[The long of it]
By now, most fans of "The Simpsons" know that the family members, with the exception of Bart, are named for Matt Groening's actual family. It took everyone by surprise when it came to light in 1990, though. Not only did Groening have two smart little sisters named Lisa and Maggie, but his mother went by Marge, and his father was one of the few living people who could claim "Homer" as his given name. This naturally begged the question: How closely did the real-life Groenings resemble the dysfunctional Simpsons, and did they mind having their names lifted for use on a bunch of cartoon characters? (Having a cartoon character named for you wasn't the status symbol then that it is today.) Groening admitted they were a little put off at first, but they quickly got over it. It wasn't as though Matt was airing the family's dirty laundry -- the real-life Homer Groening was by all accounts a talented and loving man, a sort of inverse Homer Simpson. Groening just gave existing names to a new set of characters.
Marge -- the cartoon one -- does the opposite in "Diatribe of a Mad Housewife." She writes a novel set in 19th-century Nantucket and gives her characters antique names like Temperance Barrows, but they are still recognizably the people she knows in modern-day Springfield. What happens next is pretty funny, and shows that Matt probably had the right idea in *not* bringing his real family to the TV screen.
Marge's career as a writer is set in motion after she meets Esme Delacroix, a romance novelist who works the word "Scoundrel" into all of her titles. Two features make this plot a success. Say what you will about the quality of writing on today's shows, but Marge's is worse. One of her heroines stares at the sea, "like a dog stares at a ham." The opening line of her novel is, "There once was a girl from Nantucket, whose heart was heavy with feelings." It's nice to be able to laugh at bad writing than write another rant about it.
As Marge writes, the point of view drifts between her world and the parallel universe of Nantucket, another thing that I liked about this episode. My favorite moment comes when Temperance, the Marge-like heroine, is doing some work in the garden. The hero of the story, who bears a strong resemblance to Ned Flanders, asks if she'd show him around the island. "Nantucket is an island?" our heroine asks, and in the very next scene we see Marge consulting an atlas, and discovering, to her surprise, that it is. Then, the next scene picks up as though nothing had happened.
I appreciated the other little touches. Tom Clancy and Thomas Pynchon supply some positive (more or less) blurbs for "The Harpooned Heart." The jokes about Pynchon's reclusive life weren't subtle, but they were good. Homer's reaction to Marge's writing is also good. He's oblivious to her work for most of the show, but he doesn't stoop to make mean-spirited jokes and even tries honestly to read Marge's novel. Too bad he gets distracted after the first sentence.
Speaking of Homer, has a wacky-job subplot in this episode. Just this morning, it occurred to me that I could gauge the worth of a wacky new job by asking a simple question: Is the new job more or less funny than his normal occupation at the plant? By this standard, Homer's brief stint as a used-car salesman could use some work (although the idea of Homer as a salesman has promise). Fortunately, the writers devote more time to Homer's new ambulance-driver job, which has more payoff. Homer seems to think that driving an ambulance is like driving a taxi. He asks his patients where they'd like to go, and is genuinely surprised when they all want to go to the hospital. "Everyone's going there tonight," he observes. Later, he finds a clever way to use the ambulance to talk to Flanders. Perhaps the best thing about this subplot is the fact that it *is* a subplot. Three years ago, this would most likely have been the main story, stretching a subplot's worth of jokes thin over the length of a show, while ignoring Marge and the kids. Moving this to the "B" story not only allows more room for the interesting main plot, but lets the writers concentrate on the best "wacky job" jokes without having to create a lot of filler.
An ending that's slightly limp is my only complaint about this episode. It requires that the viewer accept Homer has a sudden change of heart, and while I liked the parallel between it and the end of Marge's novel, it seems a little out of left field. The closing gag with Homer and Marge makes up for some of it, though.
I suspect that most everyone who admires an author, screenwriter, or cartoonist secretly wishes he'd base a character on them. "Diatribe of a Mad Housewife" shows that there's a downside to this wish. It's not just entertaining, but it has a message for beginning writers: Write what you know, but not always *who* you know.
