America's Favorite Non-prehistoric Cartoon Family - The Simpsons Thread

[Johnny Unusual]

The Wife Aquatic

"You can't go home again" as Thomas Wolfe once said (not Tom Wolfe, who is a different person who was just on a few episodes ago). You can go back to the place of your memories but they are rarely the same, thanks to time. Part of me wants to revisit my temporary homes in Thailand, Japan, South Korea and China but I feel like I won't see anyone there I know and I won't feel any connection beyond what I remember. Those places are long gone.You have better luck with art, but even when the art stays static, you change, and the way you see it changes. Some shows I used to love, I return to and it's like "Oh, I guess that's a good joke structure but I remember the delivery being better." And this is a later Simpsons episode I actually remember fondly. Let's see if it holds up.

In this episode, Homer sees Marge watching a home movie of her youth and overcome with nostalgia for his summer trips to Barnacle Bay, an island fishing town in New England. Homer decides to take Marge back there but they discover to their horror the once idyllic seaside town has fallen into poverty and disrepair. It seems the town's primary source of income, the yum-yum fish, has declined, ruining the town. Homer decides to fix up the town for the night for Marge and with the townsfolk help, he gives Marge a great day, capped off with a fireworks show. Unfortunately, the fireworks destroy the town's dock, making the town turn against him. Homer is allowed to help fish to pay off his debt and due to a mistake, finds a new way to catch the yum-yum fish. However, before they can head home, they find themselves caught in a huge storm, including Bart, who has stowed away. Bart, Homer and the crew seemingly die but turn up for their own funerals to reveal they were saved by a Japanese fishing boat. The town is primed to hunt the yum yums but Lisa pleads for them not to ruin their own island with overfishing, inspiring them to clear cut their own forests instead.

I remember liking this episode when it first aired but there are a lot I liked that don't work on revisiting. I did remember some great quotes, particularly ones JBear liked to use a lot, so we have a shared fondness for this one. Still, I wasn't 100% sure if I was still going to like it. But I'm happy to say I did. As a story, it is reaching for something but after the first act, it loses a lot of story and emotional strength in doing a Perfect Storm parody (do people even remember that one?). But the latter act is also held up by some great jokes, which is something that helps makes any weaknesses much more forgivable.

What the episode does explore in the first half is the aforementioned "can't go home again" but also the idea that a lot of communities, particularly those that rely on a single industry, may sabotage themselves through lack of foresight and non-sustainable business practices. Which sounds dry and really more than that it's very on the nose, particularly in the ending. The message isn't all that strong but I do think the sense of nostalgia turning into something sad is a good thing to explore. But it also starts as Marge's story, kind of, and swaps right back to Homer. And as mentioned this story is less compelling. BUT the joke hit rate is quite strong, so while I can see the weaknesses in theory, the spoonful of sugar makes it all easier to forgive.

And it is quite funny throughout. It's not reinventing the Simpson style joke but when I first fell in love with the show, I always felt the show succeeded in utilizing many different joke types and seeing it recycle so often in later season is kind of a bummer. This one has a few great jokes that stick with me and while they aren't super original, they feel far less like "plug and play" than some. It's also kind of nice to have an episode where, yes, Homer is a goofy oaf, but he doesn't need to learn a lesson, the episode starts with a true act of kindness going off the rails and follows his nonsense throughout.

Other great jokes:

I rather liked a lot of the jokes in the silent film of the beginning of the episode. Also, any time we get a silent film version of Hell, I'm in hog heaven.

"What is a radish anyway. It's like an apple did it with an onion."

"Wow, even I ain't hopin' for porn."

"Maybe you overfished them."
"Maybe they underspawned."
"Maybe you killed them all."
"Maybe the fish killed themselves."
"Maybe you should be ashamed of yourself."
"Well, maybe you should marry Milhouse."
*gasp*
"That's right! I know about Milhouse!"

"It's my thing. Great, now I need a new thing."

I don't know why but the ADRed reuse of "It's not opposite day!" makes me laugh.

"I won't lie to you, it's the most powerful storm I've ever seen and I've seen three storm!"

"Let us head back. I'm sure our Teevos are groaning with good shows."
That takes me back.

"I just had this awful feeling that Homer's in terrible trouble."
"I just had a feeling some guy I don't know named Fausto is in trouble."
"Come on, we got to help Homer"
"And Fausto!"

"Bart was on the boat?!"
I love that line read and the way that reveal comes.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Revenge is a Dish Best Served Three Times

Revenge is a truly toxic desire but it's one I understand. Of course you want to make things right when things are wronged. I feel like revenge comes from a want to be understood, to make someone who wronged you (or whom you perceived wronged you) to understand the gravity of your feelings about being wronged. But the fact is, revenge is rarely the road to empathy, even a perverted, skewed empathy (or just an equal level of some sort of suffering), as it simply just self-replicates. But it's easy to say no, there's always going to be a true person we want vengeance on, just some truly awful people who deserve to suffer. I'm certainly not going to deny myself some schadenfreude if some creep gets what's coming to them.

In this episode, Homer tries to get revenge on Rich Texan and the Simpsons try to de-escalate by telling him stories of revenge gone wrong. First, Marge tells the Count of Monte Cristo, where Homer is a nobleman who is framed for treason. After escaping and acquiring wealth, Homer spends next 5 years plotting revenge but after gaining it, he is rejected by Marge whom he abandoned for so long to get his revenge. Then in the second story (by Lisa), the Springfield elementary nerds create a machine to get revenge on the bullies. Only Milhouse can use it and he dishes out justice but soon remembers every slight from the kids at school and goes on a revenge spree. Milhouse quits when Lisa is the only person he can't get revenge on and rejects the machine... only for Nelson, who wasn't around to get revenged-upon, to pick up the device and use it on Milhouse. And in the last story by Bart, a parody of Batman, Homer and Marge are killed in a mugging and Bart desires revenge. After getting training from Grandpa, Bart becomes a masked avenger Bartman and begins a kill spree on the city's criminals in the hopes to find his parents' killer. Eventually he does... and decide revenge DID make him feel better and there are no downsides. In the end, Homer and Rich Texan make up and become friends.

As anthology episodes go, this one isn't very strong. It isn't awful, it just lacks enough good jokes or memorable writing to make it work. It's pretty shallow about the anti-revenge message which, fine, really this is about three funny stories but in that regard, its also lacking, so there's less to deal with. The first tale has some fun stuff in it, a pretty straightforward Monte Cristo parody. I do like that the ending questions the ending of the original, though I also suspect it cuts out the elements that make the ending of the original make sense in this regard. After all, I only have the vaguest memory the Antonio Banderas version so make of that what you will.

The second story is the weakest, a slender story for even an anthology story of Milhouse getting revenge on anyone. Yes, it is about revenge being like a drug but it isn't particularly clever about it and it really hinges on you finding schoolyard bullying techniques hilarious, as that's like 75% of the story. I don't have a lot to say about it.

The final tale, the Batman parody, has some moments, and it does actually pointedly say something about revenge in fiction, namely that a lot of adventure stories are about revenge giving a happy ending. It is sort of the same message as the first except one shows a story with a happy ending getting a bad one while this one is "happy" in a very pointed manner. I do like that it is aping the art deco vibe of early 90s Batman incarnation and the retro jokes are fairly fun. On the negative side, I don't really care for the part where they kill Lenny for being a cross-dresser. Bart and Wiggum's actions are definitely supposed to read as ironically monstrous as they paint themselves as heroes but all the same playing a very brutal murder of someone for their lifestyle for laughs, which gives me some big cringe.

Other great jokes:

"I've heard rumors he's mysterious."

"You might be surprised to learn the Count of Monte Cristo is an old acquaintance of yours."
*squints*
"Marge."

"It takes time to make a revenge machine this awesome. Plus, in the middle, I had to take revenge on some of my contractors."

"Thank you masked vigilante. Your overzealous homicide has saved me 80 cents."

Other notes:

Oh, so Springfield Elementary is in Tennessee!

 

[Büge]

Tom Wolfe

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Weird that this design is so different when the author actually showed up as himself.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Little Big Girl

You know, as much as I complain about the Simpsons going back to the "future" well so many times, I still think I prefer that than jumping through ridiculous hoops in order to write the Simpsons kids in stories were they need to act aged up. At best, these episodes are overly complicated and are far to broad and at worst, it puts very young characters in a weird place that is uncomfortable. I get that you want to write an episode dealing with the teen part of growing up and sometimes there is a way to handle it with younger characters through metaphor or perhaps a clever story turn but too many feel like they just want to drop right into it in a way that makes it feels like they've twisted themselves into pretzels to get there.

In this episode, Bart's prank inadvertently ends up saving the town and Mayor Quimby decides to reward him with a "wish". Bart uses it on a driver's license and gets to drive the family car. He loves it at first until he learns the car comes with responsibilities... notably increasingly frustrating errands for Homer. Bart decides to shirk his responsibilities and skip town where he meets a teen girl named Darcy. Darcy incorrectly assumes Bart is a young looking teen and the two fall in love. Darcy suddenly tries to pressure Bart into marriage and Bart reveals he's 10 while Darcy reveals she's pregnant. Darcy wants to get married before the child is born so her parents won't be disappointed. They learn that they can legally get married in Utah and drive off there. However their parents stop them and resolve the issue.

Ugh, this one. I didn't care for the last anthology episode but I feel this is the one that derailed a fairly decent run of episodes. I've definitely seen worse but this Don Payne (definitely not one of my favourite writers on the show) script does so much wrong and there's a lot to unpack. You know, I'm going to start with how this episode starts; with the b-plot. Lisa's b-plot is about her assuming a fake indigenous background for a school project, a lie that gets out of hand. This sounds bad and it is, but it didn't have to be, necessarily. Specifically, if it gave us a pretty convincing reason and gave us the weight of Lisa's crime and guilt. The reason is Lisa wants a good grade and she BARELY wrestles with this at first (she does have a mirror convo but she is pretty quick to dive into the plan before that. Most of the episode is broad stereotype jokes, which is probably the worst way to handle a subplot about cultural association (though The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt sure fuckin' tried, didn't it?)

As for the main plot, it isn't great either. So I will say giving Bart a driver's license to basically tell a teen Bart story without making him a teen? I... don't HATE it. But it is a lot to buy into, even for the show's internal logic. Lots of wacky shit happens in this show but I feel like unless you can REALLY land some big wacky, the more outrageous elements are usually better as background jokes, like the implication Burns stole Christmas for a few years. But as much as I don't like the episode, I do feel that choice was in favor of trying to get us a relatable experience; both the freedom to drive and the responsibility of growing up. And I'll give it credit, it's a through line for the episode, which often counts for a lot. But then the choices take one big idea as a launching pad for more bad choices.

