136. Mother Simpson

~ Mike! ~ 14 Comments

(originally aired November 19, 1995)
We’ve learned a lot about the different events and characters of Simpsons past, but there’s one glaring omission: what happened to Homer’s mother? She’s been seen incredibly briefly in maybe two flashbacks, but where is she now? Well, here we learn the answer, in an episode that sheds a lot of light on Homer’s past, has plenty of big laughs, and one of the most emotional endings in all of television. When Homer fakes his own death to get out of work, most townspeople believe that he has actually passed. One such person is Mona Simpson, who shows back up in town to pay respects only to find her son is still alive. Homer is quick to welcome her back into her life, but Marge and Lisa are suspect of her mysterious absence. After some prodding, Mona comes clean about why she left home all those years ago: she was a radical activist protesting against germ warfare in the 60s. During a raid at Mr. Burns’s germ laboratory, she is the only one of her group to be identified and is labeled a criminal, forcing her to leave her family to protect them.

Mona, wonderfully performed by Glenn Close, and her back story seem to reveal a lot about our characters. First, she’s a very smart and mindful woman, quickly developing a rapport with Lisa (“You didn’t dumb it down! You said ‘rapport’!”), who is relieved to find a genetic origin to her intellectual gifts. Going along these lines, you realize how tragic Homer’s upbringing was. He was left to be raised by Abe, who as we’ve seen multiple times, is belligerent, demeaning, and an overall total ass. If Mona had been in Homer’s life growing up, he might have been a smarter, wiser person because of it. The man also has some deep seeded insecurities and damaging because of it, for obvious reasons (a particularly devastating moment when Homer, back to the camera, solemnly asks his wife, “Why did she leave me?”) It’s as relieving to us as it is to him for Mona to reveal her story, and for the two to have a heartfelt reconciliation.

The mother-son reunion is unfortunately cut short when Burns recognizes a disguised Mona and calls in the FBI after her. But thanks to an anonymous tip, Homer and his mother are forewarned and manage to escape. The tip came courtesy of Chief Wiggum; back when he worked security for Burns’s lab, the sabotaged explosion caused by the hippies inadvertently cured him of his asthma, allowing him to enter the police academy. This is fantastic because not only do you get your jokes from young Wiggum (“Listen to me breathe!”), but it also pays off in the plot in a believable way, as Wiggum was present during the investigation and was able to take advantage to help someone who helped him. Before she leaves her son once again, Mona tells him what Homer has probably wanted to hear since the day she left (“Remember, whatever happens, you have a mother, and she is truly proud of you.”) When she’s gone, all Homer can do is sit on his car trunk and gaze up at the stars, perhaps wondering if his mom is doing the same. It’s the most gorgeous single shot in the entire series, and perhaps the most emotional moment period. An absolutely beautiful episode in every respect.

