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

[Ludendorkk]

"Devil and Homer Simpson" was always memorable to me for Nixon remarking "Actually I'm not dead yet", a grim reminder of how long ago these episodes originally aired. (Nixon would pass away before this season ended, funnily enough)

 

[Johnny Unusual]

I mean, it never hurts to be reminded.

 

[yama]

AROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

 

[Ludendorkk]

AROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

I love that Billy West was all "yeah I just started doing werewolf noises" and as a culture we went "That's Nixon!"

 

[R.R. Bigman]

Talking Simpsons is going to redo Season 2 because they can’t handle continuing down the dark path they have chosen for themselves. I think it may be time to end my pledge since I don’t like any of their current guests other than Kat Bailey and Ian Jones Quartey.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Marge on the Lam

Its harder to make friends when you are grown up. Even before COVID times, I've never been good at going out or putting myself in situations to meet new people. So understandably, I cherish the few friends I do have. I'm a bit introverted and often there are just nice people who I don't jibe with for one reason for another. There are also times where I meet a family friend and he seems nice and then he posts "you know, there's also such a thing as toxic femininity, too!" and I'm like FUCK NO! I don't know if I have the balls to stick it with JBear if he was on the run from the law (I mean, ACAB, but also I'm a coward) but I do like to think I'm a "thick or thin" type with my dearest friend.

In this episode, Marge invites her neighbor Ruth to the ballet after Homer can't make it. The two decide to have another outing, which makes Homer very jealous and he decides to have his own night out. While Homer has difficulty finding companionship, even at Moe's, Marge and Ruth continue to hit it off and have a great night. Until they end up in a car chase when Ruth reveals she stole her car from her ex-husband who's been stiffing her on child support. Soon the two are on the run from the police and Homer ends up with Chief Wiggum trying to bring them in.

Another very funny character-based episode. Its a shame Ruth Powers didn't get utilized more. To my memory, her next major appearance is as a body building steroid addict in season... 19 maybe? To an extent, I understand. Compared to other characters, there's no obvious comedic hook to the character. But there is a lot to do with her. In this episode, there's a relationship that's sort of like a backwards Bart/Milhouse deal: Marge is a sweethearted square and Ruth is a bit bitter but kind hearted and with her daughter being old enough to be left alone has some freedoms that Marge does not. Their friendship is genuinely nice and they make a great pair of friends.

Homer's deal is one we've seen before: Homer is happy where he is in life, save financially, but when Marge wants to shake things up he tends to get scared and uncomfortable. He's less jerky here than in "A Streetcar Named Marge" but he definitely ends the first act hectoring Marge to stick around and not make new friends. Still, despite this, his fear and jealousy is more understandable here than in the aforementioned episode and we do see him try to reach out and find it difficult (which also leads to some great gags, my favourite being going far enough to call Flanders and not being able to go further). But this is Marge's story about sticking with a friend and recognizing that you be there for friends for the good time and the tough times.

The episode is also a parody of Thelma and Louise, a film I've yet to see, though I feel like I might be more into it now than in previous years in my life. Frankly, I don't know how close the parody is to the source material but the great thing about prime Simpsons is that it generally doesn't matter and the jokes tend to stand on their own. There's also some great work from Phil Hartman in a non-plot c-plot where he is babysitting the Simpsons kids that's pretty funny. The gag of Homer not knowing what ballet is and the reveal that Homer's co-workers are of the same mindset is classic.

The voice acting is strong in this one, two. Everyone is at the top of their game but once again Julie Kavner gets to show why Marge is probably the show's hidden weapon. If you haven't watched the show in a while, its easy to put her in the unfortunate box of "nagging square", which she gets charged with in the next episode but while she doesn't get any huge emotional moments like in the Homer/Marge-centric episodes, here she gets to have a strong moral compass while being someone who is discovering the joys of getting out of her comfort zone twice over (first to do the things Ruth want, then rebelling against The Man to support a friend).

Jokes I never noticed before:

Jokes that aged weird:
There's a reference to "smart drinks". Was that a trendy thing? Like I'm not putting "invisible cola" because people remember the novelty drink that is Crystal Pepsi. I don't hear boo about smart drinks.

Other great jokes:

"Homer are you just holding onto the can?"
"Your point being?"

Lumber has a million uses

I love that the card is the one thing standing between order and chaos in the Simpson house. Also, did Homer, Marge or Lisa write that card?

Burns as a 1950s style girlfriend is aces.

"I said no!"
"Oh, did you? Oh, I completely misunderstood! Please accept our apologies."

Homer's turn from "I SMASHED IT GOOD!" to "You got real purty hair!" has some real "idiot backwoods killer in a horror movie" vibes.

