“Dad, I broke my last saxophone reed and I need you to get me a new one.” – Lisa Simpson
“Uh, isn’t this the kind of thing your mother’s better at?” – Homer Simpson
“I called her, she’s not home! I also tried Mr. Flanders, Aunt Patty, Aunt Selma, Dr. Hibbert, Reverend Lovejoy, and that nice man who caught the snake in our basement.” – Lisa Simpson
“Wow. And after them, out of all the people in the world, you chose me.” – Homer Simpson
10
Nov
17
One of those classic “Father of the Year” moments. Homer means well, but he’s stupid. He still cares though — unlike ZS Jerkass Homer.
We know
Yes, we know. All one of me, Ryan.
I’m seeing double. Four Ryans!
I like the joke but I would have cut it at “Aunt Selma”. It would have been faster, funnier and more realistic than Lisa asking Lovejoy for a saxophone reed, even if that’s the joke.
Just three people doesn’t sound exhaustive enough, plus you miss out on the desperation of calling the “nice man who caught the snake in our basement” before Homer.
As I said, I get the joke. I merely say this is one case where I feel “less is more” and subtlety is better, instead of the joke explaining itself.
The joke isn’t just the list, though. The joke is that Homer still feels a sense of fatherly pride because he’s too dense to realize Lisa turned to him as a last resort. And that part goes uncommented on. In classic Simpsons style, there’s always more than one layer to everything.
But even that’s stretching things too much. This is Season 3, not 10. Homer would get her daughter is insulting him. He understood Herb Powell’s employees didn’t like him.
If instead of the above QotD, we got this:
-Lisa: “I also called Mr. Flanders, Aunt Patty, Aunt Selma and Grampa.”
-Homer: “Wow, and then you called me.”
The scene would have been better. Instead of Lisa asking Hibbert and Lovejoy for a huge favour, she’s asking everyone in the family and Flanders, the writers would sneak a quick joke about old people, and Homer would still talk like a father talking to an eight year old child, without explaining the joke too much and stretching things.And the scene would be a few seconds shorter.
You are one of the big reasons the Simpsons writers stopped caring.
Watch out people. We have a badass here!!!!!!1111
I do like how these are all people Lisa would plausibly check on. The neighbor, her aunts, the family doctor, the town pastor… and then the nice man.
I dunno, it’s just because if this happened today, they might have gone “Captain McAllister, Sideshow Mel, Comic Book Guy…”
Don’t forget bumblebee man and professor drink.
But seriously, that is exactly what would happen. I like these years where not everybody knows each other.
‘Professor Drink’? Is that, like, an ATHF character or something?
B’oh!
Nice comeback :)