Original airdate: November 1, 2020

The premise: In “Toy Gory,” Bart’s toys enact their revenge after being abused for too long. In “Into the Homer-verse,” an incident at the power plant results in a gathering of Homers from different dimensions. In “Be Nine, Rewind,” Lisa and Nelson find themselves reliving the same day over and over, trying to avoid death in the process.

The reaction: These are always the hardest write-ups to do, because my general criticisms of Treehouse of Horrors have been the same for years, and I don’t want to just repeat them over and over. Hell, I’m pretty sure I’ve used that sentence as my opener for the last four years at least. At least “Toy Gory” has pretty-looking CG on its side, similar to the Coraline “parody” they did a few years ago, but sadly used in service of a pretty dull story. The toys attack Bart and make him a living pull string toy, and then that’s the end. It feels like that should have been the midway point of the story. Bart basically acts like Sid from the first Toy Story, an absolute terror, ripping toys apart, but the climactic reveal of the toys being alive and confronting Sid in the movie is way more dramatic and eerie than this entire segment, so that feels like a bit of a failure. “Homer-verse” is yet another “parody” of a non-horror movie, and a pretty uninspired one. When I saw low-bit video game Homer, why couldn’t that have been Homer from The Simpsons arcade game? Have the other Homers be from other Simpsons media, or from other fantasy sequences over the course of 30 seasons? Especially since this is the 30th anniversary of Treehouse of Horrors, this felt like an appropriate opportunity to be totally meta, like all the different TOH universes are colliding (King Homer! Donuthead Homer! Grim Reaper Homer!) Instead, we get Hanna-Barbara Homer (jokes about Snagglepuss in 2020. Timely!) and Film Noir Homer, because it’s just like that movie they watched and ripped off… er, paid homage to. “Be Nine, Rewind” apes off of time loop movies, specifically the Happy Death Day films and the Netflix series Russian Doll (the segment opens with the same Harry Nilsson song that plays when time resets on Russian Doll.) Lisa and Nelson are stuck repeating Lisa’s birthday, and repeatedly kill themselves over and over trying to break the cycle. They even do the same wood chipper death from Happy Death Day 2U, except not as gleefully macabre as the protagonist in that film who threw herself in willingly, as part of a montage of her glibly accepting her death time and time again. More than half of the segment feels like them explaining the rules of their predicament and coming up with plans, and then later going to Comic Book Guy to list off a bunch of time loop movies, and the loop is broken by Nelson just randomly killing Gil? Whatever. These Halloween shows used to bum me out, but now I’ve just grown numb to how uninteresting they are.

Three items of note:
– This episode was written by writer/comedian Julia Prescott, who co-hosts the ‘Round Springfield podcast. She also co-hosts Stonecutters LA, a live monthly Simpsons trivia show in Los Angeles that I’ve gone to many, many times. Having seen her on-stage over the years, Julia is a very likable personality and clearly a super fan of the show, so I tried to go into this episode positively, hoping there would be some fresh voice to it, but alas, it felt exactly like all the recent Treehouse of Horrors to me. Just like when the show has had guest writers like Seth Rogan or Judd Apatow, something happens in the rewriting process that just homogenizes everything into a colorless slop, and I don’t know what that is. In fact, the season premiere “Undercover Burns” was also written by an outsider, David Cryan, a 29-year-old Canadian who reached out to Al Jean on Twitter to pitch ideas to him, which eventually led to him writing a freelance script. Between Prescott, Cryan, and recent staff hire Megan Amram, the hiring of younger writers who grew up creatively inspired by the show certainly feels like it would breathe new life into this old dinosaur, but as we’ve seen time and again, their episodes feel just as lame and tired as the ones written by the regular old stable of writers.
– The opening was exactly what I’d feared it would be: a ham-fisted anti-Trump election segment. Who is this appealing to? Trump is a moronic ghoul, but all the liberal comedic institutions just harp on the same “orange man bad” tropes, and now at this point, the “joke” is just literally scrolling a gigantic list on the screen of all of Trump’s transgressions and blunders over his presidency. Thinking about how they’ve done these terrible election cold opens the last decade or so, I thought even further back to “Citizen Kang,” an entire segment specifically featuring the 1996 presidential candidates Bill Clinton and Bob Dole. How was that different? Besides the humorous, subversive story (the classic “take me to your leader” demand being hung up because of the election, causing aliens to replace the candidates), the humor was derived from our political system and the election race itself, with only a few minor touches specific to that year’s candidates (Bob Dole’s unique speaking patterns, Ross Perot’s cameo.) Kang and Kodos’ perfect emulation of empty political jargon (“And always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom!”), appealing to the broadest possible electorate (“Abortions for some, miniature American flags for all!”) and the travesty that is our two-party system (“I’m going to vote third party!” “Go ahead! Throw your vote away!”) are all things that are still painfully relevant six election cycles later, while this Trump-Biden opening will be dated immediately.
– Dr. Hibbert appears at the end of “Toy Gory,” still voiced by Harry Shearer. It seems like “Undercover Burns” is the switch-over point for the new voice actors, and this episode, “I, Carumbus,” and the upcoming “The 7 Beer Itch” were produced before it, so everything after that I assume will have the new voices. Later in “Be Nine, Rewind,” we get our first extended listen at Grey DeLisle’s Sherri and Terri (I think one of them had a quick line last season.) I think DeLisle’s Martin is pretty good, but Sherri and Terri… not so much. It’s a very distinct voice to try to match, and DeLisle is an incredibly talented performer, but it ends up sounding like a character from The Loud House or something. It’s as good as we’re gonna get though, so I guess it’s fine. No sense creating new characters in your thirty-second season when your actors die off, what’s the point?

1. Homer’s Barbershop Quartet

• The “I WILL NEVER WIN AN EMMY” chalkboard gag is a bit odd to me. Yes, they had lost the Primetime Animated Program Emmy the year previous, and this year they weren’t even nominated, but they already had two Emmys for their first two seasons. I guess they felt discouraged that their favor by the Academy seemed to have slipped after their initial explosion of success at the start of the series. The show wouldn’t nab another Emmy for another two years until season 6’s “Lisa’s Wedding.”
• The Springfield Swap Meet sign is my favorite visual sign gag of the series. The design of the trash cornucopia is absolute brilliance.
  
• In all the times I’ve gone to Disneyland, I’ve only seen the Dapper Dans perform twice. I really should ask them if they can do “Baby on Board.” All the original members who performed the singing for this show are presumably retired, but I wonder if the song is still in the newer Dans’ repertoire.
• Lovejoy’s “Ching-ching!” as the collection plate fills up during the Be Sharps’ set is so funny.
• It’s great that Apu’s new stage name, Apu de Beaumarchais, isn’t any shorter for a marquee, so it really was all in the name of whitewashing (“Isn’t it true that you’re really an Indian?” “By the many arms of Vishnu, I swear it is a lie!”)
• ”Far out, man. I haven’t seen a bong in years.” Not only did they show a bong on screen, Homer names it as such! How did they get away with this in 1993?
• “I would prefer we kept your marriage a secret. You see, a lot of women are going to want to have sex with you, and we want them to think they can.” “Well, if I explain it to Marge that way, I’m sure she’ll understand.” The smash cut to Marge crying is perfect. Also, I always thought her sobbing sounded weird here, almost like it was Julie Kavner not quite crying “in character.”
• “We had fame and fortune, now all we needed was the approval of record company low-lives.” Their relentless Grammy bashing I think is an extension of their saltiness about the Emmys. Or maybe they thought “The Simpsons Sing the Blues” got snubbed.
• I love this frame, recreated from the famous photo of the Beatles and Yoko Ono looking absolutely haggard in a recording studio.
  
