“For the love of God, help me! I’ve been here for four days and a turtle’s got a hold of my teeth. There he is! Come back here, you. Slow down! I’ll get yeh!” – Abe “Grampa” Simpson “This is the worst assignment we’ve ever had.” – Agent Scully “Worse than the time we were attacked by the flesh eating virus?” – Agent Mulder “Ow! He bit me with my own teeth!” – Abe “Grampa” Simpson “No, this is much more irritating.” – Agent Scully Whether it’s shadowy terrorist networks and shady politicians, a government conspiracy to collude with aliens, or any other formula for dramatic mystery, people like to be in suspense about what’s going to happen next. What nefarious plots will the heroes uncover? What dastardly twists do the villains have up their sleeves? Will the leads fall in love and kiss (or possibly get naked) on screen? All of these things are a rather far cry from the reasons people watch animated comedies. So when it comes time for a parody, it helps tremendously to know that you’re here to poke fun at your source material and not merely repeat it. For a good example of the former, there’s “The Springfield Files”. The X-Files became a parody of itself toward the end as the conspiracy kept getting strung out and strung out (and strung out) because it was one of FOX’s few hit shows and they couldn’t bear to let it die. (When Troy McClure shows the FOX “Programming Chart” later in Season 8, they weren’t kidding when it was just that, The Simpsons and Melrose Place.) But in its prime, The X-Files was a popular critical darling that kept audiences’ rapt attention with inventive monsters of the week and a nefarious global conspiracy that unfolded ever so slowly. The Simpsons took The X-Files and made fun of all of it: the inherent goofiness of the FBI investigating “paranormal” crimes and creatures, the endless breadth of conspiracy theories, and the unusually drop dead sexiness of that pair of agents. It wasn’t mean about any of it, a show as silly and relentlessly serious about itself as The X-Files isn’t exactly a hard target for satire, and the two lead voices were happy to show up and have a little fun at the expense of their meal ticket. But “The Springfield Files” never feels like an X-Files episode or even tries to copy one. Mulder and Scully are there, of course, but they’re hardly the protagonists and they basically disappear as soon as they ascertain that Homer’s a drunken idiot who shouldn’t be taken seriously, which doesn’t take long at all. The “alien” turns out to be Mr. Burns, which the Springfield mob understandably tries to kill anyway. Even the quick departure of Mulder and Scully laughs at The X-Files. Scully tells Mulder that they have to go since this is obviously not an alien, and then she gets annoyed and just walks off in boredom as he…
Tag: Homerland
Behind Us Forever: Homerland
“Anybody lose their glasses? Last chance. Woo-hoo! The sum of the square roots of any two sides of an isosceles triangle is equal to the square root of the remaining side.” – Homer Simpson “That’s a right triangle, you idiot.” – Guy on Toilet “D’oh!” – Homer Simpson Season 25, here we go: They start the year with their first joke of the season about how lame it is to be on after all these years. That didn’t take long. But the couch gag makes the same joke and does take too long. The Homeland opening credits are well done, but remaking other people’s credit sequences has become something of a time filling specialty for them. Bart’s first line of the year is a direct repeat of Homer’s triangle joke from Season 5, so that really didn’t take long. Between Homer’s suitcase flying open and them all chanting the word “convention” they’ve eaten up a remarkable amount of time with nothing when we get to the hotel. “Good Riddance Shriners” is pretty good, but the signs are about the only part that can retain even a little bit of the character of The Simpsons. As per usual, the show likes to lock itself into a cheap joke and just ride it into the ground: swag, Marge not wanting Patty and Selma (or Wiggum) to say frightful things, Kristen Wiig not being able to go more than one line without switching her behavior completely. Lotta heavy handed musical cues in this one, and that’s before you count the flashbacks. And a lot of MacFarlane style unconnected cutaway jokes: Lisa: This is worse than when he went to New Orleans and came back with a southern accent. [Cut to Lisa remembering Homer in hillbilly clothes and a straw hat while he talks in a drawl.] This scene with Lisa spying on Homer and then, ugh, imitating a cat, is just atrocious. All of her dialogue is unneeded exposition which for some reason Homer can’t hear. Lunatrix – “For Bipolar Disorder” – A goofy drug that makes bipolar people act out isn’t a completely terrible idea, but Zombie Simpsons handling of it is so poor that it’s just insulting, not for what they’re trying to make fun of, but for being that cheap and unimaginative at doing so. I get that they’re working from a spy thriller type show, but the combination of drawn out tension and unbelievably stupid jokes and dialogue (Kristen Wiig’s Claire Danes character can’t get through one line of dialogue without saying something pandering and dumb) is really off putting. I’m sure glad they have a scene where Homer explains everything we’ve already had explained three times so we can relive the hilarity of him passing on beer and kneeling down on a rug. The sitcom-y nature of the writing didn’t improve any over the summer: “There isn’t a prison made that can hold me! Prisons are still made of mud and wattles, right?” [Canned laughter] And we end…
Sunday Preview: Homerland
An FBI agent helps Lisa find out why Homer suddenly becomes polite after attending a nuclear power convention. Welcome to a new season of Zombie Simpsons. I hope you enjoyed your time off, but now it’s time to again sit down to a Simpsons takeoff of a show that is much better. Kristen Wiig will guest start tonight.