Review: The Simpsons ‘The Man Who Came to be Dinner’

Spoilers Below:

Hope everyone enjoyed the holidays during this brief new TV hiatus, but it’s back to business – if your business involves cartoons, that is.

On a family vacation to a knock-off Disneyland, the Simpson Family found themselves blasted into space aboard a ship run by “Treehouse of Horror” regulars Kang & Kodos (Homer: “This isn’t Halloween!”)

After a tour of the alien’s home planet, Rigel Seven, the Simpsons were informed that one of them was to be eaten, and they were to decide whom. Homer was unanimously selected, but managed to escape. However, during an attempt to save his family, Homer was caught and the whole family was eaten. They were immediately spit out though, due to their taste being poor, courtesy of their awful diets. The Simpsons were immediately sent home.

In Case You Missed It:

1) Couch gag: The Simpsons looked at portraits of themselves in a gallery but eventually change the canvases to broadcast TV instead.

2) When Homer jotted down where he parked so he wouldn’t forget, he wrote: “Parking lot.”

3) Maggie’s face on the bug ride was priceless.

4) ‘Certain death awaits’ if you get off the bug, according to the ride’s song.

5) The Rigel Seven Zoo contained both an alien from the Alien films and a kitten.

6) Homer’s hobbies were listed as: “sitting, lying down, and reaching for things without success.”

7) Bart referred to one of the drooling aliens as “George Mucus.”

8) Homer’s list of Humanity’s Achievements included: Free Refills, Pre-mixed Peanut Butter and Jelly, Instant Replay in MLB, Grindr, Did I Mention “Free Refills?,” and Ringo Starr’s All-Starr Band.

9) One of Homer’s greatest desires (and by far the most disturbing) was the entire Flanders flock hung by their necks.

This episode started off with a real bang. The jokes came rapid-fire, immediately beginning with all of the Disney-related humor. A lot of it was quite subtle too, perhaps coming by way of a background comment or a sign only briefly displayed. (For instance: the “Futureland” ride was changed to “Out-of-Date Land,” Pirates of the Caribbean was made politically correct, and “Toonton Abbey” was “closed due to Anglophobia.”) I made liberal use of my DVR’s replay button last night. Even after the family was transported to Rigel Seven, the humor didn’t die down, as the alien’s weird planet had plenty of funny little quirks at every turn. But once the main plot and conflict was laid out, the momentum shifted, and the enjoyment all but came to a halt. After a flood of laughs in the first half of the show, it soon found itself with an issue to resolve, and opportunities for more gags (and general opportunities to keep the episode running at a consistently high level) were sacrificed.

Sure, there were some great throwback jokes throughout – like the revival of the “Are we there yet?” pestering in the car, and the obligatory Canada diss – but the episode also sullied others, like when they rehashed the potato chip sequence from season 5’s “Deep Space Homer.” Yes, it was a loving tribute, but one can’t help but wonder if the writers were simply low on ideas here.

I’m unsure how to feel about a non-Halloween episode featuring Kang & Kodos. The die-hard Simpsons nerd in me wants badly to cry foul, but imaginative non-canon installments like “Simpsorama” and “Brick Like Me” have found success lately, so I think we as fans need not panic. If it takes trying something new to keep The Simpsons fresh in Season 26, that’s completely understandable. Episodes that resemble the days of old, and totally new concepts can co-exist. It will be okay. Still, the story last night wasn’t quite as strong as in the aforementioned shows, and the laughs were really what carried “The Man Who Came to be Dinner.”

And let me reiterate that there were A TON of humorous moments. In fact, they probably could have done a whole episode with just the Disney spoofs. However, with these successful jokes and the Rigel Seven ones almost all occurring early on, a noticeable imbalance was created when the humor became sporadic, and that hurt the overall quality & score.

Regardless, it’s still quite reassuring that The Simpsons still definitely know how to be funny after over a quarter-of-a-century, so let’s just leave it at that.