“Who is that firebrand, Smithers?” – C.M. Burns
“That’s Homer Simpson, sir.” – Mr. Smithers
“Simpson, eh? New man?” – C.M. Burns
“Actually, sir, he thwarted your campaign for governor, you ran over his son, he saved the plant from meltdown, his wife painted you in the nude.” – Mr. Smithers
“Doesn’t ring a bell.” – C.M. Burns
Dead Homer Society 
11 responses to “Quote of the Day”
I like how this was a silly running gag, then spun into a reason for Homer to have potentially shot Burns.
It was Season 7, things were getting bigger and bigger with each new season. Sideshow Bob should have never threatened Springfield with a nuclear bomb back in Season 3 or even 5 IMO.
*would
They had the good sense to retire it shortly after, too, in “Homer the Smithers”. I can’t think of a better way for it to go out than “All the recent events of your life have revolved around him in some way.”
They retired the prank calls to Moe’s around the same time, too. I commend the classic era writers for, among many other things, knowing when a running gag had worn out its welcome.
This is true, although I wouldn’t have minded more from Burns, as it’s fitting that a wealthy old evil billionaire can’t be bothered to remember his employees’ names, no matter how often he interacts with them. The prank calls did wear a little bit thin and we’re becoming dated, though, so it’s good that they did away with those.
Does Zombie Simpsons have any tired running gags beyond Ralph being dumb/random or Homer’s obnoxious, loud whispers? Do I even want to know?
*were becoming
Smithers being supergay comes to mind. “I love boobies!” is from one of those awful future episodes.
Does that even count as a running gag? Do they do it a lot? Pretty terrible, if so. I read about that scene and it was dumb as hell. It’s a shame what they’ve done to Smithers, along with the rest of them.
The boobies joke isn’t a running gag in itself, but Smithers being so gay it’s impossible for Burns to not know the truth? Yup. I may be wrong, but I think Smithers is now a Democrat (I guess Bob’s influence was too big)
A lot of Zombie running gags are just weird and confusing. Like how Homer would suddenly have a pennant for every occasion imaginable, or Bart and Milhouse linking arms and dancing in a circle celebrating mundane things like cartoon violence or store credit. I don’t know what the thought process behind these was, other than the writers subscribing to the idea that “random” automatically equals “funny”.
So Zombie Simpsons has its own gags? I’m surprised.