This The Simpsons review contains spoilers.
The Simpsons Season 31 Episode 5
The Simpsons, season 31, episode 5, “Gorillas on the Mast,” pits the joys of altruism against the pleasures of self-interest and, oddly for the series, beneficence wins. The sad news is it is at the cost of the humor.
The smallest of the appearances are the funniest. While giving navigation prompts to his first mate, Monty Burns tells Smithers to splash an expensive oceanside dining area. Ned thanks the lord for fire ants. Moleman dies again, though we wonder why he’d go out on the water in the first place if he never learned to swim. BTO, Canada’s answer to ELP, gets one more chance to play “Taking Care of Business,” and don’t have to skip to the “working overtime” part. Maggie greedily takes sunscreen both externally and internally after Marge asks her if she wants to grow up to look like Grandpa.
Lisa is in agony from the very beginning of the trip to the aptly named Aquatraz Water Park. She sees this as a prison by the sea. She weeps at the inhumanity of the treatment the wet captives receive. And what carnage! She walks past Whack-a-Walruses and endures a penguin funeral every twenty minutes. Her outrage finally reaches its breaking point at seeing the sad dented dorsal fin and she has to be sedated with a cuddly toy. She succeeds both in getting her family thrown out of yet another amusement park and in her saturated prison escape scheme. She gets the added bonus of teaching Bart about selflessness and karma.
Jane Goodall spoofs herself well, first by trading the gorilla’s degrading name of Lolo to the equally degrading moniker Popo. This is the magnificent best who was once one of the smartest primates on earth. He knows how to sign the words friend, enemy, hate, kill, vodka and Seinfeld. We’re neither surprised when he goes ape after being lured out of captivity, nor when he bonds with Lisa over their mutual disdain of Newman. Goodall then proceeds to reason the hope out of every one of Lisa’s dreams and yet still offering the most encouragement the middle Simpson child has ever gotten in her life.
Bart’s character has the most growth, but even so, is stilted. He gets a good feeling from doing good thing but once he sees his deeds go down, his intentions follow. This is perfectly keeping with his realm of being. Chaos rules, and it is so much rewarding than imposing order on savage bestiality. Bart has an epiphany, and we’re led to believe he’s reached a truly magnanimous conclusion. It is far more satisfying when he twists this into planning to continue on a rampage of freeing dangerous animal inmates. He not only balances Lisa’s social justice, he tips the scales to true Simpson family values.
“Gorillas on the Mast” doesn’t quite founder. It contains classic celebrity mockery like worrying about Johnny Depp’s financial troubles and shaving gorillas so they can body double for Bruce Willis, or take his roles if they behave. But it doesn’t truly shine. There are a lot of very funny lines and gags, but nothing which truly distinguishes it as comic gold. This isn’t the fault of Lisa’s social justice warmongering. Kent Brockman offers cutting commentary after Lolo wreaks havoc on Springfield saying, “The police, as always, are useless.” Which cuts to a scene where Springfield’s bluest kill a perfectly harmless balloon. The water is only tepid and while good gags are on tap, they are not premium blend.
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“Gorillas on the Mast” was written by Max Cohn, and directed by Matthew Nastuk.
The Simpsons episode “Gorillas on the Mast” aired Sunday, Nov. 3, on Fox.
Keep up with The Simpsons Season 31 news and reivews here.
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.
