Season Six Revisited (Part Three)

13. And Maggie Makes Three

• Seeing Homer and the kids watch “Knight Boat,” the Knight Rider parody, reminds me how this show really was on at the right time. So many classic movies and TV shows were television rerun mainstays, so this series could lampoon pretty much anything they wanted and it would still be somewhat in the public consciousness. Nowadays, new movies or shows that seem like cultural touchstones get forgotten about in a week because of how much shit there is. But regardless if you know what Knight Rider is (outside of the basic premise, I sure don’t), the parody is still funny. You get enough of the basics of what the show is that Lisa pointing out the absurdity of it is still understandable (“Every week, there’s a canal!”)
• I love the beginning of Homer’s flashback story turning into an action movie where he saves the plant from terrorists. Considering this is now the fifth flashback episode, I like that they’re toying with the format, having fun with an unreliable narrator. This also comes into play at the start of the third act when Bart makes Homer’s head explode, and Marge forces Homer to restore himself to his actual weight.
• “Oh, I should be resisting this, but I’m paralyzed with rage! And island rhythms!”
  
• Homer literally burning his bridge at his old job now that he’s officially out of debt is absurdly hilarious, but it actually isn’t as absurd as a lot of his other crazy impulsive actions we’d later see. He’s budgeted for this in advance (but only for four family members), and him going to work his dream job at the bowling alley feels a lot like his carefree life working at the mini golf course. Homer is a man child who doesn’t aspire to much out of life, so it almost feels like him attempting to return to his old life now that his adult obligations are seemingly taken care of, but of course, fate intervenes. This is also the only instance where we see that Barney’s Bowl-O-Rama is actually named after Barney, a seemingly sweet gesture by his uncle Al, the owner (that sweetness seems to have soured as of late, considering he fires Barney and gives Homer his job.)
• Bart running off to angrily punch the wall when Homer tells them they won’t buy any more fancy quilted toilet paper is one of those ridiculous random gags that always makes me laugh.
• Homer and Marge going out for “dinner and dancing,” meaning grooving to the radio in their car at the drive thru, is probably my favorite Homer-Marge moment of the whole series. I love when we see that Marge is a woman of simple pleasures to a degree just like her husband, and that’s why the two fell for each other in the first place. It’s just so sweet.
  
• The bowling pin gag where all pins are discarded into a giant pile out back after being used once, and gigantic logs are whittled down to create one new pin each is so wonderfully dumb. I also love Alf Clausen’s orchestration of the classic “Powerhouse” music.
• Patty and Selma using the phone book to spread gossip is a perfect classic Simpsons gag. Even knowing the twist is coming, I still laugh every time (“Aaronson and Zykowski are the two biggest gossips in town. In an hour, everyone will know.”)
• Homer’s complete ignorance of people congratulating him about Marge being pregnant is really perfectly executed. There’s been lots of moments in the history of this show where Homer is just way too stupid for a gag, but in this case, it’s contextually funny, almost like his subconscious is putting up blinders, like nothing is going to interrupt his new perfect life, no matter how on-the-nose the commentary gets (“Hey, Homer! Way to get Marge pregnant.” “This is getting very abstract, but thank you! I do enjoy working at the bowling alley!”
• Ruth Powers being at the baby shower is one of those amusing timeline accidents, like when we see Santa’s Little Helper in “Homer’s Barbershop Quartet.” We also see Homer and Marge in the Simpson house when he finds out she’s pregnant with Bart, which they hadn’t bought yet, but for the sake of the joke, it really isn’t a big deal.
• I don’t know how controversial this will be, but I’m not crazy about the ending. Homer’s misery washing away with just one look at his new baby girl, that I love, it’s a very sweet finale to the episode, with Homer finding joy in his adult life through his children. But the “Do It For Her” plaque always rings slightly hollow for me because of all the jokes made before and after this episode where Homer forgets Maggie even exists. Hell, there’s even a joke in this episode where he almost sits on her. The ending is kinda sweet, but it doesn’t hit as hard for me as Homer relating to Bart or Lisa or Marge. I wouldn’t even put it in a top 10 sweetest moments list. Homer sheepishly waving hello to the newly born Maggie and him gushing about her is a much more emotional moment to me than the last shot.
• Simpsons Archive retro review: “First they did a great flashback episode about Homer and Marge meeting; then a very good one about Bart as an infant; then a fairly good one about Lisa as an infant; now a truly awful one about Maggie as an infant. I’m going to start a collection so the writers can BUY an original damn idea! GRADE: F.”

