Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
The Burns and the Bees
As a kid, I found bees to be the scariest thing. They are large and loud and I just freaked out when one would fly in my general vicinity. More recently, not only am I not scared of them, I think they are absolutely wonderful creatures and I pray that they can be saved. I think we need to do more to try to save the bees, like having neighborhood bee farms and tended to colonies. Bees are important to the world and it will be harder for all of us if they go away.
In this episode, Lisa learns that the bees of Springfield are dying and rushes to action. After getting Homer's help (motivating him with a fear of losing honey) Lisa meets with Frink and learns that locally they have a deadly form of measles, But Lisa finds an uninfected queen and after it stings her, she is forced to keep it on her face to keep it alive to form a colony. After days of having a beard of bees, Lisa finds a new home for them at the advice of Marge who directs her to an abandoned greenhouse. It goes well until it turns out Burns bought the land to make a new high tech sports arena. Lisa makes a plea to the town to save her bees but instead they side with Burns after he sweet talks the town. Lisa is bummed but Moe has a solution for Homer: have them reproduce with an aggressive breed of bees to help them survive. Homer and Moe go through with the plan and the bees attack Mr. Burns' sports stadium and make it their home.
The Burns and the Bees is an episode where we have a thing I like and a thing I don't. On the "don't" side, guest stars from the world of obscene wealth. We have current villain Jeff Bezos and not as hated by still shitty Mark Cuban. These are smaller roles and not nearly as bad as Elon Musk getting his own episode but did we really NEED these? Who gets excited about this? Readers of Forbes? Just have fake actors or something, the real thing isn't funnier when the cameo is by a piece of shit. On the plus side, I am pro-bees and the episode reminds us, we need bees.
Beyond that, there's not too much going on here. It's basically about humanity smashing down it's own future for excess but as a pointed statement about humanity... I kind of covered it in the one sentence. It really doesn't get all that much deeper in analysis than that and while there's a fun thrill in watching them take over. Beyond that, though, the episode is more good intentions than substance and it feels like the writer wanted to express those surface feelings than really digging into the anxiety of the fact that there are real perils in the world and no one cares, an idea more unnerving than ever.
Perhaps its also that we spend to much time with Burns. I get it, he's a very fun character but the whole "Billionaire Camp" runner doesn't land for me, even without the real world billionaire appearances. Instead, we have a subpar episode about something that is of genuine interest to me and that I'm happy they are trying to warn people about. I just wish there was more going on in it.
Other great jokes:
"Willie, I didn't know you were an apiarist."
"From context I can tell that means beekeeper."
"Smithers, we're leading two to nothing. Run out the clock, boys, run out the clock!"
"First, one announcement. I regret to inform you we are not offering free childcare tonight. I don't know who that was you left your kids with."
"If they was me they'd be done by now."
Other notes:
There are a few Mark Cuban reads were it was clear that there was a lot of editing from more material.
As a kid, I found bees to be the scariest thing. They are large and loud and I just freaked out when one would fly in my general vicinity. More recently, not only am I not scared of them, I think they are absolutely wonderful creatures and I pray that they can be saved. I think we need to do more to try to save the bees, like having neighborhood bee farms and tended to colonies. Bees are important to the world and it will be harder for all of us if they go away.
In this episode, Lisa learns that the bees of Springfield are dying and rushes to action. After getting Homer's help (motivating him with a fear of losing honey) Lisa meets with Frink and learns that locally they have a deadly form of measles, But Lisa finds an uninfected queen and after it stings her, she is forced to keep it on her face to keep it alive to form a colony. After days of having a beard of bees, Lisa finds a new home for them at the advice of Marge who directs her to an abandoned greenhouse. It goes well until it turns out Burns bought the land to make a new high tech sports arena. Lisa makes a plea to the town to save her bees but instead they side with Burns after he sweet talks the town. Lisa is bummed but Moe has a solution for Homer: have them reproduce with an aggressive breed of bees to help them survive. Homer and Moe go through with the plan and the bees attack Mr. Burns' sports stadium and make it their home.
The Burns and the Bees is an episode where we have a thing I like and a thing I don't. On the "don't" side, guest stars from the world of obscene wealth. We have current villain Jeff Bezos and not as hated by still shitty Mark Cuban. These are smaller roles and not nearly as bad as Elon Musk getting his own episode but did we really NEED these? Who gets excited about this? Readers of Forbes? Just have fake actors or something, the real thing isn't funnier when the cameo is by a piece of shit. On the plus side, I am pro-bees and the episode reminds us, we need bees.
Beyond that, there's not too much going on here. It's basically about humanity smashing down it's own future for excess but as a pointed statement about humanity... I kind of covered it in the one sentence. It really doesn't get all that much deeper in analysis than that and while there's a fun thrill in watching them take over. Beyond that, though, the episode is more good intentions than substance and it feels like the writer wanted to express those surface feelings than really digging into the anxiety of the fact that there are real perils in the world and no one cares, an idea more unnerving than ever.
Perhaps its also that we spend to much time with Burns. I get it, he's a very fun character but the whole "Billionaire Camp" runner doesn't land for me, even without the real world billionaire appearances. Instead, we have a subpar episode about something that is of genuine interest to me and that I'm happy they are trying to warn people about. I just wish there was more going on in it.
Other great jokes:
"Willie, I didn't know you were an apiarist."
"From context I can tell that means beekeeper."
"Smithers, we're leading two to nothing. Run out the clock, boys, run out the clock!"
"First, one announcement. I regret to inform you we are not offering free childcare tonight. I don't know who that was you left your kids with."
"If they was me they'd be done by now."
Other notes:
There are a few Mark Cuban reads were it was clear that there was a lot of editing from more material.