Up to this point, this has been a Simpsons rewatch, but now with season 13, we’re getting into episodes I haven’t seen before. Back when this was originally on the air, I did see most, but not all of the episodes this season. In future seasons, there’s going to start being more and more episodes that are new to me as we go forward. I’m predicting that the new-to-me episodes probably won’t impress me as much since I won’t have any nostalgia for them. Case in point, I hadn’t seen “Treehouse of Horror XII” (S13, E1) before and I wasn’t impressed.

However, I had seen “The Parent Rap” (S13, E2) before and I found it to be funnier. (Could this be because funnier episodes are more likely to show up in re-runs, so I was more likely to see it, or do I find it funnier because I was familiar with it?) This is the one where Jane Kaczmarek (who played the mom in Malcolm in the Middle) plays a harsh Judge-Judy-type judge who orders Homer and Bart to be tethered together. Apparently, this was based on a couple real-life incidents. Her character, Constance Harm, will become a recurring character on the show.

There’s a presidential reference in this one. Someone says, “Creative sentencing is popular these days. That’s why Bill Clinton is our new mailman.” There’s a second presidential reference later. Moe tells Homer and Bart that kids can’t come into the bar anymore since the Bush girls were in there, a reference to the rowdy daughters of then-current president George W. Bush.

I thought it was funny when Bart asked Homer if there will always be enough electricity for the city and Homer replies, “Oh, son, you know that’s none of your business.” Also, when Homer mistakes the church for their home and says, “I forget things sometimes.” There’s a few good lines in this one. On the minus side, there is a transphobic joke and another gross-out moment when Homer gets dragged through broken glass then asks Bart for a hug. Unfortunately, the next episode, “Homer the Moe” (S13, E3) also has a transphobic joke.

“A Hunka Hunka Burns in Love” (S13, E4) has a presidential reference. Mr. Burns dates a much younger woman who comments, “I never dated anyone who knew Calvin Coolidge.”

In “She of Little Faith” (S13, E6), Lisa becomes a Buddhist. However, like Barney becoming sober, it has little impact on the show going forward since Lisa says she’ll continue going to church and paying lip service to Christianity. It’s not as big of a change as when she became a vegetarian.

“Brawl in the Family” (S13, E7) has a presidential reference which also doubles as a rape joke. A woman who Homer previously married while drunk in Vegas shows up and refuses to leave. To get rid of her, the Simpson family gets her drunk and makes her marry Grandpa Abe Simpson. The marriage was apparently consummated while she wasn’t in a position to give consent, because she’s shocked to find Grandpa next to her when she wakes up and he says, “Wanna give Honest Abe another term in the oval office?” Gross. What happened to The Simpsons? They never used to make rape jokes, but Homer got raped by a panda last season and now this.

The Simpsons once again joke that the show is nearing its end with Lisa commenting at one point, “Is this the end of our series…of events?” It seems like the writers realized The Simpsons wasn’t as funny as it used to be and thought it should just end, but the show kept going because it continued being profitable. Fans continued tuning in week after week despite the drop in quality.

I’d forgotten until I saw “Sweets and Sour Marge” (S13, E8) that The Simpsons characters showed up on Butterfinger commercials in the years leading up to this episode. Apparently, once their contract with Butterfinger expired, they threw in a joke making fun of the candy bar. In this episode, sugar is banned and the police throw Butterfingers into the fire, but the fire throws them back out with Chief Wiggum saying, “Even fire doesn’t want them.” Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. I wonder if this caused other companies thinking about using The Simpsons in their advertising to think twice. Bart did apologize for making a Butterfinger joke on the chalkboard during the opening credits a couple episodes later.

The Simpsons have always made sex jokes, but I feel like “Jaws Wired Shut” (S13, E9) takes it to another level. There were sex jokes all throughout the episode, making it feel more like an episode of Family Guy or South Park than The Simpsons. Marge’s sister Patty has been presented as an asexual who doesn’t like being touched up to this point, but in this episode, it’s revealed that she’s a closeted lesbian. The Simpsons dog, Santa’s Little Helper, is also presented as being gay in this episode, although he was attracted to a female greyhound in a previous season, so maybe he’s bisexual.

There continue to be more sex jokes than usual in the next episode, “Half-Decent Proposal” (S13, E10) in which Marge’s old prom date offers a million dollars to spend the weekend with her. A couple moments made me laugh in this episode. Marge remarks that it’s hard to see a doctor on Wednesday morning and we cut to Dr. Hibbert swinging a golf club. Then it pans out and we see that he’s hitting mailboxes! Homer needs an expensive surgery, and hands Dr. Hibbert a counteroffer which says, “Do it for free.” There’s also a sequence where Marge falls asleep at the wheel, knocks her head on the car horn, thinks it’s someone at the door, and opens the car door and falls out. Good stuff.

