Season Six Revisited (Part One)

1. Bart of Darkness

• Through multiple heat waves across the series, I like that Bart takes after his father in just lying around in his skivvies, Marge tries to remain respectable with her normal dress, while Lisa has changed to her pink one piece bathing suit.
• The scene where Bart and Lisa confront Homer about getting a pool is one of those great scenes that just has joke after joke after joke. Homer turning sideways off the couch to see the TV behind Lisa, Bart unplugging the set, Homer replying cheerfully after his obstinate display (“Yes, Lisa?”), then Lisa’s very eloquently prepared speech, followed by incessant hammering of “Can we have a pool, Dad?” with Bart. I also love that Lisa holds her hand up to signal Bart to stop the repetitive chant, so he gets to the next “Can we” before stopping. And then Homer’s diplomatic, “Let us celebrate our new arrangement with the adding of chocolate to milk.”
• “Awww, I’m going to miss the whole summer.” “Don’t worry, boy. When you get a job like me, you’ll miss every summer.” Last time I watched this episode I was gearing up for another year of school. Watching this again after many years in the workforce, this hits harder.
• The Busby Berkley-style pool performance is great, almost like the summertime version of “Bart Gets an F” where Bart is forced to watch an incredibly fun day out that he can’t participate in. I don’t quite know why, but I always laugh at Homer’s tube just floating into the human circle. He’s probably really loaded and not sure what these kids are doing, but he’s having a great time drinking Duff in his undies, so he doesn’t care.
• This episode has the longest Itchy & Scratchy up to this point, which in later seasons would be a bad sign, but this one is great, I love the slow build where you’re not quite sure how Scratchy is going to get butchered, and the sound design of the future Itchy heads pulsing is pretty wonderful and gross.
• I love all the glimpses of older Krusty shows, where despite being a low-rent kiddie clown, he’s done several different adult formats over his career for no discernible reason.
• The lighting in Bart’s darkened room is just fantastic, it looks beautiful and further emphasizes his isolation. Also, when his shirt is completely in shadow, it almost looks light blue, which is almost feels like a weird Easter egg to early merchandise that inexplicably had him wearing a blue shirt instead of orange. Also, this face of him silently calling Lisa on her bullshit is great.
  
• Is spying on people in the nude with a bucket of popcorn the grossest Chief Wiggum moment? Last season he entertained a brothel, but those are professional sex workers, not regular civilians getting peeped on by the authorities.
• A special shout-out to Nancy Cartwright’s demented performance as Bart goes more and more stir-crazy. Even beyond his more animated lines, I love how he’s completely uneven through the whole second act and most of the third.
• “He’s going to kill Rod and Todd too? That’s horrible! …in principle.”
• I like how dramatic the ending feels. Of course Ned isn’t a killer, but the combination of the great staging, the music, and Bart and Lisa’s childlike naïveté, it definitely feels a little intense. I also like that despite the joke being that it’s a big cheat that Ned was just burying Maude’s plants, none of his language feels purposefully misleading, like him saying Maude was with God being revealed that she was at Bible Camp (“I was learning how to be more judgmental.”)
• Martin singing “Summer Wind” in his ravaged backyard all alone might be my favorite Martin moment, and maybe in my top 10 endings in the whole series. There was just enough set-up to his final scene that made it seem worth it, also this being a whole episode about summer, it feels really appropriate. I only wish they had him sing through the credits, since Russi Taylor is such a great performer, but I like the instrumental version just the same.
  
• Simpsons Archive retro review: “In many ways, ‘Bart of Darkness’ was a typical Season Fiver: it had the ‘Simpsons get a wacky object plot’ (already used twice before, with a trampoline and an elephant), and a long movie reference that substituted for a plot (‘Rear Window,’ as opposed to ‘Cape Fear,’ ‘Thelma and Louise,’ ad nauseum). The Simpsons has never been a formula show, but last season (and this episode) came dangerously close.”

