Principal Skinner promises the students that the best-behaved among them can take a ride in a submarine. When Skinner gives all the kids a clean slate, Bart believes even his own past indiscretions will be forgotten if he doesn’t get into any more trouble. Meanwhile Lisa tries to help a cash-poor Krusty to turn things around by suggesting he sell the foreign rights to his shows.
Bart will try to behave for a reward, and Lisa will help Krusty out of the poor house again. Neither of these plot lines are remotely new, but at least this time there may be a submarine. I like submarines.
Dead Homer Society 
11 responses to “Sunday Preview: Yellow Subterfuge”
Don’t get taken in by promises of submarines. i’m sure it’s going to be the fireworks factory all over again.
This is not so bad so far: Skinner’s dream was amusing, the use of a Chalmers-style scream as a tribute to him was clever, Otto feels more like his old self than the overdone drug addict from the later years, and “i only looked at [my Monet] once is a subtle joke.
The Krusty plotline seems pretty coincidental since the main income for The Simpsons these days are through overseas syndication and cable deals. I wouldn’t call it meta since that would be giving the writers too much credit.
I take it back. There was one line that was clearly an admission to how transparently shitty and hollow cash-in the show has gotten:
Lisa: You could do what
Everybody Loves Raymond did.
Krusty: Go off the air while I’m still good? That horse has left the stable, gone to the glue factory and has been used to make art projects.
This episode was pretty damn terrible. The whole Bart/Skinner plot was pretty damn soulless and witless. Really, just a hollow attempt at hitting the same notes as “The Itchy and Scratchy Movie.” Outside of playing with a bread loaf, why exactly is Bart so obsessed with a trip on a sub that he’s willing to lick Skinner’s boot for several days and willingly become a Lisa clone? Hell, the other kids don’t even mention it ever again, so the trip just ends up some random set-up for Bart and Homer (why Homer?) to get revenge on Skinner. I guess that stupid dare Bart accepted from his family (again, never brought up again) is suppose to be enough for him to go to such lengths. And that revenge? So by-the-numbers, yet the payoff is absolutely pathetic. They show up at the Simpsons home, Marge groans, Agnes appears out of nowhere to confess, Skinner’s “surprised” voice and reaction seem like he’s barely awake enough to care, and the plot just ends. Bart vanishes without once so much as wisecracking at Skinner, pretty much signifying that this whole withering plotline was a complete waste of everyone’s time.
The Krusty plotline had nothing to do with the A-plot whatsoever and was about as forced of a set-up as the show has attempted. Again, didn’t Krusty already establish that there were multiple Krusties franchised out over the globe in “Homie the Clown”? And that random Spongebob clip pretty much made no attempt to be original or at least bare any resemblance to the actual cartoon, just an Itchy and Scratchy cartoon with a different paintjob. And why the Hell is Lisa there when Krusty’s lawyer is randomly screening the Krusty Shows from different countries? She just sits there stonefaced through out the entire scene, not even laughing during I&S, the only reaction being that stupid punchline “…and they’re not American troops” and Lisa getting a worried look…for some reason as if Lisa was actually expected to care (and the viewer about Lisa) at this point. Naturally, she just disappears front he plotline entirely once her usefulness as a plot device and prop is no longer needed.
Lastly, the Yvan eht Noij bit of fanservice really made no sense since the that whole clip was promoting and an official trip on an atomic sub, obviously made by the Navy. Why not just say “Join the Navy”? And why on the center of the screen plainly visible in large bold lettering instead of just flash on the screen for a split second like, ya know, and actual subliminal message? Nothing more than catering to even the most mentally handicapped viewers.
The real, REAL nail in that hammer was how awful and overwrought the horse line was.
Honestly, this show. It used to be that it was hard to enjoy it when it was just “decent”, because it’s The SImpsons! You expect more!
But now it’s gotten to the point where it’s just so, so bad that the sympathy garnered by having Simpsons characters act out these scripts just invites pity and forgiveness. Honestly, I actually felt a sense of “oh, good for them” at the fart joke. Not because it was funny, but because it was both a recognizable joke, and not actively off-putting or embarrassing.
I realize how harsh this is, but honestly, this is worse than just untelevision-worthy. It actually bothers me that human beings are being paid for this, considering that it’s time and money that someone, ANYONE else could be earning, instead.
Whoops, sorry, I really should have proofread that comment.
A humdinger of a nail in the hammer!
Heh, same. Some embarrassing typos in my comment (damn you auto-spell check!)
At least you’re just focused on how uncaring and mediocre the staff is. What’s even worse is knowing millions in this country have such terrible taste that they still watch it, week after week.
I’m glad I missed this episode. Not that I watch much ZS anyway.
Anybody catch the low-spout water fountain joke shared by Simpsons & Family Guy this time?
Kind of glazed over that Daulph/Skinner bit. While not really that funny, the Simpsons bit at least was relevant to the story and built up to the handkerchief joke. The Family Guy joke pretty much beat you over the head with it, with Peter essentially spelling out the entire joke before painstakingly acting it out, breaking away from the main story to do it.
The Family Guy episode was pretty poor, but it at least stuck to the main plot. It also had the curio factor of being the first “regular” episode with Vinny as the new dog, complete with redone opening credits.