In “The Bart Wants What It Wants” (S13, E11), Principle Skinner says, “Welcome to Dick Cheney’s America” while stealing supplies from a prep school. This is a reference to the common belief at the time that George W. Bush was just a figurehead and Vice President Dick Cheney was the de facto president.

“Tales from the Public Domain” (S13, E14) consists of three skits. The first two weren’t funny, but I did enjoy their parody of Hamlet. Bart (Hamlet) stabs Chief Wiggum (Polonius) who was hiding behind a curtain and asks why he was hiding back there. Polonius replies that he hid back there because he was afraid of getting stabbed! In the duel between Bart and Ralph (Laertes), Moe says Laertes gets a practice stab! Then Ralph stabs himself! Everybody suddenly dying at the end was hilarious as was Lisa telling us at the end, “And that was the greatest thing ever written.”

“Blame it on Lisa” (S13, E15) is the one where they go to Brazil. I didn’t think it was funny except for one part at the beginning in which a long distance salesman gets hung up on, then starts crying unconsolably. I’d forgotten how ubiquitous long distance commercials were back then.

“Weekend at Burnsie’s” (S13, E16) is the one where Homer gets medical marijuana and it makes him hallucinate. I’m pretty sure marijuana isn’t a hallucinogen. I wasn’t too impressed with this one. There is a presidential reference. Bill Clinton gives a speech referring to himself as a national embarrassment, reminding us he once said “that depends what your definition of ‘is’ is”, and then he ends by asking for an exorbitant sum. Someone else calls him “Jimmy Carter with a Fox attitude.” Despite being considered a liberal show at the time, The Simpsons continue to make fun of both Democrats and Republicans roughly equally. In fact, this seasons seems to pick on Democrats more than Republicans.

“Gump Roast” (S13, E17) is another clip show. The only part I thought was funny was the closing song, a parody of “We Didn’t Start the Fire” in which the writers apologize for doing another clip show and assure the audience they have enough ideas to keep the show going for years, which did turn out to be true.

“The Sweetest Apu” (S13, E19) is the one where Apu cheats on Manjula. There’s a Civil War reenactment at the start with a couple presidential references. Barney plays General Grant (an alcoholic who later became president). Homer says Barney has to stop being sober to properly play the part. Barney agrees and takes a drink and… nothing happens. He’s fine. An actor portraying Abraham Lincoln shoots himself in the head as a starting pistol to begin the reenactment.

The divorce lawyer in this episode is a new character rather than Lionel Hutz as you’d expect. I’d thought Phil Hartman (the voice of Lionel Hutz) must have died shortly before this episode aired, but he actually died a few years before. His final appearance was back in season 10. I guess I didn’t notice him missing until now because there wasn’t a prominent lawyer role until now.

We get another presidential reference in “Little Girl in the Big Ten” (S13, E20) in which Lisa impersonates a college student. JFK appears in Lisa’s dream about the presidential fitness test which he created. He implies he didn’t write Profiles in Courage, and leaves the dream by going to Hell. Later on in the episode, Homer’s version of “Tubthumping” is hilarious. “I get knocked down. I get knocked down again. You’re never going to knock me down!” and “I drink a whiskey drink. And when I need to pee, I use the kitchen sink.” Great stuff.

I’d thought the divorce lawyer from “The Sweetest Apu” would become the new Lionel Hutz, but I guess they decided not to keep him. Gil is the lawyer in “The Frying Game” (S13, E21) and does a good job of being an incompetent lawyer. I don’t like that the EPA is the villain in the beginning of this episode. The Simpsons really felt like a conservative show this season with their denigrating Clinton, Carter, JFK, and now the EPA is presented as being evil with their Removal of Freedom Act or whatever it was that forced Homer and Marge to care for the screamapillar. There’s a blink and you’ll miss it presidential reference in this one. George H. W. Bush is one of the audience members who showed up to watch Homer get executed. Given how much he hated being Homer’s neighbor in a previous episode, it makes sense.

The final episode this season is “Poppa’s Got a Brand New Badge” (S13, E22) in which Homer takes over as chief of police. It was pretty good. The mobsters go after Homer, but someone starts shooting them. Fat Tony asks Jimmy Tightlips if he knows who’s shooting, but true to form, Jimmy doesn’t say anything.

Overall, I didn’t think any episodes this season were funny all the way through. I did like the Hamlet segment of “Tales from the Public Domain” (S13, E14), but that’s about it. In my opinion, The Simpsons are really running on fumes at this point. With 23 more seasons to go, it’s got to start getting better at some point, right?