Duffless
While my personal vice isn't act potentially physically destructive as smoking or alcohol, I have been dealing with my own addiction in the past couple years: food. I love food and I love to eat. About a year and a half ago, my mom urged me to get a blood test for cholesterol due to my father's own issues. My cholesterol level wasn't too bad but I was told I was pre-diabetic and I immediately started panicking. I know being diabetic isn't the end of the world and you can still live a happy and relatively healthy life with it, depending on the severity, but as someone who loves food, I didn't want to lose my ability to eat my favourite foods. I read up what I could on being pre-diabetic and found losing some weight can be a big help. Inspired by friends who also had chosen to lose weight, I went on a strict diet, then eased into cheat days every eight days after about four months. Last Tuesday, I was told I wasn't pre-diabetic anymore. In addition, I went from 246 pounds to 183. People keep asking if I feel better. I don't know about physically, save that I can do a lot of jogging now, but in terms of self-esteem, its helped quite a bit. I still pig out every eight days (I get serious food FOMO) but I can live my life happily and relatively healthily now.
In this episode, Homer is arrested for DWI after a trip to the Duff brewery. Homer loses his license for a time and must attend Al Anon meetings (sorry, Alk Anon for probably legal reasons), all while grumbling and rolling his eyes. But at his wife's urging, Homer begrudgingly gives up beer for a month. It turns out to be difficult, as temptation and boredom lurk everywhere. Meanwhile, Lisa wants revenge on Bart after he wrecks her science project for a prank. Lisa decides to hit two birds with one stone and creates an experiment to humiliate and torture her brother.
I never got into drinking but I definitely relate to Homer's fast. Giving up food never hit me in quite the same way, but I still got to be wary of my snacking (I still snack but its all very specific and planned). It took me a long time to give up food because I feared that dieting wasn't for me and I was doomed to being obese. Homer doesn't really care to change and its very much with the character we know since the beginning. Not even specifically alcohol, one of his great loves, but in general Homer tends to be happy with the status quo save for when he desires something (usually wealth or respect) and often tries to ignore when Lisa or Marge want it to change. Of course, as in this episode, he loves his wife and is willing to change for her and he does. But when the time is up, Homer wants to get wasted. The happy ending is that Homer is able to see how sad his addiction can make him. He's still going to be a drunk, but its nice to see he's earned the will power and self-esteem to put himself and his wife first by the episode's end.
Interestingly, the fast is only in the last act of the episode. The first is Homer getting in trouble and the second is Homer having to put up with all the fallout of his DWI. The fast itself is mostly handled in a series of quick sketches and gags, including a tupperware party hosted by Patty and Selma (huh?) and culminates in Homer seeing temptation at every turn. Its all funny stuff. And its only in the last three scenes does the emotional component come in, ending with probably the show's most shamelessly syruppy sweet ending as Homer and Marge ride off into the sunset while singing "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head." Not a knock on it, it is a really sweet moment. But its interesting that how quickly the show can build up its emotional momentum. Granted, the seed is planted early in act three when Marge pleads with Homer (Kavner always kills it with Marge pleads. That sounds sad but they always sound they are from a place of true concern, worry and love.) But then its all business (which is to say gags) and then the show quickly returns to its emotional climax. I mean, all the gags all paint a picture of Homer's wants as well, which definitely informs his passion to get back to being wasted, so its all perfectly part of the tapestry. But I feel it also points to how economical the show can be emotionally and how earned it can feel with so very little, compared to the often slapdash or non-existent attempts at putting in emotional stakes in the later seasons.
The b-plot is a lot of fun as well. It fills in the episode but its also a fun little story about revenge and how maybe there are better things to do than pursue it. After all, Bart's initial act was mean and thoughtless but it was clearly a crime of passion, while Lisa plans a cruel, drawn-out revenge. Bart's a brat but Lisa's toxic desires nearly break Bart's brain (though, lets face it, part of it is that he's real dumb here). I love that Bart gets back at Lisa by completely undermining not only the source of her revenge but the validity of it. Lisa still wants to win by the merit of breaking Bart scientifically but Bart's victory shows Lisa that showmanship can trump all by putting a hamster in an aviator cap. In the revenge game, Bart tends to have the advantage as he does once again here. There are definitely different kinds of smarts and Bart's is his savviness towards manipulating folk.
For the sake of the show, most of the status quos will be retained. Homer will always be dumb, drunk and gluttonous. We might see some nuance to that by via the nature of TV and a series like this in particular, only smaller characters get to really change and even then by inches. Barney gets to be sober... for a while. Milhouse's parents split up... for a while (this one bothers me less because it ties into these characters as shitty decision makers and what SHOULD be a cautionary tale to Milhouse). Some characters die (some out of necessity, Maude out of... spite, maybe?). Apu gets a big character evolution and then is ejected from the show in what is the exact wrong way to handle a rich but problematic character. One could look at the big picture and say the episode is kind of sad because we know the next week the status quo we are supposed to be seeing is not so good will be restored. But lets take it episode by episode. And in this episode, if we see no more, Homer gets a little better at the end.
Jokes I missed before:
I never noticed that in the fantasy about the alcohol fueled car, Homer imagines it as "Gasohol".
Also, I think its only today I noticed the A Clockwork Orange and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid references (for a long time, I just assumed "Raindrops" was a standard, not a song that emerged from that movie).
Other great jokes:
Homer's brain jokes evolve...
"Well, I would suggest Mr. Vanocur, if you knew the president, that that was probably just a facetious remark."
"I would also like to express my fondness for that particular beer."
"All right, we've got nothing. We have no ideas for the future. Happy?"
"No."
I love Lionel Hutz's going all in on surprise witnesses. "Each more surprising then the last!"
The video of terrible car crashes set to funny music as everyone (including Mrs. Hibbert and Ruth Powers) watches in slack jawed horror only to reveal Homer finding it delightful is perfect.
"Drinking has ruined my life. I'M 31 YEARS OLD!"
"I said *psst* I love you."
Other notes:
So... did the Simpsons just forget they had a hamster? Also, Lisa is apparently so bad at showmanship, she didn't think to bring the hamster.
I would like a go-go ray but I promise only to use it with consent and not on those with heart conditions.
Hey Hans Moleman is either black or very tanned in this episode.
Burns has a weirdly specific power plant spider. Also, a surprisingly weak one.
Ah, a Herman's Head reference. Timeless.
Are gummi beer a thing? They have to be, right? I mean, wine gums are a thing and a big one at that. BTW, my hot take: cola gummis are the best gummis. The worse? Off-brand cola gummis.
Even if the parachuted beer bottles are props, that level of littering in the climax CAN'T be legal.