The Simpsons - General Discussion

[Galileo908]

Yes it was -- which kind of made things even more confusing.

 

Well, the episode is called "Cue Detective." Don't know why it played over a Mad Max-like timeskip, though.

 

Agreed, that was a definite improvement over last week.

 

Wasn't quite sure what to make of the scenes running over the credits -- the smoker was indestructible and survived for over a 1000 years until aliens bees landed on Earth and took it with them.

 

The Greasy Hobo's story that The Hive fell from space ended up being true.

[Setlist]

I had such poor hopes for this season after the depressing, Lena Dunham-infused premiere. But, holy crap. This episode had a reasonable ending and a television show tie-in that won't totally date the episode in a few years. I'm impressed.

Loved the Alton line regarding cuts that'd make the cooking show more dramatic. Also loved the reaction to Marge's every-spice brisket. And I laughed out loud when the greasy hobo in the clouds quickly mentioned that he died. Well done, season 27.

[TVSpectator]

This episode was far better than last week's episode. I also loved how the whole family was wearing attic clothes the whole time during this episode and that the washer machine plot wasn't solved till the end of the episode (and I am thinking that the animators had a hell of a time drawing/coloring in all of those new clothes!). Although, I was thinking that Homer would've won the contest or at least won enough money to buy a new washer but it turns out Marge just sold the Beehive Smoker, and we even got a flashforward with the life of the magic Beehive Smoker! Why isn't that all flashforward's to distant futures always end up in a dystopian world for this show?

 

 I was kinda sad at Greasy Hobo (Edward James Olmos) being needlessly killed off, but his Cloud Self was just so funny. Now he can spy on anyone in the shower!

 

 

Wait that was Edward James Olmos?! I never noticed. 

 

 

When the episode starts with kids booing the 20th Century Fox logo, I knew this was gonna be a good one. This one was MUCH better than last week.

 

I can't believe the Simpsons would show (most) of the real Dr. Doolittle. Well, I guess the writers are tired of writing their own bad movies, so they used a real one.

 

For a moment there I actually thought that they would show one of their own, make believe movies, but they ended up just showing Dr. Doolittle (without hearing the Talk To The Animals Song), but I am not surprised that this was one of Skinner's favorite movies. Totally typical of him to like a bad movie and I feel we dodge a bullet and Skinner didn't show Howard The Duck

[Galileo908]

I'm pretty sure that Skinner was the one who outed Wiggum as not being Dr. Doolittle.

[Aprilshowers]

This episode was pure shit under another pile of shit under some garbage.

 

They need a new writing team stat, this was an abysmal effort. They seriously should have just stuck with a narcolepsy plot, sure would explain a lot about Homer. 

[Kaboom 2.0]

I agree, there was a definite improvement in this week's ep compared to the premiere. The second the kids started booing the 20th Century Fox logo I smiled and my hopes were raised. Loved all the guest VOs, I have the weirdest crush on Ben Schwartz and loved hearing him as the guy with the ear lobe hoops. Loved seeing the Simpsons, er, Stink-sons, in their various attic clothes; I swear Maggie was wearing an oven mitt at one point. It's too bad the Greasy Hobo died, I really liked him and Edward James Olmos performance. 

 

I so feel for those Springfield Elementary students. We too were subjected to old family-demo movies in the elementary and middle grade school I attended (via projector!), one of them being Dr. Doolittle, and I never want to see any of them again. :-)

[Spartan Girl]

MUCH BETTER! Not perfect, but the first episode that made me laugh in a while.

I loved the kids heckling Dr. Doolittle. And I was pleasantly surprised that Marge actually had a funny joke about Lance Armstrong...and she actually tried to encourage Lisa's Buddhism! That really shocked me, considering how intolerant she is of it most of the time.

[Snow Apple]

I groaned when they sent Homer out alone with a bag of money to buy a washing machine. You just know he's going to lose the money buying something silly. Then Homer made a reference about what we're thinking, so I'll give them props for that.

[JTMacc99]

MUCH BETTER! Not perfect, but the first episode that made me laugh in a while.

I loved the kids heckling Dr. Doolittle. And I was pleasantly surprised that Marge actually had a funny joke about Lance Armstrong...and she actually tried to encourage Lisa's Buddhism! That really shocked me, considering how intolerant she is of it most of the time.

