Rate & Review: "Do PizzaBots Dream of Electric Guitars?" (QABF08)

How would you rate this episode?

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Brad Lascelle

Brad Lascelle

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Season 32, Episode 15
Original Airdates: March 14, 2021 (in the US) / March 28, 2021 (in Canada)
Writer: Michael Price
Director: Jennifer Moeller
Showrunner: Matt Selman
Synopsis: Homer tries to reunite a mechanical band from his youth, but film and TV creator J.J. Abrams gets ahold of them first.

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Users Who Have Voted & Their Score for the Episode (votes will not be cited below if the user has voted in the thread poll above)
BloodySimpsonChibi {5} / Dizagaox {3} / Financial Panther {2} / GlitterCat {4} / Kaine {3} / nagarajan {3} / Nameless {1}
Nitsy {3} / orangemo {4} / Scrooge McDuck {1} / sideshow ken {2} / The Capital City Goofball {3} / Trab Pu Kcip {2}​

R&R Poll Average Score: 2.80 / 5 (as of September 26, 2021 / 20 votes)
IMDB User Rating: 6.0 / 10
 
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It wasn’t great. I wish the internet trolling had been more of central point, because I think that had some potential. J.J. Abrams wasn’t a great guest star; his use reminded me of how Gaga and Musk were used, although I don’t think it was as bad or in-your-face as their episodes. This wasn’t the funniest episode; the only joke I really laughed at was Springfield’s “Little Los Angeles” being shown as the skid row.

The flashback at the beginning was decent, and I don’t mind continuity issues. I thought the plot of getting the robots back together and tracking them down would take up more of the episode, but Abrams showed up pretty quickly, and the episode took a sharp turn. Also, why was Moe involved in this episode? He just showed up at the Simpsons’ house, and then the family took him along. I thought he’d serve some later purpose, like being the one Marge called, but nope. It was bizarre.

Then when Homer confronted Abrams, we got a really weird...hate-bonding between Homer and his dad when Grampa said he didn’t treat Homer well in the past and that he’s the reason Homer’s childhood was ruined. This episode felt kind of all over the place. and I would’ve liked to see some more trolling and less Abrams. 2/5, I suppose.
 
I might be alone but I did laugh a little at "I hate you too, dad", although the thing with Bart & Lisa afterwards ruined it. Might come back later with some more comments but for now at least I wasn't falling asleep during this episode like I was with the last episode from this writer.

1.5/5 rounded up to a 2.
 
THOUGHTS:

Homer's voice sounds deeper in his teenager voice, Ice Ice Baby parody, malfuntioning robots weren't as funny as Radio Bart, but still good, Homer's belly flop was funny, As the act ended, a little callback to Homer Defined, only this time, it's Homer crying, lots of things going on at once. This was the main good bit of the show, I'll give this act a 3.5/5

Childhood effects return from Blunder Years, meh, don't really care about it, Gil is now a homeless guy, after failing again, now even he's too poor to even own an house, first appearence of Disco's Stu's Mother, "He programmed us to make us lose", Herman speaks, Another film set in Springfield, Pink RD-40's carring a yak, smart move, Really loving the animation in this episode. But... This makes no sense whatsoever. What I am writing is no sense whatsoever. I couldn't even be bothered to give this a proper rating, this was just a mess.

Simpsons are actually encouraging trolling, the Homer trolling bit took a bit too long, could've done something more interestin with it, I don't really get the ending much, just seemed rushed, it's just a cop-out ending, with no real resolution to this. A Better ending would've been better, but at least I can give it an rating of 2/5.

OK, to be fair, I don't know what exactly was I watching. Was I high on crack, marijuana, or something else? I understood about 30% of the episode, which isn't a lot. This was just an "anything goes" episode that had whatever they had left and they just made it into one episode. I cannot make enough sense to appreciate this episode enough. Pizzabots -> Cocaine? This makes no sense whatsoever. At least this wasn't the 700th episode. They could've done something much more better with it.

And time for my ratings...

WHAT? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? AM I'M GOING TO GIVE IT A 2/5? REALLY? I can't stand this run anymore. I've given up on the season. I'm done. I really don't, but because that 2nd act was an unrankable amount, it got a 5.5/15, though I really wish this could be rounded down to a 1, no. I'm not giving this a 2/5. I'm giving it a... I just can't give it a 1/5. And it's not 3/5 quality either. I might've well put every prediction as a 2/5, because that's all I rate Simpsons episodes now. I'm just not enjoying the show anymore. But I will watch the 700th episode, just because I want to see the milestone. I'm really tempted to go to a part-time schedule.

