The world is my toilet

On a Clear Day I Can’t See My Sister

Beer in a milk carton is not milk

Couch gag: The camera zooms out past the house, town, Earth, Kang and Kodos, galaxies and transforms into atoms, molecules and finally, a spot on Homer’s head.

Director: Bob Anderson

Guest voices:
Gary Busey has himself
Jane Kaczmarek as Judge Harm

Synopsis: After Bart teases Lisa on a field trip, she takes out a restraining order.

Discussion: Yawn. We’ve seen all of this before: Edna’s trying to make Skinner jealous and Bart annoys Lisa and then she remembers all the nice things he’s done for her and they all live happily ever after.

There’s nothing new about this episode. I can’t really think of anything else to say; it’s all been done before and nothing here adds anything to the continuation of any storyline or family nature. It’s just siblings having a tiff, we all knew they’d get over it. I suppose, if I was really pressed, I’d say that the scene of Bart becoming wild like feral dogs was a tad amusing… but that’s a stretch.

Hell this and bitch that

The Bart-Mangled Banner

Couch gag: The Simpsons are on a tray in the microwave

Director: Steven Dean Moore

Synopsis: Bart gets the family into trouble when he accidentally moons the US flag

Discussion: I get it- this episode is a biting satire of patriotism and media over-hype, but it goes on for about 10 minutes too long and the “joke” is spoiled.

Bart is temporarily deafened by a side effect of vaccination, and doesn’t hear the pledge of allegiance; he’s too busy sticking a carrot in his shorts to tempt a donkey, who, in the process of taking the carrot, pulls Bart’s shorts and Bart ends up mooning the flag. This is taken to mean Bart hates America and the family attempt to tell their story but wind up in jail… and then France.

This ep is full of stuff we’ve seen before: Apu’s store is bedecked with American flags (just like the ep where he was studying to become a citizen) and Homer et al telling their story on a talk show is reminiscent of Homer’s “attack” on a college student babysitter. Elmo in jail is a new one though…

It’s not a bad episode, it’s just overly long and uninteresting. It’s one joke stretched to 20 minutes with a lot of guff in between. The Simpsons in jail? Really? And let’s not even mention France again…