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

[The Governor]

Homer's imaginary land was totally in character, imaginative and fun. It was actually something we could have seen in a classic THOH segment.

A classic THoH segment would've had much wittier writing and some really "dark" humor beyond Ned being mowed down with a lawnmower and it would've done in 7 minutes vs the allotted time in this episode. I can name about a dozen THoH shorts more imaginative (and funnier) than this. Even if this was a 100 percent original episode and Inception didn't exist, it'd still be "meh" at best, but I love the logic that this is a great remake/parody/homage/plagerized version of "Inception" as long as you didn't see "Inception." WTF kind of logic is that!? (Is it bad, or just a bad parody? I don't think this souless Simpsonized version was good enough to be the latter.) Of course, this non-THoH Treehouse of Horror gets away with being both and neither at the same time, pulls on a few heartstrings, throws in some nostalgia, has fans who can't tell the difference between allusion, parody and satire, so what's to screw up at this point. Frankly, pretty much everything...

And there's the classic "what you show and not show your audience" angle. Yes, I'll give them credit for trying to say Homer's stress from the events in the first act caused him to wet his bed, BUT when that was dismissed, there was nothing to say Homer didn't have a urniary tract infection, bladder cancer, or was just no longer in control his bodily functions...just because he was Homer. Granted Bart tweeted Homer was pissing his sheets, but there was nothing there to connect that tweet to Frink KNOWING it was caused by dreams. Nothing, zip, nada, and that's if you can overlook the solution falling out of the sky. Oy, andjust assuming because it happened at night shouldn't be the job of the viewers if the writers aren't clear enough with their intentions. (Or, we can make the character all-knowing and in this case Dream sniffers!)

And well, since it happens during nightime I don't think it's such a big deal to deduce that it could have a relation with his dreams.

Like I sadi above, he could've had a urinary tract infection and he's taken Bart fishing before but didn't begin to wet his bed and nothing from the Office Stealing part of the episode had anything to do with his bed wetting. Not that there's anything wrong with an unrelated first act, but as you said, they should've just gone straight to the dreams and made that the focus. Of course, once we got into dreamland, the visual were okay, but the entire set up was such an unemotional void, people anxiously clamoured over Mona's return it made the trip down exposition lane remake/parody/homage/plagerized/ version of "Inception" seem okay...I guess.

Also I found the "twitted by Bart, retwitted by Krusty" joke, random as it was, pretty funny, one of the few times a reference to twitter or other modern technologies felt kind of natural.

Homer's just such a freaking celebrity now. (I can't stand self-aware jokes that make the Simpsons family some sort of local divas. Fuck you, 500th episode! Quit jabbing us in they eye, writers, we know it's a TV show!) Of course, the joke with all the loser bachelors on the party line years ago was actually funny because it made fun of the bachelors AND the party line...which is how a joke about modern, neato techie trends should work.

And the second one...of course, cause the workers at SNPP or springfieldians in general have always been perfect and decent guys...What's wrong with them stealing in job? That's the kind of things characters do in a comedy, they are not perfect and that's what makes things fun! Springfieldians always cause riots or steal things when they have the chance. But at least Carl was trying to do the right thing and close the door in the first place, if you are going to get into so many details.

I'm not soley bitching because it's surreal, but I'm bitching because it's surreal and NOT FUNNY and the writers and defenders of this episode try to claim the classic era wasn't 100 percent realistic...well, NO SHIT! But when the classic era did do surrealism it was FUNNY and it didn't need the "well, it's a cartoon!" crutch. I DO know the classic era went beyond season 2, ya'know!

As for this scene above, it happened under Burns's watch, the man who obsesses over his security with his umpteen cameras and not in the wilds of Springfield's poorly policed streets. In the classic era, no one stopped riots, but in the classic era, Burns was there to give the slap down on anyone or anything that was a threat to him or his interests. Before he became a Flanderized senile clown, none of what happened in "Wet" would've made it past the supply room door being left ajar. Sure, he might not have been looking at the MOMENT when the door was left open, but the entire stash of supplies weren't stolen in 2 minutes and Smithers or one of the guards would've seen something.

