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Happy 2000 Simpsons

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 Rockin' 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.

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