Why on Earth was Barney drinking coffee instead of beer all night? He also had the "sober Barney" hairstyle. Did I miss something?

A while back Barney became sober so that he could take helicopter lessons. He was tired of being a drunk who everyone made fun of, he wanted to make something of himself. At the end of the episode Moe hooks him on coffee and says something to the extent of, "Moe never loses a customer."

Side note:

I am a huge Simpsons fan and I think that last season, though by no means very good, was at least somewhat watchable. The season before last was absolutely horrible. Unfortunately, this episode seems to be following that trend, this episode was abismal. The writers seem to have forgotten what made The Simpsons great. They now do one of two things: start the episode one way then completely change focus and/or do weird things just for the sake of being weird. Neither is funny. It is like a different show, the characters are just shadows of their former selves. Examples of weirdness inserted to be funny but failing from this episode:

Homer fainting, dancing on the bar, Moe's professor's final speech, Moe tearing off his suit, and many more I can't remember.

It is like a different show, the characters are mere shadows of their former selves. What happened to Homer? His actions resemble what they used to be, but something is missing. You can almost guess the punchlines because they just reuse everything over and over again, even if it is not funny. It is such a shame to see arguably the best show ever go down in quality so much. I may actually stop watching if it remains this bad.

Barney is a recovering alcoholic.

As for the episode itself, I agree that it was a new low point (especially after last week). It simply tried too hard. The transition between the hole-digging and the main plot was awful, and most of the jokes failed miserably. Once again, Carl got the funniest line of the episode: "Pick me! I'm an urban Lenny!"

One question: was the scene where the professor drowns himself a reference to something? The dialogue was contrived in such a way that it seemed that way, but it didn't ring a bell.

last week was one of the best ever. This week - what the hell happened? Not a cheuckle from me and I really love the Simpsons. I hope they get on the right track for the next episode.

Worst episode ever!

I can't believe they spent what felt like 10 min with that hole-digging thing and it didn't go anywhere. They gotta start including other characters into their plots more often. More of Chief Wiggum or some other guys, or something to do with Homer's job (if he even working there anymore?).

The Simpsons: It's all downhill form here. There was a time when the Simpsons would rely on clever writing, but now they seem to be basing their humor on stupid sight gags.

The TV screen gag was priceless, would have been even funnier if they hadn't telegraphed it in the commentary on Season !. Also funny was Homer's unfinished Robot "son" and Homer bartending at home. I think the scrutiny this show is under is ridiculous, there are just too many writers to expect genius all the time. Lighten Up.

I laughed my @ss off this week (“Not if I scare him away with my cougar call. squrawrr Rhawrrrr! “).
I can’t rightly compare this to last weeks as I was drunk then, but when something makes me laugh more when I’m sober, I’d give it a thumbs up.
Actually, I liked the go nowhere hole joke and the professor’s suicide.
Also…”Tryin’ ta pee, huh?”

Unfortunately, all of the jokes written for REM feel embarrassingly flat (as is always the case with "hip' musical guests that they are forced to throw in there for some incentive to dude 6-pack to tune in.)

Downhill from here? No they can just keep adding characters, get new writers, etc. It's a cartoon. They can easily retool the show in the background.

i personally thought the funniest moment was during the opening credits where maggie emerged from the pile with the football and did the little TD dance.

simpsons never disappoint me
some eps are better then others.. but they are all funny

The "hole digging" thing was just plain weird as it went NOWHERE. But I think the "dancing on the bar" thing was a reference to Coyote Ugly.

Is it me, or did this episode seem a lot like a poorly recycled Flaming Moe's episode? Ah well.

yeah, and wasn't there another episode where Homer had to run Moe's bar in his house?

I really liked this episode largely due to one quote:

"That is the stupidest story I've ever heard and I've read the entire Sweet Valley High series." Moe

Maybe you have to have read it to find that funny...but being the high school romance reader that I am...I thought it was great.

There was an episode where Homer was bootlegging from his basement.

I think he's talking about the one in which they discover oil underneath the elementary school and Moe's bar becomes too contaminated for people to drink there, so they set up shop in Homer's kitchen.


p.s.: I watch too much Simpsons.

I think that was a different episode. That's the one where Bart walks in and says "Hey, there's a baloon machine in the bathroom!"

I watch too much Simpsons too. And the new ones suck.

There's another one where Moe's burns down and Homer lets Moe move the bar into the house too.

Dang, how many times has this plot device been used?

To be honest, the whole Hole Digging thing intrigued me. I was hugely disappointed that it went nowhere because I love it when Bart unleashes a little of his bizarre psychosis.

This episode was written by a Once Funny stand-up comic named Dana Gould. When I saw his name in the credits I *thought* the episode would show more promise than it did.

The Simpsons is just getting too surreal.