Season Two Revisited (Part Two)

8. Bart the Daredevil

• I love how the one wrestler pulls a huge wrench out of his shorts, kept in place… somehow. It’s also great how this is called back later by Dr. Hibbert mentioning a child in the hospital whose brother hit him on the head with a wrench imitating that very move.
• I don’t know if I blame Homer for getting antsy to leave a three hour elementary school band concert. The ending where he’s lifting Lisa out of her seat to leave, but still cares enough to dart back on stage so she can bow, is very adorable.
  
• Homer’s frantic driving to the truck rally is pretty neat, with the colored lights in the background and the Simpson car darting to and from camera. The Bleeding Gums cameo is an additional nice touch.
  
• Why hasn’t there been some crazy millionaire Simpsons fan who made their own life-size Truckasaurus yet? Also, this is one hell of an act break.
  
• Speaking of the builder of Truckasurus, it’s great how the freak that built it refers to his creation as real, telling Marge that “Truckasaurus feels very badly about what happened.” He’s also a cheapass, offering the Simpsons a half-bottle of their branded champagne. Even better is you can see the foil has been torn off the neck, like this was a used bottle that was just sitting around the office that some dingus grabbed in order to placate this family into not suing. And it worked!
• Lance Murdoch’s crew quickly extinguishing him and running off as he starts to address the crowd while still on fire is so goddamn funny.
• “I never realized TV was such a dangerous influence.” “Well, as tragic as all this is, it’s a small price to pay for countless hours of top-notch entertainment.” “Amen!”
• It feels very realistic throughout this entire episode that Bart just continues doing his stunts despite all the warnings he repeatedly gets. Seeing how many dumb kids get hurt imitating stuff off TV only incentivizes him to do it more.
• The reveal of Murdoch’s illegible scribble of an autograph is fantastic. The message he orates with the pen in his mouth is long and thought out enough to make the punchline really hit, along with Bart’s awed reaction.
• We get one of the first wild mood shifts from Homer, as he goes from stern authority figure laying down the law on Bart, but when it proves to be ineffective (“The minute your back is turned, I’m grabbing my skateboard and heading toward that gorge!”), Homer immediately falls apart (“He’s got us, Marge, there’s nothing we can do! He’s as good as dead!”)
• On paper, Homer effectively threatening to kill himself by attempting to jump the gorge to get Bart to stop sounds disconcerting, but in the episode itself, it completely reads as merely his last ditch effort after exhausting his other options (“I tried ordering you, I tried punishing you, and God help me, I even tried reasoning with you!”)

9. Itchy & Scratchy & Marge

• Itchy & Scratchy segments would later become more elaborate with subversions or movie parodies, but I love how all of the bits we see here are just so simplistic in their brutal depictions of violence, which of course best serves the plot of the episode. Itchy igniting TNT on Scratchy’s grave and shooting him point blank on his doorstep with a ballistic missile launcher are so damn funny, but my favorite short is at the very end as the two whip out larger and larger handguns until they’re larger than the Earth, resulting in a giant explosion propelling Scratchy into the sun. It’s just so dumb that it’s great, but also, being the last bit of I&S we see in the episode, serves to drive home how absolutely nothing has changed, and the show is just as violent as ever, if not more so.
• We get telling glimpses at Homer’s collection of how-to books and his hammer with a price tag on it, that he’s never used any of this shit, presumably having bought them from some home shopping network with the intention of using them, but of course never did. And this all goes by without a joke explaining it further, as the audience is left to fill in the gaps with the ingredients given. What a concept!
• The Psycho scene is a great example of how well executed the show’s usage of parody was. In addition to recreating an iconic movie scene in a ridiculously absurdist fashion, it feels even more appropriate given Maggie is mimicking something she saw on television, as the show itself is doing with this very scene.
  
  
• So many I&S scenes of Marge’s list I want to see the examples of. “Brains Slammed in Car Door” is a big one, but “Dogs Tricked” is so great, and feels very appropriate that Marge would note down such mean behavior.
  