"Stickin' together is what good waffles do"
If there is ever a Simpson's themed restaurant, it better include stuck-together waffles.

How come Fox news never stops the show like this?

Every element of the Dragnet ending spoof is gold. The best is how Hutz and Marge's attitudes juxtaposed with their epilogues.

Other notes:
There's a Garrison Keeler reference early in the episode. In Canada, we never had him (or if we did, not in the radio station I know) but we had Stuart MacLean and his program The Vinyl Cafe, who was kind of the same, except he's dead now and to my knowledge he was never a creep. And instead of stories of some sleepy small town, it focused on married Torontonians Dave and Morley and their kids and general sweet family life.

Its weird that we are introduced to a stereotypical shrewish wife/girlfriend for Lenny in an episode that's a parody of a popular feminist movie.

I would watch Richard the Penitent.

 

[Nich]

There's a reference to "smart drinks". Was that a trendy thing? Like I'm not putting "invisible cola" because people remember the novelty drink that is Crystal Pepsi. I don't hear boo about smart drinks.

There's a reference to these in the comic series The Invisibles (which was around the same time, I think) too. It went over my head there as well, but this Simpsons episode is the only other reference I've heard of.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Its not big but here's a Wikipedia article about them. Mostly it was a novelty drink that started as a drink for boomers at work and became a club drink. The advantage was these novelty drinks were generally non-alcoholic and could be served at raves where they may not be able to serve liquor.

 

[yama]

This calls for some old fashioned car chase music.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

My plan was to post that at the end of the post but I forgotted.

 

[Ghost from Spelunker]

That great jokes list for this episode is huge.
I might as well add "Candy and sodas for all!"

 

[Johnny Unusual]

As it a red herring: "The town sundial will be useless."

 

[Octopus Prime]

It’s incredible how many clues they crammed into that episode, considering how they didn’t know themselves who the shooter was at the time

 

[Reinforcements]

Its not big but here's a Wikipedia article about them. Mostly it was a novelty drink that started as a drink for boomers at work and became a club drink. The advantage was these novelty drinks were generally non-alcoholic and could be served at raves where they may not be able to serve liquor.

Today I learned that this was an actual thing, and not just a nonsense phrase from a Homestar Runner cartoon.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Bart's Inner Child

When I was about 8 or so, my parents brought something into my life that changed my childhood forever. My sister got a trampoline. It was the best. Really it became the family trampoline and we used it all the time. I would bounce for ages. We would have "bum wars", where we would alternate jumps and bum bounces until one of us stole the kinetic energy of the trampoline that they were unable to bounce. I would put rocks on it and as we jumped around we dodged the rocks. Look, not all of the games were well-considered. It did attract older kids who would sneak onto it at night and annoy us with night bounces and occasionally give it cigarettes burns. We had it and used it into our university years until eventually the rust got to the springs and we tossed it out. My point is that trampolines are awesome. So despite this being an episode about self-help flim flammery, I'll remember this most for the trampoline story.

In this episode Homer gets a free trampoline and it goes badly. This results in an argument in the Simpson bedroom and Marge comes face to face with the fact that the other Simpsons see her as something of a nag. Marge's sister turn her onto Brad Goodman, a self-help guru and after Homer and Marge watch one of his tapes, they find themselves taking his words to heart. The family later shows up at a Brad Goodman seminar and Brad cites Bart as a paragon of what it is to be happy: doing what you feel like. The town takes this advice to heart. At first Bart loves his role but finds that with everyone else taking on the role, he himself is adrift. Meanwhile, the town doing what it feels like comes at the cost of being responsible and the entire town ends up erupting into chaos. Then things sort of die down. The end.

Its funny but breaking down the last act in this episode, I see that the writers didn't find a way to end the character arcs successfully. Thankfully, they were able to obfuscate this with some VERY great jokes. Characters have epiphanies but there isn't much done with it. Like, Bart comes to his revelation that people being unto him kind of sucks but then his story basically just ends. Yes, he gets chased but at that point its the whole towns story of scapegoating Bart. Bart learns a thing but his story doesn't feel like it comes to a proper conclusion. The entire town's works better, as their stupid endeavor AND scapegoating... just peters out and they move on with their lives. This feels very much Springfield's whole deal aside from a bizarre mob mentality that can flip from good to evil and the drop of a dime. But then the episode ends with Lisa just straightforwardly telling us what our takeaway should have been. It all feels a little odd this time out.

