Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious

When Marge finds that she is losing her hair at an alarming rate, she visits Dr. Hibbert, who informs her that stress is the cause. The Simpson family decide to hire a nanny to perform housework and childcare while Marge recovers. They are unable to find anyone suitable until a woman glides from the sky with a magical-parrot headed umbrella, introducing herself as Shary Bobbins. She is deemed perfect and is hired. Shary proves helpful for the Simpson family, and Marge's hair grows back once her stress subsides. As the reformed family sits down to a perfect dinner, Shary declares her work done and prepares to leave, only for the family to instantly revert to their original state of dysfunction the moment she steps out of the house. Resignedly, she decides to stay.

The family begins to treat Shary poorly, and they lose interest in her zest for life and zealous reform. Declaring that the Simpsons will be the death of her, Shary becomes depressed and starts to cry, drink, and channel her misery into her singing. Realizing the effect the Simpsons have had on Shary, Marge admits that nothing can change them, and the family expresses their contentment with their lives through a song. Shary accepts that she can do nothing to change the Simpsons' lives and bids farewell to the family as she glides away into the sky using her umbrella. Unknown to the Simpsons, Shary is soon sucked into the engine of a passing airplane and shredded to death.

Although the majority of the season eight episodes were executive produced by Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein, former executive producers Al Jean and Mike Reiss had signed a deal with Disney that allowed them to produce four episodes of The Simpsons.[4] The idea for this episode originated several years before its airdate when Jean and Reiss were the regular showrunners. The idea was pitched at a writers' retreat by Jean but nobody had wanted to flesh it out. After being allowed to come back to produce some episodes, Jean and Reiss decided to write this episode.[4] At first, Reiss was against the episode and felt that it was a bad idea.[5] He felt that the plot was slightly ridiculous and that the show should not feature any magic; except for a few moments, he largely kept magic out of the episode. He now considers it one of the best episodes that he co-wrote.[5] At the time, "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious" had more music in it than any other episode.[6] While writing, Jean thought that the songs would stretch out and make the episode the proper length but it was considerably shorter than required.[4] Several additional scenes, such as the full-length opening sequence and the Itchy & Scratchy segment, were added to pad out the episode.[4] There was originally a sequence where Bart, Lisa and Shary visit Patty and Selma who sing "We Love to Smoke", a parody of "I Love to Laugh".[4] The song was cut because it wasn't getting any laughs but the full version was included on the album Go Simpsonic with The Simpsons and a brief animated version was included as a deleted scene on the Season 8 DVD.[4] During the end song, Homer can be seen dancing along but not singing; this was because the producers forgot to record Dan Castellaneta.[5] Many of the scenes were animated by Eric Stefani, a former member of No Doubt, who specialized in animation for musical numbers.[6]

Shary Bobbins is based on the character Mary Poppins.

The overall plot is a reference to the 1964 Disney film Mary Poppins and the book series it was adapted from; Shary Bobbins is based on the character Mary Poppins and the episode title is a spoof of the word "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" from the film. Several of the musical numbers are direct parodies of songs from the film, including "The Perfect Nanny", "The Life I Lead", "A Spoonful of Sugar" and "Feed the Birds"; a deleted scene features Patty and Selma singing their version of "I Love to Laugh".[4]

The montage of Marge losing her hair features the song "Hair" from the musical of the same name (though the version heard is The Cowsills version).[9] Homer says he has seen Mrs. Doubtfire and believes that some of the candidates for the role of nanny are men in drag.[4] Homer's imagination is a parody of the dancing characters in Steamboat Willie and features the song "Turkey in the Straw".[9] In the park, Groundskeeper Willie is seen singing a cover version of "Maniac" by Michael Sembello. The scene where Principal Skinner attempts to sell Jimbo is a reference to a similar scene in the story Oliver Twist, more specifically he yells "Boy for Sale", a reference to a song in the musical film adaptation Oliver!

The Itchy & Scratchy short "Reservoir Cats" is a parody of the scene in Quentin Tarantino's 1992 film Reservoir Dogs where Mr. Blonde cuts off the ear of the police officer. The sequence features the same setting, camera angles and music — "Stuck in the Middle With You" by Stealers Wheel. At the end, Itchy and Scratchy dance in a manner similar to that seen in Tarantino's 1994 film Pulp Fiction.[4] Tarantino was planned to voice himself but he found his phrase offensive and was voiced by Dan Castellaneta instead.

Shary and Barney Gumble sing a drunken rendition of Jimmy Buffett's "Margaritaville".[4]

Krusty's television special "Krusty Komedy Klassic" subtly lampshades the implications from its initials which are the same for the Ku Klux Klan. Krusty's "Mad About Shoe" sketch is a reference to the NBC sitcom Mad About You, while the unseen "NYPD Shoe" sketch references the ABC drama NYPD Blue.

Principal Skinner is seen in a short, anachronistically Victorian scene, trying to sell Jimbo Jones in the park ("Boy for sale!"). He answers Jimbo's doubts by stating that this is legal only in Springfield's state and in Mississippi. Until 2009 there was actually no law in Mississippi prohibiting the sale of children.[10]

In its original broadcast, "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious" finished 76th in ratings for the week of February 3–9, 1997, with a Nielsen rating of 5.6, equivalent to approximately 5.4 million viewing households.[11]

Alf Clausen received an Emmy Award nomination for "Outstanding Music Direction" for this episode.[12]

In 2014, writers for the series picked "Reservoir Cats" from this episode as one of their nine favorite "Itchy & Scratchy" episodes of all time.[13]

Wikiquote has quotations related to "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious".

• "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious episode capsule". The Simpsons Archive.
• "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious" at IMDb