The Crepes of Wrath
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Template:Infobox Simpsons episode The Crepes of Wrath is an episode of The Simpsons from the first season. Bart is sent to France on a student exchange trip, where his hosts treat him as a slave, meanwhile an Albanian student taking his place shows great interest in Homer's work at the nuclear power plant.
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Synopsis
Bart discovers an old cherry bomb, and decides to flush it down the boy's restroom at the same time as Principal Skinner's mother is in the girl's restroom. In order to be rid of him, Skinner proposes to the Simpsons that Bart should participate in a foreign exchange program. Bart is sent to France, whereas the Simpsons host a student from Albania named Adil Hoxha (possibly a reference to the country's former dictator Enver Hoxha but most likely a fusion of the name of Enver Hoxha and Adil Çarçani, another Communist ruler of the time).
In France, Bart is greeted by two unscrupulous wine-makers who work him worse than their donkey. Bart is made to collect and crush grapes, sleep on the floor, and test wine adulterated with antifreeze. Image:The Crepes of Wrath screenshot.jpg Adil is actually a spy who is after nuclear secrets, which he intends to obtain from Homer. Homer is happy that Adil is taking an interest in his work, and promptly shows him around the plant.
Eventually, Bart learns enough French to escape his captors and inform the authorities about his captors' plot to sell contaminated wine. The wine-makers are swiftly arrested and Bart is feted as a hero to conclude his stay in France on a satisfying note. Adil is caught by the FBI and is exchanged for a boy who is an American spy caught in Albania.
Interesting facts
- Early in the episode, there is some actual dialogue in Albanian between Adil and his family, but later on the dialogue is just gibberish. The dialogue in French is correct, however.
- In later seasons, Agnes Skinner's personality seems vastly different to her kindly demeanor in this episode. In the DVD audio commentary, Matt Groening offers the theory that her current mean streak can be attributed to being a victim of Bart's prank.
Parodies
- The episode's title is a play on John Steinbeck's novel "The Grapes of Wrath" (the movie that is based off the novel, is, like The Simpsons, a Fox property).
- The two winemakers, Cesar and Ugolin, are named after the peasants from the 1986 French films Jean de Florette, and Manon des sources (Manon of the Springs), according to producer George Meyer.
Memorable quotes
- Cesar [in French]: "Ah, Maurice [a donkey]. Once the American boy arrives, your days of back-breaking work labor will be over."
- Homer: Please, please, kids, stop fighting. Maybe Lisa's right about America being the land of opportunity, and maybe Adil's got a point about the machinery of capitalism being oiled with the blood of the workers.
- Marge: I'll just clean the dishes... </br> Adil: No, Mrs. Simpson, you have been oppressed enough today. I will clear the dishes.