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The Simpsons episode
"The Ziff Who Came to Dinner"
Episode no.	327
Prod. code	FABF08
Orig. airdate	March 14, 2004
Written by	Deb Lacusta & Dan Castellaneta
Directed by	Nancy Kruse
Chalkboard	I will not speculate on how hot teacher used to be
Couch gag	In a parody of the 1977 science short film, Powers of Ten, the Simpsons sit down on the couch as normal when suddenly, the camera pans out, revealing an overhead shot of the house, an overhead shot of the neighborhood, an overhead shot of the United States, an overhead shot of the North American continent and the Western Hemisphere, an overhead shot of the Earth, the solar system, and Kang and Kodos standing next to a broken spaceship. Soon, many stars fill the screen as they form into the Milky Way. Other galaxies form and turn into atoms, which turn into simple molecular structures, which turn into more complex molecular structures, which turn into DNA helices, which pan out into a blank yellow expanse, which reveals to be Homer’s bald head and returns to the couch scene. Homer stares blankly for a few minutes, then utters, “Wow!”
Guest star(s)	Jon Lovitz as Artie Ziff, Jay Sherman, Llewelyn Sinclair, Aristotle Amadopoulos, and Professor Lombardo
Season 15 November 2, 2003 – May 23, 2004
Treehouse of Horror XIV My Mother the Carjacker The President Wore Pearls The Regina Monologues The Fat and the Furriest Today I Am a Clown 'Tis the Fifteenth Season Marge vs. Singles, Seniors, Childless Couples and Teens, and Gays I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot Diatribe of a Mad Housewife Margical History Tour Milhouse Doesn't Live Here Anymore Smart and Smarter The Ziff Who Came to Dinner Co-Dependent's Day The Wandering Juvie My Big Fat Geek Wedding Catch 'Em if You Can Simple Simpson The Way We Weren't Bart-Mangled Banner Fraudcast News
List of all The Simpsons episodes
Seasons
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"The Ziff Who Came to Dinner" is the fourteenth episode of The Simpsons' fifteenth season. The episode aired on March 14, 2004.

Homer takes Bart and Lisa to a movie and he has to bring the Flanders family children with him, because Ned has taken the senior citizens for ice cream to celebrate the birthday of Jasper. However, at the Googolplex Theatre, every kid-friendly movie is sold out, and after listening to Lenny mention he had a small part in the horror movie The Redeadening as a gardener, Homer takes the kids to see the movie. The movie is very scary, causing it to scare Bart and Lisa at home, who think they hear noises from the attic. But when they look in the attic to see it, their fears scare them away. When Bart and Lisa arrange to have Homer and Marge look in the attic, they discover Artie Ziff living there.

Artie Ziff explains that he was living in the attic because he ran an unsuccessful Internet business, Ziffcorp (an Enron parody), and lost all his money after spending it on many extravagant items. He said he came to the family house because he thought Marge was the closest thing to him. Artie says he wants to stay in the Simpson house until he gets back on his feet, as long as he promises to be on his best behavior. Artie arranges to stay in the Simpson house and his first activity there is to read to Lisa from The Corrections. He then plays catch with Bart, but that goes unsuccessful. Homer then befriends him and takes him to Moe's Tavern, where ironically four other characters Jon Lovitz had voiced in the past sat where Lenny, Carl, Barney, and Homer would have sat: Jay Sherman (from "A Star Is Burns" and "Hurricane Neddy" [in the brief scene showing The Babysitter Bandit from the season one episode Some Enchanted Evening and a John Swartzwelder caricature in the mental hospital rooms]), Aristotle Amadapolis (from "Homer Defined" and "Homer at the Bat"), Llewellyn Sinclair (from "A Streetcar Named Marge"), and Professor Lombardo (from "Brush with Greatness").

