Rate and Review: "Replaceable You" (NABF21)

[Commander Flanders]

A lot better than most recent episodes. An easy 4/5, Jane Lynch did a good job in her role.

[Bert Stanton]

Since watching Mrs Glick's untimely departure I have began to notice that she was actually in quite a few older episodes.

But this episode was terrible. The seal thing? Really? No. The main plot could have been brilliant but it certainly wasn't. Very poor. 1/5

[Bleedin' Gums Murphy]

Since watching Mrs Glick's untimely departure I have began to notice that she was actually in quite a few older episodes.

But this episode was terrible. The seal thing? Really? No. The main plot could have been brilliant but it certainly wasn't. Very poor. 1/5

Out of interest, why did you personally feel the 'Bart Stops to Smell the Roosevelts' episode deserved a 5/5?

[Cartoonnetwork]

Pretty bad.

1. If I had to pick one aspect of the Jean Era's joke-writing that they need to fix, it's this whole "mention something, then show it later" attitude. Milhouse comes into the kitchen and mentions the thing with him and his dog (an all right joke, I guess). Two scenes later, the scene ends with Milhouse and his dog. Bart mentions getting funding for the Homer Humiliator (a good joke) and then a couple scenes later, Homer's getting attacked by it. Are these things we really need to see? All we get is Homer making some, "Ooooow, this is soooo terrible" line, which makes the slapstick gag even worse.

The jokes aren't that clever enough to really warrant revisiting them. They strike me more as the writers just sponging out joke juice out of whatever they have already written.

I don't know. I thought the second scene with the Homer Humiliator scene was pretty funny. Especially Homer's line 'Why a Homer Humiliator would do this to me?".

The episode was pretty bad, though, but in a weird way. I didn't hate it cause it was somewhat entertained and I even thought some of the gags were funnier than usual, but the plot didn't make any sense. It wasn't just the fact that it changed too much or had too many little scenes with different townspeople. That happened with the weakest episodes of Mirkin era and they were still easy to follow for the most part. It was the fact that it was random to odd extremes.

Roz' character was just there and extremely dull. Also, what a TERRIBLE, UNINSPIRED, BORING and UGLY character design. Instead of showing Homer and Ned 'teaming up' he just give Homer some random detail that Homer uses and that's the end of the story. Also, I've seen them a million times but I still don't get what's funny about making cartoony physical gags for Burns. I wonder if the writers actually find them funny or they just put them there cause people liked 'The Springfield Files'.

So basically this was like Mirkin mixed with Jean and Scully. Some of the use of secondaries and random gags were kind of Mirkin-esque, and even the set up of Homer's plot. The baby seals plot was totally Scully-esque. Not Scully at his worst, but not at his best either. Some of the odd and dull humor was Jean at his worst.

I guess Stephanie Gillis doesn't really get The Simpsons. Sometimes she gets it right but See Homer Run was also pretty weird. Maybe this one was a little better.

Things I liked: Homer Humiliator (both times), Marge's scenes (both of them, but the second one was completely hilarious), Ned's moment was ok though I didn't really like the solution, the science fair jokes like the toupee detector, Frink's date, 'And I heard one of the kids did all the job', Wiggum's jokes, some stuff with Martin and I kinda liked Milhouse's T Shirt...

...even if it is a somewhat 'gay' joke at least it makes some sense in the fact that he has always admired Bart to some extent. Oh, and I actually liked the Itchy and Scratchy episode! I guess I'm the first one. It was short, well animated and pretty violent.

However Martin being randomly and openly gay in his fantasy was kind of blah, Milhouse kissing his dog was an awful gag both times, Mrs Glick's death was random, the change of Roz' character was unconvincing, Burns as a ball was awful, Homer sticking his head in the prize was a little too long (though I think this was more tolerable than others), Grandpa and the Jewish Guy asking for heroin wasn't very funny...