But like I said, I missed it all these years because it comes to an ending, its a delightfully ludicrous finale to a fullscale town riot, with a comical escape attempt, a comically serious reaction (Shearer's line read of "They're very slowly getting away" is perfectly delivered and paced) and a wonderfully weird joke from Moe to cap it off ("Let's go to the old mill anyway. Get some cider.") And it is a pretty small complaint in an episode that takes a pretty strong shot at self-help one-size-fits-all platitudes. Embodying this is Brad Goodman, played by Albert Brooks. Like most Brooks characters, he's essentially a one off. Brooks characters show up in later eps but usually its like Jacques: wordless visual gag roles. But Brooks improvisational instincts are perfect again. The design for Goodman's face is incredibly untrustworthy so its commendable that Brooks sells why he holds sway over the town with a quiet gentle yet authoritative manner of speech that makes people feel they can trust him. It all sounds like they are getting to the bottom of a solution to how to be better but its all vague and thoughtless, hiding behind ill-considered pop psychology. Goodman never shows his true colors a la Lyle Lanley from the monorail episode. He, maybe he thinks he IS helping people. Maybe he knows its crap. But Brooks portrayal wisely never lets on. Even when he's thrown off by Bart not being named Rudiger, he never lets his point deviate too far. It doesn't matter. He's a man as hollow as his words for the purposes of the episodes and he doesn't have to be a "villain", we just need to see the kind of chaos his advice brings forth.

So the show ends by spelling out pretty plainly its thesis: quick fixes are bad and true self help is an arduous but rewarding journey of self-discovery. Frankly, I find it hard to blame the writers here, as this is probably a message you want to be super clear with if you want to try to get people to avoid this kind of nonsense. Bart's identity crisis is not resolved by self-discovery by himself, ironically enough, but by the town just sort of quitting on being Bart, allowing Bart to be Bart. And Homer take the message away that the status quo is best.

I will say the show sets up that Marge would also prefer the status quo but interestingly we've seen lots of episodes where she is the one seeking personal projects outside of the house. Both Homer and Marge ARE people who want to try new things. The difference tends to be Marge is trying to bloom in creative and productive outlets (and that time she became a cop. Ironically, this holds up since it ends with her realizing that cops and the system kind of suck.) and Homer tends to throw himself into risky, foolhardy endeavours (often financial in nature) even if they can force Homer to become surprisingly resourceful and willing to learn a new skill. So it is a little unfair that this episode seems to follow the audience perception that Marge is a nag when we've seen her try to get out of her comfort zone a surprising number of times in seasons 2-5.

Jokes I missed before:
I get the joke about Martha Quinn in theory but I still don't really know who she is. Probably because Canada got Much Music, not MTV.

There's a bit where Homer charges at the trampoline with a power saw I forgot.

Other great jokes:

"OH NO YOU DON'T! THAT TRAMPOLINE IS MINE!"

"It smells funny in there."
"No it doesn't."
I love the callback to a previous joke and one of my favourite kind of jokes is someone bluntly and happily denying a fact. Its far less funny in reality.

"I love that thing I saw her in."

I like that Selma can appraise urine by eyeballing it.

The self-help video is so great, top to bottom.

Obviously, there's Troy's problem being a washed up alcoholic and his problem is solved with this acting job. And "its like you've known me all my life." and Goodman's dead eyed stare as McClure licks his glass clean.

"Food goes in here."

"You're off the case, McGonigle."
"You're off YOUR case."
"What do you mean, exactly?"

Other notes:

I feel like Homer reading the "for free" column could easily be me, picking stuff up and assuming because it is made of matter, it MUST have value.

The kids questioning why Homer is talking in exposition to no one feels like another little event horizon in the show's meta-ness. Note, this is after Leonard Nemoy beams up at the end of an episode. I feel like the next step is when characters intentionally begin speaking out of character with that being the joke.

The "Indian" in the background is probably another reason you shouldn't always "do what you feel". Or at least feel better things.

"I'm glad you are here Mr. James Brown. We are so happy you are guest starring on this episode."
"OK, what do I do."
"Sing for ten seconds and then complain that a bandstand wasn't double bolted."
"I could sing for long--"
"NO!"

 

[MetManMas]

One thing I will never forget about the James Brown cameo is the animation.

All of the animation budget went into James Brown while the crowd more or less just bobs about and the band is completely inanimate until the bandstand falls down.

 

[zonetrope]

"It smells funny in there."
"No it doesn't."

This is my favorite Simpsons joke. I love that Homer's fantasy theme park is so shitty that he has to gaslight Milhouse with a smile. It's everything that's funny to me about the show.

 

[Octopus Prime]

This is my favorite Simpsons joke. I love that Homer's fantasy theme park is so shitty that he has to gaslight Milhouse with a smile. It's everything that's funny to me about the show.

