R&R - "Pork And Burns" (WABF06)

Your rating of "Pork & Burns"


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Matty

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Season 28, episode 11
Original Airdate: January 8, 2017
Writer: Rob LaZebnik
Director: Matt Nastuk
Synopsis: When Marge becomes obsessed with a Japanese style of living, the Simpsons must part with any item that no longer brings them joy. For Homer, this means finding a new home for the family pig. For Lisa, it means saying goodbye to her beloved sax. Guest star: Joyce Carol Oates

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Overall I enjoyed this one. ER parody was pretty dated but that's okay, it had funny moments, good Homer and Lisa stories which connected to the Marge-focused opening. Just a pleasant episode, and made good use of Plopper's first real notable return to the show.
4/5 Somewhere in the top 3 this season I think.
 
** Fairy head falling off
* Robot stabbing itself
** Boobs Birthday card
* "Why did i wear mother's blouse today?"
* "3.999999"
** World War China
End of act 1: 8/10, strong start
** Spider pig stuck in walker
* Homer in windowless van
* Medicinal Marijuana clinic
** Dr Nick Opiods
* Spider pig gasp
* throwing snake in castle
Excellent! 9/10
* "What was I saying again?"
* "Let's put our heads together"
** It sounds like how paste tastes!
* I will Always Love you montage
Closing Thoughts:
That was solid.
The plot was good, I was glad Marge didn't be a jerk which I was fearing, and i found the premise interesting.
There were also quite a few good laughs throughout, especially in the second act.
7.5/10. Top 3 for the year.
 
did anyone notice the relatively high amount of terrible misdirection gags? like homer going Don't Buy Books at a Car Wash, OOH SUSHI/homer and marge's WALLOW bit (followed by the awful Marge Let's Not WALLOW On Things)/homer going I Love Animals Now, Now Pass Me The Porkchops. probably more but i forget. anyway the rest was pretty harmless and i laughed at bart fuckin Murderin skinner and homer and The Pig slowly walkin at the end so i guess 3/5.
 
I know I certainly enjoyed this episode moreso than most of the others this past season, but I don't know whether that has anything to do with the episode's own merits or the fact that I watched it with family this time, which always heightens my enjoyment of things. Regardless, it was a great episode and a great way to re-introduce Spider Pig. It had a lot of great laughs, and I liked how well-integrated the two plots were. I especially loved "If you let me keep this pig, I'll give up beer!" "Deal." "Uh-oh."

I wouldn't say I loved every part of it, but I can't think of anything in it I actively didn't like (except maybe the wallow joke). 4/5
 
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Aw heck, I'll give it a 5/5.

A Plopper episode is something I've been wanting since The Simpsons Movie released. His addition to the family was something I expected, on a Snowball II level at least, but all they managed were a few gags and appearances that made it look like he just sort of hung around town and didn't have any real owner. To see a little retcon and reveal that he has always been in the backyard was nice.

The episode itself was solid. Great jokes, lots of fun secondary character cameos including that animal doctor voiced by Michael York last season and freakin' DOCTOR NICK! Mr. Burns didn't really pose any threat, but he served his purpose to the story and served up some good gags.

Overall just a fun and funny episode, and I'm giving it top marks because it is an episode I've long wanted and thought we'd never get after 10 years passed since the movie.

--

Funny thing I noticed: Homer references an old 2014 calendar this episode, while the Movie which introduced Plopper had a visual gag with Apu changing an old 2006 milk carton to 2008.
 
did anyone notice the relatively high amount of terrible misdirection gags? like homer going Don't Buy Books at a Car Wash, OOH SUSHI/homer and marge's WALLOW bit (followed by the awful Marge Let's Not WALLOW On Things)/homer going I Love Animals Now, Now Pass Me The Porkchops. probably more but i forget. anyway the rest was pretty harmless and i laughed at bart fuckin Murderin skinner and homer and The Pig slowly walkin at the end so i guess 3/5.
This episode had the opposite problem of most modern episodes in that the same kind of joke was recycled again and again and again yet we were presented with a relatively cohesive story structure that ebbed and flowed effortlessly, was well-paced, intersected at points smoothly and even built to a proper reset button ending.

