3F01 "Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily" [Review]

It�s time for a new classic episode review. This time I�ve chosen an episode from season 7, namely the first 3F episode 3F01 "Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily". It�s a complex episode, so the following interpretation is again pretty long.

All mistakes in English grammar and spelling are as usual my fault.

There is an interesting break of style between 2F17 "Radioactive Man" and 3F01 "Homediddly" - the break between fun-oriented season 6 and darker and character-oriented season 7. 2F17 tried to be some kind of Hollywood satire but it was mostly a row of jokes and visual gags without much point and thus it fell surprisingly flat and was IMO pretty uninteresting (but still good and amusing). 3F01 on the other hand is a much more radical and complex episode with hidden concepts, use of subtle elements and symbolism and thought-provoking content behind the surface.

3F01 is again an episode about the problems of conformity and conformized society (I say that about many episodes but it�s indeed a recurring element and often the base for hidden concepts. A message about the difference between conformists and non-conformists is essential for good satire, true satire has to consider life and society from a non-conformistic point of view to be sucessful <= one of the abilities the show has lost today.) 3F01 also is an episode with some genuinely disturbing moments like Marge�s emotional outburst when she�s seperated from her kids, the emotionless behaviour of the welfare agents and Maggie�s growing "adaption" to Flanders behaviour.

All this is shown in a much darker atmosphere with a couple of good (but mostly silent) jokes and with a lot of respect for the characters and their emotions. It�s IMO a clear break to the often (too?) light-hearted style of seasons 5 and 6, maybe the most noticeable break between two production codes and a suitable start for the season that brought us other masterpieces like "Bart Sells His Soul" which is quite similar to 3F01 in certain aspects (read my 3F02 review.)

Let�s have a closer look on 3F01 and its concepts.

The episode is pretty radical in certain moments and religious people certainly felt offended by some lines and jokes (like Ned describing the beast from the Book of Revelation and Bart guessing it may be Jesus.) However, like every good OFF episode about religion it doesn�t mock faith and belief in God but satirizes aspects of religion, this time religion as "tool" of social conformity, so I�d say it�s not so much an episode about religion but more about (educational) freedom and tolerance.

At the beginning, Marge�s role in the family is defined in an excellent way. She needs the family more than anything else and the family needs her more than anything else, clearly reminiscent of episodes like 8F14. She would do almost everything for her kids, especially for her "big child" Homer, who is afraid of a spider on the wall. There�s some sort of "chaos" on the surface (which the child welfare agents misinterpret and simplify as bad parenting) but there�s a lot of deep relation and emotion behind the surface, a lot of things the welfare agents can�t understand.

The Simpsons are often called a "dysfunctional" family in the media, but I don�t agree with that. The family is sometimes more functional than the society around them (the family used to be a functional point in a dysfunctional and satirically exaggerated world). I�d say they are functional but in a most different way. 3F01 is an episode with a very different message, where at the end the "bad" family is actually good and the "good" family is actually bad on a certain level.

Dysfunctionality on the surface can mean deeper relation while functionality on the surface can mean conformity. That�s IMO the subversive core of the episode and the main hidden concept.

The Simpson family was a family of non-conformists and an element opposed to society (thus they were so good in satirizing society) and 3F01 confronts the family with a society that tries to make them "fit". The emotionless child welfare and the overly protective Flanders family are both manifestations of the very same concept and the Simpsons are confronted with two of the most powerful "tools" of social conformity - State and law (the child welfare) and overdone religion (the Flanders) and both manifestations work against Homer and Marge and try to seperate them from their kids. Here again the subversive situation "non-conformists vs conformists" (the basic formula of the episode.)

The Flanders are a caring and loving family (and on first sight so much better as parents than Homer and Marge) but their life is also very sterile and emotionally flat and the "tool" of conformity in their case is religion and the overestimation of religion in life. The facade is that of a loving family but behind that facade it�s almost cold on a certain level, maybe reflected in Ned�s house with its clean and strangely lifeless memorabilia style and the difference to the chaotic but "living" Simpson household. Lisa said it best "It seems like our house, but everything�s got a creepy Pat Boone-ish quality to it."

Ned and Maude care for Bart and Lisa, but not because they love them in a true way (the way Marge loves her kids) but because their overestimation of religious values demands it. They try to transform the Simpson kids into good Christians, they also try to conformize them and make them parts of their kind of society. It�s clearly noticeable when they sing the song for Maggie and when Maggie starts to adapt to them (the most disturbing element of the episode.)