It’s a close race between this, Bitey and the entire infomercial for Spiffy, but I agree.

Also, I can’t look at a trampoline without yelling “TRAMBAMPOLINE! TROMBOMPOLINE!”

 

[Lokii]

This is my favorite Simpsons joke. I love that Homer's fantasy theme park is so shitty that he has to gaslight Milhouse with a smile. It's everything that's funny to me about the show.

lol yup

All of the animation budget went into James Brown while the crowd more or less just bobs about and the band is completely inanimate until the bandstand falls down.

Seems like the correct place for the animation budget to go into.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Boy Scouts N The Hood

Man, I'm pretty tapped out in trying to tie this into my personal life at this point in... history, so lets just get to the meat of this.

In this episode, Bart joins the Boy Scouts... er, Junior Campers after a squishee bender. Bart initially aims to quit but finds the skills they offer to teach very useful to his prank game. Soon, Bart is all in on his new hobby but Homer would rather just make fun of his son. Bart reluctantly invites his father to the father/son rafting trip and Homer reluctantly agrees. Homer screws things up and Homer, Bart, Ned and Todd end up trapped at sea with no way to get home. Eventually, they are saved when Homer discovers a Krustyburger in an offshore oil rig. Also, Ernest Borgnine is probably dead.

Boy Scouts N the Hood is a very good episode but the journey and character exploration is similar to stuff we've seen before. Once again, we see that Homer is lacking as a role model and Bart finds a powerful and nurturing fathering source in an unusual place. This time it isn't within a tiny soapbox derby racer or a bigger brother but an institution, the incredibly square Junior Campers. But Bart is able to overcome his prejudice by the siren song of knives and traps. Bart is an interesting character in that on his own he is very anti-authoritarian and rebellious but he often goes all in on a group when they offer him friends, skills and praise. Despite the shows general mistrust of authority, many of the forms of authority Bart falls in with are largely positive and brings out the best in Bart. Granted, when he becomes a hall monitor he's less interested in protecting and more getting off on being a cop but more often than not we see Homer probably needs a better role model than Homer.

Homer isn't quite in full jerkass mode yet but he's close here. The problem is later season jerkass Homer often goes out of his way to be mean or is mean in ways that cross a sort of "fun" line. Here, Homer is awful but its less meanspirited and more of an indictment of a terrible American mindset. Often Homer acts like a jerk because he feels threatened by something or someone but here its more about Homer looking down on his nerd son's nerd hobby and then finding his entitled ass coming to realize he doesn't have the skills or smarts he needs. Homer's uselessness and obnoxiousness gets them into deeper and deeper trouble. Meanwhile, Flanders proves himself to be somewhat useless in an emergency, not because he is unskilled but because the skills he have do no favours for him and his assumptions cruelly turn on him. Homer is able to save everyone with his one useful skill: smelling food. Bart finds that despite Homer's embarrassing ignorance, he still loves him and is proud of the one good thing he does. I feel like we've seen this story, the lessons and the explorations before but its not like the retread of latterday Simpsons. The jokes and setting and specific scenarios are still fresh at this point and with the cast and crew at their peak, its hard to really care about such trifling concerns

Jokes I missed before:

I'll go into more detail later but the kids loving the character of "Fatso" Judson from From Here to Eternity.

I don't know what that entails. Despite this, I'm positive "The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure" counts as Triple G Rated

Other great jokes:

More video games should let you be Wallace Shawn.

The perfectly robotic "I'm sorry you'll have to leave" from the squeaky voiced teen is chef kiss.

For some reason the entire "$20 can by many peanuts" was included in one of the Simpsons soundtrack albums. Its a great big but I feel like its an odd one to include for some reason.

Chock full of back to back great jokes but Dr. Hibbert's ridiculous surgery with an exploding appendix is wonderful. Also, that one guy should probably get sewn back up.

"Don't Do What Donny Don't Does.... they could have made this clearer."

You know there's some sort of asshat pointing out this "error" on the internet because they are some stupid robot. I'm going to assume its CinemaSins.

"I'm the captain. My son is Bart."
I love how in Bart's dream that exaggerates Homer's stupidity, it doesn't exaggerate him turning a map into a paper hat.

"I don't want to go so if he asks me to go... I'll just say yes!"
"Wait, are you sure this is how this sort of thing works?"
"Shut up brain or I'll stab you with a tooth pick."
Once again, Homer's relationship with his brain pays comedic dividends.

Someone. probably Hank Azaria, really went for it as the sound of a dying seagull.

