Being A Heel Is Cool

The Simpsons, S024E14

Homer's new interest in buying storage lockers at auctions led him to discover his father's collection of wrestling gear.  Thanks to Bart's interest and Mr. Burns' fondness for his persona Glamorous Godfrey, Abe was convinced to get into the ring again, despite having to play the part of a villain.

When I realized that this episode was going to be about Grandpa and another of his past occupations, I felt like Marge did when she found out that Abe wasn't gay at all.  We've already seen a few stories about hm this season and none of them have been really excellent.  This one wasn't bad (like the others), but I think I enjoyed the sentimental part of it better.  Under Burns' spell, Abe began to think that being a heel had its benefits, and as a bonus, his grandson started to admire him.  It's not often that you see Bart wanting to imitate someone in his family, so to see him taking after his grandfather was cute, even if it was encouraging him to be more of a jerk than usual.  This was an interesting way for Abe and Bart to have common ground--who would have thought that Grandpa used to wrestle as a vain, cheating show-boat?  Plus, Abe was able to reclaim Bart's soul without causing Bart to feel like his grandfather was uncool again.  It was just as fun for Bart to be Laddie Liberty and beat up on Burns as it was for him to be Beautiful Bart (his hair in the latter was strangely adorable).

This story also included a song, something we haven't heard in a while (unless you count those songs that Abe sang in that other story about him as a songwriter).  The melody and the lyrics for the most part were terrible, and Burns sang it pretty badly, I thought.  He's most famous for singing "See My Vest" from earlier seasons, so I don't know why his voice sounded so pitiful in this song.  What I did like was when Burns listed some villians that you love to hate, lining himself up with such notables as Eric Cartman, Megatron, Skeletor, and Voldemort.  Now that was pretty damn funny.  You could, of course, argue that all of these villains have varying levels of evil, but they are popularly hated characters nonetheless.  Him singing about that just makes me imagine all these guys hanging out having beers or something, boasting stories that try to top the others in bad deeds.  I really like the thought of that.  Otherwise, that song was pretty forgettable, and I wouldn't say that I thought it was essential.

One other thing that was funny to me was when Grandpa was recalling the negative side of playing a heel:

But there was a downside to being hated:  being hated.

I love when they have lines like this where they are a bit redundant.

This was an okay episode.  I'd want to watch it again to catch some of the little things I missed the first time.  It had a fairly cute story to it, and I enjoyed watching Bart look up to Abe instead of dreading the day he'd become his father's father.  It might have made a better story to have Abe end up being gay like Marge wanted, but changing details like that in this point of the game would probably be hard to swallow.  But I still like wondering how the story would have turned out if they did need to find Abe a man to love.  I'm sure it would have made a much more, albeit unbelievable, interesting story.

Bart's Not Meant To Have A Girlfriend

The Simpsons, S24E12

Bart didn't have any idea of how neglectful he was being of his girlfriend who was finally back in town.  Despite all the signs, Bart was dumped and later sent out of the house with Homer when the two upset Marge.  Finally the severity of the situation dawned on Bart and he and Homer arranged a grand gesture for the ladies in their life at the bachelor apartments.

It was a surprise to see Zooey Deschanel back on the show in what seems so soon.  I felt like we closed the chapter on the relationship between Mary and Bart in New York, but apparently not.  It's evident that Bart is nowhere ready to have a girlfriend since his dating history has been about the same throughout the years.  It was a little sad to watch Bart show once again that he doesn't know what to do with a girl he likes (with reason, as he is just a kid).  I kept hoping that Bart would come to his senses before it was too late, but I guess he has indeed taken after Homer and only notices he's fallen off the cliff when he's already hit the ground.

It was almost funny that Marge tossed Bart and Homer out of the house when they were acting like thoughtless men, but it didn't amount to much.  It was more creepy and pathetic that they were in this apartment complex with other guys who didn't know how to keep their women happy.  I did find one thing that made me laugh before the story ended, but it hardly made up for the story on a whole being a bit depressing.

This was when they were watching the movie "Love, Indubitably" and Snape from Harry Potter popped out randomly to say:

Love is more powerful than all my magic.

That really caught me off guard.  Even for them to be spoof Love Actually that was so ridiculous.  It's strangly one of my favorite parts from this season so far.

I'm sort of glad that Bart didn't end up with Mary in the end.  It wouldn't have made any sense otherwise.  Bart doesn't appreciate her, and he just never will.  I don't think Bart is capable of loving a girl right or smart enough to understand when someone isn't happy with him.  Mary would have been a moron not to walk off with another boy.  I felt bad for Bart, though, but at least he could still stalk her online.