So yeah, Bart ends up dating and making out with a teenager and they try to get married. So child-groom Bart to Natalie Portman was a thing on this show. And this is where it is clear that the attempt to write a teenage Bart story without aging him up has gone off the rails. It's just too much and despite the responsibility through line, I don't feel it is focused on the takeaway. One of them is Bart comments the two were going to get married but were always fighting and there's only ONE quick scene of that happening. Darcy's own situation is resolved ridiculously easily in a lazy sitcom way with a Simpsons tinge of cynicism but it doesn't work. The episode has a questionable premise and it is handled messily and gracelessly. I feel like there are more episodes like this to come. I can buy a lot of ridiculous stuff in the show but only if it is sold and this was a poor pitch.

Other great jokes:

"The flames are heading straight for the flammable district!"
"That's where our mom works."
I like the weird ambiguity of certain aspects of Lenny and Carl. Gay jk not gay isn't interesting. They have the same mom with no explanation, yes please.

"Wow, you really are 10. I thought you were just kind of stupid."
"I'm 10 and stupid."

 

[Octopus Prime]

Ahh the first Horny Bart episode.

What a storied legacy it weaves

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Growing Up Springfield

Who doesn't look at their lives nearing forty and considering all the things they could have done. Or any age, really, at a certain point. Well, I'm going to get that old in two months and yeah, reflecting on my life, I did accomplish some stuff but how much really. Maybe I should be satisfied that I made some people happy and I live a comfortable life but there is a lot I haven't done: been in a romantic relationship, get some form of promotion (as I usually change employers before then), create a work of art. I don't know if wealth is my biggest desire but while I think I've had a decent career but I definitely lack financial security. There are lots of ifs that worry me but at the same time, while there's a lot I might be missing, I'm doing OK as is with good friends and a loving family.

In this episode, documentarian Declan Desmond has been filming a documentary wherein every 8 years, he documents the lives of the same Springfieldians from age 8 to 40. This includes Homer, who has had a history of big dreams that have never been met. But now at age 40, he's finally become rich... or so it seems. In fact, he's been feigning wealth for Desmond using Burns' summer home. When Desmond looks for answers, Homer flees and he finally reveals he's ashamed of his inability to accomplish his dreams. Desmond pities Homer until he realizes everyone else in his documentary seems to admire him, which he uses to show Homer he is loved.

This episode is a parody of the Up series of documentaries, wherein the subjects, 14 7-year-old children, would be checked in on every 7 years to show the effects of class on determining one's future path. As you might imagine, it's determines a lot. This episode has fun bits but it's not nearly as incisive about class or much of anything. It does address it a little bit but it's a much more basic lesson; Homer needs to learn to appreciate what he has and that being loved is in itself a great success. It's a lesson well observed in one of my favourite films It's a Wonderful Life, which I feel it has more in common with than it's namesake (Springfield Up isn't even clever. It's not a clever title.) And here's it's a lot more basic and feels like a bunch of platitudes.

As you might imagine, despite tracking Homer in 8 year intervals, it doesn't give us much insight into the character. Of course, the show's canon is already fuzzy and this episode seems to imply Homer and Marge went to the same school, which makes little sense (even if the show is clearly not showing the two characters interacting as kids). But I feel like the "what have I accomplish" approach, while making some sense, doesn't really work. I mean, Homer has had more rise and falls than anyone else could hope for. Even as a middle class oaf, he's read a ridiculously rich life, so I feel like the episode does a poor job selling it's idea. As a Homer story it could work, as the one brief moment where a now jobless Homer is appreciated by little Bart simply because he's around. It's sweeter with a slight bitter tinge that I wish the rest of the episode had.

I feel like the show should have been less a Homer-focused one because despite the flaws, seeing the characters journey is a bit more fun and ironically is more insightful in small bits. The episode builds to a reveal about "the crazy cat lady" that doesn't exactly correct the characters not so great take on mental health but does something closer to what I want; we get to see the characters in a different light. I like when the show does this, even if it's for a gag about seeing them in a different light. It's much better than just another "Homer's midlife crisis" episode.

Other great jokes:

The bait and switch with a certain nautical gent is a pretty funny reveal.

There is a very long bit involving a 90 minute journey for Smithers to release the hounds and I love it from the feud of "Shadow and Winston" and Mr. Burns acting as a gracious host and the fact that Smithers was caught up in a Garlic festival.

"All I got is a porn channel I'm too cheap to de-scramble."
"That's an ad for shoe inserts."
"I've been writing creepy letters to that?"

"It's given me a brilliant idea."
"An action movie where I play a pope who kills the president?"
"No that's a terrible idea."
"Yeah, I know, it's stupid. I think it could work, though. I even have a title; Pontiff No Return. I came up with it, but I don't really get it."

Other notes:

Man, the last few minutes feel like they really ran out of time and needed padding desperately.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Yokel Chords

As a teenager, I didn't have particularly good taste in pop culture. There's definitely some great stuff I zeroed in on but there's also stuff where I watched with little value judgement. In some ways, that's beautiful but it wasn't until I got to university that I began to watch things critically. It opened me up to stuff I wouldn't have had as much exposure to, like art films and philosophy writings. Though I feel like my tastes are often fairly basic, I feel like I have a more varied taste and understanding of the arts, even being able to appreciate things that I don't necessarily love.

In this episode, Bart scares the Springfield Elementary kids with a prank and Bart is sent to a psychologist for a few sessions in the hopes he will behave better. While rounding up the kids, Skinner reveals to Chalmers that some local kids, the destitute Spucklers aren't allowed in the school as their poor test scores threaten school funding. Lisa looks to expose this injustice so the School compromises by having Lisa be the Spucklers' tutor. Lisa has a hard time at first but eventually gets through to them through the high arts. After singing a musical number, they attract the attention of Krusty, who immediately exploits them with their father's approval. Lisa can't stand seeing the kids being deprived of their education and turned into self-parody and to that end calls their mother who takes a break from her tour of duty in Iraq to chew out her husband and getting the kids out of their contracts. Meanwhile, Bart gets to his psychologist who gets through to him until the school stops paying for sessions and Bart feels like he's broken up. He manages to return for one more session and gets some closure.

This one kind of has a wild cast and it's a reminder that with the Simpsons on the precipice of a big screen movie, the show was still a big deal. It's a varied group to say the least: Meg Ryan, Andy Dick, Peter Bogdanovich, author James Patterson and Stephen Sondheim. Two of these are legends of the arts we lost quite recently. But the quality of the episode itself is lacking. I feel like it's one emblematic of what the show becomes; a mish-mash of half-thoughts and messages and story beats without natural flow that makes for a disjointed watch. In that regard, it does get worse but there are a lot of problems with this one.

First of all, I can't tell if it is simply about the exploitation of young entertainers or opening ones mind to the arts or becoming a parody of yourself. All are interesting but it kind of teeters between and any bridge between the ideas is made with shaky material. The kids get into the arts but that doesn't seem to actually have an effect on Krusty courting them or the art they do. And one message is the kids play up the hick angle, which feels completely hollow since they are presented as complete hicks with names like Incest and Crystal Meth. And the episode is set up as a parody of The Sound of Music which makes no sense as analogous (or parodying) the Spucklers situation and it cuts off half way through. And even if it did continue that, that seems bad since that might mean it's comparing unethical practices of children in showbiz to the Nazis? Both suck but I don't feel like a comparison is wise. If there's a central thesis, it is without consistency.

The episode is just a friggin mess and the fact that it's not particularly funny is a problem. I think there's also a little too much one-the-nose-ness of the jokes, like following the kids playing up their "hillbilly" roots, one looks in the camera and says "You're better than us." Sometimes the Simpsons is great at these little jokes where they cut through pretense or allegory but I'm kind of getting sick of it. Similarly, Bart loses his therapist and says "I think I've just been broken up with" and then the rest of the episode hammers home this point than trusting us with it. For an episode about the arts, it's shockingly artless. The best part, by far, is a barely related "Dark Stanley" section, which looks good. The Simpsons will do more Edward Gorey homages to a tiring degree but I did enjoy the novelty of mixing up the animation style.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Rome-Old and Juli-Eh

I've never had a romance but I'm always nervous about it. I think of myself as mature in my way and not just about age but if I find someone, they will likely be more experienced than me in every way in being in a relationship and I fear not being able handle managing the relationship properly, as it is simply muscles I've never exercised. I might find someone I might love and who might love me back and find my ability to support things on my end would hurt the relationship.

In this episode, Homer is forced to take in Abe during some financial strife for the Simpsons. When Homer and Marge need a night out, they call Selma to help Abe watch the kids and the two end up hitting it off and even start making it out. Homer and Marge find out and Homer is unhappy with the situation as the two start dating. Patty feels likewise and the two attempt to sabotage their relationship but instead Abe asks Selma to marry her. Selma accepts and they two try to make it work but find Selma's new workload and Grandpa having difficulty with domestic life make them realize there are obstacles that true love overcome and amicably split.

I didn't remember this one well but knowing it was an episode seemingly shipping a couple characters, I wasn't excited. Then I noticed it was Daniel Chun, who had written some interesting episodes. OK, he did write the Homer joins the army episode which I was pretty harsh on but still, his other two made me hopeful for a character-focused episode, which he seemed to excel in. And... this one is neither as bad as you might think nor does it make it into something memorable.

I think it hurts a little that Homer is closer to jerkass mode in this one, as his objection to the union is a little more vanilla, he doesn't like Selma. But it's not all bad as I think Daniel does best with character and the two's meet-awkward is pretty strong. And I think the message that. sadly, even with true love, sometimes there are unfortunate practical issues that can prevent a relationship from thriving, through no fault of either party. The two love each other though interestingly there's an implication it might be more of a desperate need for both just to have SOMEONE, and they work hard to make it work and sadly it just won't. Now, I think we don't get a LOT of attempts to make it or find other solutions before giving up and that's some unfortunately narrative shortcuting for time I wish could have been resolved better but still, I do think the last act is an improvement over the middle.

My issue with the middle is that it's a pretty bog standard romantic farce and Homer and Patty try to break up the lovebirds. It's frustratingly standard and I almost wish this was an episode with very little of the core family. I would have liked the time to dive more into the motives of both characters in their relationship and at what point this love finds a breaking point where it really does sell the idea that there's things that just can't be worked out. Pairing Selma and Grandpa might seem like throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks but Chun does show me there's a story in here about lonely people finding each other that could work. Unfortunately the weak outweighs the strong here and while it isn't quite as messy as "G.I. (Annoyed Grunt)", it also is mostly boring despite some small successes.

