Spoilers Below

You know what’s a great episode of The Simpsons? The one where Apu has to become an American citizen to avoid getting kicked out of Springfield, following Mayor Quimby’s sudden crackdown on immigration in an effort to divert attention away from the town’s bear (singular) problem and subsequent tax. The episode ends with Apu receiving a letter in the mail and exclaiming, “Jury duty! Today I am truly an American Citizen,” and immediately & nonchalantly throwing it in the trash. Funny scene, funny episode, but wait a minute: didn’t Apu serve jury duty already? I distinctly remember him in “The Boy Who Knew Too Much” the episode where, after playing hooky, Bart is the only witness to an alleged assault.

Remember, Apu was the one who pointed out Homer was using trick glasses to sleep?

Clearly either Apu was already a citizen, or the American Government (read: The Simpsons writers) overlooked something. I guess the lesson here is that even the best shows aren’t perfect, and… pffffff, I don’t know I’m really reaching for a segue here. In reality I was just watching that Simpsons episode and was reminded of how much that particular anomaly bothered me. Nevertheless, it is obviously one of the best – if not the best – show ever created, and we should remember that even if a show has a lackluster season or two, generally as long as it doesn’t hit an embarrassingly-awful low where it brutally scrapes and drags along rock-bottom for an extended period of time, it can eventually rebound. Luckily, The Simpsons never came close to this.

In the case of Sanity Not Included – after what this writer deems a lull of a third season – it appears to be trending toward a resurgence. But let’s not get all excited and start breaking out our fancy pants yet; at three episodes, the season is still young. Some of the best lines this week: “Fuck off, I’m dead!” and “We’re going to send a car to help you.” Also, the DMC Super Audio Enhancement Edition game promo was well acted. Voice acted, that is. For some reason, the Sanity Not Included guys (both duos) are quite gifted at goofy sound effects. I previously complimented this in the episode with all the fish puns. I also thoroughly enjoyed the scene with Mario & Luigi with the torches. Not necessarily the whole bit, because it ran a little long, but specifically the torch-play and maulings. (Mauling? Maulings isn’t the plural of mauling spell-check? Really? That can’t be right. “There have been numerous maulings lately.” “There have been numerous mauling lately.” That’s not it, it’s the first one. Rebel! Publish and be damned, as the ol’ Duke of Wellington would say.)

Anyway, it’s hard to explain what makes a SNI episode so good, because of the structure of the show. So to me it basically comes down to the number of laugh-out-loud moments. This one had just the right amount to properly satisfy. I look forward to seeing this show’s continuing surge. If I’ve learned one thing from pathetically devoting my life to cartoon series, it’s that all it takes is one good season to turn things around.

(8/10)