I loved that Lance Armstrong moment. I thought for sure Marge was going to be behind the times on the Livestrong Bracelet story and have Lisa correct her, but instead she was just awesome in the way she turned the real story into an inspiration.  Heh.

 

I did like the little throwback to a great earlier moment when Homer lifted his head up off the ground to say "To try is to fail!"  To me, that's almost the same thing as showing the Mumu in the attic.  

 

And god help me, I loved Santa's Little Helper with his head in the peanut butter jar.  Possibly because I now own a greyhound, (the Italian version) and yep. I can see that happening.  

[Kel Varnsen]

Wow i really liked this one. Sure the plot was recycled, but some of the lines and gags were hilaious (i love a good spit take). Plus the animation was really good and i loved the background bits like the fake beer names in the bar and Carl's I hate Mondays and I hate tuesdays mugs. And homers Sad montage was really funny. I can't believe they got away with that Burns line when he was on the statue.

[Galileo908]

We learn the fate of what happened to Teen Homer's car! He forgot it at a music festival. Seemed oddly fitting.

 

I thought we'd be rehashing "Burns marries Mrs. Bouvier" plot again, but I like that Burns just wants Abe to not have her. I thought it was odd that she now lived in a house and not Hal Roach apartments. But then Patty & Selma burned the house down when setting fire to their cigarettes and it all made sense.

 

I loved how the couch gag was called back halfway through. And I like how Yo-Yo Ma actually stuck around for the entire birthday party.

 

Didn't really care for the Maggie plot...until Spider-Pig showed up.

Edited October 12, 2015 by Galileo908

[Spartan Girl]

I could watch a whole episode with just Magge and Spider-Pig.

LOL at Homer and Bart bleaching their eyes after seeing Patty in the shower.

[Jediknight]

The Maggie plot was excellent.  Loved the return of Spider-Pig, and that he had powers and saved the day.

 

Outside of Homer and Bart bleaching their eyes, the main plot wasn't great.

[JocelynCavanaugh]

I had to mute all the Maggie scenes. Her paci sucking noise has gotten more and more annoying through the years. I wish there were a version of Simpsons for misophonia sufferers -- no family eating noises, either. Episodes with a lot of Maggie or Barney are almost unwatchable for me now.

[Kaboom 2.0]

I can't believe how much I enjoyed Homer consoling Bart outside the bathroom post-Homer seeing Patty in the nude and post-Homer bleaching his eyes. Maggie's adventures with the animals was too cute and yes! The return of Spider Pig!!

And omg, Duff Man's "I've heard of wanting a cracker but actually becoming one, oh no!" to his returned parrot Hoppy made me lol.

Edited October 12, 2015 by Kaboom 2.0

[TVSpectator]

I liked this episode, especially the Maggie part and I swear, they should make that into a full length movie. 

[futurechemist]

The Fox promos made it seem that this episode would be all about Burns and Grampa wooing Marge's mom.  So good job with the misleading promo Fox.

 

Didn't 1 of both of Patty and Selma lose their sense of smell (from the episode where Selma marries Sideshow Bob) so that cigarette smoke wouldn't be a problem.

 

Maggie's plot was cute if forgettable.  I suppose the whole episode was kind of bland and forgettable.

[Trick Question]

First Maggie subplot in.....geez, how long?  Part of me wonders if the episode broke an unwritten rule by having Maggie "talk," even if via subtitle.  I think a number of the jokes probably could've worked even without the dialogue, or if just the animals were subtitled and they understood Maggie's pacifier-sucking anyway.

 

And omg, Duff Man's "I've heard of wanting a cracker but actually becoming one, oh no!" to his returned parrot Hoppy made me .

I can't believe it took until the 27th season to have the funniest episode-closing line in Simpsons history, but here it is!

Edited October 12, 2015 by Trick Question

[Snow Apple]

Loved Maggie's story. It was a pleasant reminder to me of the book version of Mary Poppins. There was a chapter where the baby twins can talk to animals but lost the ability when they grew older, as it happens to all children.

[TVSpectator]

The Fox promos made it seem that this episode would be all about Burns and Grampa wooing Marge's mom.  So good job with the misleading promo Fox.

 

Didn't 1 of both of Patty and Selma lose their sense of smell (from the episode where Selma marries Sideshow Bob) so that cigarette smoke wouldn't be a problem.

 As with the FOX promo, I didn't watch it because the promo monkeys either totally screw the pooch by showing the episode's "twist" or are misleading (and it happened with Family Guy when they were doing a promo for Not All Dogs Go To Heaven. They made it seem that it will be mostly about Star Trek, but instead it was mostly about Brian, Meg, and religion).