There�s a very important scene that shows us the true "quality" of Ned and Maude as parents and the very bad results of their over-protective lifestyle. When Bart and Lisa watch the violent I&S cartoon, they react in their usual innocent (or blunt) way with laughter, while Rod and Todd are truly shocked ("Daddy, what's the red stuff coming out of kitty's ears?" "Dad, should I poke Rod with a sharp thing like the mouse did?") when they are confronted with something that doesn�t fit into their extremely over-protected childhood. Todd�s line clearly implies that he immediately wants to repeat what he has seen on TV, a satirical exaggeration of the old topic that TV violence increases real violence.

Bart and Lisa are able to cope with such scenes (their character is stable enough) but Rod and Todd are not. Todd�s overdone "wish" to copy TV behaviour clearly shows that. The Flanders kids always have the tendency to copy other behaviour - take Homer�s swearing in 8F16 or the "freakin� ears" in 3F02 and many other scenes - and Ned and Maude do nothing to explain such stuff to them, over-protection and their "conformized" way of religious life is the only thing they do and it doesn�t work.

Rod and Todd are mentally unstable (and the problem is much more serious and complex than the stupid "Rod & Todd are gay" joke in season 11) and that�s the fault of their parents and maybe a reason of sterile and "happy" life in Ned�s house. Bart and Lisa are non-conformists and the kids of maybe "bad" parents but their character is stable and they are much more able to live a real life. That�s the actual message => Homer and Marge are better for "living beings" like Bart, Lisa and Maggie while Ned�s and Maude�s way of education turned Rod and Todd into...well...what they are.

The ending is very important and very well-done, it brings the concepts of surrealism and symbolism back into the show. Bart and Lisa are reunited with Homer but Maggie is still uncertain to where she belongs. That is wonderfully reflected and illustrated in the river scene, when we see the scene from Maggie�s point of view - her own (loving) family in the middle of the river with a bleak and barren landscape behind them and the Flanders on the bank with a colorful (and overdone) garden of Eden behind them. It�s so brilliantly unclear, the scene points in a completely different direction than what the plot implied.

Finally, Maggie sees her mother Marge and at the very same moment she knows that she belongs to her (a wonderful scene and excellently animated with a dynamic camera) so the final solution is love, which is the deeper relation neither the child welfare agents nor the Flanders could see. The episode is here pretty similar to 3F02 "Bart Sells His Soul" where - above all religious and philosophical impliciations - sibiling love was the final solution.

At the end of 3F01, OFF are re-united in their own special way and thus they�ll continue their non-conformistic way of life (which is clearly shown in the following episodes, like 3F02 and also 3F03 where Lisa causes "independent-thought-alarm" twice.)

Some 52 seconds are cut in syndication, including some pretty good lines (like the one about "county dentures" for Lisa or the agents complaining about "dogs mating on the dinner table") and the end of the I&S cartoon. I strongly recommend a full-length version.

I�d say 3F01 "Homediddly" is a dark and character-driven episode, it�s pretty radical in certain scenes and it has truly disturbing and subversive moments and hidden concepts and behind-surface-complexity, yet it is able to have a positive and uplifting ending where the characters are larger than the story. Grade A.

Comments are welcome.

Chris

P.S. There�s a reference to Orwell�s "1984" when Homer and Marge hear that "All is well" message from tape, while the government inspects their house (whitout permission). Interesting element.

Great review. Thanks for taking the time to write it.

Great review, as usual. It was particularly interesting to read this review right after The Parent Rap (rerun) aired in the states last night. That episode also deals with the theme of parenting, but does it all wrong, while this episode does it all right.

You mentioned that the theme at the end was about genuine parental love, which triumphs over the emotionless motives of the child welfare agency and the Flanders. In the Parent Rap, Marge and Homer are also trying to prove that they're good parents. So what do they do? Dress up as burglars, trespass into the judge's house, and destroy it. Pointless and obnoxious, a far cry from the ending to Home Sweet Home.

You also mentioned that it's unclear whether or not Homer and Marge are bad parents. That was always an interesting concept in the early years: the writers made fun of the institutionalized parenting set up by scholars who had no kids of their own. (Also found in Saturdays of Thunder, with the fatherhood Agency). And yet, it's debatable whether or not Marge and Homer really are bad parents are not. However, in The Parent Rap, the judge is portrayed as the ultimate villain, who the Simpsons must stop. There's no room for the viewers to think on their own whether judges are right to blame the parents. It was like a Miller Boyett comedy.

You didn't mention the funniest and most brilliant piece of irony in the episode: the scene where Homer, in action hero style, takes the baptism for Bart, right after Flanders asks "Do you reject Satan?" IMO, that's one of the finest moments in the series' run.

Overall, I'd give this episode an A-. Good job on your deep and interesting critique.

