LorenzoL

"Yokel Chords"

Originally Aired: March 04, 2007

RichC2

Wtf?

Ranger

I had high hopes for this episode and was let down a bit. But the "stopping 9/11" line made me chuckle a bit. Did like how the shrink story ended and seymour and super's little song.

chrisih8u

Ouch. That was awful.

Geofferson

Agreed...pretty poor episode tonight.

LorenzoL

There were some funny bits but overall, it was a letdown for me.

The whole freaking episode was a parody it seems. These are the ones that I got: Sound of Music, The Honeymooners, Oliver Twist, Bonanza?

And what was up with the animation when Bart was telling the story? Was that supposed to be a parody too?

Ranger

Yeah, I didn't understand that animation use either. Maybe a ripoff of nightmre before christmas?

calhoun07

I liked the entire episode. A return to the musical bits...the creative animation (it reminded me of the Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror comic books that often feature creative artwork that is quite different from the regular Simpsons style)...and many of the jokes worked for me.

I think this show is proving it still has life in it yet.

cornflakeguy

That was ter-ri-ble.

MrX

The end with the shrink seeing the shrink was from The Sopranos, it even had Peter Bogdanovich.

This was a pretty bad episode, though the kid-centric episodes usually are.

slop101

Meg Ryan? She's still alive?

Anyways, I counted 29 producers listed just at the begining of this episode.
29 producers? Really?

GoldenJCJ

I don't know, but was that music from 12 Monkeys?

Seantn

Every single week the Simpsons threads are always the same.

Everyone says "What a terrible episode"
A few people say that they laughed once or twice, and will quote a line along with a laughing smiley face next to it, but then will admit that the episode wasn't good.
One person says they liked it, and was the best episode they've seen in a few seasons.

Shazam

Meh. It's par for the course in regards to The Simpsons. Go to snpp.com and read reviews of "classic" episodes - the vitriol was just amazing sometimes.

Chew

Well, I liked it. Good musical numbers, several laughs, cool animation for Bart's story.

kenny79

Sounded like an obvious ripoff, so they wouldn't have to pay for the actual music.

fuzzbox

I think it was meant to be an homage to Edward Gorey. But usually the homages look a little closer than this one did...

And what is up with the musical numbers. Does ANYONE like them? Is that just what old National Lampoon writers do to make themselves feel good?

-jason

jonw9

I was thinking the same thing.. I hate musical numbers in my shows, unless it is a musical. They seem to be trying to adopt the Family Guy format, whose music I usually skip as well.

Morf

Agreed. It felt like a unique episode. Now how long before some asshat chimes in: "THAT wasn't ORIGINAL! Simpsons did it in episode X and Y and Z and ..."

CPA-ESQ.

I liked the animation change up in the episode! Changing things up is a good thing.

I didn't like that they renamed Cletus' kids! In the episode where Marge sells pretzels, Cletus names all his kids and they did not have the "over the top" names as they did tonight.

Children: Gummy Sue, Tiffany, Heather, Cody, Dylan, Dermot, Jordan, Taylor, Brittany, Wesley, Rumer, Scout, Cassidy, Zoe, Chloe, Max, Hunter, Rubella Scabies, Kendall, Caitlin, Noah, Sasha, Morgan, Kyra, Ian, Lauren, Q-bert, Condoleezza Marie and Phil

Palaver

I agree. I thought it was a pretty solid episode.

Cusm

I agree and this just made it seem like they were trying that much harder. The original names and so much funnier than Crystal Meth, etc.

slop101

I laughed at Homer writing "I'm gay" word-baloons for the presidents on all his cash - I think I'm gonna do that.

smashthesymbols

The list children from the pretzel episode is "Tiffany, Heather, Cody, Dylan, Dermot, Jordan, Taylor, Brittany, Wesley, Rumer, Scout, Cassidy, Zoe, Chloe, Max, Hunter, Kendall, Caitlin, Noah, Sasha, Morgan, Kyra, Ian, Lauren, Q-bert, and Phil". Gummy Sue, Rubella Scabies and Condoleezza Marie have all been introduced since.

Anyway, sorry about the nitpick. I do agree with you otherwise. I didn't like when they added the last three kids randomly, and I really didn't like the names last night. Seriously, naming a kid Crystal Meth? Just not funny.

The episode had some good bits in it, there were a few very funny parts even. Overall though, the episode just didn't add up. I'm not sure what it is about the show now. They can have really funny bits, they just can't tie them together with a good plot.

redskull

I thought Bart's story was a Gorey homage as well. I thought he was a pretty well-known artist. Looks like I was wrong! Anyway, do a google search for his art; it contains lots of cross-hatching and disturbing imagery, just like in this episode. I'm pretty sure they were going after a Gorey vibe.

And yeah, I didn't like that they changed the names of Cletus' kids either. I don't mind all that much when they ignore previous continuity--it is a cartoon after all--but I think renaming characters is going too far. Maybe those original kids met with some "accidents" and this is a whole new bunch?

By the way--something about some of the original names of Cletus' kids (Gummy Sue, Tiffany, Heather, Cody, Dylan, Dermot, Jordan, Taylor, Brittany, Wesley, Rumer, Scout, Cassidy, Zoe, Chloe, Max, Hunter, Rubella Scabies, Kendall, Caitlin, Noah, Sasha, Morgan, Kyra, Ian, Lauren, Q-bert, Condoleezza Marie and Phil) always made me wonder if part of the joke was that they were reciting them from a "most popular boy's & girl's names for 2003" list, or possibly a list of celebrity's baby names (minus the Gummy Sues & Q-Berts and such, of course).