14. Bart’s Comet

• Big Butt Skinner might be Bart’s finest prank, the perfect blend of ingenuity and immaturity. I love how much anguish it causes to Skinner over the course of the first act, when his plea for the kids to chuck rocks to pop it ends up getting his car pelted, being humiliated over the phone as the astronomers find it on their telescope (“No, there’s no need to do that. It’s already named after me,”) to the act break where he catches it but ends up letting it go in anguish after Bart accomplishes in one minute what he attempted for countless nights. Act one is probably the greatest depiction of the Bart/Skinner dynamic, with Bart as the rambunctious, savvy prankster, while Skinner tries his best to exert authority, but it never pans out the way he hopes.
• The fighter pilot scene where they end up blowing each other’s planes up is an absolutely ludicrous commentary nowadays (“This is what happens when you cut money out of the military and put it into health care!”) Jesus Christ, can you even remember a time where you could call the defense budget underfunded, let alone in exchange for government health care? What a “horrible” thing to make fun of!
• Skinner’s silent rage towards Principal Kahoutek as the ominous clouds blot out the moon is so fantastic, as is when his tone quickly shifts back to normal and the clouds quickly dissipate. Skinner is pretty brutal (“I got back at him, though. Him and that little boy of his.”) What exactly did he do? Once again, I like Skinner a lot more when he’s got some balls. Him getting angry at Chalmers and attacking him in “The Road to Cincinnati,” a scene stuck in an ultimately disappointing episode, was a very welcome display for Skinner.
• I love the moment after Marge tells Bart she’s proud of him, he retorts with, “But then, you’ve always been proud of me,” causing Marge to pause and stammer out a yes. It’s great because it’s obvious that Bart is just messing with his mother like a kid would.
• They’re pretty much one-scene wonders, but I still love the Super Friends, the biggest dorks ever to be animated. I like that Lisa is among their ranks, but her expression reads like she’s much more self-aware then they are. She’s barely got friends as it is, so she figures why not sit with her fellow mega-geeks. Also, Martin is conspicuously absent from the group. Given his standoffish attitude, I can imagine that he and the Super Friends have a silent rivalry going on. Martin versus the Super Friends is a new episode I’d love to see, although with a Grey DeLisle-voiced Martin, I’d be slightly less interested. Also the script would almost certainly be shit, so that too.
• You kind of need to just go along with it for the purpose of the story, but Springfield has only one bridge out of town? What are they, on an island? It’s worth it for the scene where Arnie Pye is reporting on the cars flying off the destroyed bridge, effectively doing a mass suicide (“It’s a silent testament to the never-give-up and never-think-things-out spirit of our citizens!”)
• The Congress vote on saving Springfield is a classic scene, where the bill ends up getting saddled with an additional rider: $30 million of taxpayer money to support the perverted arts (“All in favor of the amended Springfield-slash-pervert bill?”) The bill is killed unanimously, prompting Kent Brockman to give one of the greatest quotes of the whole series (“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: democracy simply doesn’t work.”)
• What a wonderful display of all of our lovable characters. They even stuck Waldo in there. I also love Nelson having Milhouse in a headlock.
  
• Todd Flanders loading a shotgun intended for his father while crying is a wonderfully dark moment.
• Homer teeters towards asshole territory by vehemently demanding Ned’s expulsion from the shelter, but he immediately makes up for it by leaving after him when his conscience gets the better of him. I like how that leads to Springfield solidarity in everybody following suit (“Hey, Homer, wait up, I wanna die too!”) The people of Springfield are selfish and moronic, but they do have a sense of town pride, with just a smidgen of familial unity, as the ending of this episode nicely displays.
• Simpsons Archive retro review: “What the hell? I seem to remember when Simpsons episodes had plots which related to rather than hopelessly contorting real life. This continued in the recent trend of episodes being little more than jokes barely strung together by a thin, unbelievable plot.”

