The Simpsons Season 21 Episode 12: Boy Meets Curl
Homer decides to take Marge out for Valentine’s Day but the restaurant is full so they look for an alternative place for their date night. They see an old skating rink and Marge decides they should skate. When the skating rink turns out to be closed Homer and Marge discover the local curling team is meeting there to practice curling. Invited to try curling, Homer and Marge immediately take to the game, well, at least Marge is good at it since she likes the sweeping aspect of the game.
Soon Homer and Marge are practicing curling with the local team. The curling team consists of Principal Skinner, his mother, and the Wiggims. Principal Skinner’s mother spends quite a bit of time berating him as they practice curling. The story goes that years ago at the Olympics, Principal Skinner as a fetus kicked against his mother’s stomach as she vaulted over the pole vault, knocking down the top rung and disqualifying her at the Olympics. Ever since then she has resented the kick that ruined her chances to win a medal. Soon Homer and Marge replace the Wiggums on Skinners’ team. The Springfield curling team is so good they end up qualifying for the Olympics in Vancouver, so its off to Vancouver to compete in the 2010 Olympics.
Homer and Marge practice their duet of “Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off” for their cousin’s wedding. At work Homer opens a fortune cookie, the fortune tells Homer this is his lucky day. Lucky things keep happening to Homer so he heads for the Kwik-E-Mart to buy a lottery ticket. The lottery ticket line is very long and Homer has to wait forever. Homer is supposed to meet Marge at their cousin’s wedding but instead he stays in the line for the lottery ticket. Marge ends up singing the duet by herself, creating an awkward situation. Marge brings Bart on stage with her trying to tell knock-knock jokes and gets booed off the stage. Homer finally buys his lottery ticket and races to the wedding, only to end up driving off the road and tumbling down the hill.
In the 450th episode of The Simpsons Krusty the Clown is confronted by network executives who want to give him a co-star for his comedy show since his ratings with young girls is dropping. Krusty resists but the network executives win out. Princess Penelope is every little girl’s dream, singing love songs while dressed in princess costumes with a fake unicorn at her side. Bart and Homer love Krusty’s show and are horrified. Bart and Milhouse watch the show with the new co-star and go into a fetal position in a catatonic state while Lisa is enthralled with Princess Penelope. Soon all the Krusty store items are in the dumpster along with Krusty while the show’s store is filled with Princess Penelope items. As Krusty reluctantly performs alongside Princess Penelope sparks begin to fly between them.
The Simpsons visit Wet and Wacky World. Grandpa complains about being tired. The family goes to the Splash Zone but Grandpa doesn’t want to go so he sits on the bench shaped like a shark. The family watches the giant Slimu octopus who does a big show for the guests. A young newspaper columnist named Marshall sits with Grandpa on the shark bench. Grandpa tells the reporter all about his experiences in the Navy and how when his ship went down he and his shipmates rode on the back of sharks until help arrived. The reporter wants to hear more stories. The reporter tells Grandpa he will feature Grandpa’s stories in the newspaper.
Ricky Gervais will star in a new animated series for HBO entitled “The Ricky Gervais Show”. Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, along with their friend Karl Pilkington, will serve as producers of the new animated TV comedy. Gervais, Merchant and Pilkington will also star as the voice talent for the new animated series. HBO stated that The Ricky Gervais Show is based on Gervais’ popular podcasts with Pilkington’s musings, similar to the podcasts, inspiring storylines for the series episodes. “Ricky Gervais is one of the most original comic voices working today,” noted Carolyn Strauss, president, HBO Entertainment.
To celebrate The Simpsons 20th anniversary, FOX is going yellow. Beginning January 3rd FOX graphical elements on their website will turn yellow to honor Matt Groening’s show. The Simpsons has become an icon in television history as the longest running television show. The Simpsons holds the record as the longest-running American animated program, the longest-running American sitcom and surpassed Gunsmoke in 2009 as the the longest running American primetime entertainment series. The celebration will cover all FOX web sites, on-air graphics, social-networking pages and on-air promotions including FOX news anchors wearing yellow ties.
Bart is hoping school is closed during the big snowstorm. Bart is excited to find that he has a snow day. After trying to go outside and being blown back into the house due to the snowstorm, Bart settles for a day of video games and TV. The storm downs electrical lines foiling Bart’s plan for electronic play. Bart finds Lisa and Maggie playing fashion show dress up. Bart is desperate and begs them to let him play along. Lisa and Maggie dress Bart up in girls clothes and giggle. Lisa tells Bart he will never have the close relationship she and Maggie have because they are sisters and Bart has no brother. 
Quagmire is having a garage sale. Peter and the family buy some items from the sale. Peter buys an old Ham radio and spends weeks trying to get sound out of the radio, irritating Lois to no end. Stewie asks Brian if he will take him to Baby Gap because he wants to dress as a “baby douche”. Brian says he’ll do it another time. Stewie’s double appears and asks him a question. Brian asks who this is and Stewie tells him he cloned himself so he would have a helper. Stewie calls his cloned double “Bitch Stewie”. Stewie dumbed down Bitch Stewie so he would follow his orders. Brian is duly impressed.
In the 20th anniversary of “Treehouse of Horror” Halloween special from The Simpsons starts with a salute to Alfred Hitchcock with a black and white tale of horror. Lisa has a run in with her teacher and seeks revenge. Bart and Lisa make a deal to “ding-dong ditch” each other’s teacher with a prank so they won’t be found out. Lisa pranks Bart’s teacher by ringing her doorbell and running away. Bart beheads Lisa’s teacher and shows her the gory results. Bart insists “ding-dong ditch” means doing the teacher in and Lisa must hold up her end of the bargain. After a number of failed attempts by Lisa to kill off Bart’s teacher, Bart pressures handing her a knife to do the deed. Lisa decides to take revenge on Bart instead. Chasing Bart with the knife Lisa accidently hits Bart in the head with the knife, killing him, with Lisa lamenting she really didn’t mean to do it. Bart’s teacher meets Lisa at the crime scene and the two of them walk away and sneek a knowing look at each other. 
For the first time in the history of the magazine, Playboy will have an animated woman as its covergirl. And the lucky lady is none other than Marge Simpson.