I love that Homer's surprisingly sensible flare gun based b-plan didn't take into account that another plane might fly by and snatch a guy up in mid air.
Other notes:
The show's little b-plot is hilariously dark. As a kid, I remember finding the horror movie ending kind of unsettling. Basically, it starts with a Deliverance reference, then its Ernest Borgnine and the kids (all the other adults seem to have mysteriously and perhaps tragically disappeared) and finally ends with a Friday the 13th style finally. Borgnine is well-used here. Its clear by this point in time he's a character actor known mainly by older audiences so its funny that he's the "celebrity dad" for the trip. He does cite one of his biggest roles that the kids cheer, but the joke is that its a movie most kids probably wouldn't have seen and the character he plays is a piece of shit bully.

So Barney wakes to find himself on a ship atop bags marked... baklava? Is there something I'm not getting here? Its an odd joke.

 

[fanboymaster]

"I don't want to go so if he asks me to go... I'll just say yes!"
"Wait, are you sure this is how this sort of thing works?"
"Shut up brain or I'll stab you with a tooth pick."
Once again, Homer's relationship with his brain pays comedic dividends.

*pushes up glasses* Pretty sure Homer's last line here is "I'll stab you with a q-tip" which is a bit less arbitrary a threat of violence and more something Homer's likely done routinely while attempting to clean wax out of his ears.

 

[Octopus Prime]

Or for vengeance, doesn’t sound like an idle threat.

Homer referring to him as “That Borgnine Guy” always stuck with me, and, to this day, that’s how I refer to the actor

 

[Johnny Unusual]

*pushes up glasses* Pretty sure Homer's last line here is "I'll stab you with a q-tip" which is a bit less arbitrary a threat of violence and more something Homer's likely done routinely while attempting to clean wax out of his ears.

Cut me some slack. ITS BEEN A DAY, TODAY!

 

[Lokii]

This is one of the all time great episodes that still feels a little under-recognized to me.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

The Last Temptation of Homer

I thought of this episode a year or two ago. Not the a-plot, but the b-plot. It felt like my niece had a ton of similar things she needed for herself to Bart in this episode: orthidics, glasses, cream for dry skin, medicine for yeast infection. The poor kid seemed to need all kinds of stuff for issues. Though she definitely still has a weird gate and needs glasses, she's really come into her own. I wasn't worried about her popularity but I was concerned that it all might have an effect on her self-esteem. But I was wrong, she was able to role with it all pretty well and is much better at taking care of her glasses than I was. I too had similar awkwardness over the years: braces, arch supports and the like. Frankly, it didn't help my self-esteem. No one was making fun of me but I definitely felt truly uncool. Granted I was NEVER going to be cool but its nice to have the illusion I'm not actively uncool.

In this episode, Homer has a crush on his new co-worker Mindy and is desperate to fight his strong attraction to her. Even worse, it seems as fate keeps pushing Homer and Mindy closer together. Eventually, he finds himself at a breaking point where he feels he can't resist any more. Meanwhile, Bart finds that a lazy eye might be responsible for his bad grades. Upon visiting the doctor, they end up foisting a number of other treatments to help him out that manages to zap all his cool and makes him a target for bullies.

A lot of writers were concerned in the episode "Colonel Homer" that Homer would be too unlikable for hanging out with Lurleen but I think the show proved them wrong. In that episode, Homer wanted to help someone and was completely and comically oblivious to her advances. In this one, the show risks Homer's likability which is funny to say considering how his obnoxiousness and headstrong behaviour nearly got himself and his son killed. He's the one who is attracted and is the one who is likely to initiate the cheating. But Homer has no desire to harbour these feelings. We know he won't do it in the end, not just because it would explode the show but also because Homer's love for Marge is unimpeachable. But no one is immune to desire, morality be damned.

Homer keeps getting weird signs from the universe to cheat but when he gives in, it feels less like a man giving in to temptation and more a man defeated. Thankfully, the woman who he is mutually attracted to is good in all the best ways and that includes steering Homer to really think and consider what he wants. And of course, its Marge. Its a sweet romantic episode to an episode that leans much more silly than taking Homer's struggle with too much weight.

The character of Mindy is a lot less well drawn than Lurleen. That in no way lies at the heels of Michelle Pfeiffer, who is doing great stuff and is very game as a female sex bomb Homer. Like Lurleen, I feel like the artists wanted to create a uniquely sexy character within this show. The problem is that while she is given a lot of character traits, she's never given much beyond what she can do for the plot. Lurleen was a character who felt like she had a life before Homer and will have a life after. Not so much with Mindy. She's given some cool non-Homerbait qualities that also makes her attractive to Homer like looking cool on her own motorcycle but we don't get a lot of insight. Still, it is fun seeing Homer play off the character at times and, again, Pfeiffer seems to be having fun.

