Original airdate: March 15, 2015
The premise: Homer is chosen to be the new Duffman. At first he is shocked to find that he’s not allowed to drink in his new title, but after seeing the detriments of alcohol abuse sober, he crusades to get people to quit drinking.
The reaction: Pretty surprised it took them this long to do this idea. I feel like it was already done in the comics years ago. So following an injury, the old Duffman is forcibly retired, and Duff is on the hunt for a replacement. So Homer is among a bunch of finalists for So You Think You Can Duff?, a competition reality show thing, because those parodies aren’t completely played out at this point. We also get the reappearance of Stacy Keach as the Duff CEO from “Hungry, Hungry Homer,” an episode I recall being one of the only bright spots in a dismal twelfth season. He’s fine here, but as with any guest voice, he has very, very little to work with. When Homer is picked, he is devastated to learn he can’t drink on the job (and suicidal in a “hilarious” sequence involving him repeatedly trying to kill himself after learning the news), and then later crusades against drinking when he realizes how much damage alcohol addiction creates. So the last half is kind of like if you mashed “Duffless” and “Lisa the Beauty Queen” together, made them more incoherent and added a bunch of bullshit on top. There’s a kernel of an idea here about the Duff company being surprised that as a big fat guy, Homer is a more relatable Duffman to their consumer base, but it’s just one line that comes up fifteen minutes in. We see Homer at a ribbon cutting and in a commercial, but because the reality show crap took up so much time, we barely have enough time to see how Homer feels about his new position before we have to pivot to his anti-drinking crusade, which is squeezed into the final minutes. He incites a riot at a racetrack, where they flip over the car he’s in, but then they literally just stand around and watch as the Duff boss recaps what’s happening (“Homer, now listen to me, you’re in a stadium surrounded by people who want to kill you. There’s one way out of your hell: prove you still love beer.”) Homer then drinks himself stupid, and then we cut to him at Moe’s being proud of being a has-been. So I guess even though he did as asked, he still got fired? There wasn’t even a scene explaining what happened, or why Homer all of a sudden switched gears to drinking again. This seems to happen a lot, where these stories just sort of stop with no clear resolution. Surely the writers must notice they have no ending, right? …right?
Three items of note:
– Marge is a bigger doormat than usual this show. She astutely points out that Homer only wants to be Duffman to get blasted, but then he fires back with some bullshit about wanting to be remembered for more than just being a husband and father. You’d think Marge would be slightly hurt by that statement, but instead she gives Homer permission to try out for Duffman, like a mom allowing her kid to go out and play. Later, Marge seems completely won over by Homer’s bullshit lies about wanting to be Duffman for the responsibilities and social good he can do. Or whatever. At the climax, when Homer is deciding whether or not to drink, from the crowd, Marge reassures him (“Whatever you do, you’ll be my hero.”) Someone should do a supercut of all of the times in the last fifteen years Marge has said “I’m so proud of you,” or “You’re my hero,” without any rhyme or reason as to why she would say that. It’s just empty sweet nothings that don’t mean anything; why would she be proud of Homer in this situation?
– Our second act begins with them recreating the Game of Thrones opening again, like they had done previously for a couch gag, except this time it’s for a commercial advertising Homer as the new Duffman. Again, there’s nothing parody about this, it’s just recreating elements of the show, but with Duff wallpaper over it. Afterwards, Homer gets sworn in as Duffman and has to take an oath inside a church. It’s a dramatic recitation that takes almost a minute and is completely joke-free. Later, we get a glimpse of an old-time 50s Duff commercial, featuring not-Yogi Bear soothing his bear trap-snared leg with a cool refreshing Duff, and later joining a bunch of other animal heads on the wall. How bland and boring. Compare that to the commercial in “Duffless” with the doctor’s recommendation and Duff being proud sponsor of The Amos ‘N’ Andy Show. That bit was actually saying something, and being funny all at the same time. This new commercial, I guess it’s funny because the cartoon bear got killed. It’s like what the show thinks Itchy & Scratchy is now, violence for its own sake is good enough!
