The switch to Lisa and Wiggum is less rewarding in terms of character I enjoy seeing someone so lazy and incompetent as Wiggum forced to actually do work for a change, and I enjoy watching Lisa get her Nancy Drew on, but it’s all better at being funny than it is interesting. I think that makes “swift, brutal revenge” even funnier, because a) “swift” and “brutal” aren’t words we’d naturally associate with the guy apologising to Jaspar and b) it implies how much of that compassion is mainly expended on Mr Burns. I think the bit that gets me the most is when he sincerely apologises to Jaspar for shooting his wooden leg – he’s relieved that he hasn’t done the worst thing he can imagine, but still feels the need to apologise for committing a wrong that his victim didn’t even seem to notice. In terms of pure intelligence and general decency, he’s something of an Everyman, which puts him higher than most in Springfield it’s just that decency and intelligence is inexplicably put into loving Mr Burns. I really enjoy Smithers’ little arc this episode.

This is all quite sophisticated storytelling, all the moreso for how accessible and easy to watch it is. Once they were cleared, we’d look closer at the evidence, and when we inevitably find Simpson DNA, we’d go after Homer (with some big help from Burns being incapable of saying anything other than Homer’s name). We’d go to the most obvious suspect, and then once he’s cleared go down the list of suspects. We can also flip this over HP Lovecraft described his process as beginning with a clear timeline of events and then choosing the order that the reader discovers them, and we could also suppose that the writers started with “Burns gets shot when his gun falls out of its holster while stealing candy from Maggie” and “Smithers goes home early and shoots Jaspar” and then let both audience and characters discover what happened from there.

Act One focuses on clearing the name of the obvious red herring they set up, Act Two knocks out the smaller red herrings, and Act Three introduces a Complication (the police think Homer did it) that can lead us to the actual solution coming out. The overall goal is to pay off the eponymous mystery, and the Simpsons crew find a lot of neat solutions to that problem. Each act has a different purpose, and indeed it’s almost constantly switching protagonists – Wiggum and Lisa generally swap out investigating the crime, but we also have Smithers as the guilt-ridden red herring and Homer as the Richard Kimble-esque Man On The Run, and for a brief pair of scenes we even have Sideshow Mel as an amateur Sherlock Holmes and Krusty as his bumbling wacky sidekick. I’ve always been struck by the elegance of the plotting of this episode. If “Part One” was all buildup, this is all winding down – the consequences for all those actions.

Vote up your favorites so that the number one spot can finally get a promotion.So, yeah, the baby did it. They're underappreciated but valued all the same. Good Smithers quotes are much like Smithers himself. He's not just my boss, he's my best friend too.' From the moment I squeeze his orange juice in the morning, till I tuck him in at night. He even went deep into why he loves his position with the line, 'Actually, I value every second we're together. scalding me as we speak.' His commitment to his job is evident in practically any episode he's in. Burns thought his drink was too hot, he threw it on Smithers, who was a good sport about it by saying, 'Right, sir. Here are the best Smithers quotes of all time to remind you that we all need someone loyal in our lives. Burns has plenty of iconic moments in the show, The Simpsons just wouldn't be the same without his partner in crime. He's always been by his side and will do anything for his best. For decades now, the best Wayland Smithers qoutes show him to be the most loyal assistant to Springfield's resident billionaire, Mr.

Slack jawed gawkers mr burns