Funeral for a Fiend

Plot

A television commercial for a new barbecue restaurant, Wes Doobner's World Famous Family Style Rib Huts, catches the attention of the Simpson family. The establishment, run by a cowboy of that name, seems perfectly designed for each of them, so they attend its grand opening. Once there, they realize the cowboy is actually Sideshow Bob, who fled Italy with his wife Francesca and son Gino. He created the restaurant and its ad solely to trap the Simpsons. After tying them up, Bob reveals crates packed with dynamite, intending to kill them using a laptop with a faulty battery that will overheat and explode. While boasting, Bob misquotes a line from Macbeth, and Lisa corrects him. As he tries to verify the quote on Wikipedia, the laptop detonates in his hands, leading to his arrest and trial.

At the trial, Bob's father, Doctor Robert Terwilliger Sr., testifies. He reveals Bob has a rare heart condition and suggests Bob's troubles stem from his long conflict with Bart. Because Springfield has suffered from Bart's pranks, the townspeople blame Bart and turn against him. As Bart protests his innocence, Bob produces a vial of nitroglycerin, which everyone assumes is a deadly explosive. Bart throws it away to protect the crowd, but it turns out to be Bob's heart medication. Bob collapses and is pronounced dead.

Bob's funeral draws his entire family, including his mother, celebrated Shakespearean actress Dame Judith Onderdonk, and his brother Cecil, released from prison for the event, along with many Springfield residents. Feeling some guilt, Bart speaks with Cecil, who persuades him to visit the funeral home to make peace with Bob before cremation. When Bart arrives, Bob rises from the coffin, alive, and traps Bart inside it to be incinerated.

Production

The joke where Homer stops Marge from rescuing Bart from a coffin by saying he needs to conquer his fear of them was recycled from a cut scene originally intended for The Simpsons Movie. That gag itself came from the episode "Tennis the Menace," where Bart gets stuck in a coffin and Homer watches his panic on a closed-circuit TV. John Mahoney became the third actor from Frasier to voice a Terwilliger, joining Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce, who played his sons on both shows. At Bob's fake funeral, Krusty performs a parody of Elton John's "Candle in the Wind." The episode's title also nods to another John song, "Funeral for a Friend (Love Lies Bleeding)," which precedes "Candle in the Wind" on the album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. The Terwilligers trap Bart inside Bob's large coffin and try to burn him in a cremation furnace, echoing the method used by Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd against James Bond in the film Diamonds Are Forever.

Reception

An audience of roughly 9 million viewers watched this episode. IGN’s Robert Canning rated it 6.2 out of 10, noting that while it had a few enjoyable moments, the half-hour lacked enough laugh-out-loud scenes and Bob’s final plan was predictable. IGN later ranked it ninth among the top ten Sideshow Bob episodes, with Canning explaining that the episode brought Bob back to his vengeful roots, which was the only thing making it better than its predecessor. Even so, he considered it one of the weakest Bob episodes. A key feature was reuniting the Crane family from Frasier, but Canning felt The Simpsons squandered that potential. Instead of using the familiar chemistry those actors had (which worked well in Cecil’s first appearance), the show made Mahoney’s father character just as snobbish and uppity as his sons. Combined with an overly complicated and unfunny plot to kill Bart, the episode failed to recapture the early seasons’ Sideshow Bob magic. Richard Keller of AOL TV observed that while Pierce and Mahoney had their moments, Kelsey Grammer dominated as a Sideshow Bob unraveling. He found the episode mostly entertaining and appreciated the continuity it brought to the series. Genevieve Koski of The A.V. Club gave it a B+, praising the post-Frasier appearances of Pierce and Mahoney as Cecil and Dr. Terwilliger, but criticizing the TiVo storyline in the first act. She also questioned whether Lisa’s recap of Bob’s plan was meant to echo Bart’s recap in “Black Widower,” calling it half-assed if intentional, or a pleasant bit of accidental nostalgia if not.