22 Short Films About Springfield

"22 Short Films About Springfield" is the twenty-first episode of The Simpsons' seventh season. It is about the untold stories of many people of Springfield, focusing mainly on recurring characters.

This is one of several Simpsons episodes which are considered anthology episodes that features mini-stories.

Prolouge
The episode opens with Bart and Milhouse spitting off of a bridge, and wondering about the lives of other people in Springfield. The remainder of the episode consists of a variety of short stories focusing on different supporting characters, as well as the Simpsons family. A few of these segments feature their own title cards or theme songs (Some of which were cut for time and released on the 7th season DVD.) At other times, the segments simply segue from one to the next.

Apu's Story
Sanjay asks Apu to go to a party. so Apu leaves the store for the next five minutes. During this period, he eats an semi-cooked hot dog, dances to the song "Freakaziod" by Midnight Star, and has sex with a woman in a tool shed, falls into a pool with other partygoers. He heads back to the Kwik-E-Mart with a minute to spare. He opens the door to the store, and Hans Moleman was inside during the 4 minutes Apu was away. Moleman demands his 4 minutes of time back, but quickly lets it go, claiming he would just waste them.

Lisa's story
While skateboarding, Bart accidentally throws gum into Lisa's hair while she puts a beer can into a recycling bin. Marge tries to get the gum out of Lisa's hair with penut butter and mayonaise. Lisa then goes outside to let the mix sink in, but is chased around by a swarm of bees.

Mr Burns' Story
Mr. Burns and Smithers on are on a tandem bike ride and Smithers gets stung by a bee but also has an allergic reaction after claiming that he is deadly allergic to bee stigs. Mr. Burns orders Smithers to pedal to the hospital while in great pain, but in the end they crash right at the Hospital's door, and paramedics pick up the unconscious Mr.Burns instead of the ailing Smithers. Dr. Nick walks by and simply exclaims that Smithers needs booze, and drops pocket change on an ailing Smithers.

Dr Nick's Story
Dr. Nick walks into the medical boardroom to have a meeting about his gross incompetence. Suddenly, a doctor walks in and tells them that a lunatic with a scalpel (Abraham Simpson) is demanding to see a quack. The board members turn to look at Dr. Nick. Dr. Nick walks though the door giving Grandpa Simpson a nonsensical diagnosis: that Abe's skeleton is trying to escape his body. He performs an improvised treatment by shocking Abe with the wires of a nearby surgery light. The grateful board allows Dr. Nick to keep his medical license, and he celebrates by offering free nosejobs to everyone, starting with Jasper).

Moe's Story
Moe asks Barney if he recalls Moe quipping that he'll have to send away to NASA to calculate Barney's bar tab. The results came in, and Moe tells Barney that he owes 14 billion dollars. Barney gives Moe $2,000, which Moe says is halfway their. Snake then comes and tries to rob Moe. Moe quickly runs into a room behind him with a 3 in thick bulletproof glass window. While Moe is behind the bulletproof glass, Snake jumps over the counter, and steals from the cash register to pay off his student loans. Moe wonders how much air he has behind the bulletproof glass, and shortly collapses.

Skinner's Story
Principal Skinnner has invited Superintendent Chalmers to his house for dinner, but his roast burns and he resorts to ordering fast food from Krusty Burger and disguise it as his own cooking. While trying to come up with fake explanations to explain his actions while covering up his lie, Skinner forgets to turn off the oven and sets his house on fire. After Chalmers leaves Skinner has to get his mother out of the fire.

Homer's Story
Homer is walking Santa's Little Helper, and holding Maggie and some groceries at the same time and comes across a newspaper bender. The paper has an article regarding a new donut tax. Concerned about the donut tax, Homer buys a paper while juggling around Maggie, etc., and accidentally locks Maggie in the newspaper bender. After finding only train flattened coins in his pocket, Homer tries to put a note on Santa's Little Helper about Maggie being trapped however it was writen in cheese whiz and Santa's Little Helper licks it off of the paper. Homer tries to pull Maggie out through the little space that the door opens, but pulls off Maggie's clothing accidentally. So Maggie is still in the bender and Homer decides just steal the bender with Maggie still inside.

Chief Wiggum's Story
Chief Wiggum is at Krusty Burger with Eddie and Lou and Eddie, Lou, and Wiggum discuss the similarties and diffences of McDonalds and Krusty Burger, and the food they sell. Wiggum later leaves and goes to get some donuts.

Bumblebee Man's Story
Bumblebee Man returns from his show and decides to relax at home. However, he encounters a bunch of disasters (Similar to his show) that cause him to accidentally destroy his house and his wife divorces him out of anger.

Snake and Wiggum's Story
Snake is driving his car listening to a rock version of the Simpsons theme song while Chief Wiggum is idioctly walking down the street eating doughnuts. Wiggum notices Snake, and Snake runs him over impulsively. Wiggum chases after Snake and they indirectly wind up in Herman's Military Antiques. Herman decides to hold them hostage.

