The Simpsons makes a Mother’s Day prank
The opening segment ends with just the right amount of tension. Who could imagine Marge, the most accommodating and enabling character in the comic book landscape, ruining anyone’s life? As always, the second act is the strongest. We see a young headmaster Chalmers find his first rhyme for “Skin-ner !!,” and get a taste of the education system’s real view of anti-bullying rules. The animators go out of their way to create every possible connection between the old bad girl Marge and Bart, who gained her reputation as the cartoon’s most influential bad boy. The parallels build the tape before the characters act on it.
It’s a little hard to believe that Marge could have held back her playful past for so long. Especially since her sisters knew about it, and it’s uncharacteristic that they would let Marge keep an embarrassing secret for so long. The Simpsons has been on for 33 seasons and the Bouvier sisters are not known to leave wounds. It doesn’t exactly break canon, but it’s enough to get Homer to leave the dinner table before he finishes eating. Second segments are always the best because they are the creamy middle, something Homer can not enjoy while having dinner with Lisa.
“No outside peas,” Moe tells Homer in one of the most out of the blue laws in salon history. The ribs on Moe’s bar break a whole new topic The Simpsons. It’s one thing for Bart to say that Marge only got pregnant to pill Homer, another thing to say that Lisa may not be his child. Maybe if Homer hadn’t been so weak by his vegan diet, he could have made something out of it.
Homer knows he will never be the world’s best father, he can not even remember if Lisa has a middle name, but the Simpson DNA has always been sacred. The subplot of their binding is a counterweight to Marge and Bart’s quarrels, but not so complete. While it’s encouraging to see Homer learn that vegetarians actually like food, it’s more comforting to know he has an emergency sausage. It’s not enough to overcome the mother-son comedy duet.
The jokes give a natural build-up to the suspense that underlies the comedy, but each one detonates solidly. Comic Book Guy’s performance is filled with insidious remarks and unintentional pathos. It’s really sad to hear that he lacked a credit to finish medical school, but this also subliminally informs the line that Ralph has too big a head to be so weak. The Superman / Uber Hombre copyright bit lands brilliantly unexpectedly, and the elusive Spider Man The question alluded to is wish fulfillment when it is most childish.
The most satisfying of the pranks also serves as social commentary, but it’s a spin on the “Shopping for Others” segment in John Waters’ Pecker. The specific items being run up contain imaginative hassles, including gems like Stink Foot Insoles, Barely Helpful Herpes Ointment and Garbage Mouth Bad Breath Neutralizing Suppositories.