-Mart, Apu tells Homer that he is an illegal immigrant and if Proposition 24 passes, he will be deported, as his visa expired many years earlier. Homer feels sorry, but he tells Apu that we will miss him. The Kwik-E-Mart's business goes down due to the surge of protesters against illegal immigrants. Marge cannot believe that Apu is an illegal immigrant. He narrates of how he graduated from Caltech (Calcutta Technical Institute) and came to Springfield for higher studies, and learned Computer Science from Professor Frink. To pay off his student loans, he joined the Kwik-E-Mart and has stayed in Springfield ever since, despite having paid off his loans.

Marge tells Apu she will vote "no" on Proposition 24, although it clearly will not be enough to help Apu. After discovering Kearney's fake ID, he asks him where he got it. On finding out, Apu goes to Fat Tony to get a false United States citizenship. On Fat Tony's advice, he starts acting American, putting up American flags in the store, wearing a New York Mets jersey (which he subsequently pronounces as the "nie" Mets) and a ten-gallon hat, and speaking in an "American" accent. However, he realizes he disgraced his parents for turning his back on his Indian heritage.

Homer vows that the Simpsons will help him, though three of them are below voting age and he is not a registered voter. Bart advises Apu to marry some American woman and dump her after getting the citizenship. Homer tries to get Apu married to Selma, but she refuses, citing an already long list of surnames she has acquired due to having already married too many men, only to divorce them later.

Lisa, having read the citizenship laws front to back, discovers that Apu will not get deported if he can pass a US citizenship test. Homer agrees to be his tutor to help prepare him before the vote on Proposition 24, much to Apu's delight, though his family is less optimistic. Apu demonstrates excellent knowledge of the United States, but Homer is a terrible tutor and replaces Apu's knowledge with false information and leaves Apu to look over his notes from ninth-grade history. However, he falls asleep. When he wakes he panics, declaring he has forgotten everything Homer had taught him, which Lisa says is excellent news and takes him to the exam. Apu then goes to take the written and oral test. He passes it and becomes an American citizen, i.e., an Indian-American. At a congratulatory party, Homer tells his guests how terrible it would be if immigrants were deported. He inspires them to vote "no" on Proposition 24, but it still passes...with 95%.

Apu is happy to get a letter to report for jury duty, as it affirms his citizenship, and he does what any typical American citizen would do - toss it into the trash can. The Simpsons are happy that everything worked out for the people they care about... However Groundskeeper Willie is deported.

Trivia

• The DVD commentary for this episode reveals that the original title was going to be "The Anti-Immigrant Song" in reference to the Led Zeppelin song, Immigrant Song.
• After graduating from "Caltech", Apu enrolls in the Springfield Heights Institute of Technology, which has a taboo acronym ("SHIT").
• At one point, as Homer and Apu are studying, Bart appears over the map of the USA and asks, "Watcha doing, studying?" They then proceed to tell Bart that they are looking for Springfield on the map. Barts goes, "Hey, we live right there!" and points to the map, but his head is blocking the map so we cannot see where he is pointing. This scene is not shown in syndication.
• There is a scene where young Apu says goodbye to his family, including his future arranged marriage bride, Manjula. This is a foreshadowing, as Apu meets Manjula again for the marriage in The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons in Season 9. This scene is not shown in syndication.
• In The Simpsons: Hit And Run mission, This Little Piggy, Apu wears his American costume from this episode when Krusty wants him to become an American so he can track down a criminal.
• The Bear Patrol plane is a B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber.
• Caltech (California Institute of Technology) is actually an American college, famous in part for playing pranks on other colleges.
• Homer's paycheck, where he complains about the $5 bear tax, also shows a gross pay of $479.60, net pay of $362.19 for 40 hours work, $56.25 for fed withholdings, $36.34 FICA, $10.45 state, and $9.37 municipal tax.

Cultural references

• The episode title is a play on William Shakespeare's comedy Much Ado About Nothing.
• Moe says that the Bears are "smarter than the aver-age bear" and "they swiped my pic-a-nic basket" in an homage to the Yogi Bear cartoons.
• The "I Want You ... Out!" poster is similar to the famous Uncle Sam army recruitment poster.
• Apu's parents in the flashback scene resemble the parents of the character for which he was named, the eponymous protagonist of Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy.

