Rate & Review: "Stealing First Base" MABF07

How would you rate "Stealing First Base?"

  • 5/5: Ah, Marrige! The first step to divorce!

    Votes: 26 16.3%
  • 4/5: Friend with Benefits

    Votes: 52 32.5%
  • 3/5: The Flirt Locker

    Votes: 37 23.1%
  • 2/5: Just...uhhh, "Friends"

    Votes: 23 14.4%
  • 1/5: Eww! Cooties!

    Votes: 22 13.8%

  • Total voters
    160

Patches O'houlihan

I'm baaaack!
Joined
Oct 16, 2001
Messages
14,286
Location
Wisconsin: "More bars in more places."
Original airdate: March 21, 2010

When a second fourth grade class comes in to Mrs. Krabappel's class during her absence, Bart falls for a girl named Nikki, who kisses him, then treats him like dirt. Meanwhile, First Lady Michelle Obama teaches Lisa that there is no shame in being an overachieving girl.
 
Wow, this was a REALLY good episode. They focused on the kids with no "zany" sub-plots where Homer is an idiot. Even though Bart liking a cool girl and Lisa being afraid of an F aren't new ideas for the show, I think they did a really good job breathing new life into familiar territory.

The kiss montage was hilarious, and Ralph had some awesome lines.
 
I was pretty surprised by this episode, thought it was going to be pretty meh, but I actually laughed a good amount. The kiss montage was hilarious!
 
pretty good!

new billboard gag!

new opening gag altogether {Billboard, chalkboard, couch}

Act 1:

GPS driving. Eh, it was alright, kinda stupid.

Where's Mrs. K?!

4th grade class. BTW, wasn't the teacher of that other class the 3rd{?} grade teacher from Bart Vs Lisa Vs The Third Grade?

Lisa... FAILS? {and of course her trying to "fly" and her getting hurt were hilarious, amirite Lisa haters?}

Nelson meets a blind kid.

Bart meets Nikki. Likes her.

Lisa becomes cool after her F, but then we learn it was Ralph who failed, he wrote down Lisa's name on his test.

Bart wants Nikki to know his feelings. What to do... he and her skateboard for awhile, and they kiss...

Act 2:

Nikki's parents aren't happy about the kiss.

I@S Movie. Too bad I didn't like it, and felt it took some away from the episode.

Skit about kissing, between Willie {playing as a girl} and Skinner as Bart. But of course, Bart makes a joke, making the students laugh, and Superintendent Chalmers makes Skinner and Willie kiss {because of course, male characters kissing on a show when neither is proven gay is HILARIOUS :rolleyes:}

Bart is kissed by Nikki. In his locker. Wha-?

Act 3:

Lisa is visited by Michelle Obama {which is of course bad automatically, because Michelle is nice to Lisa and teaches her how successful she can be, even though we all know Lisa isn't allowed to be successful}.

Bart and Nikki on the school. Bart and Nikki fight, and Bart falls off the school. Nikki thinks he is dead, but finds he is alive. "Loser."

Act 4:

Nikki kisses Bart {CPR} to a movie montage type thing of famous kisses.

Bart and Nikki are somewhat cool. Bart is suddenly kissed by her again and he says "Love you!" ending the episode.

Wow, just wow. One of their funnier episodes this season, IMO. The "sub plot" wasn't even that big in the episode, the plot was pretty good, and for once Bart and his "girlfriend" {they were barely dating or anything} didn't break up.

For now, 5/5, one of my favorites of the season, but in retrospect, isn't saying much.
 
This was really hit or miss in so many ways.
Mostly good jokes, good A story. Bad B story. I & S scene went way too long, but it was still sorta cool. The kiss montage was awesome.
 
Well, that was pretty terrible. Not even worth going in-depth on.

Just childish, one dimensional, and plain fucking stupid. Time waste after time waste - long intro, completely unrelated and unfunny introduction, the Itchy & Scratchy thing (pretty, but pretty useless), Skinner/Willie, the kiss thing at the end (kind of cool to see all these movies portrayed in Simpsons style but again, not worth it in the slightest and a blatant filler).

