Review: The Simpsons “Aunt Misbehavin”

Overview (Spoilers Below):
Patty and Bart team up for the ultimate prank—getting Homer declared legally dead. To their chagrin, Homer loves being officially dead, which leads to Patty and Selma having a huge fight and Patty moving away to “Palm Springfield”.

Our Take:
After reading the plot synopsis, I thought we’d be getting yet another dose of Bart mania since he’s what’s holding this latest season together.  This week’s episode appears to be the case, with Bart pulling yet another prank on Homer as payback for destroying his console.  This time, he’s not acting alone, as he finds an unexpected ally in one of Marge’s sisters, Patty, who plans to use the DMV system to pronounce Homer “legally dead”.  However, once that prank went awry due to Homer’s enjoyment of “being dead”, the episode showcases that Bart’s trick isn’t the only thing that fell apart.  Unsurprisingly, this latest prank has done more harm than good for the pranksters, as it led the recently promoted supervisor, Selma, to fire Patty from her job.
What follows is what you might expect from the raspy-voiced, arrogant sisters who share the same apartment roof.  From what I remember of the series, Patty and Selma are occasionally at each other’s throats, but they share a common enemy: Homer Simpson.  In this episode, we see the sisters’ dynamic altered by Selma’s promotion to DMV supervisor and Patty’s “harmless” prank that affects the former’s responsibilities.  This resulted in Patty moving to Palm Springfield to escape Selma’s shadow.
In case you’re wondering, this desert town might have been a reference to “Palm Springs”, but that doesn’t mean we get to see the show’s satirization of the classic time-loop comedy.  However, we do get a solid episode that highlights the development of the show’s supporting characters, with Patty and Selma learning to express their feelings honestly.  Regarding its amusing gags involving Homer being “dead” and Stephen Tobolowsky as Selma’s boyfriend, Merle, “Aunt Misbehavin” behaves well enough to underscore the aunts’ sisterly bond.