• I like how the ending has Bart and Lisa making the same criticisms about the episode conflicting with series continuity as fans would make, and Homer just dismisses them and sends them off to bed. The show would do a lot more openly thumbing their nose up at fans, or anyone hoping to watch a coherent story on their televisions, but an episode like this I can go along with. It’s not like Homer was a mega rock star who was raking in millions. Although Grammy-winning, he was in a successful barbershop quartet, the very premise itself is a joke, so it’s not worth trying to piece together the timeline and go into detail answering all these questions.
• This episode is a classic for sure, but I think The Powerpuff Girls’ “Meet the Beat-Alls” is the superior Beatles parody, which must break a record for most pop culture references made in 11 minutes.

2. Cape Feare

• The “Up Late with McBain” announcer is a literal armband-wearing Nazi, which is pretty crazy. Rainer Wolfcastle is largely based on the Austrian Arnold Schwarzeneggar, so I don’t really know what that’s about. Years later, McBain would be viciously fighting those fiendish Commie-Nazis!
• I like that in the gag where everyone runs in as Homer reacts to the letter, we see a very Itchy-like mouse run in as well, even better considering the previous scene was an Itchy & Scratchy cartoon.
  
• This episode has the most egregious use of recycled, redubbed animation in the back-and-forth between Bart and Abe talking about Matlock and his false teeth. It’s such a lengthy conversation and isn’t particularly funny, so the fact that it was refitted animation makes it stand out even more.
• “Who’s someone you’ve been making irritating phone calls to for years?” “Linda Lavin?” “No, someone who didn’t deserve it!” Exactly why would a little boy be prank-calling the star of Alice, and how did he get her number? This definitely rings as a joke written by a writer with a weird bug of their ass about Lavin. Does anyone know what this joke is about?
• Bernard Herrmann’s Cape Fear theme is utilized to great effect here, and since this episode, it’s basically become Sideshow Bob’s theme music. I don’t know if they reorchestrated it just enough to be legally distinguishable, or if they had to pay for music rights, but either way, it’s such a chilling piece of music. My wife was recently watching Netflix’s Ratchet, and I was surprised to hear them straight up rip-off the Cape Fear theme and use it as part of their score several times. I guess The Simpsons basically did the same thing, but it feels different when a comedy lifts a piece of music in service of a parody, versus a serious-business drama/thriller. I kept expecting Kelsey Grammar to emerge from the shadows.
• “We object to the term ‘urine-soaked hellhole’ when you could have said, ‘pee pee-soaked heckhole.’” “Cheerfully withdrawn!”
• The scene at the movie theater always felt weird to me. I haven’t seen Cape Fear, but I know it’s lifted from the scene where Robert De Niro is smoking and laughing at Problem Child, where here it’s Bob doing the same but to an Ernest movie. I get it’s the famous scene from the movie, but Bob is such a culture snob that the idea of him guffawing at “Ernest Goes Somewhere Cheap” doesn’t compute with me. Or was he purposefully being obnoxious because he knew the Simpson family was there?
• Honestly, “Cape Feare” is probably my least favorite classic era Sideshow Bob episode. It suffers from two issues for me: one, the bulk of it really is just a bunch of gag scenes strung together, especially the first two acts, where the only story beats are Bart’s afraid and Bob gets out of prison. Disconnected jokes were certainly a trope of the Al Jean & Mike Reiss years, which they would proceed to carry on with them onto The Critic, but the structure doesn’t hold as soundly without a strong, focused story for the jokes to hang off of. Second, this is the only Bob episode without some kind of elaborate scheme or plot related to his character, so it really is just twenty-two minutes of this man chomping at the bit to viciously murder a ten-year-old boy, which is not nearly as interesting as his other stories.
• The Homer Thompson scene is so funny, and impossible for me to watch without thinking of the fantastic Dankmus remix.
• The legendary rake gag really does go on for too long. As far as elongated gags go, I prefer Bob getting trampled by the elephants. The absurdity of how many there are in a row is much better, and I’ve always loved this bit of animation where Bob’s face just bugs out as it’s getting stepped on.
  
• I love that Bart successfully stalls for time by appealing to Bob’s vanity, but the scene gets too silly for my tastes, with Bart reading the Playbill and the English flag unfurling behind Bob from God knows where.
• “It’s a good thing you drifted by this brothel!” Chief Wiggum shouts as he and his men are wearing bathrobes. I like that it’s just unspoken that the police force was busy fucking prostitutes.

3. Homer Goes to College

• “The watchdog of public safety. Is there any lower form of life?”
• Homer’s bee-stung butt is a fantastic drawing, but I love the scene prior where he chases after the bee, with his little float in the air before he lands and trounces down the hall.
  
• “Gentlemen, I’ve decided there will be no investigation, now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll go away.” How fast Quimby says this line and exits frame is funny, but even better is the comically large $5000 price tag hanging off his new fur coat.
• I love the random time-filling TV commercial we hear Bart watching (“Finally, the great taste of Worchestire sauce… in a soft drink!” “Steaky!”)
• My friend and I in high school could recite “School of Hard Knockers” in its entirety, and I still can today.
• Mr. Burns really does have an impressive chair on the university board.
  
• It’s funny going back to read fan reviews around this era, as some of them were quick to bemoan what seemed like the declining point of the series. This episode seems to have been quite polarizing, if the reviews on the capsule at Simpsons Archive are to be believed. To me, Homer’s behavior in this episode is explained due to his slavish belief in college life being just as he knows it from television, contrasted with reality. He’s emulating what he thinks he should be acting like as a college man, but never goes far enough to become annoying. Even when he runs down the Dean with his car, there’s an innocent naivety to his actions, as wild as that sounds, like he didn’t intend for him to get seriously hurt.
• Homer laughing at the professor dropping his notes might be one of my favorite jokes of the whole series. I just love how long it goes, and that multiple sets of rows slowly turn to look back at this idiot.
• This episode has my favorite syndication cut, featuring the doomed construction project because of the six missing cinder blocks (“There’ll be no hospital, then, I’ll tell the children.”) It’s just so absurd.
• It’s funny that Richard Nixon has a featured role in this episode, and later in “Treehouse of Horror IV,” before dying just half a year later. It’s especially ironic in the latter, of course, appearing on the Jury of the Damned, despite his protests of not being dead yet.
• Hearing the “crazy noises” from Marge’s phone took me back to those halcyon days of early dial-up. Remember when you couldn’t make a phone call if you were logged on-line? Remember when you’d leave your computer on overnight to download a 150MB episode of Futurama off of Limewire? I do.
• Another memory of a by-gone era: missing something off live TV. Bart and Lisa freak out when they miss the climax of Itchy & Scratchy, but nowadays I’m sure there’s some kind of Krusty streaming service you can watch all ten thousand I&S episodes instantaneously or something. I’m surprised they haven’t done an episode like that yet.
• I like how the episode turns into Homer’s relationship with the nerds, and then as we get midway through act three, the actual plot sneaks back up on us as much as it does Homer in the form of his final exam.
• I miss little animation flourishes like Homer gleefully turning in his paper.
  
