Not Another Top (X) List: Top 11 Worst Episodes of The Simpsons Season 11

Welcome to yet another edition of…

NOT ANOTHER TOP (X) LIST!

And let me tell you, I am not excited about this one. Ladies and gentlemen, we are getting ready to cap off my reviews of Season 11 of The Simpsons.

Worst. Season. Ever.

No, that’s not hyperbole. Yes, one could argue that one of the Jean-era seasons (particularly from the HD era) had even worse episodes, and that is a valid argument in my book. For me, while this season did have some highlights, it’s not the frequency of the depths that earns it my disdain, but the quality of the depths.

It isn’t the worst season of because it was the least funny, or the least coherent. No, there is almost certainly competition within the Jean era.

Season 11 of The Simpsons is arguably the most destructive to the show’s overall aura, ranging from plot construction, to worldbuilding, to even character development. No other season has taken a wrecking ball to all of these elements as dramatically as Season 11 had.

As weak as Season 10 had, the bad elements that were retained in Season 11 were given a permanence, not just in the aggressiveness in how the show approached its flaws – with criticism of the show being responded with a vitriolic mockery – but the universe of the series being utterly trashed, with episode after episode driving the ax in further. At this point, the nails are in the coffin, and Season 12 will just be lowering it into the ground before the zombified remnants rise from the dead during the Jean era.

Let’s be real here – if you’ve read my earlier reviews, you can probably guess what episode is going to be #1. No surprises there. The real surprise is what takes up the rest of the slots. And they won’t be lacking, as this time around, X=11.

Expect little sympathy – I’m fueled with my upset from this past season, despair from the current state of the franchise, and impatience thanks to some soccer club I devote unhealthy amounts of emotion to folding like a lawn chair in the second half of the Europa League final. (Thanks a bunch, Mesut Ozil – if you wanna play Fortnite, do it while being paid by an MLS team.)

Ergo, this is…

THE TOP 11 WORST EPISODES OF THE SIMPSONS SEASON 11!

Scullyfied Simpsons: “Behind the Laughter” (Season 11, Episode 22)

“They were the first family of American laughter, surfing a tidal wave of hilarity onto the sands of Superstar Bay. But behind the chortles, this funny fivesome was trapped in a private hell. […] Tonight: the Simpsons as you’ve never seen them before, on “Behind the Laughter”.” – Jim Forbes. Yes, that Jim Forbes. This is gonna be something…

Airdate: May 21st, 2000

Written By: Tim Long, George Meyer, Mike Scully, Matt Selman

Plot: In an alternate world, The Simpsons is but a sitcom starring the Simpson family, written by the family themselves. Ergo, we get a documentary revolving around this family. Homer, feeling disillusioned with the state of television families, ships his script to networks, and winds up picked up by FOX. Success comes quickly, but production strains begin to tear the family apart.

Review:

I’m not going to mince words – this is the last episode of Season 11, and thank god it’s over. In retrospect, I’ve spent two years covering each season of Mike Scully’s take on the show – Season 9, I covered from September 2013 to April 2015, although a lot of those earlier reviews were not quite as long as they are now. Season 10, I took on from June 2015 to June 2017 (literally almost two years to the date.) And Season 11, from July 2017 to the Spring of 2019.

Six years, I have spent watching what was once one of the greatest TV shows of all time, if not the greatest, collapse into utter tripe. Season 9 was the show starting to slip, Season 10 had the show stumble over, and Season 11 demonstrated a complete freefall into absurdity that even The Prisoner would call demented. Trust me, I’m making my way through that piece of ’60s weirdness. In short, I am now expecting Season 12 and the Scully leftovers in Season 13 to be one, twelve-hour-long death rattle before Al Jean is given the keys to let the show formally sink into an innocuous, incompetent, cliche-driven money pit.

There’s one more episode to go, though, in what is probably the worst season of The Simpsons ever. I’ll argue why I think that in my season wrap-up/Top 11 Worst Episodes List, because depending on how you count The Simpsons, it has a lot of competition. But for now, in this season that broke the grounds of reality, characterization, and plot development… we finally have the show throw up its hands and shatter the one barrier left, the fourth wall.

Time to go “Behind the Laughter”.

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: “Last Tap Dance in Springfield” (Season 11, Episode 20)

“Tap-a, tap-a, tap-a!” – Little Vicki Valentine. Those immortal words…

Airdate: May 7th, 2000.

