The Simpsons, Season 24, Episode 7: The Day the Earth Stood Cool, Review

All we have to say is "out of control breastfeeding ring" . . .

Instead of opening with the couch gag, Bart is stomping kids on the playground, while a hot blonde flirts with Homer, until she says he looks like a GRANDFATHER. That almost gives Homer a heart attack and he yells at ducks because he is not old enough to be feeding them yet.

At work, Homer goes on a search for Devil Donuts, after he misses the chance to try one because they’ve all been eaten. The donuts are traced to a food truck, but everything has already been produced and eaten for the day…although Chief Wiggum pulls his gun and insists the guy make more. He is pulled away, saying, “What have I become? It’s bad when you say ‘what have I become’ more than once a day…” Homer starts talking to the donut guy (Terrence) and starts to bond with him. Terrence is from Portland, Oregon, to which Homer responds, “I’ve heard of people being from there.” (Because Springfield is in Oregon…ha, ha..) Homer convinces Terrence and his wife to buy the house next door to him, which is for sale and they do, moving in with their two kids and pet armadillo. The baby is named Corduroy, the son T-Rex, so Homer invents “cool” names for his own three kids. Bart and Lisa try to hang out with T-Rex, who tells them the family doesn’t own a TV, but Lisa gets to watch anime on a small computer screen, so she’s happy. Homer lets Terrence shave what’s left of his hair, saying he is now “young person cool bald.” Marge expresses her concern about getting in too deep with the new neighbors, but agrees to go along so Homer will be happy…like she always does. Good Marge, but you know this is not going to end well. In order to become a “cool dad,” Homer takes the kids along on all the activities the neighbors do, including a Korean gangster film festival. Marge complains that he’s bringing the kids home “exhausted and pretentious.” Things only get worse when they go to T-Rex’s birthday party in an abandoned warehouse, where all the women are breastfeeding their kids and T-Rex does nothing but complain about his gifts. Homer has made T-Rex a jacket, which ends up getting thrown in the trash, so Bart starts a fight, resulting in them being kicked out of the party. Homer is angry at Bart until Bart admits that he stood up for Homer, and Marge tells him that the wife breastfeeding “ring” got out of control. Homer’s response?  “No one judges my wife’s thunderbags!” Homer trades his mustache stencils for Lisa, who is still hanging out at Terrence’s house…Flanders is called in as a mediator, but instead of Terrence and his family being kicked out, they are staying and inviting more “cool” people into town. Everything is taken over by organic hippie natural blah blah blah, even Moe’s. A block party is held, but T-Rex isn’t going, saying it’s lame. Bart invites him over to watch TV instead of turning the compost, which catches fire and burns the house down because the fire department is too primitive to help out anymore. Marge has 50 gallons of formula left to help put out the blaze, but the damage has been done…including the fact that Springfield has been named the “most popular town” in Oregon, so it has run its course and all the cool people leave, with Lisa begging them to take her with them. T-Rex, on the other hand, has “regressed,” wanting to go get a Krusty burger with his dad. The episode ends with an odd kind of afterthought with Monty Burns explaining the origin of electricity…no idea what that had to do with anything, but ok. Final review:  This was an episode with so many great one-liners I couldn’t even make note of them all. Even after twenty-four seasons, The Simpsons continue to be fresh. I don’t know how they do it, but I love it. This was definitely one of the funnier episodes I’ve seen recently. Best moments:  Ralph asking for “kitty whiskers” at what was supposed to be a temporary tattoo station…only it’s NOT.  Also, Marge calling the breastfeeding gang of women the “Nipple Nazis.”