2. Lisa’s Rival

• “Lisa, stop blowing my sex! I mean, stop blowing your sax, your sax!” I love that Marge admits she “sacrificed a very expensive camera just to get some quiet time.” It’s a quick line, but it makes the opening feel more connected and coherent. Homer is an absolute dummy who instantly breaks the camera by hammering it with a power drill, which is funny in a base, simplistic way, but revealing it was a calculated move by a knowing Marge to keep him out of her hair for a while makes it even funnier.
• It’s great that Lisa is very quickly threatened by Allison usurping her turf, and despite how incredibly open and nice Allison is to her, she’s doing all she can to bite her tongue and grin and bear it. Her begrudging “Me too…” after Allison says they’re going to be best friends is fantastic, as is her lifeless compliment, “You’re a wonderful person” after she later “decides” there’s no shame in being second best and to try and be nice to Allison.
• The Homer sugar B-plot is definitely the craziest Homer scheme yet, and it makes sense that it was written by Mike Scully, whose tenure on the show would turn Homer into Captain Wacky. It feels a little too silly at times, but the fact that it’s just the subplot definitely helps, and there are definitely great moments to be had in it (the proper English gentleman stealing sugar, the two beekeepers).
• There’s a great moment when Lisa is confronting her mother about why she hasn’t been moved up a grade, where she says, “Maybe you could have been nicer to Principal Skinner, if you know what I mean.” She certainly isn’t implying what my impure mind is thinking, but I like that the adult Marge’s knee jerk reaction is, “Lisa!!” Pause, and then a flat, reaffirming “I am nice.” I love that bit.
• I’m not sure why Skinner is at the band tryouts, but he certainly looks incredibly bored being there.
• Bart’s extended laugh into his tape recorder always makes me laugh. It’s infectious, I guess.
• Ah, the Milhouse Fugitive moment. It’s an absurd moment that is mostly just recreating a movie scene, something I usually bitch about in newer episodes, but the fact that there’s actually set-up to it in Bart selling himself to Lisa on his manipulation skills (“Remember how I got Milhouse’s picture on America’s Most Wanted?”) and the ridiculousness of seeing a dweeb like Milhouse staring down the barrel of not-Tommy Lee Jones’ gun makes it even funnier.
• Homer’s ridiculous monologue about how his sugar business will enter him into high society (I think?) feels similar to his equally nonsensical movie-quote-rant in “Secrets to a Successful Marriage,” but this one is better only because it’s kind of related to what he’s doing, and it sports some great character animation, I think by David Silverman, instead of “Secrets” where he was mostly stationary.
  
• I love that the gag of Uter having eaten his chocolate diorama could have easily just been the only joke, but his anguished, “I begged you to look at mine first! I begged you!” just adds to it, like he knew he couldn’t help himself and tried his best to avoid the inevitable outcome. Fantastic.
• In the end, as Lisa gets more and more frazzled by her conscious, Skinner’s continued dressing down of Allison in the background is great, as he loses track of his point and starts getting a little too introspective (“Young lady, cow hearts belong in a butcher’s window, not the classroom. Well, maybe in an older students’ biology classroom, but that’s none of my business. Elementary school is where I wound up, and it’s too late to do anything about that!”
• Simpsons Archive retro review: “Not a great episode by any stretch of the imagination, it was more a mishmosh of a lot of subplots, some funnier than others, others overplayed. You could tell it was the last episode of the season, and the writers threw in everything that couldn’t make it into its own episode.”

3. Another Simpsons Clip Show

• This is definitely a sharp decline from “So It’s Come to This” in regards to clip shows, but honestly, the first five minutes are pretty serviceable. I like the idea of a creative experiment of trying to concoct a whole new episode using as many clips as possible. Marge recalling Homer on the lawn in the kiddie pool, the Itchy & Scratchy rerun, Bart talking about “Fluffy Bunny’s Guide to You-Know-What,” they all felt like semi-organic callbacks. But once Marge starts recapping “Life in the Fast Lane,” the episode tanks.
• “Mom, romance is dead. It was acquired in a hostile takeover by Hallmark and Disney, homogenized, and sold off piece by piece.” I’ll once again remind readers that this episode is available to watch on Disney+.
• I’m sure I talked about this last time (but it’s a clip show, how much new stuff is there to talk about?), but it really feels bizarre that Marge and Homer talk about their almost affairs in front of their children as a means of teaching them about true love. I wonder to what extent the writers were aware of how weird this is, although considering Homer’s introduction to his story, I guess they were (“As long as we’re traumatizing the kids, I have a scandalous story of my own…”)
• It’s also strange when Homer’s recollected stories contain scenes that he wasn’t actually present for, like Mr. Burns releasing the flying monkeys in “The Last Temptation of Homer,”) and the beginning of the final flashback to “The Way We Was,” when Homer presumably narrates to the kids how Artie Ziff attempted to get extra handsy with their mother after prom.
• Simpsons Archive retro review: “This is ridiculous. Shape up or you risk losing even your loyalest of fans. At least make it look like you are trying and let the show die gracefully. That is, unless Bart’s comment about the Cosby show was right and you do plan to ‘run the show into the ground.'”

4. Itchy & Scratchy Land

• Krusty hawking Itchy & Scratchy Land once again brings up the oscillating power dynamic between him and Roger Meyers, Jr? It wouldn’t be until much, much later that we would see Krustyland (way later, after it was featured in the ride, I believe.) It was also featured in a short-run of Simpsons comics in the early 90s, where the gag was that it was built on the cheap and was a rickety nightmare. Meanwhile, Itchy & Scratchy Land is pretty well put together, a gigantic park with a huge nightlife/dining extension, all put atop an exclusive island with the titular cat and mouse’s faces carved into it. How much did this thing cost, billions?
• Great animation of Bart and Lisa running into the kitchen as Bart screeches to a stop. It’s framed a little low like it’s more from their POV, which is a nice little touch. Also, the drawing of their aghast faces when Marge tells them of her planned vacation is hilarious.
  