Written By: Julie Thacker

Plot: While watching the movie Tango de la Muerte while out shopping with her mother, Lisa becomes enchanted with the art of dancing, and decides to take up the skill. Much to her displeasure, it turns out that the dancing school in town is taught by former child star Little Vicki Valentine, who not only railroads her into the Tap class, but whose technique also contradicts Lisa’s lack of experience… and skill. Concurrent to Lisa’s struggles, Bart and Milhouse have issues of their own, abandoning a camping trip in favor of hanging out in the Mall.

Review:

“Kill the Alligator and Run” was probably the most stereotypically awful episode of the entire series, or at least, the Scully era. I think it has everything many fans hate about the show’s more contemporary run – Homer’s beyond obnoxious and straight up odious, there’s a gratuitous celebrity cameo, the plot is unfocused at best and nihil at worst, every few seconds contain some form of insanity beyond the show’s universe put into focus instead of a light joke, the satire sucked, the list goes on and on.

I don’t know if I can call it the worst episode – “Alone Again, Natura-Diddily” gets more visceral hate from me for completely destroying the show’s soul, and “KTAAR” at least can be almost amusingly bad – but it’s pretty damn clear why it winds up on so many people’s “most hated” lists. (After all, by the time the likes of “Lisa Goes Gaga” aired, the viewership had fractioned.) From this point forward, I am honestly expecting most of the episodes (bar a couple) to be mediocre at best. I hope for the best, but I am more than prepared for the worst.

That said, this episode is part of the aforementioned exceptions. Maybe it’s because it comes after a string of what I felt were largely “mediocre to downright disastrous” episodes (“Pygmoelian” being the one good one out of the past eight to be any good, in my opinion – and three of the eight are contenders for the worst ever), but “Last Tap Dance in Springfield” felt a lot closer to the show’s classic era – specifically, the show during Seasons 7 and 8. Not quite as good, but it did feel weirdly close.

Scullyfied Simpsons: “Kill the Alligator and Run” (Season 11, Episode 19)

“This family has hit a new low! We’re on the run from the law, totally lost, no car, no money, no clean clothes, and it’s all your fault.” – Marge. Spoiler alert – the word “divorce” is not mentioned once in this episode.

Airdate: April 30th, 2000.

Written By: John Swartzwelder

Plot: After taking a test in a book of self-improvement quizzes, Homer begins to fear that he only has three years left on his lifespan. Emotionally disturbed, he goes off the deep end, to a point where a psychiatrist recommends that he takes a vacation down in Palm Corners, Florida.

OOPS, SPRING BREAK TIME! It sends Homer insane, to the point where he commits a couple of misdemeanors in the process, but gets off easily thanks to the town sheriff. After Spring Break, he is so excited, that in the midst of his party, he runs over the town’s mascot, the alligator Captain Jack. With the whole family facing arrest for something Homer has done, they decide to hide out in plain sight as workers at a diner in the middle of nowhere.

Review:

For the past five and a half years, I have been taking a look at the Mike Scully era of The Simpsons. In many ways, it is the dorkier equivalent to the study of the implosion of the Roman Empire. Everybody has their theories – some rational, others more theoretical, a scant few completely insane and rooted in somewhat odious rationales. What I ultimately am looking at in terms of analyzing the collapse of The Simpsons is what the symptoms reflect.

Right now, what I’m sensing is that the show collapsed due to a fatal combination of arrogance, inexperience, and the limitations of the traditional story engine, sourced from the writers’ room and the FOX Network executives, at war with both increasingly disillusioned fans and worn-down staff (animators and voice actors, respectively.) Sometimes, the writers thought they could go to war with fans. Other times, they thought they could juggle an ability to tell an emotionally moving story with revenge against an errant voice actor and the quest for ratings. As you can probably gather, the writers didn’t do a good job at many of these forays, because even in normal episodes, the show was becoming increasingly outlandish instead of silly, callous instead of merely cynical, and downright incompetent in terms of framing a story, characters, et cetera.

With around 60 Scully-era episodes under my belt, I’ve mulled over quite a few contenders for the show’s event horizon, the moment when the show’s collapse was cemented forever. And I’m not going to restate my arguments here, since it would be a waste of time for all involved.

All I know is that this time, I have watched a Simpsons episode that I sincerely believe would’ve been better off if it was penned and edited by a room full of cocaine users. It is so insane, so incoherent, so mad, and so incompetent that, for the first time in my years of reviewing this show, I have to question the sanity of Mr. Michael Scully.

I don’t know how else to guess the thought process that was behind “Kill the Alligator and Run”.

Scullyfied Simpsons: “Days of Wine and D’oh-ses” (Season 11, Episode 18)

In context, it’s a good metaphor for the episode. Out of context, it’s a sublime metaphor for the series!