Tidbits and Quotes
– We start on familiar territory, with power plant employees forced to clean up the highway. Burns hogs all the glory with a phony photo shoot, then heads off to his limo. Lenny bemoans his situation (“I can’t believe I’m spending half my Saturday picking up garbage. I mean, half these bottles aren’t even mine!”) That’s when Homer springs his prank, throwing a dummy version of him down a raging waterfall downstream, eventually getting sucked into a turbine. I love Lenny and Carl’s back-and-forth on how the dummy Homer gets in and out of peril, especially when Lenny posits some friendly beavers will help Homer, but instead they bite him and steal his pants. Also, great animation of the limp dummy Homer falling down rocks, floating pathetically down steam, then him just bobbing up and down until he shoots into the turbine.
– Great moment when Lovejoy and Flanders come to pay their respects to Marge. She of course has no idea what they’re talking about, claiming Homer’s out back in his hammock. But he’s not there (in a glorious shot with great color design). Ned and Maude humor Marge, and when Lisa happily skips by, Lovejoy slips Marge a card for a juvenile counselor.
– The last straw for Marge is when the electrician cuts their power, who seems very compassionate (“Your electricity’s in the name of Homer J. Simpson, deceased. The juice stays off until you get a job or a generator. Oh, and, uh, my deepest sympathies.”) In a great sequence in the dark with just moving eyeballs, Marge demands Homer straighten this situation out.
– I love how belligerent Homer is toward the town records bureaucrat, ranting about inaccurate and secret government files, when the man is more than happy to accommodate Homer’s requests.
– I always found it really shocking that Abe told Homer his mother died while they were at the movies. Like there’s no other delicate way he could have brought that up? Having a phobia of cemeteries, Homer never visited what he thought was his mother’s grave, only to find it’s Walt Whitman’s, which enrages him (“Leaves of Grass my ass!!”)
– I love the various Simpson reactions to Mother Simpson: Lisa’s calm surprise (“It’s like something out of Dickens…or Melrose Place,”) Marge’s nervousness (“I finally have a mother-in-law. No more living vicariously through my girlfriends!”) and Bart looking to make a quick buck for missed birthdays, Christmases and Kwanzaas. Homer is not amused (“I’ll Kwanzaa you!!”)
– Great moment when Lisa brings Bart downstairs to talk about their grandmother’s suspicious behavior, turning on the dryer to conceal their conversation. Bart can’t hear (“What?”) so Lisa turns off the dryer, but Bart still apparently can’t hear (“What?”)
– I love the scene where Marge has to lay the facts out for her husband that he shouldn’t get his hopes up about the woman who abandoned him for twenty-five years. Homer has two rebuttal points: it was twenty-seven years, and she must have had a good reason. Marge asks what that might be, and Homer’s damaged soul comes out (“I guess I was just a horrible son and no mother would want me.”) His upbringing is so, so devastating if you really think about it.
– L’il Homer is so adorable, as is his young mother, swatting away the electrocuting Operation game from him and singing him a bedtime song, the Fig Newton jingle.
– Every 60s story has the turning point for their characters, when they become opened up to a world of rebellion and freedom. Mona’s was Joe Namath’s wild unkempt sideburns. Abe, “stuck in his button-down plastic-fantastic Madison Avenue scene,” is not impressed (“Look at them sideburns! He looks like a girl. Now, Johnny Unitas, there’s a haircut you could set your watch to!”) I still use that expression, “that’s a [blank] you can set your watch to.”
– I love Dan Castellaneta’s frenzied hippie character right before they set off the bomb (“When this baby goes off, Burns’s lab is going to be history, man! Germ history! Oh man, I got the munchies.”)
– Only to make Mona even more sympathetic, she’s made a fugitive because she’s the only one of her group to go back to help a trampled Burns out of concern.
– Burns attempts to utilize the post office (“Yes, I’d like to send this letter to the Prussian consulate in Siam by aeromail. Am I too late for the 4:30 autogyro?”) but the squeaky voiced teller has trouble consulting his manual (“This book must be out of date: I don’t see ‘Prussia,’ ‘Siam,’ or ‘autogyro.'”)
– I love the aspects of Burns’s investigation: his outdated usage of phrenology, the cab driver and gravedigger’s back-and-forth “I saw/seen her! That is to say, I seen/saw her,” and Wiggum’s brilliant reading of Homer J. Simpson upside-down (“Put out an APB on a Uosdwis R. Dewoh. Uh, better start with Greektown.”) To top it off, he was actually talking into his wallet.
– I love Abe’s reaction to seeing his long-lost wife for the first time in decades (“Now here’s a piece of bad news!”) After a heated spat and chewing her out (“You were a rotten wife, and I’ll never ever forgive you!”), we get a brief beat, and then… “Can we have sex? Please?” When he’s instantly shot down, he cuts his losses (“Well, I tried! What’s for supper?”)
– Great quick joke with Bart, wearing a tye-dye shirt, acting like a hippie for his grandma, spouting 60s catchphrases, not even knowing what they really mean, or that some don’t fit the hippie lifestyle at all (“Peace man! Groovy! Bomb Vietnam! Four more years! Up with people!”)
– Hilarious moment when Homer proposes Mona move in with Abe, and the entire family has a heartily laugh, Abe included (“Oh, I’m a living joke.”) Unbeknownst to them, Burns and the FBI are outside. Burns intends the relish the moment, playing “Ride of the Valkyries,” which is cut short by ABBA. Smithers sheepishly admits he taped over it. When the house is rushed, Abe comes clean (“All right, I admit it: I am the Lindbergh baby. Waah! Waah! Goo goo. I miss my fly-fly dada.”) Joe Friday asks if he’s creating a distraction, or if he’s just senile. Abe responds, “A little from column A, and a little from column B!”
– We get two great jokes at the end amidst the emotional tour-de-force: the hippie driver (“Hurry up, man. This electric van only has twenty minutes of juice left!”) and a really sweet joke, where Mona assures Homer she’ll never forget him, that he’ll always be a part of her. She turns and hits her head on the door frame, exclaiming “D’oh!” She’s still a Simpson, after all.

135. King-Size Homer

~ Mike! ~ 8 Comments

(originally aired November 5, 1995)
Homer is such an unhealthy glutton, it’s kind of surprising he only checks in at a mere 239 pounds. You’d think he’d be a lot heavier, but here we see he needs the right motivation. When Homer discovers he can go on disability if he’s over three hundred pounds, he vows to gain the extra weight so he can work at home. This leads to a great montage of Bart helping Homer put on the pounds, first consulting the incredibly ethical Dr. Nick, then raiding the supermarket of its fatty wears, buying such products as Much Ado About Stuffing and Uncle Jim’s Country Fillin’ (Just Squeeze ‘N Swallow!) His plan is a success, as he manages to gain over fifty pounds in one weekend, and a plant workstation is installed in his living room. Donning a festive muu-muu, Homer embraces his portlier self (“The slim lazy Homer you knew is dead. Now I’m a big fat dynamo!”)

Amidst the goofiness of the concept of the story is an actual dose of reality. Lisa is rightfully concerned for her father’s health, where Marge turns mostly a blind eye, asserting most of her husband’s hair-brained schemes deflate once he finds something good on TV (“But this season…”) I really like how we see both Simpson women’s viewpoints, where Lisa, as a peppy youngster, is very outspoken, while Marge is a bit more reserved, not wanting to be a bother, and has to be pushed to say what’s really on her mind. She eventually confronts her husband about her worries, but it’s to little avail. Meanwhile, it turns out Homer is equally as incompetent at home as he is at the plant, watching TV on the couch whilst batting at his keyboard with a broom, then later going out to the movies, leaving his drinking bird to tap away at the keys. This of course bites him in the ass when he returns to find that he accidentally caused an impending catastrophe at the plant, and must find a way to get there to save the day.

