Review: The Simpsons “Gorillas on the Mast”

Overview:

After a trip to the harbour, Homer makes the wise decision to buy a boat. With Marge surprisingly on board, Homer must get his friends to share the investment to stay afloat. Unfortunately, he has to take on one too many investors, and he ends up sinking.

Meanwhile, after Bart helps Lisa free a killer whale from the local aquarium, he finds a new love for altruism. He enlists the help of Milhouse to help release a gorilla from the local zoo. It is up to Lisa to help calm down the gorilla and find it a safe new home.

Our Take:

The Simpsons just hit another milestone with episode 666, and the thirtieth “Treehouse of Horror” Halloween special. With so much time and experience under the showrunners belts, you may be surprised to hear that tonight’s episode “Gorillas on the Mast” was written by a newcomer with no television credits to his name. Max Cohn is an up-and-coming talent mostly known for his work with College Humor. The Simpsons, a show that has given countless numbers of writers work throughout the years, continues to offer breaks to a new generation. For nothing else, that is something that deserves to be celebrated.

Despite having some fresh blood in the writer’s ring, this episode watches like many others we have seen in the recent years of the show. Things start out joke heavy with a trip to the local aquarium, ‘Aquatraz’.  The main runner here being the damaging captivity that the animals suffer in exhibits such as these. This is accentuated when Homer has his own vision of being a sea creature only to end up on a plate of sushi – where he ends up eating himself, but that’s beside the point. The Simpsons, specifically Lisa, are known for sharing their perspective on these sorts of things; however, this is a topic that seems to be coming up a bit late – which is made evident with the Free Willy references that are more than outdated today.

I find it a bit shocking that after all of these years and hundreds of episodes Homer has never been suckered into buying a boat before. It seems so obvious. But, it is obvious to a fault that it seems a little too easy. There is nothing too original about Homer falling for another scheme, and a boat is the most cliché of all of them. Beyond that, the ship was not even utilized for many jokes. The best part about this plot was Homer’s flashback of wanting a boat since his childhood. This never really pays off though, even as Grampa Simpson is brought to share in his son’s joy.

By far, the best part of the whole episode is Bart’s newfound love for altruism. It plays perfectly in with his prankster lifestyle and should be something that binds him with his sister. But, it is his misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the word that truly pays off for this plot. Wise and thoughtful Lisa proves that she would have thought things through before releasing a gorilla from the zoo. When she ends up cleaning the mess, Bart drops the best quote of the night involving wanting to “altruism a robot with sledgehammers for arms”. Easily one of my favourite Bart moments of the season thus far.

Of course, the big hype leading into tonight’s episode was the very special guest star. Famous anthropologist and primatologist Jane Goodall makes her first appearance on The Simpsons at age 85. Playing herself, she manages to bring humour and her message to the show. She is the obvious choice to converse with Lisa, and it is excellent that she ends up putting the little girl in her place instead of taking her praise. Though it surprising that the beloved environmentalist was not given one of her more famous lines to add to the script.

The Simpsons keeps coming with stories that you would think have been covered in thirty-plus years. These were two plots that could have fit anywhere between season 5 and 30, yet it still feels fresh. Although Homer buying a boat was too derivative, and the Simpsons children have to find a home for yet another endangered species, this still felt like a new episode with relevant humour. The rookie writer managed to knock out a script that could be easily mistaken for one by a more experienced Simpsons scribe.  This is an average episode with nothing too great to help it stand out. But, if this is average at season thirty-one, the series is doing just fine.