- “I don’t think it’s gonna work, but it’s either this or we have to put Gene down. Because the kid is really suffering.”
"Gene's Christmas Break" is the tenth episode in Season 12, being the two-hundred-and-twenty-sixth episode overall.
Plot[]
After Gene breaks his favorite, extremely rare '70s era Christmas record, Tina and Louise join him in the search for another copy. Meanwhile, Teddy wants to do a neighborhood Secret Santa with Bob and Linda.
Synopsis[]
On a snowy day in the Belcher’s apartment, Gene is in an elf getup in the living room, with a tape player, record player, CD player, and a host of novelty music, with him acting as an DJ. The rest of the Belchers are eating breakfast in the kitchen. Linda loves Gene as a DJ while Bob is frustrated how every year on December 1st, Gene starts his act at first light and keeps playing music all day, every day. Gene stays in the living room and puts on his favorite vinyl LP, Percy McTinsel-bud’s Tinsel Machine, and starts dancing around the living room. The other Belchers are upset, since he plays it over and over, and Tina tells Bob it is his fault, to which Bob agrees and apologizes.
Three years earlier, Bob was cleaning out his closet and Gene was looking through the boxes, finding the Percy McTinsel-bud’s Tinsel Machine album, which Bob forgot he had. He explained to Gene that Percy McTinsel-bud had a “really weird Christmas album” from the 70s, given to his possibly-stoner aunt. Gene is unsure why it is a Christmas album when the cover has stuff like kittens diving into a teacup, but when Bob tries to throw it out, Gene holds onto it.
In the present, Bob wishes he had destroyed the album when he had the chance, while Linda goes to dance with Gene when he calls for her. Tina asks Bob and Louise if she can get good at gift wrapping as she wants to be a “Christmas double threat” with both gift giving and gift wrapping (given her bad history with gift-wrapping, such as when Linda thought her present was a crumpled piece of garbage and threw it out, only to learn Tina had given her gloves and had to fish them out of the dumpster).
In the restaurant, Teddy proposes to Bob and Linda that they do a neighborhood Secret Santa exchange, which Linda loves while Bob hates. Linda tells Teddy he cannot do Secret Santa with three people, to Teddy’s disappointment. Mort comes in and agrees to be part of Secret Santa although he’d never done so before, to Teddy’s further dismay. Bob wants to not do it, but Mike the mailman agrees after stopping by. Linda writes everyone’s name on paper, then they pull out each other’s names, with the name being who they get a present for, and that they cannot spend more than 15 dollars. They all pull names, with Teddy outright venting that he wishes he pulled anyone’s else name, btu does not say who.
At night in the apartment, Tina is watching online videos of gift-wrapping and failing to match them, while Gene continues to replay Percy McTinsel-bud, to everyone’s annoyance as most as trying to sleep. Bob and Linda confront Gene, who wants to play Christmas music after bedtime, but agrees to go to bed but promises to start again at 5:30. Linda tucks Gene in and leaves him as he wishes each song on the album’s back cover a good night. However, in the early morning, Gene rolls over and lays on the record, which was in his bed, snapping it in half, to his horror.
In the living room, Gene frantically tries to tape the album back together, to Tina’s dismay as she wants to learn gift-wrapping, However, the tape interferes with the record player’s needle, causing a loud screeching mess. Gene is distraught and the other Belchers try to suggest he play other records, to no avail. However, Bob points out that there must be other Percy McTinsel-bud records out there, and Linda tells Tina and Louise to go with Gene to the record store up the street to find another copy. Bob is hesitant that they should go before the lunch rush but Louise, looking to get out of work, says they will, and shushes Tina who wanted to practice her gift-wrapping. A dejected Gene goes along.
In the restaurant, Linda notices Teddy and has been quiet and just “nibbling” his burger. Bob heads to the walk-in, and Teddy tells Linda that he needs to change the name, as he got Mort, while Linda tells him he cannot change due to the rules and pretends not to hear him yell out Mort’s name. Teddy is upset, as he wanted Bob or Linda, while Bob blurts out he got Mike.
At My Cousin Spinny Records, Gene has the album cover, but there are no other copies in any of the store’s vinyl sections. They ask the clerk, who has never heard of Percy McTinsel-bud, asks if they checked the Holiday section, which Gene points out they did, and says they must not have it. A devastated Gene drops to the floor and just wants to lay there, and Louise asks how they can find another. The clerk suggests they look online, which he assumes they have already, but the Belchers haven’t, so he suggests they go on the Recordrooter site. He finds that the album was released by Toodle-Loo Records in 1973, but no copies are for sale online. This means that the record might not have any copies left in the world, further devastating Gene. The clerk suggests a local collector who goes deeper than Recordrooter, who even once managed to find a copy of Pavarotti’s novelty record, Naughty Pavarotti. Tina asks the clerk if he can teach her how to gift-wrap, but is stopped by Louise. However, they realize who the collector is from the name written. Soon, the trio head to the Wheeler home, where Courtney answers the door, and they ask if her father is home.
At the restaurant, Bob asks Linda for her opinion if someone like mike would like a particular gift, but Linda chides him for being “Out-Loud Santa” not Secret Santa. Bob admits he doesn’t know Mike that well and does not want to disappoint him. Bob gets a call from Teddy, who has no idea what to get Mort. Linda overhears and figures out Teddy is on the other end, and tells him he has to do Secret Santa on his own.
