Original airdate: May 12, 2024
The premise: After Homer accidentally leaves an absurdly large tip to great public applause, he becomes hopeless addicted to the adulation that comes from being a big tipper, much to the denigration of his entire life.
The reaction: I’ve got to give this show credit: after years of being beaten down by predictable monotony, in these most recent seasons, I’ve been pleasantly surprised that every now and again, an episode will be able to pull a fast one on me and buck my expectations. In act one, we get a harrowing montage of Homer being besieged by flipped iPads demanding he give larger and larger tips, wearing him down, and I feared for the worst, an episode featuring Homer as a villain protagonist railing against how annoying tipping underpaid counter service workers is. But actually, the premise becomes the exact opposite: Homer starts to tip more and more after gaining a reputation as a working class hero after accidentally tipping a waitress ten thousand dollars (he actually meant to tip $1, “okay?,” which he wrote out as $1OK.) A nice twist, but we’ve seen this kind of stuff before, with Homer reveling in being the new town favorite and Marge nagging his new life choice, in this case since it’s putting their family in massive debt. They do a parody of the opening to the first Austin Powers of Homer traipsing about town flashing his cash, with specific choreography directly lifted from the film, which I always hate. But then things take a big shift. Homer vows to go cold turkey, but is talked out of it by Moe (“What if you took the moolah out of your pocket, but you just stop before anything happens? Y’know, everything but the tip.”) What follows is maybe the most disturbing scene I have ever seen from this series: Homer repeatedly giving more and more bills to Moe as they urge each other on, culminating in an “orgasm” of Homer shooting a literal money shot at Moe’s face as they both climax. It was legitimately shocking (and amusing to think this episode will end up on Disney+ in about six months.) I feel like there’s been a lot of distasteful jokes this show has done over the years that I couldn’t get behind, but this one felt so audacious I can’t help but respect it. It also interestingly reframes the episode: Homer is now addicted to tipping, and is hitting his rock bottom. And then we get a new montage of Homer frantically running through town at night trying to find an open business he can tip, set to a discordant reprise of the Austin Powers “Soul Bossa Nova” theme. Unbelievably, they managed to retroactively make me like the parody montage by repeating it in a different way! I couldn’t believe how quickly they turned the episode around for me. In our final act, Homer finds a new home in Little Europe, a utopia where there are no tips, and we get an over-the-top Europop track about base rate pricing and paying a living wage versus servers reliance on tips. Ultimately, Homer returns home to crash the SAG Awards (the Servers of America Guild), but his urging to abolish tips is met with overwhelming boos. I can see the weirdness of this episode being polarizing to some people, but I really appreciated some of the wilder stuff here. It all worked within the framework of the story, and took the show to some new, fucked up places that actually panned out well for them. This season’s almost wrapped up, but I think this one easily takes the top spot.
Two items of note:
– After ultimately liking the episode, I circled back and was more understanding when I saw J. Stewart Burns as the credited writer. But then again, searching through his past work, he has a much spottier record than I remembered. He’s written some of the most memorable episodes of Futurama, but also is responsible for “Neutopia,” perhaps my least favorite episode ever. Similarly, he wrote some pretty decent episodes early in his tenure on The Simpsons (“Moe Baby Blues,” “Marge Gamer,” “Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind,”) but he’s also got some incredible stinkers on his resume (“Every Man’s Dream,” “Friends and Family,” “Mother and Child Reunion.”) I feel like with some of the younger writers, it’s a bit easier to see their unique voice come through with their scripts, although not in all cases, given how much these episodes are rewritten in the room. There’s much less consistency with veteran writers like Burns though.
– As the show got off to a typical rocky start, Homer takes the family to the “Boba Fete Tea Shop,” where we get incredibly eye-rolly material like a “This is the Way… to Enjoy Tea” sign and Pimply Faced Teen serving Homer a “Mandalorian Mango Jango.” Hasn’t this writing staff had its fill with obvious Star Wars references after those fucking Disney+ specials? Speaking of, I know they just put out a new one for Mother’s Day. I’ve only seen screenshots of it, but man oh man, I really can’t believe how bad these look. Are they all done in-house? Who put a curse on David Silverman that he’s stuck working on these? Way back when the “Plusiversary” short came out, I had started drafting a bonus article covering these Disney+ shorts, but I quickly bailed out when I couldn’t properly articulate just how creatively bereft and empty these corporate jerk-off sessions were, and I could barely muster up the energy to try and push forward. I really don’t know who’s watching these things, and why.