Other great jokes

"I feel like I'm back in wooden times."
I love Marge

Grandpa's posters of Silent Cal and Broken Blossoms is fun for old timey fans, though it feels more like a Burns gag.

"The new traffic cones are held up in Harrisberg."
"Go to the costume store. Get a hundred wizard hats and a bucket of orange paint."

Other notes:
I swore that Selma was with Grandpa in the "wedding after wedding after wedding" gag in the 138th Episode Spectacular but nope, it was Lenny, Bumblebee Man and Itchy.

The extended b-plot parodying Lord of the Rings doesn't entirely work for me but I do like that the delivery company has a dragon Bart and Lisa slew off camera, a reveal that happens as they are melting boxes with a garden hose.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Homerazzi

It's interesting to see in retrospect how we've come around on certain celebrities. Obviously, some we turned our back on for being shitty while others we assumed were shitty turned out not only to be decent but also needed to be treated better than we did. The public eye can be a toxic, corrosive element and can completely warp your view of the world. A lot of time, people are being shamed for the wrong things and the jokes we made, certainly that I made at times, look pretty awful. Celebrity can open people up to having abusive power but it can also open up people to a hurtful, damaging world.

In this episode, the Simpsons restage family photos after the originals were destroyed and accidentally catch a scandalize celebrity pick. Homer sells it for money and realize if he continues as a paparazzo, he can make some real money. Homer ends up excelling at his job, making him an enemy of the celebrity community of Springfield. As a group, they concoct a perfect plan to defeat Homer; hiring their own paparazzo to follow Homer around, humiliating him with candid photos of his failings. Homer takes the hint and quits but finds not being able to continue leaves a bitter taste in his mouth. As the Springfield celebrities celebrate with a decadent, depraved party, Homer decides for one last photo spree when they are at their most uninhibited. Then Homer says he won't release the photos if they try to act like better people, to which they agree.

Homerazzi isn't a bad episode but it isn't a great one. It has some good jokes and isn't badly constructed, my common complaint and mostly sticks to it's themes and ideas; namely that celebrity's status might lead to an abuse of power but people preying on them aren't better. The celebrities of Springfield are largely jerks, like Krusty opening a door on a kid's head and berating him for being in his way or Drederick Tatum jumping from polite to enraged the moment he's mildly insulted. But the particularly attempt as "comeuppance" Homer brings to them is treated as awful as well and Homer gets a taste of his own medicine. In the end, Homer uses his powers one last time for "good" in the hopes of making them better.

So there's potential in there but I feel like the balance of it's arguments is not great and how it lands gives us a questionable lesson. I think it wants to show the ugliness on both sides and that Homer doesn't really care if he's catching someone doing something wrong or just trying to have a private moment, which I appreciate. But Homer's ending speech seems to be about what they owe the people who made them rather than being good people, about appeasing a sense of entitlement now and then rather than ceasing the abuse of power that celebrity affords. And that's somewhat understandable as it makes for a weirder and EVEN MORE nebulous blackmail from Homer. And this is also on the heels of a pointed joke from Lenny and Carl about them hating on celebrities for not taking time away from their families to re-enact movie scenes or not co-signing a mortgage.

I think the episode is good at digging into the problem at both ends but fails to come up with a satisfactory conclusion. Perhaps it would have been better to end it with something that doesn't feel like it's ending with a big speech but rather something a little more murky for the viewers to consider in their understandings and feelings towards the nature of celebrity. Speaking of, the episode does have two great character actors in smaller roles; Simpsons regular Jon Lovitz as Enrico Irritazio the paparazzo and JK Simmons playing, again, a magazine editor. Lovitz does OK but his role, though key, is actually pretty small. JK, on the otherhand, is less essential but steals every scene he's in doing his J Jonah Jameson thing (even if his character doesn't look like that this time around). So there is lots to like in a perfectly serviceable episode, I just wish it came to a stronger conclusion.

Other notable jokes:

There's none on youtube from this ep but the "Just Kiddin'" Simmons stuff is gold.

"That's what I think of the fourth estate."
"What are the first three?"
"Nobility, clergy and commoners! Learn your French history."

"Experts disagree on location of Heaven?!"

"Is that horrible man gone yet?"
"Yes, mother, barring some sort of pendulum effect--"

"It's never fun to get a taste of your own medicine."
"You're right, I'm giving up photography AND my own medicine. So long, anti-clotting agents."

I love Marge's screenplay is "Mrs. Mom".

Other notes:
The Paris Texan stuff is eyerollingly of it's time but it's not a completely unclever character name, I'll give it that.

No reason to kink-shame Quimby and Brockman's whole deal.

 

[yama]

Goosebumps books depicted by The Simpsons, a thread

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1500212232323420162

 

[yama]

I swore that Selma was with Grandpa in the "wedding after wedding after wedding" gag in the 138th Episode Spectacular but nope, it was Lenny, Bumblebee Man and Itchy.

I think it was in the They'll Never Stop The Simpsons credits sequence.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Marge Gamer

I play video games but for the most part I tend to play on my own. I used to play games more often with JBear but we kind of stopped a few years back in favour of watching anime. But we do also play with friends online every Sunday night. I like playing with others but I don't play games with MMORPGs were you can encounter a large number of people and interact with them. For the most part, I feel like a lot of these games don't appeal to me anyway but I'm also a little put out by stories of unpleasant online experiences. Maybe I just don't like having to navigate playing well with others that I don't know. Of course, every once and a while, I've had bad playing experiences with friends too...

In this episode, Marge starts using the internet and ends up playing an MMORPG she becomes obsessed with, Earthland Realms. She later learns that Bart is in the game as the most infamous player killing character. Marge wants to play with him but Bart chafes at this. After a quest together, Bart sees Marge has redecorated his space and during a tantrum Bart's character accidentally kills Marge's. Marge is upset and Bart decides to resurrect Marge at the cost of making himself weak. While weakened, the citizens of Earthland rise against him and kill his character and Marge promises to avenge him. Meanwhile Lisa gets into soccer and Homer becomes the referee for the local field. Homer begins as an embarrassment but after Lisa's disapproval Homer, dedicates himself to being a good coach. When Lisa realizes Homer won't call her out for flopping, others point out to Homer she's been cheating and Homer decides to stick to his integrity and penalizes her. Lisa is enraged but when Homer appeals to her sense of reason, she realizes she was in the wrong.

I appreciate that this is an episode with a consistent theme about playing well together but it's a forgettable one. Let's look at the a-plot first; Marge joins an MMORPG and plays with Bart is a fun idea but I think it misses the mark in a lot of ways. A lot of it is comedically, as it is some fairly pedestrian jokes about video games and high fantasy. But my greater problem is that it's a pretty standard episode about Marge and Bart having to share space and fighting and reconciling. This is all well and good but I feel like what the episode should be about is HOW people play. Marge makes her way into Bart's space and never appreciates its sort of his space and he plays his own way. In the end it's "be nice to your mom", which, great, but it's also kind of boring when it could be about it being OK to play different ways or appreciating the ability to accommodate someone else in learning to play a game. In fact, there's a ton of angles far more exciting than the one we get, which echoes both better and equally forgettable episodes, which isn't great.

Lisa and Homer's story also lacks a bit but is much closer to being a fully formed episode with an interesting idea. In fact, I really think this should have been the a-plot. After all, it can be hard to try to be fair to a whole group of kids when you are the parent of one and still want to look out for them. And while Lisa seems uncharacteristically quick to cheat, a longer episode where she becomes frustrated with her lack of ability would sell her turn a bit better. After all, as someone who watches kids, its easy to see the instinct to cheat and complain when you feel like in learning a sport or game or dealing with more talented people, it's hard not to feel upset or frustrated and some kids don't know how to deal. I feel like you can convince us Lisa has this ugly but very human side and dealing with the fact her inability to deal has a harmful effect on her. There's stuff here but it's far more surface and is neither funny nor interesting enough to get me involved.

It's another episode where there's more potential than there is results that all I can do is posit better episodes. I like having an episode about games and having both threads look at it from different angles but this is Simpsons that feels very much on auto-pilot despite creating a wacky world for half of it to take place in. I think that I also don't like it when shows make these kind of parodies too generic. I get that it's supposed to be a broad representation of a particular genre that already has kind of the same high fantasy aspect. I know I'm not supposed to be focused on how the game works, but I feel like specificity would have helped, not even the specificity of the particular games it's mocking but creating it's own specificity and maybe a better sense of what characters (who aren't Krabappel, who makes her intentions clear) what they get out of this game. Especially since it seems like everyone who isn't Bart is just... hanging around.

Other great jokes:
"First, you must find the Amandahl of Nuxinor"
"All I see is that rock."
"You have found it!"
"Ooh!"
Despite my complaints, this does feel like my experiences early in an action RPG.

Other notes:
It's weird to see a show in 2007 with internet jokes that feel like it's from 1997.

 

[Büge]

Goosebumps books depicted by The Simpsons, a thread

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1500212232323420162

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1500213007632060417

wario_perfect.gif

 

[Johnny Unusual]

The Boys of Bummer

Community can be a beautiful thing and scary one. The same one that can come together to support people can also ostracize them or shame them. And in the Simpsons, Springfield can do the same. The community within Springfield can be such a single-minded mob that it is like unto a character. It can be a horrifying example of mob mentality and it can be surprisingly generous, giving it's all to a single good purpose. It's as elastic in that respect as Homer, the lazy stupid oaf who is also an ultra-industrious go-getter with many accomplishments under his belt, all while remaining feeling like a consistent character. And like Homer, it can be a jerk-ass... which actually works better for a story than regular jerk-ass Homer.

In this episode, Bart fails to catch a ball in a crucial little league game, losing the game. Soon, everyone in town is scorning Bart for his mistake, causing Bart a lot of anguish. One morning, the town learns someone is painting the message "I Hate Bart Simpson" all over town, only to discover it's Bart himself, driven into a mania by the town's cruelty and ends up diving off the water tower. Marge shames the town for what they did while Bart recuperates and Lisa comes up with a chance to redeem them and Bart by having everyone conspire to create a fake "do-over" game where Bart can finally catch the ball... which he does... after a ridiculous number of failures and do-overs.

