Lard of the Dance (10.1)
The new girl at school, Whitney (Lisa Kudrow) makes Lisa jealous. Meanwhile, Homer and Bart start a grease business, leading to a feud with Groundskeeper Willie. The two stories converge at the school dance when the grease explodes and all the kids play in it.
Lisa’s problems with other girls in her class and jealousy of new kids is tiresome, fortunately Kudrow keeps Whitney from being one dimensional and the meta humor references are a nice easter egg.
The subplot featuring the Simpson men is much funnier. I know some hate it, but I love scheming Homer and the showdown with Willie was fantastic in this better than average episode.
The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace (10.2)
While experiencing a midlife crisis, Homer is inspired by Thomas Edison and decides to become an inventor. Most of his inventions are worthless (including a make-up gun and a recliner with a built in toilet), but a chair with legs on hinges impresses his family. Sadly, he sees a photo indicating Edison had previously invented the same chair, but failed to patent it.
Homer goes to the Edison museum to destroy the chair so he can get sole credit, but can’t bring himself to do it and inadvertently leaves behind another of his inventions (an electric hammer) which is discovered and hailed as a final triumph of Edison from beyond the grave.
I enjoyed Homer’s foray into the world of tinkering and I especially liked the make-up gun. Homer’s wacky schemes are some of my favorite episodes. I enjoyed the show more when it leaned into zany Homer as the core.
Bart the Mother (10.3)
After Bart accidentally kills a bird, Marge guilts him into taking care of the eggs it left behind. Unbeknownst to them, these eggs contain lizards which are deadly to birds, but fortunately wind up ridding the city of a pigeon problem.
It’s a forgettable episode with few laughs or memorable moments. The only noteworthy feature is the last appearance of Phil Hartman.
Treehouse of Horror IX (10.4)
“Hell Toupee” is a lot of fun. Homer winds up with Snake’s hair after the latter’s execution. Through the toupee, Snake possesses Homer and seeks revenge.
In “The Terror of Tiny Toon,” Bart and Lisa are sucked in to an episode of Itchy and Scratchy.
In the final segment, Marge reveals Kang is actually Maggie’s father on The Jerry Springer Show.
This is a gold standard Treehouse episode. Untethered to the constraints of reality or the show’s continuity, the writers are free to explore previously unknown areas of the show’s universe. I loved the Snake segment, and Tiny Toon is one of the better incorporations of the show within a show. Marge and Homer on Jerry Springer’s show is a season highlight. I love Treehouse episodes and this episode is one of the reasons why.
10.5 When You Dish Upon a Star
Homer accidentally discovers the hidden Springfield getaway of Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin. In exchange for keeping their secret, he worms his way into their lives. This ends as well as you’d expect.
The self-depreciating cameos by Baldwin, Basinger, and Ron Howard are very funny. It’s amusing to think how Baldwin’s career has progressed since this aired. If not for artifacts like this, we might forget Basinger and Baldwin were married. With some exceptions, I like it when celebrities play heightened versions of themselves or their famous characters. Another solid outing in season ten.
10.6 D’oh’-in’ in the Wind
Homer’s attempts to learn what his middle initial means leads him and Grandpa to a hippie commune run by two of Moana Simpson’s old friends (George Carlin and Martin Mull). Homer befriends the hippies, but his ineptitude becomes a major hindrance to their operation.
I love Carlin and Mull; Homer not knowing his own middle name was a fun revelation, but the jokes about 1960s counterculture don’t land. I’m a fan of episodes focused on Homer’s buffoonery, but this one was weak.
10.7 Lisa Gets an A
When a distracted Lisa forgets to study for a test, she asks Bart and Nelson to help her cheat. Her A+++ grade means Springfield Elementary qualifies for grant money, but Lisa can’t live with the guilt and confesses. Desperate to get the money, Chalmers and Skinner stage a fake ceremony for Lisa to admit her guilt before the comptroller arrives to give them the needed funds.
I like the idea everyone involved knew Lisa’s conscience would never let her keep her mouth shut. I love that everyone else was okay with it and staged an elaborate ruse to keep their money.
In the inspired B plot, Homer adopts a pet lobster, which ends poorly after he gives it a hot bath, effectively steaming and killing the creature.
This is a very good episode and one of the highlights of the season.
10.8 Homer Simpson in: ‘Kidney Trouble’
Homer’s refusal to let Grandpa use the restroom causes a kidney emergency. Homer initially agrees to donate a kidney to save his dad, but runs away from fear. After a foray onto a sailing vessel full of other people ashamed of their actions, Homer returns and the operation is done.
There’s some funny stuff on the boat, but Homer’s wanton cruelty and craven selfishness are off putting and make this a lesser episode in the season.
10.9 Mayored to the Mob
After saving Quimby from an angry mob at the Bi-Mon-Sci-Fi-Con, Homer is hired as his bodyguard. When he discovers the mayor has a deal with Fat Tony to provide rat milk to Springfield Elementary, he threatens to expose the corruption, forcing Quimby to sever ties with organized crime. When the mob boss returns from a brief prison sentence, Homer is out of his depth.