 

Yeah, they claim to have lost their sense of smell because of their smoking (which it really does do, btw),  but usually when you quit, it starts in about  two days after you stop, and everything starts (or try) to  return to normal. Everything that the smokes does kinds of goes away pretty fast, but the actual quitting part is what is hard and extremely hard for some people to do (and sometimes you do end up gaining weight because you want to put something in your mouth). Now, I would say that the extent to the repair would be base on how much damage has been done. 

[giovannif7]

Is this the first series to use the official "Happy Birthday To You" song since last month's federal ruling that it's in the Public Domain? I wonder if there was originally a different song used when the episode was first put together, and they switched it once the ruling came down.

Edited October 13, 2015 by giovannif7

[Kel Varnsen]

We learn the fate of what happened to Teen Homer's car! He forgot it at a music festival. Seemed oddly fitting.

 

Didn't really care for the Maggie plot...until Spider-Pig showed up.

That wasn't Homer's car, homer drove a Plymouth superbird (recognizable by the giant rear spoiler) not a Pontiac GTO.

Agreed though Spider pig was awesome, especially that he had spider powers.

[JTMacc99]

Selma lost her sense of smell when a bottle rocket went up her nose in that alternate timeline. To our knowledge Patty never permanently lost her sense of smell, so if one wanted to hold The Simpsons to some sort of rules about things not contradicting other things, it is feasible that Patty could regain her sense of smell like she did in this episode.

 

I laughed a little too easily at the: Bowl full of cigarettes and lighters -> Burning bowl of cigarettes and lighters -> Family standing around rubble of house that burned down.

[Galileo908]

A Halloween episode that's not the Treehouse of Horror episode? Gasp. They should really do these every year, this one was pretty good!

 

Yeah, I'm with Lisa, places like Universal REALLY amps up the gore and horror and are not apologetic about it. I had an experience much like hers when I was her age, it's why I'm not too into horror. Homer trying to take Lisa's mind off oh Halloween by humming the theme from Halloween, while Lisa joins in, was such a great bit.

 

Lisa dressing up as Frieda Kahlo is so perfectly her. Just like Marzipan from Homestar Runner did so many years ago.

 

The whole bit with "Adult Halloween" set to a parody of Time Warp was equal parts funny, catchy and horrifying. I loved spotting everyone's costumes, but I'm not sure which image won't leave my head: Ranier Wolfcastle as Jessica Rabbit or Chief Wiggum as Bondage Frankenstein.

[Spartan Girl]

Any episode with Homer and Lisa bonding is great.

I've already got "Naked Wasted Grownup Halloween" Time Warp in my head.

Edited October 19, 2015 by Spartan Girl

[ottoDbusdriver]

The whole bit with "Adult Halloween" set to a parody of Time Warp was equal parts funny, catchy and horrifying. I loved spotting everyone's costumes, but I'm not sure which image won't leave my head: Ranier Wolfcastle as Jessica Rabbit or Chief Wiggum as Bondage Frankenstein.

 

I liked this episode.  Was that Princess Jasmine in the background during the Adult Hallowe'en scene ?

 

Martin: "That Adult Hallowe'en looked like fun."

Ralph: "I saw an areola."

Edited October 19, 2015 by ottoDbusdriver

[bmoore4026]

I'm a sucker for good "hiding from the bad guys" movies and such, so this was rather giddy inducing for me :)

 

Also, it was nice seeing Homer and Lisa bonding.  I've not seen this show terribly often since 2000, but the blurb for this episode peeked my interest.  This felt like an old school episode, before they made the characters so one off.

 

"Grown Up Halloween" is one of the best Simpsons songs I've heard.

 

So, yeah.  New classic, this episode.

[Snow Apple]

I too liked Homer and Lisa together. Good use of the "people in masks" trope. That always gives me the chills.

 

I kept expecting Lisa's tail to turn into "tailypo" and her freaking out.

[AimingforYoko]

It took me a minute to figure out that the "happy tune" Homer was humming was the Halloween theme. Then I cracked up.

[Kaboom 2.0]

It' s nice to be reminded that Lisa is still a little girl and not the know-it-all downer she has been presented as, and I loved how invested Homer was in supporting her and to help her overcome her fears. I really felt for at Krustyland's Halloween Horror Night although I did giggle when Homer, assuming he was holding her hand but was instead holding Hans Moleman's, shushed Hans so he could choose a pretzel topping. Ah Homer, never change.

