(originally aired May 18, 2003)
I’m trying to keep my level of exasperation down, but with episodes like these, it’s really difficult. You have to wonder exactly what the writers and producers are thinking when they’re color screening these shows, that despite almost every single scene having a glaring issue, be it clunky dialogue, questionable characterization, or stupid plot turns, they deem it good enough to air as a Simpsons episode. I’d like to say that there’s a decent premise buried here, but that’s me being really generous. Bart and Milhouse get into some massive hijinks, in this case breaking into the Flanders house and destroying his secret room of Beatles memorabilia. Why it had to be The Beatles is irrelevant and this is just the quick set-up to our story, except it takes the entire first act, so you realize that the writers were scrambling to bring this one to length. The two kids end up in separate youth groups: the Pre-Teen Braves, led by Homer, then later Marge, and the Calvary Kids, led by Kirk Van Houten.

These youth groups perform community service and promote wellness and responsibility amongst children. A kid like Bart is going to have no interest in something like this. Homer starts off as a predictably incompetent leader, but Marge soon takes the helm and shows the kids the wonders of the native peoples, winning them over immediately by showing them a smoke signal. From that point we hand-wave any contention the kids might have and they’re all super-psyched about spending their sunny weekends picking up litter. Bart’s fellow members are Nelson, Ralph and Database, and Milhouse’s are Jimbo, Martin and Cosine, one of the Superfriends. Nelson gets a few lines, and Ralph is literally used as a prop, but none of them feel like anything but utilities for this pathetic story. The older bully Jimbo in a community-minded organization with two big nerds? Doesn’t matter, just throw whoever in there. We’re at the point where the same faces get recycled over and over regardless of it makes sense. Why waste time making new designs when you can regurgitate the old ones?

The two groups have a tiff over who gets to clean up some Godforsaken field, which immediately ignites a rivalry, instigated by Marge of all people. From that point, it’s just a tired exercise of the two teams one-upping each other, until eventually they make amends in a grand fashion. Let’s just skip to the end: the Pre-Teen Braves impersonate the Calvary Kids, singing a botched National Anthem at Springfield Stadium, enraging the crowd. The real Calvary Kids show up and a fight breaks out. Then for no apparent reason everyone in the crowd starts fighting each other. I know the town loves a good mob, but goddamn, there’s no motivation for this. Marge laments she just wanted to teach the kids good citizenship, despite the fact she went along with their petty rivalry to begin with, and starts crying. A cameraman turns and shoots her, for no reason, displaying it onto the Jumbotron. Then Homer says the worst line of dialogue ever (“Oh my God, that’s my wife! And she’s crying!”) The crowd sings the Canadian national anthem and takes another crack at America, and the episode ends. I can’t even feel mad about this one, it’s just so pathetic and inept in all aspects. Like… whatever.

