The Simpsons - General Discussion

[Spartan Girl]

I had to laugh at Smithers outmaneuvering all of Burns' trapdoors and then revealing a secret trapdoor under his desk.  Sometimes it really pays to set up the design.  Hee.

[Kaboom 2.0]

Julio deserved better than Smithers, and I say that as a Smithers fan. I kept cackling at Smithers taking out his frustration on his 3 Stooges, Homer, Carl and Lenny by making them actually, gasp!, work. And Smithers spoiling Burns' attempts to have him fall down any trap door made me lol.

[maplebrew]

Since Smithers has a preference for at least one elderly gentleman, it might have worked out better to try and pair him off with George Takei.

[TVSpectator]

I loved the song that Smithers sang at the beginning of this episode and I do hope that they create some more songs for us to hear. I also liked seeing the Smithers dating Julio, even though it was predictable that Smithers' new boyfriend will be Julio and that he will eventually return to Burns (they always press the reset button at the end of each episode), it was just good seeing Smithers trying to move one from Burns and being moderately happy about it. 

 

As with the B-plot, the only thing that I like was that Lisa was in Casablanca: The Play! I found the Jack character to be too weird, and I was half-expecting him to be a midget hiding out in an elementary school, but they never went there. 

Edited April 5, 2016 by TVSpectator

[radishcake]

Homer recalls a family vacation to the Grand Canyon with the Flanders.

[xander874]

 

As with the B-plot, the only thing that I like was that Lisa was in Casablanca: The Play! I found the Jack character to be too weird, and I was half-expecting him to be a midget hiding out in an elementary school, but they never went there.

Yeah, that plot sort of petered out and didn't really go anywhere. I usually prefer the B plots, but not this time.

 

I just wish Smithers had gone to the steel mill at some point. We work hard and we play hard.

[SnideAsides]

Ralph: "Miss Hoover, which one is oral?"

 

I have no idea how the show got away with that one.

[Winter Rose]

[after Lisa publishes a comic of Mr. Burns abolishing free speech]

Mr. Burns: This is an outrage! Since when are public figures fair game for satire?

Smithers: Your goons did run her off the road, sir.

Mr. Burns: I can't be held responsible for what my goons were ordered to do!

 

Mr. Burns: Bah! It's as easy as crushing an ant.

[tries and fails to step on an ant; the ant throws him to the ground]

Mr. Burns: [to the ant] Take my wallet and leave me alone!

 

Bart: Hey crypt keeper, I like your Dodge Scareavan!

[kids laugh]

Mr. Burns: How dare you mock my mobila-mobile. It was the first car to outrun a man.

Nelson: A caveman!

[kids laugh]

Nelson: I thought of that 'cause I slept in a cave last night.

Mr. Burns: Of all the-- I will not be lampooned by schoolchildren. Kill them, Smithers!

Smithers: Ah, you could just buy a new car, sir.

Mr. Burns: Well, whatever's easier.

[ganesh]

I loved the song with all the nuclear reactor puns! (Because I'm in nuclear, so anytime it gets a fun send up, it's great.) Burns doesn't sing much on the show, does he?

 

 

And they paired Smithers with Julio. Now there's a lazy pairing if I ever saw one.

 

 

As much as I give the show credit that everyone was and has been chill about Smithers, was it too hard to create an original character? It's kind of like The Walking Dead. 

 

I am so going to use, "am I in the green?"

 

I thought Takei was married?!

[Galileo908]

Billboard: Kirk - Punch me in the stomach $5! Cash only

 

Chalkboard: Never Lose a Bet to Bart Simpson

 

Cough Gag: 2001 spoof I'm guessing? Either way I liked it.

 

Really loved the British Football stuff. Shary Bobbins! Paddington and Winnie The Pooh as a couple was yet another odd pairing I thought I'd never see on this show.

 

Man, this was a good one, I really liked both plots tonight. Lisa's was able to pull off that rare feat of being funny and heartbreaking at the same time. That hasn't happened on this show in a while. We don't see many plots that involve either Bart or Lisa with Maggie, so I liked Bart bonding with her.

 

The musicals in Capital City were great. I'd see "Cheney Get your Gun" and "Jesus Christ, Supercar." I also liked the spoofing on the trends of making musicals out of movies that aren't musicals (and casting American Idol has-beens in them). Of course Marge would go see Bad News Bears: The Musical. Mom taste, after all. I loved how the ghost of Walter Matthau gets a standing ovation. I also liked how they used Andrew Rannells here. (From The Book of Mormon! Not the Fat Guy!)

[Jediknight]

Marge and Lisa got to be some of the last people to see Bad News Bears: The Musical, since it's closing tomorrow according to that cab.