While I appreciate the attempts made to create a realistic layer to this story about rampant obesity, this episode is pretty much fueled on jokes. You’d think a whole episode filled with fat jokes would grow a bit tired, but that’s not the case here. Plus, there’s other avenues of humor, from Homer’s ignorance of computers (“‘To start, press any key.’ Where’s the ‘Any’ key? I see ‘Esc,’ ‘Ctrl,’ and ‘PgUp’…”) and his general workplace ineptitude carrying over to the home as he inadvertently gases an entire field of crops (“Oh, no! The corn. Paul Newman’s gonna have my legs broke.”) The only thing in the show that mildly bothered me was Burns leading the exercise program. He’s got his fair share of great lines (“I want to see more Teddy Roosevelts and less Franklin Roosevelts!”) but his generally cordial attitude to his workers felt a bit alien for him. But it does lead to the great finale where he attempts to coach Homer to get thin, but gives up and decides he’ll just pay for his liposuction. Which begs the question, why didn’t they suck out more fat and make Homer thin? Maybe Burns only wanted to spend the money to get Homer down to his normal weight. Or maybe we just love Homer just the way he is, 239 and feelin’ fine.

Tidbits and Quotes
– A truly pathetic, but hilarious shot of Homer reduced to his underwear and sweating up a storm after doing a few jumping jacks.
– Homer attempts to get himself injured to get on disability: he stands under a hard hat area at a construction site, but thinks better of it when he witnesses a man get crushed by a wheelbarrow full of cinder blocks. Then we get a wonderfully staged sequence when Homer spills oil on the floor at work and attempts to slip and fall, but just ends up sliding through many different rooms of the plant until he ends up in Burns’s office. After an awkward back-and-forth, Homer asks Burns to give him a push the other way, which he does.
– I love Homer reading off the list of qualifying disorders (lumber lung, juggler’s despair, achy breaky pelvis) and his ultimate grief over having none of them (“I’m never going to be disabled! I’m sick of being so healthy!”)
– Dr. Nick coaching Homer on gaining weight may be his best scene in the entire series, starting with revealing the four neglecting food groups: the whipped, congealed, empty calories, and the choco-tastic. In a serious manner, Homer asks what he can do to speed up the process. Dr. Nick tells him to be creative (“Instead of making sandwiches with bread, use poptarts. Instead of chewing gum, chew bacon!”) Bart throws out his own suggestion (“You can brush your teeth with milkshakes!”) which Dr. Nick is impressed by (“Did you go to Hollywood Upstairs Medical College too?”) As a farewell reminder, Dr. Nick gives this tip: whatever food you intend to eat, rub on a piece of paper (“If the paper turns clear, it’s your window to weight-gain!”) This comes back later in a great scene where Homer is concerned how fatty a fish sandwich is, until Bart rubs it on the wall until it turns clear.
– I love Homer’s insane dream of what working at home will be like, with his power station set up in the backyard with a snack machine and Marge doting on her go-getter husband. Meanwhile, Ned returns from work looking a wreck (“A crazy guy shot a bunch of people and the subway ran over my hat.“)
– There’s some great animation of Homer’s new chubbier self, first when he gets in bed, lowering the mattress and causing Marge to tumble on top of him, then later when he gets up for work, and the entire bed shifts as he whips his massive frame to the edge of the bed. Just fabulous.
– Homer’s one pound away from salvation, but Bart informs him they’re out of food (“We’re even out of the basic elements of food. You ate all the tarragon and you drank all the soy sauce.”) Maggie comes to the rescue with a Play-Doh donut. Bart informs his father it’s non-toxic, but Homer has eaten it anyway. He just makes the 300-mark… then notices that his gut is stuck on the towel rack, and jostling it loose, he sees he’s actually 315 pounds.
– Burns still doesn’t know Homer’s name, even after the dramatic events of “Who Shot Mr. Burns?” I love how Smithers refers to him as a “chair moistener.” Homer working at home also makes the paper… sort of (“Burns Survives Brush with Shut-In.”)
– Amazing dream sequence of Bart wanting to be like his dad, morbidly obese and bed-ridden. The reading of “Ah wash mah-self with a rag on a stick” is so disturbing, but hysterical, one of the best lines of the series.
– I love the throw-away line when Marge talks about how sensitive Homer is (“Remember when I giggled at his Sherlock Holmes hat? He sulked for a week and then closed his detective agency.”) I’d love to see the story behind that.
– The confrontation between Homer and Marge is an incredibly honest scene, with Marge concerned for her husband’s health, but also their marriage, clearly not so physically attracted to Homer’s new lifestyle. This leads to a great moment later when Homer discovers he only has to type ‘Y’ instead of ‘Yes,’ so he thoughtlessly takes the opportunity to gloat to his wife (“Hey, Miss Doesn’t-find-me-attractive-sexually-anymore: I just tripled my productivity!”) Marge could care less, of course. Another great moment is when Homer is briefly distracted by the dog, but when Marge comes to the room, he rushes back to his desk and taps the keyboard, like a kid caught doing something he shouldn’t of by his mother. As Marge leaves the home to do errands, Homer asks for a lemonade and a beer, referring back to his dream in the first act.
– There’s two jokes in this episode where Lisa attempts to defend her father, then her assertions are dashed. Neighborhood kids stare at Homer on the couch through the window, and Lisa attests he’s a good-hearted person, then Homer yells and berates the kids (“Don’t make me close that shade!”) Later on the bus, Lisa tries to claim her father isn’t a food-crazed maniac, then Homer drives by in an ice cream truck stuffing his face.
– Homer attempts to call the plant to warn them, but is unable to dial properly, getting a voice message (“The fingers you have used to dial are too fat. To obtain a special dialing wand, please mash the keypad with your palm now.”) Even better is the message is done by Joan Kenley, who was the voice of many answer machine and voicemail systems.
– Similar to the crazed derelict in “Bart Sells His Soul,” Homer acts like a raving crazy man attempting to hitch a ride with anyone foolish enough to pull over and engage with him. When he rants at an unsuspecting ice cream truck driver, he runs off terrified, like this is his worst nightmare that a big fat guy would take over his truck.
– Lisa and Bart have their own unique takes on Homer saving the day (“I think it’s ironic that Dad saved the day while a slimmer man would have fallen to his death.” “And I think it’s ironic that for once Dad’s butt prevented the release of toxic gas.”)

