Rate/Review "Homer Simpson, This is Your Wife" (HABF08)

How would you rate tonight's episode?


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Mike Scully

and now i have slapped a king
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Ricky Gervais (of the BBC version of The Office) wrote this episode, where Homer enters a contest to win a plasma TV but ends up winning a trip to Fox Studios, where he joins a new Fox reality TV series (which is suspiciously like Trading Spouses: Meet Your New Mommy) and ends up trading wives with another man (voiced by Gervais)


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5/5 I loved it, though this does seem like a divisive episode on here.

For me, I was laughing my ass off all the way through. My only complaint is the first act break with Marge not being funny, but considering the "this-is-taking-way-too-long" jokes we've seen recently, this was nothing. Remember Milhouse throwing the frisbee in Pranksta Rap? Or Ralph picking up the Easter egg repeatedly in The Last of the Red Hat Mamas?

I think what we're seeing here is how season 17 is redeeming itself primarily in its last half. The Seemingly Neverending Story, Bart Has Two Mommies and tonight's episode have all been a huge upswing for the show in my opinion.

Gervais' character here was terrific. For anyone who watches the Office (UK version), this was the Simpsonian version of Gervais' David Brent. He was obviously animated to look like Gervais does in real life (great animation and direction on this episode btw) and they even threw in brief Office references ("...which I hate.")

The couch gag was wonderful too.

Now that's an episode of the Simpsons.
 
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The episode was alright. It was great seeing Homer talk with his voice actor.

ITCHY AND SCRATCHY!
 
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Not bad...not bad at all. It's actually nice to have a seemingly serious tone to a modern Simpsons episode where it actually felt like something out of the 8th Season. Gervis was great, and the third act was pretty damn cool, too.

Grade: A- (8.75/10), but since I'm in a nice mood, I'll vote 5/5, even if it wasn't "Lisa's Substitute" perfect.
 
An actual episode of Wife Swap or similar show would have been much more entertaining. 1/5
 
Not many laughs in act 1 and a terrible act break joke, but acts 2 and 3 were hysterical. I laughed out loud a few times in succession between Bart's TV scene, Gervais genie joke scene and the family's TV reports scene. 4/5, maybe even better.
 
Wow... I can't believe how many people thought Charlie was the worst part of the show when I easily thought all the best jokes surrounded him.
 
Awesome episode, one of the season's best (a huge compliment for this season). Gervais did an awesome job both writing it and voice-acting in it. Tons of big and little laughs, great animation, and great direction. Seeing that live-action opening sequence on TV was also very cool. And Ricky Gervais over the credits was hilarious.

5/5
 
not bad. there were some really funny jokes, such as the soulless eyes of charlie sheen and the tour of the fox lot. i felt that gervais did a pretty good job writing, you couldn't really tell if he wrote it or not. still i felt he could've made a few more risks instead of doing a more paint-by-numbers plot. but he nailed it nonetheless. 4/5
 
I thought the episode was pretty good, fairly good jokes all around, although the song by charlie in the second act went on for way too long. Overall I thought that Gervais did a fairly good job writing this, although his character was a little annoying at times. This was probably one of the best episodes imho. B+
 
I can safely say that this episode probably had the biggest laughs of the season so far. Off the top of my head:

- Homer's couch descending
- ABC sweater thing
- Bart watching TV
- Charlie's genie joke scene
- Charlie's song (along with touches like the cameramen conversing with cue cards and stomping out the candle)
- The whole "bastard son" thing
- The TV reports
- Another Patty man joke, still funny even if she's openly lesbionic

Boy, The Simpsons has really stepped up its game in the last few episodes.
 
AWESOME

Tonight's Top Story: The 371st episode of The Simpsons was...BRILLIANT!!! :D

.......................................

Ricky Gervais brought a much-needed jolt to, what for a long time, was an imbalance between storytelling and humor. This episode expressed some of the best pacing in a Simpsons episode in a long time, save for ONE joke.

The premise, which takes yet another jab at reality television, now stands as the best reality-TV parody in the series. Dan Castallenetta makes his first CONFIRMED guest-appearance, but who outside The Simpsons and FOX circles still remember the Tracy Ullman Show? So many other jokes, including FOX's derivative programming rituals, were spot-on.

There was one sequence, when Charles tries to deliver a genie joke, than ran on quite long. The important thing was that it ENTERTAINED. Too often, when the Simpsons do an extended joke, they usually kill what's supposed to be a short joke, which often comes up short of being really funny.

The ending, okay...a VERY surprsing and sudden twist, reviving a revelation from last season.

I honestly thought this was going to be another "Homer and Marge fighting" episode. So wrong was I. Great story, funny jokes, and excellent pacing. It brings a struggle between good storytelling and good jokes into balance.

Oh, and one more surprise...MIKE SCULLY RETURNS!!! :)

5/5
 
I only caught the last act of this episode and it was pretty funny, I need to see the rest. I'm going to have to download this one.
 
Not surprisingly, opinions on this episode seem to tilt for the most part on how much people like Ricky Gervais.

Myself, I pretty much agree with Stackhouse's review in the preview thread. The satire was nothing special, but the show came to life every time Charles was on. And the song was the thing I was looking forward to most, and it didn't disappoint. Those lyrics and that campy Neil Diamond-meets-Donovan delivery brought back pleasant memories of "Freelove Freeway."

A weak 5/5, sheerly on the strength of the Gervais scenes.
 
