(Aside: People try really hard to make the World Wide Web perfect. Case in point--this site that compiles chronologically every pop culture reference from the entire run of The Office. But the Web is sadly lacking in easily findable (and shareable) clips and animated GIFs from Homer and Co. Clearly the denizens of the Internet are obsessive enough to make everything I could want available, so it's the copyright holders who are responsible for spoiling the fun. Which is their right, but it's also a bummer. So this post is not as animated (even though everything here comes from a cartoon) or as precise as I had hoped when I started Googling, but it should still be a good time.)
There have been several incarnations of Moses on the show. There's generic, in-Homer's-imagination Moses...
...there's baby Moses from a Flanders home movie...
...there's Veggie Tales parody Cucumber Moses (who asked mighty "Yamses" to let his pickles go)...
...even bobblehead Moses.
When the Springfielders did their own rendition of Bible stories, Milhouse got tabbed to portray the prophet (with Lisa as Miriam), making demands of Pharaoh-pal Skinner.
Each time the Lord was ready to send a new plague, He told Moses to "stretch forth thy hand with thine rod"...
That's much better.
Ok, plague #1--turning the Nile to blood.
This Shining elevator spoof is one I really wish I could find an animated version of. From there, it's on to the frogs...
Again, this GIF--the best I could find--doesn't do justice to the swarms of bullfrogs that ravaged the Australian countryside, thanks to Bart. When in Rome, or Australia, or in Cairo, do as the Romans/Aussies/Egyptians do, right Homer?
The third plague--lice. Here's the monkey that gave Bart cooties, resulting in him scratching and wearing a burlap sack like this guy. Not pictured: the lice.
But Pharaoh still wouldn't play ball, so they got a plague of flies.
I know that last one is bees, not flies, but it shows an actual swarm, as well as how freaked out your average Egyptian probably was. But not Pharaoh. On to the fifth plague!
Like Troy McClure's killing floor ("don't let the name fool you") or Burns' "omninet," the Egyptians lost pretty much all of their animals. The few that survived (and their human owners) soon fell victim to plague #6...
Boils! This picture shows fake leprosy, but you get the idea. Next came a freaky storm full of hail and fire and who knows what else. It's too late to pray now, Homer!
Itchy and the military school bullies represent the Israelites here, unaffected by the storm while others suffer.
And this isn't actually related, but the mention of fire reminded me of the one-man plague, Hank Scorpio. Love this episode and this GIF.
I can't imagine what was left for them to eat at this point, but the eighth plague was locusts. There's a perfect GIF for this--Homer using locusts in his underground battle with respected private citizen George H.W. Bush--but nobody has made it yet. Get on that, Internet! Instead, we'll have to make do with these grasshoppers terrorizing a mob accountant voiced by Steve Carell.
Getting close to the end now. Plague #9 was three days of darkness, which could only be exemplified by C. Montgomery Burns at the height of his cartoonish supervillainy. "Since the beginning of time man has yearned to destroy the sun..."
We've come to the final plague. And it's kind of a downer. Not that the others were pleasant or anything, but it's kind of hard to take a lighthearted look at the oldest child in every family dying. But hey--let's do it anyway! Much thanks to this blogger for having the entire sequence from a classic Halloween episode in one place.
Next time don't be so stubborn, Pharaoh!
So I feel like I wrote something almost witty and then somehow deleted it. So this is take two of an already not super great comment. But seriously, never realized how biblical Simpsons was. Where have I been? Also, that picture of the flies--or as you corrected--bees--ewe. I have always felt pics with swams of insects are icky. I would have definitely wanted to skip that plague...
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