• The photos over the end credits of Homer’s full college experience are great. I like how they kind of give the college characters their well-earned due: the nerds take over the football field in a tank, and Homer and the Dean rock out behind a disgruntled Richard Nixon, the newest victim of the Bra Bomb.

4. Rosebud

• Upon being woken up, Mr. Burns tells Smithers, “The bedpan’s under my pillow.” I guess he moved that himself? And I hope it has a lid on it so his pillow isn’t soaking in his own pee. I never quite got this joke.
• It goes by kind of quick, but I like how after Homer’s story about how he always gets abused at Burns’ birthday parties, we see Marge has gone back to sleep and Homer shoots her annoyed look. 
• I just love Homer’s absolute glee in writing Burns’ roast speech, which then spills into him just trying to funny by insulting people (his impulsive “Okay, stupid!” response to Marge always makes me laugh). It all comes from this purely innocent, childlike place within Homer that’s really charming and infectious to watch.
• What a subhead. And where’d they get that photo?
  
• The Ramones scene is a classic. I like the drummer genuinely commenting, “Hey, I think they liked us!” after the set.
• I love the idea of Burns opening up all of those gifts we see strewn about his gigantic table as everyone just stands there and patiently watches, like a kid at a child’s birthday party, except it’s a mirthless mogul giving as little interest to a pile of gold coins as a dust buster.
• I love Burns’ face reacting to Homer pulling down his pants. It’s just the perfect mixture of confusion and rage and you just don’t know which emotion is going to overtake the other. I also love that his order is, “Destroy him.” Not take him off the stage, not beat him up, not even kill him. Destroy him.
  
• Hitler in his bunker screaming, “This is all your fault!!” at a stuffed bear will never be not funny.
• The final gag in act one where the camera zooms in on the 100% Cotton tag as a “mistake,” we hear the record scratch, then the camera searches for the Bobo tag really doesn’t work. I get what they were going for, but at least to me, it’s just too weird in execution.
• I don’t want to know what Burns intends to do with Smithers in the Bobo costume, but I have a feeling that Smithers wouldn’t have a problem with it.
• Homer being absolutely oblivious to Bobo is the subject of not one, but two absolutely fantastic scenes. The first scene with Kent Brockman’s on-the-nose news report is so funny, with continuous cuts to Homer’s absolutely blank face as Brockman is trying to make it as clear as possible what he should be doing. The second scene adds onto this by setting the scene perfectly for Homer to finally acknowledge that stuffed bear, but he still doesn’t quite get it for the first few seconds (“How long have we had these fish?!”)
• Professor Frink’s robot bear is an understandable syndication cut, but I still love how stupid it is. “BEAR WANT TO LIVE” was a common quote with my best friend and I, and I also like how the bear has a wind-up gear on its back, like it’s a gigantic mechanical toy.
• Something I don’t think I ever noticed: when we see the police and firefighters outside the Simpson house after Burns and Smithers’ first break-in attempt (“More cocoa, Mr. Burns?” “Yes!!”), you see the firetruck has just plowed through the Flanders’ front yard fence.
• The point of the conflict in act three is Homer choosing his family over money, but really, you could’ve just bought Maggie another teddy bear and called it a day. For one million dollars, I think she’d get over it. Hell, they have the joke where he tries to entice her with an empty box, and Maggie is actually interested in playing with it before Homer hogs it all to himself. Just give her the box! The box!
• A great blink-and-you’ll-miss-it gag: Otto watching a portable TV while clearly driving.
• Burns and Smithers’ sitcom is just so stupid on so many levels that I absolutely love it. And Harry Shearer’s “Yes” is the funniest goddamn thing ever.
• Burns confronting Maggie at the end is one of the best examples of the show being sincere and snarky at the same time. Burns’ plea to Maggie to not make the same mistake he made is surrounded by great gags (him not able to out-muscle a baby, the shutterbug reporters popping up behind the fence), but they never undercut that 100% sincere moment. Nor does the final Burns scene (“From now on, I’m only going to be good and kind to everyone!” “I’m sorry sir, I don’t have a pencil.” “Ehh, don’t worry, I’m sure I’ll remember it.”) Yes, we know Burns will go back to being a heartless monster in the next episode, but that doesn’t make his emotional climax any less meaningful.
• I always used to consider this my favorite episode, but now, I really don’t know. I love it dearly, don’t get me wrong, but I feel like it’s missing that strong character through-line that I maybe value more now than I did ten years ago. I love the idea of Mr. Burns finding no happiness in his immense wealth and chasing his carefree childhood innocence, but that raw nerve is only tapped in act one and at the very end of act three, and the rest is just a series of gags. They’re great gags, but I dunno. Of the episodes I’ve watched so far, “Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie” really stuck out to me as being a fantastic example of a show that balanced a really strong character story with gags, it’s kind of emerging as one of my new favorites. But I don’t know if I can really label one episode as my favorite anymore. The playing field is way too crowded with greatness to pick just one.

5. Treehouse of Horror IV

• I know next to nothing about Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, but Bart’s introductions to each segment are still really great. Completely removed from its context, the wraparounds still work as they’re intended. I also love all of the different paintings parodying famous works of art. My favorite is the recreation of Jacques-Louis David’s “The Death of Marat,” but instead of the deceased holding his final written letter, it’s a tired (or hung over) Homer with a grocery list. These paintings go by in the background as delightful little Easter eggs, unlike the recently aired “Now Museum, Now You Don’t,” an episode where the art history “parodies” were completely in the spotlight, and much, much more terrible.
• Devil Flanders’ “true” form is such a beautiful design (clearly inspired from Fantasia’s Chernabog), and I love that when he disappears in a puff of smoke, you can see Ned’s face in it just before he vanishes.
• Considering Homer’s words were “I’d sell my soul for a donut,” I don’t think him not eating the last bite counts as a loophole. He got the donut, the Devil gets his soul, that’s the transaction. But besides that point, why in the hell would he not just throw it away? Why keep it in the fridge? It’s almost as if this is some kind of ha-ha laugh-’em-up comedy show or something.
• This episode has got to be one of the most beautifully animated in the entire series, I feel like I could highlight every other scene and there’d be a great moment of note. The vortex in the Simpson kitchen, the trial, almost the entirety of act two on the bus, Count Burns’ castle, Bart as a vampire… I can’t post a hundred gifs, so I’ll just settle on Homer plunging into Hell.
  