Not bad, but a little let down from the last two episodes. I think the real problem was that the underlying premise of a reality show parody felt really stale, like it should of been done 5 years ago when reality TV was just starting. Reality TV is a real genre now, so if your going to parody it, you have to do more than just call attention to it.

Other than that though, it had some good gags and jokes in the second half. I just wish the premise was different.

3 or 3.5/5
 
I'm not sure if I'm the minority on this, but I wanted to see more of Gervais' character. He was funny. This episode is the best of the season. 4.5/5 (or something)

~What a jerk
~Don't waste signs
 
I'd describe tonight's episode as "oddly entertaining". It had a strange vibe to it, but it flowed well & I enjoyed alot of the witty banter. I also thought that attention was paid to the "little things", which often took me back to the classic episodes. 4/5
 
Solid episode, I really liked that Marge took a big role in this episode, and was in character throughout, save for that one moment in act one. I like that episode featured reality tv, but didn't play it for jokes that have been done over and over again. Good use of Lenny in the first act, and there were plenty of jokes throughout, but there was nothing special. B
 
My Two Cents:

Honestly as of this moment I really have no idea how I am going to rate this episode. I don't want to work on the review later cause I think I did that with one episode of this season and I never finished my review. But as of right now I am baffled as to what i thought of it.

On one hand . . .

Act One was a trainwreck, which I only laughed at once or twice. As Tomacco pointed out, the act break was terrible. I even think it would have been okay had it just had them ask her to do it as an act break, and she said, "I'll do it!" But once again, they suffer from jokeruntoolongitis and completely messed it up. I also felt that the episode really felt pointless to me. I like watching an episode and feeling like there was a point or I ave travelled on a fictional journey. This just left me hanging asking, what was the point? Also, act three was very hit or miss. When it hit it hit hard, but when it missed, it missed by a long shot.

On the other hand . . .

As I mentioned above, act three was hit or miss, but when it hit, it was hilarious. And the whole gem of the episode was without a doubt act two. In that act almost everything hit, and it was nice to see Charles work at an office. Wonder where the got that idea . . . ? Some of the crew reaction was hilarious as well. The episode was another amazingly animated episodes(One factor that will always keep the newer episodes from possibly getting an F), and Gervais I thought did a superb job voicing the episode.

Actually, I think I can come up with a rating as difficult as it was. Humor wise, basically around 1/2 of this episode was hilarious, while the 1/2 completely missed the mark. Finally, it had a great plot, but it lacked a sense of direction. I came off finishing the episode going, "oookkayyy." So I think overall this episode just barely does make it as high as the last exceptable grade for me a 7. It came very close.

FINAL SCORE: 7/10

Breakdown of Lost Points:
1/3 the jokes missed 2
No direction for plot 1
TOTAL LOST POINTS: 3

P.S. In case some people are wondering why it only lost 3 points for 1/3 the episode not being funny, it is because(although this is a much moreflexible grading rubrik[sp]) 6 points are awarded to humor, 1.5 for plot and pacing, 1.5 for animation/voice acting, and 1 for miscellaneous. Now as I stated before it is a very flexible rubrik[damned sp] that if I feel any category was stand out good or bad can be much more significant in grading. Cheers.
 
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If it weren't for that painfully long "I'll do it!" act break joke, and Carl's bizarre Lenny party celebration dance and all, I would call the episode's humor flawless. Gervais' character had the same kind of spark and quirk that Scorpio had from Albert Brooks - just delivery driven naturally hilarious readings.

Oh and you might wanna know that I have never even seen the Office or any of Ricky's work, so I'm not biased at all. But now I really wanna check out his work.
 
Highlights:
Carl leaving Lenny's party because he has to work.
Moe throwing the celery on the ground.
Homer asking if the trip is all expenses paid, and then the guy from Fox hangs up.
Maggie throwing the dishes out of the mail slot.
The Genie joke about beating the wife to death.
Marge ruining knock-knock jokes because she always says "Come in!"
Itchy and Scratchy with no dialogue!
"Homer, put your pants back on."
The songs.

I noticed in the live action theme Marge and Maggie were switched positions around in the car to make it Americanized. They also eliminated Homer's butt crack in the garage. I think it would've been a lot more fun if it wasn't already revealed on the internet weeks ago.
 
crak bot said:
I think the real problem was that the underlying premise of a reality show parody felt really stale, like it should of been done 5 years ago when reality TV was just starting. Reality TV is a real genre now, so if your going to parody it, you have to do more than just call attention to it.


3 or 3.5/5

I have some problems with you theory, for the following reasons.

A. The show that this was parodying (Wife Swap) did not air 5 years ago. It premiered 2 years ago.
B. The point isn't that the Simpsons are on Reality TV. (which Helter Shelter proved gets really old), it's more about Homer and Marge's relationship.

And that's my $.02
 
4/5.

Good episode. Don't have too many problems with this episode. No cringe-worthy jokes. No jerkass Homer. Marge was in good form. Bart was limited, which is good considering he sucks now. The Homer dive onto the couch was hilarious. Gervais was excellent and he was just like David Brent. Haha.


Solid craftmanship. :yummy:
 
Ahhhhhh, all these good grades are making me want to boost mine up a bit. Peer pressure is getting to me! Better go read the off topic section until this cools down.
 
Rather poor episode. There were some good jokes at the start and end of the episode, but everything in between was mostly kinda bad. The real life intro looked ok for a promo, but just not good enough to be used for the show. Looks like it was filmed on an 8mm.
 
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