Rate and Review The Food Wife (NABF20)

[Snaked]

Well how about not calling me a fucktard.

Because you are if you honestly believe that the staff is too scared to use real-world product names and resorts to using painfully & insultingly obvious ones in their place, especially when shit like this was never done in the Classic era or even the Scully era (for the most part, anyway).

[The Governor]

Season 12? Wow, Simpsons. You just got slightly better.

I wasn't actually being nice. This episode's pacing seemed a little more lively ala erratic Scully-era, but the jokes themselves weren't too funny.

(CRITIC-PROOF RESPONSE: You didn't get the jokes, Jake!)

God dammit, stop calling it Zombie Simpsons. It irritates me.

Yeah, it prefers to be called the "Living Impaired" Simpsons.

irvine you just reminded me actually, that Ratatouille reference with the meth lab worker was easily the best part of the episode for me and had me laughing hard.

"Living Impaired" Simpsons has NO RIGHT to make fun of Ratatouille, not be because Ratatouille is some comedic sacred cow, but Living Im...aw, fuck it, ZOMBIE Simpsons couldn't make proper fun of Remy and Co if their jobs depended on it. ZS proved not everyone can write.

[lionelhutz123]

Am I the only one who thought this was awful? The conflict between Homer and Marge couldn't have been more annoying. It was like lets have two characters who have no self-awareness, or measure of subtlety fight and cry over who can be the more fun parent, while the kids are for some reason are inconsistently oblivious to the entire freak show of ridiculousness that is going on. The first act with E3 was a good idea, but completely wasted with dumb gags. Homer was unnecessarily obnoxious about the whole situation, even though he originally was HELPING Marge. Why is he crawling on the floor, crying? He did his fun thing for the week. I'd say he earned a good amount of time for relaxing, watching tv, or drinking with his buddies at Moes before he feels obligated to do anything that crazy fun with the kids again.

Also, as soon as Marge gave him the wrong address, I KNEW he was going to end up in some bad part of town and would need to be saved, bringing Marge to some sort of reality of how stupid this conflict is. The conclusion was the most cookie-cutter bullshit ever. She literally states the reason for why she sent him somewhere else, by restating the issue, because really, there is nothing further to expand on with this loose premise. Homer says "aw" and they kiss. Marge says "I guess I'm still not a fun parent" but the kids reassure her with a "Yay meth, fun mom" kind of ending and yeah... The entire episode indeed felt like it was on some type of drug. The irony is that Tim and Eric were probably more sane than the main characters that we're supposed to be rooting for. Honestly I just found myself cringing at almost everything and I never laughed once. The montage was kind of neat, but that's not saying much. 1/5

[Jims]

This episode was excellent. It's weird how lately most times I think, "Wow this episode is really good" while watching it that I check the writing credit later... And it almost always ends up being a Matt Selman episode. The cream rises to the top, I suppose.

1. I really loved how simple and effective the plot was. They didn't over-complicate it or anything, so we really got that full exploration of the topic. Sure, they had that opening set-piece with E4, but it was an important opener to explore the Marge/Homer conflict. After 20+ seasons of the show, that Marge/Homer competition was actually fairly unexplored territory. And it made complete sense, especially from Marge's point of view. We've seen her be the Referee for many many seasons now. It makes a lot of sense that she resents being viewed as the lame parent all the time.

I liked the spin on Homer not being into the foodie stuff. The extremely lazy way to write this episode would have Gluttonous Homer show up immediately and start chowing down on everything... But the more nuanced approach is to point out that Homer is the kind of guy who is satisfied by just eating the same stuff week after week. It's a good observation about his character, and is great for building some conflict in Act 2.

(Although his pouting went on juuuuust a bit long before the Act 3 break. Crawling up the stairs was funny, but they really needed to cut a bit of the stuff in the living room.)

2. Ratatouille parody = genius. That's one of my personal favorite Pixar scenes ever, so I loved seeing them do a parody of that moment.