EDIT: I don't really care for Homer's goes to College.

edit: forgot to mention Urination Domination got a laugh out of me. From now on, thats how I'll refer to the Sunday lineup.

[D DEBBS]

Had its moments (like the Tracey Ullman Simpsons and Mona's return) but it's M-E-H.

[The Governor]

Had its moments (like the Tracey Ullman Simpsons and Mona's return) but it's M-E-H.

The only way this episode could've been worse is if Adam Sandler had a hand in it.

[J Dog]

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.

Nah, they wasted that joke in "Midnight Towboy", as part of that subplot that didn't have an actual resolution.

I didn't see this episode, so I really can't critique it properly.

[cloneasaurus]

I've never seen Inception, but I actually thought this episode was decent.

Whether this is because I couldn't see it was a lazy copy-cat parody, I don't know. But personally this was refreshing because 1) the plot was original and 2) they actually had a plot that they stuck with and didn't clog it with a subplot. While yeah, the whole "I'm sorry" party seems like waste in retrospect - it does feel sorta out of place - I actually kinda liked it. Lenny's quick "who the hell are you" is just the kind of joke I wish they did more nowadays; brief, simple and funny.

Another good thing about this episode is that there were pretty much no cringeworthy jokes, and only one joke that went on too long (Bart dancing), and I actually found that to be average and an anomaly amongst the other jokes in the episode. My favourite gag was probably Homer looking at the coffin and telling Marge "oh, just usual dream nonsense" or something. I dunno, I just found the execution funny. Yeah, this episode was far from funny, but it rarely made me think "why would they let this air".

The dream sequences themselves were the best part of the episode and just fun and interesting to watch. I can appreciate that some of them were probably not done in a Simpsons-esque style and just lifted straight from Inception, but I enjoyed them. Homer in Food Island was good, and the Tracey Ullman bit was cool too, even if I thought Nancy and Yeardly could have made more of an effort to sound like their former selves (minor nitpick).

I should stress that this episode was still far from perfect. The SNPP bits were fairly meh to me and the ending with Marge and Homer on the bikes felt rushed and unfunny. But once this got going it was definitely an enjoyable outing, even to someone who hasn't seen Inception.

C+/B- 3rd best of the season

[Cartoonnetwork]

Incidentally I did watch Inception and I thought the parody was well done for the most part. They took what they wanted but they used it for experiments like the Tracey Ullman short or things that are actually related to Homer, like the food city, that would have worked even if they haven't made it look like the Inception scenarios.

I also think the slow motion fight, the "Dream have rules?" dialogue, the part with Frink incidentally revealing that they could die and the ending were good references to the movie. I'm not sure if they wanted to make homages or a parody, but all these jokes come up as a little satiric to me, cause in my opinion the slow motion in the movie was a little silly, the dreams having so many rules made them less trippy and/or interesting than they could have been, the revelation that they could die in the dream was kind of a cop out since in the rest of the movie they didn't have that problem and the ending was a little too clever for its own good in its attempt to be ambivalent and confuse viewers.

[MagicalManFromHappyLand]

Eh, this was probably one of the better ones this season. I chuckled a lot more at it than I have done most episodes this year, the Ullman short clip was funny, and there were a lot of other funny bits.
The first act was a little slow and didn't do a lot for the episode, but once the dreams began the episode picked up.
For once the ending actually called back something earlier in the episode, and Mona was handled better than I was expecting. Honestly I was expecting the worst, a Moe Goes From Rags To Riches, but this episode was my 3rd favourite this season, and coincidentally, the third episode this year I genuinely enjoyed.

C+/B- 3.25

[Mr. Krikt]

• Wow, that couch gag animation is awkward.
• Oh wow, Portal! How current!
• Why was the black paint labelled PAINT? I don't think that needed explained. Why it was there randomly sitting open, though...
• "It has come to my attention that you are robbing me blind." Wait you mean once?
• "The rest of you will write thirty-page essays [...]" "That's a lot of eights."
  What is this? Where's the intelligence/humor?
• "I like to watch [who?] play Xbox while his giant wife yells at him."
  Have mercy, writers.
• Why couldn't Homer have actually spoken to Apu instead of having a Family Guy-like sequence where he argues with a visible thought bubble which he then uses as a pillow?
• "Tweeted by Bart then retweeted by Krusty." Ha ha! Twitter!
• "I just created a machine which allows you to go into people's dreams." Wait, did they mistakenly show the next THOH? Is this really the Simpsons?
  How does Homer immediately know his family are external?
• Wait, it's Inception? Why are you doing this Simpsons writers? Why all the outdated references?

