REVIEW: My Fair Laddy

[Stretch_Dude]

Ah, what a delightful romp this was! Aside from a couple of jokes (did Krusty say what I think he said?), the episode was enjoyable all the way through. I honestly did not expect this to be a musical episode, so that was a pleasant surprise. The new-gym-teacher launching point was...well, I'm torn between "amusing" and "frightening." At least we got to see more of Bart returning to his prankster roots with the saxophone gag. And once the Willie plot got started...good, good stuff. Willie's remained one of the show's funniest characters even through the Scully Era, and he really got to shine here. Even the "I don't even have a last name!" meta-reference works with him. And I loved how his return to his old self was born of his newfound nobility. Well done.

And the Homer subplot? Short, funny, and pointless, just the way I likes 'em. The commercial went on just a little too long, though.

Grade: A

[Sheana_Molloy]

A musical?  Now I'm definitely scared.

Still gonna check it out, though.

[Terry Y]

A musical?  Now I'm definitely scared.

As you should be.

SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!





















H-okay.  As much as I like musicals, I hate it - HATE it - when OFF takes a well known musical and changes a few notes around and calls it original.  It's not.  It's the same freakin' tune with a note or two changed.  Because of this, I just muted the TV and imagined that the songs they were singing were to the original tunes.  I think that actually made the ep better, at least in my own head. 

Oh, yeah.  Homer goes out to buy a pair of discontinued blue pants.  Something the writers would have us believe is "hilarity" should ensue but doesn't.

GRADE: C- 

Would've been a D, but it *was* a parody of My Fair Lady.  One of my faves. 

Oh, and the "fingers in the nose" gag was just disturbing...

[simpsoy1]

I thought that the singing was pretty good, but the pants commercial was kind of disturbing.

[OARRIAGA2001]

Disturbing but funny.  lol.

[Gazmanafc]

This is an exact quote from my blog. (http://babysimpson.co.uk/gary)

As stated in my speculation this episode focuses on Willie. Which was a bad idea. And I was right, this episode stank. I just didnt think it was funny. I hardly laughed at all. Once or twice. Too much fruity singing in it. Dan Castellaneta didnt do a good Groundskeeper Willie singing voice when sofisticated.

Homer's B-Story about the Blue Pants wasnt good either that was just strange. I didnt like that either. Homer eating raw potatoes, thats just gross.

The opening was good, then it just plummeted. I'll give this episode an E- at the best. Worst Season 17 episode yet. Al Jean can do better than this.

[Seshennu]

Hm... I had my doubts about this episode when I read the summary, but... I was really surprised. 

Spoiler-cut, because of some minor specifics. *shrug*

Spoiler

Ms. Pommelhorst(?)'s mm, decision, seemed a little out of place and I think South Park did it better. I'm wondering if this will become part of Simpsons canon for the rest of the show, or if things will all revert back to "normal" as they usually do. I'd also like to know why Ms. Pommelhorst would change teaching positions. 

Anybody else notice Skinner mispronounced "announcement" as "annancement"?

The new gym teacher... Well, I have no real feelings about him but, Bombardment! kept me amused no matter how much it was used. =)

I absolutely loved the singing throughout the episode, too. It really added a lot to the episode.

I also thought Homer's sub-plot was great. Filler stuff, but still great. (Actually, I think it was because it was so short and unobtrusive that made it great.)

By the way... Am I the only one that's still wondering how Kearney could/has pulled off the "Around the World in 80 Days" stunt? 

Excellent episode. A!

And on a final note,

Bombardment! 

[OARRIAGA2001]

There's one thing that really creeped me out, thats when bart was about to throw that ice ball to his gym teacher.  Man, he did look like that suicidal fatso from Full Metal Jacket.  Did anyone recognize that*question mark


Sorry, but the question mark did not work on my keyboard.

[Kif White]

Okay, I was very curious about this episode, so I thought for once I'd make a point of downloading it to see how it was before it airs here (Season 17 seems to be getting here late this year too, normally it starts in to mid early February)

First of all, the couch gag was neat with Gumby and the family, though it went on for about 15 seconds or so. I have to wonder why Al Jean is complaining about not having enough time to give episodes when they use such long couch gags lately? It was definitely a cool couch gag, don't get me wrong, but just went on a bit for my tastes.

The first act was a mixed bag here, as most recent episodes are. There were some low-brow gags I could have done without (such as Nelson's comment about "more wood in shop class"), the whole Bombardment thing just went on far too long and became annoying, and the same thing goes for Homer's flashback about tearing his pants at the go-kart track (it would have actually been great if it had ended right after Homer's "I paid for fifty laps" line instead of having almost 10 seconds of him scraping his ass on the road.) The parody of Lost Weekend didn't really stike a chord either, simply because places not having blue pants just seemed silly and the names of the places were rather forced.