The Boys of Bummer is a very strong episode with one notable flaw I'll get to later. But it is a great episode that I feel is smart and empathetic, allowing the mob mentality of Springfield to be ugly in a way that goes beyond mere wackiness. Springfield is downright cruel in a new way in this episode but it's also cruel in a way that feels very plausible. I know there are a lot of sports towns in America where life practically revolves around football and baseball and it seems as though it has a massive psychological effect on the players. And more than that, this episode feels very relevant when in retrospect, mockery of young stars like Britney Spears and Rebecca Black is so very hurtful on people who just wanted to create (and in the case of Spears, was also controlled by a cruel parent). Despite getting a swelled head, Bart is a kid playing a game and somehow it balloons into making Bart an outcast and it's upsettingly something not far removed from what it must be like to live under scrutiny at a young age.

I think it is also good at presenting the town at it's lowest and highest. It's a town that will turn on Bart, acting like he ruined their lives. Moe even suggests they would live on "easy street", needlessly tying Bart's success and failures to them. Bart is so hurt, he internalizes the cruelty and becomes cruel to himself and even when Bart is at his lowest, they won't fucking stop, with Wiggum suggesting Bart jump from a water tower and the town chanting outside his hospital window. Somehow, this bothers me less than a jerk-ass Homer episode because in that, it's a single character, and a key one, becoming cruel in a way poorly handled but I feel like this episode understands the weight of one town's cruelty concentrated and laser focused on one boy. But after the town has been cowed by facing this fact, they manage to come together for a grand conspiracy to restore a boy's faith in himself. It relies on a bunch of okish jokes but I love the idea of a town participating in a grand farce to protect the feelings of one boy which is a sweet idea (even though their evil was so ugly in the previous acts.

The weak point in the episode? The b-plot, which takes up a lot of real estate. It's not even awful, but it's a weaker tangent from a much better story. The funny thing is that it reminds me of an a-plot of one of the weirder episode, in that it stops being about Homer being a mattress salesman and more about him trying to steal a mattress for sex purposes and it's a bit weird. It has some good lines but it's a weird little ride in the middle of an episode I found surprisingly resonant. Bart's story feels like it could come from a real place and while sexual frustration from a change feels real, everything else around it and where it lands feels less relatable.

Other great jokes:

"If the Isotots win, please do not fire in the air. The bullets will come down... and kill my sister."

"Oh, my favourite song! Ruined."
I always love someone's favourite song being very mediocre.

"Bart, come with me, I'll take you to someone to make you feel better."
"Is it my rabbit, Cottontail? The one who went to live upstate."
"He died Bart. Dad buried him in the back yard. But not in that order..."

"I got a car dealership, 17 grandchildren and a big home in Idaho. It's a great life."
"Yeah, in Idaho."

"We tried raising Cain but we weren't Abel."

Marge pretending she sees the dramatic reveal tickles me just write.

"I always thought that was just a slogan to attract small businesses."

"Brought to you by God, the invisible giant you turn to when you're about to die."

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Crook and Ladder

My laptop blipped out this evening so I'm kind of too irked to write a forward here. You can thank Acer for a lack of self-indulgent tripe.

In this episode, Homer accidentally injures every firefighter in Springfield during a sleepwalking episode. With no one to protect Springfield, a volunteer firefighter team is formed, made up of Homer, Moe, Apu and Skinner. Despite their lack of experience or know-how, they prove themselves as heroes, getting a lot of gifts from the community out of good will. However, when they find themselves unrewarded after saving Mr. Burns, they steal from him and make a habit out of stealing from various businesses they help. Homer is found out by his family and is shamed by them until he relents. Homer saves Moe and Apu during a fire and convinces them to give their ill-gotten gains to the poor.

Crook and Ladder is actually often a fairly funny episode but is unfortunately pretty poor in other sectors, so it definitely goes to show I feel like I would be able to overlook a lot of the shows flaws if it's just funny enough that I don't mind any shagginess. This is especially true of the first act. For a while, the first act often had barely any relation to the second "real" act, usually a minor goofy story unto itself that ends with the real plot beginning. And I don't mind that but the first act, which is quite funny, is sort of... two first acts, one about Maggie missing her pacifier and the other about Homer becoming a sleepwalker.

This is all to lead us to the firefighter Homer story and as a story its got a potentially interesting idea, the idea of heroism giving heroes a sense of entitlement. But it's a pretty surface reading and it's just another story where Homer does something bad, is convinced to feel bad about it and then undoes it. In this case, he's made to feel pretty bad by his kids being disappointed in him. I kind of don't by this because I feel like Bart's first instinct is to be OK with this. This isn't because I think Bart is "bad", but rather he's someone with a sense of moral flexibility until he sees someone really being hurt. I definitely seeing Bart being upset eventually when he sees the consequences.

And I think this sense of feeling a little false runs through the episode. The ending is the worst offender where for all of Homer's crimes, it's "Homer saves his friends because its the last act". It doesn't make much sense in terms of actually showing the nature of morality so much as "OK, Homer is good now". The only thing he really deals with his his kids being upset and it never really hammers home how awful Homer's actions are and his redemptive action is a limp tossed off jokes about segways. Homer is declared a hero and I don't feel like the show treats it with irony. Maybe it's trying to get across that being lauded is more reward than rewards but it doesn't land for me and feels like it isn't dipping into the dramatic irony like it feels like it should. It feels like the episode realized time is up and they've filled enough episode to end the episode. Again, it feels like nothing but complaints from me but I really enjoyed a lot of the individual comedy bits in the episode and while I can intellectualize the problems, there's still enough that I had a good time.

Other great jokes:

I love Rod and Todd being scared of Homer saying "drugs" like a ghost.

"Oh, I have three kids and no money. Why can't I have no kids and three money."

Not going to lie, Homer looking at his dashboard hula girl looking sad is a cheesy stupid joke but Homer's deep confusion sold me.

Much better in the same montage is a gag with Homer seeing a sad looking oscillator and knobs which works solely out of how it looks.

The fact that the latter is implied to cause a meltdown tickles me.

Other notes:

Not technically a joke but I love that the Simpsons own CHUD on DVD.

So... did Moe have non-consensual sleepwalking sex with Homer for a joke?

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Stop! or My Dog Will Shoot

It's weird that people are still making police stories now. Look, it's a genre that's never going to go away, whether the problems with the police system are completely restructured and rehabilitated or not but I feel like I'm more likely to be invested if it is just a general structure and less of "life is sure hard for cops". I'm not saying there isn't anything to it but its certainly harder to sympathize knowing that the problem is less "those nasty criminals keep getting away, making me lose my sense of justice" and more "cops can murder people without reason and get away with it, especially in uniform and if the violence is toward a minority". I get that a lot of us were on similar page in telling and consuming police stories before but it's weird to see new cop media come out. One of the weirdest was the anime "Police in a Pod", a not-very-funny slice of life cop comedy about two women trying to succeed in a male dominated field while the public hates them and I understand it's a different culture who might be going through a lot of different issues yet it feels, intended or not, like a wrong headed take at this time from the perspective of our culture. So an episode about the frustrations about being a cop doesn't play so well now.

In this episode, Santa's Little Helper saves Homer from a corn maze and the family is given the suggestion of making him a police dog. He does and despite his dopey attitude, becomes a top police dog. However, after nearly being shot and seeing one of his collars escape through the fingers of justice, Santa's Little Helper gets angry and takes it out on Bart, biting him. Santa's Little Helper ends up living with Lou while Bart gets a new pet, a python named Strangles. Bart ends up losing Strangles during show and tell and causes a panic in the school, accidentally creating a toxic chemical fog in the science lab that permeates the school. Bart remains in the school to save Strangles but he ends up saving him... along with Santa's Little Helper, who was responding to the emergency. Bart and Santa's Little Helper choose each other and Strangles ends up living with Willie.

Stop or My Dog Will Shoot is not an awful episode as it has some funny lines but it isn't great either. As mentioned, the story telling convention of how a cop gets jaded because bad guys fail to be punished is one that doesn't work as well now when the problem is the cops or the rich due to their power of authority rather than say. a generic low life stock character like Snake getting out due to technicalities. As an episode with a message, "this is why it is hard to be a cop" is a harder sell because even if it is hard, boy does the police system make it harder for people even lower on the economic and societal ladder. They try to tell a classic gritty "police" story with the humour of having it be the dog but what it has to say is neither new nor does it feel like a message we need, certainly at this time.

Structurally, it's also a little wonky. Santa's's side is pretty functional but it gets wonkier on the Bart "gets a pet side" and the two don't come together very strongly. I feel like the show isn't as invested in bringing good jokes or story telling on Strangles side and it never coagulates into something memorable or witty. When it comes together it kind of gives us a weird false dilemma; which pet will Bart choose? This... doesn't make much sense. Both are good pets and it never feels like we were building to this. Moreover, it feels like if there's a clear reason Bart can have just the one, it never comes up. Yeah, there's the obvious economic one but it never feels like a factor. Moreover, Santa's sudden turn from hardened police dog to "OK, I want Bart again" doesn't build within the narrative in an interesting way.

Again, there are a few good jokes and despite my issues with the narrative, things move quick and smoothly so I didn't have having to watch it. There's just little to retain and not much reason to return to it. The episode also has a guest appearance by... uh... Rudolph Guliani. The Simpsons is no stranger to having a problematic guest appearance that aged poorly but man, this is a weird one. I'm a little thankful that it isn't a "look how great ____ is" gag, which sometimes happens but it does talk about how beloved he is which... weirdly, at the time, was not an unpopular opinion. Clearly, everyone now realized he's always sucked but it's weird making haha on the show with wacky dialogue that pales in comparison to his increasingly bizarre soundbites and appearances that he definitely should be doing from behind bars. And it really drives home the point that using Snake to represent injustice within the legal system has nothing on the GOP.

Other great jokes:

"Wagon wheels were the internet of the 19th century!"
"Really?"
"...no..."

I love Homer being upset at every first lady that isn't in pinecone form, only to find it's there and moving on to the next incorrect outrage.

I love the math textbook being shot and bleeding numbers and math symbols.

It's a joke that's been done (particularly with Chalmers), but I like Krabappel getting a non-reaction for a similar joke. Not even boos, just stony silence.

Other notes:
$5 a foot for python seems like a pretty good deal. Full size for a particularly long one is only $100 bucks, if you go reticulated.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

24 Minutes

I remember when 24 was a huge hit. 2001 was probably the perfect era to release a real-time action espionage series about terrorist fighting special agent Jack Bauer. And it very much became a show of the Bush-era, particularly in the fact that people within the American government tried to use this show to justify torture, meaning it's left a lasting impact on our culture and not entirely for the better. I've never actually watched the show so I can't speak to anything more than cultural osmosis but it's a show they tried to bring back again but it really seems like a show that only works in that era.