134. Treehouse of Horror VI

~ Mike! ~ 9 Comments

(originally aired October 30, 1995)
I consider Treehouse of Horror IV, V and VI to be a trifecta of absolutely perfect Halloween episodes. I think this one is my favorite. The other two may be stronger overall, but I really love how each segment tops the previous one, and has a clever distinctive theme. First is “Attack of the 50-Foot Eyesores,” where all of the giant company mascots of Springfield come to live when Homer hijacks the giant donut held by Lard Lad of Lard Lad Donuts. To start, the title is brilliant, which leads to the idea of the segment: billboards and outdoor advertisements are such a visual assault to the landscape of a city… and now they’re a literal assault, destroying everyone and everything in sight. We get some great legally distinguishable parodies like Pep Boys (“Don’t scratch up them heads!”) and Mr. Peanut, who snaps open a car and eats the delicious people inside. The resolution is fabulous, where, as in real advertising, if no one pays attention to it, it’ll go away, ending the hideous rampage. The segment is sprinkled with a bunch of laughs, like Homer’s nonplussed attitude toward Lard Lad coming to life at his door, but I love the overall idea of this episode more than anything.

“Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace” is next, of course a riff on Nightmare on Elm Street. I can’t exactly say it’s a parody, it’s more like the show reenacting that film, with Groundskeeper Willie subbing for Freddy Kreuger. But that aside, it definitely makes up for it with a number of hilarious scenes, like how Willie died and vowed revenge in the first place, and all the dream sequences. This also has one of the more genuinely horrifying moments in a Halloween show when Martin is constricted and suffocated, with Russi Taylor giving a terrified death scream that’s pretty chilling (then of course made a joke of when Martin’s twisted corpse is revealed to his classmates, then accidentally wheeled into the kindergarten). Bart and Lisa conclude the only way to stop the madness is to confront Willie in dreamland, which is a great finale, with Willie taking several fantastical forms, the last of which being a giant spider with a bagpipe body. He’s also prone to quips and puns like Freddy; one line may be one of my favorite lines of any episode ever, “When I’m done with you, they’ll have to do a compost mortem!” Maggie saves the day, and then we have the very end, which I absolutely love. On a fresh new morning, Lisa posits Willie may not actually be dead, and can come back anytime in any form. Then a bus pulls up and Willie gets off, making some silly scary faces. The bus takes off, Willie bemoans he left his gun on the seat, and tells the Simpson children politely to stay there. So yeah, Willie was planning on shooting children in the face point blank. Then he chases after the bus and loses his shoe with a Benny Hill-style version of the Simpsons theme. It’s such a silly out-of-nowhere ending, but I love love love it.

Now for the main event: “Homer^3,” a parody of the Twilight Zone segment “Little Girl Lost” where Homer finds himself trapped in the third dimension. The CG animation may look a little primitive, but keep in mind this episode aired a mere month before Toy Story came out. The 3D segments were done by PDI, who would later merge with DreamWorks Animation. Having our characters stumble into 3D is such a visual treat and a really neat concept. I love the 3D environment, filled with random objects and equations, and a directional sign for the different axis. Of course Homer screws up this dimension just like his own, and his time is slowly running out. Professor Frink arrives at the Simpson home to give his hypothesis regarding this bizarre new world, starting with drawing an ordinary square (“Woah, woah, slow down, egghead!”) and adding onto it from the unheard of “z-axis” making a cube (or a Frinkahedron, in honor of its discoverer). Bart attempts a rescue mission, but is unsuccessful, as Homer is sent to an even more unforgiving universe… our own. Not only is this episode just really cool to look at, the ideas behind it are really interesting. Homer’s fascination of his newly weighted body in 3D makes me wonder how he must see himself and the world around him in his normal 2D world. But Homer finds a happy ending in an erotic cake store, discovering our world is just as odd and debased as his own. Not only is this episode alternatively hilarious and spooky, but it makes yah think too.