 

I would go see Riddler on the Roof, no question about it.

[opus]

I got a lot of laughs tonight. Only nitpick was that NFL games from London are on earlier in the US, not later.

[Spartan Girl]

I liked Bart and Maggie bonding. That, at least, was new.

But everything else was yet another "Marge is the patron saint of martyrs and Lisa is just a pretentious brat lucky to dwell in her shadow" story. Maybe I'd be more sympathetic to Marge if every once in a while someone would call her out on her shortcomings. Like when she tried to manipulate Lisa back to Christianity, and didn't stand up for her when Rev Lovejoy called her a "devil daughter."

I just don't feel it with this show anymore. I think I'm done.

[ottoDbusdriver]

I liked the section at the start with Bart and his pranks, especially how no one would fall for the dollar bill gag -- that speech by Cletus was funny about how even he wouldn't fall for that.  And Hans Moleman has never needed glasses -- who knew ?

[TVSpectator]

Marge and Lisa got to be some of the last people to see Bad News Bears: The Musical, since it's closing tomorrow according to that cab.

 

I would go see Riddler on the Roof, no question about it.

 

Sing me up for Riddler on the Roof! I would also like to see Men In Black: The Musical. 

Edited April 11, 2016 by TVSpectator

[Galileo908]

I forgot about Riddler on The Roof! Who would play him now that Frank Gorshin is dead?

[SnideAsides]

Man, this was a good one, I really liked both plots tonight. Lisa's was able to pull off that rare feat of being funny and heartbreaking at the same time. That hasn't happened on this show in a while. We don't see many plots that involve either Bart or Lisa with Maggie, so I liked Bart bonding with her.

They did it last week with Smithers's plot. I do agree we need more Maggie plots though, although I guess part of the issue is her plots kind of have to be either "Maggie temporarily bonds with character X" (Homer, Moe, now Bart) or sightgaggy silent films (the Ayn Rand School for Tots, The Longest Daycare, that time Homer left her in the playground behind Moe's).

 

Actually, as much as the show now will never live up to the standards of the show twenty years ago, this season's had a few really, really strong episodes - this one, last week, the canon Halloween episode, even the one with Apu's nephew running the Kwik-E-Mart was pretty decent.

[Jediknight]

I forgot about Riddler on The Roof! Who would play him now that Frank Gorshin is dead?

Jesse Eisenberg, he already gave me massive Riddler vibes in his portrayal of Lex Luthor.

[Kaboom 2.0]

I laughed a little TOO loud when I saw the Cheyney, Get Your Gun poster. I would SO go see that musical, as I would Riddler on the Roof. 

 

I had totally forgotten that the Capital City Goofball has his own Statue of Liberty-like statue in the harbor, hee! 

 

Andrew Rannells was so great, loved when he told Lisa she was being an unappreciative little turd (those were not his exact words, lol) to Marge. Also loved Maggie and Bart bonding, they were too cute!

[In2You]

Mom, romance is dead. It was acquired in a hostile takeover by Hallmark and Disney, homogenized, and sold off piece by piece

[M. Darcy]

I loved that the theatre was named after Danny Simon (for non theatre nerds - he was Neil's older brother who was also a comedy writer and might have been the inspiration for The Odd Couple). And, Andrew was his normal adorable self.

[BatmanBeatles]

Burns: How dare you interrupt my Lime Ricky?

[honeywest]

TV announcer: "It's ten o'clock. Do you know where your children are?"

Homer: "I told you last night: no!"

[Galileo908]

Opening: Ralph as Charlie Brown!

 

Billboard: Quimby: Interns Wanted. Must be slutty and slender

 

Chalkboard: Dad swears he'll get his taxes done soon.

 

Couch Gag: Disney style! Of course it was GORGEOUSLY animated, since an actual Disney animator worked on it.

 

Remember that time when the family went on a trip to the Grand Canyon that looked like a really good advertisement for the Grand Canyon? "It's like Disneyland for thin people!" It was pretty much Homer Loves Flanders and Boy Scoutz in Da Hood if everyone was mean. I do like how it was all a story Homer related to Maggie, then Lisa. Of course Lisa's piece of the canyon had been tagged by El Barto.

 

I can see myself naming a band Hogwar Swanson.

[ottoDbusdriver]

That was actually pretty good.

 

Even though there were some oddly out of place things/references -- since Bart and Lisa have basically been 10 and 8 respectively for 27 years now, things like cell phones and Netflix didn't even exist when they were just two years younger.  It's weird.

Edited April 25, 2016 by ottoDbusdriver

[Galileo908]

I think we can say that this was a different "two years ago" than when Homer worked at the bowling alley.

That was actually pretty good.