• I love how the pets scamper as the fire lights from under them and forms Homer’s cage of flames. A lovely little touch they didn’t need to have.
• I think this is Lionel Hutz’s best appearance, every single bit with him is just hilarious, from his intro walking in, combing his hair with a fork (“I watched Matlock in a bar last night. The sound wasn’t on, but I think I got the gist of it”), his stressing of unbreakable not realizing it’s against his case, and his escape from the bathroom window. Even the deleted scenes with him we’d later see in “The 138th Episode Spectacular” are fantastic.
• What a great frame. It’s like a great piece of promo art within the show itself.
  
• Hutz is the MVP of act one, but runner up has got to be Blackbeard, from his fear of heights (“This chair be high, says I”), to his shameful admission of illiteracy (“My debauchery was my way of compensatin’!”)
• I love that in Bart’s nightmare, right before the crash, it flashes to show his skeleton before he wakes up.
  
• The gremlin is such a great design. I love how he’s clearly taking so much absolute joy in taking his time causing the impending death of a bus full of small children. Also great is how uncomfortable he is when Ned Flanders rescues and embraces him.
• I wanna see the segment about the dogs playing poker. Also, it’s great how we transition from the painting to see it hanging behind the Simpson couch at the beginning of the segment.
• I’ve spent every night this October watching a different spooky movie, but Bram Stoker’s Dracula really should have made the list. I’ve heard it’s really good, and I’m sure I’ll appreciate it even more because of this episode. Ehh, maybe next year.
• “Well, well, if it isn’t little… boy!” Just the right length of a pause. So funny.
• Boy, Burns must be a real deep sleeper to not even flinch at Homer repeatedly hammering a stake into his crotch.
• The Addams Family-style end credits is one of my favorite remixes, it perfectly blends the motifs of both theme tunes expertly.

17. Last Exit to Springfield

• “Ice to see you.” The McBain opening is perfect on its own, but also is a great lead-in to the villain mirroring Burns’ real-life cruelty. The moment of the guy about to eat cake getting shot, and the other guy happily about to eat it himself before getting killed is just wonderful.
  
• “Why must you turn my office into a house of lies?” They originally wanted the dentist to be played by Anthony Hopkins, clearly trying to allude to his recent successful role in Silence of the Lambs, but instead, we have Hank Azaria not quite doing a Hannibal Lector impression, but definitely capturing the spirit of it. The first act definitely nails the absolute terror of visiting the dentist through a child’s eyes (“Now the first thing I’ll be doing is chiseling some teeth out of your jawbone. Hold still while I gas you!”) We also get a great parody of the scene from Tim Burton’s Batman of Lisa laughing maniacally and smashing the mirror. I barely remember that movie, I really know the scene more from this version, and it works absolutely perfectly in-universe and within context, as all good parodies should be.
• I wonder if they extended “Dental plan!” “Lisa needs braces!” even longer to fill out time. I love how it just keeps going and going, another great joke explaining how long it takes for a thought to formulate within Homer’s thick skull.
• We get two great Mr. Burns monologues in act two: his “strange bedfellows” speech trying to appeal to Homer (“I don’t go in for these backdoor shenanigans. Sure, I’m flattered, maybe even a little curious, but the answer is no!”) and his euphemism-laced speech in his basement that makes Homer have to pee (“Now, it doesn’t take a whiz to know that you’re looking out for number one! Well, listen to me, and you’ll make a big splash very soon!”)
• The thousand monkeys on a thousand typewriters gag is great, but why exactly is Burns doing this? To write the great American novel to make a bunch of money? He already wrote his memoir, why would have want to push for another book?
• Lenny grooving to “Classical Gas” is a great moment that’s been memed a bunch. I personally love the mash-up with it and the “Shooting Star” trend from a few years back.
• I could listen to Abe’s onion-belt story for an entire episode. Definitely his best ramble.
• “Look at him strutting around like he’s cock of the walk. Well, let me tell you, Homer Simpson is cock of nothing!”
• The montage music as Burns and Smithers run the plant themselves is my favorite piece of music in the entire series.
  
• In an episode filled with pop culture parodies, I feel like the Grinch speech at the end might have gone too far. Visually echoing the animated special with the workers joining hands in a circle as Burns dramatically gestures to listen, that’s all fine, but then he just starts to inexplicably rhyme as he reenacts the scene from the special going back and forth with Smithers/Max the dog. It goes from a clever allusion that works in context, to just them doing a semi-verbatim reference.
• “I’m beginning to think that Homer Simpson was not the brilliant tactician I thought.”
  
• Lots of people rank this episode incredibly high on their Best of lists, but I still don’t hold it as one of my favorites. I think the best episodes need a strong character through-line, a motivator pushing them through the story that feels like it matters. Homer is moved to lead the union solely so he doesn’t have to pay out of pocket for Lisa’s braces, but then the gag becomes that he’s just dumbly gliding through the rest of the story until it reaches its conclusion. As dumb as he is, Homer is at his best when he’s acting with some kind of agency. Not to say there’s not amazing stuff in this episode, of course there is, but I wouldn’t even say this is top 5 of season 4.

18. So It’s Come To This: A Simpsons Clip Show

• One of the most interesting tidbits I recall from the DVD commentaries was on this episode, where they mentioned this clip show was born out of a meeting with FOX executives where they proposed that to ease up on their already rigorous production schedule, they would do four clip shows a season. The writers were understandably aghast at this, and eventually just this first one was produced. I get that FOX wanted as many episodes of the show as possible at that point, but that is a crazy idea. Did any sitcom ever do more than one clip show a season? Even in the days pre-reruns I’d imagine that would be tedious. But this is easily the best clip show (excluding “The 138th Episode Spectacular,” which I don’t consider a clip show), purely because act one is all new content. But it’s still a clip show, which by default, is still a little bit terrible. The only good clip shows are episodes specifically making fun of clip shows with all new material (Clerks The Animated Series’s second episode, Community’s “Paradigms of Human Memory.”)
• “God bless those pagans.”
• Anytime I narrowly avoid some kind of blunder, I always think, “I’d have looked quite the fool. An April fool, as it were.”
• “APRIL FO-”
  
• It always irrationally bothered me that they show a clip from the non-canonical “Treehouse of Horror.” Marge recalls that Homer always had “good coping skills,” then shows the scene of the family getting abducted by Kang and Kodos. I don’t quite see how that shows Homer’s coping skills. Also, Marge, how are you remembering that?
• “Marge, what if I wind up as some vegetable watching TV on the couch? My important work will never be completed.” “Society’s loss, I suppose.”
• Despite the middle section being littered with clips, at least there’s some semblance of a conclusion with Bart admitting what he did to Homer and getting strangled for it. It definitely feels more like a real episode than all the ensuing clip shows.

