The Food Wife

"The Food Wife" is the fifth episode of Season 23. It is the seventh episode to not have the Couch Gag, Billboard Gag and the Chalkboard Gag.
==Synopsis==
Marge wants to be as fun as Homer so she, Bart and Lisa taste foreign food. They become foodies and get an invitation to the famous restaurant in town, but Marge didn't want to invite Homer and told him the wrong address.
==Full Story==
After Homer takes Bart and Lisa on a fun dad day at E4, they come home and Marge tries to deflate their toys and ruins their fun day. Realizing the kids don't consider her to be fun (especially when Homer suggests that he is the fun one while Marge is supposed to be a kill joy), Marge wants to take them on a fun mom day and takes them to what she thinks is the X-Games, but it turns out to be the Cross Games, a Christian conference, where Reverend Lovejoy forces them into a nativity play (all of the other kids are at the actual X-Games). As they are driving home, a squirrel crawls into Marge's engine and the car breaks down in the middle of the highway. There is a little juice left, and they drive into Little Ethiopia to find a mechanic. They look on the main street and see the Haile restaurant. Bart and Lisa go in, and reluctantly, Marge does too. Trying to be exciting Marge orders the more exotic item on the menu, and to her delight she and the kids enjoy it. Then, foodies, such as Sideshow Mel and Jeffery Albertson join them, Lisa explains why they are here and Jeffery points out that enjoying exotic food is part of the enjoyment. They accept Marge and the kids into their foodie group, and they create a blog about the exotic food they eat, called "The Three Mouthketeers". The next day Homer catches Bart and Lisa enjoying the leftovers of their meal and critiques it, voicing his dislike of new or exotic foods over the fridge and burgers, though he is obviously jealous that the kids would rather spend time with Marge than him.
Marge, Bart, and Lisa continue blogging about their food until they are invited to El Chemistri, the most exclusive restaurant in Springfield which Kent Brockman dines at. When Homer finally learns the kids want to spend more time with their mother because of their shared love for different foods over him, he accuses Marge of stealing his thunder. He calls her out for being jealous of him because he was the more fun parent, while she is supposed to be the boring parent and do motherly things. Marge then accuses Homer of being a sexist in leaving her out so many times when he takes the kids out for a father fun day, while she has to stay home having to take care of Maggie and do motherly things. She wishes that once in a while he would let her be the fun parent, instead of leaving her out of family fun days and keeping her cooped up at the house. Melancholy of feeling left out and that no one in his family respects him, Homer retreats into the garage where he makes baseball bats. Having pity for Homer, Marge invites him to El Chemistri. He accepts the offer and resumes making birdhouses when he is happy.
Later that night Marge has a nightmare where Homer steals her thunder again, having both the kids and foodies join him. Before her dream finishies, Marge is confronted by Gordon Ramsay whom openly and foul mouthly criticizes her for allowing Homer to attend. Before he forcibly removes her out of his dream, Gordon suggests Marge that she find a way to keep him from joining the family at El Chemistri by misleading him elsewhere.
As Marge is giving Homer the address over the phone, she says 1501 East Oak Street, on the opposite side of Springfield, to mislead him. Bart and Lisa are not fooled and call Marge out for misleading him. She insists she just wants them to have a good time at El Chemistri without Homer ruining things for them. Bart and Lisa are still not convinced, claiming that in intentionally leaving their father out ad miss out on a family fun day trying new foods, she is making the same mistake that he did. They mentioned they had witnessed how cruel Homer was to Marge in intentionally leaving her out of family fun day. As Homer arrives at the address (which happens to be a meth lab), Meth Guy offers him drugs for $50, along with the other meth users in the lab. Then the police come and raid the lab. Shooting at the drug addicts. Homer quickly realizes that he was mislead intentionally by Marge and soon gets caught in the fracas.
While everyone else is eating exotic foods at El Chemistri, Marge realizes her mistake in leaving Homer out when he calls her and requests her help since the police are at the lab and are shooting the drug manufacturers. Marge and the kids rush there to rescue him. However, when Meth Guy holds Homer at gunpoint, Marge thinks quickly using the deconstructed apple pie in her doggie bag and throws it directly in the mouth. This causes a flashback inside his mind to his childhood days when his mother used to make apple pie. With the help of this distraction, the police subdue Meth Guy and arrest him and his collaborators. Marge apologizes for her behavior to Homer, claiming she just wanted the kids to look at her as a fun parent rather than a boring one. Although ticked off with Marge for leaving him out again, Homer is grateful and promises to let her enjoy being the fun parent once in a while. Then, the family goes on a family fun day to Krustyland. Homer keeps his promise to Marge, giving the kids $50 to enjoy themselves, while he spends quality time with her.
== Citations ==
fr:La Gourmète
pl:The Food Wife
pt:A Esposa Gourmet
Category:Episodes showran by Matt Selman
Category:Homer episodes
Category:Simpson Family Bonding episodes
Category:Marge episodes
Category:Food-themed Episodes
Category:Episodes featuring guest stars
Category:Comic Book Guy Episodes
Category:Sideshow Mel episodes
Category:Bart episodes
Category:Lisa episodes
Category:Featured Episodes
Category:Computing-Themed Episodes
Category:Episodes named after a film or TV Show
Category:Episodes in which Homer almost loses Marge
Category:Episodes with no Opening Sequence
Category:Whitney Spuckler episodes
Category:Written by Matt Selman
Category:Episodes with alternate end credits
Category:Crime-themed Episodes
Category:Highly Rated Episodes
Category:Episodes Where Homer cries
Category:Episodes Where Marge cries