Believe it or not, we first previewed this episode back in August and predictably forgot about it. Since then, the curling clusterfuck has gained a weaksauce title and a guest star (Bob Costas will play himself), but these menial changes have done little to alter our opinion that it’ll be a clumsy rehash of an existing Zombie Simpsons episode with a different sport.
If you care, here’s the official description from the recently redecorated Simpsons Channel:
Homer takes Marge out for a romantic evening of ice skating and hand-holding, but upon entering the rink, they encounter a curling team practicing. Marge and Homer take to the ice and discover their love for the sport, and soon after, join the curling team and compete with them in the Olympic trials. Team Springfield claims the win and moves on to the 2010 Vancouver Games where Bob Costas (guest-voicing as himself) covers the action. Meanwhile, sleazy vendors introduce Lisa to the world of collecting Olympic pins, and before long, Lisa is hopelessly addicted.
Wunderbar. Let’s make a drinking game out of this: every time there’s a half-assed joke about Canada, do a shot, and “Curl” will just fly by.
Dead Homer Society 
13 responses to “Sunday Preview: “Boy Meets Curl””
It doesn’t seem to be a “Homer and Marge’s marriage is in trouble!” episode any more, but I’m still not watching it. At least, not until after I’ve seen reviews and looked at the screenshots to see if there’s anything worth looking at. Which I suspect there might not be. I might watch “I Love Lisa” again instead.
Watching “I Love Lisa” is the only Valentine’s Day tradition I have any respect for. The question is whether I get to it this afternoon or save it for use as a restorative after Zombie Simpsons.
It’s probably still going to be a coupley episode all about how Marge and Homer are TOTALLY MARRIED AND LOVE EACH OTHER OMG LOOK, so for a restorative, look for one that treats romantic relationships with at least 50% less saccharine (if not “I Love Lisa”)
The short wiki summary I saw of this episode when bored at work last week mentioned that Marge and Homer were competing against the Skinners, which had me shuddering in my seat.
Pay TV showed two Valentines’ Day episodes yesterday, being one where Apu showed up the town by spending a fortune on gifts for his wife (I won’t say her name, her intriduction into the show totally ruined his characater) and then an another of those “3 short tales” when the family were stuck and looking to kill time. Both episodes had me even more convinced that VD is a complete sham.
The second one you mentioned is from s19, right? I heard that one was rubbish, so I haven’t seen it, but I recall it has some kind of retelling of the Sid Vicious/Nancy Spungen tale, only made stupid (because a story about drug addiction and murder is hard to make funny, I would assume…so why not riff off one of the other 8437931264732654736521736574326 love stories you can find in perhaps three seconds with the Wikipede (the many-legged totem of useless information)? But perhaps we’re thinking of two different ones.
As for Apu, I personally think that it’s the octuplets that rammed Apu’s character down the toilet, although that would hardly have happened if his wife hadn’t been introduced. Can’t help wondering if it was some writer or several trying to tell the world BABIES BABIES I’VE GOT BABIES PARENTING’S HARD LET ME TELL YOU in a “comedy” way (as if the show didn’t already have parent/child relationships). Perhaps if I had spawned, I’d understand. But I haven’t, so I don’t.
Yep, that was it, with the Sid/Nancy tale, which was easily the most tolerable of the three, but that says more about how ordinary the first two tales were. Couple of funny bits on it, but not much more, story of the show’s recent years, there’s one or two moments that you chuckle at and then when you flick on an episode from the glory years, such moments crop up one after the other.
I didn’t dislike the episode where “M” got married to Apu, it’ll never be one of my favourites, it did have some good moments. But it set the tone for his downfall.
Ps…I apologise for my woeful spelling errors from the previous post, 6am posts when getting up on a Monday morning have their downsides.
I didn’t even notice you had made spelling mistakes, so I wouldn’t worry about that :)
I could never quite fathom why there’s been so many Apu-heavy episodes – generally Apu is a reliable supporting character, good for a line or two per episode, with one real exception: the episode where he loses his job and is replaced by James Woods. I suppose the “Much Apu About Nothing” episode was pretty good, and the first episode with Manjula was half good (i.e. good until the actual wedding), but after that it was like every season there would be an obligatory Apu/Manjula episode, as if we were actually interested in how their relationship was working out. And those episodes were terrible! The Valentine’s Day episode with Elton John? The one in which Apu has an affair? The one in which Manjula has the octuplets? The one in which the octuplets end up as a circus attraction? Stinkers, all. And the appearance of Apu with the eight kids in the revised opening titles pretty much summarises the fact that as a character, Apu is now defined by his children.
The one where they have the kids is the same as the one where they become circus attractions, but it isn’t a very good episode. Though it did give us “I can’t believe you don’t shutup!”. That I use.
“And the appearance of Apu with the eight kids in the revised opening titles pretty much summarises the fact that as a character, Apu is now defined by his children.”
You couldn’t be more right about that. Many of the secondary characters have been warped by the weird stories they were given (Moe being this sensitive wallflower, Barney being sober, etcetera) and it detracts from what made them funny in the first place.
“The one where they have the kids is the same as the one where they become circus attractions, but it isn’t a very good episode. Though it did give us “I can’t believe you don’t shutup!”.”
So I guess what I thought was two shitty episodes is, in fact, just one shitty episode? Oh well. As for “I can’t believe you don’t shutup!”, that originally from “The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons”…
Homer: You know what you could do…?
Apu: Shut up.
Homer: You could fake your own death…
Apu: Oh, won’t you shut up?
Homer: All you need is a car bomb…
Apu: I can’t believe you don’t shut up!
…the gag was then repeated in “Eight Misbehavin’”:
Ned: Well, morning Apu. How are the little blessings?
Apu: Oh, they’re a ravenous swarm of locusts. Just eating and screaming and grabbing and poking and pulling and drooling and two have cradle rash. How do you get cradle rash when you sleep in a suitcase?
Ned: Yeah, they can be a handful — of joy.
Apu: Shut up!
Ned: They’ll fill your lives with–
Apu: Shut up!
Ned: Can’t put a price on a miracle!
Apu: I can’t believe you don’t shut up!
So yeah, the funniest bit in that episode was rehashed from a previous episode. Why am I not surprised…?
Good point. I forgot about that in the marriage one. There are a couple of episodes in Season 11 I like, but by that point it was mostly garbage.
“There are a couple of episodes in Season 11 I like, but by that point it was mostly garbage.”
Yeah. I mean, at the moment I only have seasons 1-9 on DVD: I’d say there’s a chance I’ll pick up season 10 because it has about a half-dozen episodes I like, but I’d draw the line at season 12 because there are only about two good episodes on there, and my money would be better spent elsewhere.
I think season 10 is where the presence of mediocre episodes became more pronounced, but season 11 is the first season that’s almost totally awful. And the sad thing is, season 12 is still better than every season that came after it.
In actually, season 13 and 14 prompted the dark ages for the Simpsons. We are graced by some of the worst characters who emit bitter darkness. People like Judge Harm, Greta Wolfcastle, the stray dog, Audrey McConnell, Luke Stetson, Julio & Grady, etc. There were also nasty situations like Apu’s affair and the whole Frying Game.