Review: The Simpsons “Men Behaving Manly”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Springfield’s men are in crisis.

Our Take: 

If you thought women were complicated, then you clearly haven’t been keeping up with The Simpsons.  This week’s episode shows that men can be as useless as a pair of twigs, preferring to be lazy rather than become men of the house.  This is evident through Homer and Bart’s eagerness to stay home, play video games, and eat chips throughout summer vacation.  This prompted Marge and the other wives to send every man in Springfield to a “Man Camp” to get them to behave like “men”.  Of course, with all the men gone, Marge and the women step up to transform Springfield into an all-female society, which might not bode well for the men and boys.

One notable element is that “Men Behaving Manly” is the latest episode to feature Albert Brooks as a guest star.  Brooks has been a recurring guest on The Simpsons, providing voices for various characters, including Hank Scorpio and Russ Cargill in the 2007 film adaptation.  This episode has Brooks voicing Greg, a camp counselor/“mans-structor” who works to transform lazy men into confident men.  He’s easily the standout of the episode, conveying a vocal range that almost distinguished Greg from other characters he voiced in the past.  

Besides that, “Men Behaving Manly” doesn’t offer much in its tedious “boot camp” narrative to distance itself from familiar episodes involving characters going to a type of camp to “change themselves”.  The episode featured some references that provided some good laughs, including the “dad jokes” from animated sitcoms and the “Mom-o-Rail”, which hearkens back to the “monorail” joke from one of the show’s earlier episodes.  However, its underwhelming plot and disappointing portrayal of masculinity show that this episode isn’t “manly” enough to continue this season’s trend of decent episodes.