Me Blog Write Good 
I mean, give them credit for having Homer fugging cumming on television. That takes balls, and you know even in the classic era, they were writing degenerate jokes that wouldn’t make the actual show because they would often try amusing themselves before focusing on the actual episode.
My issue with the actual meat and potatoes, however, is that, from a societal standpoint, the show is likely making a half-hearted statement that “yeah, tipping is good, actually, except when it isn’t… because people who tip get addicted to it”, which is kinda not the point, since Homer visits a place where people get paid fairly and are discouraged from gratuity and have more time to focus on their actual job in the first place, while most places in America still insist on the service industry follow the “$2.13 an hour plus tips” system which forces those to bust their asses off to create the illusion of quality.
I dunno, it’s just that one shouldn’t get your politics from your yellow-skinned trilobites.
Eh, I wouldn’t say it takes balls per say, but it is humor you definitely won’t see on The Simpsons as that’s never been the humor and style of the show. Although as I said in my response below, that would be something they’d try to do in the Season 14 to Season 20 era when the show tried to adapt the humor of Family Guy and other more mature shows that have that humor infused into them since the beginning.
Although when The Simpsons took a crack at that humor all throughout the 2000’s to try and pull in/pull back viewers that turned to Family Guy which boomed in the early 2000’s, it came off as just unfunny, repetitive, and forced, especially when it came to the crassly written sex jokes/innuendos done like every 10 seconds in almost every episode during that time period. It almost seemed as if their writers comprised of middle schoolers going through puberty during that time of the show, as that’s the type of people that would think that type of humor, especially done repetitively is funny.
Personally, I never have been a fan of the show doing that kind of humor as they long felt above that kind of lowest common denominator style of comedy you got in so many “adult” comedies, and it was at its worst during the early Al Jean years. Came off as desperate and purely for shock value. Doing subliminal humor like “Springfield Sperm Bank, Put Your Sperm in Our Hands” is far better than blatantly having Nelson jerking off behind a cactus to a 19th century photograph.
Its just that in the Selman episodes where stuff is typically milquetoast, something that outrageous will stand out.
Yeah, this was definitely audacious and a tonne of fun. I wasn’t expecting much, but it surprised me!
All I’m going to say is that that scene with the innuendo of Homer looking like he blew his load on Moe was just so immature and unfunny. It reminds me of the Teen season Era around the time of the shift to digital coloring up until the start of the HD era where the show tried to be too much like Family Guy with the likes of corny sex jokes/innuendos like every 10 seconds that came off as just unfunny, repetitive, immature, and in your face.
It’s like that’s never been the shows style of humor most definitely in the golden age, and because of the surge of far more mature shows by the late 90’s/early 2000’s, and primarily the rise in popularity of Family Guy and decline of The Simpsons, The Simpsons tried to get that piece of the pie to rake in viewership again, but again, it all came off as unfunny and repetitive. I’m curious as to how old these writers were, as all that stuff seems like something a tween/teen going through puberty would find funny.
Aside from that, that Europop song towards the end was incredibly cringy and hard to watch. It’s things like that that make me question who is this show really for? It’s always been a show any age range can enjoy and not targeted to a specific audience, and that’s the real beauty of the show and why its so special, but it really seems like they are specifically targeting the younger generations, especially when you factor in that in recent years, they have had a tendency to reference TikTok and other social media like every 10 seconds, along with all the humor and references that this generation likes. Idk man, the people that are mainly claiming the show is “good” again is primarily because the humor connects to them and them only, but that’s not a reason to say its “good” again.
