Apocalypse Cow
Encyclopedia
"Apocalypse Cow" is the seventeenth episode of The Simpsons
' nineteenth season
. It was broadcast on April 27, 2008. After joining 4-H
, Bart
saves a cow named Lou and gives it to a girl named Mary (guest voice Zooey Deschanel
), a farm girl. Her father, Cletus
, mistakenly believes it as a token for Mary's hand in marriage, and attempts to get the two married. It was written by Jeff Westbrook
and directed by Nancy Kruse
. 7.69 million viewers tuned into this episode.
watch Saturday morning cartoon
s, starting with "Transclown-O-Morphs
". The show's main character is quickly placed in a life-threatening situation and pleads with the viewers to help him survive by buying the new Transclown-O-Morphs cereal. Fed up with the blatant commercial messages placed in every TV show the kids watch, a frustrated Marge
orders Lisa to make banana bread
and Bart to go to Shelbyville with Homer
to have the beanbag chairs "rebeaned". During this, Bart complains to Homer about a Wikipedia user posting not entirely wholesome content. Homer replies calmly "Don't worry about Wikipedia
, son. When we get back, they'll have changed it. They'll have changed a lot of things. " While Bart and Homer drive to Shelbyville, they see Martin Prince
driving a combine harvester
. Bart asks why someone like Martin would be driving a tractor, and Martin informs him he has joined 4-H
. Lured by the prospect of operating heavy machinery, Bart joins as well and quickly masters driving a tractor. Later, the 4-H
volunteer introduces the members to a competition. Taking them to the calf pen, he informs them that they will each pick a calf and raise it over the summer, at the end of which the cattle will be judged at the county fair.
Bart is stuck with the runt of the litter, and is unable to trade it away. He soon meets Mary, and she encourages Bart not to give up in the competition. Bart agrees, and they re-name the young bull Lou (previously Lulubelle). Throughout the following weeks, Bart takes good care of Lou and helps him become stronger, while also bonding with him and growing to love him. When the day of the competition arrives, Lou has matured into a large bull and is awarded the blue ribbon. Bart is ecstatic until Lisa informs him that the next step is to send Lou to a slaughterhouse
.
Bart tries to convince Marge and Homer to buy the bull, but knowing by experience how expensive it is to care for a large animal, they refuse. That night, Bart hears mooing as he lies in bed and believes it to be a hallucination
caused by his inability to help Lou. He starts yelling in fear, and Lisa arrives and says it is simply his subconscious telling him to stop eating meat
. However, the mooing is suddenly replaced by clucking noises, and Bart discovers that it was only a CD of Tress MacNeille's
"Anguished Animals III," placed by Lisa, in an attempt to turn him vegetarian. Nevertheless, Bart, Lisa, and Lisa's friends, "Compost" and "Solar Panel", go to the slaughterhouse in the middle of the night, determined to save Lou. They discover that Lou, who has been fed growth hormones, is now much bigger, so they use a forklift to pick him up and carry him away (though not without some trial and error). Hurrying from the slaughterhouse, they decide the only safe place they can take him is to Mary's home, which is on a farm. The next morning, they are shocked to discover that Cletus Spuckler
is Mary's father.
Bart gives the cow to Mary, and Mary agrees to take it. Cletus then yells for Brandine to come to the door. When she learns that Bart offered Mary the cow, she informs them that the giving of a cow constitutes a formal proposal of arranged marriage
, despite the fact that Bart already explained the reason of giving the bull to her. Against the wishes of both Bart and Mary, Cletus and Brandine plan the wedding for the next day; Lisa convinces Bart to go along with it long enough to let them figure out a way to save Lou, correctly suspecting that Cletus wouldn't kept the bull if Bart refuses. Upon learning what has happened, Homer and Marge are shocked, and Marge devises a scheme to prevent it, but she also agrees in save Lou, knowing how Bart rarely cares about anyone or anything, while Homer makes sure Ned Flanders
will not disturb. The next day, Marge arrives to stop the wedding, prompting Cletus to send Lou to the slaughterhouse. However, the "Lou" Cletus sent was actually Homer in disguise, while the real Lou is being sent to India
to be treated like a god. They save Homer from the slaughterhouse after a close shave, after which Homer vows to cut back on his meat eating, and Bart reflects with pride that he can finally say that, "I had a cow, man."
