“In fact, every copy of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” has been checked out from the Springfield Public Library. Of course the book does not contain any hints on how to win the lottery, it is rather a chilling tale of conformity gone mad.” – Kent Brockman
We have an entire week to pick apart this pedestrian and lifeless Zombie Simpsons outing. There are plenty of recycled jokes, gaping plot contradictions, and labored set pieces with which to play. (When winning the lottery is the most relatable thing that happens there is little hope for anything but fail.) For right now though I’ll just say one thing. When The Simpsons was still on the air it treated the lottery as what it really is: a tax on the mathematically ignorant that taunts the poor into furthering their poverty. Zombie Simpsons treats the lottery the way the mathematically ignorant see it, as a plausibility upon which self important fantasies can be based. There is, I suppose, a certain populist charm to that fantastic notion, but naive hope and wanton stupidity did not make this show what it was.
Dead Homer Society 
One response to “It Could (But Won’t) Happen to You”
This episode depressed me, but I can’t quite articulate why. It’s as if the notion that, no, it isn’t ever coming back suddenly hit me in the face like a solid thing. Why should it be this episode rather than last week’s, for example? I can’t possibly say. All I can think is that, for all its lack of features, the episode seemed more dreary than usual.
About what they did with the fan-created character – I can’t decide if I think that’s cruel humour of the sort the show has often employed to success, or an unpleasant joke at the expense of the fans. Have my opinions for me, Doctor Internet!