I actually thought it was pretty funny.
A lot of the Mapple stuff was kind of weak and, you know, if you want to satirize something decently there's a lot better ways than just blatantly saying "THIS IS WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS" over a very weak veil. Meh. Lisa desperately wanting a Mypod wasn't all that interesting to me and I didn't particularly care about it, or the whole thing in the Mapple store at all. Way too much time was spent on the subplot, especially in the beginning, than on the actual main plot which came off as kind of rushed. Also kinda weird airing order to have it air with Christmas just having been finished but... eh, whatever, that's not really anything to complain about, though the beginning sequence was decent enough.
Bart seemed to get away from... a horde of... well-capable adults... and avoid his mother who surely would've chastised him and made him at least apologize... you know, really really well. Honestly if they wanted that whole "Jack Bauer"-style thing for the episode, somewhat of an action sequence - a brief one, but, you know - was called for there. Rather than have him just... running away and then smell something and wander into someone's bushes...
Which was such, such, such an odd scene. I mean, Bashir notices some dude just there out of nowhere and is all, "Hey, you want some food?" instead of "... Who the fuck are you and what are you doing in my bushes?" This is seriously where the time spent in the Mapple store should have been spent, do it a little differently... Maybe while Bart's hurrying up, trying to escape, Bashir could've seen all these people ganging up on one kid that's about his age, think that's unfair, tell Bart to duck down in an alleyway or something with him (which would've gone by just fine considering Springfield's pretty stupid mob mentality), and they could've gotten to talking and find out that they had something in common. Dunno what, but you know, something. And from there, there's a reason for friendship to form... They'd hang out a little the rest of the afternoon, Bashir, excited at having just moved to Springfield and having found a friend already, could invite Bart to dinner... and it picks up from there.
But whatever. I did enjoy the sequence with them at school. And it was great to see a graphic Itchy & Scratchy again, which was actually pretty funny... some really great stuff there.
I wish Marge hadn't called out on Bashir's family being Muslim, so they'd invited Bart's "Muslim" friend over with his "Muslim" family and christ, it would have spoken more if she hadn't considered anything different, because from the way she kept on saying "Muslim" it sounded like she was going to be just as prejudiced as Homer. And the bar scene felt awkward to me, but Lenny in the thought bubbles was pretty funny. The whole dinner scene was just awkward... The rest of the family could have tried to alleviate the tension a little but trying to engage in normal conversation, but I guess that couldn't happen because then it would have lead to the inevitable "So, Mr. Whatever, what do you do for a living?" and then Homer's paranoia would've been for naught! Only... it would've given actual reason to suspect them of something, in typical average American fashion, and an actual reason to snoop around rather than the obvious "they're MUSLIM". But I dunno. The conversation Homer partially overheard between Bashir's parents was so forced and painfully worded in its attempts to make parts of it come across as vague and suspicious and just... ug. That WAS a pretty nice dream sequence, though.
The conclusion to the plot left a lot to be desired, although Homer waving at Moleman and then going for the beer actually brought out a real genuine laugh from me (I would've been laughing during a lot of other points, but instead I just smiled, 'cause I've totally lost my voice and can't laugh... but that joke I actually wanted to and so attempted to). But... yeah. Homer learns nothing, acts like a bit of a dipshit, and Bashir and his dad have absolutely nothing to say to that. Ug.
Amazingly enough, the first act wasn't totally unrelated, though, and I think that's why I'm happy that Lisa accidentally got carried away and downloaded too many songs - that kind of satire on Apple and iTunes was much better than the overly obvious stuff at the beginning - and got freaked out as a little girl would (almost reminded me a little bit about that Corey thing, way back in season... three or four I don't remember, actually). And if a character is going to take a long trip away like that, then it's best to just due a quick cut and not draw too much attention to just how absurd it was (hey, Lost Verizon? Focusing so much on the family travelling down to Macchu Picchu that it just felt more and more wrong with each second passing? Yeah). The ending was cute.
So, you know... I actually did enjoy the episode though. I mean, yeah, you can shoot holes through the story pretty easily (although it was still able to maintain a decent flow), but I was enjoying myself, I did think it was pretty funny (might've been the funniest episode for me all season, so far, actually, but I couldn't totally say for sure), Bashir wasn't a bad character at all, and... yeah. I just wish they'd really stop... Why do they keep on using extended gags and longer titles for filler, and then brush over details that are actually pretty essential to the main plot? That's just fucking retarded and needs to come to an end.
Still. No surprise from me. 4/5.