As a story, its serviceable. I don't think we get much insight into Homer's character that we didn't know before. He's a sweet guy who feels tempted and he's troubled by the fact that he could ruin everything he built giving into it or could even get away with it and have to live with that. I feel like the show starts to go somewhere interesting when Homer briefly says "well, maybe I want to." That's a dangerous road and Homer and the show understandably veer away from getting into a potentially much darker side to a character who is already jerk we still want to love. When he says it, its not with evil, its just considering. Anything further than that would probably be hard to recover the character from, at least in the layout of this story.

But beyond the story, the Simpson joke factory is VERY strong with this one. Some of the "foreign people" jokes have aged poorly (a weird non-sequitor involving vaguely middle eastern people and an unfortunate Chinese accent done not by a Chinese person) but it feels like scene after scene has a batch of jokes that still hold up VERY well. The b-plot is funny too, with a pitch perfect ending that puts a nice cap on the arbitrary nature of bullying. The Last Temptation of Homer doesn't do a lot that "Colonel Homer" didn't do better, save that if it were a "who made the best joke" contest, I couldn't tell you who would win.

Jokes I missed before:
I didn't realize Col. Klink was voiced by the original actor. And he FUCKING KILLS IT.
Other great jokes:

This entire minute of cartoon is wall-to-wall perfect jokes. Their indifference to the death of a co-worker, Lenny's solution being that of an eight year old in trouble and of course the gag of denying the audience the thing that is most dramatically interesting.

I never appreciated how great this is. Homer steals pens everyday and the animator made it clear if someone asked Homer "to what end?", he'd have nothing. The pens are leaking over the seats. They are clearly more of a problem than a boon. Homer doesn't care, so long as its free.

I feel like after this we didn't need to tell jokes anymore. Having reached their zenith, we could move onto other things, occasionally remembering that time the perfect joke happened.

Other notes:

I love the beautiful simplicity of Bart's parking lot prank. Also, that took a LOT of work.

Once again, Bart is obsessed with Victorian era dialects.

Everything about the Colonel Klink section is perfect. The subversion of the It's a Wonderful Life formula, Klink just disappearing right after and after twice being tired of Homer treating him as the real character, the third time he is upset by a revelation from the show.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

$pringfield (or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)

I don't play video games as much as I used to. I definitely get in an hour a night but a lot of that is "Ringfit Adventure" which is great but more of a duty than just a fun time. But there have been times when games have taken up too much mental space and I could only think about playing them again. Games are great but they can undeniably be addictive. Heck, I play a match three game daily. But I'm really glad that never transitioned to gambling. I went to a casino once and spent a couple bucks on games but nothing clicked. Also, when I lived in Japan, I lived above a pachinko parlor (which I really need to write about some time) and having been in one, it is an absolute assault of sound and senses with its lights, shockingly loud noises (as loud as you think it might be, its worse than you think) and heavy cigarette smoke. It always bums me out to see such an addiction and the fact is, it can happen to anyone.

In this episode, Springfield is hit with a heavy economic downturn that is damaging the town. At a town meeting, it is decided that gambling could be legalized in Springfield, which is almost instantly enacted. It seems to work and Homer gets a job as a blackjack dealer. When Marge pays him a visit, she starts to play and soon becomes cripplingly addictive. Homer ignores this until a nocturnal incident makes Marge realizes she's been spending too much time at the casino. But soon Marge is back at it and Homer ventures back into the casino to make Marge see she has a problem.

Its funny, I feel like I've been complaining a bit about story structure in a way I can see people not giving a shit about (considering the quality of the show and in particular the jokes at this point, I don't blame them). But I feel the kinds of things I might complain about in other episodes are perfect for what the episode is about. Its a Marge episode and there's actually not that much Marge. But that's the point, as her gambling makes her absence keenly felt and we see how it affects her family and her role in it. I think there's a lot to say beyond that in regards to how Marge is viewed within her family and discussing if the show is presenting the damage as mostly related to her maternal role but there's only so much time in the show and I feel like there are people who could unpack this better than I.

Anyway, Marge's absence is perfect for the themes. It also makes sense that the show can't fix Marge by the end. It comes up now and then from then on but the show never does much with it beyond then. The show points out with a joke that Marge should get help but for utilitarian purposes they don't bother (though Marge going to get therapy is a great episode in a few seasons). But the problem is never completely solved, it is only acknowledged with the hope that Marge will get better. And while there might be a more elegant solution, I'm pretty OK with this ending for what it is about. It might be slightly more responsible to actually have Marge at least say she's going to get help because man, people miss the point of jokes sometimes and showing this happen to one of our beloved characters might help others want to seek help. But what it does do is show that no one is immune to addiction. Making Homer addicted wouldn't nearly have the same impact or dramatic weight as someone as clean cut as Marge.

