Skinner's Sense of Snow
"Skinner's Sense of Snow" is the eighth episode of the twelfth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons.
While the Simpson family attends a French Canadian circus called "Cirque de Purée", a violent thunderstorm strikes Springfield and forces an early end to the performance.
Springfield Elementary School remains open, but only a few students and faculty members show up since it is the day before Christmas break.
To pass the time, Principal Skinner plays a long, low-budget, poor-quality Christmas film for the children.
After Nelson tries and fails to escape, Skinner looks through his footlocker of memorabilia from his United States Army service and remembers when he was able to command respect from his subordinates.
Homer attempts to break them loose by gunning the engine, with no success, and the car fills with carbon monoxide that causes both men to hallucinate wildly.
After enduring so much humiliation from the children, Skinner sends out a call for help by slipping a note inside the exercise ball of the school hamster, Nibbles, and pushing the animal out a window.
They break the car free of the frozen hydrant and speed toward the school, but again lose control and crash into a silo filled with salt on the grounds of a cracker factory.
The episode closes with Lisa turning into a camel - the product of a fresh round of Homer's hallucinations - and wishing the viewer a merry Christmas.
[1] In order to make a faithful rendition of the circus, director Kramer asked the animators to watch a showing of Cirque du Soleil in Santa Monica, but they declined the offer.
"It just adds another element", Kramer said about episodes taking place in winter, "People's clothes have to get tugged in the wind if it's windy.
"[4] The woman in "The Christmas That Almost Wasn't, But Then Was" was portrayed by Tress MacNeille, while the clown in the Cirque du Purée was voiced by Hank Azaria.
[1] While wreaking havoc in the school, Milhouse can be seen doodling mustaches on pictures of Woodrow Wilson and Warren G. Harding, the 28th and 29th Presidents of the United States, respectively.
[6] In its original American broadcast on December 17, 2000, "Skinner's Sense of Snow" received an 8.7 rating, according to Nielsen Media Research, translating to approximately 8.8 million viewers.
[9] The staff of The Journal, while reviewing The Simpsons - Christmas 2 DVD set, described the episode as "memorable",[10] and John McMurtrie of the San Francisco Chronicle cited it as "great".
[12] Both Aaron Beierle and Jason Bailey of DVD Talk argued that "Skinner's Sense of Snow" is one of the best episodes of the season.