Overall there were maybe more gags I did like than gags I didn't like but the ones I didn't like were terrible and the two plots had different flaws. The baby seal plot was kind of strange to begin with and changed focus all the time. Still, it was probably better explained than Homer's plot which actually had an interesting premise but they didn't do anything with it.

2,5/5

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

I don't know. I thought the second scene with the Homer Humiliator scene was pretty funny. Especially Homer's line 'Why a Homer Humiliator would do this to me?".

Because it's a stupid line. It's not giving the audience any credit, like always.

[Cartoonnetwork]

Because it's a stupid line. It's not giving the audience any credit, like always.

I disagree. It's a stupid line because Homer is stupid, but I do find this ' a character doesn't have a clue about something obvious' type of gag. It's not like you have to think about it during hours, but not every joke needs to be like that. The concept of a 'Homer Humiliator' is funny to begin with, but the fact that Homer knows that gadget is a Homer Humiliator, but still he doesn't know why he humiliates him is funny IMO, and it's a decent enough reason to bring it back. I laughed at it. A lot better than Milhouse kissing dogs, that's for sure.

[Xt'Tapalatakettle]

Been trying to catch up on episodes I missed this season, and this wasn't a good place to start. I enjoyed the first two minutes or so, i.e.- the science fair and the Itchy and Scratchy short (with a great reference to the 1930s Frankenstein). Other than that, this was terribly disjointed, with overly choreographed dialogue, and ultimately hard to watch.

Hugging as a way to take down Roz? Get real. This one gets a Big Fat D

[uruguayo]

Good episode, main plot was weird ... Many laughs.
4/5

[CousinMerl]

Saw this one yesterday and I enjoyed it; a little disjointed, yes, but there were some moments that made me chuckle (such as Bart finally getting funding to build his Homer Humiliator which we then see in action). The central plot about the baby seal toy was good and the subplot with Homer being demoted and replaced was also okay. I don't mind that they killed off Ms. Glick since she hasn't been used so much in recent years but the ending where everybody starts to dance felt like too much since it's happened earlier a number of times during the current Jean years; the writers really seem to love those dancy ending scenes.

3/5

[The Angry Animated Comedy Nerd]

This episode was so bad.. I want it to destroy it with lasers!

[CollectorCharlie]

They killed off Ms Glick. Aww. Martins math tatoos were mildly funny as were other jokes. Odd episode but cant find anything to condemn it with, so it gets a B- or 3/5. A bit indifferent.

[irvine_11]

I can't believe I gave this a C+ originally. After watching the rerun, I realized what serious issues this episode had with humor and execution. Lowering it down to an F

[Comicshow MolemanBob]

"Replaceable You"


New employee "Roz" complimenting Homer


What a terribly disjointed, unfunny episode. Nothing worked, neither plots reached full potential and while both stories had the possibility of some great jokes - None were used. The stories kept alternating randomly showcasing so many cutaway gags that the story didn't flow at all. Why couldn't they have just used the more interesting story about Homer and Roz and actually convey some emotion between the two including the gradual change between nice and nasty Roz? No characters were particularly funny or had any good lines. Marge could have been absent for this one, Lisa was completely useless besides the first few scenes, Milhouse was so disturbing and unfunny (And so was Martin for that matter) Flanders should have appeared before the fourth act - Just every character was off in some way.

The seal storyline went nowhere and I couldn't have cared less how it ended. I also hated how characters just appeared from nowhere to say a line (Nelson especially) The plots did not connect together and neither stories had any emotional aspect to allow you to feel for the characters. If I had to chose a few good things I'd go with...


* Jane Lynch was a great voice actress
* Big fan of David Bowie so the final song was a nice surprise (Although I hated how it was used)
* Wiggum dialing 911


That is it. It's just another below average Jean episode which is really light on laughs and thinly plotted. It's not the worst of the season but it's defiantly near the bottom...


10/20 (C)