Review: The Simpsons “The Incredible Lightness of Being a Baby”

Overview:

Redneck Cletus had hit the motherload when he discovered that his property sat on top of a massive helium deposit. He manages to make a good fortune selling off helium balloons. Unfortunately, when Mr. Burn’s catches wind of the abundant amount of noble gas, he sets sights on making it his own.

Mr. Burn’s enlists Homer to befriend Cletus to steal his gas from out from under him. However, as Homer and Cletus develop a relationship, the chances of him hurting his friend diminish.

Meanwhile, Maggie is reunited with the love of her life, Hudson. Marge does her best to make friends with the baby’s mother but finds her to be overwhelming and condescending. Disrupting Maggie’s romance, Marge must get over her distaste for the other mother, or risk losing her daughter to depression.

Our Take:

This episode aired on a particular day for The Simpsons calendar. April 19th happens to be The Simpsons birthday having first appeared on this day way back in 1987. Everyone’s favourite family has been a part of our lives for 33 years and still going strong. So, happy birthday to the most celebrated animated sitcom of all time. What I didn’t know until today was that The Simpsons share this anniversary with another piece of animation history. The Looney Tunes also first appeared on April 19th, 90 years ago in 1930.

Needless to say, the world has changed drastically since The Simpsons first appeared on the Tracy Ullman Show in the 80s. Some of those changes have happened as recently as the last few weeks. However, as current as events are, it didn’t stop The Simpsons from connecting to the real world that it tries to entertain. Tonight’s opening credits offered a different kind of Springfield. A socially distanced Springfield with empty streets and Bart’s usual detention cancelled thanks to online schooling. And, that’s all before the special “Extremesons” couch gag, which involves an entirely new look of the lovable family, before revealing that they are within a VR world.

As if having a new episode of The Simpsons in the middle of a pandemic wasn’t special enough, there was some added incentive to watch tonight’s episode. By now, I hope that everyone has seen The Simpsons short featuring Maggie “Playdate with Destiny.” Originally premiering in theatres atop Pixar’s Onward, the short is now available on Disney+ and was free to watch on the company’s social media pages through the weekend. Tonight’s episode saw Maggie reunited with her love interest, Hudson, and follows much of the same plot points of her being torn away from the stud. Though this time through Marge’s perspective and fear of hurting her daughter.

The real feature of this new episode involved Homer becoming best friends with the slack-jawed yokel, Cletus Spuckler. Season 31 has been all about those wonderful characters of Springfield, and this was the father of 39+ children’s turn to take the stage. Though a one-note character, Cletus has a healthy lifespan on The Simpsons. First appearing in season five’s “Bart Get’s an Elephant,” we have slowly been introduced to his massive family throughout the years. It was only a matter of time until Homer found sanctuary with the hillbillies, and their relationship is as easy coming and honest as you would expect.

Overall, it is hard to get over the understandable excitement of having a fresh Simpsons episode. The last few weeks have been a hard wait in the middle of a pandemic with no new Simpsons to watch. And, with a nod to the state of the world during the credits, the showrunners acknowledged all of our pain. This may not have been a particularly strong episode on its own, but it is always nice to have an old friend around.