3. Marge's dancing taste buds was a huge What The Hell moment for me. I still laughed at it, due to how cuckoo-bananas it was. But it was definitely a weird moment.

4. The rap was funny too. I know it's a really big deal around here to abhor anything remotely relevant or modern (i.e. Ke$ha opening), but it was just a fun song. The lyrics were pretty clever and went along with the visuals on screen. It certainly beats putting some classic rock music montage during that scene. I can just picture "Sugar Sugar" by The Archies over that scene as the alternative. This was one more interesting (and more importantly) more fun.

5. E4 was a fun opening set piece, the highlight definitely being the Homer POV scene. These are the kind of experimental, non-traditional scenes that they should try out more often.

6. The meth lab ending did feel a little Modern Simpsons-ish, with its propensity to significantly ratchet up the stakes in Act 3. Once again, it seemed like the writers felt that the Marge/Homer conflict wouldn't be resolved (or underlined) satisfactorily enough without putting Homer's life in danger.

This example isn't quite as egregious as other ones from this season, as the whole Scientific Meth Cooking vs Scientific Actual Cooking analogy is a clever one. I appreciate that extra touch of choosing that scientific culinary approach (something that actually exists) as the final foodie restaurant, because it ties in more closely with the meth lab. It shows a certain amount of planning and deliberation on the writers' part, because they very easily could have just done a regular restaurant and said the word "cooking" is enough of a connection.

Overall, I really liked it. I want to vote 4.5/5 but I think my enthusiasm (relative to last week) may be clouding my judgment. We'll call this a solid 4/5.

[The Governor]

Am I the only one who thought this was awful? n the main characters that we're supposed to be rooting for. Honestly I just found myself cringing at almost everything and I never laughed once.

Honestly, in acts 2-4, the only person who didn't seem like he was on drugs was the meth dealer.

I'll stop posting now. This episode is starting to anger the blood.

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

Disagree with you on the Ratatouille thing Jake, but I didn't really take it as an insult to the film in the first place. Plus that was probably my favorite scene in Ratatouille, which is probably why I liked that it showed up here so much.

[blueguy]

Wow. I was surprised. I probably laughed more during this episode than I have during the last two seasons combined. Had to pause it a lot with all the quick little bits that would zoom by (E4, food review summaries).

[That Don Guy]

Written by Matt Selman
Directed by Timothy Bailey
No billboard, blackboard, or couch; also, no flypast over the title
Special Guest Voice: Mario Batali, Anthony Bourdain, Tim Heidecker, Gordon Ramsay, Eric Wareheim
Also Starring: Chris Edgerly, Pamela Hayden, Tress MacNeille
Overseas Animation: Akom
TV Rating: TV-PG-DLV
"Bloggin' a Food Blog" music by Davin Wood; Lyrics by Matt Selman,Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim

At the show:
Grand Theft Scratchy
Cosmic Wars
Mapple
Bongo Games
Blocko: Angelica Button
GameStation
ProtoVision
World of KrustCraft
Y-Box
EC - Electronic Crafts
Chamlskinn Initiative
Shaun White: Time Snowboarder
Dig Dug Revelations
Terrence Malick's Tree of Life
Driver's License 2: License to Drive
Assassin's Creed: Summer of Love
Human Centipede
Earthland Realms 2: The Outing of the Elves
Q-Bert: Origins

"Marching Band" has what looks like the USC logo, but with the S and C switched...and is there a reason I don't see Cal anywhere?
(Well, Lisa does say that Stanford has "lame, dead on arrival humor")

The prices at the pizza stand:
One slice - $10 (with topping - $15)
Whole pie - $50
Beer - $10
Water - $6
Sodas - $7
Yep, that's a gaming convention, all right

