Much Apu About Something

Springfield is having a parade in homage to the city's founder Jebediah Springfield where they introduce a new statue of him to a very negative reception. During the parade, Bart activates a fire engine's water cannon, soaking Chief Wiggum. As a result, the Springfield Police Department gets into a battle against the volunteer fire department which ends with a SWAT tank losing control and destroying the Kwik-E-Mart, injuring Apu and Sanjay. Bart lies to Homer that he didn't cause the disaster, but Homer has video proof Bart did it and tells his son he has two choices: swear to never pull a prank again or end up in juvenile detention when Homer turns in the tape. Bart chooses to promise he will behave from now on. At the hospital, Sanjay reveals that he wants to retire from his job at the Kwik-E-Mart and give his share of the store to his son Jamshed "Jay" Nahasapeemapetilon.

Milhouse tries to bring the old Bart back, but Bart resists dropping a beehive on Superintendent Chalmers' crotch and releasing the handbrake on Principal Skinner's cherry-picker. But Bart ends up doing well at school and noticing that Homer and Marge don't really praise their kids when they do well, resulting in a closer bond with his younger sister Lisa as now he understands her disappointed past feelings.

Six weeks after the incident, Apu goes to see what they've done with the Kwik-E-Mart only to find at its place the Quick & Fresh, a store that sells natural products run by Jay. At the store's restroom, Jay explains that Apu has an addiction to scratching lottery tickets. Because of that, he's the owner of 80% of the store. Later, Moe and Apu are talking about what happened to his store. Jay, who's already angry at his uncle for being a stereotype, fires Apu from his job. Apu is so depressed that he goes to Moe's Tavern where Moe convinces Homer to turn Bart into a prankster again for him to pull a prank on Jay so Apu can have his store back.

Bart, who reluctantly comes back to his old self Clockwork Orange-style, decides that the best prank would be to turn the Quick & Fresh light switch off for thirty seconds. As none of the products have preservatives, everything will get rotten. He's interrupted by Lisa, who reminds him that after he stopped pranking, they love each other even more. Bart misinterprets the expression "unconditional love" as a sign he can do anything he wants and still be loved by his sister, so he cuts the store's power for a few seconds.

Inside the store, all the products start deteriorating, scaring the customers away. When he turns the power back on, two massage stones collide, producing a spark that leads to a major fire. As the firefighters used all their water and foam against the police officers on the parade, they have nothing they can extinguish the fire with and the store is completely destroyed by the flames. Later, Apu apologizes about what happened to Jay, but he also finds a The Big Bang Theory scratch-off ticket in the middle of the debris. He scratches it and thanks to three images of Sheldon Cooper wins a million dollars — enough money to buy his store back and rebuild the Kwik-E-Mart.

In the final scene, Mayor Quimby plans to have Chief Wiggum use a tank to destroy the Jebediah Springfield statue. Chief Wiggum fires at the statue only for projectiles to be deflected enough to destroy the tank, much to Quimby and Wiggum's annoyance.

"Much Apu About Something" received a 1.8 rating and was watched by 3.95 million viewers, making it Fox's highest rated show of the night.[1]

Dennis Perkins of The A.V. Club gave the episode an A−, saying that episode, "About Apu’s nephew Jamshed (or Jay, as he prefers) turning the Kwik-E-Mart into a health food store, might reference a beloved episode about Apu’s dignity in the face of Springfield’s hairtrigger xenophobia, but it’s equally a referendum on the character of Apu Nahasapeemapetilon himself."[2]

• "Much Apu About Something" at IMDb
• "Much Apu About Something" at TV.com