[7.9/10] This feels like such a quintessential David Mirkin/John Swartzwelder collaboration. There’s some solid throughlines here -- Homer’s quest to find Lisa’s saxophone, Grampa Simpson dealing with ageism, and the show’s usual satire of the media and the mob -- but it’s all largely a spine to hang some ridiculous but hilarious jokes on.
Homer bought magic beans instead of insurance. Local houses shoot lasers and walk on mechanical legs. Homer mistakes Sam Neill’s dulcet tones for Marge’s. A cat burglar replaces a portable T.V. with a book on coping with loss. Homer chews on sausages and falls asleep like a dog. Lisa pleases her father with repeated puffs into an old timey jug. News-ready professors agree that it’s time to crack your fellow man’s head open and consume the “goo” inside. The whole thing ends in a spate of homages to Dr. Strangelove and It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World.
It’s all both utterly unrealistic and silly, but also deeply, deeply funny. For however loose the tether to reality at this point in the show’s run, the laughs more than made up for it.
The thing that separates this era from later, over-the-top outings though is the existence of those throughlines. It’s not much, but Homer’s vow to find his daughter’s saxophone gives him motivation and purpose throughout the episode. Him getting sidetracked when the small measure of power he gains from his “drunken posse” goes to his head is an amusing satire of vigilante justice. Grandpa’s recurring complaints about being dismissed because of his age only to save the day give the episode a larger point, however much it may be wrapped in the show’s loony yuks. And the very existence and pursuit of the cat burglar adds stakes, however exaggerated, to the proceedings.
It’s not the show’s most emotional outing, or the one with the best storytelling, or, god help me, the one that makes the most sense. But it is also chock full of great laughs, some of which poke fun at news coverage and local idiots “making themselves feel big,” some of which are in service of noting how seniors are disregarded but can outsmart the lot of us, and some of which are just goofy interludes meant to tickle the funny bone. Whatever mode the show chooses to be in for an episode like this one, when it’s this hilarious, it’s hard to complain.
One of the craziest and funniest episodes of the show. There are so many great jokes spread across what seems like every character in the town of Springfield. Homer is hilarious of course, and his band of tire-wrench, bag-of-knobs carrying vigilantes will stop at nothing to right whatever they think is wrong...which is pretty much everything. I really love Grandpa Simpson, Ned Flanders and Jimbo Jones (the bully kid with the stocking hat and black T-Shirt) in this entry of Season Five.
I have to spend more time with this show. I think I've seen "Homer the Vigilante" as many times as any other single episode of The Simpsons. For now, I'd definitely put it near the top of the list of my all-time favorites.
Shout by Mista LukaBlockedParent2022-01-30T06:57:33Z
"Homer the Vigilante" is another good episode that sees Homer form a citizens' watch group when a cat burglar prowls Springfield. While the story is off the wall, with a somewhat odd ending, this is still a funny and entertaining episode.
Overall, another good one.