Review: The Simpsons ‘YOLO’

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Last night’s installment began with Homer making fun of Kirk Van Houten for going through a mid-life crisis. However, Homer then realized that his own life had gotten repetitive and dull as well. When Homer reflected back on the life goals he had as a ten year old (which he expressed to his Spanish pen pal, Eduardo, at the time) Marge invited the now-adult Spaniard for a visit to boost his spirits. The two began completing items on Homer’s to do list, but as the adventures became increasingly dangerous, Marge needed to remind Homer that You Only Live Once also means that he can only die once.

In the episode’s alternate storyline, Kent Brockman exposed the rampant cheating at Springfield Elementary School (which is “more corrupt than the Italian Parliament”) and Lisa attempted to implement an honor code to remedy the situation. However, she became distraught after realizing Bart was still managing to cheat. When Bart said he’d only cease after receiving a sign from above, the two storylines collided as a wingsuiting Homer fell from the sky squarely on top of Bart.

The introduction of Homer’s pen pal made for some good scenes, such as asking Homer, “Did your hair burn off in a fire that trapped you in a candy factory?” and dismissing his stupid life dreams, like striking out Jesus in the World Series. There was even a cameo featuring Jon Lovitz voicing one of his classic characters, Llewellyn Sinclair, as Homer and Eduardo acted in a dinner theater presentation of The Pirates of Penzance.

The best jokes, however, were kid-related (I especially liked Homer’s text to Milhouse’s dad at the beginning: “Dear Weirdo, pick up weirdo kid,” as I generally enjoy anything involving the ol’ blue-haired family.) Or school related, like learning that Skinner has a fetish for “Japanese girls with animal ears” and Nelson is capable of whispering his catchphrase “haw haw.”

This episode definitely had its moments, and it had a very sweet ending, but the jokes in episodes like this, with an abundance of nostalgia, sometimes fall a little flat when they’re squished into a less silly plot. Besides, although the Simpsons have been on for 25 years seasons, the characters aren’t really supposed to have aged, so an episode highlighting Homer growing old isn’t especially meaningful. Regardless, it’s still worthy of a few laughs, and luckily, some of them are pretty hearty.