(originally aired January 11, 1998)
A pretty big thing about this season has been the shift in Homer’s characterization. I don’t mean to belabor this point, but he’s been an integral character in pretty much every episode so far, and each one features him pushed to a new limit of either stupidity, recklessness or inconsideration. There have been plenty of moments in the past when his exaggerated antics have garnered big laughs, but the problem is when it runs through almost every scene in every episode. This show features a lot of childish and braindead Homer, and while some of it works, a fair share of it doesn’t. The Simpsons spends an evening at the carnival, where Bart ends up wrecking the star attraction: Hitler’s staff car. The owner demands Bart work for him to pay off the damages, and for some reason, Homer wants to do it too. He begs and pleads him like a child, to be specific. Totally makes sense. It just seemed like the writers needed to have Homer there for the plot, so it just happened. We get no scene of Marge hearing about this, or why he’s not at the plant, it just happens. That’s a problem that would emerge with later seasons, stuff would just happen.
Homer and Bart end up befriending a fellow father-son carny team: Cooder and his boy Spud. Jim Varney gives a fine performance as the former, but on the whole, there’s nothing too memorable about these characters. They previously scammed the two with their ring toss game, now they hand the reigns of their booth to them while they attend their AA meeting. Another concept featured here that I don’t really care for: Homer and Bart as a team. The two have always generally been adversarial, and the times when they work together typically have some kind of meaning or specific reason. Here, they’re like an odd comedy duo, where Bart’s the straight man and Homer’s the dummy. It works for a line or two (I like Cooder’s quick decision to give Bart the money box rather than Homer, with Bart responding, “Good call,”) but it’s just a strange dynamic. The attempted bribe scene with Wiggum is also conflicting. I think it’s well timed and kind of amusing, but I kind of felt it was too much. Homer can’t possibly have any functioning brain cells at that point.
With the ring toss booth repossessed by the police, Cooder and Spud are homeless, leaving Homer “no” choice but to let them stay with him. To repay them for their kindness, the carnies give the Simpsons ticket to a glass bottom boat ride, but when the family returns, they find Cooder and Spud have changed the locks and boarded up the windows. I guess this whole episode is about the art of the swindle, going from a cheap carnival game to a much larger scale, and it pays off in the end with Homer’s ring toss challenge for the deed to the house. But around that, there just seems to be a lot of dead air. There’s the yard work opening that has no bearing to the actual plot (we’d see plenty of that later on), and the carnival set piece only really has a few jokes, though it carries on for the first two acts. There were a few laughs along the way, and I do like the ending, but I’m not really a big fan of this one, carny code be damned.
Tidbits and Quotes
– Bart and Lisa’s petulant “Ding ding ding!” followed by Homer dashing through the room thinking it’s the ice cream man really made me laugh. In that scene and specific context, I believe Lisa’s laziness, and I’m fine with Homer acting like a child. A little goes a long way.
– I like how Marge getting the upper hand when Bart and Lisa need money is immediately undercut by Homer dashing to the rescue with his exploding wallet, and them all dinging as they run out. But then we get to the carnival and Marge is being pushed around again. I kind of felt she should have stayed home, she’d have no interest in a carnival anyway.
– The Tooth Chipper is great, but I kind of felt it went on too long. You get the joke after one shot, then they have it twice and we hear Homer on it.
– I like Homer coming to tears over his novelty comb, and the sight of him later combing his two hairs with it is pretty funny.
– The morning montage with the classical music is pretty great, with the blossoming burger wrapper, shifting the lettering on the signs, and spraying the rats off the hot dog warmer.
– Bart’s first mark for the ring toss game is Skinner and his mother (“All right, Simpson. Be honest with me. Is it actually possible to win this game?” “If I like it, it is.” “Hot dog! Let’s go.”) Agnes berates Skinner the entire time he’s trying to win a lamp for her, and with his last few rings, takes aim at a large knife instead. Seems like almost too dark of a joke, but I like it.
– I love Marge’s hyper-aware shudder after Homer agrees to let Cooder and Spud stay with them. Somehow, she knows something is amiss…
– The glass bottom boat ride starts out strong, then ends weak. We see the mysteries of Springfield’s briny deep: shopping carts, nuclear waste, a barrel of Li’l Lisa Slurry, and an old glass bottom boat (I love how the tour guide cavalierly mentions how “eight-eight souls” were lost on it). Great stuff. Then we end with Homer and Bart being brats taunting a shark through the glass. Not only is it the two acting as partners in crime again, but it’s such an obvious gag. And not funny.
– Cooder in Homer’s clothes is kind of amusing (“Look at me! I’m a millionaire!”) as is he and Spud using a flaming barrel for heat instead of a fire place, with photo albums for kindling (“‘Precious Moments’ or ‘Treasured Memories’?” “Quit your yappin’! I’m freezing!”)
– I love the fish eye lens animation of Homer’s proposal to Cooder through the peephole. It’s visually interesting, and kind of puts you in Cooder’s head, thinking about whether you would accept Homer’s deal. I really do like this ending, where the tension just builds and builds, then the Simpsons just run into the house. It’s a pretty good ruse, at least Cooder is impressed (“Well, there’s no shame in being beaten by the best.” “But, he didn’t seem…” “We were beaten by the best, boy.”) I buy that Homer was clever enough to think of that, but this is also the same episode where his brain was shut off during the bribe scene, so questionable, I guess.