Tidbits and Quotes
– I guess in response to the “Simpsons Already Did It” episode of South Park, the show responds in kind by having Bart and Milhouse watch a South Park parody, except I’m not exactly sure what the parody is. They show the series has fart humor, violence, and features celebrities, except they’re dated celebrities like Calista Flockhart and O.J. Simpson. I don’t quite understand what they were going for with this. South Park‘s tribute to The Simpsons was so brilliant, and this is just a sad follow-up.
– Flanders chastises his son for feeling good for doing charity (“Sin of pride, Roddy!”) then for apologizing (“Sin of regret,”) freaks the fuck out when he finds the house is busted up and goes to the padlocked panic room, then freaks the fuck out of his children as he posits the possibility of a killer using a blowtorch and getting in to slay them through song. It’s just as disconcerting as it sounds. Then we get this brilliant piece of dialogue, when Homer tells Ned he never knew he was a Beatles fan (“Of course I am, they were bigger than Jesus!”) Now, this current exaggerated version of Ned, the psycho-Christian, you’d think he would have completely vilified the Beatles for such a statement. But I guess a line like that is supposed to be funny because it contrasts with the exaggerated character that Flanders currently has? I guess? But ultimately it doesn’t matter, since the Beatles stuff is nothing short of random, just killing time with stupid bullshit because there’s no story to be had here. All the time the artists must have spent designing that Beatles room for no point at all.
– This is the first episode where we see Nelson’s tragic backstory due to his father having left him, even though we’ve seen him in the past in “Bart Star.” It’s nice that the show treats the devastating sadness and mania of a young child so callously and as a big goof. The second time it happens, Marge comments, “For God’s sakes, I can see why he left.” How wildly inappropriate and out-of-character.
– “What are we gonna do to that field!” “Clean it!” “And why are we gonna clean it?” “Liberal guilt!” CHECK OUT OUR BITING COMMENTARY, YOU GUYS!!
– “Those Calvary Kids are bigger credit hogs than the Red Cross!” AREN’T WE EDGY? WE CAN BE EDGY TOO!!
– Ralph, an eight-year-old, gets thrown through a window with a note taped on him, spouting a one-liner. At this point I declare his devolution complete, from slightly challenged youngster to brain dead one-liner-spouting prop.
– Did Homer inject each and every candy bar with laxatives? There were dozens and dozens of boxes? How did he do that? Oh, who gives a fuck…
– The only chuckle I got from this episode was from the Junior Dandies (“Oh, the indignity!”)
– “Well, Bart, we’ve learned that war is never the answer.” “Except to all of America’s problems.” “Amen.” BITING COMMENTARY, GUYS!!

(originally aired May 11, 2003)
It’s no picnic being married to Homer Simpson, especially in these last few seasons. As the years go on, Marge acts more like a smiling Stepford wife, cleaning up the messes created by her husband’s wacky schemes with little more opposition than a slight protest or irritated murmur. This set-up always made you feel bad for Marge, but those episodes were always so hyper-focused on Homer, there wasn’t really any time to dwell over that. Here, the show takes focus on this issue they’ve callously joked about of Marge secretly resenting her husband, then proceed to wrap the story up in four minutes at the very end. It really is a big issue, one that you can fully sympathize with Marge given how Homer has acts in this episode, and for the last few seasons. In this episode, Homer buys a bunch of useless appliances for his car, becoming the ultimate distracted driver, causing him to drive the car right off the pier. With his license revoked, Marge ends up having to do all the driving for the family, while Homer discovers the joys of walking.

Marge flat-out describes in this episode how typical this conceit is, where Homer gets in a mess and she has to clean it up, and that he’ll eventually bounce back better than ever to wreck more havoc. Homer’s compassion for his wife’s newly frazzled state is basically slim to none. He does nothing to help the situation, no attempts to try to get his license back, he just sits back and watches his wife slowly but surely have a meltdown. It really is uncomfortable to watch him act so callously to her, considering she’s stressed out as a result of his imbecilic actions. I picked that particular framegrab above because it encapsulates this episode, and the Homer-Marge dynamic for the last decade. Homer is joyous and upbeat and pulls off moronic stunts and mayhem, while Marge fixes everything and is exhausted doing so. Whenever Homer spends a good amount of screen time smiling, you know you’re in trouble. It’s a lot more interesting when your character goes through a gambit of emotions rather than just blissful ignorance.

The end of the second act is where shit gets serious, when Marge “accidentally” mows down Homer with her car, and from that point on, continues to do things to hurt him, like spill hot soup on him and kick his cane over. Homer suspects that she secretly hates him, to which she finally explodes at her husband, saying she does in fact hate him. This is an unbelievably serious situation to spring so late into an episode, but off we go to a marriage counselor. This basically encapsulates the later season mentality: the counselor asks Homer to write down the most important people in his life, and Homer has written himself down three times. Remember the Homer that would do anything for the sake of his family? The Homer that not only loved Marge with all his heart, but knew that he doesn’t really deserve her? Well that Homer is long gone, his wife and kids are now like his roommates, or potential pawns in his zany schemes. Marge is understandably upset (“I care so much about you, Homer, but I’m not even on your list!”) It’s kind of heartbreaking, and this whole thing kind of opens the floodgates of thinking about all the shit that’s happened over the past five years that she’s had to put up with. But hey, we literally have a few  minutes left, so Homer can make one big romantic gesture to make everything okay. What is it? A big fancy backyard banquet, with special appearance by Jackson Browne, which makes as much sense as Marge being able to get “Weird Al” a few episodes ago. And even when Homer is singing his make-up song to Marge, he mentions how they should have sex, something that he would enjoy. His whole mentality for the ending feels more like him trying to cover his ass more than realizing what he’s done wrong and wanting to make amends with his wife. The episode is pretty cringe inducing leading up to the final act, but then dives into depressing territory after that. You realize how far Homer has fallen that one of the core elements of the show, one that really helps elevate his character from just being a dumb oafish boob, that he loves his wife and will do anything for her, is tossed around and played with callously. It’s about as sour an ending as it sounds. One of the worst third acts in the history of the series.