15. Homie the Clown

• The opening of this episode is just fabulous, rapid-fire showing Krusty’s spend-happy lifestyle, completely ignoring any panicked statements from his accountant (”I don’t want to hear the endings of any sentences!”)
• “Gambling is the finest thing a person can do, if he’s good at it!”
• I love Homer’s excitement over new billboard day, especially considering how clear it is that he’s excited that they’re all food-related (scoffing at Krusty’s billboard, “Clown college? You can’t eat that!”) In the next scene we see he’s got all his new foodstuffs out on his work console, but the power of advertising proves to be incredibly intense as the clown college continues to worm into his brain.
• Marge’s “I think I’ll have some wine” while the family stares at Homer sculpting his mashed potatoes always makes me laugh.
• I like how the story of this episode is kind of a big in-joke reference to the long abandoned idea that Krusty was secretly Homer in disguise, the irony being that Bart reveres this famous TV clown, yet has no respect for his father. I assume this idea was abandoned around the same time as the intended reveal that Marge was a Life in Hell rabbit. I love that despite being in full costume, Homer is still easily identified by his single two hairs on top of his head instead of a small tuft of hair like Krusty’s, but nobody else seems to notice or care.
• I love how brutal this pie-to-the-face looks, that the wealthy dowager’s head just imbeds itself into the wall. How is she not dead after this?
  
• I like how most of act two is just Homer getting more and more degraded as a Krusty performer, to the point where he’s at a kid’s birthday party getting shit thrown at him as he weakly dances about. And the lowest of the low, he’s subjected to Kirk Van Houten bossing him around.
• I really don’t know much of anything about Dick Cavett other than he had a talk show, but he’s got to be one of the most brutal celebrity appearances (“I’d just like to say, I know Woody Allen,” followed by the most tepid applause.) I miss the days when celebrities came on the show to get the rug ripped out from under them, not get their asses kissed (“Your churlish attitude reminds me of a time I was having dinner with Groucho…” “Look, you’re going to be having dinner with Groucho tonight if you don’t beat it!”)
• Krusty betting against the Harlem Globetrotters is so funny. Watching a high stakes bet over a basketball game also reminded me of Uncut Gems, which is also a positive.
• I’m sure there’s Rule 34 of post-plastic surgery busty Krusty, and no, I don’t want to see any links confirming that.
• More wonderful cartoon brutality in Ned getting shot twice by Legs. The combination of the bullet impact, Ned’s yell and the speed of the animation of him falling to the floor just makes it feel really intense.
• I like that Homer is quick to throw Barney under the bus to save his skin, after admitting his own identity to the mob didn’t work. Also, Barney is apparently kind of a big sleaze himself, taking pictures of Legs’ sister. I guess I can buy that.
• What a great character Don Vittorio is. A self-professed Italian stereotype, yes, but Dan Castellaneta’s performance is so earnest, he makes even a character arriving this late into the third act feel incredibly notable. He even got his own action figure, for Pete’s sake! I love how tickled he is by Krusty’s antics, and conversely, how offended he is when Homer/Krusty botches his act (“The fact that you did not do the trick well is the biggest insult of all!”)
• It’s a simple shot, but I love the POV of Homer failing to do the loop.
  
• It’s pretty sweet that after Homer messes up Krusty by covering his eyes riding the trike, he redeems himself, and his clowning education, by swallowing the tricycle at the end and ringing the bell. It’s so stupid, but it feels like a triumphant moment for him.
• Simpsons Archive retro review: “Another Swartzwelder disappointment. Fat Tony’s return seemed so promising, but the plot was contrived. Homer becomes a clown? Come off it. I guess fresh ideas are hard to come up with after a while. Grade: D.”

