Rate & Review "Yokel Chords" (JABF09)

How would you rate tonight's episode?


  • Total voters
    263

Mike Scully

and now i have slapped a king
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When the ever-righteous Lisa protests denying education to Cletus Spuckler's hillbilly kids, Principal Skinner offers her a chance to tutor the kids herself. However, Lisa's plans to help are diverted when Krusty spots the kids during their field trip and decides to use them as a musical act for his show. Meanwhile, in a scheme to steal his lunch for the day, Bart tries to scare his peers out of the cafeteria by claiming it's haunted by the ghost of an old school chef who uses students as ingredients in his recipes. When the school erupts with fear and chaos, Bart is punished and sent to receive psychiatric treatment, and he develops a unique relationship with his therapist. Special guest voices include Andy Dick and James Patterson (as themselves), Meg Ryan (as Dr. Swanson), Stephen Sondheim (as himself) and Peter Bogdanovich (as a psychologist)
 
decent first act followed by a really poor ending. homer beat bart with a hammer? :-X
2/5
 
5/5. great episode. loved the animation for the story bart tells and the episode in general. bart story was great, lisa story was medium. too many guest stars though that were wasted, yet meg ryan did a great job. good to see susie dieter directing.
 
Boring and dull. The parts with Bart were okay but the rest was terrible. D+
 
I may later elaborate, but for now I'll just say I found it to be standard Jean with above average animation direction, only one really good joke (Apu's and Snake's therapy scene), and a very terrible ending. Bart's plot was definitely the better story; it was funnier, and in parts interesting. The Cletus' children storyline was very poor aside from the musical number just before they get picked up by Krusty. Cletus has never been funny save a few minor classic era appearances; having his children dominate an episode was not fun to watch.

C-
 
I loved it, but Bart's psychology trip kinda creeped me out. They took it a line too far on more than one occasion. Didn't exactly see the point in the Honeymooners ending either.

Those are the only bad things though. Lots of big laughs, and Stanley's / Willie's segments were brilliant.
They nailed Lisa's character quite well, with all the culture stuff. All the (for lack of better words - "Pretentious") references were well placed and made the song routine quite enjoyable. Skinner's banter saved the first one. Krusty was used just right as well - not as a villian but more of an extention of his nature. I also loved the fakeout gag with the contacts. I believe this was also the first time Chalmer's first name was uttered?

It's nice to see the video game references are getting a bit more relevant (awkward acronyms for titles).

4/5

moneychair2003 said:
good to see susie dieter directing.

Was that her? No wonder it all looked so great. I thought she left a couple years ago...
 
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Great intro and the Dark Stanley part was fantastic.

The rest was beyond terrible, the forced unfunny songs and total randomness.

1.5/5
 
The Bad
I thought the songs were pretty unnecessary. None of them were really that funny.
The Dark Stanley stuff wasn't that great.
Homer and the Chinese people
Bart claiming Homer hits him with a hammer

Am I the only one getting sick of them announcing guest stars names in exaggerated style?
The ending. Brandine has never been funny and Cletus hasn't been funny since Season 9. So why would their kids be funny?

The Terrible
Homer getting breast reduction... WTF? That's not even funny and I have no idea how anybody could even begin to think thats funny. If I wanted crap like that, I'd watch Family Guy.

The Good
The Chalmers/Skinner stuff was great
Willie fetching all of the kids back was the episode highlight
The beginning with Marge and whats-his-name was pretty good too
Snake and Apu... I do believe this is only the second episode Apu has spoken in this season...

I was suprised by Meg Ryan, I thought she did a pretty good job and the stuff with Bart and the psychiatrist lifted the episode. I didn't even mind Marge's suggestion that Bart will be hiring prostitutes when he gets older.

In summation: Main plot bad, sub plot good. 2/5.
 
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I loved the first act. Marge’s opening dream, Homer saying that he took care of everything, and especially Bart’s prank. But after that it went downhill, I wasn’t that involved with Lisa and the young yokels and while Bart’s plot was a little interesting, something was lacking. On the other hand, the episode had a lot of good jokes, and the musical numbers were solid.

Right now C+, although this grade could really change either way upon repeat viewings.

Aside from the first scene, I didn't like Homer in this episode, between everything involving the Chinese restaurant and Bart’s line about Homer beating him with the hammer.
 
I was liking this one all over, from start to finish. Lisa sure took a pounding this episode. Usually female cartoon characters dont see as much physical comedy as their male counter-parts but from tumbling down a cliff to being tossed out a window, Lisa took more of a beating than Homer did in this episode. The singing was Ok, even amounts of Cletus & dynamite Krusty offerings ...Whats Not to Like? 5/5
Gator-Clap.gif

 
i thought it was really funny, i loved the dark stanley sequence and next to the homer in chocolate land fantasy, it might be my favorite. i would've given it a 5/5 but there were just a couple things that knocked it to a 4, although it's really a 4.5. i loved the pyschology stuff and i really liked the part about homer hitting bart with a hammer, although i have the feeling detractors of the episode will single that line out as a reason to criticize the episode as a whole.
 
I don't know how I noticed this but in the third act, when Bart walks around the corner to the office, Snake and Apu drive by. Anyways, decent episode tonight. I thought Bart's plot was more interesting.
 
Damn, missed the episode. :angry: Anyone know when they'll show it again?
 
I thought this episode was great, there was so much about it I liked. The Jew joke was truly amazing.
 