Tidbits and Quotes
– I like some of the aquarium stuff at the beginning: the irate tour guide, showing that sea lions feed off of the food left behind by documentary crewmen, fish being held in little baggies while their habitat is being cleaned, and while Bart horsing around in the aquarium itself is kind of hokey and dumb, I was surprisingly fine with it, seeing it as a callback to one of the old Tracey Ullman shorts.
– We’ve established at this point that Homer goes and gets drunk in the mornings instead of going to work, but this time, for some reason, he was out picking out a video, where he got stuck in a feedback loop watching a comedy and a drama in the store at the same time. It’s a sequence the writers seem to think is a lot funnier than it actually is.
– Lindsay Naegle appears from nowhere to get Homer a cell phone. I get this is supposed to be her thing, but when she showed up on top of the ramp at the end of “Barting Over,” it was just getting goddamn ridiculous. And normal characters are starting to do it too, so it’s just whoever we need for what scene, just have them show up.
– Carl, Lou, Dr. Hibbert and Drederick Tatum, despite having jobs at different locations and being in different income brackets, carpool together. They just needed to group all of our black characters together for one shot because Homer has to make the black power salute. Yep. All four of ’em.
– I like the salesman referring to the cigarette lighter as the car’s “dash hole.”
– Homer’s car chock full of appliances really goes too far. It’s not even absurdist funny, it’s just dumb. He comments to that effect himself (“Even I think this is crazy,”) though he still continues to drive after that anyway.
– Now banned from the road, Lisa suggests Homer use public transportation. Homer retorts, “Public transportation is for jerks and lesbians!” If someone can explain this joke to me, go right ahead, but it feels kind of offensive. But even if that’s the case, at least Homer has his latent homophobia back. It makes more sense than the “I LOVE GAYS NOW!!” Homer from “Three Gays of the Condo.”
– Homer walks all the way to Moe’s, which is revealed to be a mere three houses down from his house. Now, I’m really not a stickler for this shit, getting bent out of shape about buildings showing up in different places in different episodes. But this is such a big, big cheat. Unlike the joke of showing the power plant parking garage right behind the house, this time the gag doesn’t feel worth it.
– Ruthless, heartless bureaucrat Mr. Burns stands at the door of the plant, ready to congratulate the first employee to clock in. Then he proceeds to attempt to “walk” and falls down on his face like a pathetic old man. Everything I loved about old Burns is pretty much dead at this point.
– I really like when the Peruvian fighting frogs go at it, they play the show’s typical fighting music, but now with a more bluegrass twang to it. Hey look, a compliment!
– Homer’s walking song is quite boring. Also a great actor like Steve Buscemi is wasted in a nothing part. At least he’d come back in a few seasons playing an actual role. I did smirk at the visual of Homer and Buscemi skipping hand and hand across the globe together though.
– Homer gets hit with the car rather forcefully, yet at the start of the third act, he’s sitting in bed with his head wrapped up still with a smile on his face. It’s really bizarre, it’s almost unsettling now whenever Homer is smiling for so long.
– I really like the voice of the marriage counselor. I’m surprised after fourteen seasons, Hank Azaria can pull out a voice I haven’t really heard before. Also bonus points for him hitting Homer with the clipboard and calling him an idiot. If I can’t do it, thankfully someone in-universe can.
– A pointlessly long cutaway showing that Homer has called Flanders away to Montana to supposedly meet Jesus to keep him out of Marge’s banquet. It only lasts about seven seconds, but it’s the longest seven seconds ever.
– This is supposed to be the chipper ending where Marge gets her accolades, yet we squeeze in a joke where Captain McAllister gets pissed off and curses her for not making a bigger deal out of the seafood platter that he had his men die for. Also the Mayor and his wife are there for some reason. So are Patty and Selma, who you’d think would have had something to say during this episode, but at this point they’re glorified background characters. Also they’re sitting with Rainier Wolfcastle. Who knew they were friends?

