Lisa dates a boy named Lucas Bortner, who wants to be a competitive eater. Marge becomes concerned that Lisa is trying to marry a boy that’s just like Homer. Bart helps Snake Jailbird break out of jail and starts to receive gifts from him, making Milhouse jealous.
So I guess Zach Galifianakis is the fatty competitive eater for which Lisa gets the hots. Fine. Good for him. I suppose it’s his turn on the town bike anyway. I don’t have much to say about the other plot, except that the first time I read this promo, all I could think about was Zap Brannigan saying “But I thought we would be good friends…” It’s probably not like that, but with some of the things I have seen on this show the last few years, it’s not impossible either.
Dead Homer Society 
72 responses to “Sunday Preview: Luca$”
“Luca$” is what many people used to George Lucas on the Internet years ago.
Sorry, I don’t have anything interesting to say about the actual plot.
Obviously, there are no other famous “Lucases” out there.
ok, the cuts of the potatoe poster is funny.
The plot, not really.
Sounds like shit.
And here I am wondering what does a shit sound like…
I’m going to have general anesthesia starting 5 PM today for the following 24 hours, so even if I really wanted to, I still couldn’t watch it. Though I’ll say this: having Nelson come out at end and punch that fat dude in the face is a ‘very’ good way to end a shitty episode *wink-wink*
Ta.
Hope everything goes well. Also Lucas looks like Ralph, lol. Not very creative ZS writers.
Thanks, it did.
(Still figuring out how to operate the arc reactor though…)
Excellent.
“I suppose it’s his turn on the town bike anyway. ” Lisa I thought? Lol, sorry.
Ha, that’s funny. Not how it sounded in my head when I wrote it to reference the seven millionth guest voice. But in my defense I am barely qualified to write blog posts.
Hehe, don’t worry about it MJ, just keep doing what yer doing (and the other guys on here as well!)
It has been a while since that 8 year old girl got a one episode only celebrity voiced love interest. The last time it happened was TWO seasons ago! Is she trying to beat her brother’s love interest count?
I just heard that one of those stupid C.B.S. sitcoms ended, and one of the characters died. Good, we need to get rid of all the comedies on that network, and the procedurals, and the reality shows, and Intelligence–everything except Person of Interest. Now, I hope the actors and the crew die. Quoting an actual good comedy, C.B.S. writers, shut your fucking faces, unclefuckers.
Also….Snake’s last name is Jailbird?
Some research has revealed that the “Jailbird” name came from a stupid throwaway joke from a season 17 episode which I now realise I have vague memories of suffering through once. It wasn’t a good joke, it was supposed to be “ironic” or “meta” or some one of those dumbass terms people use on the internet that they don’t understand but use generally as a blanket term for any humour marginally more sophisticated than a man farting directly into the face of a different man. Even if it had been a good joke though the name is so bloody infantile and it turns Snake’s charcater from parody to cliche.
Wanted to add:
“Chester “Snake” Turley, or Snake Jailbird, also known as Professor Jailbird and Detention Bird, is a recidivist criminal, always getting arrested, but rarely appearing to stay in prison. He speaks with a “Valley Boy” accent. He is partial to fast cars and fast women, and has a knack for reckless abandon.”
http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/Snake_Jailbird
Yeah, it’s one of those half-assed ZS-era last names that got introduced just for the sake of some extremely niche fans that actually care about such things while seemingly going with the first idea that popped into their heads. Like “Jasper Beardly” or “Herman Hermann” or “Otto Mann.”
Don’t forget CBG’s real name “Chad Albertson” or whatever it was ;)
Carl Carlson and Lenny Leonard.
ARRGHHH!!!!
Weren’t those invented in, like, Season 10 or something?
Otto, if I remember correctly, was Otto Mann way back in The Otto Show, when he strayed with the Simpsons after getting fired. The legendary episode with Spinal Tap, who were only on for twenty minutes.
I always thought that was a nickname Bart gave him (or that he called himself) that they later made official during a Scully-era wedding subplot. If it really was meant to be his last name, then I’ll take back mentioning that one since it’s not as bad as those other ones.
I forgot about Carl Carlson and Lenny Leonard. I must of put a mental block on those.