• “Dead serious about going to Itchy & Scratchy Land” is yet another shitposters dream. Hundreds of great memes have come from it.
• My only complaint this episode is that we never got to see what exactly recipe-related bumper cars are.
• Every single time I park at Disneyland, my first thought is always, “Remember, we’re in the Itchy lot.”
• I’m a big theme park nerd, so I love all the little touches in this episode. One of my favorites is the parade, where they remix the I&S theme to sort of sound like the Electrical Parade music. Also the underground tunnels that Bart and Homer are taken through are inspired by the utilidor system that runs underneath the Magic Kingdom in Orlando.
• Boy, good thing the Simpsons were those exact heights. I feel bad for whoever’s in the next log. I also love how the guests are expected to climb out of the way of the giant buzz saw and fall onto the mattresses below.
  
• The John Travolta bartender joke is pretty funny in hindsight as this episode aired less than two weeks before Pulp Fiction released in theaters, which completely revitalized Travolta’s career.
• The gift shops in the Springfield section of Universal Studios have plenty of vanity plates, and they’re always out of BORT ones, which I appreciate.
• I’d make another snide “THIS IS ON DISNEY+” comment in regards to Roger Meyers, Sr’s controversial “Nazi Supermen Are Our Superiors,” but I just did that with the last episode. The “Scratchtasia” and “Pinnitchio” segments are brilliant, of course.
• The “With a dry, cool wit like that, I could be an action hero” joke feels so unique, like I can’t think of a gag quite like it, where not only does Bart ignore Homer’s theft of his joke, but does so with a canned line talking about how great their vacation was in an attempt to just keep the story going. I love it.
• Like John Travolta, Euro Itchy & Scratchy Land is another antiquated reference. Disneyland Paris (formerly Euro Disneyland) was a financial failure in its first few years, but soon after became pretty successful.
• I love the meta ending with Bart explaining how violence is funny if it’s happening to someone else, catching even Marge in a giggle before she snaps back and punishes Lisa. Also, this episode has my favorite little ending motif over the executive producer credits. They’ve used it a handful of times, but something about it feels very satisfying to me.
• Simpsons Archive retro review: “This makes my Top 5 worst list of all time, easily. The racing form in the 1st 60 seconds of the show was the only thing that made me laugh out loud. After that, it was nothing but about 10 jillion stupid ‘Jurassic Park’ jokes. Killer robots? Puh-LEEZE.”

5. Sideshow Bob Roberts

• Springfield’s very own answer to Rush Limbaugh, Birch Barlow’s schtick in this episode feels so absolutely tame compared to the alt-right reactionary industry that exists today. Even modern Rush Limbaugh would eat this doughboy alive. As scathingly as this episode paints Barlow and Republicans, we also get some great commentary from the fence-sitting Lenny and Carl (“That Barlow’s a right-wing crackpot. He said Ted Kennedy lacked integrity! Can you believe that?” “I consider myself politically correct, and his views make me… uncomfortable.”)
• I’ve said a bunch of times at this point certain quotes and scenes I can’t believe they were able to get away with, but how in the hell were they able to show Quimby watering his pot plant?
• It’s odd that in Lisa’s helpful recap of Sideshow Bob, she specifically says Bart exposed Bob for framing Krusty in 1990. Four years later, everyone’s the same age. Why mention the year at all?
• I love that Bob puts his years as a buffoonish sidekick to use in showing up Quimby at the rally event at the school. He’s a clown whether he likes it or not, and he’s used his athletic prowess a couple times over the series for his own benefit.
• “Uncle Mayor was just saying that us kids are the most important natural resource we have!”  “More important than coal?!” Lisa manipulating the reporters by acting like a photo-friendly precocious kid is a great bit, and also one that would never work in the show today. Nowadays at Town Hall meetings, Lisa is practically a regular presenter regarding the town budget and other matters an eight-year-old would logically be privy to.
• Homer getting rejected by Archie and the gang is such a bizarre joke, which is only made stranger when we later see him angrily reading Archie Comics (“Stuck-up Riverdale punks. Think they’re too good for me!”) So are the comics based on the adventures of actual real-life, flesh-colored teenagers who exist in the Simpsons world? Just one of those things you shouldn’t worry about too much.
• Pamela Hayden’s “What’s happening?!” as a mummified Milhouse careens downhill is so damn funny. The absolute confusion and terror in his voice is great.
• The act two ending has the best Bob laugh of the entire series. It just keeps building and building. I just can’t imagine anyone but Kelsey Grammar doing his voice, who else could provide such a crazed, maniacal laugh like he can?
  
