Wow... this is probably the worst Simpsons episode I've seen in quite some time. This episode was so fucking atrocious that it made me get out of the reviewing slump I was in and kick this episode's ass. So, let's see how Homer's second trip to Cuba turned into a complete disaster.
The episode starts off with a parody of something that I am not familiar with. I was so confused when I first saw this and it wasn't until hours after I watched this episode that I found out that it was parodying Shark Tank. I'm not familiar with that show, but I don't think it would be funny even if I was because it's just filler bullshit to pad this episode's time length and this episode has a LOT of padding. Well the last episode written by Dan and Deb started off with three Itchy and Scratchy cartoons, so I guess they've just given up on trying to set up an episode. The actual plot starts when Homer notices a piss stain on the rug while Lisa says it's not fair to blame the dog while reading a book called 50 Shades of 'A'. Lol I'm dying on the floor right now, this is so fucking funny. I can't wait for The Simpsons to do a 50 Shades of Grey segment on next year's Treehouse of Horror. Then after Bart tells Santa's Little Helper that he did walk him and Homer making some dumb joke about chewing his leg, Abe admits that he was the one who pissed on the rug. God, this episode is starting to sound like an idea from the Create Shitty Episodes thread. Homer then does this hilarious bit where he accidentally says the name of what the show's actually called. I really hate it when this show has to explain what it's referencing because if you have to explain what it's a parody of then it doesn't work. This isn't like that one joke in Treehouse of Horror V where Bart says "Shining" followed by Willie saying "Shh. You wanna get sued?", this is just pure laziness.
So after some pointless shit at the nursing home, Abe is at the hospital which is the part of the episode where the Simpson family decide that they're going to Cuba. Mainly because everything's cheaper there according to this episode. I also noticed this the first time I watched this, but I love how Homer says "D'oh!" on two separate occasions in the course of 5-7 seconds. I know this was in between commercial breaks, but come on. After a terrible scene on a ferry, they're at a customs where we get this painfully long list gag which feels like an eternity. Then after that The Simpsons are in Cuba and we'll get to see all the wacky stuff that happens here and at this point I'm giving up trying to describe this episode. It's mostly just boring travel episode stuff, so I'll just list the lowlights. That disgusting face Abe makes that feels like it belongs more in Family Guy or a bad episode of SpongeBob than it does here, that awful "Cuba-gasm" line that must be heard to be believed, Abe is no longer sick just because he was in the car, the joke about eating horse, the "hilarious" joke where Jasper says "I'm sending him a picture of my junk." only for him to take a picture of a pile of junk, Homer clapping at the TV for too long and for no reason other than to fill time and a terrible song that's not even sung in English.
This episode was AWFUL! I had a feeling it was going to be trainwreck when it was announced that this episode was not only written by Dan Castellaneta and Deb Lacusta, but they had another writer named Peter Tilden and while I don't know who he is, it just seems like they hired him just to put this shit sandwich together. As for Dan and Deb, their track record was never flawless. The only great episode they've done was Day of Wine and D'oh'ses. They've made a couple terrible episodes like Kiss Kiss, Bang Bangalore and The Ten-Per-Cent Solution and while the rest of their episodes aren't particularly great when it comes to writing, they do deliver some good laughs. The laughs in this episode though are so scarce and the only ones that are funny aren't even that good. I chuckled at the joke that followed Abe's gross face where Maggie deletes him from her brain and Abe seeing things in sixes. Also the Bay of Pigs gag was so stupid that it was kind of funny. The rest of the jokes in this episode were just terrible. The worst ones tended to go on forever and there were at least a couple instances of jokes that would've been funny if they didn't hammer them in. There's also a couple of I Love Lucy jokes because hahahaha, Ricky Ricardo is from Cuba so let's shoehorn a couple of references of that show.
When this episode is not insultingly bad, it's really boring to watch. This is an episode that mostly focuses on Abraham Simpson and my god they managed to make an episode about him worse than Thursdays with Abie. Hell, I thought Let's Go Fly a Coot was a pointless episode, but this takes a boring story about him and have it set in Cuba. They barely even do anything interesting with the country they're in. With every other travel episode they've at least tried to play along with the possibilities and stereotypes they could do, but here they just waste it on a boring story about Abe. The show can still make good episodes about him every now and then, but when they're bad, they're really bad.
This is the worst travel episode of the show. Worse than The Greatest Story Ever D'ohed, worse than In the Name of the Grandfather. Shit, maybe even worse than Kiss Kiss Bang Bangalore. I'm not sure if I can call this a bottom 5 episode, but it's at least in the bottom 10. It's so inept in almost every way. I'm not even going to thank it for getting me back into reviewing. Fuck this episode. 1/10