 

I liked all of the adult Halloween costumes, I LOL'd at Barney's Borat-inspired green, one piece thong but squeed when I saw Lenny and Karl as Bert and Ernie. :-) 

 

Ralph's "I saw an areola" was genius, yet another great Ralph-ism. Hee!

[beadgirl]

I love when little-girl Lisa shows up.  But she stole my Halloween constume! 

 

The adult Halloween song was brilliant, so on-point.

 

 

Lenny and Karl as Bert and Ernie. :-)

Actually, that was Eddie and Lou (and I squeeed too).  Lenny and Carl were dressed as Kang and Kodos.

[bmoore4026]

While lying in bed last night, I just recalled another reason for liking this episode; I empathized with Lisa.  I never thought I'd say that, but I was a total scaredy-cat crybaby when I was little and I totally disrupt an amusement park attraction because of my fear, much to my parents irritation.

 

So, yeah, this episode really hit close to home.

[xander874]

I thought this was one of the best episodes I had seen in a long while. Ditto to those that said it felt old school. I don't mind Homer being dumb but I dont like when he is super neglectful. I like that he's a moron who loves his family and this episode showed that. Also the grown up Halloween was brilliant.

[TVSpectator]

I loved that in this episode we got to see Lisa act like a child and not a 30+-year-old whining about some cause. Also, I loved.....

 

1. How Apu was right about those pop-up employees trying to scam him Although, I do know a person who worked in one of those of stores but she was actually an employee of another company that owned the Halloween Pop-up, and they would just have the=ose employees work shifts between their regular store and the Halloween Pop-up store. 

2. Homer singing the theme song to Halloween, trying to act like everything is normal while the three goons were trying to break in, and Lisa singing the same scary song and not knowing it. 

3. Horror Kristyland and Cthulhu that was in the background. 

4. Adult Halloween and everything that went along with it, minus of course, the Bondage Wiggum and Rainier Wolfcaslter dress as Jessica Rabbit. 

5. Finding out that Lisa had a safety toy/stuff animal and how it just regrew back to life once Maggie found it!

[VCRTracking]

I like this one a whole lot. An in-canon episode after all these years was actually a good idea. Poor Lisa. I was an easily scared kid and I can relate.  The "Grownups Halloween" song was great.

[SmithW6079]

I thought this episode was genuinely filled with tension -- these unknown strangers are planning to break-in and do who knows what to Homer and his family.

Why did Homer need to light the fireworks? Didn't the neighbors come out and see him and Lisa on the roof before he lit them off?

[TVSpectator]

I guess the idea behind lighting the fireworks was to gain the attention of the adult party goers who would probably not noticed Homer and Lisa on the roof and they may also be farther away than just yelling out to them, but maybe their house is in a position where they can visually see what is going on. Knowing the residents of Springfield, I think that Homer actually had a good idea on how to gain attention from the town's residents. 

Edited October 21, 2015 by TVSpectator

[tennisgurl]

That "Adult Halloween" song is probably going to be stuck in my head until next Halloween. 

[Galileo908]

Cold Open: John K goodness! I'll admit, this was freaking awesome. And of course the monster in the grave was Grimey (according to Al Jean, it was the crew's only note to John K aside from Bart saying "Tick or Treat.")

 

Wanted: Dead, Then Alive: "24 years of attempting to kill a 10 year old boy has finally paid off!" Massive balls for the show doing this story first. But man, this was just brutal. Of course Bob wouldn't be able to stand today's college students. But this IS Springfield U after all. (I loved that he still went back to teach after becoming a chimera).

 

Homerzilla: Great detail on everyone's dialogue being poorly dubbed and badly acted. I also loved how Homerzilla (at least the B&W one) clearly looked like Homer in a Godzilla suit...and then it revealed it really was a movie. I thought the segment went downhill once we got that twist, even if it took lots of great potshots at the two American Godzilla movies.

 

"We can only slowly avoid it!"

 

Telepaths of Glory: This was probably the best of the three segments. Of course Milhouse and Maggie getting superpowers would be awesome. Maggie making Frenchmen polite was probably my favorite paert.

 

"God gave you these powers for good, not jazz!"

 

ETA: All three segments started great but just...petered out. None of them had any ending, they just ended.