19. The Front

• “That’s as bad as the Itchy & Sambo cartoons of the late ‘30s!”
• This episode is the reason I never pick rock in Rock-Paper-Scissors (“Good old rock. Nothing beats that!”)
• I love how gigantic the Itchy & Scratchy scripts appear throughout the episode. Surely the transcripts of each episode have got to be, what, two, three pages long at best?
• Another too-obvious re-use of animation when the Harvard writer pokes his head in Roger Meyers’ office and gets hit in the head with the name placard a second time. The scene didn’t really need it, but this episode was notoriously short, so they had to pad the time somehow.
• “I did the Iggy!” is a quote that pops into my brain more times than I care to admit, for no real particular reason.
• My best friend in high school used “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing” as his senior yearbook quote. He truly was a greater super fan than I.
• Oddly, this episode features two guest star-voiced characters performed by series regulars. Hank Azaria takes over as Roger Meyers, Jr., doing a pretty good job, and Dan Castellaneta voices Artie Ziff. His “Jealous?” in particular is pretty spot on to Lovitz.
• This whole episode is basically the writers taking the piss out of themselves, so it’s only appropriate that they appear as themselves as the I&S writers. We also get a great line from what looks like Al Jean (”I wrote my thesis on life experience!”)
  
• Humans don’t appear that often in Itchy & Scratchy cartoons, but whenever they do, it’s cool that they’re flesh-toned, like this is the Simpsons universe’s version of weird technicolor cartoon characters.
• “Did you call the girl from the escort service?” “They said their insurance won’t cover you.” “Ohhh, that’s a fly in the ointment…”
• The other nominees at the comedy awards are all great in their own ways. First, “StrongDar, Master of Akom” is named after AKOM studios, the South Korean animation studio that made this show among many, many other 80s and 90s animated series. “How to Buy Action Figure Man” is the perfect distillation of the cartoons from the 80s made to sell toys, and they even nailed the awful look of those awful, awful cartoons (fact: all 80s cartoons are terrible.) And finally, a well-deserved shot at John K’s poor time management with the Ren & Stimpy season premiere clip still not finished yet. That fucker got a chance to revive his show a decade later on Spike TV, and he blew it again by not producing his shit fast enough.
  
• “I’m gonna write that sitcom about the sassy robot.” Seven years later, we got Futurama. Coincidence? Yes.
• We are now only four years away from the flash-forward at the end of Homer and Marge’s 50th high school reunion. Will the show still be running by then? Only time will tell.
• “The Adventures of Ned Flanders” is still fantastic. There’s a Twitter account that appropriately reposts the clip every Saturday morning.

20. Whacking Day

• The first act at the school is really stupendous. First, we get a proactive Skinner taking control prior to the superintendent’s visit by self-admittedly sweeping his problem students under the rug before contemplating leaving them to rot (“Would the world judge me harshly if I threw away the key?”) Then, we get our first look at Superintendent Chalmers, where Skinner walks a tightrope trying to keep up his ruse and make the man happy for the sake of his job, and perhaps a cushy promotion (“What do you think of the banners?” “Nothing but transparent toadying.” “It was the children’s idea. I tried to stop them.”) Skinner taking great pride in his rinky-dink school but living in fear of being scrutinized by a higher authority created a great dynamic, and he and Chalmers worked so well together. When they would start appearing together all the time, the two lost a lot of their edge, as they would devolve into just bitchy bickering that held no weight.
• Gotta love the sign outside the religious school: We Put the FUN in FUNdamentalist Dogma.) I also love the one squinty-eyed kid waving his fist.
  
• Abe’s German cabaret story may be his finest flashback ever (“Is that story true, Grampa?” “Well, most of it. I did wear a dress for a period in the ’40s. Oh, they had designers then!”)
• Reverend Lovejoy reading from the Bible to justify Whacking Day is such an important scene, perfectly encapsulated how people will willingly jump through the mental hoops necessary to make excuses for outdated beliefs and practices.
• Between “Mr. Plow,” her fantasizing about Jack Nicklaus, and now getting revved up by Homer’s whacking stick, this has been a very horny season for Marge.
• Homer with his cowboy hat and air horn is one of my favorite drawings of the entire series. It’s also my icon on Slack for work.
  
• “Gentlemen, start your whacking!” Thank goodness they got rid of that sexpot Miss Springfield and replaced her with a new character with the annoying fucking voice.
• Bart being homeschooled is separated from the Whacking Day storyline, but I like how they quietly lead into each other where we see Bart slowly developing a love of books, which gives the idea about luring the snakes into the house to save them.
• “I’m sick of you people! You’re nothing but a pack of fickle mush-heads!” “He’s right!” “Give us hell, Quimby!”

21. Marge in Chains

• The Juice Loosener is second only to the tombstone polish for best Troy McClure infomercial (“IT’S WHISPER QUIET!”)
• This episode re-emerged into the public consciousness recently due to the Osaka flu in the first act eerily mirroring the COVID pandemic. Too bad the virus isn’t actually a visible floating green cloud like it is in this episode, then it might be easier to avoid infection.
• The Itchy & Scratchy in this show is one of my favorites just because it’s so brutal. As all of Scratchy’s organs get ripped out of his body and tossed out the window, he swallows them back up and still ends up impaled on a cactus. The two needles through both his pupils is an especially disturbing touch.
  
• “No offense, but we’re putting that bitch on ice!” It’s never quite clear why Apu and Sanjay are so hellbent on getting Marge prosecuted. They know Marge is no actual threat to their business, but it doesn’t seem like they’re using her as a cautionary example to deter all shoplifting. It’s not like they get restitution for a guilty verdict either, at least they never say as much. While Apu wasn’t quite family friends with the Simpsons at this point, it still feels unnecessarily petty.
• Beautiful tribute to Psycho. I love the charcoal-like etchings on the close-up.
  
• “Let the record show that the witness made the ‘drinky-drinky’ motion.”
• Phil Hartman really is this show’s secret weapon. His stalling-for-time while taking his tie off is one of his finest moments.
• In spite of the title, there’s really not many scenes of Marge at the women’s prison, with the majority of the third act showing the Simpsons getting by without their matriarch. It feels like a bit of a missed opportunity to tell some sort of story, either with Marge finding prison a nice stress-free break from being a homemaker, or her docile personality butting heads with some of the gruffer inmates, maybe even reforming them, sort of like in “Take My Wife, Sleaze.” While writing this, I also remember they did another Marge in prison episode within the last five years. I don’t remember a thing about it, but I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that it sucked shit.
• The conclusion still puzzles me. A large crowd of people leave the bake sale disappointed that Marge’s Rice Krispie squares aren’t available. At the end of the day, a park ranger (?) remarks that they’re $15 short, “exactly” what Marge’s treats normally bring in. I guess Marge could be selling those for a buck a piece, but turning this into a joke kind of diminishes the point about the impact Marge makes on the community a bit. And I guess $15 is the crucial difference between being able to afford a Lincoln statue and a Jimmy Carter statue, which leads to mass rioting, and later, a town wide apology to Marge when she gets released. The ending reeks of burnt out writers trying to tie up a script at the end of the production season, and I mean that with great respect.

22. Krusty Gets Kancelled

• Another beautiful episode by David Silverman right from the get-go. The Gabbo show opening is pretty incredible, with the little dummy spinning and prancing around. Also, exactly what kind of character is Gabbo? He moves independently of his ventriloquist, which in this scene’s case could have been done in post production, I guess, but several times after we see him speaking and acting on his own. Arthur Crandall must have some kind of split personality or something.
• Krusty’s initial response to Gabbo with his own dummy is hilarious. Every time the kids scream, it gets even funnier. The dummy with the caved in head sprawled out in the middle of the audience is an amazing drawing.
  