The episode's title is a reference to the film Apocalypse Now
. "Transclown-O-Morphs" are a parody of Transformers
, complete with a cartoon opening reminiscent of actual 1980s cartoons. The training of Lou punching meat is similar to a scene in Rocky
. Spider Pig makes an appearance in the episode. When Bart is combining, he goes over manure and creates DVD copies of Pirates of the Caribbean 3. Marge stops the wedding just like she does in "Little Big Girl
". When Bart says goodbye to Lou at the airport, he used the same speech Rick said to Ilsa at the end of Casablanca
. Mary's middle name is WrestleMania
.
in an Academy Award nominated film." Robert Canning of IGN also enjoyed the episode. Although he mentioned that the episode's plot had already been done numerous times, he enjoyed the unique way in which it was told and was surprised by some of the plot elements, such as Bart being forced to marry Mary. He gave the episode 7.5 out of 10. In a 2008 interview, Matt Groening
named the episode his favorite of the series, citing the part with Homer in the slaughterhouse as the scene he liked best.
Jeff Westbrook
won a Writers Guild of America Award
in the animation category for writing the episode.
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
The Simpsons (season 19)
The Simpsons nineteenth season originally aired on the Fox network between September 23, 2007 and May 18, 2008.-Production:The nineteenth season of The Simpsons is the first one produced after the movie and contained seven hold-over episodes from season 18's JABF production line...
. It was broadcast on April 27, 2008. After joining 4-H
4-H
4-H in the United States is a youth organization administered by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture of the United States Department of Agriculture , with the mission of "engaging youth to reach their fullest potential while advancing the field of youth development." The name represents...
, Bart
Bart Simpson
Bartholomew JoJo "Bart" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the Simpson family. He is voiced by actress Nancy Cartwright and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
saves a cow named Lou and gives it to a girl named Mary (guest voice Zooey Deschanel
Zooey Deschanel
Zooey Claire Deschanel is an American actress, musician, and singer-songwriter. In 1999, Deschanel made her film debut in Mumford, followed by her breakout role as young protagonist William Miller's troubled older sister Anita in Cameron Crowe's 2000 semi-autobiographical film Almost Famous...
), a farm girl. Her father, Cletus
Cletus Spuckler
Cletus Delroy Spuckler is a recurring character in the Fox animated series, The Simpsons, and is voiced by Hank Azaria. Cletus is Springfield's resident hillbilly stereotype. He is very messy and is usually portrayed wearing a white sleeveless shirt and pair of blue jeans.- Biography :Cletus was...
, mistakenly believes it as a token for Mary's hand in marriage, and attempts to get the two married. It was written by Jeff Westbrook
Jeff Westbrook
Jeff Westbrook is a TV writer best known for his work on The Simpsons and Futurama, for which he is a two-time winner of the WGA Award....
and directed by Nancy Kruse
Nancy Kruse
Nancy Kruse is a former animation director on The Simpsons. She started working on the show during the first season as a background clean-up artist. After that she did background layout and character layout for several years on the show before becoming an assistant director...
. 7.69 million viewers tuned into this episode.
Plot
Bart and LisaLisa Simpson
Lisa Marie Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons. She is the middle child of the Simpson family. Voiced by Yeardley Smith, Lisa first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987. Cartoonist Matt Groening...
watch Saturday morning cartoon
Saturday morning cartoon
A Saturday morning cartoon is the colloquial term for the animated television programming that has typically been scheduled on Saturday mornings on the major American television networks from the 1960s to the present; the genre's peak in popularity mostly ended in the 1990s while the popularity of...
s, starting with "Transclown-O-Morphs
Transformers
A transformer is a device that transfers electrical energy from one circuit to another by magnetic coupling.Transformer may also refer to:* ASUS Eee Pad Transformer, an Android 3.2 Honeycomb tablet computer manufacturer by Asus...
". The show's main character is quickly placed in a life-threatening situation and pleads with the viewers to help him survive by buying the new Transclown-O-Morphs cereal. Fed up with the blatant commercial messages placed in every TV show the kids watch, a frustrated Marge
Marge Simpson
Marjorie "Marge" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the eponymous family. She is voiced by actress Julie Kavner and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
orders Lisa to make banana bread
Banana bread
Banana bread is a type of bread that is made with mashed bananas. It is often a moist, sweet, cake-like quick bread; however, there are some banana bread recipes that are traditional-style yeast breads.-History:...
and Bart to go to Shelbyville with Homer
Homer Simpson
Homer Jay Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons and the patriarch of the eponymous family. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and first appeared on television, along with the rest of his family, in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
to have the beanbag chairs "rebeaned". During this, Bart complains to Homer about a Wikipedia user posting not entirely wholesome content. Homer replies calmly "Don't worry about Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
, son. When we get back, they'll have changed it. They'll have changed a lot of things. " While Bart and Homer drive to Shelbyville, they see Martin Prince
Martin Prince
Martin Prince, Jr. is a recurring character in the Fox animated series, The Simpsons, and is voiced by Russi Taylor. Martin is Bart Simpson's classmate, and is Lisa Simpson's rival in intelligence, as well as Nelson Muntz's favorite target for bullying...
driving a combine harvester
Combine harvester
The combine harvester, or simply combine, is a machine that harvests grain crops. The name derives from the fact that it combines three separate operations, reaping, threshing, and winnowing, into a single process. Among the crops harvested with a combine are wheat, oats, rye, barley, corn ,...