  
• “…and the horse I rode in on?!” Just the show casually alluding to the F-word in 1990, no big deal.
• “Twenty million women in the world and I had to marry Jane Fonda.”
• After the loud protest overtakes his latest show, we see Krusty nervously laughing before an irritated Roger Meyers, Jr. It’s odd how over the years these two have kind of flip-flopped regarding who’s “the boss” or not. Presumably Krusty should be in better standings, as the I&S cartoons run on his show, although I feel like it’s been referenced that I&S is such a huge draw that it’s almost keeping Krusty’s show afloat. But it’s funny either way seeing those two bicker with each other.
• “You know, some of these stories are pretty good. I never knew mice lived such interesting lives.”
• The Smartline segment is just top-to-bottom brilliant. The seemingly objective topical show is clearly biased in one direction from the start (“Are cartoons too violent for children? Most people would say, ‘No, of course not, what kind of stupid question is that?’”), and we even get Marvin Monroe live via satellite to lend some kind of “credibility” to the whole affair. Roger Meyers’ dismissive attitude toward Marge’s protests is fantastic, as is his counterargument which Kent Brockman plays into perfectly (“I did a little research and I discovered a startling thing. There was violence in the past, long before cartoons were invented!” “I see… Fascinating.”)
• A pretty sweet touch that we see Marge using the spice rack Homer made, as horribly crappy as it is.
• I’ve always loved this piece of animation of Krusty bursting through the banner. It’s almost like it’s in slow motion.
  
  
• “It’s filth! It graphically portrays parts of the human body, which, practical as they may be, are evil.”
• This episode really feels so ahead of the curve in taking down rabble rousing media watchdogs. This was surely made in response to the criticism the show itself was getting from such complaining viewers in its first season, but in terms of dangerous imitable behavior, I associate that more with people crowing about violent video games in the 2000s, or later crude animated fare like South Park and Beavis and Butt-head (especially the latter, with that case of a boy burning down his trailer home after allegedly imitating the cartoon, even though it was later revealed the family didn’t even have cable.) Ultimately the episode ends on an purposefully ambiguous note, where Marge acknowledges her own hypocrisy without recanting any of her actions. Even though the episode slightly villainizes her, it doesn’t go too far where you don’t feel sympathetic toward her plight and viewpoint. It’s a fine line the episode teeters on, and it pulls it off so well.

10. Bart Gets Hit By A Car

• I still don’t know why this episode has an on-screen title. It is funny that mere seconds after reading the title, we actually see Bart get hit by a car, but it feels weird to me.
• The tire tracks on Snowball I’s body is a great touch.
• What other show takes you to Hell and back within the first few minutes of an episode? Speaking of, I love the depiction of the Devil as this little shrimp who keeps track of souls on his Mac computer. And of course, Bart thinks this is the coolest thing ever, even as Satan gives him a parting farewell (“Remember: lie, cheat, steal, and listen to heavy metal music!” “Yes, sir!”)
  
  
• Great quick joke as Bart ascends through the various floors of the hospital, we see Jacques looking quite concerned as a doctor puts on rubber gloves. Gay panic seemed to be the theme of his random post-season 1 appearances; in the “Do the Bartman” music video, we see him dancing with a series of morphing female side characters before finally ending up with Karl, much to his surprise.
• We’re introduced to Lionel Hutz, and man, does Phil Hartman just instantly knock this character out of the park. The friendliest sleazeball you ever did see, his phony smile and sweet talking manner makes rubes like Homer easy prey for him. I also love how he’s literally a shameless ambulance chaser, as we’re told he was doing that while Bart was taken to the hospital, and then later we see his ears perk up as he hears sirens in the distance from his law office in the mall.
• I really love these two shots, with the staging alone making it very clear that Homer is the submissive party in this meeting to get a paltry sum from the powerful man that injured his son.
  
  
• Speaking of, I think this is the first instance of showing Burns’ incredible physical weakness, struggling to punch down on the check and straining to crush a mere paper cup. I love his pure satisfaction when he’s finally able to do so.
• “Clogging Our Courts Since 1976.” Before we had Saul Goodman, we had Lionel Hutz.
  
  
• Dr. Nick also has a great first appearance, just as competent a doctor as Hutz is a lawyer, both with offices full of phony degrees (Female Body Inspector, I Went to Medical School for Four Years and All I Got was this Lousy Diploma)
• I love this sequence of Burns imagining the fawning headlines after firing an ungrateful employee. His little satisfied “Hmm” noises make it even better. Sometimes, obvious ADR lines feel unnecessary or like filler, but in this instance, it really enhances it.
  
