I hadn’t seen “Treehouse of Horror XIII” (S14, E1) before and can’t recommend it. I just didn’t think it was funny. There was one scene in which Homer makes several clones of himself and one of the clones is Peter Griffin. This is likely a dig at the dad from Family Guy being too similar to Homer.
The opening couch gag for the next episode “How I Spent My Strummer Vacation” (S14, E2) features the Simpson family jumping a shark. For those who don’t know, Jump the Shark is a term used to refer to the moment a television series stops being good. I think the writers are doing it tongue-in-cheek here, but honestly, I think The Simpsons jumped the shark a couple seasons back. (Season 11 was OK, but seasons 10, 12, and 13 just weren’t funny in my opinion.)
The episode in which Marge gets breast implants, “Large Marge” (S14, E4) has several presidential references. Homer bets Lisa that Dewey will beat Truman in the presidential election of 1948 in which a newspaper prematurely declared Dewey the winner before Truman ended up winning. Since she won the bet, Lisa decides the activity they’ll do (building homes for the homeless as part of a Habitat-for-Humanity-type project). Not only President Jimmy Carter (famously associated with Habitat for Humanity), but also President George H. W. Bush and President Bill Clinton are also helping out. The three of them do a Three-Stooges-style routine. Lisa refers to Carter as the nice guy who finished last.
There’s another presidential reference in the next episode, “Helter Shelter” (S14, E5). This is the one where the Simpson family goes on a reality TV show in which they have to live like it’s 1895. Homer starts reading a newspaper that mentions President Cleveland before passing out due to lack of blood from shaving with a straight razor.
We get our first funny episode of the season with “The Great Louse Detective” (S14, E6) in which someone tries to kill Homer and Sideshow Bob is brought out of prison to help catch the would-be assassin. President George H. W. Bush is one of the suspects because he, like a long list of other people, wants Homer dead. There’s a funny scene in which Bob sets up a Homer dummy to catch the killer, but it doesn’t work because so many other people want to kill him.
I also thought it was hilarious when a stray bullet destroys Moe’s pickled egg jar and Moe wishes he’d taken more pictures of it. Then we pan to the wall with several pictures of Moe with his jar. Homer gets elected king of Mardi Gras and declares that good things do happen to bad people. However, the assassin sabotages the brakes and Homer goes downhill toward the Museum of Swordfish where Homer will be impaled if no one helps him. It’s fun that Bob is the hero this episode, putting together the clues and finding out who the assassin is. Homer says it’s every parent’s dream to outlive their children! There’s laughs all throughout this one. This might be the first episode I hadn’t seen before that I thought was funny all the way through.
“Special Edna” (S14, E7) has a funny part in which Grandpa says he lied about his age to enlist in World War I. The flashback shows him as a toddler showing his commanding officer a picture he drew with crayon! Bart’s essay about World War I is mostly ads! There’s a presidential reference with one of the teachers up for Teacher of the Year mentioning JFK during a lesson about the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Unfortunately, there’s another rape joke this season. In “The Strong Arms of the Ma” (S14, E9), Marge takes up body building. She starts taking steroids and becomes aggressive. In the bedroom, she wants to “snuggle” with Homer, but he doesn’t want to. She tells him she isn’t asking. The next day, Homer is visibly injured from the assault. It’s supposed to be funny, but it’s just gross.
“Barting Over” (S14, E11) is the 300th episode of The Simpsons. Bart becomes an emancipated minor because Homer is obviously an unfit parent. Blink 182 and skateboard legend Tony Hawk guest star. It’s kinda funny, but not amazing. While The Simpsons have always had big name guest stars, I feel like they’re relying on their guest stars too much at this point. The last couple seasons also feel more like fan fiction of themselves, which makes sense since the people writing for The Simpsons at this point probably grew up as fans.
In “I’m Spelling as Fast as I Can” (S14, E12), Lisa takes part in a spelling bee and Homer becomes obsessed with a rib sandwich at Krusty Burger. There’s a funny line where Homer sees the sandwich for sale and says, “The commercial has come to pass” as if it were a prophecy. Another episode that’s kind of funny, but not one of their best. Barney has a relapse in this one, so I guess his becoming sober didn’t last. Homer getting Barney to drink at the Civil War reenactment last season in “The Sweetest Apu” (S13, E19) probably set him on this path.
We get a presidential reference with Flanders mentioning that “we” (i.e., Republicans) stole the 2000 presidential election in “A Star is Born Again” (S14, E13). It’s true. George W. Bush won Florida by such a slim margin, Florida state law required a recount, however, the Republican-controlled Supreme Court stepped in and blocked the recount. The Supreme Court even said this was a one-time decision and shouldn’t be used as a precedent. In other words, if a recount would benefit Republicans in the next election, there would be a recount, but there wouldn’t be a recount in 2000 for some reason. Just in case the Supreme Court ruling didn’t go their way, the Florida Legislature planned on rigging who got to be an elector so Bush would have won even without the Supreme Court decision.