Unfortunately, the fact that I didn't find either story all that interesting, the characterizations (outside of Marge and Bart) came off as forced and that most of the jokes were a miss for me resulted in a not-so-great score but I can see where it would come together for others.

That and I'm probably the one person on the planet that never cared for Plopper / Spider Pig in any incarnation... be it here or in the movie.
 
Plopper did not work for me when he appeared in that THOH episode where Homer's head went up his ass. That was reeeeeallllly bad.
 
So I rewatched this episode with my mom (she wanted to watch it with me when it aired but had to drive someone to Urgent Care), and my 13 year old brother decided to join us, which makes this his first full Simpsons episode (from what I can remember). He liked it, and from what I can tell basedon his reactions his favorite part was when the snake landed in the bouncy castle.
 
Did I just see what I think I saw? A modern episode without Milhouse?

(just skimmed through the ep btw)
 
he was in bart's room randomly when he decided what brings him joy or not. nice try ataeaf!
 
Did I just see what I think I saw? A modern episode without Milhouse?

(just skimmed through the ep btw)

Milhouse was in Bart's room when he was going through all of the things that brought him joy ("joy...joy...joy...Milhouse, get out of the way"); however, he didn't speak.



Homer drives a 1986 Plymouth Junkarola.

The other books in the car wash:
Eat, Pray, Love, Divorce
You'll See Me Later by Joyce Carol Oates
No One Edits Me by Stephen King
Killing Hannity by Bill O'Reilly

Homer should collect Futurama calendars, which tend to have reminders on the cover to save them and use them again in future years.

Another brief cameo: Joyce Carol Oates said seven words.

Is it just me, or did Luigi's mother look like Milhouse's grandmother?

Lisa left her sax at the plant outing; how did Marge get it back?

Hellmann's and Best Foods are the same thing (for whatever reason, it's called Best Foods in the west and Hellmann's in the east), and Miracle Whip is not only not mayonnaise, but
it used to run an ad campaign making this fact quite clear.

It's not exactly a secret that Lisa has a bit of a waistline, but you can really tell this when she lies down.

Pamela Hayden and Tress MacNeille were both credited, but did either have any speaking parts?
 
he was in bart's room randomly when he decided what brings him joy or not. nice try ataeaf!

Okay, close but no cigar. But at least it was just a cameo. I don’t even dislike him; I just think the writers should quit using him so much. At least Homer’s the main character.
 
Pamela Hayden and Tress MacNeille were both credited, but did either have any speaking parts?

Tress MacNeille: Luigi’s mother, marijuana clinic doctor, possibly fairies?

Couldn’t find any Pamela Hayden unless she was also fairies.
 
Going to have to give this a 4/5 (mostly because it actually did hold up on its own as an episode and didn't rely on over explaining gags. Simplistic decision, yes. But for modern Simpsons that a blessing. And holy cow a classic era styled cutaway gag? I'm not dreaming, am I?)

Notes from the Burnsmithers side of the fandom:

*Rob LaZebnik seems to write great rapport between these two and keeps with the theme of Smithers post Burns Cage wherein Waylon is well, out about being gay. We see this in Last Traction Hero and slightly in Simprovised, but moreso this time whom he is in love with as we see during that scene when he looks at Burns with Homer (now if only you can muster that courage and ask Burns out for a date.)

*About time Burns feels some unrequited love even though it is with Plopper. The pig apparently did like being pampered but he longed for Homer. This is most prominent during the dance scene ( and again a callback to the trope that Burns is a good dancer.)

*Oh hey, Cliff can actually do a good thing for his son. The show still notes how he was ruthless towards him, and I love that they are starting to dwell into the backgrounds of his parental figures even if it is in passing.

*Kind of disappointed that they didn't make a callback to Burns' line in Two Dozen and One Greyhounds about his preference for animals that can do an amazing trick since Rob seems to do that in his scripts occasionally. I was hoping that would be how he got enraptured by Plopper, but it just eh, wedges itself in.

*Burns being caught after Smithers mentions that he thought he was Burns' loyal companion, then Monty explaining that a man can have two before lowering his voice about the pig being his favorite.

*Smithers actually being one of the few Springfieldians who know that El Barto is Bart. A duh moment, but one of the more privvy and self aware people of the town. I like that trope of his.