Homer pays $10, but gets a slice with pepperoni, which was listed as $15

HOMER'S "LEVEL COMPLETE" STATS
Nerds Punched: 23/100
Secrets Found: 0/10
Feet Stepped On: 153/153
Boobs Brushed: 6/7
Apologies Offered: 0
Felonies: 7/10
Pant Seams Split: 1
Dwarves Jumped: 16
Pit Stain Diameter: 5"
Kids Bonded With: 2/2

MARGE SIMPSON'S FAVORITE FOOD GADGETS
Marshmallow Puffer
Immersion Toaster
Raisin Re-graper
Industrial Tagine
Soup Ruler
Cranberry Pitcher
Banana Separator
Soufflé Barometer
Pressure Curder
Convection Slurper

GROSSEST FOODS BART HAS EATEN
Fish Eye Pie
Leech Cheeks
Frog Haunch
Blood Cheese
Bear Oysters
Laotian Grub Log
Charlie's Trotters
Tripe-baked Tripe
Duck Butter
Krusty Burger

LISA'S CUTEST VEGETARIANS
Paul McCartney
Edward Cullen
Kevin Nealon
Nikola Tdesla
Sean "Samwise" Astin
Herschel Walker
Zack de la Rocha
Russell Brand
Elvis Costello
"Weird Al" Yankovic

Marge, Bart, and Lisa are on "Iron Cook" - which was also a show on Futurama

Moe serves pizza with snails (complete with shells)

Marge now considers veal "the baby corn of the beef world"

The credits include Gordon Ramsay, but the character didn't sound too much like him

While the others had Pork Chops 100 ways, Lisa had something vegetarian 100 ways

LYRICS to "Bloggin' a Food Blog"...will have to wait until I have enough free time to get that done (it looks like I'll need some help from the Closed Captioning on a few of those lines)

[Monty_Burns]

i didnt like it, and according to wikipedia(i know is not necessarily reliable) Matt Selman is an executive producer, it even had a link

[That Don Guy]

Football ran just long enough so that they could save time by cutting the credits, and still start on time. I want to see the couch gag, though.

Huh? The last game on Fox ended about 7:40 Eastern - they pad the rest of the time to 8:00 with a post-game show (in the Mountain and Pacific time zones, the hour before The Simpsons is given to the local stations). They "cut the opening" because the Simpsons episode itself was long.

[Old painty-can Ned]

Marge and Homer's conflict while maybe a somewhat new angle at their relationship was still really cliched. I mean Tim Allen's new show just did an episode based around him being the "fun parent". Plus so many of the jokes in this episode just bombed(most of the stuff at the video game thing/Cletus/Homer crying/The rap) and that's all I can remember. Homer first person in a video game wasn't bad but compared to other times they've used things like that(Principal Charming) it seemed lackluster and didn't really have a joke or anything in it.

I do agree with Jims that Homer's portrayal wasn't bad but it just ruined it by him going to a meth lab of all places. They don't have to take it to the extreme. I dunno he could have just went looking for the place and never found it (or something) and the emotional moment being led up to would've had a more poignancy. Instead as Lionel Hutz123 said you get the predictable "we still think you're the fun mom" and then they all go for a fun family trip because they're both the fun parents now!

[bradbradford]

I really liked this episode, this weeks and last weeks are both pretty much on par as my favorites this season so far. The only real low point was THOH which has been the case lately. I have high hopes for the rest of the season!

Oh, side note...Homer was perfect tonight, dumb, but not too dumb, they also chose to not go the jerk ass route with him at all tonight!

5 out of 5

[Comicshow MolemanBob]

I only saw half the episode at first, and I thought it was weird, but then I changed my mind...

But anyways 2/5

There's this wonderful thing under your posts called an 'edit button' try using it sometime

[Alex_Of_Darkness]

The episode was correct but not really good : 2/5

[Diversity Pumpkin]

This episode felt fresh; despite being such a boring idea, they actually made the "let's start a blog!" scenario really natural and interesting. Marge signing up to Earthland Realms and narrating everything she was doing in Marge Gamer was cringeworthy, so I was expecting a repeat of that.