Oh, I did also like Mary's song about Bart after they broke up.  The lyrics were really hurtful to Bart, but I liked the samba beat to it and Zooey has always had a beautiful singing voice.  It doesn't have the charm of the songs heard earlier in this show's history, but I feel like if I hear the song enough times it's going to grow on me (like many of their songs have).

Lastly, I thought it was cute that Bart was dressed up like Woody Allen, I guess.  Then at the end Bart didn't even know who he was, at least not in his most famous capacity.  That joke wasn't too bad--it made Bart's outfit and narration throughout the episode more ironic.

This episode was too downbeat for my tastes.  I don't really want to see Bart have his heart crushed whether it's his fault or not.  There weren't any saving graces for this story even with the hilarious Snape bit and Zooey's song.  If I had to put a positive spin on it, I think I can say this is the real end of the Mary and Bart story.  It would be torture to see Bart mess things up with her for a fourth time.

"I'll Be Homeless For Christmas"

The Cleveland Show, S0E06

Cleveland pretended to be homeless in order to get free sandwiches and other things that were donated to the homeless during the Christmas season.  Roberta tried to encourage Kendra to become Santa, despite what the owner of Grundle's said.

Seeing Cleveland act like a homeless man just to get a ham sandwich doesn't really surprise me.  I'm more surprised that he didn't get found out sooner.  I didn't even think that Cleveland would learn anything from his misdeeds, especially when he tried to apologize and kept making his situation worse.  I guess overall, it turned out to be an okay story since Cleveland didn't just act like an ass and then smooth it over too easily.  Cleveland admitted that he was going to abandon his new friends at the shelter, but at least he got other people in town to perhaps think about giving to said ex-friends more often than a few days in December.

Nothing was really funny in the Cleveland story, but one moment almost got there.  This was when Tim saw Cleveland in line for food at the shelter and he thought he was looking at another black guy:

Come on, Tim the Bear, they don’t all look alike.  Don’t let Lester start rubbing one off on you.

Besides that, I could almost like the parody of "I'll Be Home For Christmas" that Cleveland did.  That song was a rare song in the whole Seth MacFarlane world that didn't make me cringe.  I'm not saying it was a great song, but it wasn't so bad that I wanted to mute the TV.  It was a good attempt to be funny, but just didn't get there for me.

In the Roberta story, I was excited to hear Nick Offerman as Mr.  Grundle.  He has the perfect voice for some kind of old-fashioned, sexist man.  I wish he had more lines because he almost made me laugh when he told Roberta:

I don’t hire boys to see their legs, and I don’t hire girls to hear them talk.

I think that was a nearly good joke because no matter how right Roberta is about something, her voice is so annoying that I want her to be quiet regardless.

The combination of Kendra and Roberta was kind of interesting since you don't see them in stories together.  But I didn't really care too much whether Kendra got the role of Santa or not.  I did like, though, that when she failed to bring presents for the kids, she told them to just quietly and confidently steal one present from the store.  At least she's resourceful.

There obviously wasn't enough Rallo or Junior in this episode, but Rallo did have a line that was also almost a good joke when Roberta told him not to be nervous:

Nervous? I got on five pair of underwear.  He ain’t getting in there.

I just like how nonchalant he is about a Santa molesting him or something.

Well, for a Christmas story this could have been worse.  It was all right, especially for this show because it usually makes me irritated.  Cleveland sort of fit in too well with the homeless, even if he was taking things from the needy for his own selfish needs.  It was nice to see the writers try and team up two characters who don't usually interact with each other, but this wasn't much of a match made in comedy heaven.  I would have rather seen Rallo get revenge on Santa or something (much like Riley from The Boondocks) than these other stories.  Can't help but feel disappointed in every episode where Rallo and Junior are just pushed to the background.

Even Gene Could Do Better

Bob's Burgers, S03E08

Gene ended up dating a girl that he didn't particularly like because he didn't know how to reject her.  When Gene finally had enough of dating her, he lost his resolve to breakup with her when he found out her father owned a bunch of audio equipment he allowed Gene to use at his leisure.  Linda also went on a strict diet that made her super-hungry all the time.

Sometimes it's good to be reminded that Gene and the others aren't the most annoying kids in this show.  They did a great job with Courtney's character because I couldn't stand her ass.  Her voice, her snorting, and especially that disgusting habit of sucking on her necklace--she was repugnant.  Even someone like Gene who is kind of disgusting and irritating couldn't hold a candle to Courtney.  She was the girlfriend from hell.  She was also really freaking clingy--I can't stand that.  It was pretty funny that even Bob agreed to drive Gene away because he hated her.  I felt as mad as Louise that Gene was letting his love of gear get in the way of a really sensible decision to cut her off.

