12.1 Treehouse of Horror XI
The show continued its momentum from the end of season eleven in one of the better Treehouse episodes. The first segment, a parody of the Bill Cosby vehicle Ghost Dad, is harder to watch now because of what the ensuing twenty years did to Cosby’s reputation, but still works. The middle segment is a decent riff on fairy tales. However, the highlight of the show is the final segment, “Night of the Dolphin,” an absurdist mishmash of The Birds and Day of the Dolphin. Casting dolphins as evil masterminds and positioning Lisa’s earnest do-goodery as the catalyst for the apocalypse are brilliant touches.
The show is accused (often rightfully so) of having a decidedly liberal slant, but it’s pretty consistently depicted the dangerous unintentional consequences of relying on good intentions and the over riding desire to “do something” as guiding principles.
A very promising start to the season.
12.2 A Tale of Two Springfields
When a new area code is introduced into Springfield, Homer leads the citizens with the old area code in a rebellion against the supposed elites of the new one which culminates in a wall erected between the two factions. The harmony is restored by a Who concert.
I enjoyed The Who cameo and Homer’s antics, although it felt like a rerun of the superior “Trash of the Titans,” which coincidentally featured another rock band cameo (U2). Seinfeld did a better episode about area codes.
Still buzzing from the great Treehouse episode to kick start this season, the show is humming along now with a slightly better than average episode.
12.3 Insane Clown Poppy
Krusty discovers a previously unknown daughter, Sophie (Drew Barrymore), who’s roughly Bart’s age. After Fat Tony inexplicably wins Sophie’s beloved violin in a card game, Homer and Krusty ill advisedly crash a mob summit to retrieve it.
Krusty having an unknown daughter tracks, but introducing her and giving him space to process this new relationship would have been enough, instead of taking us on the whole journey in twenty minutes.
The Stephen King, John Updike and Amy Tan cameos were fun, but it was a lot and having someone else (Jay Mohr) do a Christopher Walker impression cheapens the guest star concept.
After two hits to open the season carrying over from the excellent end of season eleven, this was a slight step in the wrong direction.
12.4 Lisa the Tree Hugger
Lisa attempts to impress radical environmentalist Jesse Grass (Joshua Jackson) by saving an ancient tree from loggers. She commits to living in the tree, but when she sneaks home one night, the tree is struck by lightning; Lisa is presumed dead and seen as a martyr.
Disgusted as others cash in on her advocacy, Lisa reluctantly comes forward and admits the truth.
Lisa’s adventure is modeled on real-life activist Julia Butterfly Hill. Jackson is a fine guest star, and I always enjoy the Rich Texan. The ending gag as the log travels across the US is an inspired bit of surrealism. Lisa issue episodes sometimes irk me because the show wears its heart too proudly on its sleeve, but this is one of the better ones.
12.5 Homer vs. Dignity
When Smithers goes on vacation, a bored Burns hires Homer to performs pranks. After Lisa explains how degrading this is, Homer stands up to Burns.
One of the pranks goes awry and Homer sexually assaulted by a male panda while wearing a panda suit. This joke has not aged well, but to me it was a minor point. I thought the episode landed and was a vital stretching of the show’s limits; much darker than what the show usually does.
It’s one of the better episodes of the season, but comes with baggage. If raping pandas trigger you, avoid this one.
12.6 The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes
Homer gets a computer and becomes a powerful internet reporter / muckraker (a clear parody of Matt Drudge). His unrelenting pursuit of the truth gets him in trouble with a shadowy agency and he’s exiled to an unknown island (a parody of The Prisoner). He escapes, but the agency comes for the whole clan.
Over twenty years later, the batshit idea of flu vaccines as a vehicle for world domination has surprising cultural relevance. I love the in-joke cameo from Patrick McGoohan and Homer’s Mr. X persona.
I’m a big fan of reclusive writer John Swarztwelder. He’s likely the biggest catalyst of my love affair with the show. Much like Jim Downey at SNL, having a strong contrarian voice in an otherwise decidedly liberal writer’s room, sharpens the comedy knives.
12.7 The Great Money Caper
Bart buys a magician’s kit. When his act is a failure, a disappointed Homer abandons him to figure out how to get home on his own. After a resourceful Bart begs for money and comes home in a taxi, Homer is inspired to become a grifter and enlists Grampa to scam the Springfield Retirement Castle residents. They’re arrested by the FBI, but quickly realize the agent was a con artist who stole their car.