. Bart asks why someone like Martin would be driving a tractor, and Martin informs him he has joined 4-H
4-H
4-H in the United States is a youth organization administered by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture of the United States Department of Agriculture , with the mission of "engaging youth to reach their fullest potential while advancing the field of youth development." The name represents...
. Lured by the prospect of operating heavy machinery, Bart joins as well and quickly masters driving a tractor. Later, the 4-H
4-H
4-H in the United States is a youth organization administered by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture of the United States Department of Agriculture , with the mission of "engaging youth to reach their fullest potential while advancing the field of youth development." The name represents...
volunteer introduces the members to a competition. Taking them to the calf pen, he informs them that they will each pick a calf and raise it over the summer, at the end of which the cattle will be judged at the county fair.
Bart is stuck with the runt of the litter, and is unable to trade it away. He soon meets Mary, and she encourages Bart not to give up in the competition. Bart agrees, and they re-name the young bull Lou (previously Lulubelle). Throughout the following weeks, Bart takes good care of Lou and helps him become stronger, while also bonding with him and growing to love him. When the day of the competition arrives, Lou has matured into a large bull and is awarded the blue ribbon. Bart is ecstatic until Lisa informs him that the next step is to send Lou to a slaughterhouse
Slaughterhouse
A slaughterhouse or abattoir is a facility where animals are killed for consumption as food products.Approximately 45-50% of the animal can be turned into edible products...
.
Bart tries to convince Marge and Homer to buy the bull, but knowing by experience how expensive it is to care for a large animal, they refuse. That night, Bart hears mooing as he lies in bed and believes it to be a hallucination
Hallucination
A hallucination, in the broadest sense of the word, is a perception in the absence of a stimulus. In a stricter sense, hallucinations are defined as perceptions in a conscious and awake state in the absence of external stimuli which have qualities of real perception, in that they are vivid,...
caused by his inability to help Lou. He starts yelling in fear, and Lisa arrives and says it is simply his subconscious telling him to stop eating meat
Vegetarianism
Vegetarianism encompasses the practice of following plant-based diets , with or without the inclusion of dairy products or eggs, and with the exclusion of meat...
. However, the mooing is suddenly replaced by clucking noises, and Bart discovers that it was only a CD of Tress MacNeille's
Tress MacNeille
Tress MacNeille is an American voice actress best known for providing various voices on the animated series The Simpsons, Futurama, Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, Disney's House of Mouse, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Rugrats, All Grown Up!, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, and Dave the...
"Anguished Animals III," placed by Lisa, in an attempt to turn him vegetarian. Nevertheless, Bart, Lisa, and Lisa's friends, "Compost" and "Solar Panel", go to the slaughterhouse in the middle of the night, determined to save Lou. They discover that Lou, who has been fed growth hormones, is now much bigger, so they use a forklift to pick him up and carry him away (though not without some trial and error). Hurrying from the slaughterhouse, they decide the only safe place they can take him is to Mary's home, which is on a farm. The next morning, they are shocked to discover that Cletus Spuckler
Cletus Spuckler
Cletus Delroy Spuckler is a recurring character in the Fox animated series, The Simpsons, and is voiced by Hank Azaria. Cletus is Springfield's resident hillbilly stereotype. He is very messy and is usually portrayed wearing a white sleeveless shirt and pair of blue jeans.- Biography :Cletus was...
is Mary's father.
Bart gives the cow to Mary, and Mary agrees to take it. Cletus then yells for Brandine to come to the door. When she learns that Bart offered Mary the cow, she informs them that the giving of a cow constitutes a formal proposal of arranged marriage
Arranged marriage
An arranged marriage is a practice in which someone other than the couple getting married makes the selection of the persons to be wed, meanwhile curtailing or avoiding the process of courtship. Such marriages had deep roots in royal and aristocratic families around the world...