*Now in his bout of dementia, did Burns hear Smithers mention that proclamation of love or didn't he before snapping out of it and repeating Waylon say "what's what"? A question for the ages....

*Kind of a little disappointed they didn't take the opportunity to do something with Fruit Batman and Spiderpig during the montage.

*Smithers can command and control Burns' hounds, and another detail of him we have been seeing more of post Burns Cage - he grew a backbone. Yes I want to see more of this.
 
It was decent with the pig having some mildly amusing jokes. However, a lot of them were still predictable though, like Lenny and Carl mistaking it for Homer. Also, they didn't need to do the Mayo Clinic twice considering it's not a very good joke to begin with. And why does Marge appear out of nowhere when Homer is reunited with Plopper. The Lisa story could have been handled better, like she's depressed for a little while but Bart solves that problem very easily. Then she doesn't have her saxophone but luckily Marge kept it in a storage closet. It just felt rushed. This one definitely feels like a middle of the road episode. 3/5

Could've done without Homer and Lisa having anxiety attacks though.
 
Man, remember when people complained about Jockey Elves? But now fairies are canon.

Is "we've had him since you found him" supposed to be mean the beginning of the movie? Because he's clearly been all over Springfield in various episodes. In fact, Plopper even worked for Luigi before, but now he wouldn't even let him inside and just refered to him as "unsliced prosciutto". Also, why the hell would Bart go "oh sorry sorry" when he spilled gravy on his dad? What the fuck?
 
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well, I've been wanting to watch Simpsons, and I thought to watch one I hadn't seen before because... why not. here we go:

Act 1:

+"I thought this meeting was Marge telling us that Grampa died!"
"Well, the meeting ain't over yet."

+"Speaking of college education-"
"Meeting adjourned!"

+"Oh right, because up until now I've been such a great guy!"

OK, this is decently entertaining so far. Nothing really cringe-worthy. I wasn't a fan of Homer thinking the meeting was about Grampa dying, but Grampa's line saved it. Onto Act 2!

Act 2:

+"I don't know what the word you said was, let's not wallow in it."

-I liked the windowless van gag, but Homer's "What do you do? NOOOO!" I could have done without

-Not a fan of Lisa's anxiety scene. Or Homer trying to pretend to have anxiety.

+"I finally feel about my sax the way you all do." and Marge's and Plopper's reactions

+Lenny and Carl trying to tell if Plopper from behind is Homer or a pig

+"I got turned down my McDonald's, but here they paid me the whole year I was in jail."

+"He's totally changed the way I look at animals. Pass the pork chops."

-"What's happening to me?!"
"You're having an anxiety attack!"
"There really is such a thing?!"

didn't like this act as much as the first, but it still had some good moments.

Act 3:

+"We'll take good care of Spider-Pig"
"You know his secret identity?"
"Uh-huh. And your son is El Barto. These things are very easy to figure out."

+"Let's put our heads together. Wow, this actually is making me smarter."

+Gil getting married at a storage unit

+Bart helping Lisa get some joy back

+"Fruit?! What a nightmare!"

I know it's not going to happen, but it would be nice if Homer actually did give up beer, at least for a few episodes. After watching this current season of South Park, some continuity like that would be nice. Like I said though, I know it wouldn't happen.

this was actually a pretty decent episode. I found myself laughing quite a bit more than I expected. I didn't like Homer pretending to have anxiety, but otherwise, fine episode. Don't know if I'd give it a 5/5, but I'd say a 4/5 Is pretty warranted.
 
That was a pretty solid episode to start this year with. I didn't expect a Plopper/Spiderpig centered episode could work but they somehow managed to pull it off. I also like how its very much centered around the family, with only Mr Burns and Smithers joining in during the last act. I'm glad that they mostly kept a single plot around Plopper while the Lisa subplot is still very much attached, and doesn't take up to much screentime.

The couch gag is short and funny (good riddance 2016 indeed). The Japanese opening had its moments and a cool background, but the fairies felt unnecesary. I liked the gag with Homer buying sushi from a car wash. didn't get the boob joke though. Overall a good setup for Marge's new living style. Liked the Malibu Stacy gag with Lisa and Comic Book Guy, not so much for Bart drowning Skinner in squishee. Then apparently Plopper has been living with the Simpsons since the movie... what a good way to hide it for so long... but thats just something you need to look over. Plopper had a lot of funny moments that he considers casual, kinda like he behaved in the movie. The scene with Homer trying to sell Plopper to Snake was to FG'ish... which means its just unsettling and unnecesary. Some great voice acting from Yeardley voing Lisa's anxiety diagnosis. I like how Lenny and Carl mistook Plopper for Homer.