“There’s a line in `Othello’ about a drinker:`Now a sensible man, by and by a fool, and presently a beast.’ That pretty well covers it.”  – Barney Gumble, Puke-a-hontas, “A Star is Burns”. Weirdly apropos given the episode covered today.

Airdate: April 9th, 2000.

Written By: Dan Castellaneta and Deb Lacusta

Plot: Barney Gumble is disturbed when he sees a video of his birthday party. There, he was so drunk as to become the largest fool in the town. Combined with the constant mockery from his fellow barflies, he decides to quit drinking for good. But the temptation still remains, especially when the less-than-teetotal Homer tags along on his path to sobriety.

Review:

Season 11 of The Simpsons really does feel like a show clinging to life, to relevancy, to any sort of cohesion that is ebbing away.

I mean, the remanents show does so nowadays by the proliferation of guest stars, as well as attempts to be relevant that often indicate that a trend or meme is deader than dead. But in terms of narrative, Season 11 of The Simpsons seems to be indicative of a show realizing that the story engine has mined the well dry. However, it was also too successful to end – whether it was the writers, the voice actors, or the network executives, they were too proud or too greedy to let the show come to a natural end.

As a result, what we have so far this season (besides the increase in gimmicks and the show’s world collapsing into a black hole of inane insanity) are the gambles made on three characters – Apu Nahassapeemapetilon, Ned Flanders, and Barney Gamble. The nature of their circumstances were all radically reformed, albeit in different ways. Apu and Manjula decided to start a family, got his wish in the most extreme way, and now has to deal with eight children – making the stressed-out father the central component of his character (whatever is left, anyway). Ned Flanders, long the happy-go-lucky yin to Homer’s yang, had his wife die… in an accident caused, exacerbated, and downplayed by Homer… and I’m going to stop there because my blood is boiling already.

Barney’s change is the most unique. It’s not something that actually comes out of nowhere, but actually has its roots in the show’s broader narrative. Of course, I feel like the aforementioned changes might have been executed well (or at least, had some small level of merit) in another universe. So the question is, how do the writers do on this particular gamble?

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: “Alone Again, Natura-Diddily” (Season 11, Episode 14)

“Homer? You are the worst human being I have ever met.” – Ned Flanders, “Hurricane Neddy”. Give it three seasons, Flanders.

Airdate: February 13th, 2000.

Written By: Ian Maxtone Graham.

Plot: A trip to the nature preserve results in the Simpson clan encroaching on a racetrack. At a race later that day, they meet the Flandereses on the top deck of the bleachers. Unfortunately, a rather tragic series of events unfurl, and Maude winds up knocked off the stands to her death. Ned has to cope with the loss of his beloved… which he does with the help of a man.

A certain man.

That caused his wife’s death.

Review:

The debate over the decline of The Simpsons has often lied in the sentiments and degree of said decline? Not only is it often debated how long the show entered the rough spot (if it hit said spot at all), but there’s also the debate of how far the show sank. As I mentioned in my review of “Saddlesore Galactica”, there are plenty of fans who do watch the show to this day and argue that while there has been a decline, the fans that call for the show’s cancellation rely on hyperbolic sentiment.

They argue that the golden years were so illustrious, that nothing, short of nothing, could match them. These fans argue that the Dead Homer Society faction of fans – in effect, the #WengerOut of the Simpsons fandom (and that’s neither a complaint nor a compliment) – are either relying on rose-colored glasses or have such impossible standards as to ruin a perfectly good show for themselves and others.

And you know what?

That’s fine by me!

If you want to enjoy new episodes of The Simpsons, that is absolutely cool. I disagree with your argument that it’s particularly good (or even watchable) television, but again, that’s my opinion. Even Dead Homer Society – a blog with probably the most thorough and partisan analysis of the show’s decline out on the internet – argues that their visceral reaction to the show’s current state is only exacerbated because the golden years (seasons 1-7, according to them) were, in their eyes, so brilliant as to be part of the American canon.

To a cynical select few, it might come off as being part of the #WengerOut-esque bandwagon, this idea that we should kill off this institution of American television because a few nerds on the internet are angry. Which, alright. It’s the internet. You don’t have to go far to find insolent jackasses.

To those few, I want to disclose that what I am about to say, and my rationale thereof, is only a very slightly hyperbolic take on my own personal beliefs. Very slightly, in fact. Yes, I know this is just a show, but it revolves around my all-time favorite TV show. And therefore, where I am coming from is pretty clear.

Here we go…

“Alone Again, Natura-Diddily” is the single most infuriating piece of fiction that I have covered or very likely will ever cover on The Review Nebula.