(originally aired May 4, 2003)
Here’s another episode that I’m at a complete loss about, as it didn’t seem to be about anything. I guess I’ll go through the whole thing and comment as I go. Bart’s treehouse gets destroyed in an absurdist fashion, and Homer promises he’ll rebuild it. After some ridiculous and unfunny wacky Homer antics, Marge surmises that it’ll never get finished, so she figures she has to call in some pros. Ringing a bell summons a troupe of Amish folk, who build the treehouse bigger and better than ever, because that totally makes sense. The new treehouse has a grand opening, and now seems to be as large as an upscale loft. This is held up by one tree, how the fuck is it so huge? And everyone in town is invited, and everyone knows everyone else, as Bart greets Bumblebee Man and Hans Moleman like they’re old friends. I liked it better when Springfield was a normal town where not everyone was best friends. The treehouse catches fire, leaving Homer stuck inside. Santa’s Little Helper flees, but Snowball II gets Homer to wake up and manage to escape.

Snowball II is declared a hero for some reason, as Homer parades her around on a royal pillow, townspeople cheer for her, and Quimby holds a ceremony in her honor. Conversely, Homer disowns Santa’s Little Helper for his cowardice. So what’s the point of this episode? The dog has to get back in Homer’s good graces? Homer barely acknowledges the pets, they’re Bart and Lisa’s. You can’t do a Homer and the dog episode unless you establish a connection between them, since they really have none. But I guess they couldn’t get to this point without the treehouse first act, so whatever. By random chance, Dave Shutton, once seemingly a competent reporter, snaps a shot of Santa’s Little Helper drinking a beer can balanced on his nose, a photo that intrigues the Duff corporation, and Howard K. Duff in his second appearance. Outing the lazy, loutish Duffman, Duff’s new mascot is Suds McDuff, party dog. This is of course an allusion to Spuds MacKenzie, the Bull Terrier “spokesman” for Budweiser in the late 80s. Apparently it was quite controversial, with some saying the cute dog was targeting children, and also the reveal that the actual dog was female, but marketed as male. Reading Spuds’s Wikipedia page for thirty seconds is much more interesting than anything in this episode. Santa’s Little Helper as Spuds MacKenzie isn’t a parody, they just made the dog Spuds MacKenzie.

SLH is back in Homer’s good graces since he’s making him lots of money now, at least until the dog’s original owner returns to rake in his former mutt’s new revenue. You know, when SLH was No. 8 at the dog track in “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire.” It feels so weird to hear them talking about stuff from the very first episode, since thinking back it feels like a completely different show… because it is. Even though surely the Simpsons have ownership papers for the dog at this point, the old owner, who isn’t even given a name, takes the dog on the spot. Now an elaborate scheme must be concocted: reveal SLH as a coward, have a disgraced Duffman redeem himself to get his job back, and the old owner will disown the dog, having lost his gravy train. The only interesting part of the whole episode is seeing Barry Duffman, Duffman’s mild-mannered alter ego, teaching at a mission before he receives this call to action. He goes along with the stunt, SLH is shown to be afraid of water and the crowd boos the poor dog, Homer almost gets attacked by a shark, Duffman ultimately doesn’t get his job back but still has the costume, and the old owner gives SLH back, thinking it should be with a family that loves him, for reasons that escape me. This is another one of those episodes I can’t even be mad at because it doesn’t even feel like they’re trying. I can’t complain about how they fucked up because I don’t even understand what they’re trying to do. The storytelling has gone from ‘bad’ to just ‘inept.’

