Oh, and they also pulled the old “recycling old gags” bit, with Marge’s Chanel suit in France. Yet somehow, they managed to forget that Bart was once an exchange student in France and ended up speaking French. If they’d referenced that cleverly, I might have actually smiled. But I suspect the current writers haven’t even been watching that long.
Right, blowero. From the moment Hibbert was chasing art in a plane and throughout the episode, I more than half expected this ep to have an “it was all a dream” type ending or some such frame, indicating that none of it “really happened.”
Not in person (as opposed to media reports). But then maybe I don’t get out much.
Not a great ep, but I did think Nelson’s “We’re complex!” line was pretty funny
Simpsons fan from the start here who generally agrees with the points they make on the show here who didn’t really like this one. There were a few funny moments, but it suffered from acute potshot syndrome. Satire is much funnier when there’s a chance of people missing the point. In this one, it was like they were screaming from the mountain top like they were worried that we weren’t going to get what they were saying. It’s the same problem I had with the George Bush episode and seems to be a reocurring problem lately. They used to be able to make their points with throwaways rather than it being the point of the episode. Unless this is some daring unannounced new direction for the show, I give it a thumbs down overall.
Oh, sorry - I see what you meant. You don’t personally see it among your friends. No, I guess I don’t either, but most of my friends are on the liberal side, I think.
I still think this was intentional. The show was way too absurd for me to think they were attempting to make a real point.
About the only laugh I had in that episode was when the doctor tells Bart to look away when he gets his shot, and Bart looks out the window directly at the Springfield Children’s Cemetary. (The geography in Springfield is amazing plastic, adjusting itself to comedic needs.)
I’ve been wondering if they aren’t deliberately ignoring continuity, just to annoy their more nitpicky fans. For instance, the previous episode showed Homer as an obese child, although older episodes had shown him as a skinny teenager, who said he’d never get fat (“It’s my metabobolism”).
I wouldn’t say they’re doing it specifically to annoy people although they’re not exactly above that (Saddlesore Galactica was pretty much a big middle finger to people who dared criticize the show). I think it’s more a case of them not wanting have to rewrite jokes because of something written before. Hey, it’s been 15 seasons, I’m sure there are a number of corners that the show has written itself into. But when you do an episode about a character getting a girlfriend (Milhouse), it just doesn’t make any sense to have him yell about his first kiss several seasons later.
Well, they could explain this by saying Homer just went through a “skinny” period as a teenager before he returned to his normal fat self. 
However, like Raygun99 stated, that doesn’t mean the Simpsons don’t deliberately screw around with series continuity just to irk some of the more obsessive fans. Case in point: the shifting ages of characters like Moe, Flanders, Chief Wiggum, and Smithers. At various points during the series run, they’ve been depicted as around Homer’s age, older than Homer, or younger than Homer depending upon the plot needs of the particular episode. I think it’s their way of saying (to quote MST 3K): it’s just a show; you should really just relax.
C’mon, if you’re going to nitpick about continuity and this episode, at least start with the continued fast development of Apu’s kids. (Post-witchhunt names: Freedom, Lincoln, Condoleezza, Coke, Pepsi, Manifest Destiny, Apple Pie, and Superman. Last name: Mcgillicutty.)
Then there’s been Another Change in Moe’s background.
In the previous episode, young chief Wiggam is about the same age as Homer despite being a fellow college student of Homer’s mother Mona in the 70s. In fact, with so many flashbacks in that episode, the rips in time-space are getting bigger than the intact parts in the Simpsons Universe.
Not quite. Mona was in her late 20s to early 30s. However, Homer was only 5 in that episode.