• Quimby using Gabbo’s catchphrase to ameliorate himself after literally admitting to funding the murder of his political enemies is great enough, but made even better with the following day’s newspaper, “Two More Bodies Surface in Springfield Harbor” is a mere secondary headline to “Quimby Re-Elected in Landslide.”
• I’ve seen quite a few older Eastern European cartoons, and Worker & Parasite is pretty spot on to a lot of the look and feel of them. Krusty’s gobsmacked reaction is a solid go-to reaction image.
  
• The Gabbo’s “S.O.B.s” scene is so absolutely prescient to our current political and social climate. A public figure getting caught saying something damning, or being exposed as a hypocrite, absolutely doesn’t matter, as it’s forgotten in an hour when the next “big” thing happens. Also, if you’re popular and have a stronghold in your field, you can just get away with it, but if you’re lower on the totem pole, you’re out of luck, as is the case with Kent Brockman (another amazing smash cut to a newspaper where “Brockman Fired” is the subhead to GABBO.) As this episode points out, exposing your opponent doesn’t stop them, you have to beat them at their own game, a lesson I wish was actually being heeded to twenty-five years later.
• This episode kind of gave Crazy Old Man his “name” (“And now, the Crazy Old Man dancers!”) I don’t know if he was ever referred to this moniker again, but all supplemental material would call him Crazy Old Man. Then, for whatever reason, his name was switched to Old Jewish Man, I guess because the old name was too subtle. It’s one of those small changes in later seasons that just irrationally bother me, like when they switched Frink’s lab coat color from light green to white. It looked so much better in green!!
• It’s kind of a bummer that in this star-studded episode, the majority of the guest stars have passed on at this point. That’s been the case with the bulk of the guest stars so far in the series, but when they’re all together in one episode, it becomes a bit more somber.
• Why does Elizabeth Taylor have irises? I get she was known for her violet eyes, but it makes her look so damn weird. Also, I guess the joke with her is that, to make it seem slightly more realistic, not every celebrity Bart and Lisa asked said yes, and she later regretted it, but it always struck me as odd.
• Major kudos to Luke Perry, who suffers through maybe the most abuse of any guest star, for no other reason than Krusty’s burning jealousy. He really sells those screams and cries of agony (”My face! My valuable face!”) I also love the drawing of a disfigured Perry in Krusty’s fantasies.
  
• All the celebrities featured get their moments of being superhumanly awesome, but not only is it absurdist, but they’re all for the purpose of Krusty’s show being the biggest, most amazing thing ever on TV. Nowadays, a guest star doing something cool or amazing is just some dumb gag about how incredible they are and how much we should love them. Blecch.
• I always laugh at Flea yelling “HEY, MOE!!” It sounds slightly echoey, like he was screaming away from the mic when he recorded it, but that makes it even funnier to me.

12. Marge vs the Monorail

• It’s so great how you see the Liberty and Justice for Most inscription right at the start of the courthouse scene in the background as Burns is being carted in, succinctly telegraphing what’s to come. Burns proceeds to effortlessly pay his paltry fine for his monstrous crimes, and literally buys the statue of justice with his pocket change.
• I should have kept a counter for how many times the same Homer “Boring!” sound bite has been reused. He says it at the town hall, he said it just last episode in “Bypass,” he said it twice in “Marge Gets a Job” It’s such a unique read you can easily recognize it.
• “I have an idea. It might sound a little boring at first…” “Chat away. I’ll just amuse myself with some pornographic playing cards.”
• I’ve always loved these crowd shots during the “Monorail” song, everyone looks so jubilant. We also get another great instance of the one-armed Herman gesturing like in “Streetcar,” and next to him is show producer Richard Sakai, who has made cameos every now and again, most prominently as a karaoke singer in “One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish.”
  
• Act two begins with the Simpsons driving home on the pothole-filled road, and we see it again in act three at the monorail grand opening, serving as a constant reminder of Springfield’s skewed priorities. Rather than make real substantial change on a base level for their town, they’re easily led astray by whatever shiny new object or topic is dangled in front of them. It only gets more and more believable over time as our society continues to deteriorate.
• Lyle Lanley is such a great bullshitter, he’s even able to effortlessly divert Lisa’s suspicions by appealing to her ego. An episode like this done today would probably feature Lisa being the only sane voice in town, trying to get everyone else to listen to reason and being smug while doing it, but here, she’s a smart little kid who is just as susceptible to this huckster’s charms as anyone else.
• An actually good use of obviously reusing footage: the ad for Truckasaurus the Movie, featuring Marlon Brando (“You crazy car. I don’t know whether to eat you or kiss you.”) Then after just the right length of a pause, we get the disclaimer: “Celebrity voice impersonated.” Brilliant.
• “Your lifelong dream was to run out on the field during a baseball game, and you did it last year, remember?”
  
• In “Lisa’s First Word,” the episode was short, so they had to loop the floating heads around baby Bart’s head twice, and here they do the same thing with Marge driving to North Haverbrook, except they hold on Homer’s head for a few extra seconds after his line before they cut. It’s so weird thinking about episodes back in these days having to be padded and extended, rather than FOX just running another commercial.
• She reappeared a decade later in an awful episode, so I prefer this to be Lurleen’s one and only official re-appearance, her life in absolute ruin and her soulful voice replaced by a gravely Doris Grau. I also love the comparatively tepid applause she gets compared to the other celebrities Kent Brockman introduces. I wonder if Lurleen and Homer ever crossed paths at the event? Must have been a bit awkward.
• I keep repeating this, but man, I really miss the Quimby-Wiggum dynamic (“Watch it, you walking tub of donut batter!” “Hey, I got pictures of you, Quimby!” “You don’t scare me, that could be anyone’s ass!”) These two dopes going toe to toe with each other for control over this jerkwater berg is just so funny.
• Leonard Nimoy feels like one of the best guest stars of these early years because it really rides the line of reverence and mockery. Just like Adam West a few episodes ago, he’s a fading celebrity stuck doing guest appearances in small towns, and treated with that level of respect by normal people, which is to say not much at all. We get our moments of Quimby not knowing who he is and Nimoy clearly boring someone while giddily recounting Star Trek trivia, but then we get genuinely funny action moments from him, like saving Krusty’s life (“The world needs laughter”) and his reality-bending exit, literally beaming out of the scene. It’s the perfect blend of honoring a beloved celebrity while also sweeping the leg on them, compared to nowadays when it’s basically all reverence with one or two incredibly soft-gloved jabs.

13. Selma’s Choice

• Anytime the show mentions a specific future date as a gag is always great, like the “To be completed in 1994” line in the Duff Gardens commercial. That coaster’s twenty-five years overdue!
• The quiet dignity of Homer’s “Please” when the waiter asks if he wants another kid’s place mat is so wonderful. Dan Castellaneta can make a single word hysterical.
• Is that kid in the back some kind of misshapen Bart clone, or is that actually just an off-model Bart?
  
