Marge and Homer get a bargain on a painting at the Van Houten’s yard sale, and later learn that it is a masterpiece worth $100,000, so they wrestle with splitting the money with their neighbors or keeping it all.
I am sure it isn’t going to be that much of the plot, but the aura of disappointment and general failure with which The Simpsons paints Kirk Van Houten used to be one of my favorite things. However, that was nearly a generation ago, and over the years it is starting to wear thin. Seriously, “A Milhouse Divided” aired in 1996. All that being said, I am sure that tired abuse of Kirk is not going to be my least favorite part of this episode.
Dead Homer Society 
24 responses to “Sunday Preview: The War Of Art”
Let me guess…the painting is going to end up being worthless after all.
God, this plot is something I’d expect out of a sitcom from the 50s or the 80s.
Just…. Terrible.
It’s okay for Kirk Van Houten to be featured in a time filler, ’cause he doesn’t have dignity anyway.
He needs Luanne for it
“I never had a pet of my own”… and I turned it off right then and there.
Two words; “Lisa’s Pony”. Also, the few pets that Lisa adopted over the course of “I, D’oh-Bot”. I mean, forgetting about Season 15 is alright, but season 4?
I forgot about the pony, and also the elephant and the horse.
Also the pets she adopted when Bart became a jazz musician. I remember one of the worst lines in this show’s history deriving from that, “My arm: It hurts where the tiger’s biting it!
This one was just absolute filler that was obviously stretched out beyond the initial script, with the hamster, the “whoa whoa whoa” bit, the Simpsons bribing Milhouse, all of that horrible Springfield vs the Simpsons stuff that happens when the writers run out of believable scenarios….I mean this one was absolutely threadbare.
It was had the usual characters appearing and disappearing never the be heard from again. Some woman Kirk was intimate with during the divorce who appears and disappears within minutes never to be mentioned again. Some art forger pops up out of nowhere during the last two minutes and hastily wraps up all the loose ends in the episode—three of them to be precise. And that guinea pig is definitely going to
Plus another one of those weird Simpsons financial episodes that doesn’t make much sense. So they only really want the dough for a “cushion”? No bills, no other reason? Obviously not since Homer can travel to….Baja California(?) whenever he feels like it and buy Mihouse whatever he wants at Toys B This (..oh God..) and have no budget issues when it turns out the painting is a fraud. And I’m suppose to care what happens because….the Van Houtens might be splitting up (yes, AGAIN)?
Lastly Marge says “..and everyone is worried about Milhouse”. Seriously? It’s a very lame set-up for attempted emotion that’s dropped five seconds later only to be hastily resolved at the end.
Toys B This? REALLY?
Tiny Toon Adventures had Toys R Mine and a parody of the Toys R Us song. Now THAT was funny.
“So they only really want the dough for a “cushion”? No bills, no other reason? Obviously not since Homer can travel to….Baja California(?) whenever he feels like it and buy Mihouse whatever he wants at Toys B This (..oh God..) and have no budget issues when it turns out the painting is a fraud.”
Having the whole family stay at a motel while Lisa decided which guinea pig to get was pretty unfrugal, too.
“I mean, forgetting about Season 15 is alright, but season 4?”
You forgot that Lisa’s Pony was in Season 3?
Lisa, you had two dogs and three cats, not to mention that previous guinea pig you used to mock Bart. What do you mean by never having your own pet? That scene of her choosing a guinea pig took forever and was not at all funny, the contract was funny but had too much explanation.
Way to copy and paste a Wikipedia article to make a little more filler; and more filler with a guy describing art terms; then more filler with Homer saying whoa.
I hated the second act except the conflicting rocks, which were very funny and the only things that made me laugh. Kirk, stop making that noise and make the writers do their own work.
Flying rocks! Call a geologist!
Dancing Revolution, what a lazy fake name. Way to copy the image of a grim Milhouse from a far superior episode, and not make it work nearly as well. Wow, an actual relevant moral dilemma with implications towards the nature of art and humanity: How did that get in such a terrible episode?
I did like the symptoms of Strupo abuse, those were short and very funny, without too much explanation: The opposite of almost everything else in this episode.
Are they referencing Tapped Out?
And if I don’t own any touchscreen devices, does that mean I’m not allowed to laugh?
I liked it when Kirk blushed twice when his former lover showed up/Luan got mad lol.
This is me Rob K. btw, not logged in :)
Another trademark ZS moment–taking something that is genuinely amusing and completely milking it dry
That was a waste of Max Von Sydow. Also why was Luann upset with Kirk dating while they were separated? Luann dated an American Gladiator.
Sometimes I wonder if the current writers should come visit DHS from time to time, before they can on something they think the show never did before.
But of course, why would they even bother? If I were well paid, why would I do additional shit for the same paycheck, right?
I did laugh at the “I can write a check with today’s date on it” line. And that was it.