2/5, AGAIN.
 
It feels weirdly appropriate that discu stu's parents were into doo wop and public domain music. The slice slice parody was kinda cute, reminded me of weird al's credit song from way back. Homer's now about the same age as my brother, dunno how I feel about. As a fanfic writer, I enjoyed troll force five especially the shipper. Gil into cocaine explains a lot. Abe was a jerk and he's fully aware of it. More of CBG and Homer as friends, I like that. Also as a fan girl Kumiko and her some of us are women sign speaks to me. Surprisingly good 3.5/5 round it up to a 4.
 
Here we go, rewriting the show's history again with Homer being a teen in the early 1990s! So now not only are "The Way We Was," "Lisa's First Word" and "Homer's Barbershop Quartet" erased from the show's continuity, but so is "That 90s Show!" (But THAT may be for the better.)
Razzle-Dazzle's Pizza Entertainment Palace? What happened to Wall E. Weasel's? But then again, that may not exist anymore in the show's modified continuity. Plus, in the 1980s, alongside Chuck E. Cheese's there was also Showbiz Pizza Place, with their animatronic band the Rockafire Explosion (which admittedly is pretty cool), so it could be justified in that it was a competing franchise to Wall E. Weasel's. (Though by 1992, all the Showbiz Pizza Places were converted to Chuck E. Cheese's restaurants after they merged in 1984 and co-operated alongside each other for several years.) Yeah, this is a topic that interests me (as I LOVE Chuck E. Cheese's parodies!) so of course this episode caught my interest. Plus, since it's a Matt Selman show-run episode, that increased my expectations more!
Kids not being interested in the animatronics? Yep, that's one reason why Chuck E. Cheese's has been doing away with the animatronic shows at their restaurants, replacing them with a dance floor where the costumed mascot versions of Chuck E. and his Make-Believe Band can dance with the kids every hour. (Though ironically, despite claims that "Five Nights at Freddy's" has been giving Chuck E. Cheese's a bad image, the game has actually gotten kids interested in Chuck E. Cheese's animatronics, and thus are disappointed by their removal process!) Oh, and hearing Tress MacNeille as Foxy Lady reminded me how she actually voiced Helen Henny at one time!
Heh, of course at the real Chuck E. Cheese's and Showbiz Pizza Place restaurants, the animatronics were entirely programmed and run by computers; no DJs operating them. And the companies and programmers were smart to have them perform contemporary songs of the time, along with sone oldies (the Rockafire Explosion would have a nice mix of both.)

Marge sadly says in her 70-year-old voice, "He's not my Homie anymore." Yeah, and she's not our Margie anymore!
LOL at Disco Stu's mother, Public Domain Debbie!
LOL at the lens flare joke when J.J. Abrams enters the scene! (Because we know how much he's obsessed with lens flares.) But I'm not too big on how the recent guest stars like J.J. Abrams are drawn in that same realistic style most new incidental/one-off characters are drawn in. I liked it better back in the past when guest starts were given more stylized caricatures, and thus being more recognizable and better-resembling their real-life counterparts (like Sting, Leonard Nimoy, Brooke Shields, Bette Midler, James Brown, Robert Goulet, James Woods, Paul McCartney, etc. etc. etc.)

Oooh, Bart is Cupcake Lad for Halloween! Been a long time since we've seen that.
Heh, at least "Agents of P.I.Z.Z.A." seems better than that horrible "Banana Splits" movie from nearly two years ago, rebooting the beloved costumed Saturday morning cartoon band into a "Five Nights at Freddy's"-esque horror film.
LOL at the digital animation names, especially "Hanna-Barbaric Working Conditions!"
Yeah, I remember feeling the same way when "Loonatics Unleashed," "What's New, Scooby-Doo?" and "Shaggy and Scooby-Doo Get a Clue" ruined my childhood (OK, I was a teenager when they came out, but still, they made me distrust Warner Bros. Animation, the studio that made such great Looney Tunes Cartoons fro the 1930s to the 1960s, for a long time. Sad, isn't it?)
That was a beautiful cinematic ending to the third act, I will admit.