Goofs

• When Ned Flanders crashes into a tree, the car's airbag deploys. But Ned says in a later episode that "the church opposes them for some reason" (though this may not be a goof as Ned could have found this out and promptly removed them).

• The episode incorrectly addresses the procedure for gaining citizenship in the United States. If Apu is out of status and illegal, he would not be eligible for citizenship until he had first gained lawful permanent resident (green card) status. Thus, Apu would have to first gain a green card and live as a lawful permanent resident for five years before applying for citizenship. With green card status, Apu would not be considered an illegal immigrant, and thus would not have to worry about deporation, but the episodes skips this notion and jumps straight from illegal status to citizen status.

• Homer stole a 47-star US flag from the library - however this flag never existed, as New Mexico and Arizona's stars were added to the US flag at the same time on July 4, 1912, so no 47-star flags were made in the brief period after New Mexico became a state but before Arizona did.

Quotes

• Homer: (after Prop 24 passes) When will people learn? Democracy doesn't work!
• Homer: (chanting) "Down with taxes! Down with taxes!"
  Helen: "Will someone please think of the children?"
• Homer: (pointing to the US flag) Please identify this object.
  Apu: It appears to be the flag that disappeared from the public library last year.
  Homer: Correct. Now, we all know the thirteen strips are for good luck, but why does the American flag have precisely forty-seven stars?
  Apu: Because this particular flag is ridiculously out of date! The library must have purchased it during the brief period in 1912 after New Mexico became a state but before Arizona did!
  Homer: Uh, partial credit.
• Moe: And these ones are smarter than the av-er-age bear. They swiped my pic-in-ic basket!
  Helen Lovejoy: Think of the children!
  Mayor Quimby: Very well. I promise swift and decisive action against these hibernating hucksters! (Everyone leaves, reassured, while Quimby helps himself to the pic-in-ic basket)
• Homer: Oh my god, I got so swept up in the scapegoating and fun of Proposition 24 I never stopped to think it might affect somebody I might care about. (Pause) You know what Apu? I am really, really going to miss you. (Nails up an Uncle Sam sign that says "I Want You Out!" and walks away whistling)
• Apu: Executive, Legislative and...Judicial.
  Homer: No, no, and no! I guess we have to start all over with the electrical college.
• Homer: Let the bears pay the bear tax. I pay the Homer tax.
  Lisa: That's the homeowner tax.
  Homer: Well anyway, I'm still outraged!
• Homer: Ah, not a bear in sight. The Bear Patrol must be working like a charm!
  Lisa: That's specious reasoning, Dad.
  Homer: Thank you, honey.
  Lisa: By your logic, I could claim that this rock keeps tigers away!
  Homer: Uh-huh, and how does it work?
  Lisa: It doesn't work.
  Homer: Uh-huh.
  Lisa: It's just a stupid rock.
  Homer: Uh-huh.
  Lisa: But I don't see any tigers around here, do you?
  Homer: (Looks around) Lisa, I'd like to buy your rock.
• Proctor: All right, here's your last question. What was the cause of the Civil War?
  Apu: Actually, there were numerous causes. Aside from the obvious schism between the abolitionists and the anti-abolitionists, there were economic factors, both domestic and inter--
  Proctor: Wait, wait... just say slavery.
  Apu: Slavery it is, sir.
• Chief Wiggum: (arresting the bear, and Barney the drunk) Book 'em Lou. One count of being a bear. And one count of being an accessory to being a bear.
• Moe Szyslak: (immediately accepting Mayor Quimby's scapegoating of the Immigrants) Immigants! I knew it was them! Even when it was the bears, I knew it was them.
• Maude: Oh, Marge... it was horrible! We were trapped in the house all afternoon... and, well... we had to drink toilet water!
  Marge: Well, things were bad everywhere.
• Homer: I'm sick of these constant bear attacks. It's like a freakin' country bear jambaroo around here!
• Selma: (On marrying Apu so he can stay in America) I'd rather eat poison. I'm already Selma Bouvier/Terwilliger/Hutz/McClure/Stu. Don't you think my name's long enough already without Nahumapesa... what's-it's-called slapped on the end of it!?

External links

• "Much Apu About Nothing episode capsule". The Simpsons Archive.
• From NoHomers.net -- a detailed analysis and discussion of this episode.

• The Simpsons episodes, season 7