Catch 'em if You Can

"Catch 'em if You Can"
The Simpsons episode
Episode no.	Season 15
Directed by	Matthew Nastuk
Written by	Ian Maxtone-Graham
Original air dates	April 25, 2004
Episode features
Couch gag	The family is decorated on top of a giant cake.

"Catch 'em If You Can" is the 18th episode of The Simpsons' fifteenth season, first aired on April 25, 2004.

Plot

Bart lectures the other students on the bus on the topic of water balloons. After hitting Lisa with one he fights with her all the way home. Marge stops them and tells the pair that they are going to Dayton, Ohio to celebrate Uncle Tyrone's birthday. Bart and Lisa aren't thrilled with the idea; they get to stay home. As a family activity they all rent the film Love Story; Bart and Lisa are bored by it such that they ruin any moment the film might have created for Homer and Marge. Homer and Marge look forward to their trip without the kids. At the airport, they see folks on another line, dressed in Hawaiian shirts and skimpy tops, going to Miami. On a whim, they decide to forego the visit to Uncle Tyrone and get on the plane to Miami as a second honeymoon.

Lisa and Bart are watching TV with Grandpa, when they learn that the hotel in Dayton where Marge and Homer are supposed to be staying has been completely wiped out by a tornado. They suddenly get a call from Mom, informing them that all is well: "Just checking in." Suspicious, Bart uses *69 to find out the last incoming phone number and discovers their parents are in Miami. They get Grandpa to take them there, promising him that many single beautiful pensioners will be available. While Bart and Lisa go off in search of their parents, Grandpa goes looking for companionship. Marge and Homer see the kids waiting for them outside their hotel room door, so they take off again, but Bart and Lisa are on their trail. They won't have any trouble paying for their chase, considering Homer has Ned Flanders' credit card and Bart has Rod Flanders' junior credit card.

Homer and Marge are in Atlantic City when they spot the kids once more, so they go on the run from them in an instrumental musical montage and an animated sequence (see below). Meanwhile Abe has found companionship in Miami with a man named Raoul who "appreciates" his rambling stories, by turning his hearing aid off. Homer and Marge finally find themselves in Niagara Falls, but the kids are there as well. Bart and Lisa confront them and Homer and Marge finally give up and allow the kids to stay with them. The kids start to mess about in the room, making Homer and Marge even more despondent.

That night, Bart and Lisa, feeling a little guilty, decide to give their parents their space and go to an amusement park, only to find their parents are already there. Homer and Marge, thinking the children are chasing them again, run from the pair to find refuge in a giant inflatable castle, which their lovemaking antics cause to fall into the Niagara River. The rescue teams who are Canadian and American start to fight over who is to rescue. The couple floats toward the falls and certain death only to be saved by their large flotation device. Later they pass by the Maid of the Mist, whose captain asks them if they need help. A naked Marge and Homer shout they don't need any from inside the inflatable castle, as it floats away.

Later back in Springfield, Ned and Rod Flanders receive their monthly credit card bills and gasp at the charges Homer and Bart have run up.

Trivia

• Homer is seated on an airplane reading The Economist and he says, "Look at me. I'm reading The Economist. Did you know Indonesia is at a crossroads?". Sure enough, in that week's issue of The Economist, there was an article entitled, "Investing in Indonesia: at a Crossroads." This is typical of the publication's dry wit.
• Marge and Homer go to Miami despite the fact that they were banned from the entire State of Florida in Kill the Alligator and Run.
• In the video store, there's a poster for Futurama in the background. Also, the name Lackluster Video is used in the Family Guy straight to DVD feature Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story.
• At one scene, Bart and Lisa put on bandages to make their parents feel sorry for them. Later, when Homer and Marge arrive and saw them, both Bart and Lisa didn't have the bandages on.
• Abe says that he played Wicked Witch of the East in The Wizard of Oz, and has the socks to prove it.
• the episode's name is the secend reffrence of pokemon

Cultural references

• The title, as well as some of the storyline and an extended animation montage sequence, is based on the 2002 movie Catch Me if You Can, directed by Steven Spielberg.
• Marge says, "I'm usually in the mood for a triple-X throwdown", which is a play on Sir Mix-A-Lot's Baby Got Back.
• Moe leaves the "adult video" section with several copies of Brideshead Revisited.
• When Lenny recommends Love Story to Homer and Marge, he says "it saved Paramount Studios for Charlie Bluhdorn." Bluhdorn ran Gulf & Western Industries, which owned Paramount Pictures; Love Story was one of the first films to bring the studio a major blockbuster win.