In the Wheeler garage, Doug is having trouble untangling Christmas lights, and is not familiar with the record, but knows the label Toodle-Loo Records didn’t out material much, before getting frustrated at how many lights and plastic reindeer they have due to everyone in the neighborhood over-decorating in a competitive sense. He tells the Belchers that he does know someone who can find a copy, but he has to call London, and calls his contact Alice, who helped him find the Naughty Pavarotti album. But while she has heard of the record, unfortunately there were very few copies pressed, which only went out to the band’s fan club, then a fire hit the Toodle-Loo record warehouse, and if there were any copies left over in it, they were destroyed. At the thought that he had the last physical copy of Percy McTinsel-bud’s Tinsel Machine on Earth and broke it, Gene breaks down.
At home, Gene is groaning in bed as the family try to cheer him up. He is so distraught that he ignores an offer of cheese and salami, and swears he never wants to listen to holiday music again. As the Belchers leave his room, Louise says she has an idea that she thinks is bad and stupid but doesn’t know what else to do: they recreate Percy McTinsel-bud’s Tinsel Machine themselves from memory. Bob is disbelieving, but Linda thinks they can do it as Gene kept playing the record’s song over and over. But Tina points out they cannot do it there without Gene knowing, and Bob says none of them play instruments or sings, while Linda tries singing. Bob says he doesn’t think it will work, but it is either that Gene suffering more. Louise suggests they record in the restaurant during a time with no customers, but they still need Gene out of the house. Just then, Courtney calls and Linda answers the phone. As it transpires that Gene did not leave a retainer as he does not wear one (and someone is just throwing retainers in their yard), Louise gets the idea to talk to Courtney.
Later in the kitchen, Gene is surprised he is going to Courtney’s to help her and her father hang up Christmas lights, while Tina tries to wrap a tissue box and Bob tries to make it his Secret Santa gift, to Linda’s chiding. Gene goes despite being depressed. At the Wheeler’s, Gene tries putting up decorations before having to try and hide the unfinished view from the Robinsons across the street.
At the restaurant, the Belchers, using the tape recorder and a microphone plugged into it, start recording singing the into track, while out of tune and out of sync. They continue singing the songs from memory as much as they can, with Bob singing falsetto on the “teacup kittens” song before having to stop to serve arriving customers.
In the Wheeler’s front yard, the hanging lights will not turn on and the plastic carolers on display are not positioned right, causing Doug to give up and sit on the porch steps with Gene, with both agreeing they hate Christmas. Courtney says she likes it despite their protests, and goes to tell her mother that Doug needs a beer. Gene leaves to go home as well.
At the Belcher apartment, they wait for Gene as he walks in. He notices something off about them, and Louise admits that they had Courtney invite him over so they could record the tape of them singing Percy McTinsel-bud songs. A hesitant Gene plays the tape, but shuts it off in their intro and yells “no.” He apologizes and says they worked so hard on it, that he should have not destroyed a rare piece of music history, and then he made them feel bad about trying to do something nice for him, feeling he keeps ruining Christmas as he runs to his room.
On the living room couch, Linda questions them trying to recreate Gene’s favorite Christmas album, but give Gene space. In his room, Gene sits on the bed, looking at the album cover and lamenting its loss when suddenly, he has a vision of Percy McTinsel-bud flying out of the cover to give him tinsel and sing. Gene apologizes for breaking the vinyl record, but Percy tells him he doesn’t want him to be so sad over it, and ass about the tape the family made. Gene admits he could not listen to it, saying them trying to recreate it is like trying to paint the Sistine Chapel with gravy. Percy tells him it’s great they made the tape, saying lots of songs are cover versions. He tells him Gene’s family version might not be Gene’s favorite version, but maybe someday Gene could give the tape to his kids, and it will be their favorite version, and then they can roll over and break it, and make their own tape, and the point is the music keeps going. Gene considers this as Percy heads back to the album cover.
The next day in the restaurant, the neighborhood Secret Santa exchange begins as Tina accepts that she cannot wrap gifts well, but Mike tells her that he finds “good’ gift wrapping cold and impersonal, preferring the way Tina crumple-wrapped a box. Bob gives Mike a gift card from the Home Furnishings Superstore, which he loves, while Mike gives Linda a sheet of stamps. Bob got a note from Linda saying she got the car washed. Mort gives Teddy a little plaque with his name on it, so that Bob and Linda can put it on his favorite stool, to Linda’s delight and Bob’s concern. Teddy loves it and feels bad giving Mort a calendar of old barns, but Mort loves it. Teddy wants to put the plaque on the stool, but Bob tells him they can put it under the seat (so that other customers can sit there) while Teddy exclaims how he loves Secret Santa and goes to get the tools in his truck.
Gene finally comes down to the restaurant, now in his Elf DJ outfit, and tells everyone he listened to the tape and tells them it was great (even as Tina and Louise say they’re not good at it). But Gene tells them the music isn’t gone, as the tape IS Percy McTinsel-Bud now, and he remixed it as well with new vocalizations and instrument sounds. He plays the new tape for everyone in the restaurant, even as Bob is apprehensive about Christmas music being played all day again.
At night at the Wheelers, Doug and Courtney like how the front looks, but decide to go and get the reindeers for the yard.
Videos[]
External links[]
- "Gene's Christmas Break" on IMDb
- "Gene's Christmas Break" press release via The Futon Critic
- "Gene's Christmas Break" script via Springfield! Springfield!