Tidbits and Quotes
– Homer is quite content driving down “the miracle mile,” full of giant mascots, “where value wears a neon sombrero and there’s not a single church or library to offend the eye.” He arrives at Lard Lad asking for the promoted “Colossal Donut.” Of course the product is just regular-sized. Homer cries false advertising, and vows he’ll get what he wants. Pimply Faced Teen pathetically counters, “You don’t scare us!”
– The scene of Homer, donned with pantyhose on his head, hooking the giant donut and taking off is pretty dramatic and intense, ending with Lard Lad angrily stepping off his perch and doing the Godzilla shriek. The other mascots take notice.
– Mission accomplished, Homer lies inside his giant donut, which takes up the entire living room, drinking a beer. Never mind how he got it in the house, just don’t think about it.
– Great bits with the various mascots, like Bart acting as the devil on the Red Devil Realty devil’s shoulder to get him to smash up the school, the giant Kent Brockman eating the real one, and of course Wiggum accidentally shooting the very tall captain of the high school basketball team (“Yeah, well… he was turning into a monster.”)
– I love the shot of Homer opening the door to Lard Lad’s giant face staring down at him. After tricking him once, Marge arrives and tells him to give him the donut (“Once he has it, that will be the end of all this horror!” “Well… okay. If it’ll end horror.”) Of course, it does nothing; Lard Lad rakes his donut across every roof on the block and continues his rampage. All hope is lost, which gives us a great Marge line (“These monsters are destroying everything and everyone we hold dear! And you kids should have jackets on.”)
– Paul Anka’s a random guest star, but I like how he shows up. The advertising head tries to pump out a jingle on his piano, then off-the-cuff comments it’d sound better coming from Paul Anka. Then, boom, we got Paul Anka to do a song. And plus, am I going to quibble about stuff not making sense in a Halloween show?
– The mascots are defeated, and fall to their deaths… crushing the hospital, the orphanage, and the birthplace of Norman Vincent Peale (how they randomly picked him, I’ve no idea). The last to go is Lard Lad, who falls over and loses his donut, which rolls out of town. This leads to the obligatory Kang and Kodos cameo, it’s always fun to see those two.
– Kent Brockman’s sign-off to the first segment is pretty great (“Lock your doors, bar your windows, because the next advertisement you see could destroy your house and eat your family!”) Cue commercial.
– I like the subtle style change at the start of the second segment, indicating a dream, with the more lusciously painted background and Tex Avery-style wild takes.
– Great back-and-forth when Bart screams himself awake. Homer calls from downstairs, concerned (“Bart, is that you?!” “Yes!” “Take out the garbage.”)
– Skinner appears on the schoolyard to calm the concerns of the kids (“Children, I couldn’t help monitoring your conversation. There’s no mystery about Willy. Why, he simply disappeared. Now, let’s have no more curiosity about this bizarre cover-up.”)
– Martin finishes his standardized test mere seconds after receiving it. An exasperated Edna tells him to put his head down and sit quietly. Martin is satisfied (“Ah, a duet of pleasures.”) His Latin dream is very in-character for him, and Willie appearing in it is quite chilling. And he gets a really great quip (“You’ve mastered a dead tongue, but can you handle a live one?”)
– I could quote every line from the flashback of Willie’s death, it’s just the best. “Stupid Smarch weather…” I love that Homer is inadvertently responsible for Willie’s fate, having raised the thermostat in the first place. I love the quick cuts of Willie’s attempts to escape, only to be thwarted by the measures to not pay for doorknob repair or fill the fire extinguishers (even though it was a free service from the fire department). Willie bursts in the classroom, engulfed in flames, begging for help, but is scolded for interrupting. So he sits in a seat and patiently waits, then burns to death.
– Once Willie is apparently defeated, Bart figures his dreams are back to normal, so he can get back to him and Krusty winning the Super Bowl. Willie reappears, and Krusty’s out of there (“Don’t dream about me no more, kid!”)
– The bit of Homer stepping through the invisible layer that turns him from 2D to 3D is so well done, and Homer is stunned by what he sees, mentally processing this unthinkable new reality (“Oh, glory of glories. Oh heavenly testament to the eternal majesty of God’s creation.”) Sadly, he can’t vocalize such eloquence (“Holy macaroni!”)
– I love how ineffectual the family is at trying to find Homer. They call Ned over to put a ladder in the living room, climb it and look around. What are they looking for?
– Great bit with Homer attempting to describe where he is, asking if anyone’s seen Tron for reference. Just like in real life, no one saw it… except for Wiggum, who immediately takes it back.
– Nice minor animated touch where Frink’s hair flops up as Wiggum fires into the wall. The bullets enter the 3D world and are immediately sucked into the ever-growing hole. Homer laments, “There’s so much I don’t know about astrophysics. I wish I’d read that book by that wheelchair guy.”
– Bart attempts to climb to the edge of the XYZ pole, but tells his father he’s got to jump over to reach him across the incredibly wide chasm. Homer is confident he’ll make it (“Piece of cake, son!”) but he barely jumps at all before he almost immediately falls into the hole. Back in 2D, Bart explains what happened (“We hit a little snag when the universe sort of collapsed on itself. But Dad seemed cautiously optimistic.”)

