I like this episode for two reasons. First, it shows how we tend to form opinions about others without actually knowing the whole truth. Because, let's face it, Homer did nothing wrong. Althought that, from a Simpsons point of view, sounds weird. And second how the internet can make a huge thing out of nothing at all. Actually it's the people using it, not the technology itself that is to blame.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2022-04-06T03:55:40Z
[3.5/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] My friend, author Robbie Dorman, refers to a lot of post-classic Simpsons gags as “Grandpa Humor”. He’s not wrong. There was an edge and incisiveness to the show’s humor in its best days that's been gradually worn away. The modern show can still be funny, but even when it’s doing comedy well, it tends to be a gentler, broader sort of humor than in the show’s glory years.
This episode may be the peak of latter day Simpsons Grandpa Humor. There was a time when the show’s satirical take on public shaming, pariahood, and clickbait would be piercing, insightful, and hilarious. This, on the other hand, is toothless and out of touch.
Remember when Homer and Marge lost the kids to Child Protective Services due to a terrible misunderstanding? Remember how the scenarios that led to that sad state of affairs was funny, but the pain of separation was real?
That approach is entirely absent here. The event which leads to SLH being mistaken for locked in a car without air conditioning is random and dumb. Homer’s pariahood is cartoonish and just as arbitrary. There’s no actual heart or reality to this one, which makes its commentary on public shaming miss the mark, since there’s nothing real at the center of it.
And there’s no point to any of this. This episode has nothing of substance to say about online shaming or folks who become pariahs. All it has a reheated, unengaging Suicide Squad parody that gives up on substance in order to connect everything to a generic global conspiracy.
Nevermind that it draws a frankly baffling line between public shaming and clickbait. I guess there’s something to be said for both things resting on virality and soft news, but they’re generally separate things and so trying to tie them together plays as completely off. They even waste the considerable comedic talents of Kumail Nanjiani in this mess, which is practically criminal.
Overall, this type of episode taking aim at current events and cultural issues might have been good if you could somehow do this episode twenty five years ago, but with the current creative team, too far removed from the edge and insight that once fueled the show, the results are an episode that's embarrassing for being so out of touch.