Willem Dafoe hallucination. The cameo was suggested by Dafoe, comparing it to the ghost of Hamlet's father visiting his son to ask him to avenge his death. Dafoe was next seen in the comedy-drama "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" (2004), his first of three films with director Wes Anderson. He played the "hilariously doltish" German first mate of a research vessel owned by the eponymous lead character, who is played by Bill Murray. Dafoe then had a small role as a tabloid magazine editor in Martin Scorsese's "The Aviator" (2004), a biographical film about Howard Hughes starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Also in
The Wife Aquatic are planned to be sent to a paper mill to be made into issues of "Hustler" and "Barely Legal" magazine. This was the highest rated episode since season 16's "Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass", which aired right after Super Bowl XXXIX. Barring that, the ratings were last this high in 2004, with "I, (Annoyed Grunt)-bot" which had 16 million viewers. The Wife Aquatic "The Wife Aquatic" is the tenth episode of "The Simpsons"<nowiki>'</nowiki> eighteenth season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on January 7, 2007. 13.9 million viewers watched this episode, making it the