14 replies to this topic

[InvaderNorbert]

It's back! In POG form! From SNPP:

When Marge's car gets wrecked, she finds the car of her dreams, except for one problem - it only seats five, and she wants another child; Bart tries to find out why Lisa is getting secret messages and sneaking downtown after school

Remember when Homer & Marge high-fived when they found out Marge WASN'T pregnant? Sigh.

ETA: Loved that cold open, even if most of the footage was re-used from 2008.

"Mitt Romney: I have a state in your house!"

"Mitt Romney wears magic underwear? I expect the leader of the free world to go commando. Although he DID invent Obamacare. Plus, his horse totally choked at the olympics."

I was in the path of Hurricane Sandy, so I got a kick out Springfield handling the aftermath of the giant sinkhole.

The '83 Yugo..such a dumb pun, but I laughed.

I thought it was well established that Homer was sterile thanks to the power plant. It's the reason he "won" the First Annual Montgomery Burns Award! But I liked the reveal of what happened to Homer's sperm sample. He "fathered" as many babies as Barney!

I love whenever Homer argues with his brain. And it was actually giving him good advice for once! And of course, Homer didn't take it and was rewarded with the image of Patty & Selma as twin babies.

Springfield Elementary is so awful that if Lisa drops out, they're technically a tornado shelter with voting booths. And it played into Lisa going to an afterschool class to learn cursive because the school isn't teaching it due to said budget problems. Love that.

I enjoyed this episode much more than I thought I would!

Edited by InvaderNorbert, Nov 4, 2012 @ 8:32 PM.

[Tell Her No]

Wow. I was watching the TV, but how in the hell did I miss the reason why Bart kept finding these weird notes? Oh, I know! I wasn't paying attention to the B-story!

While I can understand that Marge could want another baby, I thought the idea of her becoming angry about the size of the car=wanting a baby was so obvious that even I could see it, and I wasn't even paying that much attention.

I don't know, the episode was good, but the story was funnier 20 or so years ago on Bakersfield, P.D.

[Kaboom]

Thanks, Homer, for putting the image of the leader of the free world (whoever that may be come tomorrow) going commando in my head. Shudder. Still won't replace the whale in my dreams tho.

[Earl Camembert]

He "fathered" as many babies as Barney!

Wow, I completely forgot about that. Apparently you take a giant risk by using artificial insemination in the Springfield/Shelbyville region.

Not a bad episode. Poor Milhouse, no one ever stops for the blue haired kid.

[TVspectator]

Does anybody else find it disturbing that Homer has a ton of babies that was fathered through his sperm bank donations?

[LinQuelb]

The twist ending with multiple children of Homer saved an otherwise average episode for me. But other than that . . . meh.

[blackwing]

I thought it was mediocre. Thought it would be a lot funnier, and it just wasn't.

Also, I get that every celebrity and his brother wants to be a "guest voice" on the show, but they really should make more of an effort to actually use them in the plot. Lady Gaga from last season is an example of a good guest star appearance. Having Jeff Gordon walk by for two seconds and say "Hi there!" or whatever it was, and then say he was a guest star? Zzzzzzz.

[braggtastic]

Are kids really not taught cursive (script) writing in elementary school anymore?

[LinQuelb]

No, they're not. I remember when the family moved away many, many seasons ago, to a brand-new city, that Bart was placed in a remedial class because he couldn't read cursive, even telling his new teacher that Springfield Elementary didn't teach cursive. It was likely early in season seven or eight. So in some ways, they observed some nice continuity in that storyline.

[stinkymcgee]

Okay, *Springfield* doesn't teach cursive... but how about real-life elementary schools? Have keyboarding skills replaced cursive writing practice? I hope it's a recurring gag making a statement about the school district Lisa is single-handedly carrying, and not a reflection of many grade schools in the 21st century.

[TVspectator]

Okay, *Springfield* doesn't teach cursive... but how about real-life elementary schools? Have keyboarding skills replaced cursive writing practice? I hope it's a recurring gag making a statement about the school district Lisa is single-handedly carrying, and not a reflection of many grade schools in the 21st century.

There are schools, in real life, that have dropped cursive. They usually cite that it's obsolete because of typing and that if the student will write something they will use print. Also, states around the nation have dropped that out of their curriculum, citing the same thing.

[TookiClothespin]

I enjoyed the episode.

The cursive thing bugged me for two reasons, though:

1. Of all things the Springfield curriculum must be lacking, Lisa sought out cursive writing lessons? Why couldn't she have been taking physics lessons or something?

(I had hoped they were going to reveal Lisa was involved in some bad-ass, world domination thing, but if they wanted to make a point about education, cursive writing wasn't the way to go. I'm 22, so my schooling is all recent. Cursive was part of my school's curriculum, physics was not. Guess which I think is more important.)

2. Weren't the notes Bart was finding written in cursive? I have friends who can barely read cursive because they weren't taught to write it (they can only sign their names).

[JTMacc99]

Okay, since I am anti-continuity, I am conflicted.

Does this episode mean that the Springfield Tire Fire is gone forever? I think it does. How sad.

[TVspectator]

1. Of all things the Springfield curriculum must be lacking, Lisa sought out cursive writing lessons? Why couldn't she have been taking physics lessons or something?

(I had hoped they were going to reveal Lisa was involved in some bad-ass, world domination thing, but if they wanted to make a point about education, cursive writing wasn't the way to go. I'm 22, so my schooling is all recent. Cursive was part of my school's curriculum, physics was not. Guess which I think is more important.)

2. Weren't the notes Bart was finding written in cursive? I have friends who can barely read cursive because they weren't taught to write it (they can only sign their names).

1. IMO, the former administrator guess that by teaching Lisa cursive writing she was teaching her a skill that would otherwise be not taught to her.

2. I guess it is possible to read in cursive but not to write in it. It is possible for Lisa to write part in print and part in cursive, because she is still learning (I would say that the old saying "practise makes prefect" would apply for Lisa's case). Also, some people have a condition called Aphasia where they can't write but they can read (or they can't read but can write, or can't speak, read, or write).

Overall, I really did enjoy watching Bart's and Lisa's story over Marge's and Homer's story.

Edited by TVspectator, Nov 13, 2012 @ 8:18 PM.

[Phoenix B]

I would have been okay with a fourth Simpson kid and then maybe aging Maggie a year or so. If the show is truly going to go on forever (odds are it will) then why not add something new?