  
• “Your honor, my client has instructed me to remind the court how rich and important he is, that he is not like other men.”
• The sequences of Bart and Burns’ sides of the story are both so great, really fun and well animated. I love that Mr. Burns doesn’t even try to hide that he’s reading his account off a piece of paper. Also great is that he even throws Smithers under the bus in his manufactured tale (“It’s not important, sir, let’s drive on.” “Why, you despicable, cold-blooded monster!”), that even he is pissed alongside the entire court when Burns is finished (“What are you looking at me like that for? You believed his cock-and-bull story!”)
• Alone in Burns’ lavish study, I love that Homer angrily spits on his fancy chair, but then in the next shot we see him dutifully wiping it off. Even trying to be defiant, Homer is spineless as ever.
• Dan Castellaneta and Julie Kavner give great performances as Blue-Haired Lawyer grills Marge on the stand. The overlapping interplay between the two as Marge slowly recounts Bart’s “mental anguish” and the Lawyer quietly riffing off what she says as it’s all playing to serve his agenda is just wonderful.
• I’ve always thought the ending of Homer not knowing if he loves Marge anymore is kind of silly. It plays it straight enough that it feels like we’re supposed to care, but all-in-all it comes off as weirdly rushed and tacked on, especially given a lot of the build-up is told through Homer and Marge’s inner thoughts played over freeze-frames. Even then, it’s not without its moments: immediately after telling his wife he doesn’t think he loves her anymore, Homer clarifies, “But don’t worry, I’ll never let on, I’ll still do all the bed stuff. Maybe it won’t be so bad…”

11. One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish

• “You’re always trying to teach me to be open-minded, try new things, live life to the…” “What are you talking about? Nobody’s trying to teach you that!” Lisa’s pleas at the dinner table in the opening scene is a great example of the show striking the balance of having her wise beyond her years, yet still just a little kid. She waxes poetically about wanting some variety in her life outside of greasy American cuisine, but only convinces her father after repeating “Please, Dad” over and over again.
• “Fugu me!!”
• I guess Bart and Lisa singing the theme to Shaft is itself the joke, but cutting back to it three times for them to sing the whole song feels a bit like filler.
• It really is pretty damn risque they made Mrs. Krabappel into such a… liberated woman, as she appears here furiously making out with the head sushi chef in a car parked behind the restaurant. And lord help you if you disturb him (“My skilled hands are busy!!”)
• “No need to panic. There is a map to the hospital on the back of the menu.”
• I love this quick bit of animation of Homer in the “anger” stage. Later, we get a similarly great Homer freakout when he puts on aftershave.
  
  
• “So You’re Going to Die” is only second to “So You’ve Ruined Your Life” for best pamphlet joke on the show.
• It’s really cute how Homer innocently asks Marge her term for them having sex. “When we’re intimate?” And then of course he misspells it (“Be intimit with Marge.”)
• I love this moment when Homer taps his knee to beckon his son for a heart-to-heart, Bart naturally figures he’s getting spanked and assumes the position. The animation is so damn funny, he just looks so nonplussed by it, swiftly drops his shorts and goes limp across Homer’s lap just wanting to get it over with. So fucking funny.
  
  
• I can’t remember when I even heard the real song last, but it’ll always be “When the Saints Go Over There” to me.
• The harmonica wailing inmate in the cell purely for atmosphere. Just great.
• Originally Barney was positioned as Homer’s best friend, but the pair really only had a handful of moments together outside the bar before he just became a permanent fixture of Moe’s, with jokes solely based on him being a drunk. Here, Homer calls him for $50 to bail him out of jail (“Fifty bucks?! What’d you do, kill a judge?”) I like the small glimpses of his character we see in the early seasons, like his novelty answering machine and his filth-ridden apartment. I don’t know what other greater stories you could have told with Homer and Barney, but it definitely feels like a minor “what-could-have-been.”
• Gotta hand it to Smithers, despite being a gay man hopelessly in love with his boss, he does his best to hype up Burns’ ogling at women’s legs at the park (“Ring-a-ding-ding, sir!”)
• It’s such a simple look, but I love this expression when the weight of Marge’s poem finally hits Homer. The versatility of these simplistic character designs is really amazing at how many different expressions they can do with so few lines.
  
  
• I always thought it was funny that Larry King gives his NBA picks at the end of the Bible book-on-tape, which would immediately date itself the year after he recorded it. But I’m probably thinking too much into this.

