[8.7/10] Such a fantastic episode. The stories here are great, but what really makes this one a winner is how many absolutely laugh-till-you-cry gags there in this one. My wife and I just died laughing at: Homer and the big piano, “Let’s forget all our troubles with a big bowl of strawberry ice cream,” “the Keibler people were very upset,” and “Well, you were right about the Berlin wall.” And those were just the gags that cracked us up so much we had to pause the episode. This is a laugh riot, and as admirable as everything else it goes for is, it wins on comedy alone.
But again, both stories are good! The A-story, where Lisa goes on a crusade against a sexist Malibu Stacy doll and with it, poor role models for little girls generally, succeeds on the strength of Lisa’s idealism matched with the cynicism and indifference of the world of commerce. There’s a lot of good comedy gained from everybody else in the family being kind of leery of Lisa’s latest bout of activism, even Marge! The humor the show wrings both from the notion that children’s playthings are dictated by sterile megacorporations and from the vacuous messages sent to young women works for both laughs and social commentary.
Lisa’s crusade strikes the right notes between idealism and cynicism though. She doesn't beat the system; that wouldn’t be very Simpsons-y. But she does get through to both her doll’s creator and another little girl (even as the show dryly acknowledges that the Lisa Lionheart effort was a $46,000 write-off). It’s enough of a win mixed with a loss to feel true to the deck-stacking of the real world while still giving Lisa a reason to be proud.
I also love Kathleen Turner as Stacy Lovell here. Her dry, sarcastic wit is a godsend, and the way the episode balances her being a bitter pushed-out creator and the literal embodiment of Malibu Stacy is superb. Turner’s delivery hits just the right notes of humor and character.
The Grampa-focused B-story is a winner as well. There’s a legitimate observation there about folks having late-life crises. Naturally, the show is able to wring as many yuks out of the situation as possible. Grampa’s rambling stories are outstanding here (“yams stuffed with gunpowder!”) and his faltering attempts to look and act young got plenty of chuckles out of me. But I like where his story ends too. It also has the right mix of cheer and cynicism, where he once again feels comfortable acting his age, but only through the joys of complaining about everything. It’s the perfect end to his story.
That doesn't even touch on the other brilliant gags this episode packs in that are tangential to those stories. Smithers’s computer’s boot up screen is a classic bit. Bart yowling around in the background trying to get people’s attention is a nice metagag. And even the random humor of some guy in Washington throwing a brick at the Simpsons’ door got a big laugh out of me. With David Mirkin as showrunner and Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein as the credited writers, rest assured, there’s so much great comedy on tap.
Overall, this is an episode that gets both A-story and B-story right and keeps the great jokes coming fast and furiously. A lot to like!
Shout by Mista LukaBlockedParent2022-01-31T04:02:43Z
"Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy" is a mediocre episode that sees Lisa market a new doll that's a better role model for girls. While I enjoyed Grampa's side plot, as limited as it was, the main story just wasn't interesting for me, with very few laughs.
Overall, pretty forgettable, in my opinion.