“Gentlemen, I’m pleased to report strong holiday sales from the Christmas-Hanu-Kwanza spend phase, and things look good for the Mom-Dad-Grad gift corridor.  Uh, then we’ll have the usual summer lull but, hey, we’re making enough money, right?” – Doomed Executive

There’s no new Zombie Simpsons until, gulp, the end of the month, so we’re going to spend what’s left of the summer overthinking Season 9.  Why Season 9?  Because we did Season 8 last summer, and Season 9 was when the show started becoming more Zombie than Simpsons.  Since we’re too lazy to do audio and too ugly to do video, we’ve booked a “chatroom” (ours is right between the one with the sexy seventh graders and the one with the bored federal agents pretending to be sexy seventh graders).  So log on to your dial-up AOL and join us.  This text has been edited for clarity and spelling (especially on, well, “especially”).

Today’s episode is 922 “Trash of the Titans”.  Tomorrow’s will be 923 “King of the Hill”.

Charlie Sweatpants: Trash first? Or mountain climbing?

Dave: Trash.

  I’ve been talking about it all day.

Mad Jon: To whom?

Dave: To fellow classmates, we spent the morning discussing a case involving incinerating waste at high temperatures with molten metal

Mad Jon: So is the university developing a plan to move towns 5 miles down the road?

Dave: You never know.

Charlie Sweatpants: It’s a bit of a cop out ending, but I do like the gravity of Quimby invoking Plan B at the end. Especially when he says that the time for panic has come.

Mad Jon: I like how the plan is ‘all purpose’

Charlie Sweatpants: Yeah. This is another one of those Season 9 episodes where the jokes are better than what’s going on around them.

Dave: It’s an elegant solution.

Charlie Sweatpants: Patterson’s farewell speech comes to mind as well.

Mad Jon: Most of Patterson’s dialogue is pretty entertaining

Dave: As is the music accompanying his departure off stage

Mad Jon: that was a parody of something was it not?

Charlie Sweatpants: It’s the theme from Sanford and Son.

God bless Redd Foxx and his smutty soul.

Steve Martin gets a few good lines. His “Friendship? You told people I lured children into my gingerbread house” always cracks me up.

Mad Jon: I am not too upset with Homer overall in this episode. The plot is a little crazy, but it’s pretty good for season 9

I could do without the garbage water walk, but I do like when Homer comes in and announces the garbage men are cutting off their service

Charlie Sweatpants: There’s some very Jerkass Homer behavior, which I dislike.

  The fact that they just alluded to his ass kicking at the hands of the garbage men is a good touch.

Mad Jon: Well, it’s more of a jerkass attitude, especially on the campaign trail.

Charlie Sweatpants: But there are too many instances of him falling into pointless rage for him to be really entertaining.

Dave: Yeah, fool me once and all that.

Charlie Sweatpants: He threatens Bart to kiss the pumpkin, and his bizarre stance against apologizing in general just makes no sense.

It’s clearly to the point where he knows he can get away with shit, and I don’t like that.

Mad Jon: But the line about secretly being disappointed at his kids for apologizing make me chuckle.

Charlie Sweatpants: While I’m mentioning the pumpkin, putting the lips on the pumpkin as a way to get rid of excess Halloween inventory for “Love Day” was an enjoyably subtle gag.

Mad Jon: Until he praises Bart for not apologizing

Charlie Sweatpants: Homer turning his head away from the bear he doesn’t want is in the same mold.

Mad Jon: Cute and quiet

Charlie Sweatpants: Yeah. At some point we’re going to have to discuss the U2 thing, which was both good and bad.

Mad Jon: Is now that point?

Dave: I’m going to go on a limb and say the U2 wasn’t all that terrible.

Charlie Sweatpants: Good in that they handled it well, it was nice to see Bono making fun of himself before he became the world’s foremost do-gooder, and I love the potato joke, but how Homer just assumed he could walk into the concert kinda ruins things.

Mad Jon: Yeah, the potato joke was great. I laugh when I think about it.

Dave: Homer’s behavior has little to do with U2, no?

Charlie Sweatpants: Like I said, the jokes in this episode mostly work, but the structure is terrible.

  Well, the waste management thing kinda does.

Mad Jon: Also, as much as I hate Bono, I am pleased to see he has a good sense of humor

Charlie Sweatpants: But it crashes and burns when Homer tries to do his dance.

Mad Jon: Agreed

Charlie Sweatpants: Though him getting beaten is kinda funny, as is the other U2 guys wanting to escape for a pint.

Mad Jon: Especially when they tell the other guy he can’t come

Charlie Sweatpants: The problem is that he walked on-stage at a U2 concert. Real Homer never would’ve done that, only Jerkass Homer does that.

Dave: That I’ll give you.

Charlie Sweatpants: Are we agreed that the high point of the episode is the Garbage Man song?

Mad Jon: It’s a catchy song.

Charlie Sweatpants: I may just love it because I’ve listened to both versions from that one Simpsons CD, but it always cracks me up.

Mad Jon: I guess the high point is difficult for me to pinpoint, as most of this episode, while relatively entertaining, just sort of moves along.

Charlie Sweatpants: But it does move along.

  I can think of a lot of Season 9 that lingers like a stale fart.

Mad Jon: Agreed. I didn’t say I don’t like this episode.

Dave: I don’t think any of us has said that.

Mad Jon: I do like it, I would watch this one before half of season 8.

Charlie Sweatpants: I wouldn’t go that far, but this is way above the worst of 8.

Mad Jon: Wow, this got out of hand on my part. Sorry, sorry everyone.

Charlie Sweatpants: You have been drinking.

Mad Jon: That is correct.

Charlie Sweatpants: I also cut this episode a lot of slack because despite its celebrities-as-themselves and Jerkass Homer parts, it has a ton of quotable lines.

There’s “Animals are crapping in our houses and we’re picking it up. Did we lose a war?”, “Can’t someone else do it?” is a marvelous campaign slogan, and there’s “They let me sign checks with a stamp, Marge! A stamp!”

Mad Jon: That’s definitely a good one.

  And I probably drop the “did we lose a war” line several times a week at work.

Dave: “That’s not America, that’s not even Mexico.”

  Love that line.

Mad Jon: Another good one.

Charlie Sweatpants: And there’s just some great little moments. The “Love Day” conference at the beginning is great (especially when the one guy gets hauled off for suggesting such heresy as the concept of “enough” money).

Dave: That’s basically my day-to-day.

Mad Jon: I do really like the business meeting.

Charlie Sweatpants: But perhaps the best part is that this is one of the last episodes where Moe is still Moe, an angry, bitter sex offender who is willing to shoot Homer over an unpaid bar tab.

  That’s the Moe I know and love.

Mad Jon: Very true, its not long before he starts trying to improve his life and cries a lot.

  Many, many times.

Charlie Sweatpants: That is much less fun.

Mad Jon: Agreed.

Charlie Sweatpants: Well, I’m kinda done on this one. There’s just one last thing I’d like to bring up.

Mad Jon: Go for it.

Charlie Sweatpants: At the beginning, when Homer’s stuffing all the Love Day refuse into the garbage can, he stomps on the bear about three times. It’s funny, but I get the feeling that if that had been a season earlier it would’ve ended a beat or two sooner, and if it had been a season later it would’ve gone on much, much longer.

Mad Jon: Probably, I actually don’t have a problem with that scene. But you are probably right. Good thing it went just the right amount of time for season 9.

Charlie Sweatpants: It works, it’s just the kind of thing that might’ve worked a little better with less, and would’ve been run into the ground had it happened much later.

But that’s it, shall we climb the mountain?

Dave: I think it’s time.