• I guess it’s supposed to be a dick move of Homer for eating Marge’s aunt’s treasured potato chips, but honestly, what was Marge going to do with those things? Put them in a frame?
• “Back to the Loch with you, Nessie!” This one scene makes me want to see an entire episode about Willie hitting the dating scene in the 90s. That shirt and chains!
  
• The fortune teller scene is one of those great jokes that’s impossible to unravel. The punchline is her exposing herself as being a fraud by drinking her own “truth serum” (“What are the magical ingredients?” “Mostly corn syrup, a little rubbing alcohol. You’ll be lucky if it doesn’t make your hair fall out actually.”) So her love potion is bullshit, but the truth serum actually works? But it not making sense almost makes it even funnier to me.
• The best sign gag of the entire series at the Springfield Sperm Bank: “Put Your Sperm in Our Hands”
• Any scene with Marge, Patty and Selma together is really interesting considering it’s just Julie Kavner talking to herself back and forth. Patty and Selma have effectively the same voice, but I feel like for almost every line you can pick out who’s who due to their subtle differences in tone, with Patty being a little gruffer and Selma more hopeful or despairing, depending on the situation.
• Coming so soon after the Frying Dutchman “All-You-Can-Eat” episode, I find it hard to believe that Homer couldn’t polish off a ten-foot hoagie in a day or two. I love how disgusting the sandwich looks in the end, completely purple with fungus growing on it. I can’t imagine how rancid that thing must taste.
• Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln at Disneyland would really be improved with an Abe Lincoln rap.
• The only net positive of Disney owning The Simpsons that could happen would be a complete re-theming of “It’s a Small World” to “The Little Land of Duff.” Hell, they could just Velcro a little beer bottle into every puppet’s hand and play that song on a loop and I’d be satisfied.
• Some great animation of Lisa’s psychedelic trip. I also love how the “Duff” music fades away and kicks back in as a new rock variation.
  
• Troy McClure’s loud laugh as Hercules always makes me laugh. Also, is “The Erotic Adventures of Hercules” actually a porno, or is it just a really racy adult movie? Surely Troy isn’t having sex on camera. I vote for the latter.
• “Stop the ride!!” “I’ll have to ask my supervisor!” “Better stop it!” This is one of those gags that’s great on its own, but I also love the added joke that the supervisor is a squeaky voiced teen just like the ride operator. It feels true to junky little theme parks run by teenagers of the olden days, but it’s also great how the joke just goes by, unfocused upon, and you can either pick up on it or not. So often nowadays, both in this series and other comedies, there’s such an emphasis to make sure you point out all the jokes and make them clear as day for the audience, when it’s so much more effective and satisfying for the viewer to pick it up themselves.
• It’s such a quick moment, but I love the small touch of Homer grabbing Selma’s hand to comfort her after she comes back from Duff Gardens and expresses how she doesn’t think she can take care of a baby. Even a lunkhead like Homer who hates his sister-in-law’s guts can see this woman is emotionally devastated, and reacts in a very human way.

14. Brother from the Same Planet

• The Barton Fink joke walked so the Naked Lunch joke in “Bart on the Road” could run.
• A pretty obvious instance of reused animation with Homer sitting on the beanbag chair in the rumpus room (?) from “Three Men and a Comic Book,” which I guess was only repurposed because you can clearly see it’s raining outside, as opposed to any scene with Homer in the TV room. Seriously, what room is he in?
• “Now how about a hug?”
  
• The Bigger Brothers commercial is so dark, with the announcer bluntly telling the kid his dad’s not coming back to life, and ending with him happily playing catch with his new big brother over his recently deceased father’s open grave.
• Tom was written with Tom Cruise in mind to voice him, but Phil Hartman is always a reliable back-up. He still brings a uniqueness to his performance, making Tom both cool and confident but also sincere. Even though he doesn’t have the greatest vocal range, how Hartman carries himself in playing the character makes him notably distinct from Troy McClure or Lionel Hutz.
• It really is incredibly weird that there’s just a random Ren & Stimpy scene in the middle of the episode. It’s not even like making fun of the show, it literally seems like a bit that would be on that show. They even had a layout artist from Ren & Stimpy supply reference materials to make it look authentic, and it shows. I wonder if this was just a ‘Fuck you’ by the writers toward John K, who notably said that The Simpsons was a success in spite of its writing.
• “Don’t thank me. Thank an unprecedented eight-year military build-up.” Pffft, eight years? We’re almost thirty years later, and STILL LOVING IT BABY. We love our obscenely high military budget, folks!
• After witnessing him out with Tom, Homer confronts Bart at the door in the manner of Richard Burton accusing Elizabeth Taylor of adultery in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolfe? Dan Castellaneta mixes Homer’s voice with Burton’s unique affect, but it’s only for a brief scene, and doesn’t really distract from the story. If you don’t know Woolfe, you just read it as Homer being overdramatic. Flash forward to decades later in season 30’s “Heartbreak Hotel,” where we get a three minute sequence of Homer and Marge almost verbatim doing actual lines of dialogue from the film for no discernible reason that just goes on forever, isn’t funny and makes no sense to anyone who’s unfamiliar with the source material (when “Hotel” aired, Woolfe was an over fifty-year-old film).
• Homer saying “revenge” was probably one of the better options on this list.
  
• The Lisa subplot with the Corey hotline is mostly empty filler, with the only real notable sequence being the montage of Lisa waiting by the phone and getting increasingly more anxious before she blows up at Maggie. It’s also kind of weird that the Simpson men and women are separated in their respective stories. Homer and Bart have multiple day trips with Tom and Pepi, some at the Simpson house, and Marge never had anything to say about it, I guess.
• Bart reenacting his “fake” glee of being on the swings to torture Homer being akin to him talking about faking an orgasm is maybe the most diablocally low-key filthy thing this show has ever done, and I love it.
• The all-out brawl between Homer and Tom at the end is a bit too much, mostly just in how Homer could possibly hold his own for that long against a strong guy like Tom. I guess everyone has their own threshold on what “unrealistic” joke they’re willing to go along with and laugh, or think is pushing it too far. Leonard Nimoy literally beaming out of a scene? That’s funny. Homer and Tom wrestling down Springfield Gorge and then going back up the other side? Now that’s just silly.

15. I Love Lisa

• The “Monster Mash” opening is another fantastic Bill & Marty bit, with Marty’s feeble attempt to justify playing the song on Valentine’s Day (“It’s kind of a love song. All the monsters enjoying each other’s company, dancing, keeping their evil in check…”) and his defeated “Why are you doing this to me?” when Bill rightfully calls him out on his mistake.
• “This is just another Hallmark holiday cooked up to sell cards!” I feel like Abe’s disgruntled sentiment wormed its way into my brain as a kid, as I hated mailing store bought cards when I could just make and draw my own instead. My aunt recently mailed me a giant box of old letters I sent to her and my grandparents when I was younger, and on more than one Hallmark card, I had written, “Enjoy this mass produced corporate card!” What a little shit I was.
• In grade school, I remember we were required to write out Valentines to everybody in the class so nobody felt left out, so the scenario of this episode would have never happened to me (thankfully).
• “The children are right to laugh at you, Ralph.” It may not seem possible, but Miss Hoover is an even worse educator than Mrs. Krabappel, especially in dealing with younger children.
• My single favorite frame from any Itchy & Scratchy episode.
  
