The explosive combination of Mentos and diet coke has been well documented, especially on the internet, over the past decade and a half or so. There are countless videos and experiments on YouTube and other platforms, so The Simpsons, in its typical sarcastic fashion, had to introduce its own take on the trend just a few years after it began. In Season 19, Episode 3, “Midnight Towboy" the show used the idea to have one of the schoolyard bullies, Jimbo Jones, fuel a DIY jetpack.
The story begins with Maggie who is particularly clingy one night. In order to calm her down and get her to bed, Marge decides to heat up another bottle of milk. She asks Homer to hold Maggie for a moment while she does so. But Homer only holds on to his daughter for about a second before she somehow leaps from his hands and towards Marge who is holding the milk bottle. With her motherly reflex, Marge catches Maggie but drops the bottle, which splatters to the ground. This sends Homer on a night quest to get milk. But not before, of course, Homer literally cries over the spilled milk.
Once Homer gets to the Kwik-E-Mart, he looks at an empty milk fridge. “Hey Apu, what happened to all your milk?” he asks, to which Apu has a somewhat surprising answer. “I sold it all to teenagers,” he says, and immediately explains the reason for it.
“There is a rumor you can mix milk, mentos and lotto scrapings to make jetpack fuel.”
Yes, move over hydrogen peroxide and nitrogen. Milk, Mentos and, of all things, lotto scrapings are supposed to work as jetpack fuel. Confronted with this odd revelation, Homer asks the all-important question: “Does it work?”
“Kinda.”
But it is not Apu who answers.
There is a cut to the exterior of the Kwik-E-Mart where Jimbo Jones is hovering slightly above ground level with a jetpack of two milk cartons on his back. Absurdly enough, the mixture seems to work, although the mixing ratio remains a mystery.
Either way, these couple of opening scenes are absolutely bizarre. From Homer literally crying over spilled milk to Jimbo Jones hovering above ground thanks to a milk-base fueled jetpack. The joke pretty much ends there, although Homer’s milk hunt continues and leads to other absurdities.
The quest for alternative fuel sources has, over the years, brought some very odd ideas to light. And although The Simpsons has a known track record for predicting the future, it is safe to assume that a mix of milk, mentos and lotto scrapings as jet fuel aren't included in that.