Scullyfied Simpsons: “Homer the Moe” (Season 13, Episode 3)

Please note, for those that are wondering why I’ve “skipped” Episode 2 at the moment, I explain my rationale here.

Alright, I hate Jerkass Homer as much as the next guy, but threatening to stab him with a broken bottle is going a tad bit over the line.

“It’s PoMo… postmodern… okay, weird for the sake of weird.” – Moe.

Airdate: November 18th, 2001

Written By: Dana Gould

Plot: Moe finds himself in a rut with his career choice. Fearing burnout, he decides to consult an old bartending professor for advice. What he finds is refurbishment can go a long way to revitalizing his passion. Ergo, Moe’s Tavern becomes “M”, a post-modern club targeting an upscale clientele. This does not please the longtime inhabitants of Moe’s, one of whom – Homer – decides to start his own bar.

Review:

Let’s go way, way back to Season 7 before we start today – not just as a reminder of what the show once was, but to try and effectively compare-contrast between two episodes with similar plotlines, albeit with two totally different executions. Spoilers, one is brilliant, the other quite a ways less so. And by “the other”, I mean this episode.

“Homer the Smithers”, from Season 7, revolves around Homer being temporarily promoted to the role of Mr. Burns’s assistant. Said promotion was a cynical move from the Burns-obsessed Smithers, a gamble to make sure that Burns would never depart from his closest confidante. It works out too well – Homer and Burns go together so poorly that the latter finally decides to take matters into his own hands and start fending for himself. It’s a great Burns-and-Homer episode, a fine comedic pairing with some insight into the character dynamics between the two as well as involving Smithers. And while a part of me does think it wound up being an unfortunate and unwitting precursor to Burnsie’s character derailment (as I’ll dissect in “A Hunka Hunka Burns in Love”), it is probably one of the finer “Homer Gets a New Job” episodes, given how character-driven it was and how it still managed to flesh out a small bit of Springfield.

Unfortunately, “Homer Gets A Job” episodes became a major cliche during the Scully era and beyond. It really does work to showcase Homer’s decay as a protagonist from a fully fleshed-out and relatable character into a vehicle for cheap jokes and tropes, many of which are executed in a way that makes him unrelatable and unlikeable.

This, my friends, is not the last “Homer Gets A New Job” episode that we’ll be covering, but it feels like the natural endgame. Homer becomes Moe, Mark II.

Scullyfied Simpsons: “I’m Goin’ to Praiseland” (Season 12, Episode 19)

“It is with uh, great pride that I dedicate this new school, sports arena, or attraction.” – Mayor Quimby, displaying the same enthusiasm that I do every time I turn on episodes past the golden era at this point.

Airdate: May 6th, 2001.

Written By: Julie Thacker

Plot: It’s been some time since Maude Flanders has died. Naturally, Ned Flanders is still trying to come to terms with the tragedy. His inability to process the shock of this demise alienates Rachel Jordan, driving him to try and get his life in order. While trying to clean up his house, he comes across Maude’s old sketchbook, containing designs of a Christian theme park. An initial weakness in retaining patrons is countered by an apparent miracle in front of Maude’s statue.

Review:

Today on Scullyfied Simpsons, we get to follow up on a major plot shift in the Simpsons canon – the death of Maude Flanders!

Why, yes, that is a groan that you heard out here on Long Island.

I’ve made it no secret that the death of Maude Flanders is, to my eyes, one of the most horribly botched shifts to canon in the history of contemporary American fiction. I despise “Alone Again, Natura-Diddily”, not just for the cynical nature of said episode as a cheap viewer grab, but doing so in a way that tossed aside any logic whatsoever, made the protagonist permanently unlikable while still treating him like a naive fool, and felt like a spit in the face to the departed voice actress.

It is the show’s point of no return in my eyes, the moment that cemented the show’s transition into the Zombie era. And every time this particular twist has been brought up, it was in the most nauseating way possible, from Homer giving a low score on Ned’s sex life all the way to a severely ill Todd calling out for his mother. It makes me wonder if these writers are trying to plunge new depths to remain relevant.

