Demolition Man Trivia Quiz

Answer: Gunsmoke

When this episode (Season 29, Episode 18) went to air on 29 April 2018, 'The Simpsons' surpassed the record for longest run of a scripted television show that had been held by 'Gunsmoke', whose 635 episodes originally aired between 1955 and 1975. In recognition of this milestone, the opening segment featured a showdown between Maggie and Matt Dillon (lead character of 'Gunsmoke'), which she won.

This was not the first time the toddler was shown to be a crack shot - in 'Who Shot Mr Burns?' she is revealed to have shot him during a tussle as he tried to steal her lollipop; in 'Poppa's Got a Brand New Badge' she saves her father by shooting Fat Tony before he and his henchman can shoot Homer.

Answer: He has just damaged it.

Having just lost a $50 bet that he could eat all the pickled eggs in the infamous jar on the bar of Moe's tavern, failing when he regurgitated the lot after swallowing the last one, Homer storms out of Moe's and into his car. He promptly reverses it into a lamppost, and faces the cost of repairing it as well as his (not so flash) car.

When someone who happens to have seen the incident offers to pay Homer $500 for the car so it can be used in an upcoming demolition derby, the offer gives Homer a way of paying for the damage he has caused, and not having to pay for any car repairs.

When Marge asks what he will be driving, he responds, "Your car". Simples.

Answer: Gene "No-Helmet" Dupree

The incorrect options are also featured in the race's promotion, which Homer has the family watch on television, along with Mysterious Fandango and "a very drunk Billy Joel". "No-Helmet" is described by the announcer as making a triumphant return following a full skull transplant. The Simpsons have free tickets to the show on Saturday night.

Answer: Bart the Daredevil

'Bart the Daredevil' starts with Bart and Homer attending a monster truck rally, where the massive robotic dinosaur Truckasaurus is a main feature. Truckasaurus crushes the family car in its steel jaws - Homer really doesn't have a lot of luck with cars! The daredevil whose stunt closes the show is badly injured, and Homer tries to use a visit to see him in hospital as a deterrent to Bart's plans for jumping Springfield Gorge on his skateboard. Bart is not deterred, but does decide to abandon the jump when Homer vows to jump, too. That should have been the end of it, but Homer loses control of the skateboard, and heads off across the gorge, falling short. After being rescued by helicopter, he is in an ambulance which hits a tree causing him to fly out the back door and down into the gorge again. That wrecked ambulance can be seen in the scene of 'The Simpsons Movie' in which Homer and Bart jump the gorge on a motorcycle.

In 'Jaws Wired Shut', Marge finds herself in a demolition derby, and is rescued by Homer. In 'Bart After Dark', Marge attempts to demolish the Maison Derriere, but arrives after the town's mood has been transformed by song, and they no longer want it torn down. 'Viva Ned Flanders' starts with the demolition of Mr Burns's casino, which sets the events of the episode in train.

Answer: The jeering crowd throw items that demolish it.

Since most of the items are empty bottles and cans (there appears to have been quite a lot of alcohol consumed during the wait for the show to start), Truckasaurus II does not seem to have been very well constructed! The overall shape resembles a Tyrannosaurus Rex, with short little forelimbs and a skull made from a station wagon resembling the car in which Marge drove them to the show.

The right forearm falls off in seconds, and flames emerge from the wiring, before the entire thing collapses, uttering its dying words: "I love you, Steven Spielberg".

Answer: Car-rak Obama

The announcer describes them as "Homer's Boner and Car-rak Obama, the Affordable Healthcare Mobile which you can't kill no matter how hard you try". A caricature Barack Obama head is featured on its roof, along with two small skulls, while a stethoscope project in front. It receives a barrage similar to that experienced by Truckasaurus II, but is unfazed.

The incorrect options, along with Volkswagen Thug, featured in the 'In Memoriam' segment screened after the destruction of Truckasaurus II, listing some of the cars lost in the preceding week.

Answer: Grampa has a heart attack.

As Homer helps his father out through the tunnel on their way to the hospital, we see the last two cars heading towards each other in the air. While the result is not stated, the fact that the Obama head hits the ground behind them, along with a wheel, suggests that Homer's car was victorious. Dr Hibbert is very negative about the prospect of Grampa's recovery, leading him to make a deathbed confession to Homer, and ask for his son's forgiveness.

Answer: Throwing out all of the recipes Homer's mother had left behind

We don't hear the confession at this stage, but discover it later when Homer explains why he is so angry with his father (despite having promised never to tell anyone). While Homer said that he forgave him, wanting to let him die with a clear conscience, it is clear from his reaction when Dr Hibbert announces that they had tried everything to save him, and the last thing worked, as Grampa is wheeled out into the waiting area, that this is not the case. Homer had spent many happy hours helping his mother cook, a segment accompanied by a parody of 'The Way We Were'.

She wrote down the recipe for every dish on a 3x5 file card, and wrote a message on the back, storing them in a school lunchbox. When Mona left, Abe was so angry he took the box and threw it off a cliff, along with everything else that reminded him of her (including yet another car meeting its doom).

Answer: It tastes just like one Homer remembers his mother making.

When Abe realises that he still feels guilty, he goes to recover the lost recipes (don't ask why that box would be there after so many years!), but the box is empty. Homer and Abe reconcile just the same, and stop at the diner at the base of the mountain, where the family are seen rhapsodizing about the fantastic pie. Homer realises it tastes exactly like his mother's, and asks the restaurant owner where she got the recipe. Apparently, 33 years earlier, at a time when the struggling restaurant was considering closure, the recipes had floated down from the heavens, and provided her with the inspiration to continue.

She acknowledges Homer's right to them, and hands him a neat package, tied up in a red bow.

Answer: The family cat

Don't question continuity too much on 'The Simpsons'. Not only is Homer buying a car, after saying he would just use Marge's, he has a budget that means the only car in the lot that he can afford is his own - now priced at $99, and looking a bit more dinged than when he last saw it. Nevertheless, he is happy to take it, and walking up to the window, reaches in and pulls out Snowball II, saying "Oh, I thought that's where you were!" as the cat scratches him and runs away. Homer rubs the scratch, and wonders, "Geez, what's wrong with her?" There is absolutely no mention earlier of Snowball II being missing, nor any explanation of why she might have been in the car while it was parked outside Moe's (since she must have been in it then in order to still be there).

Her anger, however, can be readily understood when you consider what it must have been like to be a front-seat passenger during the demolition derby!