• “Six simple words: I’m not gay, but I’ll learn.”
• Pretty neat animation with the light streaks going across Chief Wiggum’s windshield.
  
• “Hey, Mr. President! I campaigned for the other guy, but I voted for you!” Presumably this line was written before the election, and they added in the actual winner and his wife after the fact. I kind of feel like Krusty’s line makes more sense if Bush Sr. would have won.
• Sideshow Raheem. “Angry. Angry young man.”
• “Y’know, one day, honest citizens are gonna stand up to you crooked cops!” The Simpsons predicting 2020 again…
• “Mediocre Presidents” really is a great song, and how I first learned about William Henry Harrison’s 30 days in office. Fun fact, some people think he fell ill due to his rainy inauguration day, but he actually went into septic shock due to the White House’s water supply being downstream of a literal shit ton of public sewage. Eww.
• From this point, Ralph would devolve into a mildly annoying non-sequitur machine (last Sunday’s episode featured at least two such moments), but I miss this short-lived version of Ralph: very dim and immature, but still with enough sense to know what was going on. It strengthens the episode for sure; the moment of him dropping Lisa’s card into the (inexplicably real) fireplace is weirdly powerful.
  

16. Duffless

• It’s always great when Homer gets tripped up by his own brain. Him getting mixed up on whether he spoke his secret Duff Brewery plans out loud or thought them is so great. I love that as we pan up and down from his mouth to his head, it pans down to his mouth for a moment, before panning back up to his head as he thinks what he thinks he’s saying aloud, starting the mix-up.
• “Hey, that looks like Princess Di! Ohh, it’s just a pile of rags.” Can anyone explain this joke to me? Is it that Barney’s drunk already? Or is the complete stupidity of Barney driving off his mark meant to make it even funnier that Homer gets hurt jumping out the window?
• Hey, it’s Big Butt Skinner two seasons earlier!
  
• Homer’s complete disdain toward Nixon is always funny (“The man never drank a beer in his life!”)
• I love Homer’s frozen smile watching the horrific footage of Troy McClure’s driving safety video (“Here’s an appealing fellow! In fact, they’re a-peeling him off the sidewalk!”)
  
• Ned’s tale of woe of his one fateful night of raspberry schnapps is so great (“I was more animal than man!”) I love the touch of when we see him get into bed, he feebly grasps at the sheets for a moment before settling in, both showing that he’s a bit tipsy, and he can’t see so well with his glasses off.
• “My name is Hans. Drinking has ruined my life. I’m 31 years old!” Well, it happened: I’m finally as old as Hans Moleman.
• Are beer commercials still like this? I haven’t watched live TV since 2008.
  
• “That’ll learn ‘em to bust my tomater.”
• I like that we see Homer still riding Lisa’s bike several times through the episode, a signifier of what alcohol has cost him, but then by the end we see him embracing his new sober life as he takes his final bike ride with Marge. Of course, none of that matters because by next episode he’ll be blindingly drunk, but it’s kind of sweet for the purposes of this one story.

Original airdate: October 11, 2020

The premise: Lisa stays home from school sick and tells some stories about famous artists: herself as Leonardo da Vinci, Bart as a generic French impressionist, and Marge and Homer as Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.

The reaction: Oh jeez, two of these in a row? Seriously, these fantasy episodes are so boring to watch, I barely have anything else to say about them. Treehouse of Horrors, at least in the classic era, felt like exceptions because the stories mostly took place in the “real world” of the show as horrific elements befell the characters. I asked last week, but seriously, does anybody like these episodes? Even looking at No Homers this morning, most of those diehard fans are giving it low scores. Hell, I don’t like it when any show does this fantasy episode shit. Futurama‘s “Naturama.” It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia‘s “The Gang Cracks the Liberty Bell.” I watch the show I’m watching because I like these characters in this setting, so when you change that, I don’t care as much. If they were to tell these stories about famous historical or fictional people, maybe it could be engaging, but that’s never the case. Act one has Lisa-nardo being very talented and sad. In act two, Bart leads an impressionist movement, and then the king likes his paintings. Act three has Homer/Diego and Marge/Frida more or less just straight retelling the story behind Rivera’s “Man at the Crossroads” commissioned mural at Rockefeller Plaza. Being an art major, this all should be appealing to me, but it just isn’t at all. It’s not taking these historical events and retelling them in unique or satirical ways, it just feels like an excuse to draw the characters in different costumes and give the other artists more work to do. Futurama‘s “The Duh-Vinci Code” featured a twist explaining da Vinci’s genius: he was actually a refugee from an alien world, but upon returning there, we see that he was actually one of the dumbest of his extremely advanced species. It was a unique episode, and also felt natural in-universe, as the premise is driven by Professor Farnsworth idolizing da Vinci as a great inventor. These episodes just suck. S’all I can say about it.

Two items of note:
– This episode features our next re-casted POC character: one line from Eric Lopez as the new Bumblebee Man. He doesn’t really sound much like Hank Azaria, but it really doesn’t matter. When was the last time Bumblebee Man had a line? On the Simpsons wiki, he’s made relatively sporadic appearances over the last decade, but I don’t know if they list appearances based on if the character actually speaks, or if they just make a silent cameo in a crowd or something. The only actually notable characters left to be dealt with are Apu, Dr. Hibbert, Lou the cop, and maybe Drederick Tatum, all of the others barely show up anymore and don’t really matter. Also, specifically about Bumblebee Man, why does he even still exist in 2020? The character was born out of one of the writers randomly coming upon a Mexican comedy show featuring a man in a red grasshopper suit, so they replicated it with Homer doing the same. Back in the early 90s, if you flipped your TV up to like channel 79, you could just watch Spanish television and be fascinated by “weird” shows like that. But in 2020, when nobody channel surfs and just watches streaming services, and with El Chapulín Colorado long removed from the air waves, what is Bumblebee Man supposed to represent on the show anymore?
– Marge/Frida mentions that a young man named Bernie Sanders has recently been born who will champion socialism, which is followed by a scene of baby Bernie vouching for free cootie shots on the playground, under the threat of his “Bernie Babies” bullies, who beat up another kid for no reason (“I disavow that, and welcome it!”) Now, a couple things with this. First, Diego Rivera’s Rockefeller Plaza commission was in the early 1930s, and Bernie Sanders was born in 1941, so the timeline doesn’t even come close to lining up. Second, this gag clearly feels like it was written a year ago when Bernie was the frontrunner leading up the primaries, so seeing this joke three weeks before the Trump/Biden election feels like another example of the show being woefully too late in making cultural references. And finally, it’s just a shitty gag. There’s plenty you can poke fun at Bernie about, but a Bernie Bros joke? Seriously? It also feels especially tone-deaf now to joke about someone demanding free healthcare when we’re still living in a pandemic with 200k Americans dead. But don’t worry, the majority of the show’s writers and producers have been working this cushy job for over a decade, and I’m sure they’ve never had any serious worries about their healthcare.