The rat milk storyline is gross, but fun. I love Fat Tony and he always makes episodes better, but this shines because of Mark Hamill’s dual role as himself and Homer’s bodyguard trainer. Hamill singing “Luke be a Jedi tonight.” in a revised version of Guys and Dolls and advising Homer to “use the forks” to defend himself from Fat Tony’s men are highlights. Whenever The Simpsons leans into nerd culture it feels special; the whole convention becomes a giant Easter egg with references to a yet to be aired Futurama, Doctor Who, Star Trek, and Battlestar Galactica.
10.10 Viva Ned Flanders
When Flanders reveals he’s sixty years old and never done anything exciting in his life, Homer takes him to Vegas for a wild night on the town. During the drunken chaos, the pair marry cocktail waitresses Amber and Ginger.
I love the Vegas wives. The spoof of Sin City (including a Siegfried and Roy act) is witty. I like Ned / Homer centric episodes; their love / hate relationship is one of the more interesting ones in the series and I enjoy episodes which show Ned as more than a holy roller. This is one of the better episodes of the season.
10.11 Wild Barts Can’t Be Broken
While celebrating an Isotopes championship, Homer and his buddies vandalize Springfield Elementary. Chief Wiggum assumes it was done by students at the school and imposes a curfew. The angry children get back at their parents by exposing the secrets of everyone in town on a late night radio show.
A lot of funny stuff, including: Homer jumping on the Isotope bandwagon, Cyndi Lauper singing the national anthem to the tune of “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” and The Bloodening.
I like the children vs. adults angle and the end with the seniors winning the day is inspired.
10.12 Sunday, Cruddy Sunday
Homer gets tickets to the Super Bowl, but only if he can bring a busload of people with him. He cajoles most of the men in Springfield to travel to the game, only to discover the tickets are fake. The group is detained in a cell deep inside the stadium, but escape with the help of Dolly Parton, eventually winding up in the locker room of the victorious Denver Broncos.
While Homer is on his trip, bored Marge and Lisa play with a egg craft kit from the 1960s endorsed by Vincent Price.
They missed an opportunity to lean into Homer’s ownership of the Broncos (a gift from Hank Scorpio in season 8). I like Dolly’s cameo. I like Madden and Sumerall doing commentary at the end (although it dates the show). Fred Willard is always delightfully and I liked Rupert Murdoch’s willingness to spoof himself, but the episode falls a little flat for me.
10.13 Homer to the Max
Homer is excited by a new television character sharing his name because the character is a confident hero, but when a retool changes this Homer Simpson into comic relief, our Homer changes his name to Max Power. Max is very popular and invited to parties with the rich and famous. However, he invariably makes an ass of himself and reverts to the Homer we know.
I love the cop show parody and I love Homer’s new name / change in attitude. Max Power is a perfect name for someone like Homer to latch onto.
Ed Begley Jr. is one of the most reliably funny bit players, and his self-parody is spot-on.
10.14 I’m with Cupid
Prompted by Homer and Marge’s meddling is his marriage, Apu showers his wife with sentimental gifts, causing marital issues with the other couples in Springfield. The Springfield men band together to keep Apu from making them look bad.
I like Apu / Manjula episodes. Unfortunately, since Jan Hooks is deceased and Apu has been retired we won’t see anymore.
Elton John’s cameo (including a reworked version of “Your Song”) is a highlight in a very good episode of the season.
10.15 Marge Simpson in ‘Screaming Yellow Honkers’
When Homer learns his new Canyonero is the model designed for women, he gives the massive car to Marge. Marge’s driving changes with the new vehicle and her license is suspended due to road rage. After a freak incident at the zoo where Homer and the Simpson children unleash a rhinoceros, authorities call on Marge and the Canyonero to save the day.
The Canyonero was a throw away gag in a previous episode, The Last Temptation of Krust. It was funny as a parody of SUVs, but it’s not a strong enough joke to sustain a whole episode.
10.16 Make Room for Lisa
After Homer damages the Bill of Rights, he’s forced to let a large telecommunication company use his house for an antenna; Lisa’s room houses their equipment, straining her relationship with her dad. Desperate to improve things, Homer take her to a sensory deprivation tank. During the experience, Lisa realizes Homer loves her in his way, while Homer’s tank is taken out of the store, placed in a truck, and goes on an incredible journey through town.
Meanwhile, Bart and Milhouse prank Marge when they find her using Maggie’s baby monitor to eavesdrop on her neighbors.
There’s too much going on. Homer’s abuse of the Bill of Rights and his wild journey in the tank are a bridge too far into absurdity (and feel more like Family Guy jokes).
I like Homer / Lisa episodes, but by season ten it’s hard to plumb the depths of their relationship without retreading past material.
10.17 Maximum Homerdrive
When a meat eating contest kills Red Barclay, Homer takes over the trucker’s final delivery. After falling asleep at the wheel, Homer learns the industry’s dirty secret: the trucks are on autopilot. When Homer accidentally exposes this secret to outsiders, the other truckers turn on him.