I stopped watching when Lisa started explaining the rules.

[Gladys the Groovy Mule]

4/5. More good lines than we've had in an episode since HOFP and god knows when before that, loved the Ullman short style, good performance by Close. 4/5 and I didn't think i'd be saying this just a few episodes after Moe Goes From Rags to Riches, but the show seems to be picking itself up and becoming somewhat consistent again

[The Governor]

the revelation that they could die in the dream was kind of a cop out since in the rest of the movie they didn't have that problem and the ending was a little too clever for its own good in its attempt to be ambivalent and confuse viewers.

A good joke they missed out on is Homer suddenly gets so happy after he gets to see Mona, he pees his pants on the couch and getting wet is what suddenly awakens him, albeit that's the last time it happens.

Oh, and thank you DHS.

[The Angry Animated Comedy Nerd]

Oh, and thank you DHS.

Word up yo.

[bradbradford]

I enjoyed it, I'm not usually a fan of crazy episodes but I did enjoy this a lot. I agree with what someone else said, I would call this the third best of the season.

*I'm glad they left out the frosty milkshakes line, didn't need that, we already got the joke.

*The Bart dance scene was not good. It would've been passable if he just said the line, but the dances after...boring/old type of joke. **If he had just said the line and then done the Bartman...I would've laughed.

My favorite joke of the night was Disco Stu, or homer's surprisingly fun play on words joke...."That's what I call looking out for Number 1"

I mean come on people, say what you want, but THAT is a good joke.

[The Angry Animated Comedy Nerd]

My favorite joke of the night was Disco Stu, or homer's surprisingly fun play on words joke...."That's what I call looking out for Number 1"

I mean come on people, say what you want, but THAT is a good joke.

Naw, it was dumb, shallow, and lazy writing.

Not trying to be mean.. but both those jokes stood out as in the top five worst jokes in the episode.

[Cartoonnetwork]

"Inception, which this episode so incompetently copied, is seven times as long and makes more sense, and I don’t think it had half this many explanations".

Yeah, sure...this episode has three quick lines while Inception was all EXPOSITION. They were talking about the rules ALL THE TIME, they never stopped talking about that. If it is seven times as long it also has seven times more exposition, if not more. That's what I liked less about the movie. It was sort of necessary to understand all the elements, but at the end, like Zombies explained, it really wasn't so complicated. It was made to be complicated. I would rather see dreams that were more trippy or psicological (like in this Simpson episode) or the other characters being explored (only DiCaprio and Ellen Page had some personality, all the other characters were just there from some reason).

[IceToSeeYou]

Ned's death scene was disgusting.

[ThankYouComeAgain]

2/5
There was nothing good in this episode apart from the Tracy Ullman Cameo
The voices sounded so much better from that cameo(except for Lisa who sounded the same Ugh)
I wish they would do New Episodes like that it would be much better then the new crappy style
I mean OMFG I havent seen Real Animation in The Simpsons for a long time now that was so refreshing to see Bart making those faces and Homer looking like that and speaking with a deep voice

[ThankYouComeAgain]

At last a decent episode! Tracey Ullman sequence alone makes this episode best of the season. Just love these poses. Wish they would stick with the style permanently



I'm in a generous mood, so I give it a pure 5.

Ahhhh who wouldnt
Its been a long time since I've seen "Real Animation" in The Simpsons
The episode was crap though

[cloneasaurus]

I dunno if this is being just plain hard to please, but I still think the Ullman bit could have been animated better. I watched the original "Family Therapy" on Youtube afterwards, and while the bit in the episode is a nice homage, I would have loved for them to go all out on the animation. Like, in the shorts, the family's mouths all move really weirdly, like they stretch a lot more, sometimes off their faces. I just think there's something really unique and great about the Ullman shorts' animation and it didn't quite capture it. Yeah, maybe they weren't focusing on the animation to that degree, but it would have been cool if they did.

