Episode 7 - Rednecks and Broomsticks
2 December 2009
Review
Synopsis: The Simpsons crash their car on the way home from a skiing weekend. Cletus rescues them and forms a bond with Homer over moonshine. Lisa plays in the woods with Cletus’ children and accidentally runs into some young wiccans. She decides to join them but Ned Flanders intervenes and has them arrested as witches. They curse the town to go blind and half the town does. But it turns out to be the result of moonshine reaching the town’s reservoir.
The Good: There are some fun one-liners littered throughout this episode. Sometimes when the writing makes Homer say very general things it can ruin a joke but I kind of liked his general plea of “Why do my actions have consequences?”
Some good cultural jokes were present too. Cletus’ son wanting to take vengeance on people from Google Earth was a fun idea. Just the thought of them driving the big van around the wilderness where Cletus lives was surreal enough. Then Lisa is searching on Wiccapedia, ha ha. But that leads neatly to Ned Flanders’ response “Just as I feared, Buddhism has led directly to witchcraft!” I also liked the fact that his phone had the “Nipple-Slip Hotline” on speed dial. Again the idea of him just waiting to complain about that made me smile.
Then when the witch trials began the humour really picked up. This being Springfield’s first witch trials for...”12 years” was a typically amusing exaggeration. And as simple a joke as it is I smiled at Kent Brockman turning to Patty and Selma and referring to them as “disfigured crones.” I also laughed at the simplicity of the newspaper headline “Wiccan Curse Blinds Half The Town. Newspaper Sales Plunge By 50 Per Cent.”
Once inside the court two pretty random jokes made me laugh (see Best Joke) including a pure Family Guy moment when Chief Wiggum suggests a goat was guilty of income tax evasion.
The Bad: The explanation for how half the town went blind was clever and made sense. Otherwise the story was very half hearted and the writers seemed to realise it. I say that because they began inserting pretty random jokes into the plot to try and make it more watchable. Such as Chief Wiggum trying to shoot a fly in the middle of court. Wiggum pointing his gun at himself is an old joke now (1013) and didn’t aid the story.
The problem was that Lisa only met the wiccans seven minutes into the show. As in one third of the episode had already gone on the car journey and moonshine bits. There was no time for an actual story about Lisa to develop. Certainly the moonshine wasn’t intended to carry the episode. The writers just don’t seem to have a purpose when they write episodes like this and the result is less interesting for viewers.
The joke about Moe being taken advantage of by the hillbillies bothered me. It’s pretty clear he is talking about rape even though I know the joke is meant to be that he always gets rejected. But still, this is a family show, I am continually shocked by how sexual content slips into comedies unnecessarily. Children will watch The Simpsons and some will ask their parents what that joke meant.
Best Joke: As Lisa is grilled on the witness stand Bart steps forward. The Judge ludicrously allows him to speak. “Ladies and Gentleman, I am a big dummy with a stupid job. I write down what other people say just like a big dummy would. Could the court reporter read that back?” She does and the glory of this plot-unrelated joke reveals itself.
The Bottom Line: Well there were some fun jokes so I guess I will look the other way on the lack of purpose.
Feedback
Add your comments on this episode below. They may be included in the weekly podcasts.
’)