the store in someone else's care while he recovers; with no one else to turn to, he reluctantly puts Bart and Milhouse in charge. The store prospers at first under the boys' management, but business falters when Milhouse places an order for 2,000 copies of an extremely unpopular comic "Biclops" without telling Bart. As the boys argue, they stumble across Comic Book Guy's secret collection of illegal videos, such as a drunk Fred Rogers, police interview footage of Ned Flanders reporting Homer for letting a radioactive ape loose in his house, and a top secret film detailing the U.S. military's plan to use Springfield as a "nuclear whipping boy" in the event of war. They decide to hold a midnight screening in the store's back room for the children of Springfield. Meanwhile, Homer helps a recovering Comic Book Guy look for a friend, but his attempts fail until he meets Agnes Skinner. Comic Book Guy and Agnes become romantically involved, discovering their shared contempt for everyone and everything around them, and begin a sexual relationship. When the police raid the store, Milhouse explains that he and Bart do not own the videos. The police then raid Comic Book Guy's home and arrest him while he and Agnes are making love, and Agnes breaks off the relationship, saying that she is too old to wait for him to be released from jail. With the store now closed by the police, Bart and Milhouse reconcile and return to their normal lives as Ned tries to cope with the ape Homer let loose. Production "Worst Episode Ever" was written by Larry Doyle and directed by Matthew Nastuk. It was first broadcast on the Fox network in the United States on February 4, 2001. The episode was originally called "The Fiver", a reference to a scene in the episode that was eventually removed. The episode title was then changed to "Worst Episode Ever", a title which the staff were amused by. According to Doyle, "Worst Episode Ever" is the first episode in which Comic Book Guy has a major role. Because Comic Book Guy is usually sarcastic and unfriendly, the series' staff found it hard to make the character seem likable. For example, Hank Azaria, who plays Comic Book Guy among other characters in the series, had a difficult time trying to make the character sound sincere. "Comic Book Guy only ever pronounces things