Review: The Simpsons ‘What to Expect When Bart’s Expecting’

Spoilers Below:

Not to be constantly comparing classic Simpsons to neo Simpsons, but sometimes it’s just so easy to see the differences between the two. In the old days, the story was almost insignificant. It was never complex, it was always memorable, and it generally provided numerous opportunities for meaningless but hilarious dialogue. Keep that in mind as we venture into this week’s episode.

In order to boost sales at local pubs, the bar owners of Springfield decided to bring a superhero element to the town, and had all the businesses participate. This actually wasn’t even important to the storyline, and I don’t remember the segue, but somehow we got onto a plot that involved Bart attempting to get out of art class by placing a voodoo curse on his teacher. But instead of giving her a tummy ache, she actually ended up being pregnant, leading the schoolchildren to believe it was Bart’s doing.

After word got around town that Bart was some sort of magical baby-maker shaman (like Good Luck Chuck without that awful human being named Dane Cook and, you know, the sex) numerous townspeople began approaching him for help. However, things got serious when Fat Tony needed assistance breeding a championship race horse, and Homer and Bart’s life depended on it. After an extended musical number, Bart’s magic somehow worked yet again, except with a different male horse than Tony intended, because the one in question actually batted for the other polo team. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)

In Case You Missed It:

1) The intro sequence where the title is shown has been surprisingly funny lately; this week it was Moe skiing. Obviously the couch gags have been outstanding as well – with this week as no exception.

2) Since when does Cletus own a bar?

3) The Duff Blimp screen read: “Heroes Don’t Let Friends Ride Sober.” Good advice.

4) I missed a few shots when Springfield went superhero. My girlfriend laughed, and I asked why, and she told me, “They were the Fantastic Four and Homer was the ‘Rock Guy.’” Adorable.

5) Moe’s apparently serves chocolate milk.

6) The best hangover quotes to illustrate both regret and advice came from Homer: “Why are you doing this to me, booze? I drank every kind of you!” and “Don’t be me!”

7) “We’re not all Joses, man!”

8) The Simpsons has had two Foreigner references in under a month. They had Homer spoofing “Jukebox Hero” in “You Don’t Have to Live Life a Referee” a couple weeks ago, and this week we saw “Feels Like the First Time” as background music.

9) In Homer’s whisper conversation with Bart to explain that the horse was gay, he used the names “Smithers” and “Danny Kaye.”

10) As a huge fan of the sitcom, I really enjoyed the Modern Family spoof with Kang, Kodos, and yes, even Poochie!

All-in-all, this episode perfectly walked the line between success and failure. As far as humor went, it started off surprisingly funny, grabbed a few laughs throughout the middle portion, and ended without anything memorable. Case in point, 7 out of 10 of my points above came within that first portion of the episode. That has to say something.

The story faced a similar predicament. It seemed promising at first, changed while retaining its promise, but gradually deteriorated to the point that I actually lost interest. The fact that there was a relatively unfunny musical number didn’t help much either.

In fact, I really can’t sum it up much better than I already have: in the beginning, everything really worked, and in the end, nothing did. Just like How I Met Your Mother. No, I’m serious, it’s true. Except in this case, we’re only talking about a single episode of The Simpsons (or I am, at least.)

But hey, that beginning is worth something, and I always appreciate some Joe Montengna/Fat Tony action, so I can’t tear last night’s installment apart too much. Still, I truly hope there’s at least one more winner before this season comes to a close.