I loved the twister mouth though.

[Swoony]

What really bothered me is that in one of the shots when Homer peed himself that pee it all the way up to his chest. I mean, If you peed that much wouldn't it be mostly on the spead and down your legs? And his position when he wole up didn't match up for the pee either. This annoyed me for some reason.

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

It's a cartoon.

[Mr.]

WOW! I strongly enjoy this episode! I found the first act very funny, especially all the Lenny/Carl stuff.

I'm one of few people who didn't care for the movie "Inception". It was old idea (Heck! Even Don Rosa did exact plot in his comic book like ten years earlier) and a mediocre script, which was made into a overly complicated movie by chaotic editing. It had some interesting special effect but that's about it, and for a movie about dreams I found it to be pretty uncreative. I’m not saying each movie about dreams shot look like “Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” or have some “Alice in Wonderland” vibe to it but here I didn’t feel nothing that give me a dream-like feeling during the movie. The only part I like where one or two moments with the main hero’s wife appearances as they where creepy and unexpected…

But back to the Simpsons episodes review… As I mentioned above I didn’t care for “Inception” so I was expecting for the episode to go down hill as soon Professor Frink shown his dream machine. I usually don’t like science fiction elements in un-Halloween episode (It’s ok if it’s just a gag, not a bloody plot point which takes most of the episode) To my pleasant surprise I actually like the rest of the episode. There where some nice stuff in the dream world (I love Death!!!) and it felt varied in a good manner. It’s nice to see an episode where you can tell they actually work hard to design stuff. Mona was a pleasant surprise (I had no idea she will appear) and It was good idea to bring her back and a cute touch to show she will be immortal in Homers memories. Maybe I wish they would give more touching moment between her and Homer…

Overall It was an episode I enjoy the most in a long time (this and the Christmas special are by far the best episodes of the season so far) Many good jokes (Normal Stu) and I like homage to the old Simpsons shorts (I was expecting Bart to strangle Homer back like he did in old days… but still cute scene)

My only complain? I personally would cut the Bart-dance scene which was a bit to long, but the rest was just fine.

P.S.
Ow! Ow! And I love Frinks line about hell and Flanders cameo! Good stuff...

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

Ahhhh who wouldnt
Its been a long time since I've seen "Real Animation" in The Simpsons
The episode was crap though

It was all done digitally of course though, on a cold, heartless computer.

[Tubbb!]

The Simpsons's Universe wasn't defined by generic cartoon conventions and contrived storytelling where just about anything goes.

Season One, Episode Five

In this scene, Bart coughs up a fully-intact baseball cap after being thrown into a trashcan that magically takes him directly to his house for the second time, where (just so happens) Lisa is waiting to tell him that Grandpa can help him with his problems.

Scenes like this from the classic era are why I don't have a problem with Frink falling from the sky in front of Marge after an explosion.

[Mr.]

Yhe! Or Homer being mistaken for bigfoot just because he feel into some mud used as a plot point...

[Shaunbadia]

It woulda worked better as a THOH story but it was still fun...if not a tad underwhelming towards the end.

[Mr. Trampopoline]

(Heck! Even Don Rosa did exact plot in his comic book like ten years earlier)

Actually, he got the idea (or a 'springboard') in the form of a few sentences from a 'Duckfan' somewhere in Paris.

[Jims]

I watched this last night but had trouble paying attention to it. I thought it was all right the first time, but I really enjoyed it on re-watch.

Thank goodness Cartoonnetwork basically summed up everything for me, so I can skip writing a lengthy review.

The only thing I would add is that I really enjoyed how this episode felt like a celebration of The Simpsons history, with total Tracey Ullman parody and all the little framegrabs in the Homer's fantasy world. Just seeing all those figures of Homer in the background of the roller coaster (Pie Man, King Size Homer, etc) was a nice touch. And, of course, the twister mouth was awesome to see again. And they were smart enough to not point everything out, like, "BART, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOUR MOUTH?????" The joke-writing was pretty fantastic in general.