OK, I thought The Furry bit in the epilogue was amusing, even if it was still rather stereotypical.
I give this episode a 3.8 out of 5, rounded to 4 for the thread, because the main plot greatly interested me, being such a Chuck E. Cheese's/Showbiz Pizza Place fan and all.
 
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wiley207 said:
Here we go, rewriting the show's history again with Homer being a teen in the early 1990s! So now not only are "The Way We Was," "Lisa's First Word" and "Homer's Barbershop Quartet" erased from the show's continuity, but so is "That 90s Show!" (But THAT may be for the better.)
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It's not that those episodes have been erased from the show's continuity so much as the elastic nature of the Simpsons timeline has retroactively repurposed them to having taken place in different time periods than when they were originally set be it the 1970s (The Way We Was), the 1980s (Lisa's First Word and Homer's Barbershop Quartet) or the 1990s (That 90s Show).

Those events still take place. It's just the circumstances surrounding them are now different.

When the present-day Simpsons move from decade to decade, they don't fundamentally change and their backstories don't change with them. They're just surrounded by new kinds of popular culture, technology and social trends. The events that shaped who they are and how they came to be as a family will always be the same... even if the backdrops of those stories shift just as the backdrop of the present day Simpsons family shifts.
 
Act 1: Oh this is going to be bad.

This is about AUTOMATED ROBOTS! That's the band?

Act 2: Meh

America's worst music crazy: BRILLANT!!!
Little Los Angeles homeless joke, not cool.
Jive Turkey was funny.


Act 3:

Fat montages, stupid.
Some of us our women, amusing.

Opinion: WHAT THE FUCK DID I JUST WATCH?!?

Homer is now into rap. Not to mention that he grew up in the seventies singing, "Ths Joker" and helps make the grunge moment. I guess the "The Way We Was" means nothing to the writers or Al Jean. The irony is that we didn't need JJ to screw this episode up. This was stupid and pointless.

1/5
 
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wiley207 said:
Here we go, rewriting the show's history again with Homer being a teen in the early 1990s! So now not only are "The Way We Was," "Lisa's First Word" and "Homer's Barbershop Quartet" erased from the show's continuity, but so is "That 90s Show!" (But THAT may be for the better.)
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Er, didn't "That 90s Show" erase the other three's continuity (and throw in "And Maggie Makes Three" while you're at it) all by itself? And while you're at it, throw in "Lady Bouvier's Lover," as one of the scenes with Homer at his laptop was Maggie blowing out the candle of the cake for her first birthday, although I'm pretty sure she has celebrated another first birthday since then.
 
This episode was kind of good if I have to be very honest with you guys, but next Sunday after that, we'll get to be in the 700th episode of The Simpsons
 
Matt Selman made a tweet earlier this week stating that nothing is canon in The Simpsons universe, and honestly I’m down to believe that because of how the show is designed. At its core, The Simpsons is a sitcom, so everything is really a “what if” situation. And this week’s doesn’t do anything different than what Selman stated. It’s a good one. And it’s not because Mike Price wrote it. I’ll admit, knowing that this was his episode got me looking more forward to it than others, but it’s the writing itself that sold me for the most part. F is for Family is a great Netflix original series. And Bill Burr and Mike Price are BIG on flashback scenes, so using the experience with them in FIFF and putting them into The Simpsons was a nice addition.

The entire flashback scene is a great backstory showing how Homer started his love for the pizza robots. It’s nice to see him succeed at something, and have fun while doing it. When it goes back to the present, it wastes no time getting to the main point. The montage of Homer doing silly stuff was pretty funny. Moe coming in after was just random and I had to just laugh because of that. I liked when Lisa and Bart went into Abram’s production building and Lisa started speaking like she was cool.

The only thing I didn’t really care for was the twist. It just felt weird and out of place. Abrams just takes all of the pizza robots away without even asking or even offering Homer money for them. I feel there could have been a better way to execute it.

But the ending to the episode was pretty nice. Abe and Homer get a hate-like bond which is kind of amusing when Homer said “I hate you, dad”. I also liked seeing the band back together. Even though they’re in a different place now, his dream sort of did come true.

I haven’t been too fond of recent Simpsons episodes, but this one is easily one of my favorites of the season. It’s funny, the story structure is solid, and it kept me interested the whole time. Many people are upset because they thought it broke continuity, but if you are a true fan, you wouldn’t be too upset. Just sit back and enjoy the episode. You won’t regret it.