It felt like they weren't bored when making this one (there were even freeze-frame jokes and detailed animation!). Tim and Eric were the tastiest treat of the whole show, too (Big T&E fan, so I'm biased).

Anyway, I don't know how to rate this one. It didn't feel like a typical Jean episode; reminded me of The Simpsons Game. I'll just say... 4/5 when compared to other Jean episodes.

[Bartesque]

God dammit, stop calling it Zombie Simpsons. It irritates me.

City Wok, City Simpsons.

[Zombies Rise from the Sea]

The Food Wife



What you are witnessing right now is a writers room, the year; 2011. Now it may seem like an ordinary day at the office but if you look closely, you'll notice something different...

The guy who is usually sitting here has been replaced by a someone different, someone we've never seen before; and yet everything remains the same... No one even worried about his disappearance... One has to wonder what happened, how someone else could be replaced in an instant; well this is what we'll find out. In the Twilight Zone...

So in case anybody didn't notice, you'll find out that Matt Selman is credited first instead of Al Jean... I don't know why, some say it's because he knows more of Foodie blogging then Al over here, some say Al had to go into surgery to repair a brain aneurism. All I know is that my gut says "I don't know", so I'll just go under the assumption that I have no assumption... For what it's worth, this is the first time someone else "showrunned" an episode other then Mike Scully in season 14 and usually when a different showrunner comes on there's a different style. Watching the episode from start to end, it mostly wasn't the case as it felt the same as the episodes before it... Don't get me wrong, there is some potential but most of the seepings of a modern-era Simpsons episode leaks out. You'll see what I'm talking about in a minute...

So off we go to the episode. The first thing I have got to get off my chest is the already infamous "E4" parody... Now, I've seen the interview where Matt Selman where he praises this for scathing parody of nerds, flashiness, noises, expensive food... (which isn't limited to E3 after all, I mean the LA Convention Center has really expensive food; so does the food stands at certain events and fairs.) and I have to say that E3 is barely like that at all. How do I know, well I've read up on E3 before they thought of parodying this, all the way back in 2002-2003... There are some things that Matt Selman must of missed. These being.

1. E3 is a trade show only, meaning the general public cannot attend; I mean they should of had Homer at least try to get in by creating a shell company or convincing the "E4" folks that the power plant makes games now. Oh how I wish there was an E3 the general public can attend, we've had two before in the form of GamePro Expo and IGN Live but those two never went anywhere and we never heard of those two again...
2. They should of parodied the extravagance that E3 brings, I mean these people pay millions of dollars for things the general public doesn't even get to touch or feel, just see... This could of been a major thing for anybody to parody really.
3. The amount of money people spend to promote a game should of also been parodied, there have been many failures that were hyped but ultimately came across as failures.
4. Booth babes, you can't forget about the booth babes!
5. or the excessive media coverage for that matter...

With that being said, the stuff that is shown is just plain lame... Already they've dug into "The Simpsons Game" and relied on the Pun-matic 4000 for ideas, and most of them fall flat; though they manage to get in some clever ones... The Pun-matic 4000 must of been overheating at the time as most of the puns it produces is very simplistic and seems like it could of been done by a 13 year old and a YouTube account... (Also what's up with Metal of Duty, I mean they haven't used that logo in a Medal of Honor game, get with the times.)

The FPS sequence that follows is good in an experimental way but not much else... Taking a page from the Doom film released years before, The Simpsons tries it's hand in a First Person Shooter game complete with a HUD and actions; granted... it does look good but I'm just not a big fan of it, maybe if they added some stuff like an indication of how much money Homer has and or a humiliation meter; something Homer like from the old days, not stuff that Zombie Homer would do... Again, it's good in an experimental way even though it didn't mesh well with the episode at hand...