Homer is embarrassed to admit he was conned and claims his car was stolen by an unknown assailant. When Groundskeeper Willie is convicted for the crime, he goes berserk and shoots Skinner, prompting a shocked Homer to finally admit the truth. In a shocking twist, Marge reveals she hired an actor to steal his car and staged the trial to teach him a lesson.
The episode abruptly ends with everyone at a beach party.
I love heist movies: Matchstick Men, Ocean’s Eleven, The Sting, Now You See Me. Elaborate cons and hoaxes are endlessly entertaining to me.
I loved the fast pace, the absurdism, and the non sequitur ending. It’s a polarizing episode, but I love the show’s reinvention of itself as an absurdist fantasy.
12.8 Skinner’s Sense of Snow
When a blizzard traps the students of Springfield Elementary with principal Skinner, Homer and Ned team up to get them out. I enjoyed Seymour’s use of military tactics to corral the unruly students and Homer and Ned’s carbon monoxide infused hallucinations. It was a nice touch to give the school hamster a major role instrumental in their escape.
It’s a better than average episode for the season and slightly above average overall.
12.9 HOMR
The removal of a crayon from his brain gives Homer a significant IQ bump, but this increased intelligence changes his relationship with everyone.
A nice try but a) it fundamentally changes the audience relationship with the show’s central character and b) it’s been done.
There’s not enough to overcome the stale concept in one of the weaker episodes of the season.
12.10 Pokey Mom
When convicted criminal Jack Crowley (Michael Keaton) praises Marge’s artistic talent, she gets Jack a job painting a school mural, which Skinner censors. Disappointed and frustrated, Jack returns to his criminal ways. Meanwhile, Homer feuds with chiropractors after he develops an alternative treatment for back injuries which involves a garbage can.
While I love Michael Keaton and the delightful Bruce Vilanch cameo, taking aim at chiropractors is low hanging fruit and seems like a waste of the show’s platform and Marge’s latent artistic talent has been explored better elsewhere.
It’s a middling episode of the series overall, but definitely one of the weaker entries in the season.
12.11 Worst Episode Ever
A sick Comic Book Guy is forced to let Bart and Milhouse run his store. Advised to make outside connections for health purposes, he pursues a relationship with Agnes Skinner.
Comic Book Guy and Agnes is an ingenious pairing and the episode title has become a shorthand frequently used in memes.
The great jokes include Biclops and Comic Book Guy’s illicit video of a drunken Fred Rogers.
The episode is better than most, and the Agnes / Comic Book Guy pairing ironically elevated Worst Episode Ever into the show’s pantheon.
12.12 Tennis the Menace.
Homer builds a tennis court in the backyard, but Marge is annoyed at how bad of a partner he is and, when they enter a tournament, she ditches him for Bart. Homer responds by teaming with Lisa. Eventually, the clan realizes none of them are skilled tennis players.
The tennis cameos (Andre Agassi, Peter Sampras, Venus and Serena Williams) are stellar, but the episode left me cold. Adequate but forgettable.
12.13 Day of the Jackanapes
While announcing his fifth retirement, Krusty reveals he inadvertently taped over the episodes featuring Sideshow Bob, prompting a vengeful Bob to hatch yet another plan to kill Bart and Krusty.
Sideshow Bob episodes tickle my funny bone. I love Kelsey Grammer’s work, plus, we get a Gary Coleman cameo and a commentary on the commercialization of art and comedy.
It’s one of the better episodes of the season.
12.14 New Kids on the Blecch
Bart, Millhouse, Nelson, and Ralph are placed into a boy band, which the Navy is secretly using as a recruitment tool. When their band is ridiculed by Mad Magazine and begins to lose its brief cultural relevance, the Navy sabotages their performance, exposing the boy’s lack of musical talent.
I enjoyed the N’Sync cameo but everything else was… blecch. One of the weaker episodes of the season.
12.15 Hungry, Hungry Homer
When Homer tries his hand at being a good Samaritan (producing the classic line, “I gave him directions even though I don’t know how to get there”), he accidentally discovers the owner of the Springfield Isotopes is moving the team to Albuquerque and stages a hunger strike to bring attention to the deception.
While no one initially believes him, hot dog wrappers emblazoned with the new logo alert everyone Homer was telling the truth.
I have an affinity for episodes written by John Schwartzelder. His sensibility is almost perfectly attuned to mine.
I love the episode’s use of the word “meh” and it tickles me to think a real team in Canada maneuvered their way into becoming the Albuquerque Isotopes. This is the best episode of the season and one of the better ones in the show’s run.