Edited October 26, 2015 by Galileo908

[Spartan Girl]

Last week's Halloween episode was a lot better. To quote Kang and Kodos, just because you make it look like season 4 doesn't make it season 4.

And I did not need to see Bob abusing Bart's corpse like that.

[mtlchick]

"Just cause it looks like season 4 doesn't make it season 4!'  True words, Kodos.

 

I don't watch Simpsons as often anymore but I did tonight for Sideshow Bob and it didn't disappoint.  There was a LOT of hidden jokes for both Simpsons and Fox properties (Scrat!) I did enjoy the Zilla French AND Quebec French dubbings being tossed.

[AimingforYoko]

Telepaths of Glory: This was probably the best of the three segments. Of course Milhouse and Maggie getting superpowers would be awesome. Maggie making Frenchmen polite was probably my favorite part.

A Chronicle parody? Really? Although, I did enjoy the shot at all the found footage movies.

Homerzilla: Great detail on everyone's dialogue being poorly dubbed and badly acted. I also loved how Homerzilla (at least the B&W one) clearly looked like Homer in a Godzilla suit...and then it revealed it really was a movie. I thought the segment went downhill once we got that twist, even if it took lots of great potshots at the two American Godzilla movies.

 

I didn't see the parody swerve into making fun of the Godzilla movies, but not bad.

Wanted: Dead, Then Alive: "24 years of attempting to kill a 10 year old boy has finally paid off!" Massive balls for the show doing this story first. But man, this was just brutal. Of course Bob wouldn't be able to stand today's college students. But this IS Springfield U after all. (I loved that he still went back to teach after becoming a chimera).

 

Damn, I wanted to love this but just killing Bart over and over got old. I did enjoy the shot at the young people, though. Get off my lawn!

"Just cause it looks like season 4 doesn't make it season 4!'  True words, Kodos.

Simpsons meta at its finest.

[ottoDbusdriver]

I thought it was particularly funny after Homer knocked out Sideshow Bob with the lamp and he stated that "that was for framing Krusty" -- a callback all the way to Season 1.  Loved that moment.

[SnideAsides]

I thought the segment went downhill once we got that twist, even if it took lots of great potshots at the two American Godzilla movies.

The first of which had Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer, and Nancy Cartwright among its cast.

[Galileo908]

The first of which had Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer, and Nancy Cartwright among its cast.

Yep, saw it in the theater when Rifftrax mocked it last year. One of the guys sucking up to the director at the end was modeled to be Hank Azaria to boot.

[TVSpectator]

I loved the first story, but I found the last two to be okay. I never saw Chronicle (which is on my always growing list of movies I want to watch, but have been out for a long time) and I never saw the Godzilla remake but still I liked how Grandpa was the only one feeding the Homer beast donuts. 

[Kaboom 2.0]

I seriously only laughed when Bob stepped on a rake (of course!), had to deal with Springfield's finest collegiate students, Homer hitting him for framing Krusty a million years ago, and when Maggie turned the Frenchman into a polite Frenchman.

 

I think I liked last week's ep better than the actual ToH but I'll rewatch this when I can, maybe I'll like it better. 

[Taeolas]

It was a great episode, very fresh and on point in many ways. I wonder if this freshness is because it's ground the show hasn't been able to tread before. Hallowe'en is the THOH territory, so the show's always avoided it, skipping ahead to Thanksgiving and Christmas instead; so being able to do an actual Hallowe'en episode is new, refreshing ground for them.

 

Anyways, a great story arc for everyone, and fantastic sight gags (and other gags... but no more ball gags please!). 

[AKA...CJ86]

It took me a minute to figure out that the "happy tune" Homer was humming was the Halloween theme. Then I cracked up.

This made the episode for me.  I loved it when Lisa was humming it as well.

 

I enjoyed this episode much more than the Treehouse of Horror one.  The last couple years, I thought the ToH were pretty good---I really liked last years, but this one, to me at least, was a stinker.

 

***waits for stones to be hurled...

Edited October 26, 2015 by CyberJawa1986

[Spartan Girl]

This made the episode for me.  I loved it when Lisa was humming it as well.

 

I enjoyed this episode much more than the Treehouse of Horror one.  The last couple years, I thought the ToH were pretty good---I really liked last years, but this one, to me at least, was a stinker.

 

***waits for stones to be hurled...

You aren't alone. I thought this year's TOH sucked too.