Review: The Simpsons ‘Married to the Blob’

Spoilers Below

Sooooo did anyone notice the chalkboard gag of last night’s episode stated, ‘JUDAS PRIEST IS NOT “DEATH METAL”’? Pretty convenient, considering we happened to make that same assertion here and in the jump here. Nice.

The story was simple: Comic Book Guy approached Homer asking for advice on scoring a woman, since Homer is a fat man who bagged a hot wife. CBG then met a cute Japanese girl, and they instantly hit it off, but her father showed up and expressed his disapproval, until him & Homer took a snake-wine-induced hallucinatory trip, which changed the father’s mind.

I must say, for the second week in a row, The Simpsons delivered laughs from start to finish. Here’s just a sample of the chuckles from this installment:

• Bart exclaimed “I did NOT see that coming!” after reading of Radioactive Man’s death in the latest issue of the series. The title was then revealed to be “The Death of Radioactive Man.”
• Did anyone else find it a bit coincidental (even though this episode was probably written six months ago) that Lisa made a joke about cartoon producers cheaply trying to make money by killing off a character, only to bring them back soon after? Paging Seth MacFarlane.
• There was another appearance of “Radioactive Man Meets the Kansas City Royals,” on the wall of Android’s Dungeon behind the Comic Book Guy.
• Stan Lee shoplifted in the first scene of his cameo.
• When Comic Book Guy came to the house, Homer called to Bart by yelling, “Bart, your comic vendor is here!”
• There were two Mr. Sparkle references, and neither managed to ruin the original joke – a practice which happens all-too-frequently on other shows.
• Anyone see an old or tired-looking Ruth Powers sitting at another table during the double date? I wonder what she’s been up to.
• In the comic book that showed Batman & Robin in the same bed together, Batman was saying, “Time for bed, Dick!” What the H?
• An aquarium is not “fish wine.”
• White Castle IS quite enlightening.

These jokes, and numerous others, really made the episode succeed. And this was all despite the fact that Comic Book Guy isn’t actually that strong of a character. But in the end there was one factor that put this episode over the top: the hallucination sequence. It was beautifully animated, wonderfully scored, and cheerfully imaginative. Creatures and objects were represented anthropomorphically, with character combos like Otto the Raccoon, Skinner the Kite, and a illustration of Chief Piggum. (“Cape Fear,” anyone?) It may not be a sequence like the chili-inspired trip in “El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer” (so calm down, fanboys & fangirls) but it added a surprising amount of enjoyable eye candy for a “later days” episode. I don’t normally say this, but I could easily see pulling the future DVD of this season off the shelf to watch this (as well as the previous) episode. 25 seasons, and still kicking.