Meh. Bart plot mostly good. The rest was kinda blah. I'll admit to having basically no familiarity w/ The Sound of Music; maybe that woulda helped.
 
How can you guys vote 5/5 on this one? What do the classics from the mid 90's get then?

Skinner holding Chalmers over his head? A mother with 7+ kids gets sent to Iraq? And she has a helicopter at her disposal? Homer beating Bart with a hammer? Marge allowing Bart to get hookers later on in life?


This was a disaster, it should have just been a one plot episode with Bart seeing the psychologist, because by having two they left both unfullfilled and lacking.
 
It's silly to suggest that new episodes are marked on the same scale as old ones, fannyface. A 5/5 now is in no way a 5/5 of season 6 quality.
 
fannyface said:
Marge allowing Bart to get hookers later on in life?

Maybe I misunderstood the joke, but I think it was a gag based on Marge's ignorance. Perhaps she meant seeing a psychologist later on, but unintenionally meant seeing hookers.
 
"You have destroyed all human life on earth. Level 1 complete!"

Well, I was pleased, I am surprised at the negative reviews so far. I do generally agree that the subplot was better than the main plot. I thought Bart's subplot was really enticing. The story at the beginning was Bart at his finest. They really nailed his storytelling. I thought his relationship with Ms. Swanson was done well and their friendship seemed genuine. It almost reminds me of Good Will Hunting in a way. The "don't have a cow" talk while Bart was in the room by himself also seemed to help create the bond that had been lost when Bart had stopped going.

Death Kill City II, obviously from the quote above, was the joke highlight of the night for me. I thought the Snake and Apu joke was funny at first when they both walked into the room, but I kept hoping "please, don't bring attention to it!" Of course, they spent half a minute bickering. Classic Jean era ruining of a joke. A few lines would've sufficed. The sequence with how the rumor spread of Stanley from student to student was good too. I wasn't a huge fan of the Willie scene, but it was pretty cool.

Oh yeah, there was a main plot. The main plot was good, not great. I think the early songs weren't memorable at all, but the first song with Cletus' kids was by far the best. The way Chalmers and Skinner busted into song was sorta forced, but I suppose what else could they do? I imagine knowing the Sound of Music for this episode would have helped, but I feel it will only get better on rewatch. There was a ton of stuff I felt I missed. Andy Dick's appearance was great (one line!), Sondheim's was good, Patterson's was pretty bad though. I enjoyed the ending with Brandine's return and the revelation that almost none of the kids were Cletus'.

I do want to give credit to Krusty, for being the best he's been in years. When Lisa said "Good to see you back," I thought the same.

4.5/5 or around a B+. Third or fourth best of the season. Better than My Fair Laddy, less than The President Wore Pearls, as far as Jean era musicals go, I thought.
 
I didn't know Chalmers's name was Gary.

Really loved the Sound of Music stuff, and the Asian resteraunt owners acting sterotypical. At my favorite China buffet, the lady we always see always asks where my mom is when she's not with us, and refers to her as a "supa lady".

Also loved the songs, although that first one seemed to came out of nowhere.
The Bart plot was great as well/. Anyone know if the Stanley sequence was a parody of anything (animation wise)?
 
JoshG said:
Meh. Bart plot mostly good. The rest was kinda blah. I'll admit to having basically no familiarity w/ The Sound of Music; maybe that woulda helped.

Well, I don't know about content, but the songs couldn't be too similar do to copyright laws.
 
Property of Ned Flanders said:
The animation when Bart was telling the horror story was pretty nice...
Yeah! I forgot to mention that, ..Had a Edward Gorey look to it
b_is_for_basil.jpg
 
fannyface said:
How can you guys vote 5/5 on this one? What do the classics from the mid 90's get then?

Skinner holding Chalmers over his head? A mother with 7+ kids gets sent to Iraq? And she has a helicopter at her disposal? Homer beating Bart with a hammer? Marge allowing Bart to get hookers later on in life?


This was a disaster, it should have just been a one plot episode with Bart seeing the psychologist, because by having two they left both unfullfilled and lacking.

I agree with you but sadly we are in the minority.
 
Solid episode, though I cringed at the Chien Andelou reference - thank god they cut before the horrifying part, because the actual movie sure doesn't.

I thought everything about the Bart/Psychologist storyline was great. Loved that aspect. The Lisa storyline wasn't as good, even though some of the Sound of Music moments felt superficial and forced, like Lisa spinning on the hills. The first song at the school wasn't one of the more memorable or funny songs, but I did think the one in downtown Springfield worked well. It was nice to see some secondary characters in action too, like Snake and Apu's scene, and all the moments featuring Cletus and Brandine. New character owners of the chinese restaurant, were funny new additions as well.
 
fannyface said:
Skinner holding Chalmers over his head? A mother with 7+ kids gets sent to Iraq? And she has a helicopter at her disposal? Homer beating Bart with a hammer? Marge allowing Bart to get hookers later on in life?

Skinner holding Chalmers over his head was part of a musical number. I don't see the big deal.

Hmmm... Homer strangles Bart every third episode. He's chased after Bart with a mace, and that's the least of it. There's nothing new about Homer hurting Bart. That's been a given since the days of old.

And nowhere in Marge's line does she say "hookers." By "a female for an hour," she meant a therapist. The joke was that it could've been taken as hookers.

I enjoyed Brandine's appearance at the end despite it being quite random, but perhaps I let the reigns go a little bit in this episode because I realized most of the plot was a parody of a musical. Or maybe I just enjoyed it.
 
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