Tennis the Menace

"Tennis the Menace"
The Simpsons episode
File:Cabf07.jpg
Episode no.	Season 12
Directed by	Jen Kamerman
Written by	Ian Maxtone-Graham
Original air dates	February 11, 2001
Episode features
Chalkboard gag	"I will not publish the principal's credit report"
Couch gag	The floor is replaced with a thin sheet of ice, but the couch is still there. The family skates to the couch safely - except Homer, whose part of the couch falls through the ice after he sits.

"Tennis the Menace" is the twelfth episode of the twelfth season of The Simpsons. It aired on February 11, 2001.

Synopsis

The Springfield Retirement Castle holds a talent show, which the Simpsons attend. Grampa wins the show after doing a bad version of "What's New, Pussycat?" His prize is an autopsy, which he wants Homer to get. Instead, Homer realizes that a certain kind of cemetery monument uses the same amount of cement as a tennis court, and so Homer decides to get the house a tennis court. The court is very popular with Springfield's residents, and yet, these residents mock Homer and Marge for losing all the time (Lenny calls them the "Kansas City Royals of backyard tennis"). Marge gets even by entering Krusty's celebrity tournament, the "Krusty Kharity Klassic"(KKK), with Bart. Homer makes his own revenge on Marge by entering the tournament with Lisa as his partner.

The tournament occurs, and in the stands are tennis pros Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Venus Williams, and Serena Williams. At the tournament, Homer replaces Lisa with Venus Williams. In response, Marge kicks Bart off her team, and Serena Williams becomes her partner. Ultimately, Serena and Venus replace Marge and Homer with Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, respectively. This forces the family to go back to the bench, at least.

Cultural references

• The title is a play on the comic strip Dennis the Menace.
• The episode is notable partly for the competition that emerges between Homer and Bart over Marge, and Lisa indeed makes a reference to Oedipus.

Quotes

• Funeral Home Owner: It will consume as much cement as a regulation tennis court.
  Homer: Tennis court, eh? Hmm... (Back at house, with tennis court being put in) Yeah.
• Homer: (Seeing Bart and Lisa playing tennis) That's tennis?! What's the one where the chicks whale on each other?
  Bart: Foxy Boxing?
  Homer: Yes, that's what I wanted!
• Homer: I know what's happening! I've been replaced by a younger, more "in-your-face" version of me!
  Lisa: Dad, you are just going through a classic Oedipal anxiety. You remember the story of Oedipus, don't you?
  Homer: Maybe five bucks will refresh my memory.
  Lisa (groans): Oedipus killed his father and married his mother!
  Homer: God! Who pays for that wedding?!
  Lisa: I'm just saying that you feel threatened by Bart, but it's all in your head.
  Homer: You're right. But just to be safe, maybe I should chain him up.
  Lisa: Dad, I think you're overreacting.
  Homer: I think you're under reacting!
  Lisa: This session is over!
  Homer: This session is under!
  Lisa: Goodbye!
  Homer: Badbye!
• (in Homer's nightmare, Marge and Bart live in a mansion with many mounted animal heads)
  Marge: Oh, darling, you are so much better than my first husband.
  Bart: I may have the looks, but he's the trophy husband. (goes to Homer's mounted head) Dad thought that trip to the guillotine factory was just for fun. Instead, it was the perfect place to shoot him!
• Bart: (Reading an imaginary letter to Lisa) Dear Lisa, Psyche, psyche, psyche. Signed, Super Psyche. P.S. Psyche, psyche, psyche.
  Homer: (To Lisa) I think he's trying to psyche you out.
  Marge: Alright! No more during dinner, and Lisa...Psyche, psyche, psyche, psyche!
• (Standing on the tennis net, and trying not to fall off)
  Homer: I'm surfin' the net!
• Homer: Don't touch me. Your hands feel like salad tongs.
• Homer: All sports have their lovable clowns! John Rocker, O.J. Simpson, Dorf.
• Burns: Hello, Marge. Lovely day for tennis, isn't it?
  Marge: I thought you had your own court.
  Smithers: He did, but he had it converted into a human chess board.
  (cut to chess board)
  White Pawn: Hey, Burns has been gone for a while.
  White Rook: Let's make a run for it.
  White King (undefended): Come back you fools! Protect me!
  (a black queen, castle, and bishop charge at the king and begin beating him without mercy)