Completed unrelated note: updated my Disney Animated Canon blog with Winnie the Pooh. Now it’s all up to date. DreamWorks blog coming soon…

133. Lisa the Vegetarian

~ Mike! ~ 19 Comments

(originally aired October 15, 1995)
Considering Lisa has an incredibly ethically and socially conscious mind, it’s easy to turn her into a mouthpiece for adult issues, but one must always remember she’s still a young child. Here, we see her adopt a new cause, but ends up composing herself in a slightly immature way, only to butt heads with an equally immature father. The cause, if you couldn’t decipher from the title, is vegetarianism. Following a trip to a petting zoo, Lisa finds she can’t bring herself to eat a lamb chop after having bonded with an adorable little sheep earlier. Homer is absolute aghast, not so much incensed, but just completely befuddled at the concept that someone can not eat meat. He meanwhile, in a misguided attempt to one-up Ned’s family reunion barbecue next door, decides to old one of his own, so the stage is set for Lisa to be alienated for her beliefs in her own home.

It really does suck to be Lisa sometimes, stuck in a town full of small-minded, easily manipulated citizens. Her protests against dissecting worms and for vegetarian options at the cafeteria are met with hostility, and eventually a moral steamrolling through an educational film played in class, the classic Troy McClure reel “The Meat Council Presents: Meat and You: Partners in Freedom.” Unsurprisingly, it is staunchly pro-meat. Soon the day of the big barbeque arrives, and Lisa’s attempts to introduce an option of gazpacho are met with derisive laughter (yet another instance where grown adults laugh mockingly or boo young children. What’s with this town?) Lisa snaps and carts out Homer’s piece de resistance, a whole suckling pig, sending it down a steep hill, which through a series of events ends up launched far across town. It’s here that Homer and Lisa’s childish feud begins; while Homer being infantile is nothing new, Lisa’s actions are just as low, acting incredibly abrasive toward her father just because he eats meat. She ends up leaving the house in a huff.

In an overwhelmingly carnivorous world, Lisa starts to feel like she doesn’t stand a chance. But at her wit’s end, she discovers that Apu is a vegetarian too, who takes her to his peaceful meditation garden on the roof of the Kwik-E-Mart. There, along with special guests Paul and Linda McCartney, Lisa learns that she needs to be tolerant of other people’s beliefs, and that there are better ways to influence people than to just be belligerent. Now, two things about the McCartneys. One, their colored irises creep me out. The show should never do that. Two, they are pretty unnecessary guest stars. It makes more sense that Lisa confide in some she know, and Apu’s the one who ultimately gives her the message. The McCartneys are just kind of there, though I like the fake-out where Paul asks Lisa if she wants to hear a song, and then Apu starts playing “Sgt. Pepper’s.” We end with a reconciliation between Homer and Lisa, ending with a piggyback… err, veggie-back ride. Kinda reminiscent of “Lisa’s Pony.” That episode was awesome, and so was this one.

