The Great Louse Detective

Plot

After winning a free spa weekend, the Simpsons head off for some relaxation. During their stay, a mysterious figure traps Homer in a sauna with a wrench, but Krusty the Clown accidentally opens the door, saving him. Homer and Marge consult Chief Wiggum, who recommends they get help from someone who can get inside a killer's head: the imprisoned Sideshow Bob. Wiggum fits Bob with a shock bracelet to control his behavior while he stays at the Simpson house. Bob asks Homer to name everyone who might want him dead, then tails him to investigate. They visit a repair shop, where Homer scolds a mechanic named Junior.

At Moe's Tavern, Lenny gives Bob advice on murdering Bart: sneak up from behind with a knife and slit his throat. While Homer is there, the attacker fires a shot at him and escapes in a tow truck. Bob's attempts to protect Homer fall apart when Homer is crowned King of the Springfield Mardi Gras, likely due to a rigged ballot. Bob warns Homer not to join the parade, as it would make him an easy target, but Homer goes ahead, hoping to draw out his would-be killer. During the parade, Bob discovers that Homer's float has been tampered with by a car mechanic, leading him to suspect Junior. Bob's quick action saves Homer just before the float crashes, and they spot Junior in the crowd when he tries to shoot Homer again. Cornered by Homer and Bob, Junior is arrested by police and revealed to be Frank Grimes Jr., the illegitimate son of the late Frank Grimes, who blames Homer for his father's death.

That night, Bob confronts Bart, having taken the remote for his shock bracelet, which he tosses out the window. Remembering Lenny's advice, Bob decides to kill Bart but finds he has grown used to Bart's face and cannot go through with it. He tries to leave but is repeatedly zapped by the bracelet when birds peck at the remote after it lands in their nest.

Production

This episode of The Simpsons, part of the fourteenth season, was penned by John Frink and Don Payne, with Steven Dean Moore directing. Kelsey Grammer reprised his role as Sideshow Bob. Since the third season’s “Black Widower,” the show’s writers have mirrored the dynamic of Wile E. Coyote chasing the Road Runner from the classic Looney Tunes cartoons, having Bob unexpectedly reappear in Bart’s life to try and kill him. Executive producer Al Jean has likened Bob to Wile E. Coyote, pointing out that both are highly intelligent but are consistently outwitted by someone they consider less clever. This installment is among the first Simpsons episodes created using digital ink and paint, marking the show’s permanent shift to that method. However, the cel-animated opening sequence wasn’t fully retired until seven years later, when the series moved to widescreen high-definition. Previously, episodes were animated with the traditional ink-and-paint process. The digital technique had been tested before by the animators on season seven’s “Radioactive Man” and “The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular,” season twelve’s “Tennis the Menace,” and the season fourteen premiere “Treehouse of Horror XIII,” which was actually a holdover from season thirteen.

Release

The Great Louse Detective first aired on Fox in the United States on December 15, 2002. That night, it was watched by about 8.75 million households. It earned a Nielsen rating of 8.2, placing it 23rd among all broadcasts for the week of December 9 to 15, 2002. It was the top-rated Fox program that week, outperforming King of the Hill, Malcolm in the Middle, 24, That '70s Show, and the 2002 Billboard Music Awards. The episode was later released on Blu-ray and DVD on December 6, 2011, as part of The Simpsons – The Complete Fourteenth Season box set. The DVD audio commentary featured contributions from staff members Matt Groening, Al Jean, John Frink, Ian Maxtone-Graham, Matt Selman, Tim Long, Michael Price, Tom Gammill, Steven Dean Moore, Mike B. Anderson, and David Silverman, as well as cast member Dan Castellaneta. The box set also included deleted scenes from the episode.

Critical reception has been generally positive. In 2009, IGN's Robbert Canning ranked it seventh on his list of the top ten Sideshow Bob episodes, out of ten that had aired by then. Canning noted that the episode was enjoyable because it placed Bob in an unexpected scenario with the Simpsons, focusing more on his interactions with Homer than with Bart. He also highlighted that the would-be murderer of Homer turned out to be Frank Grimes Jr., the son of Frank "Grimey" Grimes, calling it a nice callback to the episode "Homer's Enemy" and a rare example of the series maintaining continuity. Colin Jacobson of DVD Movie Guide offered a more mixed view. He acknowledged that the show had produced many excellent Sideshow Bob episodes, setting a high bar. While he found "The Great Louse Detective" not bad, he felt it did not match its predecessors. He said it had some good moments and was acceptable for Season 14, but it did not rank as a classic Sideshow Bob installment.