(originally aired May 20, 2001)
So after “Bible Stories,” now we get “Tall Tales,” another anthology episode, and I’m just as ambivalent to this one as I was with that one. There’s nothing really to hate on here, but also not much to love. These episodes always kind of have a phoned-in feel, where I’d much rather be watching a normal episode. While riding the rails to Delaware, the Simpsons have a run-in with a kindly hobo, who regales them with three tall tales. First up, the legend of Paul Bunyan, a big lovable oaf who of course is played by Homer. Then we get the story of Johnny… err, Connie Appleseed, played by Lisa. And then we have Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn… not really a tall tale, but whatever, portrayed by Bart and Nelson. Oddly enough, being a non-religious type, I remember less of the specifics of these stories than I do the Bible ones, but from what I do recall, a great deal of liberties were taken in these renditions, so at least I can credit this one more than “Bible Stories,” which played most of their stories fairly straight to the source material.
There’s amusing bits and moments throughout all three stories, but it’s a little difficult reviewing these episodes. I find there’s a lot more going on in Halloween shows to elaborate on, but these are a bit thinner and don’t have much to really comment on. I’ll say what stuck out to me the most was the odd feeling I got from the wrap-around. All the Simpsons felt like a weird unified entity, all reacting in unison to almost everything the hobo did. It’s kind of hard to explain. But then they also had Lisa be the mouthpiece for the audience, another example of a few this season where they’ve done this just to have another character shoot them down and call them stupid for having valid complaints. And when this creepy, smelly man starts to take off his clothes and ask for a sponge bath, none of them even bat an eye. Marge doesn’t object, try to shield her children’s eyes, no one acts disgusted, it’s just like a wacky comedy bit. It’s a small moment like that that reminds me that any semblance of realism this show once had has pretty much evaporated, and this is what we’re left with: Homer scrubbing the cracks and crevices of a homeless man’s body. Eight more seasons to go…
Tidbits and Quotes
– We open the episode with the dialogue we saw at the end of “Behind the Laughter,” but here taking place at the airport rather than in the Simpson living room.
– I like the hobo vernacular for those with homes being “no-bos.”
– I honestly don’t have much to say about each segment. The only bit I liked in the first act was Big Holes with Beer National Park. The love montage between gigantic Homer and normal-sized Marge is pretty sweet, but is then ruined when Homer asks when they’re going to consummate their relationship, if only because of the mental picture it gave me. I mean, really, his genitalia has got to be bigger than her.
– The running gag of the easy-to-kill buffalo is kind of amusing, as is the Simpsons changing their last name to Bufflekill. But the story kind of just ends as Lisa randomly returns to the troupe with apples and saves the day. I do like the wrap-up with the hobo at the end (“And thanks to that little girl, today you can find apples in everything that’s good: Apple wine, apple whiskey, apple schnapps, apple martinis… uh, Snapple with vodka in it, apple nail polish remover…” “Don’t forget apple sauce.” “Yeah, I suppose you could grind some pills into it.”)
– The cast members do their darnedest at Southern accents in the third act, and are mostly successful. It’s definitely the funniest of the three: Nelson reckonin’ he can get a new neck from a cat, Marge bolting after Abe finally turns down his shotgun, leaving Missouri and entering Missoura, the photo of a young lady flashing her “privates” (the best line of the episode, “All for Silas, all for Silas!!”), Apu’s indignation of the high prices at the 99-cent store, the powerful-weak Derringers… Now I’m just listing stuff though. There’s not much to evaluate with these shows, it’s just mentioning what was funny about them. Just like “Bible Stories,” this one’s amusing enough, but wholly disposable.
Season 12 Final Thoughts
After seemingly hitting rock bottom last season, the series is just as ramshackle as ever: plot turns that make no sense, sorry attempts at humor, slapdash characterization for whatever is convenient for the scene… A few new awful things cropped up this season. Firstly, a lot more direct shots at the viewer, sometimes through Lisa commenting about how something makes no sense, followed by her being interrupted or belittled for her point. There were plenty of times when the writers deliberately pointed out how nonsensical their scripts are and figured that made it okay, but all it did was further emphasize how the writing was shit. Quite ballsy, but doesn’t make for a good show. Also on the rise are the number of crude, tasteless sex jokes, which all feel very out-of-place and strange. This show has slipped in plenty under the radar in the past, but being more overt about it is clearly not their strong suit. But here we are the end of Mike Scully’s reign of terror. When Al Jean took the helm, things seemed to level off a bit in terms of quality. Will this be a good thing? I guess we’ll have to see.
The Best
“A Tale of Two Springfields,” “Pokey Mom,” “New Kids on the Blecch,” “Trilogy of Error.” Yeah, just four this time. And three of them truly shock me that they ended up on the best list. Things are looking mighty grim.
The Worst
“Homer vs. Dignity,” “The Computer Wore Menace Shoes,” “Tennis the Menace,” “Day of the Jackanapes,” “Simpson Safari”
I’ll start up Season 13 at the start of next week. See you then!
