Kiss Kiss, Bang Bangalore
Encyclopedia
“Kiss Kiss, Bang Bangalore” is the seventeenth episode of the seventeenth season
of The Simpsons
.
learns that the nuclear power plant is being shut down and outsourced
to India
. After Homer is sent to train the new employees, he becomes power-hungry. Meanwhile, Selma and Patty meet their Hollywood heartthrob, Richard Dean Anderson
, who played MacGyver
, who stops by to ask for directions to a convention about his newest show Stargate SG-1
, only to find that he is totally uninterested in MacGyver and only did it for the pay. Meanwhile, Homer realizes to his horror that he has come to India (which he has mistaken for Indiana
, among other misconceptions). After a brief standoff with a sacred cow, Homer looks for a relative of Apu
named Kavi, who should be around somewhere. After randomly asking people, he finally gets the right man on the second try.
Back in Springfield
, Patty and Selma kidnap Richard Dean Anderson
from his Stargate SG-1 convention and tie him to a chair. From there, he manages to escape by using one of his contacts to focus the sunlight and burning the ropes, only to discover that he loves escaping, and starts having Patty and Selma put him through increasingly complex MacGyver-esque kidnapping trials. Patty and Selma eventually tire of Anderson's antics, and decide to drive him away. They sit him down one night and show him slides of their vacation to the horse-drawn carriage museum in Alberta, Canada. Anderson is so overwhelmed with boredom he jumps out the window and never returns.
In India
, Homer is coming to love the concept of outsourcing. With “help” from a book Marge gave him to read on the plane trip, The Cereal Is the Prize, Homer is able to spur the "natives" into a working frenzy (actually they assume that if they cheer, they will be allowed to go back to work). Homer, Smithers, and Mr. Burns
get a positive (if inaccurate) impression from this, and Homer is put in total charge of the power plant while Mr. Burns takes time off to have fun floating down the Ganges with corpses he has befriended. Homer, left in charge of a slightly-overgrown nuclear power plant on a river in the middle of nowhere, appraises the Hindu deities
and decides he might be a god himself. About a week later, Lenny and Carl come to the India plant, invited by a card claiming that Homer is to become a god.
Soon, the rest of the Simpson family, worried about Homer, travel to India and, with Mr. Burns, journey upriver on a PBR
boat and find that Homer is ruling the plant like a god. Horrified, Marge and the kids tell the plant workers that Homer is not a god. They cheerfully explain that they know that he isn't a god, and the reasons why they are worshiping him is because of the American workplace routines he has instituted, like coffee break
s, early retirement, personal days, and "muffin baskets and mylar balloons on your birthday!". It is revealed that Homer has instituted these routines in the workers' binding contracts, treating the workers as good human beings in exchange for their help for outsourcing the power to Springfield, much to Marge’s relief. Lisa then admits that she's proud of Homer for 'outsourcing the American worker's sense of entitlement and privilege'. However, Mr. Burns calls this “madness” and decides to close down the plant and move it to an area 'where the workers are more desperate and ignorant...Springfield'. Burns then fires all the workers; however, this makes the workers delighted due to the various firing clauses Homer has written into their contracts ("Golden parachutes for all!"). The episode ends with the Simpsons, Lenny, Carl, Patty, Selma, Richard Dean Anderson, and Smithers joining in a Bollywood
style dance at the plant. The song sung at the end is Kishore Kumar
's "Pal bhar ke liye" from the 1970 Hindi film Johny Mera Naam
, starring Dev Anand
.
, a 2005 film starring Robert Downey Jr.
A small part of the episode is referent to Indiana Jones
. For example, the way Homer dresses is referent to what Mola Ram wears in the Indy film Temple of Doom
. As well, the people chant to Homer in a similar way they do for Ram in the film, and India portion of the episode is similar to Temple of Doom
overall. The scene in which the Simpsons along with Smithers and Burns travel up the river is a direct reference to the PT boat in Apocalypse Now
and the Indian's apparent worship of Homer is also a reference to this film.
Although it is never mentioned by name, the horse-drawn carriage museum in Alberta is the Remington Carriage Museum
in Cardston, Alberta
. The slides that Patty and Selma show depict the museum's main building, a statue of the museum's founder, Don Remington, and several carriages in their collection. When the episode first aired, museum officials said they were honored by the reference, even if it was in the context of boring summer vacations.
The Simpsons (season 17)
The Simpsons' seventeenth season originally aired between September 2005 and May 2006, beginning on Sunday, September 11, 2005. It broke Fox's tradition of pushing its shows' season premieres back to November to accommodate the Major League Baseball games airing on the network during September...
of The Simpsons
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...
.
