The Computer Wore Menace Shoes
“The Computer Wore Menace Shoes" is the sixth episode of the twelfth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons.
Late at night, unable to sleep until someone visits his page, Homer hears a rumor from Bart started by either Nelson Muntz or Jimbo Jones that Mayor Quimby spent the street repair fund on a secret swimming pool.
He posts this rumor on his page, which is seen by several of Springfield's citizens, and reporters find a luxurious pool along with many scantily dressed women in Quimby's office building.
Homer keeps anonymously investigating and posting more scandals, including Mr. Burns selling uranium to terrorists (resulting in Burns getting arrested by the FBI), Apu selling expired doughnuts as bagels, and various unprofessional acts by the Springfield Police Department (although he overlooks Krusty's admission to vehicular manslaughter).
However, this ends up alienating Homer from the rest of the town, as no-one feels comfortable confessing their secrets now that they know he is Mr. X, and his fame soon plummets.
While Homer is trapped on the Island, he is replaced by a doppelgänger who looks identical to him but speaks with a thick German accent and wears a dark tie.
Marge and the kids are happy that the real Homer has returned, but then a fake Santa's Little Helper spouts a gas that drugs the entire family.
"[...] The Internet was just starting to turn into a serious waste of time around this point in history", staff writer Matt Selman said in the episode's DVD commentary.
The word "muck" refers to muckrakers, a term closely associated with reform-oriented journalists who wrote largely for popular magazines after 1900.
"George [Meyer] and I used to laugh a lot about how often [Number Six] would be gassed by unexpected devices in the show", Scully said in the episode's DVD commentary.
The balloon is a reference to Rover, a floating white ball in The Prisoner that was created to keep inhabitants in the "Village",[4] which was also featured in the season 9 episode "The Joy of Sect".
[1] In its original American broadcast on December 3, 2000, "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes" received a 9.0 rating, according to Nielsen Media Research, translating to approximately 9.1 million viewers.
Mike Scully, Ian Maxtone-Graham, Don Payne, John Frink, Matt Selman, Tom Gammill, Max Pross, Mark Kirkland and Joel H. Cohen participated in the audio commentary for the episode.
Giving it a positive review, DVD Talk's Jason Bailey described the episode as a "smart piece of social satire".
[12] Casey Burchby, another reviewer for DVD Talk, also enjoyed the social satire in the episode, and although he found the parody of The Prisoner "bizarre", he maintained that it was "bold".
He wrote, "Some parts of it feel dated, but the web features even more ill-informed opinions today than it did nine years ago, so much of it remains timeless and on target."
