This is a hard one to grade. It's right on the edge of the gap between the classic years and what came after. It'd be a lesser light by classic standards, but a much better-than-average episode by post-classic standards.
It features the best and the worst of showrunner Mike Scully. In terms of the best, it has good-to-great jokes and memorable moments. "With sexy results" is still something of a meme lo' these many years later, the nigh-cutaway gag featuring the gay Republicans seeing the pink balloon is a big laugh, and even little bits like Bart and Lisa being relieved that the polka music in the car is over with only to hear it live as soon as they arrive at the beer festival are fun.
But the story is disjointed and oddly structured. The first act is mostly about The Simpsons' adventures at the beer festival, with a small tag of Moe realizing how ugly he is. The second is Moe getting plastic surgery and getting revenge. The third is about his misadventures as a soap opera star. Sure, it's not as random as something like "Kill the Alligator and Run" -- there's a progression from each part of the story to the next, but the segments don't really have anything to do with one another, and there's no overarching point or idea or lesson or anything that connects it all really. To put it in Simpsons terms, it's just a bunch of stuff that happened, and that's not even counting the elephant balloon B-story that barely existed and then wasn't mentioned again after the second act.
At the same time, we're at cartoonishly Jerkass Homer levels here. He sets off a smoke alarm to drag his family to a beer festival. He starts to pour gasoline around a TV studio and then just sort of shrugs it off when Moe calls him off. He gleefully throws a rock through a nice lady's window. Gone is the loveable oaf who could be selfish or oblivious, and instead he's replaced with a destructive overgrown six-year-old who has no compassion or empathy for anyone.
Despite all that, the story is more coherent than a lot of latter-day Simpsons episodes, and the humor is still there, but this is very much one where the cracks are starting to outnumber the solid parts of the foundation.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2016-03-07T05:23:27Z
This is a hard one to grade. It's right on the edge of the gap between the classic years and what came after. It'd be a lesser light by classic standards, but a much better-than-average episode by post-classic standards.
It features the best and the worst of showrunner Mike Scully. In terms of the best, it has good-to-great jokes and memorable moments. "With sexy results" is still something of a meme lo' these many years later, the nigh-cutaway gag featuring the gay Republicans seeing the pink balloon is a big laugh, and even little bits like Bart and Lisa being relieved that the polka music in the car is over with only to hear it live as soon as they arrive at the beer festival are fun.
But the story is disjointed and oddly structured. The first act is mostly about The Simpsons' adventures at the beer festival, with a small tag of Moe realizing how ugly he is. The second is Moe getting plastic surgery and getting revenge. The third is about his misadventures as a soap opera star. Sure, it's not as random as something like "Kill the Alligator and Run" -- there's a progression from each part of the story to the next, but the segments don't really have anything to do with one another, and there's no overarching point or idea or lesson or anything that connects it all really. To put it in Simpsons terms, it's just a bunch of stuff that happened, and that's not even counting the elephant balloon B-story that barely existed and then wasn't mentioned again after the second act.
At the same time, we're at cartoonishly Jerkass Homer levels here. He sets off a smoke alarm to drag his family to a beer festival. He starts to pour gasoline around a TV studio and then just sort of shrugs it off when Moe calls him off. He gleefully throws a rock through a nice lady's window. Gone is the loveable oaf who could be selfish or oblivious, and instead he's replaced with a destructive overgrown six-year-old who has no compassion or empathy for anyone.
Despite all that, the story is more coherent than a lot of latter-day Simpsons episodes, and the humor is still there, but this is very much one where the cracks are starting to outnumber the solid parts of the foundation.