– More bizarre fan service: Bart and Lisa dig into Homer’s Duff swag and are playing with T-shirt cannons, leading Homer to comment, no one’s ever been killed with one of those! Now, I’ll be honest, if it was just left there, that actually is a clever, if somewhat ghastly, in-joke. But let’s go one further. A T-shirt gets lodged through Ned’s bedroom window, smacks right into a picture frame of Maude, causing it to break and fall off the wall. Then Ned looks to the camera for a second or two before we cut. Now, why exactly is this scene here? If you’re a fan of the show, surely you’ve made the T-shirt cannon connection. This show once prided itself on rewarding viewers for paying attention, with its sign gags and quick multi-layered jokes. Now, everything is so over-explained and labored over, as well as just milked and elongated to make the show longer, the show just repeatedly saying, “DO YOU GET IT? DO YOU? DO YOU?!” Also, how fucking sad for Ned, especially at this point being a double widower; what exactly is funny about him being specifically reminded of his first wife’s death?
One good line/moment: Airing a week after his death, the show ends with a small little tribute to Sam Simon, with a clip of him talking about how much he loved what he was working on. Reading up on the history of the show, as well as John Ortved’s unauthorized history book, it’s clear just how much of the foundation of the world of the show really came from Sam, and without him, the show would definitely not have been as amazing as it was. He of course left the show after the fourth season, and while I could ruminate on that, or make some snarky comment about how he probably hates how the show is now, but I don’t wanna. Between being a driving force on the greatest show of all time and his charitable efforts over the past few decades, from all accounts, he just sounded like one helluva guy. We Simpsons fans can’t thank you enough, Sam. Peace and chicken grease.
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Pretty sure Stacey Keach was in another episode before this but after “Hungry, Hungry Homer” – can’t remember what it was. And it doesn’t matter. This episode is shit as usual.
I think it was the episode where SLH was Spuds MacKenzie.
I think the whole “proud of you” bullshit happens all the time now because it WAS something Marge used to say to Homer back in the classic days. Only then when she would say it, it would actually mean something. But the imbeciles writing for the show now can only pepper the show with “Simpson tropes” instead of actual quality material. This is why characters act the way they do now and, yup, why Marge always says she’s proud of Homer. Because all this shit is just what was true 20+ years ago but degraded and overused by writers who a) just don’t care and b) think this is what their audience wants. Nothing will ever change or get better, because the people writing for the series now are deathly afraid of abandoning the tropes that were popular in the early seasons, despite the crippling incompetence in the way they’re used now.
Yeah, Homer is Marge’s hero because he started drinking again despite learning (?!) about alcohol’s horrific effects on one’s health? Like, seriously, what the fucking fuck?
And that crap with Ned and Maude’s photo; that’s the big trap the writers have fallen into in their sad desire to stay relevant. This is the sort of incredibly cruel, uncomfortable gag Family Guy indulges in, and the mainstream audience eats that shit up. And as much as The Simpsons wants be The Simpsons, it also wants to appeal to the Family Guy demographic. The Simpsons, in a nutshell, was dumbed down years ago to meet the expectations of the modern television audiences. We all know how bad the show has gotten, but how often do we all see either mainstream or younger viewers still praise it as the best thing on TV. Fucking sad, really.
That Maude/Flanders moment was one of the few things I remember about this episode (another I know I’ve seen but essentially forgot what happened). Mainly because it was so terrible. Not just because it was in bad taste, but because it was so belabored an unfunny.
I agree with Mike that the line would have been much better as an aside than trying to spell out the entire joke thereafter, which at that point seriously crosses the line into just feeling bad for Flanders.
I hate how much it seems like The Simpsons’ writers legitimately do not like Maude Flanders and keep making a mockery of her death. First Sex, Pies and Idiot Scrapes, and now this ironic joke about T-shirt cannons.
The bear was a reference to the Hamm’s Beer Bear, an iconic beer mascot from the 50s to the 80s that was often shown in some sort of cartoon hijinks in his TV commercials in the “Land of Sky Blue Waters” where Hamm’s beer was allegedly made. Though he is pretty much forgotten now. It’s a parody that would have worked better back in the 90s
I don’t think the bear was ever used since the 80s and it probably never will because Hamm’s is no longer an active brand.
An interesting plot totally wasted.
Sounds like most episodes these days!
*ba-dum-tsh*
Okay I just watched that Ned clip. I laughed, but not for the right reason: Because of how painfully forced it was executed. It would’ve been smarter had they just left it at Homer’s ironic line.
Subtlety is not one of post-classic Simpsons’ strong suits. Yet again, most things aren’t.
Just saw it on Youtube too… puzzled by the comments below the video, some of which call it the ‘best scene ever’.