The Princess Guide

"The Princess Guide" is the fifteenth episode of the twenty-sixth season of the American animated sitcom The Simpsons, and the 567th overall episode of the series. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 1, 2015. The episode was dedicated to the memory of Leonard Nimoy, who died two days before the episode aired. Nimoy guest-starred in two Simpsons episodes, "Marge vs. the Monorail" and "The Springfield Files".

Plot

Homer takes Lisa to a "Take Your Daughter to Work Day. When Homer manages to trade a corn chip for a full salad for Lisa, they hug. Meanwhile, Mr. Burns needs uranium immediately to keep the SNPP running and has the King of Nigeria fly in for negotiations to supply it. When the king mentions that his daughter Princess Kemi is staying in the country and needs someone to care for her, Mr. Burns sees Lisa and Homer hugging on his surveillance monitors. He decides Homer is the perfect man for the job.

Marge is angry that Homer will care for the princess, but not their own child. However, Homer does poorly at his job, as the princess becomes bored in her apartment. When he takes Kemi to Moe's, Moe expresses displeasure since he suspects the princess' brother stole money for him. Homer returns to the apartment with the princess, who disappears. As he tries to explain the situation to Chief Wiggum, he gets arrested moments before she gets back to the bar. Lenny and Carl bail Homer out of the jail, but he is still responsible for Kemi and must find her.

At the bar, Moe finds himself bonding with Kemi. They spend the next day together seeing Springfield and having fun until Homer finds them, angry that Moe has taken his job to care for the princess. Moe and Kemi evade Homer and when she gives him a kiss, a paparazzo takes the picture. It quickly is viewed by her father on the Internet, leading him to declaring he will never sign the uranium deal with Mr. Burns. Kemi explains to her father that kiss was just friendly, which hurts Moe until she declares that Moe is a wonderful friend who made her happy. The king wants to punish her, but Homer explains to him that he should let his daughter live her life as she wants, and the king relents and signs the deal.

Reception

The episode received a 1.8 rating and was watched by a total of 3.93 million people, making it the second most watched show on Fox that night, behind the series premiere of The Last Man on Earth.^[1] Dennis Perkins of The A.V. Club gave the episode a A-, saying "Resting the show on Moe’s shoulders has been done before, sure—but never in so gracefully funny a manner as this. While never sacrificing Moe’s inherent and necessary misanthropy and general creepiness, the episode nonetheless builds a refreshingly warm and funny story around him. Honestly, it’s the best episode of season 26 so far."^[2] Furthermore, Bakwa did a two-part series on The Simpsons, wherein, bloggers, writers, cultural thinkers and academics were asked to comment on the episode. Most of the reactions highlighted poor research, one-dimensional characters, the challenge of portraying believable Nigerians, and the episode’s relatable character, Princess Kemi.^[3]

Hank Azaria's role in the episode as Moe and the Pedicab driver was nominated for the Award for Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance at the 67th Primetime Emmy Awards, one of three Simpsons actors to be nominated.^[4]

References