Call Mr. Plow, that's my name, that name again is Mr. Plow.

November 17, 2017 7:43 AM

"The idea, that Homer buy a massive truck and pay for it by becoming Springfield's snow removal hero, was born out of a single desire: Writer Jon Vitti wanted to meet Adam West. " Mr. Plow at 25: How 'The Simpsons' Classic Pushed New Boundaries and Helped Cement Show's Legacy
posted by bondcliff (31 comments total)

This episode is indisputably a classic, and I distinctly remember watching it in my university residence common room (as was the style at the time)...but that joke about Homer being asked by George Bush to drive his plow through a crowd of protestors has not aged well.
posted by The Card Cheat at 7:51 AM on November 17, 2017 [4 favorites]

If you're gonna get mad at me every time I do something stupid, then I guess I'll just have to stop doing stupid things
posted by Vic Morrow's Personal Vietnam at 7:55 AM on November 17, 2017 [22 favorites]

"I was at a pornography store. I was buying pornography!"
posted by Talez at 7:56 AM on November 17, 2017 [18 favorites]

this is a fun read and I love the Mr. Plow episode but now all I can think of is

[Super Bowel halftime]
posted by sapagan at 7:57 AM on November 17, 2017

Mr. Plow is a loser, and I think he's a boozer.
posted by nubs at 7:57 AM on November 17, 2017 [4 favorites]

Pure West.
posted by bondcliff at 7:59 AM on November 17, 2017 [8 favorites]

Funny, I knew there was something familiar about the Barney-becoming-a-drunk scene but never realized it was similar to the Jim-Ignatowski-becoming-a-stoner scene.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:03 AM on November 17, 2017 [1 favorite]

The Mr. Plow jingle is one of the most popular little riffs in our house. It's become "Stinky Dog, that's her name, her name again is Stinky Dog" or "Super Wife, that's her name, her name again is Super Wife" etc etc ad nauseum.
posted by Elly Vortex at 8:11 AM on November 17, 2017 [15 favorites]

"Sorry, Ricardo."
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 8:11 AM on November 17, 2017 [1 favorite]

I love that they threw in the rickety bridge crossing scene just to make a joke for William Friedkin.
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:20 AM on November 17, 2017 [4 favorites]

Mr. Plow is a loser, and I think he's a boozer.

"Señor Plow no es macho
Es solamente un borracho..."
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 8:32 AM on November 17, 2017 [21 favorites]

In 1993 I was playing in a pretty silly metal band and really really wanted our name to be PLOW KING. I had an ominous logo and everything! It narrowly lost the vote and we instead named ourselves after a then-minor pop culture character who became a much bigger pop culture character a short time later and we were embarrassed about it.

In retrospect I can’t believe I left the heavy metal umlauts out! PLÖW KING would have ruled! Or at least won the vote.
posted by miles per flower at 8:34 AM on November 17, 2017 [15 favorites]

boom-chicka-boom-chicka-boom-chi-boom
I'm Mr. Plow and I'm here to say
I'm the plowin'est guy in the USA!
I got a big plow and I'll move a lot of things
Like your cow if you have one...
posted by enkd at 8:35 AM on November 17, 2017 [4 favorites]

"Our forecast calls for flurries of passion followed by extended periods of gettin' it on"
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 8:47 AM on November 17, 2017 [3 favorites]

And why doesn't Batman dance anymore? Remember the Batusi?!
posted by SansPoint at 9:26 AM on November 17, 2017 [4 favorites]

You are fully licensed and bonded by the city, right Mr. Plow?
Shut up boy.
posted by cmfletcher at 9:28 AM on November 17, 2017 [9 favorites]

The Talking Simpsons episode about Mr. Plow is a fun listen.
posted by Pope Guilty at 9:34 AM on November 17, 2017 [2 favorites]