Based on exit polls in Florida, Vice President Al Gore should have won, but a confusing butterfly ballot in Palm Beach County caused 2,000 Gore voters to mistakenly vote for third-party-candidate Buchanan instead. Also, overseas votes for Bush got counted, even if they were received after the legal deadline, lacked required postmarks or a witness signature or address, or were unsigned or undated, cast after election day, from unregistered voters or voters not requesting ballots, or double-counted. An analysis by the National Opinion Research Center found that no matter how votes were counted (prevailing standard, county-by-county standard, two corner standard, most restrictive standard, or least restrictive standard), Gore would have won. Oh well. What’s done is done I guess.
There’s a lot more presidential references in the next episode, “Mr. Spritz Goes to Washington” (S14, E14). Krusty runs for Congress as a Republican. At a Republican meeting, they mention their attempt to get everything renamed after Reagan is going well, including schools previously named after Millard Fillmore. Despite also being on Fox at the time, The Simpsons make fun of how biased Fox News is by showing a news ticker asking if Democrats cause cancer and providing the statistic that 92% of Democrats are gay. They give Krusty a halo and put devil horns on the Democrat up against him, which felt like a recycled joke from when Sideshow Bob was running against Mayor Quimby in an earlier season. I guess after 300 or so episodes, you’re going to start repeating yourself.
Fox News threatened to sue The Simpsons over this, even though that would have amounted to the Fox Network suing themselves. Hilariously, The Simpsons were banned from having news tickers in the future so it wouldn’t confuse people into thinking they were actually watching the news!
At Congress, Krusty is given the job of cleaning up the graffiti which says Martin Van Buren is a wiener. He also reads graffiti that says “Grover Cleveland sucks a what?” There’s a bar called the Drinkin’ Memorial with a logo similar to the Lincoln Memorial. Presidential hopeful Walter Mondale is a janitor. It’s kind of fun how Mondale helps Krusty get a bill passed to stop airplanes from flying over the Simpson house using blackmail, getting a congressmen drunk, distraction, and adding it to a popular bill with a paperclip.
“C.E.D’oh” (S14, E15) has one funny bit. Homer reads a book giving the advice to live each day as if it were your last. So, of course, he cries about being too young to die.
“‘Scuse Me While I Miss the Sky” (S14, E16) show the Simpsons jumping the shark again in the opening couch gag. Bart, while cutting the hood ornament off the mob’s car, has the hilarious line, “We’re all going to get murdered some day.” Homer has a funny line, “I wish God were alive to see this.” Karl refers to having an Icelandic upbringing, which I believe comes up again in a later episode. Krusty complains that he can’t read porn by candlelight, saying, “Who am I? Abraham Lincoln?” Professor Frink saying dating is hard in this episode and has a robot girlfriend in the next episode, which implies that he’s single, however, I recall him once putting his child in danger in an experiment in an earlier season and saying his wife will kill him. I guess he got divorced off screen.
“Three Gays of the Condo” (S14, E17) features a guest appearance by Weird Al. I’ve been a big Weird Al fan for years, but this isn’t his best guest spot. He was much funnier playing Cheese Sandwich in My Little Pony, playing Hitler in Drunk History, and playing the balloon guy in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, although this appearance is funnier than when he appeared on Scooby Doo.
In “Brake My Wife, Please” (S14, E20), Homer gets a cellphone which causes him to go overboard getting other things that plug into his car’s cigarette lighter. This leads to him getting in a crash and losing his license. He then becomes a fan of walking. The musical number about how much he loves walking was great. “When they say, ‘You can’t walk in Turkmenistan’, I say, ‘Of course I can. Screw you.'” Good stuff.
Homer getting a cell phone in 2003 was a little bit behind the curve. As I recall, the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack really popularized cell phones because people on hijacked planes were able to call their loved ones before they died. Cell phones were a bit niche before that, but after that event, nearly everyone had one.
In the final episode this season, “Moe Baby Blues” (S14, E22) Moe accidentally saves Maggie’s life and becomes her babysitter. It was mildly funny. Barney is shown drinking a coffee in Moe’s tavern, so I guess his relapse from earlier this season didn’t last. Good for him.
The only episode this season that was funny all the way through was “The Great Louse Detective” (S14, E6). How did The Simpsons keep getting new seasons made after such a long dry spell? Maybe the general public thought the last few seasons were funnier than I did. Or maybe people kept tuning in purely out of habit. Hopefully it gets better next season.
