Stand back, it’s wanking time

I’m Spelling as Fast as I Can

Couch gag: Homer uses an Etch-A-Sketch to draw the family

Director: Nancy Kruse

Guest voice:
George Plimpton as himself

Synopsis: Lisa is accepted into the Spellympics and Homer chases the last Ribwich across the country.

Discussion: First of all, welcome to my most controversial blog title. For the record, it was uttered by a clueless Principal Skinner (I’m led to believe that “wank” is not a common term in the US, although it is in both the UK and Australia).

This feels like yet another rehashed episode dressed up in fancy new clothes. Lisa loses sleep over a moral dilemma (and dreams the series’ first lesbian kiss) while Homer chases a food item across the US. OK, so I don’t remember Homer doing that before… but it seems like something he would do. And Krusty sent the rib animal extinct as well…

Let’s start at the beginning. Where’s Martin in the finals of the Spelling Bee and how did Milhouse end up there instead? We all know Lisa can spell well, but it’s a big deal for her to end up in the national finals and be accepted within her home town. Seems odd- since when do the people care about Lisa’s academic achievements? They’ve derided her before for being a brainiac. But here they are building a Mount Rushmore-type monument to her. Go figure.

The real star of the episode is the Ribwich: a McRib-style sandwich available for a limited time at Krusty Burger and available around the country for audience testing. Major logic flaw being that Krusty has now sent the rib animal extinct… but this is a TV show, which doesn’t need to make sense. Homer and the Ribwich groupies fight over the remaining sandwiches and nothing exciting happens. There’s no rioting, no threatening Krusty at the sandwich’s demise, no thinly veiled taunts at what might happen to various Krusty Burger joints around the country or even a mere suggestion of using another animal in the Ribwich.

Yawn.

If I thought last episode was a car crash, guess what I think of this one.