12. The Way We Was

• McBain really is the perfect movie parody. Despite “specifically” referencing Schwarzenegger and Stallone movies, the parody still works now over twenty years because the big dumb action movie starring a loose cannon who plays by his own rules is an evergreen genre. Sure, you’ve got plenty of movies that do their own takes or subversions or outright mockeries of the tropes of such films, but there’s still plenty of media that continues to play them straight, making the McBain segments still play perfectly even now.
• A bit on the flip side of that, you have the Siskel & Ebert parody, which is still funny, but the idea of watching movie critics on TV give their reviews in 2020 is kind of weird. I guess the spirit of it lives on with online movie discussion videos like Red Letter Media’s Half in the Bag, but it’s different. But as a young teen, I remember loving Ebert & Roeper, and reading through all the negative blurbs of shit movies on a very early version of Rotten Tomatoes. I guess I loved schadenfreude, I don’t know. It was so intense that I remember I burned a CD of audio files of Ebert & Roeper’s most scathing reviews and listened to it probably way too many times. I was an… odd child.
• The magazine cover feels like it’s straight out of one of Matt Groening’s Life in Hell comics. I also don’t know if these jokes would fly nowadays.
  
  
• It’s a nice touch that the flashback begins with Homer scoffing at “Close To You” playing on the radio, and the first act ends with the song playing when he first lays eyes on Marge and falls in love. I also like that the motif is played right at the start of act two before Homer introduces himself. I don’t know why, but the song feels very appropriate as “their” song, as we see in a callback much later in The Simpsons Movie where we see Homer and Marge use it as their first dance.
• “I reached step one: she knew I existed. The only problem was, she didn’t care.” I remember cryptically posting this quote on my Xanga page in high school, referring to a girl I didn’t have the guts to ask out. Boy, this episode is reminding me of a lot of cringey shit I did as a kid.
• I love how absolutely shitty a father Abe is, which explains a lot about adult Homer’s insecurities and shortcomings. He imparts upon his son a very important lesson (“Don’t overreach! Go for the dented car, the dead-end job, the less attractive girl. Oh, I blame myself. I should’ve had this talk a long time ago…”)
• I love this little bit where Homer haphazardly wipes the hair out from his eyes. It’s a very true teenager thing.
  
  
• The “makeout music” Homer plays is this great faux-Barry White track “Don’t Be A Baby, Lady.” I wish I knew who was singing it. But then it’s followed later with the real “Do the Hustle,” so I guess between that and “Close to You,” they may have blown their music licensing budget for this episode. It’s also funny since Barry White would appear on the show two seasons later.
• I love the Shelbyville Forensics Meet flyer, the crude school spirit drawing also feels very setting appropriate.
  
  
• “Where to now, Romeo?” “Inspiration Point.” “Okay, but I’m only paid to drive.”
• Artie Ziff: the original “nice guy.” I love that Marge compliments Homer for being unpretentious, which contrasts perfectly with Artie, who is incredibly full of himself, the ultimate example being him urging Marge not to tell anyone about his “busy hands” (“Not so much for myself, but I am so respected, it would damage the town to hear it.”)
• I love that throughout and after the prom, Homer is always holding the corsage in his hand, like a tortured reminder of what he lost. But then, when Marge picks him up, he finally pins it on Marge, repairing her dress strap that Artie ripped. I never really thought it through like that, but that’s really, really sweet.
  I also wore a powder blue tux to prom. It wasn’t retro-70s style like Homer’s, but it 100% was the inspiration for it.

13. Homer vs. Lisa and the 8th Commandment

• This episode has three just perfect line readings, the first being in the opening flashback, Jacques/Zoar the Adulterer when Moses kills his line of work with “Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery” (“Well, looks like the party’s over.”) He just sounds so bummed and defeated.
• “Myth: It’s only fair to pay for quality first-run movies. Fact: Most movies shown on cable get two stars or less and are repeated ad nauseum.”
• “So what you’re saying is, there’s a downside to the afterlife. How does one steer clear of this abode of the damned?” Martin’s Sunday School question prompting the teacher to introduce the Ten Commandments sounds like it was written on a card by Mr. Burns’ campaign manager.
• We get our first glimpse of Troy McClure, who of course would host many more hilarious infomercials to come. It also feels very appropriate that Dr. Nick is his partner in crime, as was Lionel Hutz, cementing these two Phil Hartman roles as affable con men in their own unique ways.
• The living room turning into Hell before Lisa’s eyes is such a beautiful sequence. It really drives the point home of Lisa’s moral dilemma, while not feeling too over-the-top or preachy, as it’s through the lens of a young child who isn’t cloying or annoying. 
  
