Episode 8 - The Burns and the Bees
29 March 2012
Synopsis: Mr Burns wins a basketball team “The Austin Celtics” in a card game at the Billionaires camp. He is envious of the fun which fellow owner Mark Cuban has with his team and decides to build a huge new stadium in Springfield. Meanwhile Springfield’s bees are all dying and Lisa allows a hive to grow on her face in order to save them. When she finds a sanctuary for them Burns destroys it to build his new stadium. Homer and Moe mate the Queen with some African Bees and create a super strong new strain who destroy Burns’ stadium. It costs him his place at Billionaire camp when his net worth dips just below a billion.
The Good: At least this story has a punch line, with Mr Burns getting ejected into the relative squalor of the millionaire’s camp. And the odd “Mr Burns is old fashioned” joke is fun such as seeing his basketball team leading 2-0 and urging them to “run out the clock!”
The Bad: Otherwise the rest of this is disappointing. Lisa’s bee plot is passable until they are turned into killer bees. Then it no longer feels like she has preserved wildlife but created a mutant strain that hurt people. It’s certainly an odd ending.
Then there is Mr Burns trying to be a flamboyant team owner. It’s a similar idea to the episode “Monty Can't Buy Me Love” (1021) where he tries to become a beloved billionaire. And this doesn’t compare well.
The jokes are so exaggerated that they aren’t funny. To see Mr Burns get an update on the entire history of the twentieth century from Smithers rather ruins the fun of his ignorance. And him shooting a man in a gorilla suit crosses that line where reality should kick in. As of course does the billionaire’s playing a game of Quidditch or the bees shooting Chief Wiggum. If a joke lacks any connection to reality then it loses much of what makes it a funny exaggeration. Mark Cuban is very lazily characterised. It’s as if the writers read a description of him as a flamboyant owner and didn’t learn anything else about him. The jokes showing him juggling chainsaws are just generic and silly and don’t satirise or make any relevant joke about him.
Best Joke: Professor Frink sprays a pheromone to try and attract bees. A beautiful woman walks up and says “Marry me and I’ll support you for life.” Frink is unimpressed and says “You’re not a bee! This thing is useless.”
The Bottom Line: Childish and thoughtless jokes wrapped around a semi-recycled story.
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