Rate/Review: The President Wore Pearls (EABF20)

[NoOneFamous]

How was Homer out of character? Cause he wasn't being "jerkass Homer"?

[simplysimpsons]

Homer just had a moment when he was out of character - the gay thing. Marge was OOC especially, but only at two moments (see my review) but how can you say everyone was? Lisa and Bart were fine, Homer was for the most part. All secondary characters were fine too.

[prince jafar allah]

Originally posted by Charmy
Hmmmm... according to Mrs. Cartwright's "My Life as a Ten Year Old Boy", she was so taken by Smith's Miata that she bought a pink one for herself.

oh....i clearly have a poor memory of that book then. i must have remembered only the first half of that paragraph.....

[squishee lady]

Originally posted by simplysimpsons
Homer just had a moment when he was out of character - the gay thing.

That wasn't even OOC, Homer was just messing around (I for one really enjoyed his "romp" a'la the Land of Chocolate out on the lawn. The only OOC Simpson in the episode was marge.

[spiritofstlouis]

Just downloaded it... and loved it. Almost as good as "Moe Baby Blues"

5/5

[ReadySteady]

Having seen "Evita" at the movies (and a couple of times since), I was able to appreciate this one for the cool parody it was. Plus, I love the musical episodes, so sue me. Lisa's song in Act One was great, and I think Yeardley has a nice, off-Broadway kinda voice (as evidenced in her rendition of "God Bless the Child"). 5/5

p.s. - Was anyone else surprised to learn that Krusty apparently attended Springfield Elementary? In full-on clown make-up, no less.

[spiritofstlouis]

Originally posted by ReadySteady
p.s. - Was anyone else surprised to learn that Krusty apparently attended Springfield Elementary? In full-on clown make-up, no less.

Not really. He had to go to school somewhere after his father disowned him

[George Cauldron]

I thought that this was a strong episode. I saw it as Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious, but with a more serious, down-to-Earth, sensible tone. Hard to remember any jokes that were unsuccessful, this episode ranks highly for this season. I haven't seen Evita, so I didn't notice any references except for the obvious musical parody, and the mock "Don't cry for me, Argentina" line. Very good.

[deshem]

Hmm, the songs definitely wern't brilliant, but this episode sure was funny.

The Good:
The Yahoo Song
The Casino Bust
Willie Impersonating Milhouse
The Makeover Song

The Bad:
The rest of the songs seemed terribly forced.
Homer was a complete fool.

3.5/5 - Pretty good.

[OldCootAbe]

Best one since "Special Edna", I especially liked the sign gags during the protest outside.
Signs:
"Flunk me, flunk you"
"Free the Springfield 9"

And good to see Chalmers again.

5/5

[Clarence]

I give it a 1 because all the singing took anything out of what this episode had to offer. Which wasn't that much to begin with.

[vox]

Originally posted by Clarence
I give it a 1 because all the singing took anything out of what this episode had to offer. Which wasn't that much to begin with.

Can you honestly picture how rushed the episode would have to be in order to cover all the plot that the songs did without the songs, and still say this? You may not have liked the songs, but they were there for a reason. And you don't even give a reaon for not liking the songs, which leads me to believe that this is just based on a general disdain for musicals. And in combination with your blind hatred for most new episodes, it seems you really didn't give this episode a chance at all; you just grouped it with other things that have similar elements.

[eddie]

the musical numbers/parody in general didn't gel with the rest of the episode at all, thus, the whole damn thing fell apart. 6/10, C+

[Crotis Jivefunk]

I just caught it for the first time tonight, and IMO, best of the season! I saw Evita a few years ago in history class, and I want to go out and rent it. Better than The Sharry Bobbins One (I'm in a hurry, so I don't feel like typing the title out.) Some of the references were a bit more subtle and the characterizations were dead on. My only beef was the ending and a joke or two. This is definitely in the Top 100.

Season Rankings:
-THOH XIV 3.5/5
-My Mother the Carjacker 5/5
-The President Wore Pearls 5/5
-The Regina Monologues 5/5
-The Fat and the Furriest 3.5/5
-Today I Am A Clown 5/5
-Tis the Fifteenth Season 5/5
-Marge Vs. Everyone 3/5
-I, Doh-bot 4.5/5
-Diatribe of A Mad Housewife 4.5/5
-Margical History Tour 3.5/5
-Milhouse Doesn't Live Here Anymore 5/5
-Smart and Smarter 4/5
-The Ziff Who Came To Dinner 4/5
-Co-Dependents Day 3/5 (Worst of season)
-The Wandering Juvie 5/5
-My Big Fat Geek Wedding 4/5

[Mira]

I really liked this episode. I thought the songs were great, and the jokes were very funny. The beginning with Homer acting gay was hilarious and Willy making fun of Milhouse was also great. Awesome episode. 4.5/5

[Air Homer]

I loved it 10/10

[y2dave2004]

3/5

[Commander McCool]

I definately love this episode. Even though I had not seen the movie or play Evita, I know the history and what happens to her and it is just so funny how they put this play into the show. Mr. Skinner singing his song was so funny. I think the purpose of this episode was to put most of the characters out of character to mix it up a bit, but anytime there is a musical in an episode, characters do not usually follow their leads. The deal with Marge gambling at the beginning is refering to her gambling addiction so I did not dislike that. Martin refering to "Saved by the Bell" was only comical because he did not tell Skinner the ending of the episode but then Skinner admits the show was on too late for him to watch. When Willie makes fun of Milhouse was hilarious b/c for once, Willie is making fun of someone instead of people making fun of Willie. Also then ending kind of was a classic when Lisa is in the schoolbus singing the song to Springfield and Moe raises his hand with her picture. That was just so great for this episode. What a great way to end it. Definately makes me put this episode in the top 10. I liked how Mr. Largo was brought out from the dead and seen in the teacher's lounge. Haven't seen him in an episode for so long that I thought he was dead.