But I have to wonder… can anything be salvaged from this slip-up in the show’s plot? Is there any hope of recovery? Or at the very least, can we get a half-decent episode revolving around this thread?

Well, here’s an example. Does it work?

No.

But why not?

Scullyfied Simpsons: “Pokey Mom” (Season 12, Episode 10)

“Maybe it’s the tear gas, or maybe this was the best damn prison rodeo ever!” – The Warden.

Airdate: January 14th, 2001.

Written By: Tom Martin

Plot: A trip to the Springfield Prison Rodeo results in Homer getting his back torn to shreds. While in the infirmary, Marge notices particularly beautiful paintings by one prisoner, Jack Crowley. Discovering his talent, she not only takes up a job as an art teacher at the prison, but works to secure Jack’s freedom and get him out into society. Meanwhile, Homer discovers a quick and easy cure for his back pains – falling on a beaten-up trash can – and tries to make money off of administering the treatment to others, much to the chagrin of the chiropractors there.

Review:

You know the drill by now. The Simpsons was once the best show on television, now it sucks, recovery is highly unlikely, the characters have become cartoons, the comedy is bad, the animation is in decline, yadda yadda yadda.

I’m on fumes with this show, if you can’t tell.

But just when I feel like I’m at the end of my tether, something gives a faint bit of hope for the rest of my coverage. “HOMR”, in contrast to the vast amounts of dreck preceding it, was actually rather watchable. Not the best of the season, mind you, but with a bit of tweaking, it could’ve been a genuinely good post-classic Simpsons episode. I don’t know if it’s necessarily raised my hopes for the rest of the season – it’s still gonna be a miracle if this isn’t worse than 11 – but at least we get some form of life. The question now becomes was it a one-off moment of relative competence that will give way to more insanity straight afterward? Or could there be a more sustained uptick, even if slight, in the quality of episodes released?

It is my pleasure to announce that this episode points signs slightly to the latter. Again, not that it’s the best episode of the series – not by a long shot. But “Pokey Mom” brings us a competent plot and, honestly, a better attempt at emotional resonance, both of which have been lacking over the past season and change.

Scullyfied Simpsons: “Skinner’s Sense of Snow” (Season 12, Episode 8)

Ah, a nice visual metaphor for watching Season 12 so far.

“The weather service has upgraded Springfield’s blizzard from a winter wonderland to a class-three killstorm.” – Kent Brockman.

Airdate: December 17th, 2000.

Written By: Tim Long.

Plot: A sudden storm rapidly moves over Springfield, causing chaos and madness. Thankfully, most of the schools in the area are closed. The one exception? Springfield Elementary School. This is not a particularly wise move – by the end of the day, the school is effectively snowed in. Skinner’s attempts to maintain order by going back to his Vietnam experiences creates further resentment among the students. When Skinner finds himself trapped in a snow tunnel that Bart constructed to try and escape the building, all hell breaks loose.

Review:

There’s an old saying that gets passed around from time to time. It goes along the lines of, at some point, things get so bad and you fall so deep and so far that you have nowhere to go but up.

Well, The Simpsons saw fit to challenge that argument this season. Of the past six episodes, I can think of a grand total of one I want to revisit in the future. And even that was more “good, not great” than anything. To add insult to injury, the past three episodes are in the running for the Scully Era’s “worst episodes” list. It’s basically a repeat of the “Mansion Family/Saddlesore/Alone Again” streak from the last season, except that streak at least waited until the middle of the season to tarnish the franchise for good.

If I had hope for Season 12, it is all but gone. All I can beg for is that it winds up mildly better than Season 11. It’s a low bar to clear, but trust me, this show knows how to trip over low bars now. From brilliance to baffling, how astonishing.

So I actually was looking forward to “Skinner’s Sense of Snow”. I mean, I don’t recall it as a particular favorite, but it wasn’t like it was one of the more infamous episodes. Maybe, just maybe, it would provide some stability to the season, possibly add some hope for the rest of the episodes.

However, I was actually quite surprised at what I encountered. “Skinner’s Sense of Snow” is actually quite… bad. Yeah, I was not expecting to dislike this one as much as I did, but dislike I did! If I do a “Top 12 Worst of Season 12” list at the end of Season 12 (which I likely will), it would be hard to see this episode not contending for a spot.