 

Even though there were some oddly out of place things/references -- since Bart and Lisa have basically been 10 and 8 respectively for 27 years now, things like cell phones and Netflix didn't even exist when they were just two years younger.  It's weird.

That observation deck also wouldn't have existed, it was installed in the last ten years or so.

Edited April 25, 2016 by Galileo908

[TVSpectator]

That was actually pretty good.

 

Even though there were some oddly out of place things/references -- since Bart and Lisa have basically been 10 and 8 respectively for 27 years now, things like cell phones and Netflix didn't even exist when they were just two years younger.  It's weird.

 

I thought that Bart and Lisa were only supposed to be 2 years younger than what they were in the present. Although, I do have to agree that they do constantly screw up their own continuity. For example, I thought that Homer lost all of his hair when Maggie was born but in this episode, he was fully bald. 

 

IMO, the episode itself wasn't too bad and I thought that the story was decent and it was nice seeing a living Maude. 

[MadyGirl1987]

I enjoyed this episode. Enjoyed Homer and Ned teaming up. Made me want to go to the Grand Canyon(went once in middle school haven't been back in 15 years even though I have lived in AZ for 6 years.

The Disneyphile in me loved the couch gag. Interesting fact: the music they played when they were riding the mules down the canyon can be heard in Disneyland when passing the Grand Canyon scene on the railroad.

[marketdoctor]

That music was the Grand Canyon suite by Ferde Grofé (thanks, closed captioning.)

 

I thought this was heavy on gags, and intermittent on continuity (they remembered that Lisa wasn't always a vegetarian), but it was fun.  Sometimes, like the Grand Canyon itself, I'll just sit back and enjoy the ride.

[M. Darcy]

 

Although, I do have to agree that they do constantly screw up their own continuity. For example, I thought that Homer lost all of his hair when Maggie was born but in this episode, he was fully bald.

I think that is one continuity that is never the same.  For some bizarre reason, when he tears his hair out in When Maggie Makes Three, I remember thinking that that is shown to be different in another episode.

 

it was nice seeing a living Maude.

Especially with Maggie Roswell voicing her.

 

I did giggle at the bear needing to use the bathroom.

Edited April 25, 2016 by M. Darcy

[Phishbulb]

Yeah, it was weird seeing a living Maude Flanders in an episode that was supposed to be taking place "two years ago", since the episode where she died actually aired 16 years ago at this point. But yeah, in order to keep Bart perpetually 10 and Lisa perpetually 8 these kind of things have to happen I guess. 

[Kaboom 2.0]

Aw, I've missed Maude and her judginess. And I loved how Homer and Gordo really saw each other at the end…and then just turned around and walked away from each other.

 

I was really impressed with the Disney couch gag, Homer as Baloo the bear bopping along to the Bare Necessities knockoff made me smile, I heart that song. Re: the billboard in the opening credits, I thought Quimby's classy billboard read "Assistants Wanted, Must Be Pretty and Soft Slapper, No Dudes." Hee!

[JTMacc99]

I did like the restaurant just dumping the garbage into the canyon.

[StaceyNotStacie]

Seeing Maude was great, but my favorite part (aside from the couch gag), was Mrs. Lovejoy motioning to Rev. Lovejoy that she didn't want to vacation with the Flanders.  

[dcalley]

Godspeed, Nibbles.

[honeywest]

Marge: "Sweetie, you could still go to McGill, the Harvard of Canada."

Lisa: "Mom, anyplace that's called the Something of Something isn't really the Anything of Anything."

[radishcake]

Quote

The Simpsons are going to..." Paris (well, Homer and Marge are), but in order to be able to afford the trip, Homer has to smuggle an exotic snake into France so it can be made into a gourmet meal.

[beadgirl]

I liked this episode -- it was nice to see Maude again, and I like it when Homer and Ned actually get along.  Plus, I adored the conversation between Lisa and the guide (glad he made it!).  They've done that recently -- inserted small little conversations that don't directly relate to the plot and don't have obvious jokes, but are nonetheless sweet/clever/touching/amusing.

[ottoDbusdriver]

This sounds a lot like the plot of the movie 'The Freshman' starring Matthew Broderick, except for the Paris part.

[SnideAsides]

...Despite the fact that there have already been two "Characters Go to France!" episodes: The Crepes of Wrath in season 1 (Bart is an exchange student) and Bart-Mangled Banner in season 15 (some clumsy Patriot Act satire revolving around the family getting deported). Sigh.

[Galileo908]

Title Screen: Milhouse in a flying bouncy house!

Billboard: Burly Paper Pooper Towerls

Chalkboard: Dirty Clothes Are no Mother's Day Gift

Couch Gag: Football themed.