[The short of it]
Marge takes that famous advice, "Write what you know," a little too seriously in this funny episode. Marge's bad writing and the way the show's point of view shifted between "real" Springfield and the olde Nantucket of the novel made the main plot a success in spite of a limp ending. Homer's reaction to the way Marge models her characters after people she knows is nicely oblivious without being mean-spirited. Short cameos by Thomas Pynchon (a minor miracle), Tom Clancy, and the Olsen twins added to the fun. Homer's ambulance-driving job is wisely made a subplot, rather than stretching it too thin to make it the main plot. So, you still want a "Simpsons" character based on you? (B+)
[DYNs]
... Krusty Burger offers an "everything on the menu" package for $39.99, but if you ordered them all individually they only cost $31.47? ... Homer runs his car through Burns's office, even though it's not on the ground floor? ... the siren's "Buy Me" sound resembles Ralph's voice? ... Marge has one of those dot-matrix impact-hammer printers, complete with fan-fold paper? ... Ashley Olsen finally gets billed ahead of her sister Mary Kate? Hooray for alphabetical order!
[References]
Barnes & Noble [et al.] (bookstore chain) - Bookachino's is a mega-bookstore in the same mold
"I, Robot" (collected science-fiction stories) - one of Delacroix's novels is titled, "I, Scoundrel"
Sue Grafton (?) novels - have titles beginning, "'A' is for ..."; one Delacroix book is called, "'A' is for Scoundrel"
"Moby Dick" (book) - like Marge's novel, uses the whaling industry as a backdrop
Hamburger Helper (food product) - Marge uses "Blubber Helper" on the whale blubber - the package has the Betty Crocker "red spoon" logo, too
"Cars" (song) - Homer's ambulance-cleaning song set to this Gary Numan tune [Woo hoo! This is one of my favorite songs!]
Ann Landers (advice columnist) - Flanders tells Homer to call him, "Ann Flanders"
[Previous Episode References]
[AABF23] Homer says, "I had a car" the way CBG says, "I had a mouse" [9F09] Homer defibrillates himself [CABF16] Always with the morphine ...
[FFF]
Krusty Burger drive-thru menu:
MUTTON +-------+ TRIPLE DOUBLE
[pic] BUTTONS |XXXXXXX| BURGER $3.99
$3.79 |XXXXXXX|
|XXXXXXX| HOT LETTUCE
SNOUT +-------+ INJECTION $3.79
[pic] SNIPS | PLACE | A HEALTHY-HEART SELECTION
$2.99 | ORDER |
| HERE | TWISTY LARD $2.49
GRAVY +-------+
SCRAPE 'EMS $2.99 CHICKEN LUNGS
SPICY OR MILD $4.49
BUFFALO [burger ]
THINGS $2.95 [picture] FIESTA ALL OF THE ABOVE $39.95
GLOBS $3.99Bookstore banner:
WE DO NOT ACCEPT
BOOKACHINO'S
GIFT CERTIFICATESBook reading sign:
TODAY:
+---------+
| MEET |
|NOVELIST |
| ESME |
|DELACROIX|
+---------+Book posters:
The Secret of I, Scoundrel
Scoundrel CoveEsme Delacroix Esme Delacroix
Other books by Esme Delacroix you might enjoy:
- To Kiss a Scoundrel
- Whither My Scoundrel?
