Christmas Spectacular Thing: The Simpsons: Season 23, Episode 10: Politically Inept, With Homer Simpson

Airdate: January 8th, 2012

Why are there gravy boats on Ted Nugent's and Homer Simpson's heads?  Long Story. One I do not want to recall.

Synopsis: Our Favourite Family winds up trapped on an airport tarmac. After being told that he cannot go to the bathroom mid flight, Homer freaks out about the government, getting him kicked off. Rather then going to a federal prison, the video of him freaking out goes viral. He is promptly poached by the media to spread his libertarian viewpoints, and is soon poached by Republican Party HQ to select their nominee for the 2012 election.

Review: One bad episode down, and save me, Jebus! This was pretty awful. I can see where they were going, with mocking how the media helps pick the candidates in elections and how zealous and biased both sides are. THAT was a good idea.

The execution, however? Terrible!

This is The Simpsons doing politics. I'm sorry, it's Zombie Simpsons doing politics. You know what that means? Exaggerated caricatures on one side, the other side being portrayed as the voice of reason. Ted Nugent shows up, guts an elk, and leaves. He gets, what, five lines? Homer is in full-on Jerkass mode for the first 2/3rds of the episode. None of his behaviour would be considered funny in real life (except in a borderline sick way). He is hailed as God's gift to the Libertarians, however. The plot bounces around, characters show up out of nowhere (Chris Christie, anyone, because hey, fat people are funny), the humour did not connect, characters were barely in character (if at all), and there was little purpose for some of the one-shot characters. Remember when this show was somewhat realistic, anybody?

The worst part is that the episode was supposed to be a parody of the Glenn Beck Show and the O'Reily Factor. Funny thing is, the former was almost off air by the time the episode aired. And "the Gravy Boat movement". That came from a show on a news network, and spread through the country. Our instant expert, everybody!

And the song at the end? Pure filler.

Overall, what a mess.

Favourite Moment: Admittedly, while Ted's lines were stupid, the delivery of his lines was decent overall.

Least Favourite Moment: Oh, Springfield Republican Party HQ, what have they done to ya? That scene was just pathetic.

Score: 3.