Old Yeller Belly
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“Old Yeller Belly” is the nineteenth episode of the fourteenth season of The Simpsons. It aired on May 4, 2003.
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[edit] Plot
Bart and his friends in his treehouse try to eavesdrop on Lisa and her friends having a tea party, and the treehouse gets destroyed in the ensuing fight. Marge gets the Amish to build a new treehouse for Bart. However, because the Amish know little about electricity, Bart’s treehouse catches fire, and Homer is trapped inside, unconscious. Homer calls for Santa’s Little Helper to save him, but Santa’s Little Helper doesn’t. Snowball II does, by clawing at Homer’s chest until he wakes up.
Snowball II is worshipped as a hero by Springfield. The dog park is even renamed the “Snowball II Municipal Cat Park.” Homer declares in an interview that “I have no dog!” and kicks Santa’s Little Helper out of the house.
Tied up in the yard and thirsty, Santa’s Little Helper drinks from a can of beer by balancing it on his nose. Springfield Shopper reporter Dave Shutton takes a photo of it that appears on the front page of the newspaper. This gets the attention of Duff Beer, who announce that Duffman will be replaced with Santa’s Little Helper, as their new mascot, Suds McDuff.
Suds McDuff boosts sales of Duff Beer, and the family’s fortunes explode. However, this prompts Santa’s Little Helper’s original owner (from “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire”) to visit the Simpsons and prove that he owns the dog by showing the interview footage of Homer disowning Santa’s Little Helper. He becomes Suds’ new owner.
Figuring that if they can get Duffman to replace Suds as the Duff mascot, they can get their dog back, the Simpsons seek Duffman, who has become an ordinary man named Barry Duffman who helps the less fortunate. The Simpsons ask him to help the family get Santa’s Little Helper back at a Duff Beer-sponsored beach volleyball event.
At the event, Homer pretends to be drowning, while he is actually floating on a keg of beer. Santa’s Little Helper is too cowardly, as Homer predicted, to save him. However, when Duffman goes in to save Homer, a shark attacks and Duffman refuses to go in. The shark attempts to bite Homer, but it gets drunk by biting the beer keg. The crowd at the beach likes the shark, and Duff Beer announces that the shark—named Duff McShark—will be their new mascot. Santa’s Little Helper returns to the Simpson family.
[edit] Cultural references
- The title refers to the book and dog Old Yeller.
- An ice sculpture of Homer at the grand opening celebration is a parody of The Thinker sculpture by Auguste Rodin.
- Suds McDuff is a reference to Spuds MacKenzie.
- When asked if he’s always been a “cat person,” Homer replies “Yusuf Islam will always be Cat Stevens to me.”
- Luigi offers Snowball II lasagna, a reference to Garfield (“Have some lasagna, like the cat in the funny papers, who's notsa so funny”).
- Suds McDuff appears on Pyramid.
- The headline “Ale of the Pup” alludes to the Tail o’ the Pup, a famous restaurant shaped like a hot dog.
- While Homer is on the Duff corporate airplane, he orders the pilot to "swing by Heidelberg and drop in on the Oktoberfest. Which is actually held in Munich.
- When the shark has the keg of beer lodged in its jaws, it appears similar to the final scene of Jaws.
