Rate and Review "How I Wet Your Mother" (PABF08)

[The Governor]

Man, this episode seemed really pointless. I know it's a parodyistic coy version of "Inception" with bed-wetting and I've seen inception, but this episode seemed like it was nudging you with "look, it's an Inception parody, huh, HUH!? Laugh, damnit!". Yeah, the Ullman short and Mona back for a moment was nice nostalgia, but this episode was too "it just happened for no reason" for my tastes--Frink just happens to land in front of Marge...Wiggum just happens to show up at the Simpson house, etc, and I know it's a cartoon so STFU.

Anyway, it was either too stupid, or it was actually funny, like when the crowd was throwing crap at the family in Lisa's dream, or Moe being used to slow up the gears, but Bart dancing in mid-air, ugh, or the urine alarm (it would've been funnier if Homer wet the sensor pad and got an electric shock for some negative reinforcement).

So, with the good and the bad, it comes out an average 3/5 for Zombie Simpsons, yes, I said ZOMBIE SIMPSONS and if you don't like it, don't go to bed angry and piss on your sheets!!!

EDIT: When, not if, a full-fledged SimpsonLand opens, you can bet the Homer-Coaster will look just like this on in the post above.

[bovine_university]

Man, this would have been the best episode of the season hands down if it weren't for a very weak start.

I wasn't really looking forward to this episode from the description, and for the first third or so of this episode my fears were coming true. Homer getting his friends in trouble and having him hammer home the karma stuff really didn't sit well with me, though I was pleasantly surprised to not only find out that wasn't what was to blame for Homer's incontinence, but it was quickly shoved out of the way and didn't take up too much of the story. Still, I wasn't really digging the first 8 minutes or so of the episode. There was a funny gag here or there, but so many of the jokes relied on urination humor. The puns, the visual of seeing Homer in a diaper, it was all pretty grating to me, and when the Inception parody began, I was only expecting things to get worse.

Thankfully I was very wrong. Things got much better as the episode went on and as the parody went on. There were some moments here and there that I thought were a little too on-the-nose with being a parody, but the various dreams they visited were actually a lot of fun. The classic look and Homer's Walter Matthau voice in Marge's dream really made me laugh, as did Lisa's dream getting completely glossed over. The final dream again was a little too close to what the movie was like, but it was still funny and great to look at. I could have done without the police showing up and putting urgency in the final dream (though multiple Moes clogging up the gears was a very funny sight), but I was genuinely surprised to see Mona Simpson appear at the end of the episode. If there was ever a way to being her back and have it make sense, this was the way to do it, and the final resolution and explanation was touching and made sense in the grand scheme of the episode. The final gag with Homer and Marge still thinking this was a dream was a pretty funny note to end on also.

I'm really kind of frustrated here. There was a lot of good stuff to be had here, from the animation, to the gags, to the eventual story. But I had to slog through a really bad first act and a half to get there, and if they had just found a better way to get the ball rolling instead of relying on jokes about wetting the bed, I might have given this a 5/5. As is, this was a really great episode held back by a really bad fault, and so I have to settle for a 4/5.

[The Governor]

Man, this would have been the best episode of the season hands down if it weren't for a very weak start.

I wasn't really looking forward to this episode from the description, and for the first third or so of this episode my fears were coming true. Homer getting his friends in trouble and having him hammer home the karma stuff really didn't sit well with me, though I was pleasantly surprised to not only find out that wasn't what was to blame for Homer's incontinence, but it was quickly shoved out of the way and didn't take up too much of the story. Still, I wasn't really digging the first 8 minutes or so of the episode.

Yeah, the first act did suck, but I didn't share your enthusiasm with the episode improving that much as it went on.

[NoOneFamous]

I wasn't sure what to think of basing an episode around an Inception parody. Its been done many times already, and its old news as that movie came out almost two years ago. However, in this case, I thought it worked well. It wasn't so much a "haha, Inception!" parody as it was using the premise of Inception to have some fun with the Simpson characters and universe that they don't normally get to do aside from THOH or "Simpsons characters act out stories" episodes, which this seemed way more inspired than. The Tracy Ulman dream world in particular was very funny, and I liked that they even mocked the "mouth twist".

However, everything leading up to the dream sequences was forgettable at best. Actually, no, I can't say that - the Portal joke was a nice surprise. The rest, meh. Its like they can't help but fill every episode with terrible one-liners from every character on screen.

I dunno, 3/5 for the interesting dream sequences, but still not an episode I'd ever care to watch again.

[zach]

but still not an episode I'd ever care to watch again.

yeah

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

An extremely nerdy question I know, but how does Homer remember his Ape form going after Marge if it is from a non-canon Halloween show? Maybe he's just fantasized about it before? I'm giving it more thought than I should...

[The Governor]

An extremely nerdy question I know, but how does Homer remember his Ape form going after Marge if it is from a non-canon Halloween show? Maybe he's just fantasized about it before? I'm giving it more thought than I should...

Homer, like Vin Diesel, is pretty much a shaved ape anyway.

EDIT: Speaking of this episode, I'm surprised a Locomotive didn't randomly appear.

[Friz]

Bart's twitch made me happy.