• The Jolly Bengali

[email] (The Jolly Bengali) wrote:

I felt the same way. I watched 3F01 on Saturday after reading Chris' review. Then on Sunday The Parent Rap premiered here, and it made blatantly obvious how bad CABF22 was.

Chris: your review is, as usual, brilliant. I don't have much to add to what you say.

Here's a list of episodes of which I'd like to hear your opinion (maybe some of them are reviewed in your site, I don't have the address right now): 3F03 Lisa the Vegetarian 1F11 Bart Gets Famous or 3F16 The Day the Violence Died 8F14 Homer Alone 8F19 Colonel Homer 2F14 Homer vs. Patty & Selma 4F07 Hurricane Neddy 7F18 Brush with Greatness 8F23 Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes 9F02 Lisa the Beauty Queen

Cheers,

Nicol�s Di Candiav wrote:

Interesting list. There are short reviews about 8F14, 8F19, 7F18, and 8F23 on my website (in the "Season 1 - 3 short review" section) but I guess they would deserve a more detailled consideration, short reviews are always very superficial, especially about complex S2/S3. Reminds me that I haven�t completed my S4 short reviews yet, I�d posted just the first half of the season.

I have written a pretty long German review about 3F16, maybe I�ll translate it for ATS. Maybe next weekend, but I can�t promise.

You can contact me via e-mail as well, if you want to discuss certain episodes, but I won�t be online for the next 2 or 3 days.

Chris

I find your ideas intreaguing, and would wish to subscribe to your newsletter

(Translation---what's your webpages name)

david

The Jolly Bengali wrote:

"Parent Rap" has IMO little to do with a real OFF episode, it�s a WB cartoon with cheap slapstick and with empty hulls who look like former OFF characters. No point, no fun, no real satire, no emotion you can relate to - just 20 minutes of flat and standardized nonsense for the TV mass-market.. The episode backs away from every serious social commentary and instead shows a pointless row of cheap gags. The only positive thing is maybe the ending - but it�s all so meaningless.

That�s very low quality, even for CABF relations, and a disgrace to the past of the show (IMO). And yet I remember an ATS post where someone called "Parent Rap" the best Simpson episode ever.

That�s one of the main differences between now and back then. In earlier years (for example in seasons 2 and 3, but also very often in season 7) the writers relied on the intelligence of the viewers. The episodes gave you an unclear message and you had to think independently about the meaning. In modern seasons there is (like you said) very often no room to think, it�s all too explained and obvious. Characters like the judge are nothing but flat and forgettable stereotypes.

Yep, brilliant scene. That�s the radical spirit of season 7.

Chris

P.S. Why don�t you write some detailled episode reviews? Your short reviews are always very good and insightful.

Chris, what's the address for your website?

GeoBQn wrote:

http://members.aol.com/Chris84792/simp.htm

Could be that some of the links don�t work properly. The AOL server is pretty slow, so you maybe have to try some of the links a couple of times.

Chris

I think what I'll do this summer is write more detailed "comparison" reviews. That is, I'll write a critique comparing and contrasting 2 episodes that deal with a similar theme. For example, I'm working on a review comparing Lisa the Iconoclast to Lisa the Skeptic, and why I thought the former was a better episode about Lisa's activism.

• The Jolly Bengali

Great review, as usual. It was particularly interesting to read this review right after The Parent Rap (rerun) aired in the states last night. That episode also deals with the theme of parenting, but does it all wrong, while this episode does it all right.

You mentioned that the theme at the end was about genuine parental love, which triumphs over the emotionless motives of the child welfare agency and the Flanders. In the Parent Rap, Marge and Homer are also trying to prove that they're good parents. So what do they do? Dress up as burglars, trespass into the judge's house, and destroy it. Pointless and obnoxious, a far cry from the ending to Home Sweet Home.

You also mentioned that it's unclear whether or not Homer and Marge are bad parents. That was always an interesting concept in the early years: the writers made fun of the institutionalized parenting set up by scholars who had no kids of their own. (Also found in Saturdays of Thunder, with the fatherhood Agency). And yet, it's debatable whether or not Marge and Homer really are bad parents are not. However, in The Parent Rap, the judge is portrayed as the ultimate villain, who the Simpsons must stop. There's no room for the viewers to think on their own whether judges are right to blame the parents. It was like a Miller Boyett comedy.

You didn't mention the funniest and most brilliant piece of irony in the episode: the scene where Homer, in action hero style, takes the baptism for Bart, right after Flanders asks "Do you reject Satan?" IMO, that's one of the finest moments in the series' run.

Overall, I'd give this episode an A-. Good job on your deep and interesting critique.

• The Jolly Bengali