Or should I say a cross between family guy and family matters. They had a good opportunity to blow the brits out of the water with some good satire, but instead the whole episode focused on jokes involving running into famous brits like Rowlings and McCellan. This is the similarity to Family Guy, which relied soley on pop culture references as jokes.
Is there anything more annoying that Lisa's raucous declarations? "SIR IAN MCCELLAN?????" "PRIME MINISTER TONY BLAIR????"
It is almost as if we are supposed to think it is funny or interesting just because the Simpsons are in England meeting the likes of Tony Blair. Or we are supposed to be thrilled that they are in England. This is the part that reminds me of a Family Matters or some other TGIF "comedy." In the end, those shows focused on the whacky adventures of their characters as well, but the adventures never seem to be whacky or interesting.
There were two scenes that made me laugh in the whole episode: "I can't believe we met Mr. Bean." and the scene involving lord daftwager.
Compare this episode to the one where they have to go to NYC. Not once in that episode did they go for corny jokes about the mayor or did Homer stumble upon Howard Stern or David Letterman or anything of that sort. It was just funny, with NYC as a backdrop rather than a forced element of the story that required obvious jokes.
What the hell has happened.