Probably for the rest of my life it's going to blow my mind that there are grown-ass adults, one or two of which are already billionaires, and many of the rest of whom have children, sometimes houses and cars and full-time jobs, and have lived in a world in which The Simpsons was better-known and better-regarded than "Life in Hell".
posted by ardgedee at 10:21 AM on November 17, 2017 [11 favorites]

Great episode but a sad reminder of how far the show has fallen.
posted by tommasz at 10:41 AM on November 17, 2017 [1 favorite]

Put it in H!
posted by 445supermag at 10:45 AM on November 17, 2017 [15 favorites]

The Mr. Plow jingle is one of the most popular little riffs in our house. It's become "Stinky Dog, that's her name, her name again is Stinky Dog" or "Super Wife, that's her name, her name again is Super Wife" etc etc ad nauseum.

Ohhhhhhh fuck.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 10:58 AM on November 17, 2017 [3 favorites]

Love this:

Jean: One joke that came in that was definitely Conan's was the radio dial saving the truck from going over the cliff.

O'Brien: What's funny to me now is my 11-year-old son likes the joke, and he's never even seen a radio like that. And I realized it is the equivalent of the Coyote getting hit with an anvil while chasing the Roadrunner. Writers of my generation only know what an anvil is because we've seen them on Warner Bros. cartoons, but we'd never actually seen one. Who uses an anvil?
posted by ryanshepard at 12:08 PM on November 17, 2017 [6 favorites]

Probably for the rest of my life it's going to blow my mind that there are grown-ass adults, one or two of which are already billionaires, and many of the rest of whom have children, sometimes houses and cars and full-time jobs, and have lived in a world in which The Simpsons was better-known and better-regarded than "Life in Hell".

ardgedee, are you posting from 1994?
posted by Sangermaine at 12:11 PM on November 17, 2017 [4 favorites]

O'Brien: What's funny to me now is my 11-year-old son likes the joke, and he's never even seen a radio like that. And I realized it is the equivalent of the Coyote getting hit with an anvil while chasing the Roadrunner. Writers of my generation only know what an anvil is because we've seen them on Warner Bros. cartoons, but we'd never actually seen one. Who uses an anvil?

What will REALLY make you think is that today, thanks to Minecraft, more children know about and USE an anvil than they did in the 40s and 50s at the height of Looney Tunes.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 12:46 PM on November 17, 2017 [9 favorites]

I saw a TV interview with one alcoholic who abstained from booze till her twenties because she knew there was a problem in the family - and then experienced exactly Barney's "Where have you been all my life" feeling on taking that fateful first sip. She said it was as if every cell in her body had been waiting for the stuff to finally arrive and was embracing it in welcome.

Also, on the anvil thing? I'm still recovering from the shock of buying one of Fantagraphics' Complete Peanuts collections a few years ago and discovering the publishers had felt obliged to add a footnote explaining that the arcane machine shown in one particular panel was a typewriter. I realise many younger readers probably found that footnote very helpful, but the need to include it made me feel about 300 years old all the same.
posted by Paul Slade at 1:44 PM on November 17, 2017 [7 favorites]

I liked the 'Sorcerer' gag.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 2:30 PM on November 17, 2017 [1 favorite]

This is one of like three eps of this show I've ever seen.

Vitti: I "wrote" the Mr. Plow jingle . . .

" "Wrote" " ?!
 
posted by Herodios at 2:32 PM on November 17, 2017 [2 favorites]

I liked the 'Sorcerer' gag.

somewhat vaguely standing by for another excuse to link the original soundtrack.
posted by ovvl at 9:09 PM on November 17, 2017

"We've been looking for a project to do together for a while."
posted by Chrysostom at 9:33 PM on November 17, 2017 [3 favorites]

> ardgedee, are you posting from 1994?

Fuck.

Well, you know what I meant, so revel in your oldness.
posted by ardgedee at 6:39 AM on November 18, 2017 [2 favorites]

i don't like the looks of those teenagers.
posted by entropicamericana at 10:52 AM on November 20, 2017 [1 favorite]