The Crepes of Wrath
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Template:Infobox The Simpsons season one
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The Crepes of Wrath is an episode of The Simpsons from the first season. Bart is sent to France on a student exchange trip, where his hosts treat him as a slave, meanwhile an Albanian student taking his place shows great interest in Homer's work at the nuclear power plant.
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Episode details
Production Number: 7G13
Original Air Date: April 15, 1990
Writer: John Vitti
Director: David Silverman
Blackboard: "Garlic gum is not funny"
Couch Gag: The family hurries onto the couch and Homer pops off
Synopsis
Bart discovers an old cherry bomb, and decides to flush it down the boy's restroom at the same time as Principal Skinner's mother is in the girl's restroom. In order to be rid of him, Skinner proposes to the Simpsons that Bart should participate in a foreign exchange program. Bart is sent to France, whereas the Simpsons host a student from Albania named Adil Hoxha (possibly a reference to the country's former dictator Enver Hoxha).
In France, Bart is greeted by two unscrupulous wine-makers who work him worse than their donkey. Bart is made to collect and crush grapes, sleep on the floor, and test wine mixed with antifreeze.
Adil is actually a spy who is after nuclear secrets, which he intends to obtain from Homer. Homer is happy that Adil is taking an interest in his work, and promptly shows him around the plant.
Eventually, Bart learns enough French to escapes his enslavers and inform the authorities about his captors' plot to sell contaminated wine. The wine-makers are swiftly arrested and Bart is feted as a celebrity to conclude his stay in France on a pleasant note. Adil is caught by the FBI and is exchanged for an boy who is an American spy caught in Albania.
Interesting facts
Early in the episode, there is some actual dialogue in Albanian between Adil and his family, but later on the dialogue is just gibberish.
Memorable quotes
- Cesar [in French]: "Ah, Maurice [a donkey]. Once the American boy arrives, your days of back-breaking work labor will be over."
- Homer: Please, please, kids, stop fighting. Maybe Lisa's right about America being the land of opportunity, and maybe Adil's got a point about the machinery of capitalism being oiled with the blood of the workers.
- Marge: I'll just clean the dishes...
- Adil: No, Mrs. Simpson, you have been oppressed enough today. I will clear the dishes.
Parodies
- The episode's title is a play on John Steinbeck's novel "The Grapes of Wrath".
- The two winemakers, Cesar and Ugolin, are named after the peasants from the 1986 French film Manon des sources (Manon of the Springs), according to producer George Meyer.