Dead Homer Society

“Oh, we drank so much that night.” – Marge Simpson
“Yeah, I thought Bart would be born a dimwit.” – Homer Simpson

There’s no new Zombie Simpsons until September, so we’re going to spend the summer overthinking Season 9.  Why Season 9?  Because we did Season 8 last summer, and Season 9 was when the show started becoming more Zombie than Simpsons.  Since we’re too lazy to do audio and too ugly to do video, we’ve booked a “chatroom” (ours is right between the one with the sexy seventh graders and the one with the bored federal agents pretending to be sexy seventh graders).  So log on to your dial-up AOL and join us.  This text has been edited for clarity and spelling (especially on “plagiarism”).

Today’s episode is 925 “Natural Born Kissers”.  Yesterday’s was 912 “Bart Carny”. 

One thing I forgot to mention during our discussion of this episode is my undying love for the joke at the beginning when Bart and Lisa are sword fighting with the hot wheels track.  I always smile when Bart yelps in pain at one having a guidepin, and I’ll bet almost anything that line was written by someone with extensive hot wheel track dueling experience.  Those little guidepins were death if you got hit with one on bare skin. 

Mad Jon: So, marital problems, take two.

Charlie Sweatpants: This episode is better than Bart Carney, but it’s similar in a lot of respects. It’s just that the ratio of problems to good jokes is a little better.

Mad Jon: Better use of ancillary characters.

Charlie Sweatpants: Yeah, the opening of this episode is a bad rehash of Grampa vs Sexual Inadequacy.

  Well, it helps that this one has a B-plot.

Mad Jon: Indeed, one that I enjoyed more than most in season 9.

Charlie Sweatpants: It’s pretty good, but it’s still not quite up to par.

Dave: You mean Bart and Lisa treasure hunting?

Charlie Sweatpants: Yeah.

Mad Jon: Yeah, like getting hit in the stomach instead of the crotch?

Dave: Yeah, it’s okay.

Charlie Sweatpants: I like Bart’s idea of the pirates.

Mad Jon: I like the movie bit at the end, especially the alternate ending to “It’s a Wonderful Life”

Charlie Sweatpants: And Bart asking Grampa if anyone is getting the plug pulled on them, to which Abe replies, “Nope, everybody’s paid up.” is good too.

Mad Jon: The concept of Yellow Fatty Beans makes me laugh.

Charlie Sweatpants: The Wonderful Life thing is great, and while the Casablanca thing is funny, this is another instance of them shamelessly stealing from The Critic.

Mad Jon: I will most assuredly grant that

Charlie Sweatpants: Skip to 4:45 here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr1Jm5cK2b4

Though that scene did give us “Here comes two!” which is a surprisingly durable and usable joke.

Mad Jon: Wow, Its been a while since I’ve seen that Critic, and that wouldn’t make it through any plagiarism detection program.

  What a Duketastrophy

Dave: The Casablanca rehash is funny, if unoriginal. Though ending with “Heart and Soul,” a wedding, and a question mark makes me happy.

Charlie Sweatpants: The ? is very Hollywood clever.

Dave: It would’ve made the actual movie palatable.

Charlie Sweatpants: Disagree with that. I love that flick.

But anyway…

Dave: Yep.

Charlie Sweatpants: Back in the A-plot, I get the overall idea, but they’re really enchanted with causing Homer pain for no reason, and then there’s almost nothing good after they get found out at the windmill.

There’s the silverware falling on him at the restaurant, him getting grabbed and squeezed, and the whole balloon thing with the burning of the hair and the “he fell out of the balloon basket, oh noes!” thing.

Mad Jon: As much as I will never be able to truly like Gil for Gil, I do like how desperate for the sale he was that he didn’t skip a beat at the “your naked” part.

  But then it just kept going.

Dave: That’s kinda it, they took something that was maybe worth 2 minutes of humor and turned it into an entire episode.

Charlie Sweatpants: It does go on too long, though I like the reflexive defeat in his voice when he explains that he’s only living in the balloon until things pick up.

Mad Jon: All in all the third act for plot A is pretty much worthless.

Dave: Or that he has 2 payments left on his hotplate.

Charlie Sweatpants: The only joke I really like is the bit about “god’s fabulous parquet floor”. Though I’ll admit that “people soiled our green” is at least clever.

Mad Jon: The floor joke is ok.

  I usually chuckle at that scene, once I clear my ears of the scraping noise.

Charlie Sweatpants: But all the little story holes that you kept ignoring for the first fifteen minutes or so come back at you a hundred fold at the end.

First they can’t find a baby sitter, then they seem to be able to leave Bart and Lisa at will. They’re supposedly not having sex, even after the barn? And then the whole thing degenerates into the naked chase that they have about six opportunities to end and don’t. It’s like a parachute in a Looney Tunes cartoon, at first just one or two strings are loose, and then all of a sudden everything comes apart.

Mad Jon: Your theory of story degradation holds fast here as well my friend.

Dave: Rock the casbah.

Charlie Sweatpants: Anything else here? I don’t mean to repeat myself overly, but this is just another example where they’ve still got some good ideas (Cold Faithful), but they’ve lowered their standards too much for it to still qualify as Simpsons.

Mad Jon: No, this was more bland than bad, there were a few good jokes, and a few things that make be want to turn it off. I don’t feel we’re in Zombie Land, but it’s getting pretty dark.

Charlie Sweatpants: Individual scenes work (Grampa babysitting the Flanders, Homer’s after work conversation with Lenny and Carl that ends with Marge telling Lenny off), but it’s not enough to get this one anywhere near my regular rotation.

Mad Jon: Agreed, most definitely agreed.

Dave: Again, nailed it. I don’t think there’s anything else you could possibly add to your teardown.

[Dave has left]

Mad Jon: Wow, he meant it eh?

Charlie Sweatpants: I guess.