16. Bart vs. Australia

• Everybody learned about the Coriolis effect from this episode, right? And then at one point tried to test it out themselves? This show really taught me a lot of things.
• The first act is the perfect representation of showing Lisa as smart, but not smug. She just knows a lot because she’s intelligent, and definitely feels some sense of superiority over Bart in particular, but never in a smarmy way. She stops short of mentioning the equator on the globe, in favor of “this line,” in both a helpful and condescending way. Then she messes with her brother about the far-off land of Rand McNally (“They wear hats on their feet and hamburgers eat people!”)
• The gag of an elderly Hitler still being alive feels like one of the most bizarre jokes ever done on this show.
• Homer’s brain reasoning with himself about something he may or may not have forgotten definitely rings truer to me having a terrible memory married to a woman who remembers everything (“Quiet, it might be you! I can’t remember.” “Naw, I’m going to ask Marge.” “No, no! Why embarrass us both? Just write a check and I’ll release some more endorphins.”)
• Hank Azaria as Bruno, Tobias’ father, is one of those incredibly loud and boisterous voices that is just so high volume, you can hear the sound bouncing off the recording studio. It’s fantastic.
• Evan Conover (Undersecretary for International Protocol: Brat and Punk Division) is hands-down Phil Hartman’s greatest one-off role. All of his characters are congenial-presenting shysters, so his voice is basically tailor made for a government official. 
• The skeleton who attempted to dig his way out of his own coffin is a pretty dark visual gag.
• I like how Bart releases his bullfrog at the airport as a means to not spread any more mischief (“I don’t want to get into any more trouble down here. I’ll pick you up on the way home.”) The frog of course escapes into the wild immediately, providing an amusing through-line of the bullfrogs multiplying rapidly, wreaking havoc on the continent.
• The toilet at the US Embassy may be one of the greatest jokes of the entire series, at least conceptually. A shining example of useless government spending and American’s sense of superiority, all for a toilet to flush the “correct American way,” something most people won’t even realize.
• Given the enormous statue at the Cultural Center, I guess Snake must have some Australian ancestors.
• Have I mentioned Dankmus recently? Anyway, C-O-B-E is another bangin’ track.
• One of the biggest laughs I’ve gotten during this whole rewatch is after Marge gives her impassioned speech on the phone with the Aussies (“I think we can all agree, there’s no substitute for the discipline of a loving parent.”) She confidently hands the phone back to Conover, who continues (“…so we’re in agreement. She won’t be allowed near the phone again.”) So fucking funny. One of the best jokes just spitting in the face of narrative tropes.
• This really ends up being a great character study of Bart by the end, of this mischievous, unflappable kid who clearly can see the absurdity of the whole situation, so his own recourse is to mock it mercilessly and moon an entire country. That climax really is one of the show’s greatest individual moments.
• Simpsons Archive retro review: “Ouch, that was the single worst Simpsons I’ve ever seen. It was hard to figure out what the hell it was trying to say, I mean if I want to here about caning or ecosystems I’ll read Newsweek.”

17. Homer vs. Patty and Selma

• Gotta love Homer’s wallet full of singed bills. I also love his annoyed face when Barney guesses his investment is in pumpkins, so much so I made it my profile picture.
• I’m sure Marge has a difficult enough time trying to save face about Homer in front of her sisters, and I love that Homer, in his pettiness, is no help at all. When Marge tries to explain to Patty and Selma that her husband is a very complicated man, he immediately hangs his head out the bedroom window, smashes a plate on his head, and yells, “Wrong!” Just great.
• I love Homer’s dream about the mysterious invention that could make him rich, if he only knew what it was (“Why would you need to see it? You’re the genius that invented the… product in question.”) It looks like some kind of metal ball with weird little gizmos sticking out of it. What could it be?
• Who could forget dear Rat Boy?
  
• We get an incredibly rare moment with Bart’s seldom-seen chums Lewis and Richard fighting for slots at P.E. Sign-Up Day (“This gets uglier every year! Any sign of Bart and Milhouse?” “No, and if they don’t get here soon, it’ll be T.S. for them!”)
• Homer’s frozen grin after Patty & Selma show up is so damn funny. He’s just stewing in his own juices in that armchair.
  
• Susan Sarandon as the ballet teacher is another underrated guest character. Maybe not as unsung as a Brad Goodman, but she’s got some good lines (“So many of your heroes wear tights. Batman, for example, and… Magellan.”)
• “You can’t spell ‘obsequious’ without ‘I.O.U.” “I’ll have to trust you on that.” Yet another word I learned from this show, although I don’t know if I’ve ever actually used it.
• “Is this projection accurate?” is probably in my top three favorite Marge lines. The way that she delivers such a specifically worded question as earnestly if she had just said, “Is this true?” is just so funny to me.
• Seeing Bart become incredibly proficient at ballet so quickly reminded me of modern episodes where in no time flat he becomes an expert drummer, cartoon director, and so forth. But the difference here is that the point of the subplot isn’t him becoming an amazing dancer, it’s his apprehension and fear about being a boy who likes dance. The subplot ends in true Simpsons fashion where the bullies are won over by the mysterious masked boy’s performance, prompting Bart feels brave enough to reveal himself, but he is chased out of the school anyway. Nelson’s “As long as he’s hurt” always makes me laugh, and I sometimes forget the additional scene with Lisa, which is cut in syndication, but that’s just as great a moment.
• In terms of classic era guest appearances, Mel Brooks skews the closest in terms of just being there to be fawned over, but the show smartly channels that reverence coming out of Homer’s mouth, showering Brooks with dubious compliments (“I love that movie, Young Frankenstein. Scared the hell out of me!”) and goading him into re-enacting his famous comedy routines, except getting them wrong or performing them awkwardly. Chief Wiggum showing up compounds this, only annoying Brooks further.
• I like that the ending kind of sneaks up on you, where Marge talks about how difficult the strife between her husband and her sisters is on her, leading Homer to make a great sacrifice: actually doing something nice for Patty & Selma. Marge finally having an example to show what a caring man Homer is and Patty and Selma sincerely apologizing is a very sweet conclusion.
• Simpsons Archive retro review: “I had a dumbfounded Krusty-like expression on my face after this episode was over. I’m not advocating a homogenized goulash of writers where no one has a distinctive identity, but I would like to see the consistent level of intelligence and humor that was present the last two seasons.”