Marge sees on the news that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is looking for Artie Ziff. Meanwhile, Artie is playing poker with Homer and his friends, Homer wins 98% of his company's outstanding stock. The SEC sweeps in to arrest Ziff, but Homer says he owns 230 million shares of Ziffcorp, making him the majority stockholder. To protect himself, Artie also blames Homer. Homer is taken into SEC custody, and placed on trial.

When Homer is on trial, Marge blames Artie for Homer being likely to go to prison. She also suggests that no one likes Artie for one reason: he only thinks of himself (this also proven by a short can-can that Artie had imagined, with all the people Artie). Homer is eventually found guilty and sentenced to twenty years in prison. Visiting Moe's Tavern, Artie encounters Patty and Selma, and Selma comes to take Artie to her apartment after he mentions putting Homer in prison. As they spend the night together, Artie makes a plan to turn over his corporate books in order to admit he is the real crook. Ziff turns himself in, and Homer is released from prison. The family takes one last look at their "Uncle Artie", who uses a squirt bottle to put out the prisoners' cigarettes, much to their anger.

This article or section contains too many minor or trivial fictional references. Mere trivia, or references unimportant to the overall plot of a work of fiction, should be deleted. See also what Wikipedia is.

• The name of this episode is a reference to the comedy The Man Who Came to Dinner.
• The opening scene is a spoof of the famous short film Powers of Ten, going from 10²⁶ to 10^-18 to Homer's head.
• The Song during Artie's flashback was the 1999 Lou Bega Mambo No. 5.
• The scene where Grandpa Simpson cowers in fear at Jasper's birthday party is reminiscent of the novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, where patients of a mental hospital are convinced to "never leave the day room".
• The movie The Redeadening is a Village of the Damned and The Others parody. Furthermore, the idea of a doll possessed by a murderer is the premise of the movie Child's Play. Village of the Damned is also parodied in Wild Barts Can't Be Broken as The Bloodening.
• The sounds made by Artie that Lisa hears from the attic are very similar to the "ach-um" sound that Jay Sherman from The Critic makes. Jon Lovitz voices both Jay and Artie Ziff.
• Homer gets upset that someone is playing his theremin in the attic.
• The scene where Lisa cries while talking into the video camera after Bart bails on her is taken from The Blair Witch Project.
• Lisa states that Homer believes Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is real, which is why he never read to her.
• When the family visits him in prison, the song Homer sings is based on "Turn Around" by Malvina Reynolds.
• Homer takes Artie to Moe's, where he meets Aristotle Amadopoulos (the Shelbyville Nuclear Plant owner from Homer Defined and Homer at the Bat), Llewelyn Sinclair (the acting coach and director of "Oh, Streetcar" from A Streetcar Named Marge), Jay Sherman (from the ABC/FOX sitcom, The Critic, and "The Simpsons"'s first and most infamous crossover episode A Star is Burns), and Professor Lombardo (the art teacher from Brush With Greatness). Like Ziff, all these characters are voiced by former Saturday Night Live castmember Jon Lovitz.
• Homer wants his friends to hide the fact he is going to jail from his family by pretending he joined the Blue Man Group.
• Some of the movies at the Googolplex are:
  • The Wild Dingleberries Movie, a reference to The Wild Thornberrys
  • Diet Coke: The Movie
  • The Fashion of the Christ, a reference to The Passion of the Christ
  • You're in the Matrix, Charlie Brown
  • A Matrix Christmas
  • The Re-Deadening
  • Teenage Sex Wager, a reference to American Pie
  • My Big Fat Greek Salad (Homer made this movie up)
  • Eating Nemo
  • 3 Fast 3 Furious
• Ziffcorp's logo is reminiscent of Enron's, and shares the same fate.

• Artie Ziff's "flush" is actually a straight flush; Homer should not have won the hand in the first place.
• Artie said he was an internet millionaire, but in Half-Decent Proposal, it says he invented a device that convert modem screeching to music (which since most modems no longer do that would also not be making money).

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