Especially when it comes to in these recent years of giving secondary characters centered episodes, of which the showrunners seem to think veteran writers are too incompetent to tackle episode ideas like that and hand it off to the new and or younger writers that don’t really know what character they are working with and or what makes sense to the character, which ultimately ends up with something blatantly nonsensical or ridiculous, take episodes like Pretty Wittle Liar and Uncut Femmes as prime examples. And then lets not forget the over usage of guest stars just for the sake of guest stars, or they do an episode about a character and will randomly recast a veteran voice actor with some random celebrity and practically tune the character to have the personality of that actor, of which Uncut Femmes is a huge example for that, but that’s a whole other can of worms.
It’s things like that that don’t make the show “good” again, its only good because it fits the tastes of its target audience nowadays. The vast majority of all these celebrities they are bringing in I don’t even have a clue on as to who they are. It’s like all these people on YouTube that only the younger generations know about, its the same thing here.
All I’m going to say is that the show is trying way to hard to be relevant again, but its really just damaging itself and the writers and showrunners really seem to be sacrificing well thought out and grounded stories for just a “Throw a random idea out there and see if it’ll stick” agenda. It’s incredibly lazy and stupid, and its really an insult to the veteran writers, veteran cast members, along with the shows die hard fans as well as the legacy of the show in general.
Sheesh this got long.
I would agree, however I’m not so sure the show makes excessive use of guest stars. Song aside, this episode only used the stars around the 16-17 minute mark. And as for theory, I can only think of *three* episodes that made significant use of guest stars (Thirst Trap, Murder, She Boat, and this one). The others are simply not really important or are only there to make cameos of no more than 5 lines.
Well, on the topic of guest stars just for the sake of guest stars, as I’ve mentioned above, the real stand out is that episode from about 2 seasons ago were they literally turn Chief Wiggum’s Wife into Megan Mullaly, changed her look and streamlined her, come up with some forced and nonsensical dynamic and personality that is limited to the plot only and nothing else, and then end it off with saying she’s a character all the sudden and ask for pats on the back.
At least with the episode surrounding Cletus’s wife, they didn’t do a stunt and recast to, Brandine I think her name is? with a celebrity, and then literally alter the personality to that of the celebrity actor, although the twist of her being secretly smart seems like something that would make sense and feel far more natural in contrast to being this bossy super thief, but it is also another limited dynamic you can only do one time and won’t have a lasting impact. It’s incredibly lazy, and it seems like the showrunners are pretty much implying that the veteran writers that have a far better understanding of the characters are incompetent and hand it off to the newer and or younger writers who have no idea what they are working with, again, the “Throw it and see if it’ll stick” agenda, and the people that still watch the show don’t really seem to analyze any of this or bring issues to the table of discussion.
Another example is the episode with Miss Hoover, but this time not only did they leave her personality and voice alone, they actually tried to build off the existing context, but not really the same with the other 2, more specifically the one with Wiggum’s wife. That episode is a prime example of laziness and incompetence when you can’t take any existing context regardless of how small or large, and naturally flesh more out. Reinventing the show and it’s character’s doesn’t make it “good” again either regardless of what others say. That’s really the only 3 off the top of my head I can think of in recent years, but I’m sure there’s more I’m missing out.
I don’t enjoy the show much these days either, but when you criticize the show because it “fits the tastes of its target audience nowadays” and “the humor connects to” younger people, it kind of makes your criticism sound a little old-man-yells-at-cloud-ish. Like who cares whether the show is making more of an effort to appeal to younger audiences? That’s what popular media does over time: change to suit different audience tastes.
I also don’t see what casting Megan Mullaly, who is in her 60s, has to do with trying to pander to Gen Z or whatever.
Haven’t watched the episode yet, but from the way the Homer & Moe scene is described I’m surprised that was left intact in a time where most Selman episodes are completely devoid of all humor (or rather, poor attempts at them which is what that sounded like).
Part of me is morbidly curious to watch the episode simply because it sounds like a forgotten script from the Scully era which for the most part was left untouched, which again is surprising for the show’s current faux-Full House era.
When I first heard of this episode I feared it would go hard in the opposite direction: cheap, stingy Homer refusing to tip anyone. This was a pleasant surprise with genuinely funny jokes (including a very shocking gag that wouldn’t have been out of place on adult swim!) Maybe I’m finally in the ‘good timeline’ and the ‘bad timeline’ has no tip Homer and Donald Trump president.
