Dead Homer Society

“But you can’t just repossess our merchandise.  The I Ching said I had six months until bankruptcy.” – Karma-Ceuticals Owner
“Hey, channel somebody who gives a damn.” – Repo Man

For the third summer in a row, we at the Dead Homer Society are looking to satisfy your off-season longing for substandard commentary on substandard Simpsons.  This summer we’ll be looking at Season 10.  Why Season 10?  Because we’ve already done Seasons 8 and 9 and we can’t put it off any longer.  Prior to Season 10, we watched as the show started falling over, this is when it fell over.  And while the dust wouldn’t settle completely for another season or so, there is no bigger gap in quality than the one between Season 9 and Season 10.  Since we prefer things to remain just as they were in 1995, we’re sticking with this chatroom thing instead of some newer means of communication that we all know just isn’t as good.  This text has been edited for clarity and spelling (especially on “gratuitous”).

Today’s episode is 1016, “Make Room for Lisa”.  Yesterday was 1015, “Marge Simpson in ‘Screaming Yellow Honkers’”.

[Note: I forgot to mention this yesterday, but Dave’s literally in the land of Worker & Parasite and won’t be joining us for a little while.]

Mad Jon: This one shares a lot of the same issues for sure.

Charlie Sweatpants: This one is very similar to the Canyonero one, but the good jokes are a little thinner on the ground.

Mad Jon: Yep. Although I feel like this one is supposed to have a message or something.

Charlie Sweatpants: A message would’ve improved it.

Mad Jon: Not that I appreciate it at all, but whatever.

Charlie Sweatpants: This one is directionless as can be. It’s not a good episode when the repo men are the highlight.

A highlight? Sure. The highlight. Nope.

Mad Jon: Directionless is a good description.

Charlie Sweatpants: And it takes its time being directionless as well.

The setup for them to actually get to the Smithsonian exhibit is glacial at best. Same with Homer getting drunk at that bar at the beginning and Lisa’s hallucinations. There are so many things here that could’ve been better if they’d been done quicker.

Mad Jon: I do like the line about doing twice the work of a deadbeat dad before they go to the exhibit, but that scene also drags on.

Charlie Sweatpants: The Smithsonian thing is the same way. It’s funny that Lincoln’s hat was the work of grave robbers and it’s funny that Fonzie’s jacket is better guarded than Lincoln’s hat. But then Homer just grabs the Bill of Rights and sits in Archie Bunker’s chair because he is in 100% Invincible Jerkass Mode.

Mad Jon: Oh god that was awful.

Charlie Sweatpants: And then they drag even that out with all those lame jokes about hiding behind the Bill of Rights (because he’s actually hiding behind it!) and licking chocolate, and erasing things that – oh so funny – lets the cops beat him.

Mad Jon: With brass knuckles.

Charlie Sweatpants: Because it’s always funny when Homer gets punched.

Mad Jon: Yep.

  Again, there are some good lines. I am generally fond of the scene when Wiggum finds the isolation chamber on the beach. The permit bit is funny, especially the way he says it.

And I like when Skinner’s mom tells him to stay out of tunnels because he knows what they symbolize.

And some other things as well. But once again, this is a very Season 10 episode. Most of it is just too out there, and the rest is very much too out there.

Charlie Sweatpants: I too like the Wiggum line. But before we get to that, we’re treated to one of the more brain meltingly stupid scenes of Homer getting hurt ever. Presumably in the span of a couple of hours, while the door never fell open and no one noticed him, Homer got hauled onto a truck, fell off the truck, had Flanders bury him, then washed down the sewer, then washed ashore, where Wiggum returned him without complaint.

  That whole sequence is wretchedly boring.

Mad Jon: Completely agree, that was the most bored I have ever been watching a man that took a beating that should have killed him. Watch, I’ll say that again in a few weeks. And I’ll mean it then too.

Charlie Sweatpants: I can’t blame you for that.

Mad Jon: I don’t remember much of what happens in the rest of the season, but I can read a trend line.

Charlie Sweatpants: It’s definitely pointing down at this point.

Aside from the odd line and almost everything the repo guys say, is there anything else good here?

Mad Jon: Not from my point of view. The B plot was bearable, but not really funny, and the A plot ends more or less the same way Lisa the Vegetarian does, minus Homer learning or feeling anything. But nothing that I would classify as good.

I did like the brand of child monitor that Marge uses.

Charlie Sweatpants: The La-Z-Mom is good, but I’m kinda down on the B plot. Marge cracking Milhouse on the skull is funny, but much of the rest of it feels like a weak way for them to just come up with random things they think are funny. I wouldn’t mind that if they were actually funny, but most of them aren’t.

Mad Jon: Yep, not much funny, but some lines from that plot were good. But it still smells like random acts of time filling to me. But a bearable B plot in my book.

But. But. But. There, that should fill my quota for tonight.

Charlie Sweatpants: It was better than the A plot, but that ain’t sayin’ much.

  Never have I heard such gratuitous use of the word "but"!

Mad Jon: Excellent, maybe I’ll get cast out!

Charlie Sweatpants: Seriously, anything else? I can easily be done here.

Mad Jon: You know, now that I think about it, I was relatively fond of the Omnitouch rep’s lines. Not real fond of how she kept showing up from behind things to brainwash Homer, but back when I sold cell phones, I met more than one rep like her.

  But I got nothing else.

Charlie Sweatpants: She has her moments, though unlike when most characters do this, her ability to just appear is at least a deliberate joke.

Mad Jon: Yes, well she picked a bad episode to show up. It has been so long since I’ve seen this one I barely remembered it. Hopefully enough time will pass before FOX tapes my eyes open and forces me to watch it that I’ll at least spend a few more years of my life ignorant of it again.

Charlie Sweatpants: I don’t have power over FOX or anything, but I’ll mention it when the terror-droid picks me up for mandatory re-watching camp.

Mad Jon: Fair enough.