Tidbits and Quotes
– Storytown Village (Fun for Ages 1 to 7 1/2) is a great set piece, with crappy animatronics (like “Radio Bart”), Grampa sleeping in Baby Bear’s bed (“Well, I’m sorry but it was 150 degrees in the car!”) and the three increasingly more adorable sheep (the second sheep attempts to get some more love, but Homer shoves him out of the way). Also, Lisa fawning over the little baby lamb is adorable, in a great performance by Yeardley Smith.
– Here’s a perfect Simpsons joke: seeing Lisa with the lamb, Marge asserts that it was a good idea to come to the petting zoo after all. Then a gruff voice comes over the loudspeaker (“Attention, families. This is Mother Goose. The following cars have been broken into…”) Now, you immediately know the Simpson car was one of them, so there’s no need to even dwell on it. We then cut to them pulling into their driveway, the back window completely smashed. You get your laughs as the episode continues forward.
– The Flanders family reunion, with all of Ned’s relatives looking and acting like him, is a tad disturbing, but funny, of course, especially his English relation Lord Thistlewick Flanders, who adapts Flanders-isms begrudgingly (“Charmed… eh, a googily doogily.”)
– Homer is aghast that Lisa won’t eat any more animals. No bacon? Ham? Pork chops? Lisa informs him that’s all the same animal. Homer is incredulous (“Yeah, right Lisa. A wonderful, maaaaagical animal.”)
– I love the independent thought alarms, triggered by Miss Hoover and Lunchlady Doris. Skinner is perturbed at two outbursts in one day, and instructs Willie to remove the colored chalk from every classroom. Willie knew this day would come (“I warned ya! Didn’t I warn ya?! That colored chalk was forged by Lucifer himself!”)
– Great Itchy & Scratchy cartoon: at a fancy restaurant, Itchy serves Scratchy his own bloated stomach. He cuts off a piece and eats it, only for it to come out his stomach. He repeatedly eats the same piece, then Itchy comes over with the bill, which causes Scratchy’s head to explode. I love the small detail that Itchy boxes up the one repeatedly eaten piece for Scratchy before giving him the bill. Bart’s laughing, but Lisa isn’, as she’s come to a shocking discovery )”I never realized before, but some Itchy & Scratchy cartoons send the message that violence against animals is funny.”)
– Homer’s barbeque invitation, shaped like a pig, is great: “Come to Homer’s BBBQ. The extra B is for BYOBB.” (“What’s the extra ‘B’ for?” “That’s a typo.”)
– Skinner introduces the pro-meat film (“So, in the interest in creating an open dialogue, sit silently and watch this film.”) This has got to be one of the best Troy McClure films, the number of classic bits and lines in it are so high. Troy swiping his finger over the cow’s back and licking it, explaining the killing floor not actually being a floor, little Jimmy getting completely traumatized, the scientist getting cut off, the food chain (with all animals leading to be eaten by humans), the stock footage of animals eating other animals (culminating in a shark pulling down a gorilla into the water), and the dramatic look into a cow’s dead eyes (“If a cow ever got the chance, he’d eat you and everyone you care about!”) Lisa is utterly offended by the film (“They can’t seriously expect us to swallow that tripe!”) Skinner takes her set-up for a slam dunk punchline (“Now as a special treat courtesy of our friends at the Meat Council, please help yourself to this tripe.”) The kids of course all chow down.
– Good callback joke to “Treehouse of Horror” where Homer uses an entire can of lighter fluid and then some on his grill, then hits the gas… and a normal flame comes up.
– I like how Lisa was ultimately in the wrong for what she did; Homer’s barbecue was going great and he was proud, and then she disposed of the pig. But of course Homer’s immature nature takes over and both are equally reprehensible, with the great back-and-forth over breakfast where they avoid having to talk to each other directly.
– The ending really is sweet. I especially like Lisa’s low-key “Hi, dad. Looking for me?” Followed by Homer’s quick nonchalant turn “I dunno. You looking for me?” Both know they need to make amends, but are equally embarrassed about their behavior. Homer apologizes, not even knowing why, and is shocked to hear Lisa says she was wrong… too. She still stands by her beliefs, but apologizes to her father for what she did. Homer of course accepts (“I understand, honey. I used to believe in things when I was a kid.”)
– The one great thing about the McCartneys being on the show is having “Maybe I’m Amazed” over the credits, with a subliminal message played backwards: a recipe for a “really ripping” lentil soup.

132. Bart Sells His Soul

~ Mike! ~ 13 Comments

(originally aired October 8, 1995)
This is another one of those episodes that I remember seeing on syndication a lot, so it really sticks out to me. It remains one of my favorites, harboring a very interesting introspective journey for Bart, along with one of the silliest B-plots ever, and despite it being completely unrelated, the episode still completely works. The plot goes like this: Milhouse rats out Bart for a prank he pulled in church, fearing the fate of his soul. When Bart chastises him for such a foolish belief, Milhouse gets him to sell him his soul for five bucks, as embodied on a sheet of paper reading “Bart Simpson’s Soul.” I love the very kid-like conversation the two have on the concept of souls, with Milhouse claiming it can swim and is equipped with wheels to get to the afterlife. I also like his unusually vindictive turn on Bart when he returns later to ask for his “soul” back. For once, the ball’s in his court and he’s going to savor each moment.

When the trade is made, Bart starts to experience a bizarre sense of emptiness, unable to laugh at Itchy & Scratchy or enter an automatic door, like something very important is missing. We get one of the most classic dream sequences in the series of children and their souls rowing to a divine promise land, but Bart is stuck without a partner to oar with. All of this is dealt with very innocently at first, but grows more and more grave as Bart gets increasingly desperate. He even attempts to acquire a replacement soul from an unwitting Ralph, although the way in which he would do that isn’t clear. Bart finds out Milhouse sold his soul to the comic book store for ALF pogs (“Remember ALF? He’s back, in pog form!”) My favorite shot of the show is Bart in the fetal position sleeping in front of the Android’s Dungeon until it opens; it’s the perfect transition and depiction of how low he has sunk. Comic Book Guy informs Bart his soul has already been sold, which eventually brings Bart to his last option: prayer. Evoking as much true emotion as his previous attempt at prayer in “Bart Gets An F,” his wishes are similarly granted, but this time by an eavesdropping Lisa, revealed to be the mysterious buyer.

This all sounds a little thin to take up twenty-two minutes. Well you’d be right, and do I have the B-story for you. Moe decides to cash in on the recent craze of family-friendly restaurants by turning his rundown tavern into a T.G.I. Fridays-esque eatery, Uncle Moe’s Family Feedbag. Boy do I love everything about this subplot, the classic moments are endless: “But Moe, the dank! The dank!”, his Navy-owned deep fryer that can flash-fry a buffalo in forty seconds (“Forty seconds? But I want it now!”), his furious straining to maintain a grin during his commercial… it’s all so great. And the million dollar birthday fries! That and all the other “fun” names for simple foods (try the southwestern pizza fingers, they’re awesomely outrageous!) Sadly, the restaurant doesn’t last long as Moe’s short temper gets the best of him. What I like is that there’s really only two scenes at Uncle Moe’s, but the ending of Moe losing it is set up in the first scene, which leads in his frustration building and building in the second scene, only to be unleashed at an innocent little girl and her cold teeth in perhaps the greatest Moe line (“Your teef hurt? That’s too freakin’ bad! You hear me! I’ll tell you where you can put your freakin’ sodie too!!”) How brilliant this show is that they can maintain two stories that couldn’t be more different tone-wise, but never clash and feel like a whole. Amazing.