In this episode, Springfield Elementary's Counter Truancy Unit learns that Jimbo, Dolph and Kearney are planning some hi-jinx at the bake sale, for which the school gets most of it's funding. Desperate, they call on Bart to stop the bullies' plot, which they learn it to stink bomb the bake sale. Bart learns that the CTU has a mole but is captured before he can reveal it is Martin. Bart ends up tied up in a room with the bomb with Willie and the two try to escape only to end up in a room flooding with water. Marge manages to save Bart and Lisa turns the bomb off at the last minute.

A full length parody of 24 seems like it might be based on some request by Fox and perhaps it was much in the same way they've done a few shorts for Disney Plus. But it also seemed like five seasons of having significant cultural impact, it seemed like it would have staying power as a parody. But I feel like no one talks about 24, much in the same way people don't talk about Avatar except to remind us that it's weird the biggest movie of all time kind of evaporated in the cultural ether. Art like that it interesting, so tied to a moment but revealing for whatever reason it's staying power is lacking more than expected (The Simpsons would do an Avatar parody in a couple seasons too).

But does it work aside from that weirdness? Eh. It isn't completely bad but despite sounding like it might be ambitious, it's really not. In cartoon logic, real time doesn't mean a lot and the pacing and structure doesn't seem to imply it was trying to be more (unlike, say, the Trilogy of Error and it's overlapping stories). A lot of the jokes don't land but it's not as cringey as some of the parodies of this nature easily were. And there are times when the stylization and tone work in the show's favour. An action-adventure episode makes for a nice change of pace and it's clear the crew is having fun with shadows, composition, style and tone (particularly in some of the Martin as the mole stuff) throughout and even though I wasn't laughing a lot, I was enjoying the time watching it.

I just wish the b-plots were funnier. Homer's is a kind of odd one where he and Milhouse ride around in a dumpster and Marge desperately trying to bake a cake in less than half an hour. It ends in a way where I feel like the writers wanted the episode's threads to dovetail together but probably just didn't have the time to iron everything out properly and instead it feels like a weak culmination of a weak little bit. But at least hers leads to something, while Homer's feels like they needed to fill a Homer quota and I feel like with Homer's nonsense being less inspired in this era, it's not really needed.

Other great jokes:

"Lisa, if I don't make it back, there's a letter in my locker I want you to read."
"I've read it."
Skinner: "We've ALL read it."

"I've lost Milhouse."
"He'll be somewhat missed."

"And Superintendent Chalmers won't be happy to hear.."
"I won't be happy to hear what, Seymour?"
"'Hear that bake sale revenue projections are through the roof."
"Why I'm VERY happy to hear that. You don't know me at all!"

"I can't risk Superintendent Chalmers finding out..."
"Finding out what, Seymour?"
"About how early press coverage of the bake sale is uniformly positive."
"Once again you have completely misjudged my response. This is going on your permanent record."

Other notes:

I know Mary Lynn Rajskub is best known for 24 but I always think of her as a Mr. Show player.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

You Kent Always Say What You Want

Fox was a struggling channel early on and was noted for having some of the most outrageously bad series on TV. The series that changed the perception were Married... With Children and The Simpsons, both series noted for being sitcoms often seeing as being transgressive by the standards of the late 80s, early 90s and now look positively quaint. Though the former series became a cult hit, it was the Simpsons that put the network on the map, an overnight sensation that somehow didn't collapse on it's own popularity but thrived and evolved as it progressed. Though Fox has produced shows of all sorts of qualities over the years, some show gained it a reputation of crassness and raunchiness, even by the shows on their network. Over time, Fox News became a thing, manufacturing moral outrage over the kinds of shows that Fox airs and more than that, quickly became the mouthpiece for the GOP. The strangeness of the juxtaposition was not lost on people, least of all the Simpsons.

In this episode, Homer gets on the news for a soft news story and accidentally spills his coffee on Kent Brockman. Brockman swears on TV out of pain and though the faux pas is ignored, Ned Flanders discovers it and stirs up scandal, causing the FCC to come down hard on Channel Six. Brockman is first demoted, then fired, leaving him with nowhere to go. He spends time with the Simpsons and Lisa realizes that Kent knows a lot about the broadcasting industry that the public should know. Lisa encourages Brockman to come forward on an internet video and discuss it, leading to an impassioned speech. Fearing the fallout, the Republican Party re-hires Brockman, who is quick to drop his integrity in favour of money.

You Kent Always Say What You Want is clearly the series wanting to spend it's 400th episode exploring the network that gave them a home and dealing with the fact that the news division and really the company as a whole comes from a position morally counter to their own. I think a show can try to say something truly provocative against the corporation that owns them all they want but a court jester remains a court jester and a king remains a king. In a way, I feel like this is both the truth the episode wants to explore and the truth that also prevents the episode from being something stronger. Well, it has a lot of other problems that prevent some potentially interesting introspection from happening in a fairly meta episode.

In it, the show leads to Kent exposing the idea that the FCC fines Fox receives are actually funneled to the GOP as a bizarre donation of sorts and I don't know if it makes sense but at least it's something. What makes less sense is when Kent is given a platform, it becomes much more generic. Not that "buy nothing and hug your children" aren't good messages but it really seems to lack teeth, which is something I think the episode wanted to have a bit, particularly in specifically citing Fox multiple times. It's an episode that raises the idea of contending with some sort of complicity of being part of a network that spews misinformation but it's all generalities most of the way through. I appreciate that, hey, this could make things timely but specificity is the soul of narrative, even if it's made up and it sort of gives up on that too often to have impact.

Perhaps it liked the idea of contending with itself more than actually doing it. I feel like having an anniversary episode on the cusp of releasing a major motion picture is the perfect time to slip in an episode the creators very much want to do that they feel like the leverage they possess will allow but it feels like the actual product (a loaded word, really) shows an unwillingness to spend time on the story beyond a cliff notes, as the first act is mostly the Simpsons at the dentist, a very long Marge/Maggie wacky section and a re-airing of a Tracy Ullman Show skit and none of it factors in even thematically. Time to really grow the story is completely eaten into. I think the show is also pointing to the character evolutions I feel like do the show a disservice. There's definitely an understandable logic to making Homer a clear victim of Republican fearmongering and rage baiting and Flanders a neocon watchdog but I also feel we are supposed to like these characters despite their flaws. To me, the ideal Homer is an oaf who really doesn't think about much of anything political until it pops up in front of his face and that Flanders is a good religious man without making him a zealot asshole. The episode seems like it wanted to explore one aspect of it's evolution but instead showed another, sadly to it's detriment.

Other great jokes:

There is some funny pronunciation in this episode. Lindsay Nagel saying "C'cane" and Dracula saying "Ca-fusing"

"Entertaining America with shows like House, American Idol and American Idol Results Show!"

Other notes:

Always happy when Maurice LaMarche makes an appearance. Also reminded I could be re-watching Futurama.

Ugh, the wacky Mad Magazine-type names for things joke came back for this one for various candies. Kat Kit? You aren't even fucking trying.

I love Newshound, the Channel Six mascot, a sickly dog.

I love how jazzed Kent is to interview fake R2 D2

 

[Johnny Unusual]

The Simpsons Movie

The Simpsons is the most important television show to me of all time. I can complain about the recent direction or past mistakes but it doesn't erase the fact that it was the show that painted my view of comedy and a general worldview. It's impact on TV and comedy is huge but I can't imagine me being me without it. I've had entire conversations that were just quotes. It's a shorthand for bigger ideas. I remember it when it was the cartoon show sitcom that people were upset about but my family, who sometimes would police my watching of TV (they quickly shut down 8 year old me watching Married with Children) were early adopters while a lot of friends weren't allowed to watch and I saw it become something that felt wilder and funnier as it went on and when it hit seasons 3 and 4 where the show embraced the silliness hard and even to 10-12 year old me it felt like it I was watching comedic ground being broken. Truthfully, it might also have simply been sewing ripe fruits of what the comedy landscape had been brewing, which feels very much the nature of the media-savvy nature of entertainment of the pop will eat itself 90s.

When the Simpsons Movie was announced I was excited. But life gets in the way as in 2007, I was living in Japan, where the film wasn't playing (at least not in any capacity it was easy for me to find in a small Hokkaido city). I think I realized I was aging when as a younger man I would probably consider trying to find a way back home to see the film because young people don't always have the best priorities. I finally saw it when I returned home but not immediately. It was given to me in DVD form as a Christmas gift and me and my family watched it together. I have not seen it since then... until tonight.

In this movie, following the death of pop punk band Green Day due to Springfield's toxic lake. In church, Marge sees Grandpa seemingly having a religious vision involving a "twisted tail", "a thousand eyes", being "trapped forever" and "epa" and takes it seriously. Lisa canvases for restoring the lake and though she is met with a lot of resistance, she actually makes headway and the town comes together and begins to clean it up. Meanwhile, after a dare contest between Homer and Bart goes south and Bart loses faith in Homer and finding himself getting closer to an unexpected father figure in Flanders. This is exacerbated when Homer's latest obsession is a new pet pig. When Marge notes the pig's "twisted tail", she becomes worried it has something to do with the prophecy. When she learned he's been keeping his droppings in a leaky silo, she orders him to dispose of it responsibly for the sake of the town. Homer drives off to do that but when he realizes he's missing an event in town, he decides to dump it in the lake. This immediately causes an ecological disaster, involving a many-eyed mutant, which catches the attention of the EPA. The EPA is now run by Russ Cargyl, a businessman who's solution is to seal off the town in a giant dome. The town is trapped in the dome with limited resources and it reaches a breaking point when it is learned Homer is responsible. Homer is attacked by the town and the Simpsons end up finding an escape route through a sinkhole in the backyard, which collapses behind them.

