Episode 17 - Apocalypse Cow
4 January 2009
Review
Synopsis: Bart joins the 4-H club. There he rears a cow called Lou with the help of farm hand Mary. Lisa helps him rescue Lou from being slaughtered and they take him to Mary’s farm to live in safety. But her father Cletus sees this as an a proposal and makes plans for the wedding. Marge switches Lou for Homer so that Bart doesn’t have to get married. Homer avoids being killed and Lou is sent to India. The Good: This is actually a fun episode. While not near the standards of earlier Simpsons episodes this is a straight forward plot with a nice sprinkling of jokes throughout. The use of Cletus the yokel as Mary’s father allows the silly marriage plot to be plausible enough not to get annoying. The twist with Homer taking Lou’s place is predictably fun. Meanwhile the jokes throughout are pretty solid. Such as Bart asking how many Hs there are to pledge to in the 4-H club, the sign saying “Abbatoir and Costello where Cows go from moo to you” and the Lisa’s activist friend who says not only milk is murder but “cheese is genocide.” Then there is nice use of the yokel family such as the wedding planner asking about spittoons and the minister saying that Bart’s “I do” is enough because “we don’t need to hear from women folk.” The Bad: There isn’t much real sentiment here as The Simpsons was once able to deliver; it’s just a silly story about a cow. The cow behaving like a human and the yokels being way too dumb can get old pretty quickly too. Best Joke: Having taken Lou’s place in a cow suit, Homer thinks he is being sent back to the feed lot. Instead he is off somewhere else but all he can see through his eye holes is “LAUGHTER HOUSE.” He seems happy “With the world in the shape it’s in, we could all use some comedy.” Well said. The Bottom Line: If I was a child watching The Simpsons for the first time I think I would have really enjoyed this episode. And that is pretty much a victory for this writing team. Nothing in this episode is too annoying and it has enough jokes to be worth sitting through.
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