I actually felt a bit sad when Plopper got attacked by Burns's hounds, not something that the show pulls off so often these days. And I like how they brought back Dr. Lionel Budgie from Lisa the Veterinarian, actually a decent character who should be more of a recurring character aswell. Homer imagining mayonaise as doctors had its moments. Mr Burns was a good addition to the plot by trying to take Plopper away from Homer, would've liked to see more of their relationship. The Homer/Plopper reuniting scene was rather sweet. So apparently Homer gave up beer to keep Plopper, so I can expect Plopper to appear more often while Homer doesn't drink anymore... hey, thats how you just ended the episode. There's not much else to say about the small Lisa subplot other then some great voice acting and a cute gesture from Bart to help her out.

I quite enjoyed this episode, but it has its shortcomings. Some cringy jokes/moments that just seems to common for this show these days, I really wish they would avoid stepping to FG's level. And I would've liked to see some more Burns/Plopper. Other than these faults, the rest of the episode has been quite solid. I especially like how the relationship with Homer and Plopper continued, staying true to how their relationship in the movie. The Lisa subplot was a nice addition for a bit of diversion.

4/5
 
To the NHC Tech-Heads:

Can any of you put up Lisa's Blleding Gums Murphy poster that was the only thing in her bedroom?

I'd like to use it for my dollhouse/minitures bedroom I have for my Mattel Lisa action figure!
 
^
I believe 'Babe' was a book before it got made into a film (the book was called 'The Sheep Pig')
 
Overall, this was a pretty good episode. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about an episode centered around Plopper since like Brad Lascelle, I've never been a big fan, but I feel it was pulled off alright. I liked seeing the Bart/Lisa moment when Lisa regained her love for the saxophone and I also liked seeing Homer genuinely care for the pig. I agree there were some jokes that didn't work (the fairy getting its head cut off felt very FG, and the Mayo Clinic thing didn't do it for me), and they seemed to really like the misdirection gags (they're not a bad type of joke per se, but if I'm aware of how often they're being used, it's a bit of a problem), but HD-era joke awkwardness is not going away, so I can't make it a major complaint anymore. Otherwise I enjoyed this one and is the first episode with two plots (albeit fairly closely related) that I felt was on an equal footing with the single-plot Selman episodes.

Some little things I liked:

-I liked seeing a nod to Burly paper towels in the store at the car wash as well as the book "Killing Hannity", that made me chuckle.
-"Your attempts to enter the 21st century brought joy to no one" lol
-"Ah, how sweet. All the little children have-a the adult anxiety now" - it's sad that this quote is now biting satire. But as someone with anxiety issues, I like that they're addressing it in the episode (without making it too serious or too tasteless).
-Marge's exaggerated gasp
-"I will not subject him to something that has three vowels in a row!"
-Bart and Lisa "putting their heads together"

That and I'm probably the one person on the planet that never cared for Plopper / Spider Pig in any incarnation... be it here or in the movie.

You're not alone, although I will admit part of the reason I don't care for Plopper/Spider Pig is probably because of his popularity with non-Simpsons fans, so that's a bit hipsterish... (I remember when the movie came out in high school, my friends who knew nothing about The Simpsons and would never care to see the show were talking about Spider Pig and quoting Homer's song).
 
that was actually kinda cute, both plots kept steady and I actually chuckled a few times. big eye roll at the play of the spider-pig song like it's necessary. they'll ride that 10-year-old gag into the ground I guess. I like that they actually did address the pig as Plopper the entire duration. (as opposed to exactly 1 time in the movie) strange that they have yet to bring russ cargill back. (I could take or leave colin)

3/5

also julie kavner is sounding extremely rough nowadays :(
 
There is something very appealing about the pairing of Homer with a pet pig and I never understood why they didn't keep Plopper around in that role. This was one of the more enjoyable episodes I've seen since the movie because of it, even if it wasn't anything amazing. 3,5/5
 
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