Scullyfied Simpsons: “Lisa the Tree Hugger” (Season 12, Episode 4)

“You can’t silence the truth with beanbags!” – Jesse Grass, before being proven wrong with beanbags. Try playing hacky sack with that!

Airdate: November 19th, 2000.

Written By: Matt Selman.

Plot: A trip to Krusty Burger ends in a rather interesting matter, as Lisa sees environmental radicals in action, protesting the chain’s less than friendly environmental stance. She also becomes smitten with the group’s leader, Jesse Grass. Enchanted with Dirt First, she joins the group and takes up a rather interesting task. Springfield’s oldest tree is set to be cut down, and Lisa decides to camp out in an attempt to save it.

Review:

Over my coverage of the decline and fall of The Simpsons, I’ve covered the show’s degradation and humiliation of many of its characters. And let’s be real here – in time, no character is left unscathed from being reduced to rubble.

Homer’s descent from jerk-with-a-heart-of-gold everyman into an emotionally abusive super maniac is probably the most infamous, but that’s more because he got an obscene amount of screen time in the Scully era. This meant that we got to see more of him while he was acting at his absolute worst. Always a good combination. But other characters have been mutated during this era, often by taking a small aspect of their character and enveloping it while removing other aspects (or as TV Tropes calls it, “Flanderization”). Burns’s seniority has made him a weakling incompetent, Moe has become pathetically lonely instead of just pathetic (although the episode around that wasn’t actually that bad), and so many more will go down the same path.

One of the more infamous cases was with Lisa. Those who have seen later seasons might be more aware of her as pretty much a complete cliche of every hyper-liberal and pretentious university student out there. That said, from the first episode, she always had an intellectual streak, and episodes not much later have had her possess a slight liberal and activistic streak. This was balanced by her encountering circumstances many eight-year-olds have faced – a substitute teacher she admired, competing in an essay contest, a disconnect with her father, a general feeling of being an outsider – and the writers being able to sell her as a unique character. At her best, she’s my second favorite character in the Simpsons canon. (Come on, nothing beats classic Homer.)

The good news is that this episode fits a very similar mold to that of “Pygmoelian”. While it is a harbinger for her descent into a more cliche and uninteresting character, “Lisa the Tree Hugger” still manages to get the essence of Lisa Simpson mostly correct… and even more surprisingly, manages to put forward a pretty decent script!

Scullyfied Simpsons: “It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Marge” (Season 11, Episode 21)

Well, at least she’s not yielding an entire motorcycle this time…

“I can only see a horrible rainbow!” – Ice Cream Parlor employee. Hey, it was one of the few memorable quotes from this episode.

Airdate: May 14th, 2000.

Written By: Larry Doyle

Plot: The Simpsons host a wedding in their background. This time, it’s meant for Otto and his partner, Becky. However, the marriage collapses due to Otto’s obsession with metal music. With nowhere else to go, Becky moves in with the Simpsons. She manages to endear herself to most of the Simpsons. The odd member out is Marge, who starts to feel jealous… and starts to suspect that Becky is trying to kill her.

Review:

Once again, I am bereft of words.

I mean, I’ve watched this show go down the tubes so fast, you swear it brought a pass to Splish Splash and hit up the Cliff Diver several times. To be blunt, you know that old cliche “hope for the best, prepare for the worst?” Well, in the case of The Simpsons, the latter sentiment holds stronger than the former, to put it mildly. So I wasn’t expecting much from “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Marge” – particularly with my memories of this episode involving a broken ice cream cone being weaponized.

But it still might surprise you to know that what we have here is in the “infamously bad” category.

No, seriously – Season 11 has had some stinkers, and some of those stinkers have been utterly astonishing in how they got put to air in the state they were in. But honestly, this episode is a genuine candidate for the second worst of the season. In fact, that’s where it might wind up when all is said and done.

To put it simply, this might be the single least Simpson-y Simpsons episode I’ve seen so far. And when you manage to outpace the jockey elves in that regard? At least that was surreal. This is, too, but unintentionally this time around.

