The Musk Who Fell to Earth
- Episode aired Jan 25, 2015
- TV-14
- 22m
IMDb RATING
5.4/10
1.4K
YOUR RATING
Inventor Elon Musk comes to Springfield, and Homer inspires him with a new idea that could revolutionize Springfield, but winds up costing Mr. Burns a ton of money.Inventor Elon Musk comes to Springfield, and Homer inspires him with a new idea that could revolutionize Springfield, but winds up costing Mr. Burns a ton of money.Inventor Elon Musk comes to Springfield, and Homer inspires him with a new idea that could revolutionize Springfield, but winds up costing Mr. Burns a ton of money.
Dan Castellaneta
- Homer Simpson
- (voice)
- …
Julie Kavner
- Marge Simpson
- (voice)
Nancy Cartwright
- Bart Simpson
- (voice)
- …
Yeardley Smith
- Lisa Simpson
- (voice)
Hank Azaria
- Bumblebee Man
- (voice)
- …
Harry Shearer
- Mr. Burns
- (voice)
- …
Tress MacNeille
- Dolph
- (voice)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaDuring the episode "The Musk That Fell To Earth", Kent Brockman says the last of the Little Rascals has died, but Moe has not.
- GoofsWhen Elon Musk looks out the window during their dinner the moon is pretty much exactly in its third quarter and well over the horizon. In the northern hemisphere such a moon is only visible roughly between midnight and noon, an unlikely time of the day for the Simpsons to have dinner.
- ConnectionsFeatured in WatchMojo: Top 10 Worst! Simpsons! Episodes! EVER! (2019)
Featured review
Disappointing, an episode with no clear vision
This episode of the long-time running series The Simpsons proves that the show is slowly losing the quality it once had. It is misguided and unclear in the way it is written, and even fails to present any memorable jokes.
The basic premise of the episode is inventor Elon Musk descending in a spaceship into Springfield, starting to hang out with Homer, being hired and then fired by Mr Burns, and finally leaving the town. It sounds like a decent outline, yet it is executed very poorly. The biggest problem in this episode is this; the episode lacks an engaging plot, and rather flows like several ideas pieced haphazardly together.
The episode begins, strangely enough, without a couch gag. It then goes into a rather strange story; a bald eagle eats some of the Simpsons' pet bird, and as revenge they capture it. After nursing it back to health (which makes no sense...wasn't this revenge?), the eagle is burnt up by the spacecraft that Musk descends into Springfield in. At this moment one has to check the episode isn't a Treehouse of Horror. The writers truly did not only add a nonsensical moment into the episode, but also literally burnt up the first few minutes of the episode spent on the bald eagle. This truly seems pointless; the family don't even care that the eagle they got so attached to is now dead.
The episode continues to limp for the remainder of its length, with weird and inexplicable moments throughout. One of the biggest problems of the episode is when Elon Musk, now hanging out with Homer Simpson, begins turning some of Homer's nonsensical thoughts into brilliant ideas. Musk has a ridiculous faith in Homer Simpson, reminiscent of Herbert all the way back in Season 2 (Oh Brother, where art thou), and yet this faith is never really tested. We never do see these paper meatballs, or a cream cup that dissolves as sugar into coffee, or anything else that Homer suggests, and yet Musk seems to love Homer. So used to seeing the negative consequences when Homer's ridiculous ideas failing miserably in episodes such as ''Beyond Blunderdome'', the aforementioned ''Oh Brother where art thou'', and ''Trash of the Titans'', it is strange and perhaps disappointing that these ideas were never conceived in this episode.
For the remainder of the episode many things happen that make little sense to the plot. Bart manages to hack into one of Musk's self driving cars and, with Lisa, goes on a joyride around Springfield. At first it seems similar to the ending of ''Mobile Homer'', albeit in a car and not a gigantic RV. Yet Lisa and Bart get to no mischief in the car; you read right, nothing happens. They get in the car, see the town, and that's it. It even ever so briefly appears that they are going to gatecrash Burns and Musk's gathering at his plant, but they don't even do that.
Smithers at no point trusts Musk, believing he's up to no good. He tries to tell Burns this, but Burns merely shrugs it off. It turns out that Musk WAS up to no good; he was spending at a pace that was putting Burns' plant into deficit. Yes, his plan all along was to create an environmentally friendly Springfield, not caring about the money. This is not even remotely evil; all of Smithers' worrying that Musk is up to no good is foreshadowing, and yet leads to nothing.
Homer decides he does not want to be friends with Musk anymore, and Marge shows Homer how to ''break up'' with Musk. This is executed rather strangely, especially the timing of when Homer chooses to break up with Musk, just after Musk saved his life from Mr Burns' assassins. Burns' attempt to assassinate Musk is ridiculous enough, but Homer breaking up with Musk at such a moment is even more ridiculous.