I’m with Mike: this episode was pure guilty pleasure, and probably my favorite of the season. I thought I would hate it going in (like everyone else I thought it would be Homer vs. underpaid workers) but it kept doing these weird creative swings that I couldn’t help but smile at. Well, maybe it’s not quite right to say something like Moe and Homer money-fucking made me smile. But it’s just that sort of creative strangeness that makes this feel like something people wrote, animated and cared about.
Also, the sign gag won me over early on. Most episodes would make it impossible to miss that “Springfield Pub & Brewery” was a flyer pasted over “Springfield Public Library”. But they let us put two and two together this time, so the joke landed harder. From then on I was predisposed to like this one. I guess that was the “Tipping Point” for me.
Coming back to this just shy of 2 months later, another thing I forgot to mention is that did they really put a tramp stamp on Marge? SMFH, all for the sake to go along with this thing nowadays with younger Women thinking their badasses and Manly because they have tattoos, and now take it to a different level by rejecting Femininity, what it means to be a Woman, and claiming natural instincts and roles of a Female are quote “stereotypes”. You can’t make this delusional thought process up.
I get it, it’s just for a gag montage, but it’s like how many times can they demoralize these characters all because of how the younger people of today think how the world should be. It’s kind of like that one recent episode where Duffman was even like “Some Chicks are Dude’s” or something along those lines. Yeah…. It’s obvious what audience they are catering to.
Society itself is demoralizing, so the show has to also demoralize as well.
Not really sure why women getting tattoos bothers you so much, considering tattooing has been done on men and women for hundreds of years, but go off, I guess.
They also already did a Marge tramp stamp bit as a couch gag at least ten years ago, so it wasn’t even a new joke.
Because it’s ghetto, trashy, shows a lack of self esteem, and surely not feminine either. It destroys Women. And never has graffiti on Women ever been this common, it’s usually only associated with Prostitutes or Lesbians, not normal Women. Now it’s associated with younger Women of today that delusionally think they are literally a Man, both of which also still fall under one of 2 things above.
Throughout history, tattoos have predominantly been associated with men, often symbolizing dominance and toughness, particularly after leaving prison where they were earned as a badge of honor. Back when that episode aired, tattoos weren’t as commonly seen especially on women, nor did they signify an attempt to adopt natural masculine traits like toughness unlike today.
The joke in the couch gag is a playful jab at how unconventional and perhaps unappealing it might seem for a woman to have tattoos in that context, which is why Marge then pulls up her dress and chuckles.
Jesus Christ, dude.
So, if a guy gets a tattoo, he’s edgy but if a gal gets a tattoo, she’s a slut?
Lot of mixed signals here from what’s sounding like a MAGA Simpsons fan.
I never got a notification in regards to your response, so my apologies for responding back so late and on an older page at this point.
Anyway, yes you are correct, tattoos on a guy give the impression of having a background from a rough area, and do show a more dominant and aggressive alpha male like stance. For a girl, it also often suggests a background from a rough area or that she might be a sex worker trying to project a more masculine image, or it can also be associated with Lesbianism, so I don’t know how that is shocking. I’m not sure how politics fits into this, so I don’t get why you bring up MAGA and assume I am a MAGA Simpsons fan.
More importantly, if someone does support MAGA, why should that stop them from watching The Simpsons, or sharing their views and thoughts on the show, or regarding an episode, all of which entirely unrelated to politics? As a side note if you are curious, I don’t support either side as I am an independent.
As for the other commenter, who?
I have no idea why this is such a big deal to you, but that’s cool, I guess. I hope no women you care about in your life want to get a tattoo.
I’ll put it this way, people have the freedom to make their own choices with a free will, but it’s curious that so many, both men and women, seem to follow this trend, especially considering its historical connotations of roughness.
As for me, I’ve been in a loving relationship with a feminine woman for over 2 years, and we’re planning to get married soon. Yet, we both find ourselves puzzled by this strange trend that seems to have gained traction in recent years.
Apologies if this has come off as having mixed signals.
Why, hello there Duderocks.