What I’m trying to say here is that violence is everywhere. It’s even in breakfast cereals, man.
It was odd that she was so fearful of having a gun in the house AFTER she had already taken a job as a police officer. At least I think that was the order of the episodes.
Presumably Marge had to return her service revolver after she left the Springfield PD.
Then there is the whole matter of Grampa’s gun which was used by Maggie to shoot Mr. Burns.
Plus, you can trade her in at the bank for a real dollar. Hmm? Hmm?
The episode signage was pretty funny.
I hope you’ve simply forgotten the episode where Marge paints Mr. Burns’ portrait and “Oh, Streetcar!”
Both classics, IMO.
I’ll agree that they’re classics, but they weren’t as Marge-centric as this past episode. For example, in the Burns’ Portrait one, very little of the humor actually came from Marge. It came from Mr. Burns, the art teacher played by Jon Lovitz, and Homer. Hell, the best joke in that episode came from Ringo Starr.
“Oh, Streetcar!,” told a good story, but it wasn’t even in the top 30 or so funniest episodes. Even here, though, Marge was there to move the story along, not to make jokes. Jon Lovitz once again played a humorous role as the Director (isn’t it kind of funny that the people Marge looks up/has looked up to at one point to are all played played by Lovitz?), Ned as awkward lead male, and Homer supplying the backbone of the episode as the unsupportive husband. Homer also got the most profound lines in the whole episode when he told Marge how much he enjoyed the play at the end.
Now, contrast this with the episode from 12/5/04. Marge drove the story, Marge made most of the jokes, Homer was just there as some slight comic relief (like the two-headed goat dealie). In an episode where Marge is the backbone, she’s destined to fail. She may be a Simpson, but she’s as much a supporting character as Mr. Burns, Flanders, or Krusty. She needs to be a supplement to stronger characters or, if that’s not possible, around other supporting characters. The Listen Lady episode, for example, was great for Reverend Lovejoy’s parts, not for Marge’s. If you take Lovejoy out of the equation, the episode would surely be one of the worst.
See what I’m getting at?
Or it’s an extraordinarily subtle domestic violence reference, what with the stories of Bing beating the hell out of his kids.