18. A Star is Burns

• Regarding this episode’s controversial production, where Matt Groening removed his on-screen credit out of protest, I wonder if there was ever any bad blood between him, Al Jean and Mike Reiss. I assume Groening went back home to his solid gold mansion and rested on his giant pile of money and got over it fairly quickly. Anyway, I remember asking my mom who Jay Sherman was when I was a kid, thinking he was yet another celebrity playing himself. It wasn’t until later when I saw reruns of The Critic airing late at night on Comedy Central that I realized that he was from a whole other show. I actually rewatched The Critic recently, and it mostly holds up. It definitely feels like an extension of season 3 and 4 Simpsons in terms of its isolated cutaway jokes, but almost to its detriment at times. There’s a lot of great gags in the series, but sometimes at the expense of the audience really caring about the story or the characters. It’s tough to care about Jay when every other scene he’s doing a jokey celebrity impression or is dropped into a movie reference. There’s not a ton of room for actual character work. The second season definitely tried to remedy this, rendering Jay more relatable and crafting better stories that feel a bit more grounded, but as the season only had nine episodes and a clip show, the series died before it could really improve itself any further. It’s still definitely worth a watch, but it felt a little more rickety than I remembered it.
• Krusty as FDR always makes me laugh. Him absent-mindedly getting up out of the wheelchair is a big faux pas, but him still covered in clown makeup wasn’t an issue?
• “The easiest way to be popular is to leech off the popularity of others.” An ethos that modern Simpsons has put into practice many a time…
• Todd’s screaming down the river bend getting cut off by the trees in the foreground is one of those stupid jokes that I really, really love.
• “Bart Simpson, meet Jay Sherman, the Critic!” You could argue about the artistic integrity of a crossover made to help promote another show, but this episode really doesn’t feel any less like an episode of The Simpsons to me. Jay Sherman is like a celebrity guest star (hence my confusion as a child) and the town holding a local film festival doesn’t sound too alien of a premise for this show. Also, the two series share so much DNA in regards to their sense of humor. Homer and Jay’s stomachs growling at each other feels kind of like a Critic gag, but it doesn’t feel out of place on this show at all.
• “I’m afraid we have a bad image, sir. Market research shows people see you as something of an ogre.” “I ought to club them and eat their bones!”
• I love Homer’s prized belching contest trophy is just a big wide-open mouth on a stand. Great design.
• “Man Getting Hit By Football” and Homer laughing at it is one of those early wav files I remember downloading on the computer. I think I had it as my PC start-up sound for a while, even though it was like a minute long.
• I like that despite being rejected by Burns, Bumblebee Man still gets a prominent role in his movie, presumably as Senor Spielbergo’s special request.
• “How can you vote for Burns’ movie?” “Let’s just say it moved me…TO A BIGGER HOUSE! Oops, I said the quiet part loud and the loud part quiet..”
• Another great newspaper headline.
  
• Why exactly was an Itchy & Scratchy cartoon produced by a major studio eligible for an amateaur film festival? Who cares?
• The story of how Hans Moleman’s short film was optioned by Hollywood, produced and went on to win an Academy Award definitely feels like a movie in and of itself. It could be the follow-up to Mank!
• Simpsons Archive retro review: “Let’s face it: sooner or later, with the Simpsons so popular, the show will be destroyed by the very system and facet of society that it has made its reputation criticizing. This shameless, blatant promotion of ‘The Critic’ could well be the narrow end of the wedge for that.”