[9.8/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] This is the most wild and creative format bender The Simpsons has done since “Trilogy of Error” (the Linguo episode) and maybe since “22 Short Films About Springfield.” “Lisa the Boy Scout” feels like a modern-day successor to that installment, which uses the airtime give mini-stories to almost everyone in Springfield, albeit with a more meta-twist that left his feeling like something out of Community or even Rick & Morty.
(Though hey, shout out to “The Seemingly Neverending Story” which also used some creative storytelling moves in the post-classic era, even if it’s been ages since that one too.)
I love the basic setup here, with a group of hackers unleashing a spate of rejected story ideas and clips from the series in an effort to ransom their way into big money and maybe even bring down the Disney corporation. In truth, my only mildly significant gripe with the episode is that the hackers from the frame story falling in love elicits more chuckles than guffaws. But the duo spoofing Anonymous and using forbidden or aschanned Simpsons bits to get what they want provides the show an excuse to break loose from canon and go wild without disrupting the show.
Boy do they! I’ll confess, part of what made me enjoy this episode so much is the way it’s definitely targeted at terminally online Simpsons fans like yours truly. They poke fun at all the dumb fan theories -- like Ralph secrelty being Eddie the cop’s son. They take aim at the popular meme of the show predicting the future, with “Bart to the Future” era Bart beaming back to the original “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire” premiere to feed his family some info from later days. They reference the fact that Wise Guy pops up all over the place with an amusingly out there explanation. (Though what of Squeaky Voiced Teen?) Heck, even the idea of whole run to this point being a coma dream from Homer after he fell into Springfield Gorge has some extra spark in its fan fiction-y pastiche.
Alongside those bits, there’s tons of fun meta-gags to tickle the funny bones of longtime viewers. My god, I died laughing when the hackers declared they were unleashing the worst of the worst to truly drive The Simpsons into the ground, and amid the original comic material crafted for this episode, they also included infamous real life clips from the show, like the dreaded Jockey Elves and Homer fighting a bear. Plus, the way the show perfectly captured the rhythms of a typical Simpsons episode with its bookends, replete with a self-jab about Homer doing something terrible to Marge and making it better with an apology, had me in stitches. This is, impressively, the most self-referential the series has been since “Behind the Laughter”, and the show’s ability to make comic hay from its own conceits is outstanding.
That said, it returns to one of showrunner Matt Selman’s hobby horses: poking fun at prestige television. I could be overreaching here, but I took the amusing scene of Sea Captain and Groundskeeper Willie communicating only in “Yar”s and “Aye”s to be an homage to a famous scene from The Wire where two detectives communicate using only the word “fuck.” I loved the scene where it turns out Martin is a 36-year-old undercover blue collar cop with a wife and kids, for its delightful absurdity and perfect rendition of those tropes. And the sequence of “enough of the lies” followed by glass throwing and major revelations worked brilliantly as a spoof of the need for big dramas these days to unveil familial twist after twist, no matter how contorted or strained, to keep fans talking and guessing.
But as with “22 Short Films about Springfield” I also just enjoyed the rapid-fire looniness of the whole deal. Santa’s Little Helper learning to talk, followed by Homer only being shocked that it’s morning is a classic Simpsons swerve. The array of punny names with single-episode images was a good laugh. And even the line about the show being propped up by NFL fans who fell asleep brings the meta humor back in a good way.
All-in-all, this is a real gem of a late-season episode, which takes some big chances and gives us something like Simpsons fans have never truly seen before. I don’t want them to go back to this well again, but seeing the Community-style, free associative, self-deprecating metahumor at play was a real treat for longtime fans like me. Bravo!
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2022-10-21T19:47:37Z
[9.8/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] This is the most wild and creative format bender The Simpsons has done since “Trilogy of Error” (the Linguo episode) and maybe since “22 Short Films About Springfield.” “Lisa the Boy Scout” feels like a modern-day successor to that installment, which uses the airtime give mini-stories to almost everyone in Springfield, albeit with a more meta-twist that left his feeling like something out of Community or even Rick & Morty.
(Though hey, shout out to “The Seemingly Neverending Story” which also used some creative storytelling moves in the post-classic era, even if it’s been ages since that one too.)
I love the basic setup here, with a group of hackers unleashing a spate of rejected story ideas and clips from the series in an effort to ransom their way into big money and maybe even bring down the Disney corporation. In truth, my only mildly significant gripe with the episode is that the hackers from the frame story falling in love elicits more chuckles than guffaws. But the duo spoofing Anonymous and using forbidden or aschanned Simpsons bits to get what they want provides the show an excuse to break loose from canon and go wild without disrupting the show.
Boy do they! I’ll confess, part of what made me enjoy this episode so much is the way it’s definitely targeted at terminally online Simpsons fans like yours truly. They poke fun at all the dumb fan theories -- like Ralph secrelty being Eddie the cop’s son. They take aim at the popular meme of the show predicting the future, with “Bart to the Future” era Bart beaming back to the original “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire” premiere to feed his family some info from later days. They reference the fact that Wise Guy pops up all over the place with an amusingly out there explanation. (Though what of Squeaky Voiced Teen?) Heck, even the idea of whole run to this point being a coma dream from Homer after he fell into Springfield Gorge has some extra spark in its fan fiction-y pastiche.
Alongside those bits, there’s tons of fun meta-gags to tickle the funny bones of longtime viewers. My god, I died laughing when the hackers declared they were unleashing the worst of the worst to truly drive The Simpsons into the ground, and amid the original comic material crafted for this episode, they also included infamous real life clips from the show, like the dreaded Jockey Elves and Homer fighting a bear. Plus, the way the show perfectly captured the rhythms of a typical Simpsons episode with its bookends, replete with a self-jab about Homer doing something terrible to Marge and making it better with an apology, had me in stitches. This is, impressively, the most self-referential the series has been since “Behind the Laughter”, and the show’s ability to make comic hay from its own conceits is outstanding.
That said, it returns to one of showrunner Matt Selman’s hobby horses: poking fun at prestige television. I could be overreaching here, but I took the amusing scene of Sea Captain and Groundskeeper Willie communicating only in “Yar”s and “Aye”s to be an homage to a famous scene from The Wire where two detectives communicate using only the word “fuck.” I loved the scene where it turns out Martin is a 36-year-old undercover blue collar cop with a wife and kids, for its delightful absurdity and perfect rendition of those tropes. And the sequence of “enough of the lies” followed by glass throwing and major revelations worked brilliantly as a spoof of the need for big dramas these days to unveil familial twist after twist, no matter how contorted or strained, to keep fans talking and guessing.
But as with “22 Short Films about Springfield” I also just enjoyed the rapid-fire looniness of the whole deal. Santa’s Little Helper learning to talk, followed by Homer only being shocked that it’s morning is a classic Simpsons swerve. The array of punny names with single-episode images was a good laugh. And even the line about the show being propped up by NFL fans who fell asleep brings the meta humor back in a good way.
All-in-all, this is a real gem of a late-season episode, which takes some big chances and gives us something like Simpsons fans have never truly seen before. I don’t want them to go back to this well again, but seeing the Community-style, free associative, self-deprecating metahumor at play was a real treat for longtime fans like me. Bravo!