In this week’s episode, Marge’s sister Selma gets married, Bart finds a hidden talent, and the Jersey Shore is parodied. The result is a tired, out of sync episode, where the jokes are forced and the plot is boring.
If you’re wondering who Selma gets married to this time (her sixth marriage), its Fat Tony, the leader of Springfield’s mafia. This was the biggest problem of the episode. It was a lazy and pointless plot that the show has used so many times before. We’ve already seen Selma married to Sideshow Bob, Troy McClure and Grandpa Simpson, so I do not see why it was done again. The episode did not add anything new to the dynamic or make Selma learn something, so what was the point? I could understand if the plot made Selma change in a major way, or something along those lines, but it did not.
The second problem I had with this wedding was the fact that Selma married Fat Tony. It was only a couple of months ago that the show killed of Fat Tony and replaced him with Fit Tony, who gradually fattened up to become the second Fat Tony. Throughout the episode I thought to myself that this wasn’t the real Fat Tony, making it impossible to become immersed in, or care about, the plot. I also felt cheated that the episode did not reference the fact that the old Fat Tony was dead and Fit Tony took his place. I might have laughed if the show referenced Fit/Fat Tony, thereby poking fun at themselves, but the show carried on as if none of these things happened. The episode might have been passable if I didn’t have these lingering thoughts in my mind.
While Selma was busy marrying Fat Tony, Bart realizes that he can smell truffles buried deep underground. Bart and Lisa then take part in the lucrative business of truffle collecting, finding truffles and selling them for a high profit. Bart soon realizes, however, that Lisa is keeping the truffles to herself and eating them to supplement her crappy vegetarian diet (her approximate words). Lisa’s betrayal, along with the power trip she goes on late in the episode (she even leashes and blindfolds Bart in order to force him into finding truffles) was totally out of character, and once again made the plot unbelievable and utterly dumb.
Another thing I did not like about the show was the attempt to parody the Jersey Shore. The jokes weren’t all that funny, and the whole thing seemed forced and way to simple for The Simpsons. They like tanning, they party, they’re usually drunk. Anybody could have written those jokes.
To look on the bright side, there were some laughs. Fat Tony cooking lobsters by shooting them, wiping the gun of fingerprints and planting the gun on one of the lobsters was funny. So was the elderly Italian lady who made pool noodles resembling pasta.
Other than that, it was a pretty bland episode. It seemed the show lazily created this episode with little to no effort. They got something mildly recent from the headlines, the Jersey Shore, and just combined it with an old plot device in Selma’s quest for marital bliss. The episode would have been entertaining if either of these parts of the episode were funny or interesting, but they were not.
Next week, the show guest stars Kristen Schaal, so hopefully she brings some of her funny along. To watch clips of this episode and others, or to learn about upcoming episodes, go to thesimpsons.com.
