"Mobile Homer" proved that they can still make an entertaining episode. At this point, it's better to have a slapstick-driven episode than the usual slow-paced drab that is more than often churned out.
Typically, the newer eps drag on from scene to scene. Sometimes the characters, themselves, seem to be waiting for something to happen. (Man, sometimes you swear that you can hear a cartoon pin dropping...)
In "Mobile Homer", (especially the first act), the pacing was rapid. Better to have fast pacing with many jokes one right after another, (even if some of them aren't the greatest), then to have cartoon characters appear dumbfounded in their own world.
I am wondering if last night's successful script/execution of ideas was more of a product involving brainstorming/team effort - instead of the team just tweaking one writer's script...