The only criticism I have is that I wish the Inception parody was just a little closer. They did some good directorial parodies of Inception's money shots, particularly the montage of the different levels as well as them waking up repeatedly. But Alf's score just didn't get there for me. He didn't capture the darkness and the deep bass of the Inception soundtrack... Sounded too show-tuney in places. That sounds overly nitpicky, but most people who saw Inception would agree that the soundtrack to that film is a big deal.

4.5/5. I liked the 500th episode, but man, this should have been the 500th instead.

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

My post from the season 23 thread still stands. This title will go down as one of the absolute worst and funniest puns in the history of puns.

[Swoony]

It's a cartoon.

I wasn't aware.

[The Governor]

Scenes like this from the classic era are why I don't have a problem with Frink falling from the sky in front of Marge after an explosion.

I'm sorry, but get you undies out of twist. Never once, in this thread or otherwise, have I said the classic era was 100 percent realistic, 100 percent of the time. Before you go cherry pick more examples, they were experimenting with the tone of the series in the first season, so they didn't know how far to push the cartoonish side of the show. Also, the next season went on to produce the most grounded season in the history of the show, while keeping the cartoonish surrealism in check (no I didn't say it did not exist, so sit down). When I said earlier the show defied generic cartoon conventions, I never once said the show stopped totally being unrealistic, I'm not sure why you (or others) who try to defend Zombie Simpsons's lack of subtle satire and overuse of bad surrealism as being a byproduct of being a cartoon when bad surrealism the work of half-assed writers and lack of care--these negative aspects of the show didn't just fall out of the sky after an explosion in the writers's room. If you think the staff nowadays puts as much effort and time in the scripts in rewrites and table reads like they did in the first few seasons, you're out of you goddamn mind.

But what is "Bad" surrealism? Well, what is "good surrealism"...I like to think of it as an intelligent kind nonsense where there is a deeper meaning to the joke than just the visual gag. So what's "Bad' surrealism, then? I think of it as empty, cartoonish filler material that's used to fill plot holes or just kill time. Compare Frink just falling out of the sky vs. Bart winding up in front of the Simpson house. Bart was just beaten up by a bully (which do exist, btw!) and stuffed in a trash can (which I've seen happen in some 80's movies that weren't cartoons) and is rolled down the hill and stops at the Simpsons house (which is a stretch, but it's not out of the realm of possibility) and he coughs up his hat (okay, that moment was surreal, but it added to the joke of how bad bart was being bullied). Compare that to Frink landing on the sidewalk after falling out of sky from a great distance high up in the air because of a lab explosion (?) with the solution to Homer's problem, along with Normal Stu who just happened to be there, too.

It's no comparison, the only part of Bart's "surreal" moment that could completely not happen was his hat being coughed up. Yeah, Lisa might've been there to give advice, but that's what caring siblings would in a situation like that. She didn't tell Bart she invented something that'd give him super strength to pummel Nelson, or something. Plus, she was next to the house, not walking down some random street where Bart "just happened" to bump into her. Whereas there was nothing more to Frink's apparent dropping out of the sky other than to force the contrived plot forward in the most bumbling manner possible. That scene was cheap and reeked of lazyiness on the writer's behalf.

Yhe! Or Homer being mistaken for bigfoot just because he feel into some mud used as a plot point...

Call of the Simpsons is probably the most juvenile of the first season episodes, which is why it's my second least favorite episode of Season 1. Of course if you're implying all the surreal aspects of the classic era and the bad surreal gags of Zombie Simpsons are 100 percent equal and interchangeable because they're surreal AND IT'S A CARTOON!!!!, then everything that's aired after season 9 is just as great as the first 9 seasons because being surreal makes a shitty construct critic proof, right?

So I'll say it one last time using enlarged-small words for those who like using the "It's a cartoon!!!" defense...

BEING A CARTOON DOES NOT MAKE THE SIMPSONS IMMUNE TO: CRITICISM, LAZY WRITING, BAD PLOTTING, AND TERRIBLE JOKES AND PUNS. THESE ASPECTS ARE NOT THE BYPRODUCT OF BEING ANIMATED, THEY'RE BYPRODUCTS OF LAZY WRITERS.