i thought the episode was kind of weak.
although, i thought homer’s walking backwards all the way hame was classic. i seldom (almost never) actually laugh out loud when watching tv, but this had me cracking up. maybe it was the soap-opera music, i don’t know.
but the ladder scene at the end seemed a little forced.
I might have loved it if it hadn’t been about adultery. Adultery makes me really angry.
I thought the Barney joke was when he said he only needed one beer and yet it appeared he was holding out his mug for a refill and Homer ignored it.
I’ll agree with you. I think it came from making the first season DVD. Many of them haven’t watched the early shows since they made them.
Was that really James Lipton (not sure if I got the name right) doing his own voice in the Actor’s Studio segment?
Pretty good overall, though my wife got a particular kick about Kirk VH being a cribbage nerd (so is her husband, and he looks like Kirk might’ve when he was much younger).
I enjoyed this episode a lot. Cutting to the giant mechinical spider was hilarious, and then they kept going as it attacked the troops, i was laughing to hard to hear the jokes! This season is a marked improvement over last, hopefully they will keep this up and the show will finish back on the top like it deserves.
Definately a good episode, and I’ll have to say the whole season is pretty good. My favorite for this episode was “You can run, but you can’t Glide!”
Barney was amusing, Prof. Frink was great. The lawyer guy was kinda funny too. Lastly Marge’s insistance on going to the Golden Banana was pretty funny.
Mmmm…that’s some good adultery.
I liked it for the most part, though I thought they dragged the walking backwards bit on too long. I should have been through the Kwick-E-Mart, then cut to up the staits and into bed, we could have figured out he walked that way the whole time.
The mechinical spider was awesome! Everyone in the room (about 10 people) were laughing so hard that any jokes in the next few minutes were lost on us.
And the Barney joke was that, as some have said, Barney has always gone back to immediate drunkard after one drink (his first drink during SAT practice, NASA episode, etc…) but he didn’t. Not what we expected, and kind of a slap in the face to those AA people that say “one drink always leads to more!” or something like that…I liked it.
And Homer riding Apu? Great!
“Wait a miniute, this isn’t on my list!”
“It’s been on my list for a long time!”
cut to that scene in comic form in The New Yorker.
I am glad Simpson fans haven’t turned into winely babies who won’t give the writers their props when they finally turn out a decent episode. All the season has been fairly good, with the last one being a funny one.
“You can run, but you can’t glide”
The spider, the list, Apu, Kirk, everyone was funny. I loved it.
Yes and yes.
I loved this episode. It’s been a pretty good season, and I think the show has improved vastly since Mike Scully stepped down as lead writer.
The “walking backwards” bit gave me one of those belly laughs I haven’t had in a very, very long time. The music is definitely what made it jump from “funny” to “laughing my ass off funny.”
That’s good adultery… you can run but you can’t glide… the giant spider… all good. And, like any good Simpsons episode, it had a line that only historical trivia buffs would get: “Alright, alright, Lisa. You don’t have to get all Mary Todd on us!” 
Homer being called a eunuch in his dream and then having to look it up. HA!
Okay, sad story: I finally had a chance to watch my tape of the episode, and they didn’t broadcast the last few minutes due to tornado warnings (stupid weather!). The last thing I saw was Homer riding on Apu’s back, and Apu noticing that it wasn’t on the list. What happened after that?
The scene of Homer on Apu’s back turned to black and white and became a New Yorker cartoon. After that there wasn’t much more. Apu did everything on the list, and it ended with him and his wife in bed while Homer was on a ladder watching them, at which point the whole ‘walking backwards’ joke was repeated with Homer still on the ladder.
Please excuse my ignorance - i’m from Australia.
Who’s James Lipton?
P.S. I thought the episode was good; a great improvement on the awful Homer anger-management episode of last week,
I laughed out loud when Homer mistakenly says “Anyone for penis?” during the tennis match.
He runs an artsy TV program where he interviews actors about the art of acting. You may have seen parodies of him if you watch Saturday Night Live on Comedy Central.
It’s called Inside the Actor’s Studio and plays here on Bravo. It’s actually a very interesting show.
This may be paraphased:
Homer: You have to come to our Civil War inactment, Apu. We need a lot of Indians to kill.
Apu: I don’t know where to begin correcting that statement.
I loved it. I’m also glad I wasn’t the only person who damn near busted their guts laughing over the backwards walking scene. Why was that so damn funny?
I loved Bart doing Ganesh as Dracula!! The concept of a vampire elephant god . . . I dunno . . .