This The Simpsons review contains spoilers.
The Simpsons Season 31 Episode 21
The Simpsons season 31, episode 21, “The Hateful Eight-Year-Olds,” doesn’t have a couch gag and it eschewed the opening credits. This bodes well. The shorter the introductions the better the episodes has been a consistent truism of the series. This has been blamed on the artists having to stretch episodes because they come up short. They stick it in an extended opening to pad out stories which, occasionally, could have been mailed in.
Lisa, who desperately tries not to judge people, will ultimately hate these eight year olds. The Simpson family routinely find themselves in awkward class-based social situations. These aren’t just “mean girls,” they are the “mean girls” from the other side of the track. They have MyPhones, completely useless items where the camera always points at the face of the owner. They are very stuck up, pretentiously precocious and look down on Lisa only long enough to take mocking videos of her, because baby videos go viral. And she’s trapped all night with them. The voice on the Japanese toilet is the only kind one in the house, and it was only telling her it couldn’t find her butt.
Bart shows up, not to save Lisa, but to free her. If she leaves the sleepover early she’ll be going to bed early for the rest of her life. But vengeance is like staying up all night. He teaches her revenge could only come from the hatred in your own heart and Lisa finds her hate. She actually exacts a pretty traumatic payback which only Klonopin Gummy Bears can fix. Lisa makes them all look like her with a hair-raising prank worthy of the best of El Barto in his prime. She then educates her brother, after learning he’s not disdainful of horses, but scared of them. He of course contends he hates any animal that works with cops. He learns respect after learning these gentle souls will kick your face off if you walk behind them.
The space left over from the missing credits is given to Weezer, who not only get to showcase their rendition of The Simpsons’ theme, but get an animated makeover. But “The Hateful Eight-Year-Olds” is a worthy installment. The show once again gets to take down the higher classes a peg, even if the actual comeuppance is watered down.
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