In fact, a lot of the humour related to Marge are people making assumptions about this. I said before that people put Marge in the "nag" box when she's usually just sensible and in this episode people wait for Marge to come down on gambling and there's a great recurring bit where Homer remembers Marge as being staunchly anti-gambling. The fact is Marge is the second most likely Simpson to want to try new things (Homer wants new endevours but he has to be FORCED out of a comfort zone, since, ironically, stupid risk IS his comfort zone). So I like that people are jumping to conclusions about Marge's squareness and it emphasizes the point that addiction can happen to anyone, not just the raging ids of the world.

Though the episode is primarily a Marge/Homer episode, it also works as an ensemble episode with two b-plots: Mr. Burns opening a casino and turning into Howard Hughes and Bart opening his own surprisingly successful kids casino. I also gained new appreciation for the first act and establishing Springfield's dire straights. I didn't appreciate before that the silly Homer with glasses bit works on its own as a tiny comedy plot but also continues establishing the economic troubles of Springfieldians, letting Homer escape with a gag. There's a lot of great stuff going on with it and interestingly Burns himself becomes addictive, unable to turn away from watching his business thrive (despite Homer's terrible blackjack dealing), he loses touch even more than usually and becomes unhinged. Probably not the most sympathetic mental illness portrayal but it keeps with the theme, at least.

$pringfield is a strong episode and is chalk full of great gags. I love Homer's fear of the boogieman quickly escalating and then blaming Marge for him "acting stupid", which is a pretty funny indictment of the family dynamic that Marge's gambling is hurting. There's an incredible bit of Burns laughing for over a day at his own act of incredible cruelty and punctuates it with revealing that its even worse than we thought. While the episode definitely has something to say, I feel like the writers found legalized gambling was very fertile comedic ground. It certainly bore some great comedic fruit.

Jokes I missed before:

Oof, as far as jokes that got cut for syndication, the Rain Man parody is one of the ones I'm more thankful for missing for years. I've never seen the movie but I'm given to understand that it might not be the most accurate portrayal of autism he said with intentional understatement. And this is somehow worse probably.

Jokes that aged weird:
I feel the Liza Minelli slam aged weird, even more than a lot of celebrity slams of the era. I think people are mostly pro-Minelli. Though for me, I mostly think of her as Lucille 2 (from a show that aged worse than that joke, sadly)

I missed how smug and musclebound Homer is in his photographic memory.

Other great jokes:

"News on Parade Corporation Presents News on Parade... Corporation... News."

There's a little back and forth of grunts between Smithers and Burns I like. Like it's not "funny" but its a weird touch I like.

"Once something has been approved by the government, its no longer immoral."

"We got more more gongs than the breakdancing robot that caught on fire."

"I'm gonna give you my lucky hat. I wore it the day Kennedy was shot and it always brings me good luck."

""Well, he sure showed me."

"Vera said that?"

"I said hop in."

"You made her cry. Then I cried. Then Maggie laughed. She's such a little trooper."

"I'm Idaho"
"Yes, of course you are."

Other notes:
Man, there's something too real about Krusty's awful "herpes" bit. I feel like one of the writer's say this for real and just put it in the show.

I sincerely don't know if this guy is trying to pitch a casino.

After hearing about so many professionals refusing to do the "someone clearly inferior to you beats you at the thing you are best at" joke, I'm going to give props to Gerry Cooney for doing it.

Watch this. Its interesting.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Homer the Vigilante

I own a bike and as a bike owner, I've had several bikes stolen from me. As you can imagine, it sucks. The financial inconvenience is bad but it also leaves you with an anger. How can someone do that to another person? Theft is far from the worst crime but it certainly makes you feel taken advantage of. And with that comes me replaying immature revenge fantasies in my head. Trying to track down the criminal. Maybe needling him or turning the tables on them. Its all pretty stupid when it is best to just move on. So I definitely understand the anger and fear that causes people to want to become a vigilante and why someone would abandon common sense to seek out a "hero" narrative in their lives.

In this episode, Springfield is the victim of a crime wave as a mysterious cat burglar targets seemingly everyone in town. Lisa in particular is hurt by the theft of her saxophone, which spurs Homer to find it. With the police proving to be useless, the town comes together to find the criminals and Homer quickly takes the lead, forming a vigilante mob. However, soon the mob becomes more interested in harassing people for the most minor and even non-existence offenses and loses sight of their goal. When Homer's big chance to catch the cat burglar fails, the town turns on him until Grandpa, who was turned away by Homer earlier, reveals the identity of the criminal.

