17x18 The Wettest Stories Ever Told

[7.0/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] I think I’m a little easier on these anthology episodes than I am on regular episodes from this era. There’s something about the “we’re just riffing for six or seven minutes” format that’s harder to screw up. If you get in a few good gags and make for a fun lark, I’m on board.

That said, contrary to Marge’s pronouncement in the frame story, I think each segment we get here is a little worse than the last. (And that frame story, with Our Favorite Family telling nautical stories while they wait for the food at the Frying Dutchman, is pretty mild.)

The Pilgrim-spoofing story is easily the best. It has a legitimate story of Homer being a lout, but stumbling into the good graces of his lady love. The show uses the opportunity to poke fun at fundamentalists, and the romantic rivalry between Homer and Moe has some juice to it. The segment also does well at using old timey talk (or at least what we think of when we think of it) for some amusing wordplay.

The Mutiny on the Bounty segment wasn’t bad. It had some regrettable depictions of folks from Tahiti, but the setup of Skinner as a domineering captain and the elementary school students as his disgruntled crew is a good one. The story goes off the rails once he’s deposed and the boys are just wandering aimlessly into other continents and stories, but the basic idea is a sound one and worth a few laughs.

The third segment was easily the weakest. Maybe I would have appreciated it more if I (a.) were more familiar with 1970s pop culture ephemera or (b.) had seen The Poseidon Adventure. But as is, this was just a heap of tributes to various cultural flotsam I’d only vaguely heard of, and what felt like a heap of homages in lieu of an actual story. Gags were minimal, and the various deaths were all pretty dumb.

Still, this one is eminently watchable, as most anthology episodes are, given the chance for the show to cut loose and be more ridiculous than usual, one seven minute tale at a time.