20x01 Sex, Pies and Idiot Scrapes

[4.7/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] God, I can’t believe they made this one the season premiere. This is one of those episodes that just makes you shake your head at the post-classic Simpsons output. The core of this one isn’t bad, but the execution is so off that you wonder what the hell the folks behind the scenes were thinking.

But let’s start with the things I like! First, I got a kick out of the “Marge bakes erotic cakes” B-story. It’s not the best thing in the world, and there’s next to no conflict in it, but it’s cute, sweet, and funny, and that is a welcome balm in an episode that otherwise drips of the worst excesses of this era of the show.

It had my two favorite gags in the episode: Marge imagining what her life would be like if she became a local baker and seeing the results be very low stakes, and the shtick with the baker revealing that the cake he made for Dr. Hibbert is exactly what she thinks it is. Plus, Homer’s “withholding sexy cakes” comment is a solid chuckle, and Marge’s reticence to admit what she’s doing, despite the harmlessness of it, because of how uptight she is, makes for a good beat. Her “love of my life” cake to Homer is the kind of tacked-on, unearned, schmaltzy ending the show did a lot in this period, but I’ll admit to being a sucker for it.

I also like the idea of the A-story with Homer and Ned. The two neighbors discovering that they actually like each other when deciding to work together as bounty hunters, only to be pulled apart by Homer’s recklessness and Ned’s rule-bound nature, is a great idea. The best parts of the story are the two having genuinely sweet moments of camaraderie together, like singing a cheap Chrsitian cover band version of “Dirty Deeds” on a stakeout.

But good lord, the bulk of the gags in this episode are terrible. They defy the laws of physics and aren’t funny enough to justify it. There’s a big homage to wire-fu wuxia films that feels tonally out of place on The Simpsons. There’s a gag about Catholic priests that is going to make a friend of mine downright angry. Homer’s main characteristic is being a jerk. And there’s just very few laughs here. The opening St. Patrick’s Day riff is a dead end comedically, and the gags throughout evoke more of a “What the hell was that?” reaction than anything approaching laughter.

I don’t want to beat a dead horse, but this one has every aspect of post-classic Simpsons humor that people gripe about, and more. It’s an unfocused, unfunny entry in the show’s later years that made people turn of their TVs rather than continue to watch their favorite show decline like this.