LABF05 Written by Joel H. Cohen
A rather intriguing, though entertaining, episode. The first half made it hard to see where the story was headed. But the humorous Saw-style result and the surprising misdirect livened things up. I liked the Parson for some reason, but whoever was doing his voice does a very poor Bing Crosby.
Did anyone not think it was Patty & Selma as soon as Homer woke up in the torture room?
I had no idea one could get a year lease on a torture room…hmm…
Actually, I thought it was going to be Artie Ziff again.
The bastard joke was very funny, and there were a couple of other okay gags, but overall this one didn’t blow me away. I’ve never liked the whole Presbylutheranism thing - I think it was much funnier when they were just vaguely Protestant, and more detail doesn’t make it better. Finding out that Mrs. Lovejoy used to be Jewish is kind of funny (the idea that she was a man, less so). Some of the bridezilla stuff was amusing. For the record, though, I think you can make roses blue by putting white ones in blue water, so I guess Howard Jr. isn’t the best florist in the world. 
The Flintstones did this ‘your marriage doesn’t count’ plot ages ago. That sort of bugs me. It’s not the most brilliant story idea to begin with.
I think The Simpsons acknowledge at least some inspiration from The Flintstones; Homer bowling (does he do the twinkle-toes thing? I can’t remember), best friend Barney, etc. I thought the episode was ok but the Saw thing honestly creeped me out a bit at first. The key actually just being a hotter sauce was funny, though.
Jeez, so did The Dick Van Dyke Show. Nothing new under the sun at all.
The weakest episode of the season so far, IMHO. It had its moments, but they could have done better. Side Show Bob was wasted, and the Saw references could have encompassed the entire episode if they had wanted and made for a much stronger view. I still got my laughs, but I was hoping for a little more after the previous episodes.
True. And that stuff usually doesn’t bother me, but it did bug me somewhat this week. On review, there were a couple of other small jokes I liked, including the sly way Bart said “She’s the brains- I’m the thing that’s not the brains.”
To be fair, though, as they’ve broadcast over 400 episodes, it’s not surprising that some of the stories are going to be familiar. (BTW, I liked the couch gag.)
I enjoyed it; it might be my favorite of the season. Sideshow Bob being “wasted” was a neat twist, I thought, and not having seen any promos for the episode, I didn’t know where it was going.
What is this Saw that everybody keeps mentioning?
So did practically every sitcom of the 50s and 60s. It was a sure sign the writers were out of ideas.
This is really weird. I flew into OKC yesterday, and missed the forst half of the Simpsons. When I turned it on there was some bit about Homer demanding justice from the HS principal who rigged the class president election away from him, and a mystic Italian chef who showed him what his life would have been like if that hadn’t happened. What is everyone else talking about?
Fortunately, I DVR’d the show on my home set, so it will be there for me when I return to California.
There were two episodes yesterday. The one about the school election was the second episode, which was a repeat airing at 8:30pm.
Saw is a popular series of horror films about a madman who traps his victims and forces them to perform bizarre tests of their will to determine whether or not they will live. The entire sequence with Homer trapped in the torture chamber was inspired by the Saw series.
There were two episodes of The Simpsons aired yesterday, one new and one a rerun. You caught the rerun.
ETA: Of course, by now you’ve read Dewey’s explanation of same
Thanks to a power failure, I missed the first ten minutes. What was the setup that led to needing to get (re)married?
Rev. Lovejoy’s credit card was decined for three months, so any official duties he performed- including marriages- during that period were null and void.
The Parson of the Presbyluthern Church came to visit his ex-roommate Rev Lovejoy. When Lovejoy got recertified his credit card kept getting declined and every ministery thing he did during the 3 months it took his card to go through was void (including a funeral and a ship blessing). Also Helen used to be a Jewish man.
…including Homer’s re-marriage to Marge that occured in the eighth-season episode A Milhouse Divided.