Fernando, it’s M.B. — Mr. Burns

Ah, Marion Barry! Is it time for another shipment, already? — Fernando Vidal, “Raging Abe Simpson And His Grumbling Grandson In, ‘The Curse Of The Flying Hellfish’”

Forgive the second-rate pun, but “Marion Barry Uses Cocaine” was too cumbersome. F.V.’s attempted sale to M.B. takes aim at the widely-suspected drug use of the former Washington mayor, which of course was widely-confirmed by the time the above episode aired.

Punk’d! The above still is taken from camera footage of the then-53-year-old mayor in a rendezvous with a lady friend at a D.C. hotel. Of course, the entire meeting was a setup (the entire surveillance video, including the FBI swarm, can be seen here), and Barry was soon in hot water — for a city as troubled by drug use and related crime as Washington, having your fearless leader caught smoking crack is at the very least a hilarious twist. The mayor-for-life’s career was in serious jeopardy.

Well, not really. Barry was largely acquitted of his alleged crimes, serving a paltry six months in prison for an earlier drug charge. And then — get this — HE WAS RE-ELECTED MAYOR. And this was after he won a city council seat, running on the truly singular campaign slogan, “He may not be perfect, but he’s perfect for D.C.”

Today, as his website* affirms, he retains a seat on the city council. I guess the point of this story is that your own political prospects may not be as dismal as you think.

* Note the “scrubbing” of certain time periods in his biography.