This The Simpsons review contains spoilers.
The Simpsons: Season 30 Episode 17
Further reading: The Simpsons Season 30 Episode 14 Review: The Clown Stays in the Picture
The Evergreen Terrors win the tournament Principal Skinner doesn’t understand, but which paid for new basketball nets at the school. Seymour breathes new life into an old gag when he has to turn over the $1,000 prize money to Bart but finds his hands won’t disengage themselves. “I’m telling myself to let go of the money,” he says, but it doesn’t compute.
The Detonator sets the kids up in swivel chairs and explains their game plan. His fingers click with light quick strokes to avoid joint fatigue. He is a true virtual athlete. He speaks the speak, and apparently nothing else, as Marge finds out when she invites him into her home, a phrase which doesn’t compute until she amends it to directions to where the game was being played. Once there he unleashes a barrage of gamer lingo, some of which I hope was made up. Nerd lingo it saves so much time. Whatever he says, it works. But when it stops working, even for a moment and you lose the zone, it is the true end of innocence. We learn it sucks to be old as the Detonator detonates at 19 years old, a relic in the world of gaming.
Further reading: The Simpsons Season 30 Episode 15 Review: 101 Mitigations
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Further reading: The Simpsons Season 30 Episode 13 Review: I’m Dancing as Fat as I Can
“What good is wisdom, Johnny, if it is of no profit to the wise,” Luis Cyphre asks in the film Angel Heart. The Buddha teaches the profit is of the soul. It doesn’t matter if you win or lose, the chalk on the field will be blown away, the EXPs will be erased when you clear your cache. It is all transient, much like the Island of the Blue Dolphins. The Simpsons teach us a lesson in civic irresponsibility.
“E My Sports” was directed by Rob Oliver, and written by Rob LaZebnik.
The Simpsons‘ “E My Sports” aired Sunday, March 17, at 8:00 p.m. on Fox.
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.
