The Cartridge Family

P-code: 5F01
Episode Index: 09×05
Writers: John Swartzwelder
Directors: Pete Michels
Airdate: 9th October, 1994
Guest stars: None

Average Fan Rating: 4.1 (113 ratings, 8 reviews)

Plot Guide

  When a soccer match ends in a city-wide riot, Homer buys a handgun to protect his family and joins the NRA. However, Marge does not like this and pleads with Homer to get rid of the gun. Homer promises to do so, but Bart finds it the next day in the vegetable crisper.
  Fearing for their lives, Marge whisks herself and the kids away to a seedy motel. Homer hosts the next NRA meeting, but shocks the other members when he reveals that he uses his gun as a can opener, and to turn on the TV. He is kicked out of the society.
  Homer turns up at the motel to apologize to Marge, but when Mayor Quimby is taken hostage, he produces the gun again and saves the day. Marge is annoyed that Homer lied to her, and so Homer asks Marge to get rid of the gun for him.

Memorable Quotes

Kent Brockman: ...So, for the next several years, it's every man for himself. (Snake walks out of Flander's house with his TV)
Ned: Sir, I think you've got my TV! Sir!?

Security guy: But surely you can't put a price on your family's lives!
Homer: I wouldn't have thought so either, but here we are.

Homer: A gun is not a weapon, Marge, it's a tool. Like a butcher knife or a harpoon, or... or an alligator.

Homer: But Marge, I swear to you - I never thought you'd find out!

Homer: I hid it in a safe place, Marge - I mean, what are the odds the boy would look in the vegetable crisper?

Moe: It could have been a real ugly situation, but luckily I managed to shoot him in the spine.

Homer: If a gun can protect something as important as a bar, then it's good enough to protect my family.

Marge: I'm a lucky woman.
Homer: And I'm a wonderful man.

Moe: And that's how, with a few minor adjustments, you can turn a regular gun into five guns.

Cletus: Are you some kind of moron?
Homer: Yeah, but--

Homer: I felt an incredible surge of power, like God must feel when he's holding a gun.

Marge: Homer, I told you this morning, no guns at the dinner table!
Homer: You said the breakfast table.
Marge: It's the same table!

Did You Spot...

• Homer already has a gun (Treehouse of Horror III, $pringfield and Homer the Vigilante).
• Sign at the stadium: "Tonight: Soccer; Tomorrow: Monsters of Poetry".
• At the soccer riot, Dr. Hibbert strangles Dr. Nick.
• Behind Kent Brockman on his news report, some kids push over a dog.
• Ex-Con Security's slogan is "From The Big House... to Your House".
• The gun shop name, "Bloodbath & Beyond", sounds similar to a chain of furniture stores called "Bed, Bath & Beyond".
• Marge & the kids stay at the Sleep-Eazy Motel, however, several of the neon letter burn out, leaving "Sleazy Motel" illuminated.
• Homer's home-made sign for the NRA meeting: "Gun Warming Tonight; Nachos, Rifles, Alcohol".

References/Parodies

None submitted for this episode.

Season 9 quick links

1. The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson
2. The Principal and The Pauper
3. Lisa's Sax
4. Treehouse of Horror VIII
5. The Cartridge Family
6. Bart Star
7. The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons
8. Lisa the Skeptic
9. Realty Bites
10. Miracle on Evergreen Terrace
11. All Singing, All Dancing
12. Bart Carny
13. The Joy of Sect
14. Das Bus
15. The Last Temptation of Krust
16. Dumbbell Indemnity
17. Lisa, the Simpson
18. This Little Wiggy
19. Simpson Tide
20. The Trouble With Trillions
21. Girly Edition
22. Trash of the Titans
23. King of the Hill
24. Lost Our Lisa
25. Natural Born Kissers