“Okay, Marge, let’s go.” – Homer Simpson
“I’ll catch up to you.” – Marge Simpson
“Marge, I’m taking the car.” – Homer Simpson
“I’ll walk.” – Marge Simpson
“This late, through the bad neighborhood?” – Homer Simpson
“Yeah.” – Marge Simpson
“Marge-” – Homer Simpson
“Go home, you’re bad luck!” – Marge Simpson
“Wait, I see what’s happening here. You’re just mad because everyone in this town loves gambling except for you. Well, that’s just sad.” – Homer Simpson
Zombie Simpsons long ago lost all interest in telling stories that are even coherent, much less entertaining or – heaven forefend – actually good. But “Gone Abie Gone” (which is, remarkably, the second time they’ve used that pun in a title in the last three years) manages to stand slightly out for the way that it deliberately neutered and undermined not just one, but both of its main plots.
As with many Zombie Simpsons episodes, it’s not entirely clear which story, Grampa’s nonsensical extended flashback or Lisa’s newfound love of on-line poker, is actually the A-plot. In Grampa’s favor is a slight edge in screen time, two of the three guest voices, and the title. In Lisa’s favor is the way her story actually mattered for the entire episode, the fact that it managed to not completely go against everything we know about a long established character, and the way it almost, kinda tried to make sense.
Regardless of which plot takes the crown, it is Lisa’s gambling problem that lends itself to the most direct comparison, namely to Marge’s slot jockey habit in Season 5’s masterful “$pringfield” (though there’s no shortage of times we’ve flashed back to Grampa’s past in ways far superior to this). While both stories involve Simpsons getting hooked into costly and mathematically disadvantageous games of chance, the similarities end there. Lisa’s story is isolated, incoherent and, ultimately, completely consequence free. Marge’s, on the other hand, is woven into the rest of the episode, actually makes sense, and has an ending that doesn’t make you wonder what the hell just happened.
Like Lisa’s poker problem, Marge planting herself in front of a slot machine isn’t the main focus of the episode. But where Lisa’s poker playing exists in a vacuum that has no bearing on any other events, Marge’s seduction by the spinning wheels and shiny lights is crucial to the resolution of the rest of the episode. It’s her inattention to her family that leads directly to Homer’s crazed search for her, which in turn leads Mr. Burns back to his beloved nuclear plant.
Hey, look, one plot actually affecting a different one. Huh.
But the integration of Marge’s story into the larger framework of what’s happening goes beyond competent storytelling, it also allows the show to make deeper and darker jokes about gambling than anything Zombie Simpsons could hope to convey. “$pringfield” sees Marge get called out for self-destructive by Barney, her spouse hilariously misunderstand what’s occurring (including being happy that his wife has netted a paltry sixty bucks in 75+ hours of wasted time), and takes a delightfully cynical and nasty stab at casinos and their legislative pawns when Smithers and the hired goons cheerfully enable her. It’s the best kind of Simpsons take on something: insightful but not pretentious, honest but not moralizing, and, above all, funny about how awful everyone involved is behaving.
By contrast, Lisa’s sojourn into poker is used as a flimsy excuse to crack weak jokes about the oddities of how the game is played:
Lisa: You put my college fund on a poker site?
Homer: It’s a classy operation. See, the little dealer’s wearing a bowtie. Cute.
And:
Cute Bowtie Wearing Dealer: We can all hear you, please log off.
Those are about as creative as jokes about airline peanuts and “what’s the deal with cardboard?”. There’s no thought and no satire; all you’re left with is the distinct impression that the show has nothing to say beyond that one of the writers once played on-line poker.
Even that weak connection to reality is destroyed, however, by the unrestrained improbability of Lisa’s success. For no reason whatsoever, the episode has her turn five thousand dollars into half a million. Given the way it all evaporates for a similarly nonexistent reason, they didn’t need to do that. But Zombie Simpsons is so disconnected from what the audience is thinking or caring about that they just threw in wild dollar amounts because . . . why not? “$pringfield” doesn’t even deal in numbers because it knows it doesn’t have to, Marge’s obsession is what’s important, so no catastrophic figures are necessary.
