In The Name Of The Grandfather, Season 20: Ep 14

This episode was a relatively satisfying, I mean who doesn’t like to poke fun at the Irish right? But that’s beside the point. The episode starts off at a convention center; Marge had dragged her family to a Home and Garden Expo. Needless to say this is start to a series of events that leads Homer and his father into a legal battle in Europe after knocking back a few too many. Homer and his family had been strangely drawn to the soothing sound of the hot tub section, and being Homer, made the rash financial call to purchase a hot tub right on the spot.

The Simpsons had bathed themselves all day, night and day again in their new hot tub. Unfortunately, Grandpa had missed out on a fun filled day of activities during the nursing homes annual family fun day. So Grandfather had left the home to see what had caused his family’s absence.

Once Grandfather had found out about what had replaced his special day, he broke the hot tub and broke down; he told his family about his dream to revisit Ireland before he had passed away. Within a few hours, the Simpsons found themselves in Ireland, Homer and his dad took to drinking while the rest of the family took in the sights.

Where I would like to go with this is the dangers of alcohol. The Simpsons had drunk themselves to the point of a blackout. During this blackout, they had signed the deed to a dying Irish pub named O’Flanagans. This deal must have been a fiscal suicide, and eventually lead them into legal troubles.

To college and high school students; drinking is a fun activity, not going to argue. But excessive drinking to blackout points can be dangerous to yourself and others. The Simpsons had showed that they didn’t realize they purchased a pub, but what if you hadn’t realized you drove a friend home drunk and got in an accident, had unprotected sex or died from an alcohol poisoning?

You never know what will happen during a blackout. Last winter I was hit by a drunk driver, thankfully it was just a minor fender bender with no injuries. But this was as close as I wanted to get to the subject of a horrific accident involving an intoxicated driver. The Simpsons had grazed the dangers of drinking, but this one segment had brought back horrified memories of my encounter with a person who had too much to drink.

In closing, drinking is a fun activity but can lead to stupid acts. The Simpsons comically portrayed a poor decision to drink as much as they did, but that is a cartoon. In real life you don’t always get a second chance. The drunk driver that hit me hung himself in jail after being picked up by the police because he was going to be sentenced to jail for a long time; he left a wife and two kids behind.

Gone Maggie Gone, Season 20: Ep 13

The spoof on The Da Vinci Code was an instant classic. It was way more enjoyable then the last episode. The total eclipse of the sun was taking place in Springfield and unfortunately Marge was a casualty after she had given up her solar viewer to Homer after he and Bart destroyed his. Of course, Marge had decided to look at the raw solar eclipse anyways, burning her eyes and forcing Homer to take charge of the home.

The Simpson kitchen is infested by rats, so Homer decided to take Maggie and their dog to the pest control store to buy some poison. In a period of a few short minutes, Homer had taken his daughter into a chemical store, driven off the road and left Maggie unattended. This is some lack of parenting skills.

Other then the obvious parenting atrocities this episode also shows Lisa in a different light. Because she’s usually the educated and intelligent one, she naturally assumes that in the end of the episode that she is the chosen one. She even manipulated a clue to suit her ego-centric wish even though the first word in the sentence made no logical sense. I thought this was rather funny because she’s usually the methodical one, but this time the Simpsons chose to make fun of her for trying to be perfect all the time.

In the end, Maggie is pronounced the savior of Springfield but Marge refuses to let her daughter go. Naturally, the end of the episode needed to end comically and Bart took the throne and well… all hell broke loose.

This episode wasn’t just about social commentary, because the ideas weren’t through as much as usual. This episode was plain and simple enjoyment with little thinking, unless you tried to solve the clues (which I didn’t) that presented themselves before commercial break.

No Loan Again, Naturally, Season 20: Ep 12

This episode wasn’t as funny as previous episodes only because of how true the ideas were in relation to society today. This episode of the Simpsons dealt with consumer spending and how families are being forcibly evicted from their homes because of fiscal irresponsibility. The show opens up with the Simpsons hard at work preparing the festivities for their annual mardi gras party.

This annual mardi gras party is just one of the fiscal irresponsibility’s that the Simpsons had plagued themselves with over the years. Unfortunately this time the bank had refused to loan them anymore money and had set their new monthly payments to a figure they just couldn’t afford. The Simpsons ended up losing their house.