Tidbits and Quotes
– Bart’s “In The Garden of Eden, by I. Ron Butterfly” prank is amazing, with Homer naughtily reminding Marge about how they used to make out to this “hymn,” and Lovejoy’s slow realization, “This sounds like rock and or roll!”
– Bart assures Milhouse that the soul was just made up to scare kids “like the Boogeyman or Michael Jackson.” Milhouse responds, “But every religion says there’s a soul, Bart. Why would they lie? What would they have to gain?” Cut to Lovejoy sorting out a wave of change from the collection plate. Pitch perfect social commentary.
– The role of Hibbert’s kids basically lost its purpose when the show was no longer up against The Cosby Show. I’m probably wrong, but this may be the last time we see them. I always laugh at Hibbert’s daughter’s innocent comment, “Daddy, this place smells like tinkle,” and the other kids exciting suggestions of other crazy restaurants to eat at (including the mouthful “Professor P. J. Cornucopia’s Fantastic Foodmagorium and Great American Steakery.” I want that to exist so I can go there right now). We also get the classic Barney line, “Natural light! Get it off me!”
– I love that Bart bought those little foam dinosaurs, since I did those all the time as a kid… and occasionally as an adult. I like his fantasy of the dinosaur growing to actual size and chewing up Lisa (“It’s dripping funny-smelling water all over me!”), but of course, in actuality, the piece of foam just floats into the storm drain.
– This episode’s full of great quick lines: Rod and Todd’s “Thank you, door!”, Jimbo’s “Way to breath, no-breath!” and Apu’s “Sanjay to the entrance with the Windex… Sanjay to the entrance with the Windex.” Three classic lines in one scene!
– As I said, every Uncle Moe scene is great: the entire bar is being renovated, with everything covered with sheets, including Barney. Homer throws out two possible names (Chairman Moe’s Magic Wok, Madman Moe’s Pressure Cooker) both of which Barney likes. Moe suggests, “Uncle Moe’s Family Feedbag,” which Barney hates.
– I love how merciless Milhouse is, toying with a clearly despondent Bart. The snappy animation of Milhouse’s “Yeeeeeesss?” when Bart first comes up to him (then followed by “Noooo”) is hilarious, as is his feeble attempt to do an evil laugh.
– Moe’s commercial is hilarious, especially the end with the poor jingle (“Come to Uncle Moe’s for family fun, it’s good good good good, good good good!”) and the hysterical animation of him attempting to hold his grin to the camera, which is definitely physically hurting him.
– Very sweet moment when Marge can tell something’s wrong with Bart, and attempts to decipher it with hugs. She boils it down to he’s missing something, and when Bart suggests maybe it’s a missing soul, Marge chuckles off her son’s amusing “joke” (“Aw, honey, you’re not a monster.”)
– I love Moe first losing it after being innocently squirted by Ralph with a water pistol (“What the hell are you doing, you little freak?!”) and his hasty apology (“Sorry, kid, sorry. I’m not used to the laughter of children. It cuts through me like a dentist drill. But no, no, that was funny, that was funny taking away my dignity like that, ha-ha-ha.”)
– Hilarious act break when Bart runs out of the restaurant, and Homer’s brain urges him to support his son so he can eat his spaghetti and Moe-balls. And he does, with his mouth stuffed (“Run, boy! Run for your life! …..boy!”)
– That last Uncle Moe scene, I could just quote the whole thing, it’s one of my favorite scenes of the entire series. But I’ll just quote one line: “Ow! My freakin’ ears!” Another use of Rod and Todd as overly impressionable youngsters. And Ned’s indignant “I’d expect that kind of language at Denny’s, but not here!” is fantastic.
– Totally random addition of the insane street sweeper who drives his vehicle down a subway station… but I love it’s there.
– Brilliant performance by Dan Castellaneta as the raving derelict, who talks so fast that you can barely make out what he’s saying. Neither can Wiggum (“Who’s been stealing your thoughts?”)
– I love how cranky Kirk Van Houten is, perhaps justified in that it’s 2am (“Milhouse, give him back his soul, I’ve got work tomorrow!”) The finale of the scene with Bart running out screaming is so funny (“Close the door, you’re letting the heat out!” “Shut up, shut up, shut up!!“) Man, Kirk is pissed.
– This really seems like it’s gonna be the Comic Book Guy season, who is a tremendous one scene wonder here (“Excuse me, no banging your head on the display case, please. It contains a very rare Mary Worth in which she has advised a friend to commit suicide. Thank you.”)
– An incredibly satisfying end note with the follow-up to Bart’s dream: with his soul back, he’s able to row to Nirvana comfortably, but not before knocking over Martin’s boat, almost drowning his soul. That mischievous little scamp.

Completely unrelated note: updated my Disney Animated Canon blog with Tangled.