1/5.

[comeau]

2.5/5, it was really dumb but had some good visual gags. I especially loved the "Family Therapy" sort-of remake. I'm disappointed there was no "frosty chocolate milkshake".

I can live without the "frosty chocolate milkshakes" thing, since we got a Bart twister mouth. That was pretty awesome.

Everything else was boring background noise that I only paid attention to when that Ullman scene popped up.

[The Governor]

One last thing I'd like to add...

If they wanted to parody the train in Inception, Lisa's 'dream' should've been her at the train station where Mr. Bergstrom said goodbye, but in this version, the family would wake up as the train went by in the background and we got to see Lisa's reaction as she had to watch him pull away all over again...with a note that had the exclamation point.

[Bartesque]

The first act was so weak, I was ready to declare this as another bottom 20 abomination. No idea why Homer would buy a urine sensing alarm if he wanted to keep his problem a secret...

But this wasn't too bad in my opinion, maybe I'm being generous because I thought the idea was awful. The scenes with Homer and Bart fishing ended up being related to the conclusion, probably the first time in ages they bothered to reference an earlier scene later in an episode.

6/10

P.s. did anyone spot Zutroy in the plant? Must be his first appearance in years.

[Mozy]

I thought this was a pretty creative episode and as I stated in another thread, it was a pretty decent episode that had funny parts. Also, if I've seen the movie Inception, I'd understand the storyline better. As others have said in this thread, it was great seeing the retro Simpsons! I laughed pretty hard when Homer was in a diaper and Marge wasn't turned on by it.

[Brad Lascelle]

I'm not sure I've ever been more conflicted by an episode.

As an Inception parody it fell flat. Very hamfisted and blatant and lacked a lot of the subtleties of the South Park parody from a season ago which was hilarious.

Internal logic was thrown to the wayside in this episode (even moreso than usual). Stuff just happened because it fit the blueprint of Inception parody sequences they wanted to go through. What's worse is that a lot of the jokes fell flat which wasn't the case when Maxtone-Graham and Kimball parodied The DaVinci Code and 24. Hell, I even liked their Catch Me If You Can parody.

And yet I sort of want to give this episode points for effort because there were elements that were truly inspired. The Ullman homage was exceptional in terms of both writing and voicework. And the visuals of Homer's junk food skyscraper dream realm with the Moe's Tavern on every corner were amazing.

Unfortunately, I have to grade based on the entire episode as a whole and not two truly creative ideas contained within about three minutes of it. All of those other parody episodes were far superior to this one. And so, my final score is only 2/5.

[jordanwj]

The on;y thing I liked was the Tracy Ultman ref was nice but even that fell short.


1/10
I Voted 2.5 on the poll because it says "at least its better than South Park" No South Park's inception parody was hilarious....change that.

[The Angry Animated Comedy Nerd]

One last thing I'd like to add...

If they wanted to parody the train in Inception, Lisa's 'dream' should've been her at the train station where Mr. Bergstrom said goodbye, but in this version, the family would wake up as the train went by in the background and we got to see Lisa's reaction as she had to watch him pull away all over again...with a note that had the exclamation point.

No.. b/c that's good and not insane.

[jordanwj]

One last thing I'd like to add...

If they wanted to parody the train in Inception, Lisa's 'dream' should've been her at the train station where Mr. Bergstrom said goodbye, but in this version, the family would wake up as the train went by in the background and we got to see Lisa's reaction as she had to watch him pull away all over again...with a note that had the exclamation point.

Yes.....YES. You sir are amazing. These are the suddle things the writes don't think or care about, thinking like this and adapting South Park's writing template would make a much better show. Byt hey, I don't work at FOX or Grace Films so....whatevs.

[Brad Lascelle]

I didn't mention it earlier but I felt the chosen catalyst of Homer's bedwetting being him going fishing with Bart was weak seeing how he's taken Bart out fishing at least once before - at the end of I Am Furious (Yellow). This could have been addressed by events in the boat "replicating" Homer's fishing experience with Abe (i.e. the boat being overturned and them falling in the lake) but they felt that time was better served to have Homer yell about karma for 20 seconds.

[Homer I Am]

I loved this episode, decent overall. I thought it was going to be a shitty episode and that the reason Homer had bed wetting problems is because he got brain damage by some magical thing. I was surprised, 4/5! The most noticeable gag is the one where they are drawn, acted out and sounded like The Tracey Ullman Show style. There were a few gags were they were just plain annoying, like the gag where Bart was dancing. That gag lasted way too long and annoyed me to the point that I wanted stop watching it.

[EthanRunt]

Funny, sweet, well crafted, felt continually interesting, engaging and entertaining, a really strong episode actually.

[Tubbb!]

I never saw Inception, so maybe that's why I liked this episode. (I wasn't distracted by comparing it to the movie, perhaps?) To me, it was just a funny episode. I even enjoyed it on the second viewing.

I don't get all the hate for this one, but to each his own.

[The Governor]

Slightly off-topic, but...I'm surprised no one mentioned this, but with this episode being the most THoH-esque "normal" episode, would this sway you to believe the producers should drop the four-story THoHs and concentrate on one long story for Halloween?