The Unlikely Truth of the Sweetums Molasses Explosion
When Tom and Ben sought a business partnership with Sweetums in the season five episode “Leslie vs. April,” they learned that the company was dealing with a PR nightmare after one of their molasses vats exploded and “people died.” The story sounds too ridiculous to be true, but it was based in fact, as the Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 really did kill or injure almost 200 of the city’s inhabitants.