Review: The Simpsons “Black Eyed, Please”

Spoilers Below

Ned’s parents are in town, and after welcoming himself in, Homer helps them out in constantly ripping on Ned, and even partaking into some hippie culture. As a result Ned punches Homer in the face and sends him to the hospital. Obviously, being the devout Christian he is, Ned dreams up a trip to hell. When he wakes up, Ned heads to the plant asking for a punch to the face from Homer to help atone for his sins. Homer, declines and subsequently gets another punch in the face.  Homer eventually decides to let Ned apologize..in exchange for his WIFE!

Meanwhile, Lisa’s sub teacher Ms. Cantwell seems to hate her despite her best efforts in kissing ass. It gets so bad that she even faints at school and wakes up at home on the couch with Marge. She tries to get some answers, but Cantwell isn’t helping and this causes Lisa to start hallucinating.  This causes Marge and Homer to go to the school to try and figure out what is up, but neither the principal nor Chalmers really care. That said, ratting on the bully teacher gets Lisa detention and she decides to ask Nelson and the experts as to what she should do.  Thankfully, Homer convinces Edna to get rid of Cantwell with a new student…BART SIMPSON! Bart retires Cantwell, of whom only disliked Lisa because she was pretty…weird, right?

The great thing about The Simpsons being around for so long is that even the ancillary characters have been used so many times that they seem like regulars. Take Ned. You would think the idea of having a next door neighbor’s parents being the launch pad would have sucked, but Ned’s parents are so funny its a wonder why the writers don’t use them more often. Tina Fey is a knockout as Ms. Cantwell and to finally see her go toe to toe with Bart was something I wasn’t expecting but when it happened I couldn’t help but rub my hands together in excitement….and yea he delivers. The Simpsons aren’t going anywhere kids….might as well get used to it (AND MORE PLYMPTON INTROS, PLEASE!)