Not really all that funny, Nikki was a stupid character, I don't really get what they were attempting to parody with this or what social issue they were attempting to create a satire of. It was empty, hollow, and like a diluted South Park episode in which there's no real point to be made but they go on with the obvious jokes about it anyway. No touching? That was ever an issue? The fuck?

Nelson and the blind kid were probably the highlights of the episode, but even that suffers from the new Nelson-is-a-bully-WITH-LAYERS-re:Pussy syndrome post-classic episodes enjoy imposing for whatever inexplicable reason.

And that subplot was retarded beyond belief. Really? Nobody could figure out what "flotus" stood for? Not to mention its general not making sense to begin with. This could have actually been an episode on its own; Lisa getting a mistaken grade, becoming more popular/socially accepted as a result, and having to deal with the ramifications of it all being a lie and her not being at the stage of being appreciated when it turns out she didn't fail (or have her let have actually failed and see if she responds by failing on purpose just to be socially accepted - a little Separate Vocations-y, but how many fucking girlfriends has Bart had?). But instead we get an out-of-nowhere, totally insincere, random Michelle Obama thrust in. Alrighty then. Overly simplistic, stupid, and not funny. Good job, guys, that was the right way to go.

Horrible fucking ending and it was pretty clearly thrust in there because the four act format exists now.

Derivative, childish, insulting, one-dimensional, non-sensical, embarrassing, and just plain bad.
 
3/5

Man, that was a bit painful to watch because the first 10 minutes were inspired with only a flaw (stigma on overachievers is nothing new and it was over-the-top). There were several decent jokes, some of them quite clever (Homer pretending to fix the car). The Bart plot was introduced quite well, as well as the unexpected but pleasant surprise of introducing the "no-touch" policy, something I am quite aware of and strongly disagree with. Sadly, there was an overlong itchy and scratchy that was unnecessary but things were about to go worse:

Third act was much much weaker. I was in a way looking forward to the subplot because I thought from such a weird premise, the writers had a brilliant idea to make it work (like the odd Lisa on happy pills last season that had me in stitches!). Other than a fun jab at Joe Biden, it was badly executed and in a way: pointless.

The main plot didn't develop that well with a ridiculous "let's follow no-touch policy while Bart is dying" twist and Nikki skateboarding to the rescue *facepalm*. I'm not much of a tv person, but the references I got from the 'kiss' montage (like Wall-E) were interesting to watch . Anyways, poor Bart.

PS: I thought the Nelson moments with the blind kid were pretty good.
 
3dgator.gif
Itchy & Scratchy in 3-D Rocks! .. and I'm going to act like I get the cultural reference so folks will think I'm brainy. I find physical humor hilarious, even if the physical act is kissing, just as funny as slipping on a banana peel when its abrupt or comically unexpected.
So this was the first ever Simpsons that actually had a real cameo by someone that was officially in the White house. Pretty good
5 out of 5 Gator kisses!
gatorlips.gif
 
Um it was a good episode.
Was shocked the Nikki/Bart relationship didn't end.
Wonder if shey'll be back for future episodes?
Lisa's subplot was err um bad. It ended bad too.
I give it a 4/5.
 
So this was the first ever Simpsons that actually had a real cameo by someone that was officially in the White house. Pretty good

No, that's not Michelle's voice at all.

PS: your avatar is awesome!
 
well it's not official it's over, I'm just judging because writers sometimes end episodes like that. i severely doubt we will see her again but i of course, could be wrong

Well, even if we don't see her again maybe they could mention her.
Like say Bart talks about her and him going on a date instead of acting like it never happened.
 
"Tell me what it takes to let you go
Tell me how the pain's supposed to go
Tell me how it is that you can sleep in the night
Without thinking you lost everything that was good in your life to the toss of the dice?
Tell me what it takes to let you go. "


Uhh...finally, a futurama crossover: Bart loves Little Amy Wong.

Oh, wait...I'm not dreaming...it's not a crossover. :mad:

===================================================

No long review for now, but I'll go in depth later.

