A lackluster, episode IMHO, saved by the Tracey Ullman short at the end.
I’m kind of getting tired of these Sideshow Bob episodes.
I disagree. This was the best in awhile. I was a bit fearful when I saw the Sideshow Bob plot, but the jokes were all first class. I loved the “Gloating Speed” on the conveyor belt, and the Keith Olbermann cameo was clever (if a bit too long – If I wanted jokes to be beaten to death until they stopped being funny, I’d watch Family Guy). I also liked getting David Hyde Pierce (again) and John Mahoney.
I liked the concept, but I feel like it needed a few more rewrites. I look forward to the Sideshow Bob episodes, but I imagine it’s hard to keep them from being too predictable time after time.
Ironic, I hated last week’s and enjoyed this week’s.
It was nice that John Mahoney got brought in and I liked Krusty trying to sell the DVD during the funeral.
Jim
I thing that was the start of the next episode.
Not here. It went straight into Family Guy.
The Tracey Ullman short was the opening of the 400th episode, You Kent Always Say What You Want, which was pretty good, based on my memories of its original airing last season.
This episode was better than I expected. I was a bit wary about the Sideshow Bob plot at first, but I should learn not to distrust him. And the TiVo bits were pretty good.
Given how little use The Simpsons has for continuity, I’m surprised that Sideshow Bob’s wife and son made an appearance. I would have thought they would have been banished to One-Shot-Character-Land.
Yeah, what happened to rich Marge’s chain of gyms? :rolleyes:
Excellent, excellent episode with good jokes throughout. The TiVo stuff was funny, and I loved both the end of act one (screaming through the commercials) and the beginning of act two, with the Simpsons complaining that Bob never asks what they’ve been up to. Oh, and Bob as a chimney brush. Bob’s return in the last scene was even scary in its own way, much as you knew it was coming.
New entry in the “why I relate to Lisa” file: I caught Bob’s Shakespeare misquote right away and kept wondering when they were going to correct him. 
If I had to pick on anything, it’s that they’ve made fun of Oprah twice this year - not their first Oprah jokes ever, but it’s pretty close - and they’re a little late to that party. But I love Sideshow Bob episodes, and this is the best entry since… I don’t know, maybe Brother From Another Series in 1997.
The commercials the family skips past while watching Krusty all come from past Simpsons episodes: Duff Beer with Santa’s Little Helper as Suds McDuff, Turbo Diary from Girltech (a division of Boytech), Funzo, Springshield Security and Mr. Sparkle. The last ad is for Wes Doobner’s World Famous Family-Style Rib Huts, as seen later in the episode (or, as it is really known, Sideshow Bob’s World Famous Family-Style Return).
On Marge’s TiVo: Afternoon Yak, Snuggle and the City, The Dog Talk-To-Er, Pimp My Laundry Room, Opal (Today: Iran goes nuclear, spring fashions, Opal’s Pie Club).
Oh, and for those of you keeping track: KABF01, “Funeral for a Fiend,” writer and lyricist Michael Price.
I really liked this one, and it was great to see David Hyde Pierce back as Sideshow Cecil. His delivery cracked me up a time or two.
And Poochie showed up as a balloon in the parade in the Itchy and Scratchy cartoon.
“Take that, ashes” was very funny.
Like I said last week, we can assume she lost it because of gambling. [/fanwank]
Some nice gags in the episode, like using the faulty laptop battery as an igniter for the dynamite and the obnoxious MS paper clip (It looks like you want to blow up the laptop. Do you want to let me hug my kids? Yes/No). I also liked Krusty’s parody of Elton John at Princess Di’s funeral. The plot with the TiVo was rather forced, though. Even though the commercial was specifically targeted at the Simpsons’ Tivo, did Bob really count on Marge’s guilt preventing them from skipping past it?
I loved the first few Sideshow Bob episodes but then they started going downhill. (The earlier Sideshow Cecil episode being an exception.) It’s great that they are back to doing a good one again.
For the next time they show “Opal”, they should have her guest be a Queen Latifah type. So they could compare notes on boyfriends.
I guess I was being naive, but I really thought they would let sideshow Mel die. The rest of the plot could have been handled by his family. But nah, then they would have advertised for a month that a major Simpson’s character was gonna die.
I’m kind of tired of TV shows fellating TiVo. And hey, only ten years late on the Clippy joke!
It was a below average episode, but then most things with Sideshow Bob usually are.
I don’t understand your TiVo complaint, I don’t have it, but I love my DVR which is nearly the same idea. Where has it been fellated and what is wrong with it if they did?
I agree on the Clippy joke, that was dated.
Jim