Marge In Chains
Usually, I try to start with discussing an aspect of my life that is reflected in this episode (and vice versa). Self-indulgent? Sure. But it makes sense since I grew up with the Simpsons and it is deeply intertwined with my life and how I see the world (sorry if they seem trite, annoying or just whiney). Instead, I want to start off with the unfortunate use of the opening act in 2020. It can be a real shame when good, or at least harmless, culture is co-opted by shits. I don't think I was ever going to be the audience for the dopey stoner comic "Boy's Club" but it seems a shame that Matt Furie, who by all accounts is a sweetheart, had one of his funny animal characters, Pepe the Frog, turned into a literal symbol of hatred via the art of memification. Furie tried to take back his character but after realizing it wasn't possible, he literally was forced to kill him off in a free comic for free comics day, giving a character a respectful funeral to say goodbye to any hope that Furie had any ownership of this character that wouldn't be fraught. Similarly, this episode recently became important in this, our year of pestilence, with an opening plot point involving an Asian flu being released into Springfield has been re-purposed by alt-right shit bags to laugh about the "China Flu" that is NOT a China Flu that is COVID-19.
In this episode, the town is beset by a flu and Marge becomes more overworked than usual. While shopping under a lot of stress, Marge absent-mindedly shoplifts a bottle of bourbon for Grandpa. Immediately, the town turns on Marge and the trial ends up going quite badly and Marge ends up spending 30 days in jail. Marge acclimatizes to her tough situation and even makes some friends but misses her family. Meanwhile, the reprecussions of Marge's absence ends up snowballing into a city-wide riot.
I knew this was a good one but I'm shocked HOW fucking good it is. Its funny and its sweet and I was surprised how intelligent and empathetic it is in its examination of America's views and attitudes towards crime and punishment. There's a lot to unpack and its all really good. It starts with the crime itself: the crime was an accident, Marge stopped and was being extremely compliant, no one takes time to consider (or even care if) it was an error and even without those aspects, the reaction of the police is completely over the top. The disturbing thing is that it barely even counts as satire considering how not far removed it is from where America seems to be: acting like even the smallest infraction is something out of Robocop's Detroit.
Then there's the town reaction: everyone turns on her and starts talking shit about her. Its extremely small, petty stuff that's supposed to compound her criminal profile like webbed toes and a hair in a cookie she made (though to be fair, it might have been a very long hair). Even the Flanders turn on Marge for the infraction of... fixing a crooked painting. Marge committed a "crime" (at the barest minimum of the legal definition) and everyone decides to rescind their empathy towards her. I think Apu's thinking is wrong and cruel but it does make a kind of sad sense: the Kwik-E-Mart is CONSTANTLY being wronged, so he's finally happy to have someone who "wronged" him he can put behind bars. People can be cruel to criminals but being a criminal isn't the same as being a bad person. It just means being a person who, for whatever reason or intention, broke the law.
We get the more human side from Marge and her family. There's still a lot of comedy but as is often the case, Kavner brings so much humanity to an over the top situation, bolstered by the strong writing. She gets to be funny, too, but most everyone else in Springfield ends up being a ridiculous jerk to make Marge's situation more Kafkaesque and Marge being so sweet and human and played with relative emotional realism makes the consequences of this silliness surprisingly palpable. This isn't the most emotional episode but it is one where that emotion is placed almost entirely in Marge's court and then runs with it and then is arrested for travelling.
The episode's finale is knowingly absurd but it also brings home the point. It begins when a bake sale is behind on its goal by $15 and the town can't afford a statue of Lincoln. I love that NO ONE is willing to chip in $15. Instead of a statue of Lincoln, Springfield gets a statue of Jimmy Carter, a president who, like Marge, got WAY more vitriol than he deserved. The town riots in response and they come to the conclusion this never would have happened if Marge Simpson hadn't brought in $15. Its so silly but I think it also works in terms of messaging: criminals are people. And people are what make up our community. The community turned on Marge and then it wasn't until it was too late that it was realized that Marge had so much value to the community. That could be any person given a trumped up charge far beyond the crime.
The Simpsons has often been a very liberal leaning show, certainly on a social level, but not every plot or episode has aged in that direction. In those terms, as an examination of the American treatment of crime, it holds up very well and has been even more pointed when we can clearly see this kind of shit happening more disturbingly, viscerally and often lethally in black communities. Boy is the Simpsons, a very very white (by way of yellow) show, not equipped to handle that subject matter. But as a more abstracted and general look at the weird lust to punish people for small, perceived infractions, this is a surprisingly smart take on it.
Jokes I missed before:
Followed by a clever use of paper and tape.
Other Great Jokes:
Oh, this one is chock-a-block with good ones.
Troy McClure smashing an orange with his face is a pitch perfect parody of informercial logic before internet supercuts of "people don't know how to do normal things in informercials". The reveal that Homer does the same thing is perfect.
"Don't panic, just come up with a good story."
"My name is Mr. Burns."
A less political and better meme that went around in March was "WHERE DO WE GET THESE PLACEBOS" which captured a moment perfectly.
"The network slogan is true: Watch Fox and be damned for all eternity." Truer now than ever.
Mr. Hutz is WAY too excited about the smoking monkey. I feel like he bought them under the assumption that others would be as into them as he and he was wrong.
"Don't tell anyone but Marge Simpson was arrested for shoplifting"
"Let it go forth from this time and place: Marge Simpson is a shoplifter!"
If I was a lawyer.
"This verdict is written on a cocktail napkin. And it still says guilty. And guilty is spelled wrong."
My guess as to the spelling? "GILLTY"
"Your mom's a jailbird."
"So's yours."
"Oh yeah. Let's play."
Other notes:
David Crosby as Hutz's sponsor plays it VERY gently. Its surprisingly tender.
Is one of those "people of different cultures" cultures a man just dressed like Elvis? I think that's not how I'm supposed to read that but I'm not sure what they are going for with the blue haired guy.
After watching that intro, like ALL my life over and over and over, I've finally noticed something. I know some of the characters are somewhat off model but I SERIOUSLY never noticed that Helen Lovejoy has Maude Flanders hair coloring.