Scullyfied Simpsons: “Bart to the Future” (Season 11, Episode 17)

While I can’t recall a president choking their brother after a speech, we do currently have a man in office who starred in WrestleMania. That close enough for you?

“I can’t believe ‘smell you later’ replaced good-bye.” – Bart. I get it! The episode explained the joke to me, so I get it! Sharp writing, guys!

Airdate: March 19th, 2000

Written By: Dan Kearney.

Plot: Bart gets caught sneaking into a Native American Casino. As punishment, he is forced to look into the future by the manager. In said future, Bart is a complete loser, drinking copious amounts of beer, writing terrible music with his roommate Ralph, and mooching to make his next payment. In contrast, Lisa has made a meteoric rise to be America’s first straight female President, although her predicament involves trying to fix a massive deficit. Unfortunately for her, Bart decides to move in with her…

Review:

Talk about messing with my mind here. In the thus-far dismal Season 11 of The Simpsons, I would argue that “Pygmoelian” is a contender for the best episode of the season. Even with the limited competition, it stands out in terms of having a coherent plot, interesting character development, and zaniness kept to a relative minimum. Even the faults within didn’t distract from the relative stability and comedy found within. Ultimately, if I had to pick 10 post-Season 10 Simpsons episodes to watch (a sort of “modern classics”), this would likely make the cut.

So, how’s about following up on that with one of the show’s more infamous episodes?

Not because of the apparent moment of precognition (which I’ll get to in the Tidbits), but because even the critics didn’t really like this episode. In 2003, Entertainment Weekly listed this as the worst episode of the entire series (albeit with the “relative” qualifier), with the Toronto Star‘s Ben Rayner and the Winnipeg Free Press‘s Randall King concurring. Most of the critique comes in comparison to “Lisa’s Wedding”, cited as one of the most beautiful and brilliant episodes of the entire series (which, given the brilliance of Seasons 2-8, is something).

And yes, let’s just get this out of the way – “Lisa’s Wedding” is a better episode. That’s more because, yes, “Lisa’s Wedding” is an absolutely brilliant and inventive episode, one that even makes me tear up at times. So even here, this episode had to live up to quite a tall order.

Cut a long story short, they didn’t even try, “Bart to the Future” sucks.

Scullyfied Simpsons: “Pygmoelian” (Season 11, Episode 16)

“Homer, did you hear that? She called me handsome. Me! It’s like I’ve gone to heaven… uh, wait a minute. I died on the operating table, didn’t I?” “Yeah, but just for a minute. It’s a funny story; I’ll tell you sometime.” – Moe and Homer, proposing a much better storyline than, well, much of Season 11 so far.

Airdate: February 27th, 2000

Written By: Larry Doyle

Plot: A trip to the Duff Days festival has Moe win a bar-tending contest by a tongue. Literally, the “toss the drunk” contest has Barney stretch his tongue to give Moe the victory. He is therefore entitled to have his picture on the Duff calendar. Unfortunately, his relative unattractive facial structure results in his face being obscured by many stickers. Shocked by this censorship, Moe tries to get a facelift in order to at least be more physically attractive.

Review:

The past four episodes of The Simpsons that I’ve covered have actually astonished me, in a rather morbid and warped way. I mean, it has to say something, anything, when the best episode out of the prior four had barely any plot and no real ending whatsoever outside of mocking one show that wound up rising from the dead with a vengeance to become a quasi-rival to Our Favorite Family.

Otherwise, what we’ve been subjected to include the confirmation of Mr. Burns’ gutting as an effective antagonist, pirates invading a party yacht, the complete blowout of the show’s ties to reality thanks to underground jockeys and the attack of the Sesame Street characters, a death that is a million times worse than Kirk dying under a poorly-constructed bridge, some of the most disgusting behavior I’ve seen from a protagonist in many years, and an inability to write a coherent plot.

I’m not sure if this marks the show’s lowpoint – Al Jean’s era would see to challenge hat on several occasions – but I do think that these four episodes marked the point of no return. That even if the show did recover, that it was permanently tainted. At the very least, I would argue that these four episodes marked Mike Scully’s card in fandom forever – even with episodes that are worse produced later, Scully’s name is often tied with “Spock’s Brain” as a byword for terminal decline.

