No blackboard gag.
Couch gag: scene done like an early silent picture, Homer dresses and acts like Charlie Chaplin.
PLOT SYNOPSIS: while at the Googleplex, Homer's ire at having to wade through a sea of commercials, public announcements and coming attractions in lieu of seeing the movie winds up with him escaping angry ushers - and running into the fist of a statue of Drederick Tatum. Diagnosed with a broken jaw, he's got his jaw wired shut and unable to speak, but he soon discovers to take advantage of his plight by listening to his family more - and becomes an improved man! But a new, improved Homer is a boring Homer, and Marge just can't take the new lack of wackyness....
MY TAKE: four episodes in, and the Al Jean era continues to make improvements to the show with a story that has some warm touches to it. One of the biggest complaints people had during the Mike Scully era was Homer being too much of a jerk, a cretin, and being way too wacky, and here the plot takes these complaints and puts them on their ear by having Homer cured of his bad faults completely, only to have him become a flat, lifeless character that even Marge doesn't like. It does seem to drive home the fact that, as much as we like to see Homer be mature, it's his childlike and wrong-headedness behaviour that really makes him funny. But Homer does get to shine in this episode, particularly in the scene with Maggie stuck to his jaw apparatus (an instant classic!) and with the climactic demolition derby scene with its homage to old Popeye cartoons. And hey, we even got some Maggie interaction in this episode! Unfortunately, we also have some problems left over from the Scully era that look like they're going to take some time to weed out, like the shocking sex gags ( "Soccer Mummy", Moe's escort service call).
score : A-
DYN:
- Homer seems to have gotten over most of his homophobia, judging by his reactions to the Gay Pride Parade?
- Rocko was on the Gay Steel Workers Float?
- although we didn't see her, we did hear Patty's voice in the "Still In The Closet" float? (we all know that it can't possibly be Selma).
- come to think of it - did anyone see Smithers at the parade? I certainly didn't!
- Binky The Rabbit, from Matt Groening's _Life In Hell_ comic strip, was one of the animals in the theatre in the Itchy & Scratchy "turn off the cell phone" ad?
- it appears OFF's station wagon is a total write-off now? (any bets on if it will ever return, and if it does, will it still keep its damage like the sedan has since "The People Of New York Vs. Homer Simpson"?)
- Barney sober at Moe's and with a coffee cup?
CULTURAL REFERENCES:
"Eyes Wide Shut" - episode's title a parody of title of the last movie Stanley Kubrick ever made.
"Ed O'Neill" - he's best known for his role as Al Bundy on FOX's long-running series _Married With Children_, but since that series ended we haven't heard much from him, save a movie he did with John Travolta over a year ago that sank like a stone.
"Duffman will never die, only the actors who play him" - a poke at the fact that many well-loved corporate mascots have been played by a variety of people, most notably Ronald Macdonald, and, probably more pointedly, the Marlboro Man (one of the Marlboro Man actors did die from lung cancer, after he won a lawsuit he launched at RJR Tobacco).
"Popeye" - the popular comic strip creation of Elzie Segar's - a one-eyed, cynical, scrawny sailor with a heart of gold and prone to violence - took on added life in the 1930s when the Max Fleischer Studios began producing a series of theatrical cartoons, which were noted for their wit, brilliant dialogue, incredible animation techniques, and above all, the golden voice talents of Jack Mercer as Popeye and Mae Questal as Popeye's scrawny love interest Olive Oyl.
Indeed, there are several great moments inspired by Popeye shorts in the episode's climax:
- Bart squeezes the can of Duff the same way Popeye does his can of spinach to get the stuff to fly into his mouth.
- the crazy music that plays as the beer enters Homer's mouth the same music that plays as Popeye eats his spinach.
- Spinach causes Popeye to become super-strong in the same way the Duff affects Homer (well, actually, spinach doesn't turn Popeye into a super jerk-ass :) )
- Popeye flexes his muscle after eating spinach, and a picture showing how strong he's become (a battleship, a tank) appears.
- Several times during the climax, Homer makes a low muttering aside, a Jack Mercer trademark in his Popeye voice work (example: "oh my , this is so embarrassking, I's never made love in Techsnicolour before"). Kudos to Dan Casstelnata for getting Homer to do this right!
- Homer squints in his left eye - Popeye has a permanent squint in the left side of his face.
- Popeye has been known to administer spinach to animals to make them super-strong in order to help him save Olive.
- Marge's actions as she screams for Homer to save her identical to Olive's, right down to the rubbery shuddering in her arms!
"The View" - the television talk show Homer appears on with Marge to talk about his change is a direct parody of this daytime talk show created by Barbara Walters for ABC to talk about women and women's issues, though sometimes it seems more like it's four grown women dishing the dirt on national TV. Indeed, the four women in the parody are direct parodies of the women on the show, including Walters (right down to her slight speech impediment), Joy Behar (right down to Brooklyn accent) and Starr Jones (she actually does make those sort of "right on, sister!" pronouncements).
"Jackass" - just when the memory of "That's Incredible" was fading from the national consciousness, along comes this controversial MTV "reality TV" show, in which the hosts get teenagers to perform death-defying and extremely stupid stunts for their chance to be on TV. A Darwin Award waiting to happen (and recently, brilliantly parodied by Chris Carter on _The X-Files_ as "Dumbass")
"You told me we were going to Red Lobster!" - North American chain of seafood restaurants, offering items like "bottomless buckets of crab!" (although the chain has its detractors, referring to its quality as "Red Latex")