While serving out his time in a minimum security prison, Sideshow Bob decries the detremental effect television has had on our society. Shortly thereafter, he and his fellow prisoners are bussed to a nearby Air Force and required to perform work detail. When the moment is right, Sideshow sneaks out of sight and gains access to a restricted hangar where nuclear materials are stored. Meanwhile, the Simpsons travel to the base to attend an air show.

As the Simpsons and the rest of the enthusiastic crowd watch the air show, Sideshow sets his plan in motion. Addressing the crowd on a gigantic monitor, he threatens to detonate a nuclear bomb unless all television is completely abolished. People attending the air show, fearing the worst, panic and race for the exit. In the confusion, Bart and Lisa become separated from their parents. Meanwhile, Mayor Quimby consults with representatives of the media and, left with little choice, shuts down television stations throughout Springfield. But Krusty, sensing once-in- a-lifetime ratings opportunity, begins broadcasting from a civil defense shack. Outraged at the clown’s antics, Sideshow detonates the bomb from his hiding place inside the Duff blimp as Bart and Lisa look on in horror.

The antiquated weapon, manufactured decades earlier, fails to produce the expected explosion. As the military closes in on him, Sideshow grabs Bart and commendeers the the original Wright Brothers plane (on loan from the Smithsonian). Barely out of reach of passersby, Sideshow flies the slow-moving plane towards the civil defense shack where Krusty is broadcasting his show. Intending to kill the clown in a kamikaze mission, Sideshow noses the plane downward into the shack. But the plane’s velocity is so slow, it bounces harmlessly off the shack’s roof. Sideshow is taken into custody.