Mayor Quimby promises to rebuild the city, but with the lack of progress six months later, the Simpsons beg Mr. Burns to fund the town's reconstruction.
Back at the auditions, Burns has more flashbacks to his childhood presentation, showing that he was the laughingstock for everyone at the bowl and even his mother failed to comfort him.
Burns gets mad at Lisa, but he ends up forgiving her and letting her play the saxophone on stage for an empty crowd, having finally gotten closure from his childhood incident.
Lisa asks Homer why Simpsons always fail and he answers that it is because of a curse as their ancestors did not let Joseph and Mary stay at their home for Jesus' birth.
The couch gag for this episode parodies the intro to the animated series Adventure Time, recreating its opening sequence with Simpsons characters in place of the show's usual cast, such as Bart as Finn the Human and Homer as Jake the Dog.
[2] In August 2016, Fox Television Group chairman and CEO Dana Walden announced that Amy Schumer would appear on the season premieres of The Simpsons, Family Guy, and Bob's Burgers as three different characters on the same night.
[5] During the variety show, Sherri and Terri perform a water cabinet trick, with one twin apparently floating drowned and dead while her sister takes a bow, in a visual reference to the 2006 science-fiction thriller film The Prestige.
‘Monty Burns’ Fleeing Circus’ wears its breezy brutality and laziness like a sign reading ‘It’s just a cartoon.’ But at its best, The Simpsons is a much better cartoon than this.
"[6] Jesse Schedeen of IGN was also very critical of the episode giving it a 4.8/10 calling it "Bad", when elaborated he wrote "The Simpsons' 27th season reminded us that the show can still entertain and even find moments of greatness this far removed from its golden age.
‘Monty Burns' Fleeing Circus’ wasn't as offensively bad at last year's ‘Every Man's Dream,’ but it did feature this long-running animated sitcom as its most bland and uninspired.
"[7] However, Tony Sokol of Den of Geek gave the episode four out of five stars stating "This is the reason I stuck up for Harry Shearer when he was in contract negotiations.
From the very opening, which puts an Adventure Time spin on Springfield...'Monty Burns Fleeing Circus' is a full variety show, the likes of hasn’t been seen since about aught nine.