3.75/5, rounded up to 4
 
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Well, I'm surprised that Andrea Romero is no longer the Animation Producer during the ending credits as of this episode. It was good, because of the flashback scenes of Homer in where he was a teenager from the 1990s
 
1) Reading some comments, I suggest, this one will be the most controversial of season (probably, because of continuity):P Though, I doubt it can be as bad as season 30 "The Clown Stays in the Picture" for me.

The B said:
The episode was dedicated to Mark Wilmore. I wondered, why last week "Diary Queen" wasn't dedicated to him? (btw, there was enough time to make that "dedication card") :confused:
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2) I thought, that Wad Goals had a late dedication to Mark Wilmore after a month of his death (well, there were understood later reasons of Marcia Wallace tribute in episode before). However, QABF08 episode was dedicated to David Richardson, who passed away in January (2 months ago). Now I wondered, why last week "Yokel Hero" wasn't dedicated to him :confused:?

BTW, off-top: I recently saw briefly Wad Goals (start and end) and there wasn't any dedication card to Mark Wilmore in the end. How could this be?
 
I think this is the first time we've been told Abe and Homer have a 41-year age gap between them? Abe said he was 55 in the opening act, and then later we're told the flashback was when Homer was 14 years old.

I liked the episode. It gets a 3/5 from me. I don't think it landed properly but I liked the storyline. Springfield standing in for Somalia was quite funny. The animation was gorgeous too.
 
wiley207 said:
I give this episode a 3.8 out of 5, rounded to 4 for the thread, because the main plot greatly interested me, being such a Chuck E. Cheese's/Showbiz Pizza Place fan and all.
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I'm also very big into the animatronic shows of SPP and CEC, to the point that I found it funny that they were parodying Whoomp! (There It Is) since CEC themselves did their own version in 1997! That said, it wasn't enough to save the episode from being the mess that it was for reasons [MENTION=21074]Financial Panther[/MENTION] already pointed out. I'd even go as far as to say that this episode along with 7 Beer Itch are pretty similar in terms of how all over the place they are as well as the random inclusion of a character who's contribution to the episode is then randomly dropped.

Oh, and hearing Tress MacNeille as Foxy Lady reminded me how she actually voiced Helen Henny at one time!
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Last I heard that was baseless rumor with no factual backing. Though Russi Taylor at one point actually auditioned to be Helen before they decided to just stick to using her then current voice actress Nancy Lenehan.
 
This episode was a reverse shit sandwich, I absolutely hated the "bread".

The only redeeming elements in the first act was Gil.

The middle act started in a weird way, homer crying in the parking lot.... but when they started getting the "band" back together, that's when I started watching more attentively, I'm a huge columbo fan and I really enjoyed seeing Moe portray him.

The third act, with JJ was another disappointment, I hate when they have guest posts and try to be funny without ruffling a few feathers. They always go super whimsical and quirky and it always falls flat.
I was annoyed by the way they portrayed these "trolls". First because that's not what troll means and second because these producers should be held accountable for trying to cash in on nostalgia. JJ got a lot of flack, and deservedly so for the Star Wars movies. I'm not the biggest SW fan, I think the original trilogy is just okay, it's a fun space romp. I didn't hate force awakens but I think the last jedi was one of the worst movies I saw in the last decade.

I didn't completely disagree with the moral of the story, that these reboots are for the new generations to experience and escape their abusive fathers, Bart and Lisa pleading to homer made me chuckle.

Overall I'm giving the whole episode a 2/5.
 
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I thought that this was a pretty weak and surprisingly weird & bizarre episode that didn't quite come together. I didn't have any high hopes but I had at least hoped that it was to be a middle of the road decent episode (considering Matt Selman was involved) but it ended up not being so good in the end. It had a nice enough premise, that with Homer having been remembered of this animatronic animal band during a vist to the pizza place he worked at during his youth and the family doing their best to round up the lost robot band (even with the prospect of Homer having been an cool hip-hop kid during the 90's), and it did have an amount of decent moments throughout, but it didn't manage to make the best story out of it, just ending up with a not very strongly thought out mess in the end, featuring director JJ Abrams whom felt pointless and dull (I'm surprised that Michael Price's writing was this weak and neither Selman showrunning nor Jennifer Moeller's directing could lift it). It wasn't awful but still came out as pretty bland, disjointed and all over the place with story choices and whatnot.