Couldn't believe they were gonna get rid of the Olmec Head (how they got it on wheels is another delightful mystery about it that this show will never answer). Also, anyone else notice Maggie drawing a Picasso on the wall? Or that Lisa was dressed as Madeline in France?

I liked the bit with Homer's tiny car. It felt like something Family Guy would do, but this show pulled if off better. I love that Jay Leno showed up to buy it...only to give it up when he discovered a modern car. The face that animated on him when he popped open the trunk made his cameo worth it. It felt like something right out of the Classic Simpsons playbook.

Hey, it's the wine guys from season 1! It's weird that their old designs made them stand out so much from everyone else.

I loved Marge listing off all the disastrous trips they've been on, even including Knoxville and the underground jockey lair but not the Grand Canyon trip from a few weeks ago. And the Knoxville trip had a courier plot, too.

I thought this episode was really good! It was nice to see more French humor, although I'm surprised that they didn't bring up Bart's random ability to speak French.

[ottoDbusdriver]

14 minutes ago, Galileo908 said:

I liked the bit with Homer's tiny car.

How would they have never noticed that old car before ?  And if it belonged to the previous owner of the house, when did Wiggum ever live there ? It wasn't like it was hidden in the garage behind the giant Olmec head all this time -- because the head has been in the basement nearly all the time.

I liked that the French police chief looked exactly like Wiggum.

But how was that snake not detected during the carry-on luggage x-ray ?

I also liked how the Springfield Air jet had Blinky the 3-eyed fish on the tail.

17 minutes ago, Galileo908 said:

Hey, it's the wine guys from season 1! It's weird that their old designs made them stand out so much from everyone else.

I loved Marge listing off all the disastrous trips they've been on, even including Knoxville and the underground jockey lair but not the Grand Canyon trip from a few weeks ago. And the Knoxville trip had a courier plot, too.

I thought this episode was really good! It was nice to see more French humor, although I'm surprised that they didn't bring up Bart's random ability to speak French.

I'm glad that they brought back the wine guys from Season 1 -- I guess they finally got out of jail.

Loved it when Marge named off all those trips.  And it was kind of odd that Bart forgot he could speak French.

The caveman portion of the episode -- I get what they were going for (that basically nothing has changed in 50000 years), but it just wasn't funny.

How many times is this now that Marge needs more excitement in her life ?

[TVSpectator]

I was not expecting to see the Wine Guys from Season 1, but I was so happy when I did see them!

[futurechemist]

I was disappointed that the evil wine guys never ran into Bart.  For Homer and Lisa, they were just 2 random French criminals.

The episode was decent, but nothing spectacular.  Definitely not my favorite episode featuring France or snakes.

[JayInChicago]

I caught this while on vacation--not to the grand canyon though.

I liked seeing Maude so much I kinda just wish they would find some way to bring her back.  The way they killed her off was so pointless and cruel, and they've messed with continuity by the freakin longevity so much anyway.

[Kaboom 2.0]

I could not get "chubby dude in a tiny car, making friends both near and far, in this little town he's a shooting star, that's a chubby dude in a tiny car"  out of my head last night. Great, I think it's back since I typed it out!

 

It was just an ok episode for me but I did like Homer using Flanders' "keep" and "donate" boxes, Marge's hair knocking down all of the tv screens on the airplane as she walked to "the LOO-uvre," and French Wiggum and French Lou smooshed Homer's cheeks after he insisted they French up their kisses. :-)

[BatmanBeatles]

Quote

I could not get "chubby dude in a tiny car, making friends both near and far, in this little town he's a shooting star, that's a chubby dude in a tiny car"  out of my head last night. Great, I think it's back since I typed it out!

For me, it's up there with "Bacon Pancakes" from Adventure Time.

[SnideAsides]

A solid episode, but not a great one. I think its placement hurt it more than anything - we literally just had a family vacation last episode (and that itself felt weirdly like an updated season-one-quality episode, which makes Ugolin and Cesar feel like odd additions here), and we just opened an episode with a musical number three episodes ago. If they'd held this over until next season I think I'd have liked it better.

[gaileygirl]

Happy Whacking Day to one and all.

"O whacking day, o whacking day,
Our hallowed snake-skull cracking day.
We'll break their backs,
Gouge out their eyes,
Their evil hearts,
We'll pulverize.
O whacking day, o whacking day,
May God bestow His grace on thee."

[xander874]

I was excited to see the French baddies from so long ago and do agree that it would have been nice if Bart had a scene - even a quick "Holy Merde!" or something just to acknowledge the history.  The car thing was really dumb - the fact they had never seen it was very odd and totally took me out of the story. I do like the travel episodes usually because the family works together at some point instead of constantly fighting.