The Simpsons are now on the run from the EPA and an increasingly deranged Russ Cargyl. Homer claims to have a solution, his back-up plan if everything goes wrong beyond imagining; Alaska. The Simpsons drive to Alaska and make a new home. However, their happiness is disturbed when they learn Springfield is going to be destroyed when Cargyl becomes afraid the dome won't hold. His solution is to destroy Springfield, a fact the Simpsons learn through an ad for a "new Grand Canyon". The Simpsons are determined to save the town except Homer, who refuses to save the people who tried to kill him. Homer walks off in a huff and returns to find a video message where Marge announces the Simpsons are going to save Springfield and Marge doesn't really have any emotional attachment to such a selfish man. Homer wanders off and found by an Inuit medicine woman who provides him with a means to see a vision which gives him an epiphany; life without other people isn't worth living and other people matter as much to him as him. Homer returns to Springfield while the Simpsons are captured and once again placed in the dome, which Russ Cargyl has lowered a bomb into. Homer makes his way into Springfield unwittingly halting an escape attempt, making Homer lose faith. But when Homer goes to spend his last moments with Marge, he is inspired to save the town with a daring plan. He and Bart, whom he wins back with the promise of spending the last few moments together doing something cool, end up saving the town from the bomb, which destroys the dome, freeing the town. Cargyl, who has cornered Bart and Homer, is defeated by Maggie and Marge accepts Homer again. The town rebuilds following their fall into anarchy and the Simpson house, which was destroyed by the sinkhole.

Where to begin? Not even "this is a fiasco". It's more that this is the biggest thing I've had to write about and there is a lot to write about but not just the fact that it's three times the length. There is substance in this movie, thank God. It definitely has it's imperfections but it's also surprising in it's ambitions, even though on the surface, it's a big Simpsons episode but on a grander scale. It's got a murderers row of some of the show's greatest non-Conan O'Brien writers. And that includes some of the people who haven't written in forever. And in that, I feel like it's trying to condense the series' philosophy and ethos into a small film. The writers make it sound very difficult to fill up an episode but I feel like one and a half hours is a tall order to fill this.

And a lot of the big stuff is here; environmental concerns, spirituality, family, mistrust of business and authority, Moe. All the important themes. And some of it is one the nose or a rehash of what we have seen before but some of it pays off in very successful ways. I'll say the weakest part are the jokes. There are definitely some good ones but a lot of them feel like, sadly, jokes we've seen before. In fact, some of the best jokes are visual ones rather than the word play I feel the show is known for. If anything, the storytelling, not without some fat, is actually quite strong and improves as it goes on. And though the show has definitely done the characters better, there's a lot of great stuff here and I feel like this is a gift to the performers as well, to give them something great.

This is definitely Homer's story first and foremost. Homer is somewhere between "dog Homer" and "jerkass Homer" but hues a little too close to the latter. But I feel the film is an exploration that maybe these versions are nearly one and the same. Homer here just doesn't think and acts on his gut but it causes pain and grief for the people who love them. Castellaneta is doing his usual thing, which is good, but sadly he's still a little too shallow. I would have liked to see more of a return to the more nuanced Homer who kind of knows he's a fuck up and is a little more humble but I get people are more familiar with this one and I think his epiphany has the interesting message that complete selfishness is self destructive because life's value comes from other people. Saving other people is a means of saving oneself. I wish the means wasn't so on the nose and also involved an indigenous archetype/stereotype. Homer's worst acts are ones of thoughtlessness and trying to avoid it which, is, like, the modern man. Even when Homer's being manipulative, I think he's living in the moment rather than plotting and when the tables turn, he calls his own line a load of crap. It's a very Devo message and while not nearly to a Homer degree, something ugly about humans that lie within us.

Denial runs through Marge's arc, too, in wanting to see the best of Homer, blinding herself to his flaws until Homer has no more good to see and she works up the courage to leave. This is easily the best part of the film and (this is saying a lot) the most devastating Simpsons moment. Julie Kavner sounds like she's breaking up during this scene and fuck, this might be the only Simpsons moment that makes me tear up. It's a perfect marriage of writing and performance that elevates the scene hard and the direction when it gets a little more heightened and cartoony is perfect for it's "All is Lost" section all conventional movies need to have (cliche as it is, that's good drama).

Wow. By comparison, Bart's story is not as good but not uninteresting. Him falling in with Flanders results in a lot of great small moments even if the big thing doesn't pay out a lot. I like Bart looking in at Rod and Todd and not treated as a joke the line "So that's what snug looks like". It treats Homer's bad parenting with humour but Nancy Cartwright adds gravitas to the emotional fallout and I kind of love that while Bart will never get consistency, his father is one that would let him spend his last moments on a motorcycle driving in the sky with an A Bomb a minute and a half from exploding. The writing isn't perfect but that's a fucking chef kiss idea for this character.

Sadly, Lisa's arc is very weak. They do give her stuff to do, being a major part of the inciting incident but a lot of the stuff involves her new boyfriend Colin and you'll notice he isn't mentioned in the synopsis. He doesn't matter much. I think Smith might have wanted to do some lovey dovey stuff where Lisa gets to finally meet a cool boy who matches her but as a character, Colin is a bit of a dud with nothing interesting. He's voiced by a regular and it's not like he disappears at the end of the film but I feel like he's never mentioned again and this franchise brought back Governor Bailey. She factors in more thematically than anything else, which is a shame.

Of course, the show expanded from being about one family to being about Springfield with the Simpsons as a focus and the film takes that into account. It gives a lot of little moments for nearly every recurring who isn't voiced by the late Phil Hartman but there are so many, mostly it's a showcase. Still, you don't need to be a Simpsons mythos scholar to figure it out; they were broad to begin with. We see them as wacky individual and as they often are, a mass capable of great good and great evil (they straight up try to kill the family. THERE IS A NOOSE FOR THE BABY!) My one complaint is very few of them get any of the really good lines. I will say Flanders gets a lot of play and despite some hints, he's about 90% de-Flanderized, which ironically makes him the Flanders I like; a genuinely good person but also sort of this weird impossible yard stick. I think more recent versions of Homer hating Flanders is that he's uncool and Homer can easily just decide to hate someone forever but before it came for a more real place of jealousy and I wish they explored a little bit more Homer being hurt that Bart would prefer Flanders, reminding us he doesn't just dislike him, he makes himself insecure thinking about comparing himself to Flanders in lifestyle and demeanor.

The other major character who gets a lot of lines is Russ Cargyl, voiced excellently, as always, by Albert "A" Brooks. Going into this again, I was like "is this another weird take on the EPA as villains like in Ghostbusters". But while that's a weird look, this aged very well, sadly. Because this isn't "the EPA are evil". this is "Russ Cargyl is every politician's rich supporter who wriggles into a powerful role to fuck things up for everyone." This film came out in the Bush era (which would be mere months away from ending) and while the film is in many ways timeless, it is clear as an inspiration as President Schwarzenegger (basically just Reiner Wolfcastle as a beat em up palette swap) is a stand in for Bush, someone who wants to look like a leader but is lead around by the nose by people who use him. But the idea of installing shitty business men to ruin shit actually makes "EPA is bad now" work and the film is pretty up front about it. Cargyl describes himself as a successful man taking control of the "least successful agency", which feels like it means least financially advantageous and his giant dome is made by his company. It really ties into the show's "don't trust anyone over 30"-lite origins.

I feel there's still more to say of the movie I'm forgetting. Like I said, as a whole, it is quite flawed but watching it again, the stuff I like, I do really like a lot. Like Homer and this era of the show, it lacks consistency but the highs are still pretty high. I think it does have a big impact in theatres and while, hot take, there are still some actual great Simpsons episodes left in the tank (albeit as increasing rarities to be treasured). I feel like it was the last of the shows three "moments", ones that go beyond the screen. The first was the initial Simpsons season, AKA Bart-Mania, which seems silly and kitschy in retrospect but also speaks to how the show really caught people early on in a way. Yes, Fox was also doing some sort of marketing blitzing but I feel there was something in there that goes beyond that. The second was Who Shot Mr. Burns. This is where the show evolved from fad to critical darling and institution. No sane person was trying to get Bart banned from schools. Families watched the show together and now there was a Summer cliffhanger that was both a parody of such and one in it's own right. It may have goofed on JR but people loved playing detective to figure out who shot Mr. Burns. Then it was this movie. 7-11s turned to Kwik-e-Marts. It seemed truly amazing. I suppose it was the last of the big moments, There'd be moments in culture but a lot of it sadly was about regret ("What can you do?"). But I've reached an apex, not in quality but in a moment for the series. I'm not going to be shitty and say it's all downhill or relevance is in the rearview, but I will be wistful in saying while the show didn't end here, it's era did. A victory lap of sorts. And even with the good things that did follow (my memory of the first episode of season 19 is pretty positive), it's where things didn't seem quite the same and never would be again. And that's OK. I don't need to see you in the theatres I guess. But like it hurt not doing it, somehow... it hurt knowing I didn't have to.

Other great jokes:
"I want bananas on my waffles."

I'm going to say, Bart's penis reveal for a joke is legit funny. It spend most of it with the Austin Powers gag of hiding it then hiding everything that isn't his genitals. It works.

"Am I getting through to anyone?"
"Hell yeah, we should get a new one of those things."
"All in favour of getting a new scissor lift, say aye."
"AYE!"
The Inconvenient Truth gag ages this but that gag really works for me.

"I think he had a dead body in there."
"I thought so to, but then he said 'yard clippings'. You got to listen, Lou."

"I'm a rich man who wanted to give something back. Not the money, but something."

"What, are you telling me we're trapped like rats?"
"No, rats aren't this easy to catch. It's more like your trapped like carrots."
I love the silence following this comment.

The gag with the swallows and the cats is pretty good.

"Sir, I'm afraid you've gone mad with power."
"Of course. Have you ever tried going mad without power? It's boring, no one listens to you."

"Why does everything I whip leave me?"

"Did you hear something?"
"Probably just a moth."
"I hope it's OK."
I love the Marge that's concerned about a hypothetical moth.

"Look look look look, we can't just stop at every SOP, YELD or ONE VAY sign."

"Stop, you'll scratch you're shackles!"

"I'm General... Marriott Suites..."

"Smithers, I don't believe in suicide but if you try it, it might cheer me up to watch."
Other notes:
Why did no one dig under the dome? I mean, if it was simply "there are guards out there", fine BUT I feel like no one mentions it as a possibility. It's not very deep.

Their big music get for the movie was Green Day? Was Blink 182 busy? In all honesty, I don't even remember which band is which.

On the other hand, Tom Hanks is a perfectly used BIG name.

Somehow, I didn't have room for it in my review but... it really does look pretty good as a movie, especially in the last act.

The Grand Theft Walrus gag is stupid and feels like a weird "Date Movie/Epic Movie/ETC"esque take on Happy Feet for no reason (other than it's also a Fox movie that came out the same year).

The film's composer is Hans Zimmer. Like, I would have expected Alf Clausen or Danny Elfman or even Marks Mothersbaugh but this is weird.