Question, and I’m sure it’s been answered, but why does ZS use terms such as “Playstadium” and “Zii”? They have enough cash to cover any potential lawsuits… which won’t come to fruition, since their satire is not very scathing.
That kind of stuff gets even weirder because they do mention specific things by name from time to time. One episode has Star Wars, another has Cosmic Wars… Make up your mind!
Classic Simpsons, before Season 12, was not afraid to use original, brand and trademarked names such as Star Wars and Oscar Meyer, etc.
Panafonics, magnentbox or sorny!
Good points!
Weren’t those supposed to be cheap knock-offs of name-brand products and not products with slightly-changed names to avoid lawsuits?
Isn’t the whole Zombie Simpsons just a cheap knock off of the once greater self?
I think they used “Cosmic Wars” because that was the focus of the whole episode, whereas previously they would only make brief Star Wars references. They probably crossed some legal threshold.
The reality is (imo anyway) that they do this intentionally just to piss us few longtime fans off who still watch who happen to have a fucking brain in their heads but also to pander to those who are rather quite stupid and should’ve been aborted (kidding) ftm since it’s no longer about entertaining us but to pander to the lowest common denominator since they could easily use such real brand names like they did in the past, even if they need to change the designs slightly as to avoid copyright issues but they obviously don’t as we have clearly seen.
All in all I feel as if Zombie Simpsons is just one of the many things that are responsible for dumbing us down to Idiocracy levels by insulting our intelligence with things like painfully-obvious parodies to the crappy plots which began roughly season 10 and praising stupidity along with despicable slapstick humour instead & that websites like this are just one of the many few flowers that have succeeded in growing out of the pot of dirt they’ve been planted in.
Wow, well said. The last Simpsons episode imo (and the last great, classic one) is “Behind The Laughter”.
I got 100% agreement on that. Bull’s eye.
I was 13 when they aired that ep, and for some reason, I thought that it WAS the finale, dunno why. And then it began…
Thanks Stan. I wish it were the finale of the series, maybe the finale of “Classic Simpsons”.
The nightmare of ZS did indeed begin after that…. Sigh. Maybe before in a select few episodes too.
Threat of a potential lawsuit has very little to do with I think. It’s essentially the faceless corporation version of “Simpsonizing” whereby the writers get to score cheap points from fanboys and blogs by doing a Simpsons style take on a popular brand. Except, since ZS is scared shitless people either won’t get the reference or will be offended by any perceived criticism of their dearly beloved touchscreen-fuckadoodle or whatever, they merely change a letter or a syllable.
And it’s usually an “M” that gets added. E.g., Mapple, Mixar
Broadcast rules have gotten stricter on the use of brand names. The network lawyers barely ever allow them to use real brand names on the show anymore.
I am going to be very disappointed if Bart does not end this episode in jail: He is guilty of aiding and abetting a fugitive, trafficking in stolen goods, aiding a jailbreak, obstruction of justice and probably more. This show will just push the reset button next week anyway.
All the police know it, and he has essentially confessed.
Yeah, Bart knowingly accepted stolen goods and concealed his crime from the police, and gets NO punishment or even acknowledgement of the act by anyone, not even Lou. Not to mention Milhouse ratted on Snake, a bandit who has a history of killing snitches and tried to kill Bart more than once. That’s some reset button there!
Zombie Milhouse can rat on Zombie Snake, because Zombie Bart can eat frogs for fun.
Wasn’t there a Zombie Simpsons episode where Marge gets really angry and bitchy over Lisa saying she doesn’t want to end up like her? I remember because I really hated that episode. Ugh, inconsistent characterization is one of my biggest problems with ZS…
I’m sure I’ve seen it, but I also forgot it entirely.
http://deadhomersociety.com/2010/11/16/compare-contrast-marge-lisa-at-breakfast/
Don’t know what the general opinion of The Av Club is here, but man, is this one spot on:
http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/simpsons-luca-203126
It was damned refreshing to see them finally acknowledge that this show isn’t shit compared to golden-era Simpsons — it’s just shit.
In fact, the show’s so bland, so bottom-of-the-barrel, that (even unfavorable) comparisons to its past are really the only thing keeping it alive.
