Episode 18 - Father Knows Worst
30 July 2009
Synopsis: Homer burns his taste buds off and so his tongue is too sensitive to eat normal food. Lisa brings home school cafeteria food, which is bland enough and Homer decides to eat all his meals there. Once there he is inspired to push Lisa to become more popular and Bart to be more successful.
The Good: You can see subtly why The Simpsons can’t tell the stories it once did through this episode. The story should be about Lisa and Bart and their experience of school or just their relationship with Homer. But instead none of those ideas come to the forefront as they once would have. Instead we just have an adequate outline story, a very familiar one, but it is fine. And then we have Homer trying to steal every scene with his special brand of ignorance.
And that brand of ignorance is still funny. There are a number of good lines here. Homer sees a man juggling while riding a unicycle. He scoffs – “Big deal! I could juggle six pins if they let me use a unicycle!” To get everyone’s attention in the model shop he yells “Attention parents, children and childless weirdoes!” He declares he can build a model of Westminster Abbey just by following the instructions. He then ignores the “Push” sign on the door and smashes his way through the glass. He tries to excite Lisa’s friends to decorate their cell phones by claiming he has everything needed to “make those $100 phones look like $5 toys.” Perhaps best of all once Marge entices him into her hot sauna to relax he exhales and says it is like “I’ve died and gone to hell.”
The Bad: Homer failing at parenting is a snooze worthy story after twenty years. We have seen the exact same joke about Homer helping his children and it being seen as the child’s work before (510). And although Bart and Lisa learn valuable lessons, they weren’t the focus of the story.
I did appreciate the taste bud part of Homer’s story as it gave him an excuse to see his children up close and be allowed into school to help them. But unless I am missing something, he then eats mayonnaise in a lame Popeye reference which completely contradicts the story about his damaged taste buds. We also get him embarrassing Bart in the most obvious fashion while constantly repeating that he won’t embarrass him which was so on the nose as to lose all its humour.
Marge finding a working sauna in the basement is ridiculous of course. But usually such unlikely discoveries are an important part of the story. Or at least get destroyed in a fashion which restores the status quo for next week. This has none of that, so it seems doubly annoying.
Best Joke: Perhaps not the best joke, but certainly a classic bit of Simpsonian satire. As Lisa, Homer and Bart make their way down the boardwalk they hear some unappealing enticements. “Not so hot dogs! Cold and droopy!” and “Fried dough, America’s worst legal food, never leaves your body.” Before you think it’s typical fun poking, Lisa says “Wow the Truth in board walking law has really done a number on this place.”
The Bottom Line: Some really fun lines but a recycled and tired plot.
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