Yes, this is a real episode and not semi-erotic fan fiction:
Homer wins a MyPad at the school auction and Steve Mobbs, who is now in heaven, talks to Homer through it. Homer goes into a funk when he breaks the myPad, until Ned Flanders discovers a miracle tree in the Simpsons’ back garden.
There’s a short YouTube clip at Simpsons channel, it is not encouraging.
Dead Homer Society 
24 responses to “Sunday Preview: A Tree Grows in Springfield”
I… actually laughed twice at this clip. Is that bad?
This could have been interesting if the show really mocked Steve Jobs’s greed, Apple’s monopolistic policies and the inappropriateness of Steve Jobs in Heaven, but instead those issues are only vaguely referenced at the end.
If this was a tribute to Steve Jobs I’m glad he died before it aired.
Steve Mobbs?
I hate modern Simpsons writers so very much.
You and me both. Remember actual character who you KNEW fit into the Simpsons Universe (even the one-time villains), not these caricatures from Glee, The Office, OT, Private Practice, etc.
These days, all the writers care about anymore is who is good-looking and an overly realistic/dramatic actor like something out of Call of Duty, Snakes on a Plane, or a Bruce Willis/Marvel film. And don’t get me started on Avatar (And I don’t mean the Airbender).
Still a terrible episode but I believe this episode is the best so far this season. Why do I keep watching this show? Haven’t missed a single episode and have down right hated the show since season 14.
Just submit to it. Submit. SUBMIT.
“Why do I keep watching this show?”
Good question. You have a higher tolerance for drivel than most of us?
I keep watching the show as well! Idk why….. I have a PC to use, a job, video games to play (like Fallout 3 and Oblivion), a life, etc. I do enjoy watching Classic Simpsons re-runs on Fox and youtube (Seasons 2-12) but anything after Season 12 just goes downhill so fast. And I really would like to see Mike Amato’s (of meblogwritegood) take on this episode here if he watched it at all. The writer’s of the show, btw, have sunken to a new low and even writers from MAD or Cracked Magazine(s) would or could probably do a better job writing an episode. Also, reminds me of my video on my youtube channel: Steve Jobs: One Dies, Millions Cry. Millions Die, No One Cry’s…..
Remember when they parodied boxing with a character called Ike Byson….me neither.
Okay, so the product parodies were bad enough but now they have to parody the name of one of the most successful people, um, ever? Alright…
“In the next season of the Simpsons: Homer gets a professional advice from Bikipedia founder Jimbo Bales after starting an edit war with Professor Frink. Don’t miss it!”
I don’t like to be that guy, but since two different comments brought it up… Steve Mobbs was already a character. He showed up in Mypods and Boomsticks, 4 years ago.
Guess not many people saw that one, heheh. Thanks!
That was like 2 seperate episodes. You could lift the iPad stuff out completely and the episode would still make sense. Homer is depressed (then buys an iPad and is happy for a while then depressed again when it breaks) then gets hope from a message on a tree.
There were a couple laughs though which is more than most episodes of ZS.
Even then they couldnt make it long enough without some shitty time waster on the end.
I like how the miracle tree, despite supposedly being the main focal point, only showed up for the last third of the plot. I thought my TV’s guide was off by a half hour.
I’ll just list the basics:
-Marge nags too much
-Chief Wiggum is a big jerk
-Who gives a crap if Moe got a cell phone. He’s a jerk to everyone.
-Is it me, or am the only one who notices that the Octuplets always appear in the worst episodes.
-Steve Mobbs is pure evil. We need more actual villains to get their just rewards, instead of
-Bart and Lisa have been reduced to whiny children who are in desperate need of attention. This is NOT who they are.
But the only true I bothered to watch this episode at all is because a guide description told me at Lisa would do something nice for Homer to cheer him up. I actually believe that Lisa would actually do something nice for her father (the world’s biggest butt-monkey before Kirk or Gil) for a change, considering how much hate and let-downs Homer has been receiving lately and through the first half of the episode, and considering how Lisa took a warp shift from hopeful idealist to jaded snarker who only cares about herself, and disregards the expenses of her male family members.
I can see now that even the guides lie to me (and anyone else who bothered to believe for a single second).
While some may argue that Marge’s speech at the end was touching, BIG TRIPLE D. WHOOP. Marge is the most inconsistent morality pet out there. In fact, you can’t even call her a morality pet. More like a consistent foil, or The Load (Television Tropes). Anything she has to say lacks as much impact as her credibility. In fact, Squirrel Marge (for Season 2) is the best characterization of everything Marge is and ever will be. The only real con is when Marge’s “friends” go too far and diss her for less than that (or the asspulls of the day). Let’s at least be fair.
The only good thing at ALL was seeing the octuplets again (now I can use an HD screenshot (if someone on The War of the Simpsons ever does screenshot uploads again) and crop up the images of the ones standing up. Those will serve as the “official” character slates (instead of crappy grabpics), while the ones shown on the Season 20 cast poster are scarce like any other one-time/minor character image, since Fox couldn’t give a crap about them (other then episode-reference material and making Apu’s life a living hell).
Continuation:
-Steve Mobbs is pure evil. We need more actual villains to get their just rewards, instead of the town constantly zero-ing in on th eSimpson family or Homer being the scapegoat pariah.
The only possible way I see to describe this episode is as follows: Homer does stupid stuff with an IPad parody until it breaks, which kinda makes him sad for a while, and that’s it. I don’t even see Marge actually being “in” in this episode, as much as anyone else, not to talk about Lisa. And the worst part is: instead of inserting some kind of a b-plot, they crammed in three minutes of King Kong parody with unfunny brand names. When I watched it the only image I had in my head was that latino gay guy saying “Lame-o!” with his index finger up (we don’t even see him now that often anymore btw).
Anyway, I wish I had something constructive to say about that episode. But I don’t. It’s a pile of fucking shit. I watched it on torrents just to make sure that it was what I thought it would be, and basically got my degree of satisfaction thereafter. And then I understood that I don’t feel anything for this show anymore, not shame, not regret. Nothing. If it ends one day I won’t even blink, which I still would’ve if it were to happen some ten years ago.
i refuse to believe this is real
Oh yeah and btw I recently watched that short they made about Maggie and one-eyebrowed kid this Summer. And I gotta say it wasn’t that bad. If they stick to making shorts like that and posting them on the internet I think it might still be watchable and somewhat funny. At least It’s a fresh concept and one wouldn’t hurt. But I’m over 99% certain they won’t do it, for the sake of having 22 minutes of sell-out time on Sunday evenings, which they can fill with unexplainable garbage and still attract around 4 million primetime viewers (somehow).
Most of the episode was just Homer playing with that damn MyPad!
If I wanted to see a cartoon about random stuff happening…I would watch the crap they show on Cartoon Network.
I watched this episode… it was not encouraging.