• I like Bob’s petty act of revenge of sending Bart back to kindergarten, which of course backfires as Bart loves it. Also, that’s one damn accurate Fred Flintstone voice on the Flintstone phone (I think it’s Hank Azaria?)
• “I can’t believe a convicted felon would get so many votes and another convicted felon would get so few.”
• The quick callback to the bats in the library is fantastic. It’s a good gag on its own, but as a reference of one of the first jokes in the episode, it’s even funnier that it cuts away so quickly, since they’re relying on you remembering the joke from the beginning.
• Homer and Marge fending off construction workers aiming to demolish their house to make room for an expressway must be an intentional Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy reference, right?
• “You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth! No truth-handler, you! Bah! I deride your truth-handling abilities!” Again, Kelsey Grammer just nails it.
• “Your guilty conscience may force you to vote Democratic, but deep down inside, you secretly long for a coldhearted Republican to lower taxes, brutalize criminals, and rule you like a king.” More political commentary that feels even more potent in 2020 than when it was written.
• Simpsons Archive retro review: “The really sad thing is that the episode had no humor value, and was a blatant attack on political views…in a cartoon! Welcome to sleazy politics in the nineties.”
  

6. Treehouse of Horror V

• Unlike Paint Your Wagon, 200 Miles to Oregon is not a real film. This is also the first instance of live action used on the show, right? There’s only two times they actually shot live footage in the first 10 seasons, and they were both in Halloween shows: the ending of Homer³ and the Regis & Kathy Lee segment. Am I forgetting something?
• The intro to this special is pretty disturbing, with Moe’s eyes bugging open after being hung, and Skinner giving the thumbs up before getting decapitated. Good stuff.
• This is the first time I’m watching this having actually seen The Shining in its entirety, and once again, it’s a credit to how expertly they used to write these parodies that “The Shinning” plays great without having seen the source material, and it plays even better if you have.
• I love the idea that just by his own accord, Willie has designated a personal hour to himself to have dirty thoughts.
• Homer initially going crazy is a classic sequence in terms of his manic animation, but I also love his crazed pleading to Marge walking up the stairs.
  
• The ending of the first segment with the Tony Awards on TV playing “One” is a great gag by itself, but even better when it comes back around in the very ending.
• “I’m the first non-Brazilian person to travel backwards through time!” I don’t know if anyone knows the meaning behind this joke. The Simpsons Archive theorizes this might be referring to the work of author Carlos Castaneda, but I don’t know if that’s true. The commentary reveals the original line was “I’m the first non-fictional character,” which I think is much better. David X. Cohen says that they pitched on the joke for hours and the line might have just been a result of laughing at it because it made no sense and they were tired. I can see that. Also, regarding Mr. Peabody and Sherman’s appearance, it’s funny that we get two cameos in a row by other comic/cartoon characters with flesh-toned skin instead of yellow.
• “I’ve gone back to the time when dinosaurs weren’t just confined to zoos!”
• I love when the Simpson floor morphs into the screen with Ned on it, there’s a little music sting that sounds reminiscent of the Terminator score, since the floor morphing kind of feels like the liquid metal T-1000.
• I never noticed this before, but in the rich Simpsons alternate universe, the kitchen curtains have blue corn cobs on them, as opposed to the normal yellow ones.
• “Nightmare Cafeteria” has got to be the most genuinely disturbing segment in Treehouse of Horror history. The speed at which Skinner and the teachers are just a-OK with not only killing students, but serving and eating them for lunch (which they also laugh at!) is actually pretty chilling, leading up to the end where they’re all completely addicted and crave the succulent flesh of youth.
• Great performance by Harry Shearer as Skinner soothing Lisa’s worries about Uter, before he realizes he’s said too much (“You might even say we just ate Uter and he’s in our stomachs right now! Wait… scratch that one.”)
• Willie getting killed in all three segments is a solid running gag (“Ah, I’m bad at this.”) Good use of rule of threes, or a hat trick, as I learned from the Simpsons complete guide as a kid. You guys read that thing, right? It was like my Bible when I was younger. I could write a whole other blog about my absolutely meaningless, incredibly specific remembrances on that one book alone.
• The kids falling into the giant blender is pretty horrifying by itself, even before the grotesque look on their faces as they’re seconds from an instant, bloody death.
  
• I love the ending so much. The inside-out fog is bizarre enough before it leads into a song-and-dance number, because why not? And then Willie returns and he’s no worse for wear… except for the inside-part, I suppose.
• Simpsons Archive retro review: “I have to say this weekend’s Hallowe’en show was not funny but disturbing. Creepy, even. I suppose that’s the point, since it’s a Hallowe’en show and all, but the Sloppy Jimbo et al. scenes were all too realistic, if that can be said about a cartoon.”