Tidbits and Quotes
– The clubhouse gang consists of Bart, Milhouse, Nelson, Martin and Database. Remember when Nelson was the bully that everyone on the schoolyard feared? And Bart would be embarrassed to be hanging out with the nerds? But they’re recognizable faces, so just cram ’em in there. Just as egregious is Sherri and Terri hanging out with Lisa. They hate her, don’t they? And they’re two grades above her.
– Homer removes planks of wood from the railroad tracks under the belief the track has been out of use of years. Of course, a train immediately barrels down the track, which then causes every single train to flip over in midair multiple times and land perfectly fine back on the track and rides off. It’s like the ending of “Maximum Homerdrive,” except even worse that because in “Homerdrive,” they wrote themselves into a corner and that was their stupid excuse for a climax, but here, it’s just a ridiculous joke at the beginning that we’re supposed to accept is fine and move on.
– Some of the dialogue here is just insufferable (“Did Frank Lloyd Wright have to deal with people like you?” “Actually, Frank Lloyd Wright endured a lot of harsh criticisms.” “Look, I have no idea who Frank Lloyd Wright is.” “You said his name two second ago.” “I was just stringing words together.”) Stupid and drawn out, those are the best jokes.
– Not only do the Amish appear from nowhere, so do the Mennonites, who just show up in the next door driveway for a quick joke.
– They spend all this time setting up the treehouse for it to appear for literally thirty seconds before it all burns down.
– Lisa reads over the Duff contract, because she’s the smart one, and an eight-year-old can read and understand an elaborately written legal agreement. Then we get a dream sequence of Homer on a private jet being horrified to find there’s no pilot. Simultaneously, I’m horrified to find there’s no joke.
– Why are they airing a Duff spot on the commercial break for a kid’s show?
– I’m surprised they even went back and bothered to match the voice for SLH’s old owner, but Hank Azaria done good.
– There’s a smidgeon of sentimentality here with Bart missing SLH, but you barely get any of it within all the wackiness. Instead of being the emotional crux of the show, it’s just yet another thing that’s happening in an episode where things happen.
– Nothing says an aimless, humorless episode quite like an aimless, humorless ending (“It was probably that stupid cat.” “That cat saved your life.” “What has he done for me lately?” “He woke you up when you stopped breathing last night.” “Yeah, but he ate the last can of tuna.” “Dad, you ate the last can of tuna.” “Everyone’s against me.”) Cut to black, cue theme, good work everyone! Also they keep referring to Snowball II as male when she’s a female. I buy Homer not knowing, but Marge certainly should. Though I don’t know why I keep thinking the writers give a shit about this.

(originally aired April 27, 2003)
The episode began. A bunch of stuff happened. Then the episode ended. That’s pretty much as good of a review as any for a lot of these shows. Most of the time I can scrounge up a couple topics of conversation, but I’m really at a loss for a majority of this one. I can’t make heads or tails out of the opening alone: getting struck down from singing copyrighted Christmas carols, Homer takes a crack at writing his own, but ultimately ends up writing an up-beat hate ballad about Ned Flanders. Incredibly random and silly, but hey, he’s still got some of that Be Sharps talent left, so okay. Then David Byrne shows up out of nowhere and turns Homer’s song into a big sensation. We’re like four minutes into the episode and I’m seeing Homer’s record being mass-produced and him performing on stage with a celebrity to throngs of cheering fans. How is this happening? Why is this happening? Why has a song directly referring to a man from a small town become a nationwide phenomenon? Oh, whatever. The ultimate point of this is the Simpsons get tired of hearing the song over and over and want to get away for a while, so they decide to spend a weekend at a dude ranch. I guess this was the most logical way to get to this plot point.

