Episode 16 - Papa Don't Leech
4 January 2009
Review
Synopsis: Springfield is broke. Lisa discovers that many people have unpaid back taxes owing. In the course of collecting them authorities discover that Lurleen Lumpkin owes a lot from her country music career but no one knows where she is. She appears in Homer’s car and moves in with the Simpsons. Marge discovers that her father abandoned her when she was young and goes out to find him. She does and Royce Lumpkin returns to her life. He then steals one of her songs and gives it to the Dixie Chicks. Marge helps Lurleen confront him and she gets her career back on track.
The Good: It is nice to see the return of Lurleen (320) who reminds us of when The Simpsons was one of the best shows on TV. Her character is explored in a pleasing, happy ending way. She confronts her father and gets her career back with help from Marge which is all nice to watch. There is also a touch of reality to her character when we see her ex-husbands as replacements for her father. Her two songs in the show add to the plot rather than wasting time.
Outside of her story there are some fun jokes. Mayor Quimby has a nice extended run at silly jokes at the beginning. His use of the novelty gavel and then getting scammed by FEMA are pretty funny. As is his list of back tax offenders where he avoids Mr Burns and himself but somehow includes Milhouse.
Homer getting his butt in the photo with the title “Daddy’s Special Pair” is a very clever joke despite its childish punch line. The joke flows from the logical dynamic between bungling father and rebellious children.
The Bad: The bad stuff comes from two jokes which I don’t think should be in a show which gets such a children’s following. The Soprano’s parody where Homer dreams about killing Grandpa is just a touch too graphic. It’s not too far away from callous Homer jokes we have seen in the past. But there is something about a happy dream where you murder your father which feels a step too far.
The other is Royce feeling anxious saying he needs to whisky up his cornflakes. Thanks to the prevlance of alcohol and Homer’s drinking this is something you would expect. But the writers go a step further and add that he wants to heroin up his orange juice. As with recent portrayals of drug abuse, is it funny enough to justify children searching out what that is? It seems to me that a joke of equal humour could have been made for a younger audience.
Homer having a suicide axe is one of those throw away lines that doesn’t have any resonance. Why would he have something that he will never really use? It is a joke which due to a million similar ones lost its shock value a long time ago.
Best Joke: At a town meeting Homer suggests that they fake a disaster in order to get the government to give them disaster relief money. A man from FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) comes to look round and agrees to give them money. That is as soon as they submit a form and give him a $2,500 processing fee. Immediately cut back to another town meeting where Quimby says “and that’s how a fake FEMA official scammed us out of $2,500. We are now worse than broke.”
The Bottom Line: An old style structure to this episode make it enjoyable to watch. That means that an outsider is the centre of the story and the Simpsons just help them out and make some jokes. The jokes work ok and the plot is pleasant enough to make this a decent watch.
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