"Them, Robot" is the seventeenth episode of the twenty-third season of the American animated television series The Simpsons.
The episode was directed by Mike Frank Polcino and written by Michael Price.
In this episode, Mr. Burns replaces the power plant workers with robots except for Homer, who gives them personalities, resulting in disaster.
Homer becomes the lucky employee, after bursting into Burns' office to thank him for years of service and to criticize him for being cruel to his fellow man.
With everyone else at the plant out of work (including Smithers), the town suffers from a 99% unemployment rate.
[2] The episode originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 18, 2012.
It was watched by approximately 5.24 million people during this broadcast, and in the demographic for adults aged 18–49, it received a 2.4 Nielsen rating and a seven percent share.
"Them Robot" became the second highest-rated broadcast in Fox's Animation Domination lineup for the night in terms of both total viewers and adults aged 18–49.
[6] Steven Keslowitz referred to this episode as an example of popular culture warning of the dangers of automation.