Reverend Lovejoy's Story
Reverend Lovejoy walks his dog and has it relieve itself on Ned Flander's front yard. Ned comes out onto his yard, and Lovejoy scolds his dog as if his dog was doing its business on purpose.

Lisa's Second Story
Marge is still trying to remove the gum out of Lisa's hair. After Ned suggests freezing it out, he accidentally mashes more hair into it. Soon, everyone comes in to the Simpson's kitchen to offer suggestions: Dr. Hibbert, Lionel Hutz, Sideshow Mel, Otto, Captain McAllister and Uter.

Cletus's Story
Cletus finds a pair of boots and gives them to Brandine for her job interview, but she refuses to accept them, as they may scuff up the topless runway at the place she's trying to get a job at. Brandine tells Cletus to put them back where they came from. Cletus climbs a telephone pole and hangs them over the power lines where he found them. Cletus decides to shout to his mother to get off of te roof while he's up there.

Milhouse's Story
Milhouse goes into Comic Book Guy's store to go to the bathroom but Comic Book Guy tells Milhouse that he must purchase something to go to the bathroom. Milhouse decides to buy a Hamburgler's comic for 75 cents. Kirk comes in and appalled that Milhouse is just buying comics, he takes Milhouse to another place. He and Milhouse go nto Herman's Military Antiques to get Milhouse to a restroom.

Herman's Story
Herman has captured Snake and Wiggum, who are tied up, and is now waiting for Zed to get here. Milhouse and his dad come in so that milhouse can go to the bathroom. While Kirk is trying to make small talk with Herman, he gets tied up with Snake and Wiggum. Milhouse hits Herman from behind witha a spiked flail, knocking him unconsious.

Lisa's Third Story
Lisa goes to Jake the Barber to get her hair cut. With a small baled spot from the hair getting cut, she gets it restyled, which makes Lisa look more like a real person. She leaves the barber shop, and Nelson laughs at her ridiculous hair.

Nelsons's Story
Nelson laughs at Lisa's new hair and Mrs. Glick, who trips and falls into a trash can and a tall guy driving a Volkswagen Beetle. The tall guy stops his car and gets out. He chases after Nelson, and pulls down his pants and makes him walk down the street to teach Nelson a lesson. Nelson is being splattered by ketchup and mustard by Bart and Milhouse, who are standing on top of an overpass.

Ending
Bart and Milhouse walk away, with the conclusion that everybody has theior own story to tell, with not enough time to tell them all. Out of nowhere Professor Frink appears and tries to tell his story, but is cut short by the end credits..

General

 * The episode does not actually feature twenty-two stories, but the according to the DVD commentary, the title was decided from the start, regardless of how many stories would actually end up in the episode.

Production notes

 * The very tall man is a caricature of writer Ian Maxtone-Graham. He is voiced by Hank Azaria.
 * The episode was inspired by "The Adventures of Ned Flanders" segment at the end of "The Front".

Animation/continuity errors

 * Smithers suffers severe allergic reactions to the bee sting in this episode, yet in "Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk" was stung by several bees but suffered no problems at all.
 * Despite having returned to the house on a date with Agnes Skinner in "Bart the Fink", in this episode Chalmers apparently required directions to Skinner's house as if he'd never been before.
 * In "Bart Gets Famous", Bumblebee Man was revealed to have fake Spanish accent and actually spoke with an upper class British accent, yet now he speaks Spanish all the time. This was a deliberate change as the writer's felt the revelation that he was English was a terrible joke.
 * The Spanish used by Bumblebee Man is completely inaccurate. This was also done deliberatly, to make sure that everyone could understand what he was saying without subtitles.
 * Chief Wiggum loses his hat in the fight with Snake, but in the next chapter of his story he is wearing it again.
 * Jasper supposedly got a nose job but he's seen with his regular nose later on.

Legacy

 * The episode inspired Simpsons creator Matt Groening to come up with a concept of a possible spin-off series calle Tales from Springfield, about the recurring characters of Springfield, along with the stories of young Homer. The idea has still not been made a reality.

Cultural references

 * Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould: The episode's title is a play on that of the 1993 film.
 * Pulp Fiction: Like Quentin Tarantino's film, the episode's plot is episodic and interconnected. Additionally there are several more lengthy parodies. The whole of the Chief Wiggum, Snake and Herman plot is based on the "Gold Watch" segment of the film. Wiggum, Lou and Eddie's conversation about McDonald's parallels the famous "Royale With Cheese" discussion between Vince Vega and Jules Winnfield. Later, Snake runs down Wiggum like Butch Coolidge does to Marsellus Wallace. He then crashes into a wall, running down a fire hydrant and mailbox just like in the film. The two then fight and roll into Herman's shop, he ties them up and waits for Zed to arrive before being knocked out by a medieval weapon yielded by Milhouse. This again mirrors the film, with Herman in the role of Maynard.
 * "1999": Apu's line "I'm going to party like it was on sale for $19.99!" references Prince's song.
 * "Freak-A-Zoid": Apu sings the song by Midnight Star.
 * E.R.: Dr. Nick's scenes parody the popular medical series.