Now is a pretty great time for a rebuke of vigilantism. We've seen a lot of horror stories of people taking the "law" into their own hands as reasons to harass and even murder people of color and other minority people. Its sadly an evergreen message. Heck, last week there were groups taking part in voter suppression. This episode is a great argument against vigilantes but I won't lie, there are probably some stupid people who come away with the wrong message, like "wow, dumb silly Homer isn't good at leading HIS vigilante group, unlike me, an awful person". But its clear that the movement in the show is an ugly thing that quickly gets out of hand and causes more harm than good and completely bungles their one stated mission that is actually a good cause. Homer plays the role of strongman with major members wearing different uniforms (including Barney with a fast food uniform). The people like Skinner and Barney are motivated by a desire for justice after being wrong and we see that Apu began the episode as a terrified man defending the Kwik-E-Mart with a sniper rifle and no regard for this targets. They are motivated by anger and fear and are vulnerable to the misguided decisions (at best) that motivate vigilantes.

Homer is all big talk and playing the role of strong man. But Springfield turns on their strong man the moment he reveals himself to be a loser. Wow, is this timely as of the writing of this recap/review. The vigilante group doesn't catch the villain of the episode, but the hero is outside of the law. Despite the fact that Grandpa would jump at the chance to be part of a violent Marge, Grandpa wins not by strongarm tactics but by keeping eyes peeled and letting someone know. This actually leads to a b-lesson: old people have worth. This comes up a lot with Grandpa and I remember my sister talks about how a lot of these jokes make her uncomfortable about how mean people are to the character. But the show is always pointed about how the aged are treated in society and are occasionally the crux of the episode ("Old Money"). Here we see the elderly have the jump on the town. Grandpa wins but also Malloy, the cat burglar, plays the town for fools multiple times and in a perfect finale, exposes the hypocrisy of the town).

See, the show resolves pretty much its plots but still has time and uses it for a new wrinkle and even though it seems somewhat unrelated to what came before, is kind of a perfect direction to take. In an extended parody of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (one of the few "comedy epics" that frankly, I don't think is very funny) Malloy reveals there's still a lot of missing money from the course of his decades long career and tells Homer and the police where to find it. Instantly, Homer and the police lose their heads trying to find the stolen money and it spreads to a town-wide mania to find some treasure. In the end it is revealed to be a ruse but the last people to keep trying are too stupid to give up on the fantasy, which includes the police and, of course, Homer (and surprisingly Marge). I don't know if this was the intent, but it works great to show these would-be paragons of justice are pretty quick to abandon their causes when it can benefit them. But both desires to be a vigilante and to be rich come from base instincts that define Homer.

Homer the Vigilante is a Swartzwelder episode and it shows. I don't know the specifics to the writers politics save that he's a libertarian so it does seem counter-intuitive to make an anti-vigilante episode (and a notable joke about guns in the wrong hands, maybe written by someone else) but the nature of the absurdist jokes is specifically him. The cast is also very good and Dan Castellaneta has Homer at his most Homer, untethered from reality, quick to pretty much any capital E emotion (mostly anger) and quick to cool off if it works for the joke. He even does something with a weird laugh as he's dancing to Lisa's reluctant jug music that is chef kiss. Its not the most emotionally involved episode but it is a smart one and is a laugh riot from stem to stern.

Jokes I missed before:

Jimbo's graffiti is "Carpe diem"

Other great jokes:

"Bart's pain is funny but mine isn't."

"We'll the real humans won't burn quite so fast."

That laugh.

"I'm filled with piss and vinegar. At first I was just filled with vinegar."

I used to think he was saying fourteen. Now I think he's saying "for-ty" very weirdly.

"Well, touché."

"Oh, Grandpa, they pelted you to?"
"No, actually I fell at the Big Boy."

How ironic.

Pretty much the entire last act.

Other notes:

Hey, Scott Christian is still around.

People really need to exploit the comedy chops of Sam Neill more. He's good as a lovable crook here and also watch Hunt for the Wilderpeople.

Homer "putting out" the burning leaves is vigilantism in a nutshell.

 

[Octopus Prime]

There are five perfect Simpsons images.

Homers thoughtful Jig is one of them

 

[Octopus Prime]

Also, after reading a number of his books, not only is it easy to see which episodes were written by John Shwarzwelder, you can pick out which individual jokes were his.

 

[Lokii]

On the commentary for Homer Simpson in : "Kidney Trouble" they say that Shwarzwelder wrote for the ghost town part in the first act that one of the cowboys just starts digging a hole and no one understood it, and the animators didn't understand it, but they trusted it to be funny.

And it is