Plot
On movie night at the nuclear plant, HomerHomer 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...
learns that the nuclear power plant is being shut down and outsourced
Outsourcing
Outsourcing is the process of contracting a business function to someone else.-Overview:The term outsourcing is used inconsistently but usually involves the contracting out of a business function - commonly one previously performed in-house - to an external provider...
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...
. After Homer is sent to train the new employees, he becomes power-hungry. Meanwhile, Selma and Patty meet their Hollywood heartthrob, Richard Dean Anderson
Richard Dean Anderson
Richard Dean Anderson is an American television and film actor, producer and composer. He began his television career in 1976 as Dr. Jeff Webber in the American soap opera series General Hospital, then rose to prominence as the lead actor in the television series MacGyver...
, who played MacGyver
MacGyver
MacGyver is an American action-adventure television series created by Lee David Zlotoff. Henry Winkler and John Rich were the executive producers. The show ran for seven seasons on ABC in the United States and various other networks abroad from 1985 to 1992. The series was filmed in Los Angeles...
, who stops by to ask for directions to a convention about his newest show Stargate SG-1
Stargate SG-1
Stargate SG-1 is a Canadian-American adventure and military science fiction television series and part of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Stargate franchise. The show, created by Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner, is based on the 1994 feature film Stargate by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich...
, only to find that he is totally uninterested in MacGyver and only did it for the pay. Meanwhile, Homer realizes to his horror that he has come to India (which he has mistaken for Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
, among other misconceptions). After a brief standoff with a sacred cow, Homer looks for a relative of Apu
Apu Nahasapeemapetilon
Apu Nahasapeemapetilon is a character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Hank Azaria and first appeared in the episode "The Telltale Head". Apu is the proprietor of the Kwik-E-Mart, a popular convenience store in Springfield, and a friend of Homer Simpson. He is also...
named Kavi, who should be around somewhere. After randomly asking people, he finally gets the right man on the second try.
Back in Springfield
Springfield (The Simpsons)
Springfield is the fictional town in which the American animated sitcom The Simpsons is set. A mid-sized town in an undetermined state of the United States, Springfield acts as a complete universe in which characters can explore the issues faced by modern society. The geography of the town and its...
, Patty and Selma kidnap Richard Dean Anderson
Richard Dean Anderson
Richard Dean Anderson is an American television and film actor, producer and composer. He began his television career in 1976 as Dr. Jeff Webber in the American soap opera series General Hospital, then rose to prominence as the lead actor in the television series MacGyver...
from his Stargate SG-1 convention and tie him to a chair. From there, he manages to escape by using one of his contacts to focus the sunlight and burning the ropes, only to discover that he loves escaping, and starts having Patty and Selma put him through increasingly complex MacGyver-esque kidnapping trials. Patty and Selma eventually tire of Anderson's antics, and decide to drive him away. They sit him down one night and show him slides of their vacation to the horse-drawn carriage museum in Alberta, Canada. Anderson is so overwhelmed with boredom he jumps out the window and never returns.
In 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...
, Homer is coming to love the concept of outsourcing. With “help” from a book Marge gave him to read on the plane trip, The Cereal Is the Prize, Homer is able to spur the "natives" into a working frenzy (actually they assume that if they cheer, they will be allowed to go back to work). Homer, Smithers, and Mr. Burns
Montgomery Burns
Charles Montgomery "Monty" Burns, usually referred to as Mr. Burns, is a recurring fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons, who is voiced by Harry Shearer and previously Christopher Collins. Burns is the evil owner of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant and is Homer...
get a positive (if inaccurate) impression from this, and Homer is put in total charge of the power plant while Mr. Burns takes time off to have fun floating down the Ganges with corpses he has befriended. Homer, left in charge of a slightly-overgrown nuclear power plant on a river in the middle of nowhere, appraises the Hindu deities
Hindu deities
Within Hinduism a large number of personal gods are worshipped as murtis. These beings are either aspects of the supreme Brahman, Avatars of the supreme being, or significantly powerful entities known as devas. The exact nature of belief in regards to each deity varies between differing Hindu...
and decides he might be a god himself. About a week later, Lenny and Carl come to the India plant, invited by a card claiming that Homer is to become a god.
