We probably should, you know, rock the Casbah

Natural Born Kissers aka Margie, May I Sleep with Danger?

I was not the inspiration for “Kramer”

Director: Klay Hall

Couch gag: The Simpsons are frogs (Maggie is a tadpole). They jump onto a lilypad and Homer flicks on the TV using his tongue.

Synopsis: Homer and Marge’s love life is a bit dull but they discover the secret to spicing things up is making love in public. Meanwhile, Bart and Lisa find Grampa’s old metal detector and find a whole bunch of useless trash. 

Discussion: This episode is a sequel to the season 6 ep ‘Grampa vs Sexual Inadequacy‘. Homer and Marge are again experiencing some “technical difficulties” in their love life. Marriage and sex just aren’t as exciting as Marge pictured it. 

As with the season 6 episode, this is a real-life situation faced by many couples. Not everyone, however, gets to have a literal roll in the hay or the chance to land naked in a packed football stadium in their quest to be a little more spicy. (I do hope that the blog search for “overcoming sexual problems” which led to my earlier post about Homer and Marge’s sex life was valuable to the person who read it…)

This is classic Simpsons: take an everyday experience and turn it into a complete spectacle. I’ve mentioned here several times that the original idea of the show was to show a typical American family: 2.4 children, financial problems, marital problems, house falling to pieces… and this is yet another example of the realism but also of the classic sitcom format to elicit laughs from extraordinary situations. Win!

Regular readers will also know that one of my favourite topics is the Production Code. I shall just briefly mention it here, and there’s a point to it so please bear with me. Bart and Lisa find an alternate ending to Casablanca, one of the most well-known classic films known to man. In this version, Hitler pops up, tries to kill everyone and is thwarted by a parachuting Ilsa, whom Rick then marries. Although the original ending to Casablanca may be unsatisfying to some viewers, it was wholly necessary in order to comply with the Code. Ilsa was not allowed to commit adultery, and in fact all direct references to Ilsa and Rick having sex were omitted from the final script. 

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Every American is an erotic American

Grampa vs Sexual Inadequacy

My homework was not stolen by a one-armed man

Couch gag: the family run past a repeating background

Director: Wes Archer

Guest voice:
Phil Hartman as Troy McClure

Synopsis: Marge and Homer are having some ‘technical difficulties’ with their marriage. Grampa has a home-made tonic that makes the adults of Springfield find their mojo again, causing the kids of Springfield to come up with some strange ideas on where the adults go in the evenings.

Discussion: This episode has all sorts of plots happening. It’s surprisingly complicated for a 22 minute show.

First, Marge and Homer’s sex life. It’s just not happening. Nothing in particular, just life getting in the way. Even their attempts at spicing things up go awry; my personal favourite mishap is their night in the utility room at a themed hotel. Enter Grampa and his home-made tonic, which is guaranteed to spice up any love life.

Secondly, Bart’s new obsession with UFOs. Every kid goes through a phase where they become obsessed with the paranormal. The adults of Springfield are taking the tonic and heading to bed early so Bart and co come up with a ridiculous explanation involving saucer people and reverse vampires in a conspiracy to eliminate the meal of dinner. It’s probably easier to stomach than the truth, to a kid.

Thirdly, Homer and Grampa’s falling out. Grampa is accused of never encouraging Homer, which leads to…

Fourth, Homer’s over-parenting. Having realised his parenting is exactly his father’s style, Homer starts to pay much more attention to his own kids, causing Lisa to remark that it’s kind of scary. Cue the inevitable reunion between Homer and Grampa, who burn down Homer’s childhood home because they’re both screw-ups.

Aww!

The other interesting thing about this episode is that one line is always cut from the television broadcasts:

Homer: Sir! You sir! Hello! You look like a man who needs help satisfying his wife…

In TV broadcasts, this line goes from “You sir!” to Homer being punched in the face. There’s no context to him being punched in the face and I often wonder why the line is censored. It’s a ridiculously funny thing to say and Homer is very, very wrong in saying it. But it works.

It really is a great episode. It’s one of those ones where you don’t remember it being so good, then you re-watch it and everything just shines.

Now, y’all go out and fling some woo like nobody’s business.