3/5

EDIT: I love the line "Little Miss Perfect."
 
Can anyone tell me how Sarah Silverman's guest spot was? I'm a big fan of hers so if I *cough* download this episode depends on whether she's worthwhile or not. I'm pretty bored of new Simpsons itself, I need incentive to watch.
 
She's the girl Bart is crushing on. Pretty substantial role, and you can definitely hear her voice, and she didn't do a terrible job of VAing - this isn't really an episode worth watching, though, and the character is pretty one-dimensional and terrible.

Why are you guys discussing the possibility of her ever returning? It's pretty evident from the show's general structure that we may see her in the background, but we'll never hear from her again.
 
Was that the girl from "Lisa's Rival" when Michelle asked for other overachievers? Is that the first time she's been re-shown?
 
Too much Ralph, the kiss montage had moments, but was off, the Itchy and Scratchy was a nice reference, if too long, but funny end, lots of gags landed and I enjoyed it.
Better than most of this season, a solid 4/5, great work.
 
This episode seems to be aimed at kids with ADD.

Look, I know jokes tend to be run-on jokes, but his was insane. For example:

--The Construction/GPS Joke was pointed out by Bart and then the family drive through a construction site, spin around a crapload of times, get hit by a girder and then the girder joke lingers for a few seconds...in case you didn't get it. :oops:|

--Lisa's reaction to getting an "F". I've seen banks fail faster.

--Lisa's "I got an F! I hope Harvard never finds out!"...Cut to a Harvard satalite focused on Lisa. :rolleyes:

--Bart and Nikki skateboarding was dragged on far too long and it stopped being funny half-way through.

--Itchy and Scratchy in 3D: This has got to be the longest I&S 'short' ever and it wasn't anything special. How about an I&S short called: "Berevity is the Soul of Wit!" where Itchy goes back in time and kills Scratchy Shakespeare and steals his material and gets rich.?

--Skinner and Willie Kissing with Al Jean saying: "Hey nerds! I can make this joke lasssssst all the way through the episode! Just watch me! Don't make me make you file a restraining order!"

--Bart and Nikki's CPR kissy collage was funny at first, but it didn't have to be the montage from hell.

About the only jokes where the joke wasn't dragged on, meta-joked was Nelson's "Blind Buddy" and Grandpa's "Static thought bubble."

2.5/5, but since there was minimal Homer Simpson, thank the fucking gods, this gets bumped up to a 3.
 
Was that the girl from "Lisa's Rival" when Michelle asked for other overachievers? Is that the first time she's been re-shown?
Allison's been used plenty of times as an unvoiced stock character (including this episode). But she wasn't the girl who spoke up... that would have made too much sense. And no, it's not like they would have to get Winona Ryder to voice her. A soundalike would have sufficed.

Speaking of soundalikes, the fact that they had a schmaltzy go-nowhere Michelle Obama plot without Michelle Obama voicing the character took away from an already meaningless 3rd act. Makes it very hard to justify.

Great comedy this week... some of the sequences going overlong and the unfortunately drab Lisa subplot (minus Hoover's "Little Miss Perfect" shot and assorted Ralphisms) keep it from contending with this season's best.

BTW, somebody needs to get props for that "Flirt Locker" gag in this week's poll. That's fricken hysterical.
 
good:

kiss montage
new couch and flying gags
gps thing was okay
nelson spits in books
blind kid
damn this caterpillar can eat
last dime

bad:

willie and skinner kiss
someone here? whatever
michelle obama thing was unneeded
barts arm fart
lisa cant fly


1.5/5, up to a 2
 
Bart's storyline was a really crappy version of The Wandering Juvie (i.e.- girl who is psycho). Lisa's storyline seemed like it could have gone somewhere, but Michelle Obama appearing was random. Some stuff could be funny for YouTube clips (e.g.- Itchy and Scratchy and kissing montage), but within the episode, they dragged out way too long. Somewhere in the D range of episodes. Definitely the worst of the season. 1.5/5
 
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