Review: The Simpsons ‘Waiting for Duffman’

Spoilers Below:

Remember that episode where Moe became the new face of Duff? Yeah, “Waiting for Duffman” is like that, except Homer becomes the new face of Duff.

During a public appearance at a bike ride (“I haven’t ridden a bike since Lance Armstrong was a good guy,”) Duffman injured his hips, and retired. Homer tried out to be his replacement, but came in second place. However, the winner was revealed to have a tattoo of a competing beer brand, and was disqualified. (Paging “Deep Space Homer”: The two greatest words in the English language are “De Fault.”) However, Homer is told he can’t drink on the job (Homer: “You wouldn’t tell Batman he can’t eat bats!”) and gets a chip planted in his arm to prevent him from doing so. However, he discovered that beer generally does more harm than good, and spoke out against it at another race. Unfortunately, his criticisms only turned the crowd against him, and he had to redeem himself by drinking again, and quitting his job as Duffman.

In the end, although he was upset for his loss, he also took pride in one simple accomplishment: “I finally made it; I’m a has-been.” Also, Duffman returned to his old gig.

In Case You Missed It:

1) No chalkboard gag.

2) Couch gag: The family is repeatedly sucked into a portal above the couch until Bart eventually separates from the rest, avoids getting beamed up, and closes the portal via a remote control. He then finds a severed Homer head. Go figure, right?

3) Homer’s imagined obituary: “H. Simpson – Father of three. Extra pallbearers needed.”

4) During the Duffman competition, Homer wore jersey number 87, most likely a nod to The Simpsons’ premiere on The Tracey Ullman Show in 1987.

5) Homer has a lower back tattoo that reads: “Marge Madness.”

6) The Secret Recipe for Duff = Schlitz + water.

7) The dinosaurs in the Duff museum included Kegasaurus and Beeradactyl.

8) How soon Homer forgets: “Relax, Honey. No one’s ever been killed by a t-shirt cannon.”

9) One of the Duff taglines: “It’s way below par, which in golf is good.”

10) A sign at the Springfield 500 read: “Spectators may not keep flying wheels.

11) It was sweet of them to end the episode with a clip of Sam Simon talking about working on The Simpsons, and the words: “One of the greatest comic minds ever. Thank you, Sam.”

As I’ve always said, some of the best Simpsons episodes can be summed up in one simple statement. “Homer becomes the new Duffman” is a good example of that. Now, of course this test isn’t a sure thing. But lately there have been a lot of episodes that start out in one direction, and only turn to their main focus after a third – or sometimes even a half – of the runtime has already elapsed. In last night’s installment, we were into the Duffman storyline within the first minute. This episode also featured only one storyline, which I think was the right move in this case.

So was it a rousing success? Not exactly. Like I said, rating Simpsons episodes is not an exact science. Believe it or not, there isn’t some algorithm that weighs the originality of the plotline vs. the number of jokes and the frequency of laughter. (Or is there…?) But “Waiting for Duffman” did have a lot going for it.

It was straightforward, easily resettable for next week, and featured a surprising amount of laugh-out-loud jokes.

Still, the aforementioned simple plot – although a second story was not needed – was still a little dry and overly familiar at times. Yet they chose to gloss right over however it was that Marge & Homer escaped from the blimp, other than the former reading a book afterward entitled, “Surviving a Blimp Fire.”

In addition, some of the show’s funniest jokes didn’t have anything to do with the actual plot. Homer’s question to Marge while she was ironing her ironing board covers (“Have you ever wondered if you’ve made a terrible mistake in your life?”) and Lisa’s conversation with her imaginary therapist (“See you next Tuesday, Dr. Schulman!”) come to mind right away.

Still, I appreciated the inclusion of a meaningful moment where the show taught us a valuable lesson about the dangers of drinking (the classic episodes always had a moral) as well as the resolution of the episode’s major change – which culminated in quite the bender for Homer. There were a lot of places to poke holes in this installment, but I can’t say I didn’t enjoy it for the most part.