For the last however many years, I’d describe the Simpsons as “mildly amusing” at best and “tragically shrill polemical drivel that sacrifices any attempt at humor for whatever this week’s message is” at worst. (this season has been more towards the “mildly amusing” side. They seem to have gotten away from being shrill. This is a good trend.
But this episode? Goddamn, this was like 3d-season funny. Ok, a shot or two at Trump and a couple shots (actually one shot repeated a few times) about wimpy snowflake college students, but those aside, the rest was hysterical. The Wiffenpoof gag actually made me laugh out loud, the bit with the Skull and Bones people drinking out of skulls (“Pancho Villa Punch”) had me chuckling and drunk Lisa was great. (Also Smithers with the “Full Monty” bit. :D) Also, the whole plot held together beginning to end. No more of those teen-season episodes that started with an “A” plot in act 1, moved to a “B” plot in act two and in act three, either A or B might be resolved, but never both. (And sometimes neither). This was solid storytelling.
They’ve had decent episodes this season and this one was OK but not my favorite. The jokes about the students and political correctness seemed tired and I’m not a fan of Lisa drinking the wine at dinner. I liked the guest voices but they seemed crammed in without quite enough room to develop either. I did like Stan Lee in the opener and Homer’s voiceprint to get into the house.
I liked that the Skull & Bones tomb had red phones for Washington, Moscow, [somewhere else] and Sally’s Apizza. (I don’t know if it’s still true, but Sally’s Apizza used to have two phones on the wall. The one connected to the public number was literally off the hook, so you couldn’t call in to place an order. The other phone was connected to an unpublished number, and the true sign of being a bigshot in New Haven was that you knew that number. We were, of course, never well-connected enough to have it.) There was also a winking reference to the old rumor that Geronimo’s skull is in the tomb.
Hey, this one sounds funny. Haven’t watched for many a year but on the evidence of this I’ll give it another try.
BTW I’ve loved The Simpsons from the get-go but we’re getting dangerously near the point that saying “I remember when The Simpsons were funny” is gonna bring the answer, “Wow, I didn’t know you were that old!”