Also I can come up with a better title then "Eventive Electronic Entertainment Expo"... Something like... "Excessive Electronic Video Game non-Public Expo" or E2VGPE+1 for short...

That "E4" expo ties in to what Matt Selman cited as the main plot... otherwise known as "Marge and Homer compete to see who's more fun." While The Simpsons have been known to take sitcom plots and add their own down-to-earth distinctive flare to it, recent Simpsons episodes haven't given the Sitcom plots much appreciation, or decent treatment for that matter. In my opinion, the way they did the plot seems forced; they did weave it into the foodie plot but it doesn't seem like both plots seem like they work together...

Take for instance the way the family acts... While it may be normal right now, the way they act is exaggerated, out of character and does not work well for the plot; both of them. Marge seems to be the hip out-of-date mom instead of the worrysome mother she originally was; sure she may have been slightly out of date but no so drastically out of date that she would seem out of place in the world... Homer however, fares somewhat better in the fact that he's trying to be fun but it's very exaggerated, so is his complaining and his attempts to get his kids to like him again... He also does some dumbassery here and there but that's normal... The kids, well let's just say that their individuality is barely non-existant; as none of them seem to do anything unique or even themselves... They spit lines like themselves but it just doesn't seem like themselves; also is it me,[I] or did Lisa look like she was eating meat?

Even the reasons Marge wants to get rid of Homer doesn't work well for the plot. I mean it'd be better if Marge wanted Homer gone because he'd embarrass her would feel uncomfortable with him around but instead it's all played out as part of the competition bit. I mean we've had Homer crying about how he's not fun dad anymore and then they switch it around after Homer is happy so that Marge is the one feeling dejected and sad, sad enough to want Homer away from the restaurant so that she can enjoy herself... I mean it'd make sense if you referenced what had happened prior but I guess sending Homer to a meth lab made to be like a restaurant would be funny huh?

Let's move on to the reason this episode exists; Matt Selman's foodie obsession fascination. I can understand why, food is good and different types of food is even better. I mean I've had food from different cultures and ate at tons of restaurants including a Mediterranean restaurant in Laguna Beach; and the food I ate at all those places tasted good, so I totally understand Matt Selman's fascination. However, the way it's portrayed isn't exactly coherent... Visually and aurally, it's all over the place. We have sight gags like tongues experiencing a brand new flavor as if she never tasted it before (and she likely did if I remember my old school Simpsons correctly.) and well, some lines about food and blogs and that's about it...The food blog thing is somewhat accurate (I did catch passing fleeting references to food blogs.) and some of the things about it are okay I guess but it wasn't really effective at all... I mean it doesn't seem like they're living the foodie lifestyle... All they're doing is just eating food, doing some pointing as if they're important and interacting with the guest stars and Simpsons characters who are suddenly foodies, never actually doing something that resembles a love for food or what a foodie in real life wound do. (Speaking of which, I don't know why Bart doesn't make a fat comment about CBG, I mean he's fatter then Homer; I guess Homer's easier since he's his dad and all... Also was CBG ever a Foodie before at all or is this very sudden?)

By the way, the finger pointing that accompanies the montage. That's where the infamous rap scene comes in... Honestly, it's not cringeworthingly bad but it is shameful, in a way that Tim & Eric combine their rap style while taking a few pointers from The Lonely Island and their hit song "I'm On a Boat". I mean the beauty of the segments in "Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job" where they rapped was that they were trying hard not to be funny, just serious and self indulgent... I mean remember the time when they rapped about boys bathrooms and some odd stuff that they shouldn't do, well take this; add vocalized processing, set it to Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind" and "I'm on a Boat", add an Alica Keys knockoff and bam! You get this, a lack of effort... This rap makes the segments in T&EASGJ look good. Also I don't know what was wrong with Tim or Eric but they sounded weird, very weird... In fact that's what all guest sounds sound like when they appear on the Simpsons, weird... I mean The Simpsons have high quality recording equipment and they couldn't get their voices right? Even Gordon Ramsay's... Getting back on topic here, I'm guessing Tim & Eric must of attended a session then decided to sparingly attend, only because they needed to perform the absolute minimum to get paid for a show that's not their demographic. It's the only thing I can come up with as to why they don't have much lines, or names for that matter... Seriously, they're like useless background characters.