After Charlie posted that link where an Ukrainian guy says “The Simpsons are funny because they’re in Ukrainian”, nothing surprises me anymore.
Like how Luca$ is compared to a very poor imitation of Gene Belcher from Bob’s Burgers. I knew he seemed a little familiar. I’m sure that show could do much more with the basic plot set-up and be far more worthwhile to watch.
Everything up to Lisa meeting Luca$ was the worst kind of filler. Homer humiliating himself could have added some significance to the later plot but really doesn’t. It’s just Zombie Homer being Zombie Homer.
Disagree on the Snake stuff being a highlight and the notion that any of the jokes approached “classic” status. Just Milhouse being a plot devise and ratting out against a Simpson for the 2nd time this season. Snake also got a nasty dose of zombie treatment in this one. I’ll only concede that they actually remembered to put jokes
And yes, the incest jokes were a clear product of creative bankruptcy and desperation to fill in for nonexistent emotional weight.
The article does also state that the show’s current existence is extremely dependent on riding off of the coattails of its classic era and literally being propped up by such established complexities in order to resonate anything remotely emotional. In other words, this being a Zombie Simpsons episode.
I knew that thing with Homer in that piece of playground equipment was copied, and now I remember it was from Always Sunny in :Philadelphia.
Mickey Rooney died today. Make sure your QOTD tomorrow is a Radioactive Man one.
I know you’ll hate me for life, but I just HAVE to ask: did he take too many Crazy Mickey Rooney pills?
Good point, Anon, I hope so too.
Like all Zombie Simpsons there is one line or joke good for a laugh “your future ton in law” was that. Sad to say that I do not remember the rest of the episode.
Okay, that Snake stuff is just plain weird in this episode. They openly call him “Snake”, “Jailbird” “Jailbird a.k.a. Snake (wtf?)” and “Alfred Knickerbocker Aloysius Snake.” Seriously, they went way overboard with attempting to redefine his name here even as a joke. Just who the hell is he anymore? He seems to be another casualty of ZS wussifying its cooler characters. I mean, his thievery now has sympathetic justification? Lame! What happened to his criminal and sometimes violent anarchy?
That Lisa plot just went to Hell. Marge’s reaction is WAY out of character, suddenly for the 100th time thinking a guy like Homer isn’t worth marrying. Why bother staying married if you’re going to keep flipflopping this fake suspense every other episode. And spelling out where the dress design came from? Way to desperately reach for and shred of relevance.
Why did Marge want Homer to act nicely to Lisa? She was upset that Lucas was too much like him and so she tried to make him more attractive?
What did Marge have to do with this whole episode? All I’m reading in the comments is “Marge, Marge, Marge”… Why was there even a Marge? Did they replace their monkeys with waterbirds now?
In an episode where there’s apparently a love plot involving Lisa and some schoolkid, there’s Marge… Homer… Snake! Argh fuck even if you don’t watch ’em the brain still hurts!
AV Club did their retrospective piece of “Marge Not Be Proud”, an episode that Dead Homer’s Society is very negative towards to my utter bewilderment. It’s a nice read for an episode I admit isn’t the funniest but it has a strong emotional core; almost anyone can relate Bart desire for wanting something he can’t attain, him trying to hide his shameful act from his family, and you don’t have to be a parent to understand the grief that Marge goes through. The episode plays off these emotions smoothly and ends in a touching conclusion. The direction in the episode is great, we get action as we see Bart trying to dodge the security camera, and I love chase sequence in the family house. Much of the episode is put through Bart’s perspective as he feels a gamut of emotions.
Luca$ lacks any emotional core, it has no attempt whatsoever to put the viewer in the heads of the leads. We don’t feel why Lisa becomes attached to Lucas. We don’t get into Bart’s POV of how he could trust the same criminal who almost murdered his father years back and right after that nearly murdered the family for Singing in their own house. We never see through Marge’s eyes why she’s concerned over a childhood romance.
Sure I know the script has some throwaway lines referring to X, Y, and Z, but that’s not good storytelling. The show is so concerned about getting cheap jokes out that it completely forgot about making us care about the characters. The episode’s reasoning for Bart caring about Snake beyond getting free stuff is that Bart learns that Snake has a son he steals for, we’re never actually shown that. There’s absolutely no attempt to have the viewer emotionally connect to the viewer, it’s just a (poor) joke machine.