But even that six-figure stab at gravity (complete with montage) fails because it turns out nothing has mattered from the get go. Lisa gets wiped out on a dumb bet, but it turns out Bart was playing against her. Not only does this not make sense in all kinds of ways (Was Bart playing the whole time? Is he better than her at this? How did the site find out they were kids?), but it also means that everything that just happened was meaningless, both in terms of the characters and in terms of the story. Partly it’s just an extension of Zombie Simpsons’ operating axiom that the audience can’t remember anything that happened more than fifteen seconds ago, but it’s also an admission that their story probably isn’t worth recounting in the first place.
We’re gonna need a montage, montage!
More than any other single failing, the hapless ending eviscerates Lisa’s poker story. In a completely expected conclusion, she loses the money she’s won; but even that weakly rote conclusion is further compromised by a) having Bart save her and b) having the site take the money regardless. So not only was the entire story worthless, it was so ill considered that they senselessly revoked its entire purpose twice.
The difference between this and Season 5 isn’t just that Marge’s gambling works with the rest of the episode and bothers to makes sense, it’s also that it actually has an ending. Marge’s slot obsession is a problem that hurts the people she loves; by the end there’s no doubt that she understands that and sincerely wishes to change. Compare that to Bart’s out of nowhere reveal of himself to Lisa, which doesn’t follow from what’s already occurred and causes nothing to happen. Where Marge’s gambling comes to a concrete end on account of what’s happened to her and her family, Lisa’s ends on an irrelevancy that makes you wonder why she (and Bart) don’t just continue playing since they’re obviously so good at it. The only reason it stops is because it’s television and the 8:30 show has to start soon. Whether on style, substance or structure, Zombie Simpsons falls woefully short.
Dead Homer Society 
19 responses to “Compare & Contrast: Simpson Family Gambling Problems”
Excellent article.
Nothing to add except that, God — and I know some variation of this has been said a thousand times — but that HD screengrab is so painful to look at that it physically makes me ill. I actually almost get a migraine looking at that shit. Very unattractive to the eyes.
Maybe this episode will be improved when Family Guy copies it verbatim, just as it did the previous gambling episodes. I really do love Family Guy, but the constant, incessant plagiarism is impossible to ignore. Hey, if I made a website pointing out the plagiarism in Family Guy while also acknowledging the great parts–the King and I episode, Peter Griffin singing Shipoopie far better than the guy in that shitty move The Music Man, the well-done Tom and Jerry sequence, etc–would that be acceptable, or too close to this blog? You can see in my early posts that I have a blog completely different from this one.
I don’t know…I’d find it interesting. I believe that someone on Youtube claiming that Zombie Simpsons was a “falling star” made a few “Family Guy Steals from The Simpsons” videos with clips but were pulled after a time. When I search for “Family Guy steals …” on Youtube all I find is “(Zombie) Simpsons steals from Family Guy” or otherwise positive FG videos. Can anyone put up any FG clips as long as they’re positive? Sometimes I wonder if Seth MacFarlane or Fox has a problem with people plainly pointing these things out; that’d be one of my main interest in the site.
I’ve warmed up to Family Guy over the years for its random zaniness, but it’s also a mixed bag. Some jokes/lines fall flat, others just go on too long, taking time that could’ve been used better to complete the plot, and of course it gets really smug with its politics/social commentary. Then you have plenty of plot problems common to ZS (instant success, writers writing themselves into a corner, Flanderization, characters “going along for the ride,” etc.). In FG’s defense that’s kinda its forte, but just a little more effort in the plot department could really help it out. Also in its defense, Seth MacFarlane also said that he doesn’t want FG to last as long as ZS…unless Fox threw enough money at him.
In summary, by all means do it; we’re talking about a different show.
“Seth MacFarlane also said that he doesn’t want FG to last as long as ZS”
Really, they’re almost half-way there already, with no end in sight; add his other two shows to the mix (which all have pretty similar humor/plots/characters) and the number of seasons of McFarlane related shows is probably on par with Simpsons, and there’s even more content than Zombie Simpsons. Just sayin’.