I did enjoy the start with the flashback (even though I felt that it was too long at 5 minutes). The flexible timeline now presenting Homer as a hip 90's teen I didn't mind and they did a decent job with it, with him working at a pizza place manning the animatronic band of animal characters was suitable and pulled off well. I liked seeing the younger 90's versions of various Springfielders & Gil being the owner of the pizza place was a neat idea, plus Homer and the animatronic band was decent: I liked the lame band breaking down ("I beat kids") and Homer improvising to save the day & updating the animatronics into a hip-hop style. It set up the plot well, plus I like seeing Homer be competent). I didn't like Abe/Grampa being overtly hobible to Homer and the silly turn with FBI showing up and revealing that Gil was a drug runner who hid cocaine in the robot band was too extreme of way to part Homer from the band (and it didn't do Gil any likeability favors as he's now a drug criminal). I though they were gonna do a copyright infringement thing due to Homer using music without a license (but I'll give them credit for being unexpected).

When the story snapped back into the present and reveals Homer breaking down after telling the family about his memories of the pizza place and losing the beloved animatronic band the story started to dip in quality. I did like the joke of Marge having bought traffic cones (that she never though she'd get to use) and putting them around the sobbing Homer as she and the kids head to the pizza place (it was a good amount of silliness and ended the first act on an amusing note). Then we get Homer three days later and nothing seems wrong on the surface (but it becomes apparent something is) and it started to get shaky, with Marge listing the ways she knows something is wrong with Homer going on for a little long (plus Julie Kavner's voice sounds really rough) and Moe shows up too and laments Homer's change (I just felt that Moe was especially pointless, much as he disappeared after the first half). Bart & Lisa getting the idea to search for animatronics was nice, though (I wish it had focused on the two of them doing the searching all on their own. Would've been cool with a new Lisa & Bart detective plot, but I guess it wasn't meant to be)

The search itself was okay but went by fast. There's the scene of Bart & Lisa taking to Gil in his shack to get help locating the animatronics (him slipping into maniacal mode and wanting to sell drugs again was bad) and it the progression was too easy (Gil had an FBI paper with the owners of the robots laying around. It was nonsensical how Gil hadn't gone tried getting them back). Then the kids split up the list between them, Marge and Moe (who's also invited in the search) and the bits with them going to Disco Stu (Lisa), Frink (Marge), Sideshow Mel (Moe) & Herman (Bart & Lisa) wasn't anything special, but I liked seeing Stu's parents (the mom introducing herself with the song dragged though), Frink cheating against his robots in cards was a nice joke & Mel having the female fox animatronic as a sex doll was absurd (but I liked Moe's detective skills. Felt like this was the reason he was in the episode, nothing more nothing less). Lisa visiting Herman with Bart (when he had already gone off there) was weird (I assume an excuse was needed for the two to be partnered up for the episode introducing a new plot thread, but still kinda sloppy writing).

Then J.J. Abrams gets involved, having his crew getting the yak animatronic he is planning to use it in a move he's doing in Springfield and we get some stuff with Bart & Lisa sneaking into Abrams' local headquarters to steal the yak back to complete the band and then they are obviously caught by a 'Star Trek' security guard (because J.J. directed the 'Trek' reboot, I guess), Homer is soon there and Abrams (whom was boring, especially with the lame jokes that play on him as a director and his crazed workers/fans, and not with the criticisms, almost coming off as pedestaling him) shows and the situation is explained (by this point it had already gotten quite messy). It didn't get better with Abrams at first allowing Homer to keep the last animatronic to complete the band, but then he's suddenly inspired by Homer's childlike wonder and just steals the entire band (without any offer) to make a movie, making Homer depressed and just stands there all smug (why didn't he just leave with his crew?). At this point I wondered what was going on? It felt like a different episode at this point, with the Abrams plot not really adding anything interesting).

