Monty Burns' Fleeing Circus

The Simpsons go on a walk through Springfield when they see a group of people looking at the sky in terror as the Lard Lad statue has disappeared. With the police unable to do anything, the town's residents are split between rioting and not rioting, which makes the total damage from the riot $0. Soon, the Lard Lad company decides to rebrand themselves with a new chrome statue. However, the statue immediately has a major issue, as it starts reflecting sun rays into the town, burning it down almost completely. Mayor Quimby promises to rebuild the city, but with the lack of progress six months later, the Simpsons beg Mr. Burns to fund the town's reconstruction. He agrees with the condition that he can put a variety show on the Springfield Bowl.

During the auditions, Burns has flashbacks to when he was a child, about to go on stage for the Pee-wee Pageant of 1913 with his mother wishing him good luck. Later that day, he goes to Springfield Elementary School looking for performers for the show when he has problems opening a clasp on a clipboard. Lisa helps him and Burns decides to hire her as his personal assistant. Back at the auditions, Burns has more flashbacks to his childhood presentation, showing that he was the laughingstock for everyone at the bowl and even his mother failed to comfort him. After Lisa unintentionally upsets Burns, who flashes back to the traumatic event, he decides to cancel the show. Feeling bad for Burns, Lisa gets curious about what happened to him, so Smithers shows her an old recording of his presentation, showing that his suspenders snapped in the middle of his tap-dance presentation, making his pants fall. As he went to put them back, his underwear also fell, resulting in everyone laughing at him. Later, Lisa manages to convince Burns to make the show.

Meanwhile at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant with Burns gone, the employees start treating the plant as a resort complete with a pool and games. When Homer prepares for a prank, Marge reminds him that he is the safety inspector for the plant and he is the one who should be stopping that. Later, Homer manages to put the employees back to work, but some bags of popcorn that were inside the core cause a fire.

At the Springfield Bowl, everything goes according to plan, but at the ending they are interrupted by what looks to be fireworks, which is later revealed to be the power plant exploding. However, Burns is not finished, as he wants to reenact his presentation, but his second try does not go any better, as he gets pushed away by a spotlight into a lamp, which causes his pants to burn down, making him the laughingstock at the bowl once again. Burns gets mad at Lisa, but he ends up forgiving her and letting her play the saxophone on stage for an empty crowd, having finally gotten closure from his childhood incident.

Lisa asks Homer why Simpsons always fail and he answers that it is because of a curse as their ancestors did not let Joseph and Mary stay at their home for Jesus' birth. Lisa disputes the validity of Homer's story.

In the final scene, the Lard Lad statue is being melted in the Springfield Tire Fire and engulfs Ralph Wiggum in it.

The couch gag for this episode is a crossover with the animated series Adventure Time, recreating its opening sequence with Simpsons characters in place of the show's usual cast, such as Bart as Finn the Human and Homer as Jake the Dog. The lyrics to the Adventure Time theme were rewritten accordingly, with series creator Pendleton Ward, who sings the original lyrics, also performing the parody version.[2]

During the variety show, Sherri and Terri perform a water cabinet trick, with one twin apparently floating drowned and dead while her sister takes a bow, in a visual reference to the 2006 science-fiction thriller film The Prestige.[3]

• "Monty Burns' Fleeing Circus" at IMDb
• "Monty Burns' Fleeing Circus" at TV.com