I’m not sure what to think of Family Guy. Sometimes a joke really works and I’m surprised at how funny and clever the show can be, but when I think of it I just think of how damn unlikable all the characters are. Not like a Seinfeld/Curb/etc “haha, everyone is a bad person, oh well!”-type thing. Not a Breaking Bad/Sopranos/etc “ohhh, it’s fascinating to watch bad people”-type thing. Just … bad. I dunno how to describe it. The only character I have ever liked was Brian and even he is just so damn annoying and hard to watch in many of the newer episodes that I just feel like the show has nothing to really hold my attention. Your description of the show is pretty dead-on — “really smug” sums up the show quite well as of late.
Still, it can be interesting and fascinating and is, of course, well-made… so I usually don’t mind watching it too much if it’s on. Shrug.
Right now, Family Guy is as dead to me as Zombie Simpsons. It didn’t even manage to have as many good seasons as Classic Simpsons.
I’m well aware of MacFarlane’s other shows, and that his Family Guy longevity quote was a few years back. That said, I think that Fox did, in fact, throw enough money at him to keep it (and any of his other projects) going indefinitely.
I wonder if the fate of Zombie Simpsons lies with MacFarlane’s shows. Without these shows, there might not be a Sunday night animation block. As long as MacFarlane is pumping out FG, American Dad, “Black Family Guy” (AKA The Cleveland Show, that’s the treatment the writers seem to give it), Animation Domination (along with ZS) will be around. I’ve also heard that MacFarlane’s Flintstones reboot was scrapped, but that yet another series–with a female lead character–is being planned in its place.
By that reasoning, I have no reason to doubt that ZS will be around for the immediate future. Nuts.
Oh, I knew you were aware, but even I can barely keep up with what season which show is on. Family Guy is on 11, American Dad is on… 8?… and Cleveland Show is.. eh, uh.. who cares..
When you told me my cartoon was overstaying its welcome and all creativity had dried up?
Well YOU have a gambling problem!
Go back to rolling around in your piles of money, Mr. Sellout.
Nice one.
“You gotta make more shows, Matt.”
“But I don’t have any more ideas, Mr. Fox Executive.”
“You gotta keep doing it for money, Matt.”
“Ok, Mr. Fox Executive.”
“Well, Mr. Fox Executive, The Simpsons is dead! Slit its throat ear to ear!”
“Hey, I’m trying to eat lunch here!”
Perfect.
Funny how you say that as in the 90’s Matt Groening had pitches several Simpsons spin-offs such as a live-action Krusty show and a live-action Troy McClure movie.
I think it was the documentary MATT GROENING: MY WASTED LIFE where he briefly mentioned it but either way, I haven’t seen it mentioned anywhere else ever. But Groening said he wants to make “one more show in [his] lifetime”, and his quick description of it made it sound like it’d be focused on music… I remember his quick description kinda sounding like Metalocalypse but, you know, more Spinal Tappy. It’d be way too long since Groening has had a new show — though I imagine Futurama has kept him very busy — and I hope we’re treated to at least one more before he retires…
I’ll never forget the day I read “Matt Groening ends life in hell after 32 years.”
…I thought, ‘Surely he’s older than 32 years old…’
Heh.
Worth of notice is the fact that they start the b-plot with Homer and Moe’s conversation about modern economy and how you can’t trust banks these days. It’s such a shallow plot start, that ever in itself it is hardly reconcilable as a regular conversation two persons would have in a bar. When it ends with Bart being there for some reason, it’s kinda the same way that ends the Grandpa plot when he just comes out of the back store, it’s just because. I swear, if I hadn’t known Zombie Simpsons better I’d say they need a narrator to explain how they conclude every plot of their episodes. I’m Leonard Nemoy, keep watching the skies.
So nothing to say about what dumb stuff they did with Grampa in this episode? It was that forgettable?
Because no one on the internet even bothered to write a full summary about this episode, I guess I have no choice but to watch it. I hate my life……..
Rita LaFleur seems interesting though. Let’s see how secure my judgement is and then I’ll get back to this page.
Another migrain……
“Because no one on the internet even bothered to write a full summary about this episode, I guess I have no choice but to watch it.”
Or you could, y’know, NOT watch it. Spare yourself the grief.