Me Blog Write Good 
I thought this episode was pretty good overall, especially considering the show’s imminent decline – despite some weaker moments, season nine is the precipice. It has some great moments early on, such as Nelson’s stifled “Haw” followed by a delayed “…Haw”.
The carnival has some great material, especially the crappy ghost train, and the operator’s remorse for tricking Bart and Lisa into riding it. Krusty’s confusion about being sprayed is also a nice filler gag.
I also quite liked the animation of Bart and Lisa lounging around, they’re not common poses for those characters, which is kind of a novelty.
There’s a nice call back to Homer’s Triple Bypass, although according to Marge, it’s become a quadruple bypass in the intervening period. I suppose nobody checked.
Although Homer is incredibly dumb when Chief Wiggum comes knocking, let’s not forget, this is the man who exasperated the FBI with his inability to understand – “I think he’s talking to you”. It also allows an amusing call back later on, as Homer waits for Wiggum’s non-existent colleague. Perhaps he just goes blank around figures of authority.
Overall, I’d say this is a pretty solid episode, and it has its fair share of great jokes. There isn’t even need to add the caveat “it’s good for season nine”, because I’d be willing to include ‘Bart Carny’ alongside some of the better episodes of the series.
Point of odor: Homer had a triple bypass in the old episode you’re thinking of, but more recently in “The Old Man and the Lisa” he had “Four simultaneous heart attacks” which, I assume, means a quadruple bypass was necessary.
Sheesh, they just keep coming don’t they?
On the plus side, it did give us that “Ding ding ding” bit which is freaking hilarious.
The bribe scene is great. The problem here is Homer acted like an idiot in every scene for the whole episode, thats why that scene seemed too much here. Homers characterization is really going over the top by this season, because the writers dont care to balance his character, and just throw in whacky stuff.
“The problem here is Homer acted like an idiot in every scene for the whole episode”
*Most* scenes, yes – but certainly not *every* scene. Otherwise, the episode would have ended with Cooder and Spud getting the deed to the house… 😉
This episode isn’t as bad as I remember it being. I actually like the opening act because I feel like Bart wanting to play the gardening simulator and Marge’s response is the payoff for it.
I also like the jokes they do with the Hitler car and the ending is pretty clever.
That aside though, this episode is pretty paper thin as far as plot goes. It is definitely relying on you to laugh to get by rather than tell a competent story. I do also think that Homer is too much of an idiot and I do agree with the Tooth Chipper bit I also hate HATE Cooder and Spud. Some of the worst one off characters ever. What happened to the characters that you could love and hate at the same time like Rex Banner, Lyle Lanley, and Gabbo?
This is an episode I keep trying to make excuses for but in the end just kind of completely and utterly pisses me off. The set piece is fun and a good amount of the jokes work, but it’s just one of those episodes where once the first two acts end, the point of the episode has been made and the writers have absolutely zero fucking idea what to do and just pull something straight out of their ass. The plot of this one also just gets thinner and thinner. Also the bribe scene could’ve worked, but it’s just way too drawn out for me to enjoy.
There’s positives here though, still. Cooder and Spud, while forgettable are kinda fun; both Jim Varney and I think it’s Nancy Cartwright as Spud? do a great job adding that carnival-feel to the episode but I just wish the carnival theme was used more in a better episode; a carnival-theme episode is blatantly extremely Swartzwelderian but it sucks that it was used on this one.
Anyway by the third act the plot has turned so thin that I’m just not amused by pretty much any of it. Cooder and Spud steal the Simpsons’ house… sure, fine I guess. It’s just at this point the episode made it’s point so i don’t care much where the plot goes. Also I kind of hate the ending, honestly, with Homer trying to get comfy on the couch. It just kinda…… ends. This one’s okay? I guess? I don’t know, it just confuses and baffles me more than anything. It’s definitely not as bad as The Trouble With Trillions, that’s definitely Season 9’s worst in my eyes.
Tress MacNeille voices Spud. 😉
A very frustrating episode, and also not very interesting, either. The concept is decent, and Cooder and Spud are alright, but this episode just drags at times. The plot is so thin that they have to drag out everything, such as the stupid bribe scene and the Tooth Chipper gag. Not a fan of Homer and Bart acting as partners in crime, either. The two are very different characters, why are they acting like this singular entity of annoyance? It’s a very bad episode, in my opinion, with a thin story and jokes that don’t really work for one reason or another (like the sharks under the glass boat, as you said.)
The dumb-episode-titles era once again thinks we should just put Bart next to a word and giggle at how it sounds like an obscure and unrelated celebrity’s name. It’s so weird knowing the titles, since back in the day you never saw them. Not til cable started adding interactive menus that showed you the title…
Marge wanting a glass-bottom car was so precious. And I really resonated with Homer’s concern over his ass-groove. It takes years to forge one of those!
I quote “BEHOLD! THE RAVAGES OF AGE!” more and more with each passing year. There are far fewer opportunities to namedrop “Dr. Frightmarestein” but I try anyway. Meanwhile my sister always quoted “That was just confusing.”