At the dude ranch, we get two stories. One involves Homer and Bart helping some native Americans get back their land by destroying a beaver dam. I have absolutely nothing to say about this story. It plays out like a Saturday morning cartoon, with Homer’s sorted plans to thwart the animals backfiring on him and him getting hurt because of it. There’s no point to it whatsoever, so why bother commenting on it? The other story involves Lisa, who initially is Little Miss Activist, complaining how the ranch glorifies cruelty to animals and the taking of native land. So yeah, Lisa’s not a little girl anymore, she’s a snotty, liberal killjoy. Her constant complaining makes her unlikable, and if there’s one character in this fucking show who shouldn’t be unlikable, it’s little Lisa Simpson. When asked if she’d like to ride a pony, she responds, “I’m sure she’d be happier without someone sitting on her back all day.” What the fuck? Do the writers remember “Lisa’s Pony”? Or care? Instead of being an eight-year-old with girlish dreams and desires who happens to be intelligent as well, she crows on about respecting her “animal equals” and screams about freeing Tibet. Which Lisa sounds more interesting to you?

Anyway, Lisa falls for thirteen-year-old Luke Stetson, a character whose name I had to look up because I couldn’t remember. Jonathan Taylor Thomas gives an alright performance, he just barely has anything to work with. Lisa is taken in by his consciousness of animal rights and call to activism, similar to Jesse in “Lisa the Treehugger,” but here it’s done in a more exaggerated and knowing fashion so it just feels completely false. There’s a big hoedown coming up and Lisa overhears Luke talking to a girl named Clara on the phone, and believes that she’s his girlfriend. She’s devastated, but upon running into Clara on the trail out of town, she sends her down the wrong path toward danger out of jealousy. Totally sounds like something Lisa would do. What is this? Partway through the show, Marge comments how her kids are acting more and more like teenagers, which can definitely be said for all episodes nowadays, but this storyline of Lisa vs. Clara for Luke’s affections feels way too mature for her. Lisa discovers Clara is actually Luke’s sister, she ends up saving her from drowning, Luke is disgusted by what she did, and the family high-tails it back home. Or actually they don’t. Who gives a shit. This episode sucks balls. Big, sweaty horse balls.

Tidbits and Quotes
– Homer is in the middle of banging out a new carol, then Flanders appears from nowhere inside the house, in an early instance of characters showing up randomly whenever they’re needed.
– For those who loved the joke about Homer taunting Ned about his dead wife last episode, we get another one here! One of the lyrics has Homer singing in a condescending manner, “Don’t yell at Ned! His wife is dead!” How tasteless can this show get?
– David Byrne sings and dances on the hood of his car, which stays in motion for some reason. Then he slips, falls into Moe’s car behind him, and is then kidnapped since Moe is a creepy weirdo and possible celebrity killer. Or something.
– The Lazy “I” Ranch sign is alright (“Formerly Wandering “I” Nudist Colony.”)
– Andy Serkis is wasted with a stupid Gollum joke. Why even bother getting these guest stars if you’re not going to make good use of them?
– Marge is with Homer and Bart and the native Americans in one scene, then in the next when Lisa and Luke are riding off somewhere far away, she’s hiding behind a cactus with her arms outstretched. What?
– The only laugh I got from this episode came from good ol’ JTT. After diverting Lisa’s eyes away from a bucket of cow tongues and Cookie about to shoot a chicken tied to a stump, he directs her gaze to the clouds. There’s a cloud shaped like a cute little lamb… who then gets its head cut off by a cloud axe. “Aw, dammit!” He gave the exclamation a real intensity, and in that accent to boot.
– Maggie dances to Britney Spears in a Spears-type baby outfit for some Godforsaken reason, but what the fuck’s that radio doing there? Didn’t they come to the dude ranch because it was cut off from the media where they could hear Homer’s song? Also, the first joke we get at the dude ranch is the Rich Texan telling Comic Book Guy he could get Internet connection there. Why have the setup if you don’t even give a shit about it?
– Why did they bother with the weird bit with showing Clara’s name all over her necklace, her ring, her saddle… she could have just introduced herself, instead of appearing like some crazy person with her name inscribed on everything she owns.
– The action sequence of saving Clara is really bizarre. The music keeps building and gets more intense when nothing is happening. Bart gets the beavers to cut the tree down, and that’s basically it, since Clara can easily walk over it to safety, which she does quickly. But the music is so present you think something else is going to happen… then it doesn’t. What a bunch of fucking shit.
– Lisa mourns over Luke, calling him her “first crush” (“All it did was make me do terrible things, and then break my heart.” “Lisa, welcome to love.”) The ending feels so cynical, then attempts to backpedal, but fails. I guess we’ve forgotten all about Mr. Bergstrom, Nelson, even her obsession with that punk kid from the library made more sense and was more entertaining than this fucking episode. All of these were back from when Lisa was a real character, and these types of stories made sense. Now we get an episode where Homer drives off with his car lifting on its back wheels like a horse.