Zombie Simpsons writing wise has more in common with Saturday Night Live, where two-dimensional characters shout zany lines for the audience’s amusement. Or I guess it’s ultimately closest to Family Guy but it sickens me to think about that. Simpsons became a part of Americana not only for its sharp satire and biting humor, it had characters that were more lifelike than the characters we knew from Live Action Sitcoms. The writers are so bad at their jobs I doubt they even understand this, at this point I think they’re more interested in being on the front page of Reddit, hence the references to the games Osmos and Minecraft.
“The writers are so bad at their jobs I doubt they even understand this, at this point I think they’re more interested in being on the front page of Reddit, hence the references to the games Osmos and Minecraft.”
And Osmos is a five-year-old game. I guess bubbles are easy to draw.
The Minecraft reference didn’t even have any jokes, aside from that stupid Moe bit. Just “hey look, it’s the Simpsons, and they’re Minecraft-ized (kinda)” with the title opening spelling it out to the audience.
Regarding “Marge Be Not Proud” it is only criticized under the extremely high standards of the classic era. It still blows away ZS dreck like “Luca$.” The main criticism of Marge Be Not Proud is that showed signs of adjusting character traits to conform with the plot (rather than the other way around) which is a primary problem plaguing ZS-er episodes, but feel free to disagree. The Marge Be Not Proud point is pretty openly disagreed upon.
SNPP.com episode capsule review to the rescue!
SNPP.com I think, in their episode capsule review, also did not like “Marge Be Not Proud”.
SNPP.com has some brutal reviews going back to S5, if not earlier. Just look at the reviews on “Bart Gets an Elephant”.
I wanted to add here that I love the above image, with the poster titled “cuts of the potato” on the upper right of the image of Lisa and Luca$, also he does remind me of Ralph (btw is Lisa destined to date losers like Milhouse, Ralph, Luca$, Nelson and others?)
I was the person who called the AV Club “refreshing”, but I will say this: Lucas’ character design is pretty decent. He’s the first character I’ve seen in a long, long time that doesn’t look like a “Simpson-ized” human.
Now that you point it out, I can see the Ralph. But I dunno, at least he doesn’t look jarringly out of place next to an older character, like Lisa.
I agree with this – their guest-star characters always seem to be overly flattering PR exercises for the “actor” in question. Lucas actually looks like a cartoon character.
I also agree. At least he doesn’t look like a mutant quasi-realistic and proportionate human composite. Too bad he’s wasted as a guest voice and his character is far from memorable.
Well said Anonymous, agree btw.
I’m not going to bother with watching this, but exploring the idea that Lisa would base her romantic preferences on the characteristics of Homer isn’t too shabby a concept to explore… I believe it’s a throwaway line in the very first episode, but I don’t recollect seeing an episode that’s done that before… correct me if I’m wrong…
However, I just knew ZS would handle this badly, and it seems I’m not wrong. Marge becoming concerned about Lisa ending up with someone like Homer is a bit stupid, considering Lisa is still supposed to be EIGHT, and from the blurb I knew it would force Marge to turn into a childish shadow of her former self (people have already made comparisons to another more recent episode).
And the B-plot sounds even worse… I’ve been re-watching the classics recently, and to see Jean’s name on the credits of those amazing episodes makes me question the very fabric of reality.
The only Lisa-gets-a-boyfriend type plot that I willingly accept was in Lisa’s Date with Density. While Lisa’s character was a bit off in that one (but I buy that any 8-year-old girl falling for someone older will result in weird behavior at the very least), Nelson was perfectly in character and they even managed to have Marge lecture Lisa a bit about how it is important to “change your man”. Homer wasn’t in this episode because we wouldn’t have cared.
But my fear is that if I develop more on comparing Density to this week’s something I didn’t watch, we might end up discussing two different shows, one of which was as close to reality as possible without ever losing the funny touch, and the other just… was… is… whatever.
But you sir, are a baboon! Yes, you! Baboon! Baboon! Baboon!
lol