All of this does have to cultivate to something. So Marge heads over with his kids to a fancy concept restaurant while Homer gets sent to a meth lab as mentioned above... The fancy concept restaurant works well I have to admit, and while the joke is not subtly baked in, the things it mentions about the exquisiteness is true; if not a bit obvious... It wasn't pushed into my face a lot but it did work well... This is compare and contrasted to Homer at the meth lab and while it does look similar, it does not work out well; Homer's obliviousness would of worked out better in the old-school but here it's pushed in my face so much that I thought Matt Selman was listening to Naughty by Nature's "Take it to Ya Face" while he was writing this scene... It'd be appreciable if some of the stuff he said was funny or even himself but it's not. Most of it seems obnoxious and even reminiscent of Jerkass Homer; not in the actions, but in the way he acts... I admire what they did with the contrast but again it doesn't work; except for Chief Wiggum who marginally saves it at the end, almost... So it seems like everything is going to work out okay... Until you realize that something unneeded is coming your way, yup; you know what to do...

RAISE THE STAKES!!!
(it'd be blinking of course but... the forum doesn't seem to have a blinking option.)

Shortly after Marge realizes that it's less fun with Homer (a sign of displeasure would of been nice earlier.) Homer calls up Marge and tells him that it's a meth house and then a few minutes later, a fire erupts!!! and Homer gets taken hostage! This obviously of course sets the stage for Marge to come in and save the day, with the crime boss taking Homer hostage for some reason... The only thing that makes it different is the desert the chef gave her in a blue bag earlier in the act that Marge throws in the bad guys mouth to save Homer, triggering a Flashback that is actually a parody of "Ratatouille". Honestly, I haven't seen much of the movie or liked it enough to appreciate this scene but even if I did, it's just another shout out to Pixar. I mean what are they parodying, they're replacing food with crack? and the mouse is making crack? anybody find any of it funny except for "Haha, The Simpsons is turning the mouse concept on it's heels!"? Anybody? Anyway... While the food thing works and makes it different. I would of liked to see Marge brace through the fire and actually brace it to him while Marge (after reuniting with Homer) extinguishes the fires and haves a heart to heart chat afterwards... (The chat they do have works by the way, but it's nothing special) At least that scene would of made sense as to the kids calling Marge "Fun Mom" but I guess they needed to end the episode on a callback, and then another callback, and then another callback... Yup, there are three callbacks in the ending. One to "Fun Dad", One to "Krustyland" (from The Simpsons Ride by the way... It's even the same as in the ride.), and one to the "Taste Buds"... All of them work but still...

This review may of been long but it points out one thing. Matt Selman's first excursion as exec needs work. It feels more like an Al Jean episode then a Matt Selman episode and while the episode has a somewhat down-to-earth vibe to it, it just seems wacky and sticky (even the moments shown don't seem to have the sweetness that even later season episodes managed to have; though piled high to give someone Type 2 diabetes...) I'm sure that Matt Selman had some of his heart in it when he had this in mind but he didn't seem to be in it, in fact he looked like a cancer victim who's unaware he has cancer and could drop at any minute. In comparison. Al Jean looks like he caught Jay Leno syndrome, as his hair is turning oddly white, he's smiling a lot more and seems to be talking up stuff about how he'll go on forever, no matter what the cost... And yes, Jay Leno syndrome is an actual disease. Overall, this is an above average episode for post-classic standards but a tough excursion for entertainment standards; but I guess that means all and well... In the Twilight Zone...

4.0/10

[Matty]

PS: What was with Selman getting the first credit at the end? This a one or two time deal or is Al moving over(seems doubtful)?