[Patriot]

An ok episode with some laughs but I reallyt didnt liek the musical element.

[amir05]

Best Season 15 episode, brilliant 5/5

[Tamaki Suoh]

This episode didn't live up to its praise. It had a few good gags and a pretty interesting plot, but a lot of scenes rubbed me the wrong way and the third act was especially rushed and unconvincing. The songs were okay, but nothing too inspired, clever, or mellifluous. All in all, a mediocre episode. 3/5

[tom cody]

4/5, this is an episode that gave/gives me hope that "The Simpsons" may be coming back to being the great show that it once was.

[Simpsonsfan1981]

I actually thoroughly enjoyed this episode. Sure it had some of the characteristics that have defined the post-classic era -over-the-top characterization and the like -but it had a solid and engaging premise and it was funny. Additionally, I thought the parody of Evita was absolutely hilarious and very well-done -in particular when it came to the songs and how their lyrics reflected those from the actual music. A great effort by the writers and producers.5/5

[Nauru-1]

Just as other aspects can have a strong impact on how others view an episode, the musical aspect to this one does influence how much I enjoy it. Some good bits, and the show could do far worse, but they did far better as well. 3/5

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

The third episode of Season 15 finds us in a musical parody of the film Evita. Although I have never seen the movie, I was still able to find alot to laugh at in this episode. We start strong with a Casino Night at school that calls back Marge's gambling and gives a great Richard Nixon impersonation to Martin. Afterwards, Lisa is battling Nelson for president, but feels she is not popular enough to stands against him. It is here where Homer suggests making Nelson appear....gay....in a scene that admittedly goes on too long and feels rather awkward/forced. Probably my least favorite part of the episode.

Thanks to her amazing singing talent, which will be brought up again in a future, much worse episode, Lisa is elected president. We get some pretty great jokes ranging from Willie imitating Milhouse to Lisa continually proving Skinner wrong by asking to read what she just signed. Interesting to note here, a recent South Park episode was devoted almost entirely to the point that people rarely read what they sign. Here, the Simpsons gets the point across in thirty seconds. I really liked the Skinner/Lisa interaction here.

Eventually, the students learn of Lisa's unknowing betrayal and eventually protest the taking of music, gym, and art. During this time we have several great jokes ranging from Homer wishing he married a businessman so he could have nice things, to Milhouse blowing a chance for a date with Lisa. Ultimately, the conflict is resolved offscreen in a rather convenient/lazy fashion.

Overall this episode had a few slow moments, but great humor. Willie had some amazing jokes here, including the aforementioned Milhouse stuff, his drunk song, and story about apparantly dieing in Edinburgh. Lisa was nicely characterized and I really liked how she admits to not really caring about gym. Also, kudos to Yeardley Smith for a great vocal performance here. This episode kinda seems like the middle setion of a trilogy of musicals with Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(D'oh!)cious coming before it and My Fair Laddy coming later. Admittedly this is probably my least favorite of the three but it has many great moments and is a strong episode overall. I have absolutely no problem with giving this a 4/5.

[Snaked]

What do you get when you mix a musical about Eva Peron with a plot involving Elementary School? An utterly embarrasing crapfest, that's what.

1/5 (At least it's better than Elementary School Musical, but it still pales in terms of quality when compared to My Fair Laddy and Yokel Chords)

[Old painty-can Ned]

What do you get when you mix a musical about Eva Peron with a plot involving Elementary School? An utterly embarrasing crapfest, that's what.

1/5 (At least it's better than Elementary School Musical, but it still pales in terms of quality when compared to My Fair Laddy and Yokel Chords)

Sorry I have to ask what makes this episode worse than Yokel Chords or My Fair Laddy. The President Wore Pearls is a good-great post classic era episode. It's musical numbers while there might be one too many or whatever are still really well done.

[Snaked]

It just turns me off and, well, Lisa was a terrible singer in that episode (plus other things like an abrupt and shitty ending, especially when the early info for the episode made it seem like Lisa would have been at the Academy during the episode).

No, the 2 episodes I mentioned are much better, IMO.

[Mr.]

I loved the episode the first few time I saw it, but seeing it after five years.... it's still ok but far from perfect and sme part are flat. I like the songs (even if I never seen the movie the episode is spoofing) and Michael Moore could be better/tongue in chick bur it wasn't bad...

[Blobulle]

I give a 3/5.
Too much songs, but I like "Boy this key opens everyhing."