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.

Max Misses Grant... Aww!

Happy Endings, S02E17

After the "cliffhanger" in the previous episode, Happy Endings starts off this one with the continuation of Dave and Alex's hookup.  Um, I would have been fine if they just brushed that off.  Instead, Dave and Brad try hard to prove that the night actually happened, unlike Alex and Jane claim it didn't.  I would have disliked this story more if Jane wasn't so ridiculously meticulous in covering it up.  The other story, about Max and Penny competing in Rosalita's Run, was also pretty good due to Max finding ways to see Grant in everything they did.

No surprise that Jane was the mastermind behind the coverup since Alex is the kind of girl who thinks the TV and computer are friends.  My favorite part in this story was when Brad and Dave keep saying "A-ha!" to disprove all the details Jane made up.  Jane was prepared with all the evidence needed to support the story, including a popcorn husk in Brad's teeth (eww!).  I loved when Jane seemed to teleport across the room to another chair, while holding a cat.  Not only did she freak them out, but she looked like a villain.

Regarding the Rosalita's Run story, I think Max is so cute in the way that he turned anything back into a memory of Grant.  One of my favorites was when they got the clue for Risky Business, and Max said it reminded him of Grant because he owned a business and rode a bike to his business, which was very risky.  I actually didn't think they would show much of how Grant's disappearance affected him.  I'm glad they did because you really get to see a sweet side of Max.  I also like how Max said he couldn't even enjoy bacon, which Penny told him he would have to snap out of it because bacon would come up a lot with him.   This leads to a funny line as Max is pushing Penny in the shopping cart for the win:

Bacon!  I should have eaten more bacon!

I guess it's the bacon that makes Max go.  I was amazed he went as fast as he did.  Someone as lazy as Max doesn't look like the type that would fast, unless it had to do with food.

Max was pretty cute, too, when he asked the cashier to beep his card again because he liked the sound.  He laughed like a delighted child and then went right back to the sad face.  Aww.  But I'm sure that their winnning the Rosalita's Run will get Max back to normal and possibly into some entertaining scheme.

Thankfully, this episode didn't signify the restart of Dave and Alex together.  I think they make a boring couple anyway.  That, even with Max being so adorably forlorn, was probably the best thing about this episode of all.  They could have spared us the story of whether they would stay friends or not, but I'll not nitpick since it was done in a way funnier than I would have predicted.  I'm ready to stop focusing on that wreck of a relationship and get back to the "Crazy Max and His Ideas" show.