Selman showran 2 episodes this production season: The Food Wife and The Book Job. No sign of Al moving over, though

[HMS pinafore]

That was really good! The beginning at the video game convention was some of the most spot-on humor I've seen from the show in a long time. People who say the show is behind the times need to watch that scene.

I watched that scene and there was nothing original about it and a lot of the jokes felt out of date.

[Blobulle]

Damn! My review has been erased.
4.5/5 Another good episode from Matt Selman (as showrunner), the FPS thing was hilarious, I also liked the Angry Birds reference, Ratatouille..., and this plot was a good idea.
Best of the season so far.

[Friz]

Surprisingly good. Might need a rewatch before my final score, but at the moment it's 4/5.

[HMS pinafore]

best of a very poor season 4/10

[cloneasaurus]

Just watched this and I have literally no idea what to think of it at all. I didn't love it, hate it, or find it average. On one hand I liked how at the core of the episode was a Marge/Homer conflict which was, in the context of the Simpsons, relatively new. But I found the episode really jumpy, if that makes sense. There were so many new places and the plot moved really fast (probably why there was no opening), which I do think hurt the episode. I think there could have been more Marge/Homer scenes and Marge's and Homer's characterisations were slightly skewed at points which sorta bugged me. Homer's "breakdown" was pretty cringeworthy and Marge was way too neurotic and 'no-fun' at points, for example upon going in to the Ethiopian restaurant. Okay, to be fair this was probably to make the conflict more prominent but it didn't feel very much like Marge. In fact, the conflict itself, whilst new, felt odd.

Not quite sure what to make of it. I'll probably add more to this later.

With some hindsight I decided that I did't really like it. Whilst there was potential I have no desire to see it again, there were barely any funny gags and the plot was too jumpy, plus there were some cringeworthy moments. 2/5 and a C-. And yet it still emerges as the second best from the season so far.

[Gatorgod]

A tasty good episode! 5/5 I loved reading and searching for all the fly-by stuff.
"Classy Strippers Club" featuring Nelsons Mom .. if you look very close you can see a tiny drawing of nelson standing by the door.

[The Love-Matic Grandpa!]

3.55, rounded up to 4. Pretty good by modern Simpsons standards, below average when compared to the Classic Era.

[lionelhutz123]

I don't think some of us are giving the jean era credit. It has done way better than this and at a more consistent rate, at that. This was just as lazy as 500 Keys.

[D DEBBS]

Biggest laugh for me was when the Angry Birds crashed into the children's hospital! 3/5

[Toomanygrandmas]

This was a strange one, indeed. A lot happened in this episode, and it felt difficult to focus on any of the faults. The start of the episode was a mixed bag. I guess I somewhat appreciated it, being a videogame fan, that there were so many video game parodies. The problem? None of them were funny, which is kind of a shame. Homer was a bit too impulsive in some of his actions in this episode, but he thankfully avoided being too annoying (though I thought him undressing before eating from the fridge stupid). The episode wasn't as bad as I thought it would be - like the food rap managed not to be awful, because thankfully it wasn't rapped by the guest stars. There were a plethora of guest stars, and they weren't utilised much. Thankfully though, the show didn't feel like going 'HEY LOOK, IT'S ____ FROM ____'. That would have got annoying quickly. Actually, to think about it, they handled the guest stars better (though only a bit better) than their 'satire' of the videogame world (videogame+change of letters or addition of Springfield character = 'devastating satire' according to Matt Selman).

A longer review is coming later (still need to do a long one for 'Replaceable You' first, though).

Anyway, 3/5, though that might seem a bit generous in hindsight.

[Rowdy Roddy Peeper]

Why wasn't there a Joe Frazier tribute at the end of the episode? Have they stopped doing that for guest stars now?

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

^I remember last week via twitter someone asked David Silverman if there was gonna be one and he basically replied there wasn't enough time and it wasn't up to him.