Review: The Simpsons “The Old Blue Mayor She Ain’t What She Used To Be”

Marge gets a tough lesson in politics.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Springfield opens up a new park built on top of the ruins of the old ruined monorail track, (Remember that episode from way back in season 4?) but disaster strikes when the old monorail is accidentally started up and destroys a good portion of the town. This compels Marge, after being talked down to by notorious incompetent, Mayor Quimby, to run for mayor, and show Springfield that she can do a better job than Quimby ever could.

Marge assembles a team to get her elected, and bit by bit, she proceeds to gain popularity over Quimby by getting in touch with what the many citizens of Springfield want out of their mayor. Soon, the two are neck and neck, and Marge faces Quimby in a political debate, which she wins over Quimby by promising to put out the infamous Springfield tire fire: an ever-burning, smog-belching pile of tires that have been a fixture of Springfield so long it’s basically part of the town’s geography.

But just as Marge is about to finally put out the tire fire, she’s stopped by a lone tire fire souvenir salesman who chains himself to the fire in protest. The town brands Marge as a failure and things get worse when Marge accidentally insults the salesman who also happened to fight in Vietnam.

Marge’s approval ratings plummet, but her campaign team finds a solution in Homer. As it turns out, people like it when Marge makes fun of Homer for being his oafish, ridiculous self. This causes Homer to become the “First Doofus” to Marge’s mayorship. Naturally, this causes tension between Marge and Homer, and Marge seeks out Former Mayor Quimby for advice.

Quimby tells Marge that marriage simply can’t last when you’re the mayor and that she must choose between her political position or her love for Homer. She is torn, until seeing how everyone treats Homer like a joke during one of her speeches reveals to her what’s really important. She declares her love for Homer in front of the crowd and crowns her decision to stay with Homer with a kiss. It would be a happy ending, except we cut eight years we later, where we see Marge and Homer walking through a museum dedicated to Marge’s political career. It’s an impressive list of achievements until we see that she ultimately gets impeached and Mayor Quimby retakes the office, returning everything back to normal.

Our Take:

Sometimes its hard to tell how seriously The Simpsons wants us to be invested in each of its episodes. An episode like this, which might benefit from some real tough choices and emotional moments for Marge or Homer, ultimately rings hollow as just an excuse to make some weak jokes about politics. It isn’t as brutally honest as South Park is, and it’s too mired down in its mild shenanigans to transcend its subject matter into being a character episode. Ultimately, though there are some good jokes, mainly involving her campaign team comprised of some local Springfield favorites, it’s an episode that feels to leave any real impression at all.