I kind of like the beautiful simplicity of "How good to see ya... how terrible you're here." It's not genius or profound but I like the idea of those weird emotional mixes.

 

[Octopus Prime]

The Movie is what made me decide to resume watching the show (albeit sporadically) after letting it lay dead for a few years. Furthermore it remains one of my favourite comedies, and is still in my Top Ten Best Forever movies.

Im a fan!

 

[Johnny Unusual]

He Loves to Fly and It D'ohs

The movie is over but the show must go on. So what happens next, business as usual? Well, business as usual for the show in those years was, in fact, a bit sporadic in quality. But that movie was pretty good. Will the quality of the film rub off on the show for the next season? It would be nice, as the attention from the film is probably a big shot in the arm from a lot of ways. Season 19 begins here!

In this episode, Homer saves Mr. Burns life and is rewarded with a trip to Chicago for some fun times and authentic deep dish pizza. They fly on Burns' jet, which Homer falls in love with and finds life flavourless after fun on the plane. Marge sees Homer fall into a funk and hires Colby Crowse, a life coach, to inspire Homer. Colby realizes Homer is at his most confident in the bowling alley and tells him to boost his confidence by wearing bowling shoes everywhere. It works and Homer decides to apply for a job where he can fly in a private jet. Homer seemingly gets the job and his family is happy for him, unaware that in fact he failed the interview. Homer, ashamed, spends his days at Krusty Burger whiling away the hours. Bart learns the truth and tells Homer to tell Marge the truth. Homer finds it hard so he decides to do it on a private plane and bribes a pilot to borrow one for him. However, the pilot ODs on heroin and Homer must land the plane. With some motivation from Colby over the phone, Homer lands the plane and tells Marge that he's going to quit his job.

I remember strongly watching this via bittorrent in Japan (a little disappointed the episode opens with fallout from the movie as I wanted as few spoilers as possible) and loved it. Rewatching it, I'm glad to say it's still a pretty good episode, funny, emotional, intelligent. If anything, I kind of don't like that Homer still doesn't muster the gumption to tell the truth in the end and perhaps it works as a bigger commentary on America but I dunno. Still, it's a small thing in a pretty strong episode. It's one about that feeling of being so ashamed of failure that you just can't share it and suffer alone, even if you know the fallout of continued silence will dig you into a bigger hole, especially in a culture where we respond to self-reliance and confidence. I myself am kind of a coward in facing my problems that really force me to buckle down and freeze.

The most memorable scene is Homer arriving at Krusty Burger to do his "job" of filling out Krusty Burger maps. It's a great, evocative and emotional scene filled with a sense of real sadness and if it wasn't so bleak, it would have made an interesting end to an episode. It's an episode that's about confidence and the shame of failure and I like an episode about how fear of facing it can make us dig in out of desperation not to confront it. Colby's speech at the end is a damning condemnation of the American mindset but it works in reminding us that denial can inspire shame and confidence. And despite the set piece, guest stars and Homer travelling to Chicago, there is an intimacy to the episode, particularly in following us following Homer alone and telling himself to act happy.

We also have two guest stars, Lionel Ritchie, who is doing OK, and Stephen Colbert. Colbert on Late Night has been somewhat of a disappointment. I watch (or listen in the background) out of habit but it lacks neither the teeth of the Colbert Report nor the Conan O'Brien-esque silliness I was hoping for following some of his weirder Colbert Report segments (his trip to ComiCon on his last season is amazing). The show has it's moments but I feel like the political climate almost forces most of the major late night hosts to spend a lot of time focusing on the political landscape rather than just making laughs. And I feel like for whatever reason, Colbert can't keep the level of sharpness from the old show. It ended at just the right time, as I can't imagine the Colbert character remaining savoury in the current political climate, but beyond that, it's far less experimental with the form. (He's also made some questionable missteps, most recently an NFT parody about how stupid and wasteful they are that requires actual NFTs, which kind of defeats the purpose) Anyway, I still do love Colbert and he's perfect as a Phil Hartman-esque role written for him, taking advantage of his showmanship, sense of authority and unearned swagger to convince people he's right. It's a shame Colbert is too busy to keep voice acting, because he excels at it.

Other great jokes:

"Now, would you like some sushi?"
"Um, yeah, but I'm on a plane, idiot."

"My name is Svetlana, but you can call me Hey Baby."
"And just so you know, she'll do *anything* for you. Anything except sex. And I do mean *anything*."
"Oh, I'm aroused. And confused."

I like that at this point, Itchy is just modern life embodied.

"Our coffee costs a billion dollars, this is Starbucks.."
*weak laughter*
"...IN SIBERIA!"
*big laughs*

"Homer, your journey downstairs would be a lot easier if you remembered the NDCs of concentration; Never Don't Concentrate."

I like the gags of dramatic music with a shot of Pepsodent and Marge's tear sucking into her face.


"Yeah, sempre fudge."
"Did you just say sempre fudge?"
"No, I said the right thing."

"DUFFMAN HAS REPORTED YOU TO THE FAA! THIS NEAR MISS WILL BE INVESTIGATED BY A BOARD OF THREE RETIRED PILOTS!"

Other notes:

The way Colbert says BOWling alley is forever lodged in my brain.

I really like the scene with the "freak fry" and that touching one makes you "die of suicide" because that's a total kid-style myth that feels real.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

The Homer of Seville

Ah, the opera... who cares? Well, I probably should. First of all, as I get older, I realize the beauty of tragedy. And it's so influential to culture and so many of my favourite things are inspired by it, such as two of the best Bugs Bunny cartoons. But it's nothing I actually committed myself to try it, so I've basically absorbed it through osmosis via all the things that references the opera. As some who does try to expand his horizons every so often, I feel like this is a frontier I could find myself enjoying but I still suspect I may never indulge.

In this episode, Homer has a back accident that sends him to the hospital. While there, the Simpsons learn that Homer has an excellent singing voice but only on his back. He's discovered by Mr. Burns, an opera aficionado and owner of the Springfield Opera House immediately scouts him to be a star. Homer proves himself to be an excellent opera performer and garners fans, most of whom are elderly women who hound Homer for attention. Marge doesn't like it but after she and Homer are rescued from crazed fans from a fan named Julia, they decide to hire her as a personal assistant and president of his fan club. However, once Marge is out of the room, Julia makes advances on Homer. Homer doesn't like it and constantly rejects her until she leaves. However, she plots to kill Homer as revenge during a performance. She's eventually stopped by Marge and taken by the police.

The Homer of Seville is a pretty mediocre episode that is clearly predicated on the idea that Dan Castellaneta can sing and they wanted to take advantage of that. And hey, I don't blame them, it's a time honoured tradition that when you learn your sitcom star has a talent, you USE IT. The problem is it's not that interesting of a story. In the last act, it's trying to harbor some opera traditions about passion being taken to a scary degree and for all I know, this is a reference to a specific opera. But as it plays out here, it's a pretty straightforward stalker plot. There isn't much of an interesting message, it doesn't toy with opera conventions in a clever way and it's not particularly funny. It's not god-awful, it's just pretty forgettable.

The last act is also predicated on the comedic juice of Homer being stalked by another woman who threatens to frame Homer for assault if he tries to reveal it which is... kind of a weird feel considering the last decade or so. Homer's stalker, Julia, is played by comedy goodperson Maya Rudolph and she does decent enough in the role with what there is but mostly it's to make her look equal parts cool and crazy. It's a striking character design by even the standards of when the show does attractive women, largely because I feel like she gets to wear some cool dudes (notably, her conductor look is good),

It's definitely an episode that knows that it doesn't want to waste time jumping through narrative hoops of why stupid Homer would go straight from good singer to full on star. I kind of respect that but even then, it feels like the meat of the episode is still kind of a shrug. If they wanted to do an opera episode, I wish they did, well, an episode that's an opera. It's not exactly original in the world of cartoons but I kind of would have liked a Simpsons episode that is both musical and ends in tragedy (yes, not all operas are tragedies but that's definitely a memorable genre for the medium), having some dramatic weight for a silly premise. Instead, I'm not sure if anything what this is trying to say about fame.

Other great jokes:

I like Homer getting to name the one restaurant that's a restaurant and not a funny name.

"Mahogany. Great movie, great casket."

"Julia wait. Before you go, could you hire your own replacement? But make sure she's not crazy like you."

"Hey, mom, do all conductors carry deadly blowdarts in their pockets?"
"Well, Arthur Fiedler used too..."

"Luckily the sniper bullet stopped the poison from reaching your bloodstream and the chandelier squished it all out of her.

Other notes:

I feel like the Citizen Kane moment is there largely to complete the "parody every Citizen Kane moment" the show seems dedicated to. Not a complaint.

 

[Lokii]

"Yeah, sempre fudge."
"Did you just say sempre fudge?"
"No, I said the right thing."

Weird, I don't recall a single bit of this episode and yet this line is seared into my brainpan.

What the heck!

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Weird, I don't recall a single bit of this episode and yet this line is seared into my brainpan.

What the heck!

Maybe because this is the SECOND time sempre fudge is used as a joke. The first was in the Rodney Dangerfield episode. "Then he told me to relax."

 

[Lokii]

For sure but the specific "Did you just say sempre fudge?" exchange is what's stuck. So weird.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

I feel like the sempre fudge marines is the only one I might join.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Midnight Towboy

Sometimes in childcare, I encounter new techniques that go in the face of established rules and I try them out. It can be a bit uncomfortable at first, especially if you think what came before is working to some degree. But childcare often involves a level of experimentation and change and accepting things are going to be different now.

In this episode, Marge is dealing with Maggie's increased clinginess and searches for a counselor to advice Marge on what to do. Meanwhile, while looking for milk for Maggie, Homer meets a tow truck driver named Louie and decides to give the job a try. While Maggie gains a shocking degree of independence, Homer is a success as a tow truck driver. In fact, he's so good, he's driving the city of Springfield nuts with his stringent predatory nature. Agnes Skinner comes up with a way to trick Homer into working Louie's turf. Louie responds by kidnapping Homer, an act it turns out he's done to any driver whose crossed him. As Marge feels sad Maggie doesn't need her, Maggie saves Homer by herself but returns home wanting to be coddled.

Midnight Towboy isn't "terrible" but it is quite forgettable overall. There's no real exploration of ideas or character in the A-plot, it feels like a bunch of stuff that happens. I guess it sort of comes close when Homer is missing and everyone begins breaking the law, leading to chaos. And... this actually doesn't really resolve in any capacity. If the episode was really funny, I wouldn't care but it mostly is something of a weak script and like so many, Homer seems on autopilot now, just doing a job when the opportunity comes up and then quitting when it's time for the story be over.

