REVIEW: THE SIMPSONS ” A Test Before Trying”
Spoilers Below
Mr Burns is raising the rates on electricity so everyone in Springfield has to cut back including the schools. Chalmers tells Skinner that if his school doesn’t perform well in the standardized testing, his school could be shut down and the kids moved to a different building. Not surprisingly the tests don’t go well and Springfield gets the lowest score totals. However, Bart didn’t event take the test yet, so if he studies and does well the school can stay open…which is something Bart doesn’t want. After a while Skinner doesn’t think Bart is ready for the test and he needs to buy more time so he sets off the fire alarm. After having a bad dream, Bart figures that he really wants to pass the test and Lisa has to help him. After some helpful tips, Bart takes the test passes.
Meanwhile, to help make extra money, Homer finds a parking meter at the local dump and intends to use it. After a while, Homer makes a whole sack of quarters and as a result is feeling pretty good about his investment, but soon the police heat is starting to get on his conscious. Eventually, Homer gets in a chase with the cops that lands his meter broken. When Marge finds out, she makes him throw the quarters down a water well for good luck, cuz that always works.
Wow, where the hell did this come from?? The Simpsons were supposed to be done with, but instead they gives us an episode that passes the test in a bunch of categories. Two funny plots?? Check. A bunch of random gags that only the Simpsons can bring. Check. An episode with a happy ending that helped wrap with maybe the best couch gag of the season? Check. Yep, The Simpsons pass all these tests this week what with the Joker in the bus, the action movie like gag, Homer’s love affair with a parking meter, and Bart’s awesome dream sequence! All of these ingredients almost made the episode perfect, but Marge’s constant interruptions never made any sense to me. That said, the morale of this story is that standardized testing is killing our students’ attention spans and are ruining our education system.
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