  
• The second perfect line reading: the grocery cashier when Marge asks him to charge her for the two grapes she ate (“Two grapes? Who cares?”) I love that Marge shoots Lisa an annoyed glance for making her do that; I like the instances where we see despite her being eternally loving, even Marge can get fed up with her kids every now and then, just like any parent.
• “If you didn’t watch it in the theater, or rent it, or see it someplace else, we’ve got it on the Blockbuster Channel!”
• I love Mr. Burns’ colorful description on how he thinks the other half lives (“The screen door rusting off its filthy hinges, a mangy dog staggering about, looking vainly for a place to die.”)
• So many great newly impure faces of the children watching “Broadcast Nudes.” I can’t decide whether Ralph’s or Martin’s is my favorite. The latter gets in a great line, seeming to enjoy what he’s seeing a bit too much (”Gross!” “Yet strangely compelling…”)
  
  
• It’s a bit funny that the gag where Apu shows up at the house after Homer tells Marge he only invited a few of his closest friends doesn’t work so much anymore, since we consider the two of them friends nowadays. But back in episode 26, why the hell would Homer invite the guy who runs the convenience store over?
• The third perfect line is Mr. Burns instructing Smithers to give Homer “the Cheet-O’s.” Very natural.
• Further making Lisa a one-woman island of morality, and speaking to how corrupt the entire town is, the police don’t give a shit about Homer’s stolen cable, since they want to watch the big fight as much as anybody.
• Another crowd shot that makes me laugh. My eyes are always drawn to Otto’s gigantic maw. It’s mostly open in motion, as the upper lip just kind of flaps up and down a bit. Very strange, but I love it.
  
  

14. Principal Charming

• This is the first episode where we get some kind of personality distinction between Patty & Selma. While the former is turned off by intimacy, the latter yearns for it, or as Marge perfectly puts it, “It’s Patty who chose a life of celibacy. Selma simply had celibacy thrust upon her.” You really feel for Selma right away, with the tragically on-the-nose wedding and her somberly singing Brandy to Lisa.
  
  
• “Since I’m sure you’d only resent the pity of an eight-year-old niece, I’ll simply hope that you’re one of the statistically insignificant number of forty-year-old single women who ever find their fair prince.”
• While he would later become more and more of a spineless wimp, I really like seeing Principal Skinner wield his authority. This episode illuminates the clearest that he’s really just a big stuck-up nerd who revels in his position of power. The Bart/Skinner dynamic lost a bit of its potency when Skinner’s edges started to get sanded off, it only works if Bart can actually be punished for something. Last season we saw him reveling in deporting the boy, now he yearns to be able to use the “Board of Education,” a paddle kept being glass in his office.
• There’s several scenes in this episode that are just Patty & Selma talking back and forth that I just love. We see them go to the Kwik-E-Mart for smokes, Selma grills Patty about her date, these mundane things where we get to learn more about these characters. When Patty asks how she looks before her date, Selma sadly compliments, “Achingly beautiful.” She’s still bitter that it’s not her who got her man, but she’s also deeply insecure about herself and still loves her sister more than anything, which ultimately becomes the crux of the episode that neither sister can leave the other one behind. As we get more episodes featuring secondary/tertiary characters, it’s only going to make me wish we got more interesting character explorations like these, instead of the five thousandth Homer-gets-a-job episode.
• I love that the Australian Space Mutant has a little Joey mutant in its pouch.
• Considering these are two characters we barely know much about, the Skinner-Patty relationship still seems to work. Skinner is just a lovestruck dork with a bumbling sense of courtship, while Patty initially is barely putting up with this guy for her sister’s sake, but comes around to him a bit over time. Their first date involves complaining about the restaurant they went to and the movie they saw (“Isn’t it nice we hate the same things?”) Patty laughs at this, then quickly catches herself, trying to purposefully extinguish this rare moment of joy.
• Kissing really is kind of gross when you think about it, isn’t it?
  
  
• There’s a great moment when Selma is at her lowest, grabbing her nephew with the hopes that some kiddie nonsense he says will cheer her up. But when he tells her Skinner is planning on asking Patty to marry him, she’s freezes, and a bit of ash falls from her cigarette. I don’t know why, but that makes the moment even more powerful than just silence.
• Barney is the perfect disaster of a man to compel Patty to save her sister from. I love his bewildered reaction to his own bottle he brought with him (“Schnapps?”)