Things I did like in the opening act were the jokes with Lisa's saxophone, the Full Metal Jacket parody, Willie smashing his own tractor, and the colander gag. There weren't as many weak or cringeworthy gags as most recent episodes, but I think that's because almost half of them were simply the same "Bombardment!" gag repeated over and over. But it did end on Willie's "Wouldn't It Be Adequate" song, which was good. And that's a rare thing for recent OFF songs. I also liked Willie saying his grandfather was sent into the mines to make sure it was okay for the canaries.

Act 2 didn't get off to a good start with the stupid Willie standing straight gag, and the Worldwide Pants' Superbowl ad going on far, far too long in rather Family Guy-esque fashion didn't help either. And the bullies making that Around the World wager was just random and weak, as well as another case of them acting oddly unbully-like for some reason. The glow in the dark gag was nice though, and things picked up some more when Willie entered his second song; "What Flows From the Nose." Homer interrupting the song was quite amusing too, though Willie picking up the kids by their noses and spinning them could have been done without. And the Moe billboard gag was rather sub-par.

The introduction of new Willie at the science fair was interesting. I liked Dan's take on the new Willie's voice too, though when he started singing it sometimes sounded rather like Dan's regular voice. The song was another good one though, so that was 3 for 3 as far as I was concerned song wise (I especially liked Willie dancing around Selma during it). Lisa unveiling the bombshell upon the science fair audience was interesting, but I can't help but wonder at the whole coincidence that a mere science fair, something that's been seen before at the school, was set up like a fancy ball. So despite the good parts, the whole set up wreaked of lazy writing to simply set up Lisa' revelation. Why would a science fair for a school shown to always have budget problems set up an expensive setting like that after all?

Act 3 next, and Lisa's experiment is done. The odd beginning with Willie summoning a random falcon was kind of stupid, though the gag with Mr. Largo on the roof was kind of funny. Homer's subplot came to and end early here too, but at the same time didn't. It seemed that in the end his whole blue pants plot never went anywhere and was kind of a pointless filler. Sure, his plot had some amusing moments throughout, moreso than most recent Homer subplot outings, but it lacked any real direction or closure, and ended up feeling rather empty and unsatisfactory in the end. Again, this was due to lazy writing, and it's another case of an episode that should have probably just had the one main story only. Mr. Krupt returning with more "Bombardment!" was overkill too.

Willie's forth song came in here, and nicely put across Willie missing his old life, despite more respect being more upper class. It was good to see this was done with Willie's feelings in the matter, rather that simply having him go mad or insane as I expect the writers would. Still, it was rather abrupt. And Skinner's line at the assembly... well... I'll just say I'm sick of the writers always putting these meta-lines in character's mouths lately about things returning to normal. It's getting really tired. I do have to give kudos to the ending, with that nice bit of heartfelt emotion from Lisa, only to be downed at the very end by Willie when she wasn't there.

Overall, this was a mixed bag, but I'd have to say I liked it more than I disliked it. There was a fair about of crude gags, randomly dumb gags, weak gags and overly long Family Guy-esque gags throughout, but I liked how the Willie aspect was handled for the most part. There were some genuine character moments here for him, and he wasn't just used as a tool for the plot, which was good. Characterisation overall was pretty solid, as there wasn't any problems from Homer in the subplot either... he was never a jerkass or whiny or anything, even if the whole thing just seemed pointless.

I liked all the songs here; the lyrics actually were somewhat clever and fitting, and didn't feel forced like they have in other recent musical moments (Large Marge, The President Wore Pearls, etc). To be honest, Terry, I'm not actually sure at all what your complaint here is... this is no different from such classic parodies as "See My Vest", "The Garbageman Can", and the Shary Bobbins songs music wise, IMHO.

One of the main things I noticed that was good was the pacing seemed different here; it seemed slower, more gradual, which is good. One of the main problems with recent shows is that they'll tend to either rush through things too quickly or drag out single moments too long, and although "Bombardment" suffered from the latter, and the very last few minutes were a little rushed, the rest went at a nice pace.

Overall, the songs and plot were definitely enough to save the negative factors from dragging it into the D's for me, but the little problems here and there don't warrant it getting near the B's or higher either. There's still a lot of evidence of typical latter season problems evident here, but there were some rare moments that stopped it from being just another of the bunch. And while it didn't feel like a classic-era episode by any means, nor did it really feel like a recent one either.

Grade: C