I liked how Marge inspires Homer to go comfort eating at Krusty Burger (nice little gag) and then Comic Book Guy enters the picture Homer explains his problem of Abrams takingthe animatronics to make a movie based on them (I did like how this played on CBG being a friend of the family after 'Dad-Feelings Limited') & as a last minute conflict we get CBG inspiring Homer to be an internet troll to combat Hollywood "ruining his childhood" by being a hater online (oh boy, this was really basic surface level internet troll "satire", also missing that "troll" have a least two major defininitions, and it was underdeveloped and came in too late to get the proper effect, with only a brief montage of Homer posting his vitriol and petitions online). Then we have the movie ('Agents Of Pizza') having its preview screening in Springfield (obviously) and Homer joins the local hate group before sneaking in (looking like CBG V.2. It was disapppointing they portrayed him as an stereotypical entitled manchild troll instead of tapping into something actually poignant). It felt sloppily executed, but the gag of the film roll he threatened to burn just being a prop for the snack stand made me chuckle.

So it turns out Marge had called Grampa and he has a heartfelt apology to Homer for treating him like garbage (as shown in the flashback, giving Grampa's awful behavior a reason in-story, which I did like) & it manages to convince Homer to let go of his hate (due to Homer now realizing it was Grampa sucking as a dad and not the movie's fault for existing or something) and then they end up hugging and bonding over Homer's hate for his dad. Homer then finds out that Abrams put the animatronics on stage & he bids farewell of them by drinking frozen yoghurt from the yak's mouth (and it's really drawn out and uncomfortable). This was a bizarre ending to a weird and conflicting episode that didn't really think of consistency as much as it mashed two or three separate stories together (Homer's animatronics & J.J. Abrams & online haters/trolls) and left me underwhelmed. There were some good moments & jokes but it was just so inconsistent and messy (not to mention overall bland) that I couldn't get into it (and Abrams was pretty boring. I guess hoping for another Neil Gaiman/'The Book Job' thing was too much). CBG's Troll Force Five was a nice end gag.

3/5 (rounded up from 2.5/5). I can see this episode working well for some, but to me it was a mess. It did have a fairly original, inspired story, but it started weakening writing-wise as it rolled along with some jarring twists and turns, conflicting plot moments, bizarre moments & questionable decisions (such as introducing a internet troll plot so late and focusing so much on J.J. Abrams and never really doing something clever with him). It was very well directed by Moeller but the writing missed the mark. It had the potential to tell a great focused story on Homer and the animatronic band, not throw in everything and the kitchen sink at the same tine. It had its moments and wasn't all that bad (especially compared to other episodes this season), but still a mess (though an interesting one).
 
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So, Homer's now a member of the "MTV generation" that was once Bart and Lisa's. Alright. Let's get started:

-I laughed at the shittiness of the animatronic characters before Homer got to them. The kind of thing I would've hated as a kid.
-I'm actually fine with Grampa being awful to Homer because it's more in character with how he used to be portrayed (his treatment of Homer has been "softened" over the years. This was more in line with what we saw in the classic era).
-L.A. = Skid Row. Lol. Tough, but fair.
-Interesting to see a little glimpse into Disco Stu's life. He did seem to pick a weird music craze to define himself by.
-It's a hippo, Marge, don't be dumb!
-Okay, already starting with the celebrity ass-kissing that kind of seems like mockery on the surface but isn't really.
-I love Lisa's valley girl hipster accent :P Or whatever it's supposed to be.
-"It's what I do." Alright, I'll give them that. That's a pretty good burn on Abrams' oeuvre.
-I definitely buy that Comic Book Guy spends a lot of time trolling.
-Thanks for lampshading the plot, Bart?
-Homer looking more and more like CBG is pretty funny.
-Troll-Force Five was alright, but it does seem to be suggesting that only obnoxious weirdos criticize lazy reboot movies.

This was...disjointed. By the end I just wasn't quite sure what this episode wanted to be. At first it seemed to be about Homer trying to recreate something good from his childhood. Then it seemed to be a criticism of reboot movies. Then it seemed to be about Homer getting carried away with revenge/nostalgia and a criticism of people who criticize reboot movies. In the end Homer realizes it was all Grampa's fault and they reconcile over their resentment of each other. How...nice? We didn't get a sense of what Homer was going to do with the robots when he got them back but it seemed like he was just happy to have them at all. It was more about reliving a part of his childhood when he was optimistic and had a dream. That they turned that into his childhood being ruined by a reboot was kind of a weird turn.

