Life's a Glitch, Then You Die

**Life's a Glitch, Then You Die** is the New Year's/Y-2K special of *The Simpsons*.

## Plot

On December 31, 1999, Dick Clark celebrates his New Year's Rocking Eve in Springfield instead of Times Square. Homer, the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant's Y2K compliance officer, confidently declares that he fixed every computer at the power plant. Unfortunately, Homer didn't fix his own computer, which creates the computer virus that spreads rapidly to other systems all over the world. But as Dick Clark's New Year's ball drops and hits "1999.A.D", the electronic year display reads "1900.B.C". Within minutes, Dick melts to death (he is shown to be a robot) and chaos breaks out as airplanes crash, appliances explode, malfunction and turn evil, including the Springfield Revolving Restaurant's Sit 'n' Rotate room dislodging from its stand and flying off, presumably into space. A widespread looting soon begins and as the family roams the streets observing the damage (including traffic lights that shoot multi-colored beam blasts and mailboxes walking by themselves), Krusty's pacemaker sets itself to hummingbird speed and he collapses in front of them (although he says he's not dead). A letter in Krusty's pocket states that a rocket is being populated with humanity's "best and brightest" and will be launched shortly in an effort to preserve human civilization on Mars. When they reach the rocket, Homer unsuccessfully attempts to bluff his way on board (claiming to be the piano genius from the movie Shine), but the armed guard recognizes Lisa as having a seat reserved on the craft, knowing that she's the ship's proofreader. Lisa is only able to take one parent with her, and she quickly chooses Marge before the guard can even finish his sentence, who then takes Maggie along. Homer and Bart soon find a second, unguarded rocket nearby and climb on board just before it launches. However, they quickly notice that this ship is filled with Ross Perot, Dan Quayle, Tonya Harding, Alfred Sharpton, Courtney Love, Spike Lee, Tom Arnold, Pauly Shore, Rosie O'Donnell and Dr. Laura and the like: it is deliberately set for a collision course with the sun. No longer fearing death, now actually seeking it and unable to bear the short trip to oblivion with the B-list celebrities, Homer and Bart eject themselves into the vacuum of space, where they sigh in relief as their heads swell up onscreen and explode off-screen while the rocket heads towards the sun, where the passengers sing The Trolley Song before they are killed by explosive decompression.

## Production

"Life's a Glitch, Then You Die" was written and conceived by Hauge. In the episode's DVD commentary, Hauge stated that, when writing the segment, he knew it would not age well. "I was aware of it at the time, that it wouldn't last forever" he said, "But I wanted to capture that moment." According to director Michels, the rocket which transported the "best and brightest" of the population was drawn to resemble a popsicle. *The Simpsons*' staff had a lot of trouble finding a guest star for the second rocket, and the only person who agreed to participate was American actor Tom Arnold. In the episode, Arnold is depicted as an annoying, "not-so-great" celebrity. Although he was mostly in on the joke, Arnold did "bust [the staff's] chops" a little bit when recording his lines. "He would say a line and then they'd yell cut and he'd look over at me and take a shot at me" Hauge said. Still, Hauge found Arnold's performance "fantastic" and Scully said that he was a "good sport". The segment also features television personality Dick Clark as himself. A few months after the episode aired, Hauge discussed the segment with Clark in a Fox studio. According to Hauge, Clark said that the episode gave the "biggest response" he had ever gotten from anything he had ever done. "After the career that he had in television for so long, just to give him a highlight was a highlight for me" Hauge said in the episode's DVD commentary.

## Cultural references

Hauge based "Life's a Glitch, Then You Die" on the hysteria involving Y2K, a digital problem that occurred the night into January 1, 2000. Humans escaping an unsavable Earth in rockets is a reference to the 1951 film *When Worlds Collide*. In a scene in the segment, several celebrities, including actor Mel Gibson and former Major League Baseball player Mark McGwire, can be seen waiting in line for the first rocket. They both guest starred as themselves in two earlier episodes from the season. Others in the line include businessman Bill Gates, director Ron Howard, former President Jimmy Carter and basketball player Michael Jordan. Those on the doomed ship include actor Pauly Shore, politicians Ross Perot and Dan Quayle, singer Courtney Love and figure skater Tonya Harding.

## External Link

* https://simpsons.fandom.com/wiki/Treehouse\_of\_Horror\_X#Life's\_a\_Glitch,\_Then\_You\_Die
* https://halloweenspecials.fandom.com/wiki/Treehouse\_of\_Horror\_X#Life's\_a\_Glitch,\_Then\_You\_Die