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"Mommie Beerest" is the seventh episode of The Simpsons' sixteenth season.

Synopsis

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The Simpsons celebrate a brunch at a fancy restaurant to congratulate Homer finally paying off the mortgage. After Bart and Lisa get in a food fight, Homer goes to Moe's, but the health inspector comes for a visit and dies when he eats one of Moe's pickled eggs. The new inspector declares Moe's Tavern to be closed until the violations are cleared up.

Moe's Tavern is now closed, with the regulars holding an Irish wake for its demise. Homer helps Moe reopen his bar, by getting a new mortgage for their home, but he forges Marge's name and she becomes the new owner. Homer visits a cleaned-up Moe's with Marge running in order to protect their investment, and she wants him to take care of the kids, and suggests that Moe's should become an English pub, which opens and is a success, with Bart and Lisa noticing that Marge spent more time at Moe's than Homer ever did. Homer is worried, but Marge has no problem with it.

Homer and Marge go to a movie together, only to be joined by Moe, and learning from Lenny and Carl that Marge and Moe are having an emotional affair. Homer is also scared when the two go to a bartender convention in Aruba, with Homer rushing to the airport and getting to the aircraft as it is taxing down the runway to confront Moe. Meanwhile, Moe finally gets out his true feelings for his partner that he has hidden in the dark for so long. He tells Marge he loves her and, in a rush, asks her to marry him. Before she can answer, Homer bursts out of the toilet seat in the bathroom and starts yelling at the barkeeper to leave his wife alone, but Moe shouts back that he doesn't deserve Marge at all, on account that he knows nothing about her. Homer does admit that he doesn't know much about his own wife, but despite his faults, Marge realizes that she really is in love with her husband and not the lovestruck bartender.

When the three arrive in Aruba, miserable Moe tries to drown himself because of his loss of a business partner and a love, only to be stopped by Marge and Homer. Marge explains to him that he's sweet enough a man to be loved by someone else, if only he's willing to make a few, minor changes. Moe seems to listen but, nevertheless, goes forth with his first plan of cornering Marge in the bed of a hotel room. To his disappointment, the barkeeper finds himself forced to share a bed with Homer while Marge sleeps alone on the hotel's couch, only to soon realize everyone's forgotten about the three children at home. Meanwhile, Bart enters himself, Lisa, and Maggie in a European balloon race.

Trivia

• This episode was dedicated to the memory of Johnny Carson, who died a week before this episode aired.
• The scene where there's a new computer-animated movie from Dreamworks, Cards, parodies many other computer-animated movies, specifically Dreamworks' Shrek and Shark Tale, in the way that Dreamworks seems to always use big name stars to voice their animated characters. Also, computer animation is used for the first time since the episode "Treehouse of Horror VI".
• This also marks the return of the Itchy & Scratchy Land theme park.
• You can also hear Barney's beautiful singing voice from "Homer's Barbershop Quartet" in this episode.
• During the musical number, Moe's trademark catchphrase "whaaaa!?!" is included in the lyrics.
• On the map in the aircraft, Springfield is shown in the middle of the ocean.
• This episode actually has some of the most noises made by the rarely-speaking barflies Sam and Larry. They both unenthusiastically moan "Ugggh".
• Homer calls himself "Jerkass Homer", a possible nod to what Simpsons fans called him during the Scully era (Seasons 9-12)
• Among the mourners seen alongside the regular barflies at the wake: Duffman, Dr. Nick, Kirk Van Houten, Surly Duff and a Leprechaun.
• This is the third episode written by Michael Price. He has also written popular episodes My Mother the Carjacker and 'Tis the Fifteenth Season which has led some Simpsons fans to call him one of the shows best current writers.
• Luigi, Krusty, Akira and the Sea Captain were seen in the plane. The stewardess could be Cookie Kwan.
• During the food fight between Bart and Lisa during the brunch scene, Lisa throws a shrimp at Bart. However, in the episode Please Homer, Don't Hammer 'Em, it is revealed that Bart has a shrimp allergy.
• Mayor Quimby is revealed to have a secret (younger) wife and three kids in this episode.