- Scoundrel Goes West
- "A" is for Scoundrel
- Scoundrel in Scarlet
- To Hug a Scoundrel
- Senator Scoundrel
- Scoundrel Comes Calling
- Return to Scoundrel Island[And if you say "scoundrel" enough, it begins to sound weird]
Used car lot:
BORIS' CAR LOFT
Homer's nametag:
+-------+
| HOMER |
+-------+
SALES REPTitle of painting:
Scene from Moby-Dick
Lifesaver hanging in Temperance's kitchen:
NANTUCKET
1840
Box on shelf:
BLUBBER
HELPERThomas Pynchon's house sign ...:
<----------\
THOMAS |
PYNCHON'S |
HOUSE |
COME ON IN|... and sandwich board:
^
|
THOMAS
PYNCHON"Harpooned Heart" billboard:
The LOYAL TO HER VOWS
Harpooned OR
Heart LOYAL TO HER HEART
Marge Simpson OR
LOYAL TO A THIRD
THING?Book on tape:
The
Harpooned
HeartBOOK ON TAPE
[Mary Kate &]
[ Ashley ] as read by
MARY KATE and ASHLEY OLSENHomer and Marge's collaboration:
WHO REALLY
KILLED
J. F. K. [JFK's]
[photo] BY HOMER AND
MARGE SIMPSON[Oops!]
The police phone number only has five digits.
Wait a minute -- didn't Marge herself paint that inspirational sailboat? She acts here as though the painting was done by someone else.
[Personal Comments & Observations]
Whoa! Maybe they should call him Dr. Lazarus: Marvin Monroe makes an appearance after being presumed dead. Marge's surprise at seeing him echoes ours, while Monroe's excuse -- he was sick -- refers to the conventionally-accepted wisdom that the writers killed him off.
Marge and the kids visit Bookachino's, a mega-sized bookstore. Barnes & Noble is the acknowledged pioneer in this category, which includes Borders, Books-A-Million, and a few others. The formula is easy to understand: Start with a store that's three or four times larger than the standard mall bookshop. Add some comfy chairs and encourage patrons to curl up with a few good books before buying. Open a tony cappuccino bar. Invite authors to give lectures and readings of their latest books. Later, branch out to DVDs, CDs, and other media. Ta da! You're there.
Lisa's offhand comment that the books are on the fourth floor suggests the stores are more interested in selling DVDs and mocha cappuccino. That may be overstating the case. I was in a B&N on the day the show aired, and books occupied about 80 to 85 percent of the floor space.
Homer's ambulance is a 1959 Cadillac modified for medical duty -- the tailfins are instantly recognizable. The grille is also correct, and the artists even got the dashboard right (instead of just drawing a generic dash).
"Publish or perish" is an actual motto in academic circles. It means that if you make an interesting discovery, you must publish your findings in a peer-reviewed journal to get credit for it. If someone else publishes first, your claim "perishes," even if you made the same finding earlier.
Thomas Pynchon -- Author of "Gravity's Rainbow" and "Mason & Dixon." He is so reclusive that Julie Kavner is a self-promoting social butterfly by comparison. William Poundstone once wrote, "There are more, and clearer, photos of Bigfoot than Thomas Pynchon." The last actual photo of Pynchon to be published was his high-school yearbook photo. Not only are there no good pictures of him, but his address is a secret known only to the author and maybe the guy who mails out his royalty checks. Getting his voice on the show is a minor miracle.
Tom Clancy -- Popular author of political thrillers like "Hunt for Red October" (which he refers to on the show) and "Patriot Games." Mr. Clancy is also seen in "Insane Clown Poppy (BABF17)," but his voice was imitated by one of the show's capable voice actors. Tonight, we hear his voice for real.
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen -- Twins who shared the role of, um, that little baby on "Full House." Most infant and toddler roles on TV are played by twins to get around laws limiting the amount of time small children can work. Two physically identical actresses mean twice the screen time. Most twins perform this role in semi-obscurity; even "Full House" credited them as Mary Kate Ashley Olsen, as if they were one person, before the press outed them as twins. Since then, they've capitalized on their natural cuteness to become the hub of a small media empire that includes records, magazines, posters, I think make- up and who knows what else.
(Didn't "Full House" air opposite "The Simpsons" at one time? People in this newsgroup used to consider it the anti-"Simpsons.")
I'll admit it -- I liked Lisa's caged libido. She may be well-behaved now, but I'm not sure I want to be in Homer and Marge's shoes eight years from now. On the other hand, Milhouse might get lucky if he manages to be in the right place at the right time. You know, that would explain the infamous scene in "Lisa's Wedding (2F15)" ...