We are ever so briefly reminded of the beginning of the episode when Musk gives the family a birdhouse, before he leaves Springfield forever. And, with that, he leaves behind what truly is a disappointing episode.
Everything is very mismatched; Homer and Musk's relationship, Burns' wishing, trying, and failing, to assassinate Musk, Smithers' suspecting Musk of more evil intentions, and Bart and Lisa randomly going on a joyride. The newer episodes of The Simpsons are frowned upon for their ridiculous plots; this episode should be frowned upon for the very absence of a plot, at least one that is coherent or engaging. It plays like four or so different ideas that the writers decided to string together without any proper thought. The episode is of such poor quality it makes such an episode as ''Kill the Alligator and Run'' look like ''Who Shot Mr Burns'' (well, perhaps that's an exaggeration, but you get my point). It marks one of the poorest episodes in the on the whole underwhelming Season 26.
The basic premise of the episode is inventor Elon Musk descending in a spaceship into Springfield, starting to hang out with Homer, being hired and then fired by Mr Burns, and finally leaving the town. It sounds like a decent outline, yet it is executed very poorly. The biggest problem in this episode is this; the episode lacks an engaging plot, and rather flows like several ideas pieced haphazardly together.
The episode begins, strangely enough, without a couch gag. It then goes into a rather strange story; a bald eagle eats some of the Simpsons' pet bird, and as revenge they capture it. After nursing it back to health (which makes no sense...wasn't this revenge?), the eagle is burnt up by the spacecraft that Musk descends into Springfield in. At this moment one has to check the episode isn't a Treehouse of Horror. The writers truly did not only add a nonsensical moment into the episode, but also literally burnt up the first few minutes of the episode spent on the bald eagle. This truly seems pointless; the family don't even care that the eagle they got so attached to is now dead.
The episode continues to limp for the remainder of its length, with weird and inexplicable moments throughout. One of the biggest problems of the episode is when Elon Musk, now hanging out with Homer Simpson, begins turning some of Homer's nonsensical thoughts into brilliant ideas. Musk has a ridiculous faith in Homer Simpson, reminiscent of Herbert all the way back in Season 2 (Oh Brother, where art thou), and yet this faith is never really tested. We never do see these paper meatballs, or a cream cup that dissolves as sugar into coffee, or anything else that Homer suggests, and yet Musk seems to love Homer. So used to seeing the negative consequences when Homer's ridiculous ideas failing miserably in episodes such as ''Beyond Blunderdome'', the aforementioned ''Oh Brother where art thou'', and ''Trash of the Titans'', it is strange and perhaps disappointing that these ideas were never conceived in this episode.
For the remainder of the episode many things happen that make little sense to the plot. Bart manages to hack into one of Musk's self driving cars and, with Lisa, goes on a joyride around Springfield. At first it seems similar to the ending of ''Mobile Homer'', albeit in a car and not a gigantic RV. Yet Lisa and Bart get to no mischief in the car; you read right, nothing happens. They get in the car, see the town, and that's it. It even ever so briefly appears that they are going to gatecrash Burns and Musk's gathering at his plant, but they don't even do that.
Smithers at no point trusts Musk, believing he's up to no good. He tries to tell Burns this, but Burns merely shrugs it off. It turns out that Musk WAS up to no good; he was spending at a pace that was putting Burns' plant into deficit. Yes, his plan all along was to create an environmentally friendly Springfield, not caring about the money. This is not even remotely evil; all of Smithers' worrying that Musk is up to no good is foreshadowing, and yet leads to nothing.
Homer decides he does not want to be friends with Musk anymore, and Marge shows Homer how to ''break up'' with Musk. This is executed rather strangely, especially the timing of when Homer chooses to break up with Musk, just after Musk saved his life from Mr Burns' assassins. Burns' attempt to assassinate Musk is ridiculous enough, but Homer breaking up with Musk at such a moment is even more ridiculous.
We are ever so briefly reminded of the beginning of the episode when Musk gives the family a birdhouse, before he leaves Springfield forever. And, with that, he leaves behind what truly is a disappointing episode.
Everything is very mismatched; Homer and Musk's relationship, Burns' wishing, trying, and failing, to assassinate Musk, Smithers' suspecting Musk of more evil intentions, and Bart and Lisa randomly going on a joyride. The newer episodes of The Simpsons are frowned upon for their ridiculous plots; this episode should be frowned upon for the very absence of a plot, at least one that is coherent or engaging. It plays like four or so different ideas that the writers decided to string together without any proper thought. The episode is of such poor quality it makes such an episode as ''Kill the Alligator and Run'' look like ''Who Shot Mr Burns'' (well, perhaps that's an exaggeration, but you get my point). It marks one of the poorest episodes in the on the whole underwhelming Season 26.
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- Tkbn3812
- Jan 31, 2017
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