Okay. Just finished watching that.
Maggie had a few intelligible lines, albeit in a fictional story told by Marge.
Are those her first lines?
Secondly, who did the voice?
There was one other episode where she said her first word (“Daddy”). That was voiced by Elizabeth Taylor.
Her speech on the episode tonight was voiced by Jodie Foster.
Don’t forget the Halloween episode where she says:
“This is indeed a disturbing universe.”
“Four Great Women and a Manicure” LABF09
Written by Valentina L. Garza (songs by Alf Clausen and Garza)
A fun little episode- the non-Treehouse of Horror trilogies (now a quadrology thanks to an extra act break, as joked about) usually seem to be better than the Treehouses for the past few years, and this seems to be the case here as well. The Macbeth story was my favorite- I’ve never seen the one-man show MacHomer, but this placing of Simpsons characters into the story was very well-done. All of the stories had their amusing moments (the Queen Elizabeth one fell flat for me, though).
List of things that Maggie has said:
Actual:
“Daddy” (“Lisa’s First Word,” voiced by Elizabeth Taylor)
“Daddily-Doodily” ("Home Sweet Home-Diddly-Dum-Doodly)
“Sequel?” (The Simpsons Movie)
Imagined:
“It’s your fault I can’t talk!” (“Bart vs. Thanksgiving”, dream sequence)
“Moe” (“Flaming Moe’s”, Homer dream sequence)
Fountainhead speech (this episode, Marge fantasy, voiced by Jodie Foster)
Debatable:
“This is indeed a disturbing universe.” (“Treehouse of Horror V,” voiced by James Earl Jones)
This is the second time The Simpsons has combined Ayn Rand with a daycare center. In “A Streetcar Named Marge,” Marge enrolls Maggie in the Ayn Rand School for Tots while Marge was busy rehearsing for her play. It’s the one where Maggie ingeniously gets ahold of the confiscated pacifiers and distributes them to all the other babies.
Don’t forget ToH IX in which Maggie is revealed as half-alien:
“Very well, I’ll drive! Hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah! I need blood!”
I greatly enjoyed this episode! The Elizabeth excerpt was the least successful with me too, mobo85, but the others definitely made up for it. In fact I got two actual big LOLs (literal ones, and I rarely laugh out loud these days at Simpsons jokes) from the Macbeth bit: First, when Sideshow Mel was sleeping and emoting “Snoooore!”, and the next when Marge was reading the latest review and Homer says confusedly, “Why are they reviewing this play every day?”
It was a little odd that they didn’t reuse the Ayn Rand Daycare from Streetcar Named Marge, but maybe that would’ve been too much of a callback rather than the internal storytelling that Marge was supposed to be doing. (Or maybe they couldn’t get Jon Lovitz for some schedule reason.)
Anyway, well done, show!
My one complaint is the mischaracterization of Lisa in the Snow White segment when she lured the turtle into the hot water and laughed mercilessly. Come on, Lisa the vegetarian? Lisa the animal-lover? Especially since Lisa was the one who told the story. I’m surprised Yeardly Smith didn’t object to the scene. If I had invested 20+ years into a role, I would have.
Yeah, but it’s a fantasy sequence, and she did lure the turtle nicely. I laughed really hard at that, actually. It was a weird episode - nobody was in character, from Marge goading Homer into multiple murder, Maggie spouting Ayn Rand - but I give a big thumbs up to the non-Elizabeth segments. Making the Macbeth sequence a play within a play was a clever choice and hearing Homer do Shakespeare (while the actor tried to avoid sounding like Sideshow Mel) was cool. I didn’t understand the use of strings during the “Tomorrow and tomorrow” monologue, though: it blunts the impact of a really nihilistic speech.
Thumbs up for Jodie Foster. I think her speech should’ve been longer- it would’ve been more Randian. I also like the four-part structure they used here, and also in the last two episodes.
Note nobody’s likely to care about: The line sideshow Mel used to show off (“stars, hide your fires/Let not light see my black and deep desires”) is really a Lady Macbeth line. So maybe he was double-cast.
I usually don’t buy into “XYZ is insulting to the audience’s intelligence” but I really felt insulted when they captioned the “u [suck]” bit. Seemed like something Family Guy would do - playing to the lowest common denominator. Otherwise good episode.
What was the music playing when they panned up the building Maggie built at the end?
Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, second movement, also notable for being heard in A Clockwork Orange.
Tetralogy.
You’re welcome.
Translated:
“I have soiled myself. How embarrassing.”
I normally like the new Simpsons ep but this one was lost on me.
I liked the Elizabeth portion, and the Snow White part even more, but since I haven’t the faintest as to who Ayn Rynd is (does she look like a man?) or the book she wrote so that entire segment was lost on me.
Oh well
If you happened to TiVo the episode, check wikipedia for Ayn Rand and The Foutainhead (or just do a search on the the title here on the Dope).
Then watch the episode again.
I enjoyed those too - just a lot of funny one-liners all around.
When Homer was ad-libbing the first solo Macbeth show: “That’s from ‘Bye-Bye Birdie!’”
When in Moe’s Marge said the line to Homer about screwing your courage to the sticking point (place? I don’t know my Shakespeare) and he said “That’s a great line! What is it from…‘X-Men 2’?!”
When Lisa was testing the beds: “…and this one is juuuuust as hard as the first one, I’ll sleep on the too soft one I guess.”
The dwarves “Ho-Hi…not like any song you know” song.
And while the Elizabeth one was the weakest, it was nice to see Julio again - Yay Julio!
When Lisa was discussing copyright issues, I had a flashback to 1989. Ho-hi, ho-hi…
When they announced the king of Spain, I was expecting Bumblebee Man.
As long as I don’t have to read that damned book again.
I watched this again last night and wanted to applaud the Macbeth segment some more. The animation of Mel and (especially) Dr. Hibbert’s murders was excellent and really creepy. They also did a nice job pruning one of Lady Macbeth’s weirder lines - “Wouldst thou live a coward in thine own esteem/Letting ‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would,’ like the poor cat i’the adage?”
Nobody knows what the fuck that part about the adage with the cat means. The Simpsons writers were smart to get rid of it. I guess it’s easier when you’re not writing in iambic pentameter most of the time, but, good change.