"Tennis the Menace" is the twelfth episode of the twelfth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 11, 2001. In the episode, the Simpsons build a tennis court in their backyard and are ridiculed by the entire town because of Homer's inferior tennis ability. Homer therefore tries to please Marge by entering the two into a tournament, but they quickly turn into rivals when Marge replaces Homer with Bart as her partner. The episode features guest appearances from tennis professionals Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, and the Williams sisters as themselves. "Tennis the Menace" was directed by Jen Kamerman and written by Ian Maxtone-Graham, who also directed the Williams sisters' performance. The episodes title is a parody of Dennis the Menace. The animators of The Simpsons experimented with digital ink and paint on "Tennis the Menace", making it the first episode of the series to be animated using the process since season 7's "Radioactive Man". "Tennis the Menace" has received generally positive reviews from critics with particular praise for its guest stars. Around eight million American homes tuned in to watch "Tennis the Menace" during its original airing, and in 2009 it was released on DVD along with the rest of the episodes of the twelfth season. Plot The Springfield Retirement Castle holds a talent show, which the Simpson family attends. Grampa wins the show after performing his version of the song "What's New, Pussycat?". He wins a free autopsy, so the Simpsons visit a funeral salesman to claim the prize. While there, Homer decides to buy a casket and a tombstone for Grampa, who is then offered an expensive funeral plan that Homer cannot afford. The salesman tells Homer that the tombstone is produced from the same amount of cement as a tennis court, and this gives him the idea to build a tennis court in the family's backyard (although he initially regrets this, having confused tennis and foxy boxing). The court is very popular with Springfield's residents, but they mock Homer and Marge for losing all the time, especially thanks to Homer's poor play. Marge pleads with Homer to take the game seriously, but he is too oblivious to how poorly he plays tennis. Instead, he tries to please Marge by entering the pair in Krusty's celebrity tennis tournament, the "Krusty Kharity Klassic". Marge,