Cultural References

• The title is a play on the 1981 movie Mommie Dearest.
• Over the end credits, Homer and Marge sing Captain & Tennille's song "Love Will Keep Us Together"; this was actually a deleted scene from Co-Dependent's Day.
• In the scene where Homer chases Moe and Marge's plane on the tarmac is a spoof on the Jim Carrey movie Liar, Liar.
• Due to the closure of his bar, Moe tells his patrons to get their beer from a gay bar across the street from which "Can't Get You out of My Head" by Kylie Minogue is playing. This is a reference to Minogue's status as a gay icon.
• Like Homer, in James Joyce’s novel Ulysses, Leopold Bloom is also shamed by a judgmental cuckoo clock that marks the hour by crying “cuckold” instead of “cuckoo”.

Awards

• This episode would win writer Michael Price the 2006 WGA Award for writing in animation. It marked the third year in a row a Simpsons episode won the award. No matter what, The Simpsons would have won because all six nominees were Simpsons episodes (also nominated were There's Something About Marrying, The Girl Who Slept Too Little, See Homer Run, Thank God It's Doomsday, The Father, the Son, and the Holy Guest Star. (See List of awards won by The Simpsons for more info)

Goofs

• During the brunch, when Homer is eating the poached salmon, he begins by tearing out a piece from the side that's facing the camera. However, when he picks it up to take anotehr bite out of it, that side is suddenly whole again.
• When Marge tells Homer she and Moe are going to Aruba, the alarm clock changes from digital to analog.
• Itchy & Scratchy Land is shown to be within a few hours driving distance of Springfield. However, in Itchy & Scratchy Land, it is shown to be several thousand miles away.
• Earlier in the episode, Moe introduces the health inspector as 'an old friend', but later on he claims never to have had any friends.

Quotes

• (The rendition of "Love Will Keep Us Together")
  Marge: Love...love will keep us together.
  Homer: Think of me, babe, whenever/Some sweet-talking guy in a thong/Hands you a bong/Don't take a hit/You just got to be strong
  Marge: You'd better stop
  Homer: Cause I want a sandwich
  Marge: I said stop
  Homer: Or maybe a manwich.
• (lyrics to 'Welcome to Moe's')
  Marge: This place is a diamond,
  but it's trapped in the rough.
  Moe: Yeah well the sign still says "Moe's"
  So enough of your guff.
  Marge: Here's my new idea, to serve both beer and grub
  We will turn this filthy dive into a proper ol' time British pub
  Moe: A British whaaaaaaaaaa?!
  (Bart, Lisa, Lenny and Carl enter)
  Bart and Lisa: Darts and meat pies and lager in pint glasses
  What a classy way to get drunk off your asses.
  Moe: Hey, hold the phone. A English pub? That just might work!
  Everyone: In song!
  Moe: (trying to sing) Or my bar could be British instead of arm-pit-ish so why don't we all... (failing) Ah, screw it. Let's get renovating!
  (Moe knocks a support bar which causes the entire building to collapse)
  Marge: I was thinking of some drapes and paint, but your idea is good too.
  Moe: (depressed) Thanks.
• Moe: I'm going to call the suicide hotline now. (dials and gets a tone) And they've blocked my number. OH GOD! (begins crying)
• Moe's brain: Oh, Marge, I'm so in love with you. And tonight after some surf and turf and a bottle of champagne, maybe some Snickers pie, I'll explain how the hotel made a little "mistake" and we have to stay in the same room! Heh-heh-heh, oh yeah!
• Homer (making a mad drive to the airport): Hang on, Marge! Homie's coming! I won't let that man make you happy! (police sirens) Ohhhhh!
  Wiggum (in a sidecar; Homer is pulled over): Simpson, you were going a hundred in a twenty-five zone. You're not gonna flirt your way out of this one.
  Homer: But I have to get to the airport to save my marriage!
  Wiggum: Really? Hey, why didn't you say so? Let's roll.
  Lou: Uh, Chief, you didn't work this hard to save my marriage.
  Wiggum (annoyed): Oh, for the last time, Lou, she was well out of your league.
• Moe: Hey Marge, I just had a great idea. I think we should change the names on the bathrooms to "Dukes" and "Dames" instead of the ones we have—"stand-ups" and "sit-downs".
• Marge: Oh no! Who's watching the kids?
  (Bart, Lisa, and Maggie in a hot air balloon)
  Lisa: Are you sure mom and dad want us to enter in a European balloon race?
  Bart: Sure, why not?
• Moe:(looking at the airplane TV) Hey! What's that?

• The Simpsons episodes, season 16