(originally aired April 13, 2003)
This is an astounding episode, in that it got the closest to physically injuring me, as my brain was violently throbbing trying to process what was going on and what the intention of the episode was. My best guess is it was all meant to be a big gimmick, where they’ll have openly gay characters and have an animated gay kiss so they can appear progressive, but meanwhile rely on lazy stereotypes and gay jokes that have been told a thousand times over. But the fumbling of the controversial content isn’t even the worst part of this episode. Here we apparently see the worst falling out Homer and Marge have ever had, to the point where it seems they’ll never get back together. Except it’s over the most asinine reason: Homer discovers a note Marge wrote way back in their younger days of how she didn’t think the two could stay together. Why is this? Well she wrote it after a romantic date wherein Homer got blasted and played Asteroids all night, forced Marge to force-feed him nachos, and ends up getting carted to the hospital. Then a few days later she found out she was pregnant with Bart, leaving Homer to believe that that’s the only reason she stayed with him.

Throughout the episode, Homer acts like an irrational maniac. Some of the interplay between him and Marge is so bizarre I can’t even make sense of it (“It’s not always going to be perfect, we’ve been married for ten years!” “Oh, I didn’t realize you’ve been counting down the years! Is it that horrible living with me?” “Well, this morning isn’t a barrel of laughs!” “It is to me!”) The problem here is that Homer couldn’t be more in the wrong: Marge’s note came about from his rampant and dangerous alcoholism, which he still exhibits. Hell, the episode begins referencing her attempt at an intervention, followed by him chuckling about it while downing down a cold one. It’s all based on Homer’s narrow-minded childish perception of Marge’s note that he thinks that she never loved him, and that’s what makes him pack his bags and leave. After we milk some easy jokes about sad single men from Kirk Van Houten, Homer ends up moving in with two gay men, Grady and Julio, the former voiced by gay comic Scott Thompson, the latter by Hank Azaria, basically reprising his role from The Birdcage.

So Grady and Julio are gay. Gay gay gay gay gay. The village they live in is gay, and Homer begins to adapt the gay, by getting manicures, a Lhasa Apso dog, and dancing shirtless like a wild man at a dance club, despite the fact that he’s a lazy slob. Any semblance of his subdued homophobia from “Homer’s Phobia” is dismissed immediately so we can move the plot forward. Now Homer is one hundred percent accepting of gays everywhere! This episode could care less about actually writing material about homosexuals though, as its main focus is recycling the same old jokes (people in theater are gay!) and making up gag names for storefronts (Armistead Mopeds, Victor/Victoria’s). Then we have our finale where Grady kisses Homer on the lips, despite the fact that there’s been no build-up of him finding Homer attractive, or even why he would. Also it just feels so offensive, like Homer’s straight, but Grady can make him gay, because gay men want to fuck all men, regardless of sexual preference. Post-kiss, Homer jumps ship and we never see these two characters again.

