This The Simpsons review contains spoilers.
The Simpsons: Season 30 Episode 16
Further reading: The Simpsons Season 30 Episode 14 Review: The Clown Stays in the Picture
Bart and Lisa’s babysitter Shauna is still using Jesus as an excuse when she slips up. She’s still dating Jimbo. Shauna and Jimbo are probably the best babysitters Bart and Lisa have had since Lucille “The Babysitter Bandit” Botzcowski, exquisitely voiced by Penny Marshall, in the first season. They’ve had more exciting babysitters and interesting ones, Bart even got a crush on one. But as far as temporary guardians forced to deal with the three kids, the teen slackers are most in touch with their wards. Jimbo finds cool videos like “Things Pythons eat, and there are kittens in it for Lisa. The things he learns from horror movies proving to Shauna he would be such a good dad.
Further reading: The Simpsons Season 30 Episode 15 Review: 101 Mitigations
If this episode gives us nothing else, we get to see Principal Seymour Skinner on blizzard, a new hip street drug that has been infiltrating Springfield. At the mandatory parent conference DANK, an acronym for Drunk and Alcohol Night of Knowledge, Superintendent Chalmers forces him to take a snort or two of the illicit substance as a lesson for the parents. This is the educational system of the future. It’s completely immersive and a little MK Ultra, making it beautifully subversive. The gag recurs as we later see Seymour getting chased by Chalmers who wants the document the effects of other drugs on him.
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Further reading: The Simpsons Season 30 Episode 13 Review: I’m Dancing as Fat as I Can
We should have seen this coming when Nigel’s therapeutic regimen could be done to the Beach Boys “Surfin’ Safari.” The episode title comes from the song which closes the A side of Abbey Road. The Beatle’s longest song, “I Want You (She’s So Heavy),” had the fewest words of any of their songs, and is actually two songs merged into one. This drives me mad.
“I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” was directed by Steven Dean Moore, and written by Jeff Westbrook.
The Simpsons‘ “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” aired Sunday, March 10, at 8:00 p.m. on Fox.
Bart’s Chalkboard: Readying for the final in a Krusty competition.
Culture Editor Tony Sokol cut his teeth on the wire services and also wrote and produced New York City’s Vampyr Theatre and the rock opera AssassiNation: We Killed JFK. Read more of his work here or find him on Twitter @tsokol.
