Homer visits Winnipeg to save some d'oh!

I remember a late 80's interview with Matt Grenning about the "meaning of the Simpson's" where he said something along the lines of "Americans are stupid." He was surely being inflamatory, but perhaps this is a sign that the Canadians have not escaped the critical eyes of the writer either!

Homer visits Winnipeg to save some d'oh!

Tuesday, January 18th, 2005

Bartley Kives

ONE of the biggest Hollywood celebrities to ever visit Winnipeg got in
and out of town this weekend without being accosted by a single
photographer.

Simpsons family patriarch Homer Simpson spent a sizable chunk of
Sunday's episode in Manitoba, buying up massive quantities of one of our
province's most popular exports -- prescription drugs, which sell here
for a fraction of the retail price in Springfield.

In case you missed it, Homer, Grandpa Simpson, neighbour Ned Flanders
and convenience-store operator Apu drive up to a surprisingly un-snowy
Winnipeg after Mr. Burns cancels his nuclear-power plant's employee drug
plan.

Along the way, the Springfield residents pass an almost photo-realistic
Trans-Canada Highway East sign. Some playful Canadian on the Simpsons
writing team knew enough about Manitoba to tease the local geekdom with
a Gimli turnoff -- on the wrong side of the road.

Another road sign proves the writers have us nailed.

"Welcome to Winnipeg. We were born here. What's your excuse?" greets
Homer, Grandpa, Ned and Apu as they head into town. They quickly land
counterfeit health cards from a trio of hosers who promise "enough drugs
to make Regina look like Saskatoon."

Flanders also meets his Canuck doppleganger, who speaks the same
iddly-diddly language but scares Ned with marijuana.

"Would you like to puff on a reeferino? It's legal here, you know."

After loading up on pills of every colour, Homer and his buddies get
busted by Mounties on their way back into the U.S. Turns out Apu is
suspected of "expressing his faith" in public, a no-no in secular Canada.

The cross-border drugs are seized and the citizens of Springfield cut
off, leading Homer, Grandpa and a repentant Mr. Burns to fly a smuggling
mission to "somewhere In Manitoba."

After loading up on more drugs, Homer offers to pay back his Canadian
co-conspirator by taking him to see the execution of a mentally
challenged prisoner, something that happens "four times a week" in the
U.S. It's a clunky line, but not uncommon in a show that often holds up
Canadian values as a model for a kindler, gentler America.

When the Simpsons visited Toronto in 2002, there was a barrage of
advance publicity. But with most of Canada's TV critics in Los Angeles
for the annual winter TV tour, there was no warning the most lovable oaf
on television was coming to our town.

The first time Winnipeg was name-checked by the show was during the
1995-96 season, when Bart, Nelson, Millhouse and Martin pull up
alongside a bickering family on a road trip to Knoxville, Tenn. After
the father tells his kids to stop fighting, Nelson hits him in the back
of the head, leading to the locally immortal line, "That's it! Back to
Winnipeg!"

Series creator Matt Groening, who has family in small-town Saskatchewan,
would later suggest Homer was born in Winnipeg. But his offhand comment
to a Montreal audience is not interpreted as canon by obsessive Simpsons
fans.