"Jaws Wired Shut" Review

This episode started out being very very entertaining. THe gay pride parade was thoroughly entertaining and the movie theater scenes were well done too. THe show starts its slow descent downhill with the stupid contrived way Homer breaks his jaw. While it wasn't as bad as his knee injury in "Children of A Lesser CLod", it was still pretty terrible. THe second act was average and provided a few nice chuckles around the Simpson house. Nothing really stands out in the second act, but nothing seemed too terrible about it either. The third act was horrendous with the worst tv show parody ever (morning yak or whatever it was), and went even further downhill with Marge entering the demolition derby and the Popeye jokes. On the plus side the first act was gold and there were some good laughs throughout. Also the Homer charector wasn't wacky or overly stupid. Decent effort, but the worst AL Jean episode so far. (C-)

Thank you for sharing your opinion. I'll be sure to note it down in my book of important things I learned today.

-kriz-

"GagnonSux" wrote in message news:[email]...

parade

too.

Homer

A

and

stands

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or

gold

wasn't

far.

Smart ass...

His review, was, however too kind. This ep stunk to hell and back. I finally turned if off 3/4's through in disgust.

[email], , said,

book

Yeah, well I turned it off 4/4's through in disguise. Or is that incognito. Guy Incognito as it were.

That episode made me vomit in terror.

"mariner" <mariner@> wrote in message news:a34k72$a0i$[email]...

incognito.

mariner@ (mariner) wrote in news:a34k72$a0i$[email]:

That dog has a puffy tail!

I'm talkin' about DOWN-TOWN!

Um, I really liked this episode. Not the best or the worst ever, but pretty good. Worth watching.

I cannot believe that you are complaining that a plot feature in The Simpsons was contrived. Some of the best moments in this series have been tremendously contrived... things that were either so ludicrously set up that I had to laugh, or so unlikely as to be surreal. If there weren't contrived and rediculous things happening in each episode, we would just be watching an animated version of Growing Pains.

I thought that the jaw break was funny because: (a) it gave us a moment of wonderful Drederick Tatum humour (correct me if I miss... I didn't tape: "Litter is my deadliest foe, I would like to eat its children...") I loved that the man who shoved his mother don't a flight of stairs has a statue in the park recognizing his efforts to fight litter. (b) getting your jaw broken by a statue of a boxer is -funny-, just like, say, Homer getting stuck in the mouth of a scupture of Jaws.

(Was that supposed to fall into the plus-side, or the negative-side?)

After, what, 13 seasons of Homer being wacky and overly stupid you can't deal with two acts of him being a new person? His conversation with Lisa was great... and his conversation with Bart even better ("Wow, Bart has feelings!"). The episode involved the whole family (possibly the best Maggie related scene in season... with her leaping from one pacifier to the other) and I thought that it worked marvellously.

The popeye stuff was fantastic... especially Marge's Olive Oyl arms...

fishy

Get real, it was not.

Thanks.

Umm...

Well, that's settled then.

I thought that it was funny... Lisa and the balloon especially. I've been to a handful of Gay pride parades, and the Springfield Gay Pride Parade (formerly heritage day) was pretty freaking tame. I loved the Velvet Mafia, though. They could have been a bit more creative, I thought, but pretty good. I really think that the female closeter was Patty... I would love an upcoming episode based around this.

Also from the "notes-from-the-queer-side" department: I loved the Edward Albee play gag: "I'm Going to Kill You". I am going to double check, but I think that Martha actually says that to George in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolfe?" I have a couple of copies of the play around here somewhere.

fishy

Thanks. (FINALLY!)

-References

-Mike Tyson -Dredrick Tatum says he wants to eat Liter's children (Mike Tyson said he wanted to eat Lennox Lewis' children and tear his heart out in a post-match speech a year or so ago).

Previous Episode References

[1F11]-An OFF writer lends his voice (Conan O' Brien in 1F11) [8F19]-Homer causes a scene at the movies (talking during the movie in 8F19) [9F13]-Lisa is annoyed by Ralph's actions

Review: It's good to see that the writers can still make an OFF episode with a strong story and strong jokes. When I first heard about this episode, I figured Homer would soon cause wacky hijinks so he could get his jaw brace off, but instead we get a Homer that can care but at the same time still be Homer (i.e. feel for Bart, but still be able to laugh about it). Same for the rest of OFF. Bart was Bart, Lisa was Lisa, and Marge was Marge without being a complete nag. Yet, they didn't have to sacrifice the humor at the same time (Gay Pride Parade, I & S return, Homer and his Ostritch Burgers, The Popeye send-off, etc.). Best episode of the season so far. (A-)

Is airing "A Half-Decent Proposal" in two weeks that wise? We've had three new episodes ("Brawl in the Family", "Sweet and Sour Marge", and This episode) in which the relationship between Homer & Marge play a role. Wouldn't it be wiser to air the Bart episode first, then air the Artie Ziff one? 4 in a row seems a little much in a row, and it would help to diversify IMO. Then again this is FOX, whose suits think it's a good idea to suddenly pre-empt all their programming with little warning for "The Chamber".

-Alex Foley

Entirely agree that htis was my favorite ep in a long while.

btrw, you likely intend "send-up", not "send-off."

On 29 Jan 2002 01:05:59 GMT, [email] (Busyman14) wrote:

[email] (Busyman14) wrote in message news:...

I hated this episode. Worst ever in fact. It wasn't the Simpsons. The whole talk show bit seemed like a rip-off from The Family Guy, even the animation looked the same. The movie parody was also very TFG. The Popeye stuff I didn't find funny at all. Other than the "quit banging my wife" line, a total loss. I wouldn't be surprised to discover that this was in fact a TFG script with the names changed.

I actually feel the opposite way about this episode: that the first act was mostly a waste, using old-hat jokes and took too long to get to the point. The second and third acts were solid though except for the suggestive jokes.