You Kent Always Say What You Want

You Kent Always Say What You Want is the twenty-second episode of Season 18. It aired as part of the one hour season finale alongside the episode "24 Minutes". Apart from being the 400th episode of the series, it was also the last episode to air before The Simpsons Movie was released.

Synopsis
In the show's 400th episode (both in terms of episodes aired and produced), Homer buys the 1,000,000th ice-cream cone at a local store, and he ends up on Kent Brockman's news program, but when Brockman swears on live TV after coffee is spilled in his lap, he gets fired after Ned Flanders complains and the FCC fines Channel 6 heavily.

Full Story
Driving home after an appointment to the dentist, Homer and the kids choose to go to the local ice cream parlor, where Homer buys what turns out to be the store's millionth ice cream cone. This results in Homer appearing on Kent Brockman's talk show "Smartline". Kent is livid about doing the report since there is a much more interesting piece he could be doing. While there an overexcited Homer knocks over Kent's mug, spilling hot coffee on his lap. Kent jumps up and, in a moment of pain, yells out the worst word in the English Language. Kent immediately apologizes and pledges to give money to charity, but as he and Homer leave he is relieved to see that no one seems to have noticed his mistake.

When the Simpsons talk about it over dinner, Lisa says that no one really cares about a little mistake except certain groups that have nothing better to do than watch TV for hours on end for even the slightest hint of bad behavior, to which Bart replies that he can't believe someone would do that. However, Ned Flanders is doing exactly that: sitting watching tapes in the dark, scanning them for anything even remotely blasphemous, including a dog cleaning itself or a guy with a pants fold near his groin. He sees Kent's swearing and despite acknowledging that Kent didn't mean it, no one would care otherwise and the government having better things to do he immediately sends a letter to the Federal Communications Commission reporting the incident.

The next day, during the Channel 6 newscast, Kent discovers this while reporting on the incident, and discovers that he has been demoted to Weatherman as punishment for his swearing, with Arnie Pye taking over his position of Anchor, to which Pye manages to write a "Kent Stinks" graffiti on the Weather Map. However, things only grow worse when, while Pye delivers the report, also discovers that the News station has been fined $10 million due to Kent Brockman's swearing.

Channel Six News wasn't the only station being affected by the fine, as Krusty the Clown was also forced to make several cutbacks to his own show due to the fine, including having to (badly voice) an Itchy and Scratchy episode because they couldn't afford to pay the usual voice actor for the series due to the fine, something that the audience ended up not liking when they saw it, with Krusty upon leaving, venting his frustration at the fine and Kent's involvement in causing it to happen. Later, Lindsey Naegle speaks to Kent, assuring him that his job is safe, but then abruptly fires him after making a blatantly false claim that the Splenda in his coffee is cocaine as an excuse to legally terminate his employment.

The next day, at the Simpsons' home, Homer finds Kent sleeping on their couch, after Marge took him in amid fears that he might commit suicide. Homer is not willing to let him in the house, primarily because Brockman's political ideology is Liberal while his own is Conservative, but relents although he states that he has to rank an 8.0 or higher among acquaintances that stayed with the Simpsons. Later, while watching TV, Lisa wonders why Fox News can be so conservative when the Fox Network keeps airing "raunchy shows". Kent replies that Fox deliberately runs shows that will attract huge fines, and then funnel all of the money through the FCC directly to the republican party as support. Apparently, everyone in the media knows about this faux practice, but no one has worked up the guts to do or say anything about it. Lisa goads him into blowing the whistle on the scam using her web camera. Seeing how he has pretty much nothing to lose, Kent agrees and broadcasts the report to millions of spectators on the internet, all of whom were shocked and/or outraged about the unethical practices. With his subsequent webcast being extremely successful, the Republican Party, less than thrilled about Kent revealing their ill-gotten gains and orders Lindsey Naegle and Krusty to find a way to stop him before he can inflict anymore damage. A large meeting is held to discuss what should be done to persuade Kent to not reveal their unethical practices (since doing so would be hard as all of them had treated him terribly and ruined his career and practically his entire life after he accidentally used profanity on the public news) when Naegle proclaims she has a solution.

The next day, Lisa and Kent are accosted by the party members, who offer him his old job back with a 50% raise. Kent immediately accepts and apologizes to Lisa. At home, feeling downcast, she complains to Homer that there is no truth or bravery in today's media. Homer starts to tell Lisa something horrible Kent mentioned about the Fox Network, but no matter how many times he tries to say it, he is voiced over by Maurice LaMarche's adverts for Fox, cut off by the 20th Century Fox Television logo and music, and finally being shushed by the Gracie Films logo.

Production
This episode, formerly known as "The Kent State Massacre", was renamed in light of the Virginia Tech massacre, which occurred only a month before the episode was set to air.

The episode was intended to spoof increased fines by the Federal Communications Commission in the wake of the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction. However, a month before the episode aired, Don Imus was fired for remarks he made on the air about the Rutgers University women's basketball team. Similarly, Brockman wasn't immediately fired for his comments.

The episode was also seen as a bit of a gutsy move to some as much of the episode was ridiculing and/or making fun of Fox, which happens to be the same channel who airs the show. However, no major inflection was done in the relationship between the shows creators and the producers at Fox.

Reception
Robert Canning of IGN.com named the episode one his three favorites of the season, stating that it "ended the season on a very high note".