The b-plot has more potential emotionally speaking. There's the fear of the new and accepting changing methods and that feeling when your child grows and all of that comes from a real place and one that is interesting. But a lot of it is "look at the baby doing a grown up thing" and that's usually not funny, especially when it's Maggie. And instead of an episode where Marge is proud of her child's independence or deals with change, everyone is happy to go to square one. A lot of the goofs in the beginning are the lessons of C.R.I.E., where the counselor's advice that works sounds like a bunch of out-of-touch buzzword nonsense and even though I feel for her, I definitely get that impulse to treat the advice like that. I do try to keep an open mind but it usually means fighting some knee-jerk jerkiness on my part. So I think this should have been the a-plot and could have been fleshed out more.

Instead, it's too much Maggie doing stuff and frankly Maggie is one of the least funny characters. It's hard to write a baby to begin with but I've never really cottoned to the inherent comedy of a baby doing non-baby stuff, like a protracted Western pastiche where Maggie saves Homer. If anything, having the b-plot rescue the a-plot also brings to mind that... Homer has no arc beyond "has job, is good, trouble, loses job" and I am really sick of that at this point. The think about Homer's jobs is they can potentially reveal something about character and this feels like extremely trod ground and, again, if only the jokes were great, I wouldn't care. Oh., and the guest star in this one is Matt Dillon, who is doing OK as a very Italian American fellow but watching it, I was like "when's the last time I saw Matt Dillon in a thing. It's been a while.

Other great jokes:

The kids being frustrated with Marge being unable to navigate the Internet is cute.

"Now her childhood can beginulize."

"Hey, when you married a man who years later with no warning would become a tow truck driver, you knew what the deal would eventually be."
"Well, no one's disputing that."

"You know what they say, 'with great power comes with great responsibility'."
"WHO SAID THAT!? I'll kill them with my power."

"All the transformers transformed back into trucks and cars. The end. OK, I have time for one more story. Once there was a funny ogre named Shrek 3. He lives in medieval times but sometimes he would say things from today times..."

 

[Johnny Unusual]

I Don't Want to Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

I think empathy would make the world a lot better. Sympathy is good too, but it can only go so far. And both, sometimes can be big asks. A victim is allowed to feel these things for their... victimizer but why ask it? But even though perhaps not everyone is deserving of it, I believe deserve or not, it CAN (no guarantees) make the world a better place. Its why redemption stories are so inviting, even though it can beggar belief, as sometimes the story requires the forgiveness of unthinkable crimes just so a bad guy can pal around with the good guys or get some character arc. And I LOVE a redemption story, seeing a villain join the side of angels and seeing how goodness can enrich life. But frankly, it's also OK not to forgive at times, especially if someone has really hurt you.

In this episode, Marge ends up in the middle of a bank robbery, being orchestrated by a jumpy, incompetent loser named Dwight. Marge de-escalates the situation by hearing him out and promising to visit him in prison if he gives himself up. However, the second Dwight is in jail, Marge finds herself making excuses not to see him. As Marge avoids her promise, Dwight, who's mother abandoned him as a child, anticipates Marge with childlike joy only to be constantly disappointed. Dwight eventually escapes prison and Marge assumes he's looking for revenge. Dwight gets the drop on Marge and holds her at gun point but isn't interested in revenge, he merely wants to take her to the same park his own mother abandoned him at to enjoy one day together as an ersatz mother-son duo. Marge acquiesces but Dwight keeps her at gun point, which draws the attention of the police. Wiggum tries to stop him only to accidentally endanger himself and Dwight is convinced by Marge to save him. Dwight returns to prison but this time Marge visits him.

This is a Dana Gould episode and while that doesn't guarantee a good episode, it guarantees that in whatever given season it's in it's going to be one of the stronger episodes and I find this to be a pretty great episode. I actually think it asks some interesting questions about the challenge of empathy. I'm not sure how much of what I'm gleaning from it was intended by Gould, as maybe he was just focusing on the idea of having sympathy for a criminal but it does read interesting in a time when focusing on the sympathy for a victimizer is a wrong (and weirdly not uncommon) take. It risks being an awkwardly aligned episode but it actually works really well. Yes, part of it is overall the joke quality is much stronger in this episode. helped by a great guest star but while it arguably lands on a simplistic moral, it's the harder questions it never quites answers me is interesting.

Again, I think the story definitely comes from the idea that even criminals need to be treated with empathy because they are also people deserving of some measure of care. But in making Marge the one who was also threatened by him and kinda cornered into making a promise to save the criminal and prevent bloodshed, it complicates it in a way I think is interesting. I think it avoids pitfalls that would make it feel like a misstep and allows itself to ask a question and not answer it and that's OK, but it also makes other things clear. Homer correctly says Marge doesn't owe Dwight a thing but it isn't correct to Marge, who takes the promise seriously. I think she does want to sympathize with Dwight and provide him with solace but he's also a man who pulled a gun on her. Again, that's a big ask and she shouldn't feel beholden. But Marge has her own ethics and there's a difference between that and what *I* might think and I think it's clear the heart of the episode is Marge being unable to do in her mind the morally correct thing and it comes out in avoidance. Lisa pointedly notices Marge is avoiding but she isn't saying "go see Dwight", she is pointing out some upsetting behaviour.

The episode works a great deal also to Steve Buscemi as Dwight. This is Steve's second appearance on the show but the last one was a bit part as himself. He really gets to carry a lot of the episode's weight along with Julie Kavner, who gets to play the version of Marge I love with gusto. But it's also a well written part, a needy, sweaty gangster who is driven by insecurity and is, ironically, the kind of person Marge feels driven to comfort. Marge is a person of comfort and while she has every right to not do it, it's weird seeing Marge avoiding using one of her greatest skill sets, empathy, sympathy, care, etc. And Dwight is a creep but I think he's also such a sad sack and someone who is truly in need of SOME kind of care, that we develop empathy for him too, in spite of threatening one of TV's sweetest moms. I Don't Want to Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is already my favourite episode of the season and if there's a better one, I feel like that alone will make season 19 better than the last one.

Other great jokes:

"With my free time, I can finally work on my Superman novel. 'Make way for Superman,' said Superman as he punched everyone at the Coffee Bean. Chapter 2..."

"Where's Doctor Kevorkian when you need him."
"If I know doctors, he's probably golfing!"
Never change, Marge.

"If I don't make it, feel free to remarry... from anyone on my list in the bulletin board in the closet."

I like the dye pack gag.

I also love Wiggum reading all the chapter titles for the DVD of the Negotiator. Remember when DVDs had chapter titles?

And I also, also like Snake wants the guy re-editing his wikipedia page dead.

Oh, and the entirety of "A Kiss Before Frying" movie within the episode. "May I do the honours?" says the last rites Catholic priest on being given the opportunity to execute a man.

"The escapee says he'll turn himself in after he completes one unfinished piece of business. The police issued a statement saying 'that seems more than fair.'"

"I SAID AT LEAST THE MONKEY WOULD MAKE A BETTER CHIEF."
"Yeah, he's a good monkey, alright."

​

Notes:
So... is Gil dead in this episode?

Fun fact, my dad was also a hostage in a bank robbery.

The second mention of "Dilbert's Flying Cubicle". Weirdly, with a version of the theme music of the Dilbert cartoon from 2000 or so. That would have been over 7 years at this point. Also, the ride is supposed to be a roller coaster based on the last time it was referenced. The whole thing is weird for several reasons.

What's with the Pimply Faced Teen with a Frito Bandito accident? I mean, aside from unfortunate stereotyping.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Treehouse of Horror XVIII

Ah, springtime. Is there any scarier season? Yes. Yes, there is.

In this episode, three more spooky (?) Simpsons tales. First, in a parody of ET, Bart meets an alien who claims to want to contact his home planet but in fact is plotting global domination. Bart inadvertently allows the aliens to invade but they are thwarted by the army. In the second tale, a parody of Mr. And Mrs. Smith (the Pitt/Jolie one, not the Hitchcock one), Homer and Marge learn they are each secret assassins and find themselves battling each other. However, they put their plans aside when they realize watching them kill other people is a turn on. And in the final tale, a parody of Christian haunted houses and morality plays, the Springfield kids cause serious trouble with pranks to the point where Flanders try to scare them straight with a pathetic church haunted house. When it fails, Flanders is endowed with demonic powers to truly scare the kids.

This year's episode is a Marc Wilmore script and I feel like several of his scripts, it's a mixed bag, and even the good and the bad are kind of not straying too far from OKish. I'll say that I feel like the stories are all well-paced, which I feel like is a problem with a lot of the later anthologies, which aren't always given the opportunity to do their things.

The first story is OK and there's some fun to be had in Kodos trying to pretend to be good (even if it is very cartoon comedy 101 to have a super clearly evil dude with no one noticing his evil) and the humans being as joyously murderous as the aliens. The second one is story-lite and is more focused on an extended fight that escalates and comedic back and forths between Homer and Marge. Many of the gags feel like pretty basic "husbands don't listen" kind of gags but there are a few funny lines. The last tale is probably the best, if just for feeling different and being grotesquely fun, as well as some pointed jokes about the Christian sense of scaring people straight.

This is another episode where they are clearly straying further afield of "Halloween" and "horror" theming. Considering that the other Halloween episodes tend to get grisly also makes it a bit weird. The most notable is the middle tale, which is an action movie parody and one that is largely comedic at that, so it feels like a weird choice. At least the ET one makes sense since Kang and Kodos are a staple of the Halloween episodes. The last one makes up for it by being the most Halloween and is definitely my favourite of the evening, as well as the nastiest in a way that works. Overall, it's not a bad episode but there's not too much beyond a few great jokes.

Other great jokes:

"Jim Halterman bobblehead doll. He's a local call dealer."
"Are all human necks this weak or just the one you call Jim Halterman."

"Well done, Columbo. That's right, we watch Columbo. We watch it during rainouts of gleep glop games."

"I guess you should judge a book by it's cover."
"Oh, yes, definitely, especially the inside flap. It usually gives you a good idea of what's inside."

"He found the gully where I dump electricity every year to jack up prices."

"I feed your fish."
"You overfed them. You're the worst one of all."

"You're about to discover what a life of sin gets you."
"Cool, sin gets you something?"
"I was just in it for the sin."

"I thought I was killed by the magic spaghetti"

"Oh, how I envy the crotchless."

Other notes:
The opening gag is a pretty good reminder of what was big on Fox at the time. Remember Prison Break?