I don't know if wanting unlimited access to Courtney's father's stuff was worth hanging out with her for even another second.  Sure, it was heaven for Gene, but he also had to endure hell with Courtney.  I don't think it was a fair trade off.  Luckily, he didn't take too long to find that out for himself.

It's kind of wrong of me to say, but I sort of wished Courtney had died in that hospital for real.  Yeah, Gene was being a jerk for leading her on and embarrassing her at her own birthday party, but that bitch was over the top annoying!  And she literally cornered him into going out with her.  There was no way he could have said no without looking like an asshole.  And in the end he still looked like one, so I guess it's one of those damned if you do and damned if you don't situations.

It was messed up how Courtney's father stole Gene's song six months later.  Really?  It's not like he broke Courtney's heart (that bitch already had the next boyfriend in mind once Gene dumped her)--that wasn't right.  But I guess it does teach Gene to not so carelessly give away his "genius" works for anyone to just steal.

Linda's diet was ridiculous.  It made a good point about those crazy fad diets where you can only eat a certain thing.  I don't know why anyone would do one of those when they make the person unsatisfied and have little success of working.  Even if they do work, you'd gain that weight back the second you stopped eating skins or whatever the flavor of the month food was.  I'm glad that Linda sort of came to her senses.  She had to have a horny old man tell her she looked good (because Bob's opinions never matter) before she allowed herself to chase after mashed potatoes again.  Her story in general was just like a fly buzzing around your ear and not very interesting.

This wasn't one of my favorites, just because I've had enough of Courtney.  I just wouldn't want to watch her again sucking on her damn necklace or opening her big mouth.  The story did give me some perspective on how I see Gene, though.  He's not that bad when I think about Courtney.  Linda, as usual, fails to bring a good story that's mainly about her acting crazy.  I doubt I'll see the day when one of her stories is entertaining.

Thanksgiving Whores

Bob's Burgers, S03E05

Bob and his family agreed to pretend to be a cook and part of the Fischoeder family in exchange for five months free rent.  Although the charade was going well, Bob began to ruin it when he was angry that his family failed to spend any time with him doing the Thanksgiving traditions that he looked forward to every year.

What I was reminded of most in the episode was how much that Bob really treasures moments with his family, even if he likes to do cheesy things that his family doesn't care for.  I can understand completely why they would jump at the idea of getting free rent just for acting (because let's face it--this family loves to play characters and doesn't need much convincing to do so), but I couldn't help but feel like Linda and the kids were complete jerks in this story.  The kids were halfway motivated to ignore their dad because Fischoeder had bribed them with a Chuck E. Cheese like prize system based on how well they displayed their phony love, but I still couldn't forgive them.  I guess it was because Bob was acting so crazy getting drunk off absinthe and befriending the turkey he was cooking and looked really pathetic by himself.  Just felt bad for him and thought about how he has such an exhausting family to deal with.  It's funny that I still consider him the one who's most in touch with reality when he was the one mourning the death of cooked turkey that had been shot.

There isn't much else I responded to in this episode except Lina's horrible Thanksgiving song.  Her terrible voice only intensified the horrible lyrics.  It was really weird that when she was trying to sing it at the dinner table that all the kids decided that it would be a great time to do their individual dances of love for their fake father.  Why?  I mean, Bob was on the table trying to compete with Fishoeder to make a speech, Linda was destroying eardrums with her song, and the kids thought that was the best time to dance?  I don't know.  I guess it just shows, as usual, that this family is just crazy and that when one person gets out of control, it encourages the others to follow suit.  It was a little painful to watch and not too funny.

I did slightly like, though, when the family gathered around Bob when they thought he might be shot.  They regretted acting like rent/prize whores and ended the whole fake family thing.  At least when things get to the matter of life and death, they can put aside their greed or whatever and focus on what's important.  If they hadn't, I seriously would have been pissed.  They need to treat Bob a little better.  They way they just screw him over sometimes isn't too funny.

I think the concept of this story was pretty good.  I just wish I could have enjoyed Bob being neglected more (which could have been achieved by his absinthe illusions being funnier and less sad) and found the rest of the family funnier.  However, I will say that this was a pretty good Thanksgiving story that managed to not hit your head over with the holiday and focus more on the eccentricities of Bob's family and his landlord (and the weirdo women Fishoeder likes to date).  I think maybe I'll like the episode a little more if I watch it again.  It was just watching it that first time I just couldn't help focus on the selfishness of Linda and the kids.