J.J. Abrams' presence in the episode didn't really do anything. It offered some ass-kissing and some mild criticism but overall the message of the episode seemed to be that people who complain about bad reboots are trolls. (Not surprising since The Simpsons has come out on the side of "you owe them" in regards to fans and media before).

I would've liked it more if it had stayed Homer-centric and not become about reboots/trolling and a celebrity guest.

3/5
 
Does anybody else exactly know why Andrea Romero's no longer the animation producer as of 'Do PizzaBots Dream of Electric Guitars?' last night?
 
This certainly is an episode that i wish I could have liked more than I did. Homer is back after he took some backseating in previous episodes and I kind of liked the plot, but it was just all over the place. It had a band of animatronics (not a single FNAF joke which is something I wouldn't mind seeing parodied) which Homer got rather close to due to his hip hop performance, goes around town finding them, then switches over to Comic Book Guy who teaches him how to troll and J.J. Abrams who at least doesn't mind making a little fun of himself despite the asskissing. And then at the very end have Abe reveal that he has been a horrible parent which is why Homer acts that way. This was actually one of the better scenes alongside the credits.

The first act gave us more of a young Homer who is still interested in music, Abe acts like we expect out of him. He works at a pizza place and the plot starts where he saves a poor performance from rather ineffective animatronics. Mostly some good stuff but I didn't like that Homer's new career just instantly ends with the FBI showing up where apparently Gil has stored drugs. I already hate the characer and this just builds up to it. I did like the following joke with present day homer now having a break down and having the cars go around him. Also liked how both Moe and Marge kind of act like parents to Homer and remember the fun things he used to do, which also involves Moe into the plot to get one of the animatronics back. I'm not actually sure what to think of the scenes where they visit certain Springfielders to get the animatronics back, some of them felt more disturbing then it should have been. Getting to see more of Disco Stu's household was pretty fun, Frinks robots scene felt kinda stupid (and c'mon Marge thats obviously a hippo), Sideshow Mel was just... well at least it makes sense that out of anyone it would be Moe to find out something like that.

About halfway into the episode we get introduced to J.J. Abrams who receives the final animatronic. His followers do way to much unnecesary asskissing, I do like some of the background jokes as Bart and Lisa go through his office. Abrams himself isn't that bad and kind of works in a villain role where is is actually just doing his job. I kind of like the CBG introduction to the plot but it didn't really go anywhere later on. And its not just the nerds that wanted the design of Sonic in the movie to be changed, it was about everyone. Homer becomes a troll and keeps on trolling which kind of just drags, I did like Halloween gag where Lisa was portrayed exactly as one of her book characters. The animatronics get turned into a movie and Homer who now turns physically into CBG tries to stop it. I do like the gag of Homer trying to burn down the ''only'' tape which is something that would have worked in the past, not so much now considering that all movies are digitally stored. I liked the ending scene with Abe confessing to Homer and the end credits with the ''Troll Force Five''.

I don't hate this episode as much as others but it could have been a lot better. It felt like they tried to many different plots that could have worked as their own episode, like restoring the pizza place or Homer's trolling to get what he wants. I would have liked to see this more focussed on Homer and not to sideline as much as they did to other things. J.J. Abrams also gets too much screentime while he just needs to be there as the villain, as a character he wasn't that annoying at least. Jokewise I thought it was decent, some of my favorites being Marge and Moe concerning themselves over Homer and having him try to burn dow the movie. The family and CBG played a proper role for most part. It was enjoyable enough for me to rate it an average:

3/5
 
HomerFan1998 said:
Does anybody else exactly know why Andrea Romero's no longer the animation producer as of 'Do PizzaBots Dream of Electric Guitars?' last night?
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It was a remarkably well animated episode. One of their best I think. Could it be because there is a new producer?
 
I was thoroughly baffled by this episode. I have absolutely no idea what to say about it and not sure I can currently offer a rating. This will require a re-watch or two and some time to properly digest it.
 
Kaine said:
It felt like they tried to many different plots that could have worked as their own episode, like restoring the pizza place or Homer's trolling to get what he wants. I would have liked to see this more focussed on Homer and not to sideline as much as they did to other things.
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If I didn't already make it clear, this was a huge problem for me. It pointed in so many directions with plot threads that could've been two or three different episode and really felt like it should've just kept to Homer and the pizza place animatronics but instead it wanted to do too many stories in one episode. For being a Selman episode, it much more felt like a Jean outing in that sense.
 
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