Sex, Pies, and Idiot Scrapes

"This was such a pleasant St. Patrick's day until the Irish people showed up."

- Marge Simpson

“Sex, Pies and Idiot Scrapes” is the first episode of Season 20. It originally aired on September 28, 2008. It was written by Kevin Curran and directed by Lance Kramer. Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Robert Forster and Joe Mantegna guest starred.

Synopsis
After Homer is punished for brawling on St. Patrick's Day, he meets a bounty hunter when he gets his bail bond. Intrigued, he decides to try his hand at the profession - but is saved by Flanders when it doesn't go quite to plan. Together, they form an unlikely bounty-hunting duo, but when Homer's attitude gets the better of him, Flanders is less than impressed. Meanwhile, Marge unwittingly starts working at an erotic bakery.

Plot
St. Patrick's Day in Springfield is booze free due to the amount of violence every year with booze. A conflict between the Catholic Irishmen and the Protestant Irishmen results in a city-wide brawl. Meanwhile, Marge's cupcakes are stolen by a group of urchins and saved by Patrick Farally, a baker who offers Marge a job after tasting her cupcakes and realizing her talent.

In court, Homer is after The Incredible Hulk for their involvement in the brawl. Homer is told to pay $25,000 bail money and to go and see a bondsman. He goes to Bail Bonds and meets the bondsman Lucky Jim who tells him that if he skips court, he will have to deal with Wolf the Bounty Hunter, who brings in a battered Gil Gunderson with him. This gets Homer excited about becoming a bounty hunter and Wolf allows him to skip the $10 fee and online test to become one instantly.

Marge, at her new job, is wondering why she is only told to bake cylinders, spheres and half-moon shaped cakes. Patrick stalls before he hears customers come in. These turn out to be Patty and Selma who buy an erotic cake. Then, Marge realizes that it is an erotic bakery and wants to quit. However, Patrick gets her to stay on.

Homer's first target as a bounty hunter is Snake. He sets up a trap, selling an apartment and those who have skipped bail are welcome. He and Gloria come along and then Homer chases Snake down an alley, when he pulls out a gun and after a bit of talking, shoots Homer in the head. Homer thinks he is going to die just as Ned Flanders gets in the way with bullet-proof glass, which he was using to fix the Leftorium. The bullet rebounds and hits Snake in the arm, who is then cuffed and Homer gets the reward, only to give some of it to Ned and asks him to become a team.

Back at the Simpson home, Homer asks Marge if she can bake a cake for Lisa's birthday, to which she slaps him. Homer asks why and she replies that it was a muscle spasm, slapping herself a couple of times and then Homer to prove her point. She then tells Homer that she is an erotic baker and they then decide to go to bed with the cake as well.

Homer and Ned's first target together is Fat Tony. They wait outside Luigi's for him, eating Pizza and bonding together when they see him. They chase after him and eventually catch him after Homer drives onto a train. Ned gets angry about this and breaks up the partnership. Homer then becomes upset about Ned breaking up with him.

Ned tells Lucky Jim that he has quit the bounty hunter business but is give one last target, Homer. Ned says he won't do it but decided to as all the other bounty hunters would look like they would hurt Homer. Ned chases Homer doing all sorts of weird stunts in the process and eventually find themselves on a construction site. Homer jumps onto a moving bar attached to a crane and Ned follows and slips. Homer thinks about the good times they have had, and grabs Ned's hand. Homer then realizes that he isn't holding onto anything and they both end up in wet cement, which quickly hardens, trapping them.

After a few hours of Ned reciting the Old Testament of the Bible and the start of the New Testament, they are taken out and Homer is put into prison and gets a cake from Marge to remind him of her, telling Homer that she loves him.

Reception
The episode was watched by about 9.3 million. IGN called it a "decent, if fun start to the twentieth season". Joel Brown of "MeeVee" gave the episode a B-. Justin Gagnon of The Daily Collegian called the episode "worthwhile viewing for both big fans and occasional watchers and proves that even after 20 seasons the show still can dish up some fresh laughs."

Controversy
The episode caused some controversy in Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom over a brawl that occurred in the opening act of the episode. The fight, between citizens from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, also included Bart's line "Where are the IRA when you need them?" Gregory Campbell, a British MP for East Londonderry said "The Simpsons is a humorous cartoon but the context of using a line like that about an organisation which caused so much death will lead people to have very mixed views, some people may take it as a light hearted reference, while others who were affected by the real life violence of the IRA and are still suffering with that legacy, will not."

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