Even though Homer is completely in the wrong, Marge is forced to do all the heavy lifting in repairing their relationship, so with the help of “Weird Al” Yankovic, she gets Homer to agree to go on a date with her. So what does Homer do before the big night? Get wasted. Yep. And Grady and Julio give him the drinks, then later remind him that he’s already late for the date. So did Grady sabotage the date so he could get Homer for himself? Maybe I’m thinking too much into this but it just feels so wrong. Homer shows up to dinner drunk and Marge leaves understandably upset. In this entire episode, I don’t feel one ounce of sympathy for Homer. The same shit he pulled on Marge in the past, he’s pulling on her now, with no regard or remorse until it’s way too fucking late. But Hibbert pulls a video tape out of fucking nowhere of young Marge tending to young Homer’s bedside that fateful night, and the two have a heartfelt reconciliation, even though Homer has been a childish dick to her the entire episode. This episode is staggeringly wrong on so many levels, it might be one of the series’ worst. And it won the Emmy. Against Futurama‘s “Jurassic Bark.” Let that sink in.

Tidbits and Quotes
– The puzzle piece opening is pretty dull. I kind of like sleep-deprived Homer mashing Lenny’s face into the puzzle though. Upon completion, Flanders looks over and says, “It looks like you’re missing a piece.” Homer retorts, “Looks like you’re missing a wife!” The most tasteless line ever used in the series ever. I’m basically disgusted by Homer right from the very start.
– The flashbacks with young Homer and Marge feel so sour. I imagine there were rough times for these two, but seeing Homer be so insensitive to the girl he was head-over-heels for in “The Way We Was” just feels so not right. Plus this really doesn’t help us feel any sympathy for Homer whatsoever. Marge had every right to write that letter.
– All of Homer and Marge’s arguments consist of Homer being a stubborn asshole, and Marge proceeding to bizarrely fan the flames (“So you mean our whole marriage you’ve just been resenting me behind my back!” “A little bit, yeah.”) But as negative as Marge gets, it’s mostly in response towards Homer’s accusations, who cuts even deeper than her, combined with the fact that he has no leg to stand on with his arguments. But in the end, it’s Marge who has to make things right, as encouraged by her own children. There’s an unbelievable exchange between Lisa and Marge that feels so, so, so wrong (“Mom, I know Dad cares about you, but his feelings are really hurt. Why don’t you just say you’re sorry?” “Lisa, marriage is a beautiful thing, but it’s also a constant battle for moral superiority, so I can’t apologize.”) If there’s a piece of dialogue that is more anti-Marge than that, then I’d like to hear it. Lisa talks to her mother like her father is a child, which he basically is. Also all of this family strife with the kids wanting their dad back and trying to mend fences, this serious storyline completely clashes with the episode’s tidal wave of terrible gay jokes. It’s like a tsunami of bullshit.
– Subtlety is long gone from the series at our new look at Bachelor Arms, the pathetic apartment complex populated by sad, single men that Kirk Van Houten lives at. We get an “X Days Without a Suicide” sign, then a gunshot, then the counter resets to zero. All in good taste.
– Homer arrives to the gay side of town, and who should he run into but… Smithers! Of course! I really think that sometimes the current-day writers really don’t understand some of these characters, and Smithers is definitely one of them. Smithers is not just a gay guy, he loves Mr. Burns. He’s an office sycophant, dedicated to his job and his boss, but to the utmost degree, that he is devoted to Burns and would do absolutely anything and everything for him, to the point that he is also sexually attracted to him. That’s the joke. But now, the only joke is that Smithers is gay. Super gay. He likes men, not women. He wants to fuck men. Do you get it yet? Should we milk it further?
– Speaking of which, they originally wanted Harvey Fierstein to return as Karl from season 2’s “Simpson and Delilah” in this episode, which he turned down upon reading the script. You can read the whole quote here, but it basically boils down to he felt that it was just a bunch of easy gay jokes we’ve heard a million times without that clever spin or twist that made it truly worth of The Simpsons. And you know what, he’s right on the fucking money.
– I love “Weird Al” a lot, and I’m really bummed he’s stuck in this shit episode. He works a lot better in his second appearance in the equally controversial “That 90’s Show,” in a flashback where he still sports his glasses and mustache 80s look. Plus it also gave us the great line, “He who is tired of ‘Weird Al’ is tired with life.” But he’s the only thing in the entire episode I like, he does a great performance with both his songs (“‘Weird Al’ had fun on this show / even if it was just a brief cameo!”)