Thoughts: An interesting episode, to say the least. The first act was, as usual, unimportant to the story but with one minor element (crow pecking Homer's eye), but it was certainly funny. Homer's reaction to the wonder drug was, besides laughing at Burns and befriending fellow poth-ead Otto, not out of the ordinary. Only problem was the ending. Surely something could be done besides just having Marionette Burns slap himself, Smithers, and Homer. Still a good episode, but I'd wonder if "Who Shot Grampa's Hat?" would have been better. RATING: Sitting Attentively* (equivalent to 2 stars on a 4-star scale)
Cultural References: "Weekend at Bernie's" (movie) -Title -Idea of acting as if a corpse is alive
"The Wizard of Oz" (movie) -"If I Only Had A Brain" plays as Marge sets out the scarecrow pieces
"VH1's Pop-Up Video" (TV show) -Comic Book Guy's bubbly previous episode prop pointers
"The Three Stooges" (movie short series) -Otto and Moe watch a Shemp-era film starring this trio
*Since I could never really get the hang of a star, number, or grade (A-F) system, I've decided to go with the Little Man� system of San Francisco Chronicle fame.