Me Blog Write Good 
that reminds me
http://deadhomersociety.com/2009/10/17/page-to-screen/
🙂
I’m surprised tennis the menace made the list, since it is really a nothing episode that I forgot for 10 years even though I saw it fresh when it aired.
Also strange that there were two menace titles this season.
I kinda liked the line “nothin’ beats the hobo life. Stabbin’ folks with my hobo knife.” I quote that when I stab people in Call of Duty.
g
It’s really sort of disconcerting how many incredibly quotable lines come from the later, on the whole quite bad episodes.
Woah, Hungry Hungry Homer didn’t make the Best list, yet A Tale of Two Springfields did?
Trilogy of Error and HOMR are the only good episodes for this season. There was another one I thought was good, but then the random surfing ending completely ruined the entire episode. In fact, that is one of my main problems with the show lately. It has some randomized ending that seems to have nothing to do with the rest of the episode.
Trilogy of Error, I agree with, but HOMR is kinda sappy and traditional sitcomish (it’s written by Al Jean, who actually worked on shows like that before The Simpsons. Now you know why his run of episodes are so bad), but with some snappy jokes to make it like The Simpsons. I do like “Hungry Hungry Homer” and “Skinner’s Sense of Snow.”
Same here.. Agree with HOMR being sappy, if not pathetic and dull in their attempt, and those two episodes you mentioned that were way better, or at least, less crap.
I really don’t like this one. Maybe it’s that since I don’t really know who Paul bunyan or Jonny Appleseed are them being very American I couldn’t tell the point of things really.
Then again even in those bits with recognizable traits like the hobo and Tom Sawyer I didn’t really see the point, the tom sawyer bit particularly was just a long stream of chase sequences that didn’t really seem to go anywhere, indeed to say all the things they could! have done with Twane’s work, this one was a major disappointment.
it’s odd, i don’t mind some of the anthology stories (the bible stories is actually quite funny while some of the jokes in the composer and sea stories had their moments), however this just felt mostly flat to me.
Forget Behind the Laughter, THIS might have made an okay series finale for The Simpsons by finding a way to make a plot from that dialogue at the end, since ending it here would have followed through on Homer in Behind the Laughter saying “This will be the last season” and I’m Going to Praiseland was a follow-up on Alone Again, Natura-Diddly. Plus, I’m also a stickler for production codes getting moved over and airing out of order, like E-I-E-I-D’oh in Season 11 and Insane Clown Poppy in Season 12.
A pretty solid episode and a great way to cap off the season. Liked all three segments here and all of them were clever and made good use of characters. Connie Appleseed was probably my favorite of the bunch.
Season 12 was overall better than 11 but not by much. I can say I liked more episodes this season compared to 11 and the lows this season weren’t as bad as last year. Season 12 also has the last really amazing episode of the series. If I could pick a point to end the series it would be here. This is my unofficial cutoff point for The Simpsons and everything after this is truly “Zombie Simpsons”.
What a fittingly banal way to end the season. These trilogy episodes don’t really work for me, and apparently they got worse after this (though I don’t believe I’ve seen those ones). The ToH episodes are interesting, these ones really aren’t. There’s a few choice chuckles here, but overall, it’s a very unmemorable way to finish this season.
Speaking of season 12… yeah, it was awful. Seasons 10 and 11 had some dignity to them and had at least three or four episodes with dignity. I can only think of one episode I truly enjoyed this season, which is not a good sign. Most of these episodes were either absolutely awful for a number of reasons (bad jokes, bad writing, bad character bits, etc.), and it really is a testament that each of Scully’s seasons got worse.
Scully’s run as a whole was definitely a step down. Had his run mostly been like season 9, I may have kept watching a little more, as that season isn’t good, but has enough classic bits and good episodes to separate it from the other three seasons. Season 10 was a big dip in quality with the stories, characters, and jokes all becoming worse, as well as having some truly abysmal episodes. Season 11 was essentially the same thing, but worse. Season 12 was a combination of those and tons of episodes that were really dull. It’s telling that this is the last season I watched fully, as it’s awful.
“Trilogy of Error” is my pick for best episode. I really can’t pick any more as even the better episodes this season just didn’t do it for me.
My bottom 5 is “Homer vs. Dignity”, “The Computer Wore Menace Shoes”, “Tennis the Menace”, “Simpson Safari”, and “Children of a Lesser Clod”.
Now we enter season 13. This is the first season where I haven’t seen a lot of episodes, and I have to be honest… I’m not looking forward to much of it, as I hear the series gets really bleh at that point.
I will say, I actually do quite like the bit where Lisa points out that Paul Bunyan’s height keeps changing. It’s a rare example of a “pointing out your own flaws” joke that actually kinda works, since there has never been a story about a giant that didn’t end up with their height zigzagging up and down between “twice as tall as a man” and “fighting Godzilla.” Hell, there’s actually a version of Paul Bunyan in one story that had “changes size whenever you aren’t looking at them” as an explicit superpower.