Difference between revisions of "Goo Goo Gai Pan"

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"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on Wu!"

―Madam Wu

"Goo Goo Gai Pan" is the twelfth episode of season 16. It originally aired on March 13, 2005 and was written by Lawrence Talbot and directed by Lance Kramer. It guest starred Robert Wagner, and Lucy Liu as Madam Wu. It was the first appearance of Ling Bouvier.

Synopsis

"Selma has a severe hot flash while giving Mr. Burns his driving test. Dr. Hibbert explains (with help from a video starring Robert Wagner) that Selma is experiencing the onset of menopause. Selma, decides she wants a baby rather than grow old alone. Adoption is suggested, but the Springfield orphanage is empty. Lisa suggests adopting a baby girl from China. One problem: the Chinese government only allows married couples to adopt. No problem; Selma writes down a name for her husband - Homer's - and "The Simpsons are going to China!" (with Marge acting as Bart and Lisa's nanny) so Selma and Homer can pick up the baby together."

Plot

Homer as a Buddha statue

Selma gives Mr. Burns his driving test to replace his old license, which expired in 1909. During the test, she experiences a hot flash and is later taken to the hospital. She learns that she is experiencing menopause (which is explained in a video with Robert Wagner). She is saddened that now she can't have children. Lisa suggests that she adopt a child. However, after her first choice, one of Cletus' children, is taken back, Selma decides to adopt a child from China. Although her forms are in order, Selma learns that she has to be married to legally get a child. She puts down the second name she thinks of, after asking the agency if they knew who MacGyver was, and being told yes, she puts down Homer Simpson.

While on the plane to China, Selma informs Homer that he must pretend to be her husband. Shocked, he later decides to do it for Marge. When they arrive, Selma claims that Bart and Lisa are their own children and Marge is their nanny. The Chinese adoption agent, Madam Wu, tells them that they will get a baby in a few days. Reasoning that he has no chance of being outed, Homer claims he is an acrobat when asked and is later called to perform a stunt when the main performer in a show suffers a "bullet-related death" from questioning the Communist Party; Homer is told to perform to forestall a riot brought on by the audience's realization that the CCP is not infallible. Homer himself gets severely hurt performing and is treated in a hospital. There, Selma gets her daughter, whom she names Ling and who is fond of grabbing Homer's eyes. When everyone leaves, Homer and Marge snuggle and are caught by Wu, who takes back Selma's baby.

The Simpsons decide to bring back Ling. At the nursery, they dress and spray paint Homer as a golden Buddha statue. The Chinese guards bring him in, although Homer can hardly keep in the pain they are causing trying to move him by inserting a hook into his nostril. He is able to find Ling and get her out. In Tiananmen Square, they are confronted by Madam Wu in a tank and Selma is able to convince her that she should keep Ling, although she needs to sign a form just to talk to her, from bureaucrat to bureaucrat. Wu says that she herself had to be raised by her mother, as her father choked to death the day before the Heimlich maneuver was invented, explaining her leniency (though she does stop Homer from smuggling a panda cub in his luggage). The Simpsons, Selma, and Ling then depart China via junk.

Production

The episode's writer, Dana Gould, were adopting a child from China at the time the episode was being aired so he went under a pseudonym of Lawrence Talbot in case the episode was seen by the orphanage workers in China and they got offended by the episode. Dana Gould's daughter Lulu was the design of baby Ling. Gould chose the name Lawrence Talbot because that's the alter-ego of the Wolf Man.^[1] Tim Long directed Robert Wagner's scenes in the episode.^[2] Homer pretending to be Selma's husband is a reference to something Dana Gould saw when adopting a baby, where a lesbian had a fake husband so she could adopt. Gould also mentioned that this was his favorite episode because it's so close to home for him.^[1]

During the credits of the episode, David Silverman teaches the viewers how to draw Bart. However, the way he taught you was not actually how he draws Bart in reality. Erick Tran directed the live action Silverman segment.^[3]

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  Production Script for the Episode

Reception

Several of the jokes in the episode were taken poorly by China, with the episode being banned. These include jokes about the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, Mao Zedong (who Homer calls "a little angel who killed 50 million people") and Homer portraying a Buddha statue.^[4]

Robert Canning of IGN said that a majority of the jokes in the episode fall flat. He also felt that the actual storyline would take about 10 minutes if not for all the China filler. However, he did enjoy Robert Wagner's segment and the dragons. He gave the episode a 6.5 rating overall.^[5]

As of April 2018, the episode has a 7.8 rating on IMDb^[6] and a 8.0 rating on TV.com.^[7]

References

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