12.16 Bye Bye Nerdie
To avoid being bullied by new kid Francine (Kathy Griffin), Lisa discovers a scientific reason for her behavior: pheromones. Lisa develops a “cure” for nerds to prevent bullying: wearing salad dressing to overwhelm other smells. This works until the salad dressing wears off and Francine attacks a room full of scientists.
Meanwhile, Homer once again runs foul of local businesses. Worried about Maggie’s safety, he baby proofs their house and then offers the same service to everyone in Springfield, adversely affecting businesses which cater to injured children.
The B story is rehashed material, but Lisa’s plot is stellar. Kathy Griffin is well cast, and the payoff with famous scientists (including C. Everett Koop) attacked by the out of control bully is solid.
Slightly better than average episode.
12.17 Simpson Safari
When grocery store bagboys strike, the desperately hungry Simpsons wander into their attic and discover an ancient box of animal crackers. Homer realizes the box contains a winning ticket for an African safari.
When the Simpsons claim their prize, it goes as well you’d expect. There’s a lot of jokes which seem borderline racist, and the whole thing ends with the family discovering their Jane Goodall stand in is actually enslaving chimps to work in a diamond mine. It’s a bizarre, meandering episode, which wasn’t funny twenty years ago and has aged poorly. Easily the worst episode of the season.
12.18 Trilogy of Error
Homer accidentally destroys Lisa’s science project: Linguo, the grammar robot. During the ensuing chaos, he slices off his thumb. Homer and Marge leave to reattach his finger, while Lisa, distracted trying to frantically to repair her project, boards the wrong school bus and winds up at West Springfield Elementary. Meanwhile, Bart and Milhouse stumble upon a cache of contraband fireworks and run up against Fat Tony.
All three stories take insane and complicated twists before converging in a bizarre deus ex machina. The episode ends with Krusty’s driver, Mr. Teeeny, warning the audience the plot made no sense.
The frenetic energy and entwining plots are delightful. I love Linguo and Mr. Teeny getting a moment to shine. It’s a perfect homage to the films like Go, 2 Days in the Valley, and Pulp Fiction; one of the better episodes of the season and the show.
12.19 I’m Goin’ to Praiseland
After getting a second chance on romance with Christian singer Rachel Jordan, Ned is finally convinced he needs to move on from his deceased wife, Maude. While clearing out her stuff, he finds a sketchbook of a Christian amusement park and decides to build the park to honor his late wife.
It appears to be going well, until the main attraction (Maude’s vision inducing statue) is revealed to be the result of a gas leak.
Praiseland is a bust, but brings Ned towards closure.
I enjoyed this more than most people. I thought the Praiseland stuff was well done. Having grown up in an environment where this type of stuff was well thought of, it felt honest.
The show doesn’t do a through line often, but here it gives a depth and shading to Ned beyond a too wholesome, annoying neighbor.
12.20 Children of a Lesser Clod
While injured and homebound, Homer opens a daycare center; a jealous Bart and Lisa work to sabotage his efforts.
I enjoy episodes with a Bart and Lisa team up. Even better when they’re working against Homer. The multiple trials are funny, as is the idea anyone at Springfield wouldn’t know about Homer’s treatment of his children.
It’s a solid episode.
12.21 Simpsons Tall Tales
While travelling, the Simpsons are kicked out of the airport (surprise!). They hop on a train where a singing hobo regales them with three stories inspired by tales of the American West.
Homer is Paul Bunyan. Lisa becomes Connie Appleseed, while Bart and Nelson are reimagined as Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.
The actual anthology segments were middle of the road, but the singing hobo (voiced by Hank Azaria) and his demand of a sponge bath as payment for his tales elevated the episode.
Here is my ranking for the season:
- Hungry, Hungry Homer (12.15)
- The Great Money Caper (12.7)
- The Computer Wore Menace Shoes (12.6)
- Treehouse of Horror XI (12.1)
- Trilogy of Error (12.18)
- Worst Episode Ever (12.11)
- Day of the Jackanapes (12.13)
- Skinner’s Sense of Snow (12.8)
- Lisa the Tree Hugger (12.4)
- Homer vs. Dignity (12.5)
- I’m Goin’ to Praiseland (12.18)
- A Tale of Two Springfields (12.2)
- Children of a Lesser Clod (12.20)
- Simpsons Tall Tales (12.21)
- Bye Bye Nerdie (12.16)
- Tennis the Menace (12.12)
- HOMR (12.9)
- Insane Clown Poppy (12.3)
- New Kids on the Blech (12.14)
- Pokey Mom (12.10)
- Simpson Safari (12.17)