Soon, the rest of the Simpson family, worried about Homer, travel to India and, with Mr. Burns, journey upriver on a PBR
Patrol Boat, River
Patrol Boat, River , or PBR, is the United States Navy designation for a small rigid-hulled patrol boat used in the Vietnam War from March 1966 until the end of 1971...
boat and find that Homer is ruling the plant like a god. Horrified, Marge and the kids tell the plant workers that Homer is not a god. They cheerfully explain that they know that he isn't a god, and the reasons why they are worshiping him is because of the American workplace routines he has instituted, like coffee break
Coffee Break
Coffee Break is an online book on the NCBI Bookshelf created and maintained by staff at NCBI, a branch of the National Institutes of Health. The book consists of small chapters which are each written about a different topic in the world of Biomedicine. There are currently 32 chapters, and it was...
s, early retirement, personal days, and "muffin baskets and mylar balloons on your birthday!". It is revealed that Homer has instituted these routines in the workers' binding contracts, treating the workers as good human beings in exchange for their help for outsourcing the power to Springfield, much to Marge’s relief. Lisa then admits that she's proud of Homer for 'outsourcing the American worker's sense of entitlement and privilege'. However, Mr. Burns calls this “madness” and decides to close down the plant and move it to an area 'where the workers are more desperate and ignorant...Springfield'. Burns then fires all the workers; however, this makes the workers delighted due to the various firing clauses Homer has written into their contracts ("Golden parachutes for all!"). The episode ends with the Simpsons, Lenny, Carl, Patty, Selma, Richard Dean Anderson, and Smithers joining in a Bollywood
Bollywood
Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
style dance at the plant. The song sung at the end is Kishore Kumar
Kishore Kumar
Kishore Kumar , born Abhas Kumar Ganguly, was an Indian film playback singer and an actor who also worked as lyricist, composer, producer, director, screenwriter and scriptwriter.Kishore Kumar was one of India's greatest performers of the late 20th century...
's "Pal bhar ke liye" from the 1970 Hindi film Johny Mera Naam
Johny Mera Naam
Johny Mera Naam is a 1970 Indian Hindi movie. Directed by Vijay Anand, it stars the director's brother, Dev Anand and Pran in the role of a pair of brothers separated in childhood. Hema Malini, Jeevan, Premnath, I. S. Johar and Iftekhar also star in this movie. It is considered a Dev Anand...
, starring Dev Anand
Dev Anand
Dharam Dev Anand , better known as Dev Anand , is an Indian Hindi Cinema actor, director and film producer. Dev is the second of three brothers who were active in Hindi Cinema. His brothers are Chetan Anand and Vijay Anand. Their sister, Sheel Kanta Kapur, is the mother of renowned Hindi and...
.
Cultural references
The title is based on Kiss Kiss Bang BangKiss Kiss Bang Bang
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a 2005 crime/dark comedy film, which engages many conventions of the classic film noir genre in a tongue-in-cheek fashion. It is based, in part, on the novel Bodies Are Where You Find Them by Brett Halliday. The cast includes Robert Downey, Jr., Val Kilmer, Michelle Monaghan...
, a 2005 film starring Robert Downey Jr.
Robert Downey Jr.
Robert John Downey, Jr. is an American actor. Downey made his screen debut in 1970 at the age of five when he appeared in his father's film Pound, and has worked consistently in film and television ever since. During the 1980s he had roles in a series of coming of age films associated with the...
A small part of the episode is referent to Indiana Jones
Indiana Jones
Colonel Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr., Ph.D. is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Indiana Jones franchise. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg created the character in homage to the action heroes of 1930s film serials...
. For example, the way Homer dresses is referent to what Mola Ram wears in the Indy film Temple of Doom
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a 1984 American adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg. It is the second film in the Indiana Jones franchise and prequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark . After arriving in India, Indiana Jones is asked by a desperate village to find a mystical stone...
. As well, the people chant to Homer in a similar way they do for Ram in the film, and India portion of the episode is similar to Temple of Doom
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a 1984 American adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg. It is the second film in the Indiana Jones franchise and prequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark . After arriving in India, Indiana Jones is asked by a desperate village to find a mystical stone...
overall. The scene in which the Simpsons along with Smithers and Burns travel up the river is a direct reference to the PT boat in Apocalypse Now
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...
and the Indian's apparent worship of Homer is also a reference to this film.
Although it is never mentioned by name, the horse-drawn carriage museum in Alberta is the Remington Carriage Museum
Remington Carriage Museum
The Remington Carriage Museum is located alongside the rolling foothills of Cardston, Alberta, Canada. Opened in 1993, and the largest of its kind in the world, the Remington Carriage Museum displays more than 240 carriages. The museum is a public facility providing visitors with an appreciation of...
in Cardston, Alberta
Cardston, Alberta
-Demographics:The population of the Town of Cardston according to its 2007 municipal census is 3,578.In 2006, it had a population of 3,452 living in 1,234 dwellings, a 0.7% decrease from 2001...
. The slides that Patty and Selma show depict the museum's main building, a statue of the museum's founder, Don Remington, and several carriages in their collection. When the episode first aired, museum officials said they were honored by the reference, even if it was in the context of boring summer vacations.