Unfortunately; this is a true social commentary on America today. Too many people had spent past what they were able to afford and now our economy as a whole is suffering because of it. The Simpsons did manage to poke fun at big banks, but in all honesty it’s not just the banks fault. It was families like the Simpsons (not just Homer) that pushed their credit to the limit.

The rest of the episode was a slightly complicated and hysterical combination of moral values, legal ramifications, evictions and backstabbing neighbors.

As hard as I tried to enjoy this episode, it hit closer to home then I would like. I was born and raised in Vestal, New York. Across the river is Endicott, once home to the Endicott-Johnson Shoe Company and one of the reasons that our community was founded. In later years IBM was also founded here and in recent years, it has packed up and left many without jobs. Growing up in elementary and middle school a lot of my friends parents had worked at IBM; it wasn’t uncommon for both parents to work there and consequently both parents had been laid off at the same time.

Even though my town doesn’t directly relate to the Simpsons lack of responsibility the connections of what the Simpsons had gone through are very similar to the positions a lot of my friends were/are in. This is the first time in history that the Simpsons had hit home.

How The Test Was Won, Season 20: Ep 11

“Happy New Year, OF SCHOOL!” Homer and Marge Simpson needless to say are pumped that their children are no longer under their roof 24 hours a day and have to attend the public education system once again (Simpsons is on its 20^th season… Shouldn’t these kids be a little older by now?). This statement probably holds true for hundreds of thousands of American parents who desire nothing more than to get away from constant torture that they produced. But the real story takes place after the students of Springfield Elementary learn that they will have to take a government issued standardized test to decide the fate of finance in their school.

To prevent poor scores, the Superintendant and Principal of the school decided to prevent certain children from taking the test, after all it’s not about students learning but the money that the school could receive. This idea was very funny and yet according to Doc Rod, what some schools do to get the underachievers from doing just that. I couldn’t believe that this practice actually exists. And then I remembered that society isn’t perfect and the Simpsons wouldn’t include that scene if it wasn’t an actual problem with our society.

Lisa played the biggest role in this episode. Lisa is a great student but became overly stressed when the time came to take the standardized test as part of the “No Child Left Alone Act.” This scene had refreshed horrible memories from my past; I had to take the New York State Regents tests. The NYSRT a series of tests that New York students are required to take and pass in order to pass high school. Often these tests are long, boring and cover 200% more information then we actually learned in high school. These tests add to the stress levels of students, and like Lisa, students do crack under pressure and fail miserably.

In closing… 1) Stress shouldn’t be placed on students when they are so young. 2) I have two words for the New York State Board of Regents, “**** YOU!”

Take My Life Please, Season 20: Ep 10

The ability to alter history is something that I always thought would be the greatest super power to have. If not being able to completely alter history, the ability to view different outcomes based on alternate decisions would have fallen a close third on my super power list, behind instant teleportation like the movie Jumper of course. In episode 10 of season 20, Homer Simpson was given a chance to view how his life could have been if he had won the Presidential election in his high school. This unrealistic episode is deeper then the sauce pot in which Homer stared into anxiously awaiting to see what he could have become.

The episode opens up with the camera panning out at a Springfield Wall of Fame induction ceremony for former high school class President Vance Connor (Homer finds out later that he had actually won the election). Vance takes the stage with an award winning smile, a business suit and great hair. From the crowd, excited townsfolk cheer him on and Lenny shouts “You’re better than us!” It’s apparent that Vance is living the dream everyone desires and Homer envies.

Later in the episode, Homer and his family enter a mysterious Italian restaurant and learn that a giant bowl of pasta sauce has the ability to show him and his family what life might have been had the votes been counted and he had been the class President despite protests from his wife and daughter Lisa, Homer chooses to peer into the sauce. Life is different for Homer, even though he won his high school election because he was the biggest loser in high school; it dramatically had changed his life and produced a successful man.

Even though he still worked for Mr. Burns, lived in Springfield and had married Marge; he didn’t have any children… Not that Homer had cared very much that he was without children in this alternate reality. He softened up and was happy again at the end of the episode after his family had presented him with a plaque in the Springfield Wall of Fame. Homer had wished to be remembered and he wished that he could make his mark on history and thanks to his family; he was given his niche in their society.

If I had to guess the moral of the story; I would say that it’s better to leave the past alone and stop dwelling on what could have been and focus on what can be tomorrow. But what do I know? I still want to see what my life could have been had like had I went to Fordham University with some blond chick that I knew from Ithaca, New York