The family is at the school, where Bart must choose a new musical instrument. Bart learns from the music teacher that if he breaks it, Homer will have to pay for it. From there on, Bart taunts Homer with the threat to break his violin. Homer saves it one more time, breaks his beer mug, goes berserk and mashes the violin. After this, Homer goes to Moe's bar for a drink. Moe receives a phone call, rages at the caller and angrily chases the customers out of his bar. Homer and Marge discover Moe leaving the bar and follow him. They discover Moe fighting with his father, Morty Szyslak. Marge and Homer attempt to reunite the family when they invite Moe, his brother Marv, his sister Minnie, and his father over for dinner. Before dinner, it is revealed that at one time Moe's family sold mattresses. Moe screwed it up when his father told him to sabotage their rival's store. Moe refused, and was tricked by the rival store. They ultimately sabotaged his family with bed bugs, ultimately leaving them down to three locations. At dinner, there is a hostile setting. Moe's family is not getting along together, so Marge and Homer proceed to bring a television into the dining room to show the Szyslayks the good times they had in mattress commercials. After seeing themselves together in a mattress commercial with a Christmas theme, they reconcile. Morty gives Marv a key to a store, Minnie a key to a store, and ultimately, Moe a key to a store. At Moe's store, the locals gather. Moe shows them an advertisement for mattresses alongside Marv and Minnie. He soon realizes that his brother and sister's intent was to sabotage him and make his store look bad by saying that people have died on his mattresses, including fat people and prisoners. From there on, they each get back at each other. Moe pops the tube man in front of one his rival's store. They get back at Moe by controlling the up and down button outside of the store, constantly torturing Hans Moleman as he is trying out a mattress. Moe then floods their store, flushing out the patrons that are in it. Marv and Moe get into a sword fight, with signs. Ultimately, Marv throws a sign at Moe before taking off. Marge, after learning about all of this, goes to tell Moe's father that his children are fighting with each other, and she needs his help. At first he refuses, but Marge persuades him, and he leaves the store in which he is getting a new shirt. Marge, Homer, and Moe's father then see Moe at the place where he and his father were fighting. Moe announces that he will destroy his brother and sister's mattresses, and they can't destroy his, because his mattresses are in a secret place, which is just his bar. Marge tells him that some families don't belong together. He accidentally breaks the jar of bugs and everyone flees the building, scratching themselves.
Reception
Dennis Perkins of The A.V. Club gave this episode a B-, stating, "Fox’s synergistic Simpsons programming saw FXX run a mini-marathon of Moe all Sunday leading up to this Moe-centric outing...and The Simpsons’ longevity means that there’s more mediocre Moe, than certified Moe classics. But 'King Leer' manages to mine Springfield’s least-reputable barkeep for enough quality Moe to at least remind us why he’s always been one of the show’s most reliable side characters." On release, "King Leer" scored a 1.0 rating with a 4 share with an estimated watch of 2.26 million people, making it Fox's highest rated show of the night.