In the B plot, Marge buys a new doorbell for the house. When it malfunctions, company spokesman, Senor Ding-Dong arrives to fix it.
Unlike the previous episode, this one strikes the right balance with the absurdity. Senor Ding-Dong is a fantastic character and pushes it into the like category for me.
10.18 Simpsons Bible Stories
After Reverend Lovejoy’s Easter sermon bores the Simpsons to sleep, they each have a Biblical inspired dream.
Marge dreams she and Homer are Adam and Eve. Lisa’s recasts the Springfield Elementary students as Israelites enslaved in Egypt. Homer sees himself as Solomon who has to decide if Lenny or Carl are the rightful owner of a pie. Bart imagines a sequel to the story of King David and Goliath.
After they wake up in a post apocalyptic nightmare, the Simpson clan is dragged to hell.
This is a sort of yin to the Treehouse of Horror yang. I like irreverent humor which takes on religious sacred cows, but while some of the individual bits are funny, most of them sound funnier on paper. It’s not bad, but it could / should have been much better and lacks the rhythm of the Treehouse specials. You can tell the writers are conflicted: the jokes are pulling punches because they’re treading on potentially controversially ground. They want to do a severe parody, but are forced into a gentle one.
10.19 Mom and Pop Art
When Astrid Weller (Isabella Rossellini) see the mess Homer made of a do it yourself barbeque pit, she champions it as a piece of avant garde art; adding internationally acclaimed artist to Homer’s expansive resume.
Rossellini is great, the Jasper Johns cameo is hysterical, the art world parody is spot on, and I loved the Christo inspired finale.
This was a lot of fun, even if the jokes were probably a little too insider baseball for most people.
10.20 The Old Man and the ‘C’ Student
After Springfield is inexplicably awarded the Olympics, Homer creates a mascot, Springy, and orders thousands of springs to sell. Unfortunately, Bart’s racy stand up routine offends the IOC which moves the games to Shelbyville. As punishment for losing the games, Skinner forces every student to do community service; Bart and Lisa work at the retirement castle and bond with Grandpa. Lisa plays by the rules, but Bart busts the seniors out for a day on the town.
Once again the series is doubling down on absurdity, but when paired with insightful parodies (the IOC, the retirement home), it works. I enjoy episodes where the A and B stories converge in unexpected ways. I love Springy and Ciggy, the Shelbyville rivalry, and the Cuckoo’s Nest references.
10.21 Monty Can’t Buy Me Love
Burns is jealous of fellow billionaire Arthur Fortune (a parody of Richard Branson), so he enlists Homer, Frink, and Willie to help him capture the Loch Ness Monster. Unfortunately, this does not get him the love he craves.
I didn’t care for this. Generally, I don’t like efforts to humanize Burns.
10.22 They Saved Lisa’s Brain
After a contest to find the most disgusting and dimwitted person in town ends in a riot, Lisa writes an editorial in the paper excoriating her hometown which earns her a spot in the Springfield Mensa chapter (joining Comic Book Guy, Skinner, Frink, Dr. Hibbert, and Lindsay Neagle). When the Mensa nerds complain to Quimby about bullying, the mayor leaves them in charge and they discover high intelligence does not necessarily equal good governance.
Lisa’s time in Mensa is fun, and I love seeing the other people in the group, but this episode shines because of the legendary cameo from Stephen Hawking. His boxing glove, helicopter, and conversation with Homer about the mysteries of the universe are some of the best moments in the entire series.
Easily the best episode of the season.
10.23 Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo
When Snakes steals the Simpsons’ savings, depriving them of a planned vacation, they steal Flanders ticket to Tokyo. In Japan, the family experiences a stereotypical tourist trip: sumo wrestling, bonsai, origami, and vicious game shows. It’s an okay episode, but nothing special. The highlight was an advertisement for Mr. Sparkle.
- They Saved Lisa’s Brain (10.22)
- Treehouse of Horror IX (10.4)
- Lisa Gets an A (10.7)
- Homer to the Max (10.13)
- I’m with Cupid (10.14)
- Maximum Homerdrive (10.17)
- Viva Ned Flanders (10.10)
- Mayored to the Mob (10.9)
- Mom and Pop Art (10.19)
- Wild Barts Can’t Be Broken (10.10)
- When You Dish Upon a Star (10.5)
- The Old Man and the ‘C’ Student (10.20)
- The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace (10.2)
- Lard of the Dance (10.1)
- Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo (10.23)
- Simpsons Bible Stories (10.18)
- Make Room for Lisa (10.16)
- Marge Simpson in ‘Screaming Yellow Honkers’ (10.15)
- Sunday, Cruddy Sunday (10.12)
- Homer Simpsons in ‘Kidney Trouble’ (10.8)
- D’oh-in’ in the Wind (10.6)
- Monty Can’t Buy Me Love (10.21)
- Bart the Mother (10.3)