, despite the fact that Bart already explained the reason of giving the bull to her. Against the wishes of both Bart and Mary, Cletus and Brandine plan the wedding for the next day; Lisa convinces Bart to go along with it long enough to let them figure out a way to save Lou, correctly suspecting that Cletus wouldn't kept the bull if Bart refuses. Upon learning what has happened, Homer and Marge are shocked, and Marge devises a scheme to prevent it, but she also agrees in save Lou, knowing how Bart rarely cares about anyone or anything, while Homer makes sure Ned Flanders
Ned Flanders
Nedward "Ned" Flanders, Jr. is a recurring fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Harry Shearer, and first appeared in the series premiere episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire". He is the next door neighbor to the Simpson family and is generally...
will not disturb. The next day, Marge arrives to stop the wedding, prompting Cletus to send Lou to the slaughterhouse. However, the "Lou" Cletus sent was actually Homer in disguise, while the real Lou is being sent to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
to be treated like a god. They save Homer from the slaughterhouse after a close shave, after which Homer vows to cut back on his meat eating, and Bart reflects with pride that he can finally say that, "I had a cow, man."
Cultural references
Apocalypse Now
Apocalypse Now is a 1979 American war film set during the Vietnam War, produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The central character is US Army special operations officer Captain Benjamin L. Willard , of MACV-SOG, an assassin sent to kill the renegade and presumed insane Special Forces...
. "Transclown-O-Morphs" are a parody of Transformers
The Transformers (TV series)
The Transformers is an animated television series depicting a war among giant robots who could transform into vehicles, other objects and animal-like forms. Written and recorded in America, the series was animated in Japan and South Korea...
, complete with a cartoon opening reminiscent of actual 1980s cartoons. The training of Lou punching meat is similar to a scene in Rocky
Rocky
Rocky is a 1976 American sports drama film directed by John G. Avildsen and both written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It tells the rags to riches American Dream story of Rocky Balboa, an uneducated but kind-hearted debt collector for a loan shark in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...
. Spider Pig makes an appearance in the episode. When Bart is combining, he goes over manure and creates DVD copies of Pirates of the Caribbean 3. Marge stops the wedding just like she does in "Little Big Girl
Little Big Girl
"Little Big Girl" is the twelfth episode of The Simpsons eighteenth season, which was originally broadcast on February 11, 2007. It was written by Don Payne, and directed by Raymond S. Persi. Natalie Portman guest starred as a new character, Darcy. The title is a play on the Dustin Hoffman movie...
". When Bart says goodbye to Lou at the airport, he used the same speech Rick said to Ilsa at the end of Casablanca
Casablanca (film)
Casablanca is a 1942 American romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid, and featuring Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre and Dooley Wilson. Set during World War II, it focuses on a man torn between, in...
. Mary's middle name is WrestleMania
WrestleMania
WrestleMania is a professional wrestling pay-per-view event, produced annually in late March or early April by WWE, a professional wrestling promotion based in Connecticut...
.
Reception
7.7 million viewers tuned into this episode, higher than the previous three episodes. Richard Keller of TV Squad thought of the episode as another decent installment in the Simpsons like other Bart and Lisa centric episodes. He thought "it was unfortunate that these kinds of episodes couldn't have dispersed more evenly throughout the season", and that "episodes that center around Bart and Lisa tend to be more interesting...because those characters have more dimensions, and their diverse personalities and passions there is more to explore about them." He also thought of "the idea of Bart being put into a nature-related environment was unnatural like putting Dustin DiamondDustin Diamond
Dustin Neil Diamond is an American actor, musician, director, and stand-up comedian best known for his role as Samuel "Screech" Powers in the television shows Saved by the Bell, Good Morning, Miss Bliss, Saved by the Bell: The College Years and Saved by the Bell: The New Class.-Career:Diamond's...
in an Academy Award nominated film." Robert Canning of IGN also enjoyed the episode. Although he mentioned that the episode's plot had already been done numerous times, he enjoyed the unique way in which it was told and was surprised by some of the plot elements, such as Bart being forced to marry Mary. He gave the episode 7.5 out of 10. In a 2008 interview, Matt Groening
Matt Groening
Matthew Abram "Matt" Groening is an American cartoonist, screenwriter, and producer. He is the creator of the comic strip Life in Hell as well as two successful television series, The Simpsons and Futurama....
named the episode his favorite of the series, citing the part with Homer in the slaughterhouse as the scene he liked best.
Jeff Westbrook
Jeff Westbrook
Jeff Westbrook is a TV writer best known for his work on The Simpsons and Futurama, for which he is a two-time winner of the WGA Award....
won a Writers Guild of America Award
Writers Guild of America Award
The Writers Guild of America Award for outstanding achievements in film, television, and radio has been presented annually by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America, West since 1949...
in the animation category for writing the episode.