“Jockeys and jockeys. What are jockeys?”

Interestingly, “Pygmoelian” does demonstrate quite the improvement over the prior four episodes. Paradoxically, it does so while also altering the path of one of the show’s most famous secondary characters, Moe Szyslak.

Scullyfied Simpsons: “Missionary: Impossible” (Season 11, Episode 15)

Fair play to Homer – this show has become more insane than The Flinstones. No, I am not having a yabba-Dabba-do-time.

“If you watch even one second of PBS without contributing, you’re a thief! A common thief!” – Betty White. To be fair, PBS didn’t take the greatest show on television, drive it into the ground, and keep digging for twenty years afterward. I might slide them some cash.

Airdate: February 20, 2000.

Written By: Ron Hauge.

Plot: Homer’s excitement over PBS’s airing of laddish Britcom Do Shut Up is doused by one episode being interrupted by a pledge drive for $10000. Homer, naturally, fake-donates the money to try and get the episode back on the air. However, PBS merely uses this as an excuse to film him handing over the money… and chasing him down when he can’t come up with it. Facing certain death at the hands of the Sesame Street muppets (…yeah…), he manages to get driven to safety by Rev. Lovejoy. The cost, however, is that he must do time as a missionary in the Pacific Islands. As you can tell from the above screengrab, it goes over well.

Review:

Last time on Scullyfied Simpsons, I was left floored at the greatest bit of television incompetence I’ve seen ever.

No, seriously – barring some sort of anti-miracle, I honestly think that with “Alone Again, Natura-Diddily”, the Mike Scully era of The Simpsons officially bottomed out. For every bad episode that follows, nothing will be quite as destructive to what was once the greatest TV show of all time as Ian Maxtone Graham’s utter debacle of a half-hour that sent Maude Flanders off in the most humiliating way possible. Between that and “Saddlesore Galactica”, the show’s characters and reality have formally collapsed into an element of nothingness.

What I’m trying to say is that virtually anything, anything would have represented an improvement over the disaster area that has been the last two-three episodes of The Simpsons. Yes, even if the episode consisted of a test pattern all while the audio from Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue aired.

So, what about “Missionary: Impossible”? Can this possibly surpass my rock-bottom expectations? Or at least, come close?

Scullyfied Simpsons: “Faith Off” (Season 11, Episode 11)

(Note: for those looking for my review of The Prisoner episode “Arrival”, that will come out in the next couple of weeks. The schedule can be found on the intro post. So, a review of this and the Steven Universe episode “Super Watermelon Island” will precede the review of “Arrival”.)

“Heat makes metal expand. Now who’s talking mumbo-jumbo?” – Bart Simpson.

Airdate: January 16th, 2000.

Written By: Frank Mula

Plot: Homer’s attempt to pull a prank on the Dean of Springfield University as revenge for siphoning his money goes awry when a bucket full of glue lands on his head. While his driving is impaired, the resultant crash leads him and the family to Brother Faith, who claims to use the power of God to heal. He uses an enamored Bart to pull the bucket off Homer’s head, and Bart is intrigued with the flamboyance and fame of Brother Faith. As a result, he starts his own church, proclaiming to be a healer of his own.

Review:

The early 1800s brought with it a new wave of religious fervor to the United States. Labeled the Second Great Awakening, this wave of religion was in itself a reaction to the more logical elements of the Enlightenment era that fueled the Revolution. Many Christian sects were founded, particularly in the “burned-over” region of Northern New York, and these sects worked to try and solve the societal ills of the time. This wound up not only leading to the founding of the LDS Church, but the Second Awakening laid further seeds for the abolitionist movements in the United States, as it led to the rise of abolitionist preachers.

Likewise, the 1980s brought with it a small religious recovery on its own. So-called televangelists, taking advantage of the revival of conservatism during the Reagan era, began to use the apex of emotion to broadcast the word of their churches, all while acting in increasingly flamboyant ways. Of course, quite a few of these programs fell apart – largely thanks to tax laws. However, the influence still lingers today, in the form of Joel Osteen, for example.

So, what about “Faith Off”, an episode from the middle of The Simpsons Season 11?