Episode 11: Flaming Moe

For the love of God, these episodes are really taking a toll. I mean, it's one thing to make a bad episode, but to make a bad episode with a title based on a great episode is just painful.This episode just makes me feel uncomfortable; it's so unfunny in the way they make these gay jokes and yet there's a part inside me that feels like I'm homophobic for hating them. But any time I think that way, I go back to Simpson and Delilah and remind myself; "It's just their shitty writing". With that out of the way, let's see how they can possibly botch up recycled plots, pointless guest voices and jokes in general.

So we begin with Homer, Lenny and Carl check in at the power plant as their counterparts from the late shift leave (Yeah the whole setup for that was a day-shift vs night-shift fight over a candy bar...So essentially the beginning is entirely pointless and unfunny). Smithers then tries to tell Mr. Burns about the fight, but Burns is too busy updating his will with "Blue hair lawyer". After he finishes it (And goes into a state of dementia, okay show of hands, when the hell has Mr. Burns ever been mentally incompetent?) (Besides that time he was on drugs?), Smithers goes back later that night to read the will. Smithers finds out that Burns is giving away his estate and money to Yale, Gary (Bad joke, don't ask) and his tortoise (I just love lazy writing that's not in the least bit funny). Burns then tells Smithers that he will never see him as his equal until he can prove himself (Wait, I thought his exclusion would be because Burns was going to have Smithers buried with him!). As Smithers walks down a road, he notices a gay bar and decides to go in; however, he gets rejected by the bouncer and it depresses him further (I've got a bad feeling I'm going to hate this episode for the unfunny gay stereotypes it's going to throw at my face).

I wonder if I can be an offensive gay stereotype as well

Smithers then walks over to Moe's (across the street no less) and gets some scotch. Moe and Smithers talk for a bit and Smithers gets an idea to turn Moe's Bar into a gay bar for normal looking gays (But not before butchering the talking heads gag with Mr. Burns.) Moe at first rejects the idea but decides to change it up after seeing Barney come out with a toilet (Okay let's see I can think of at least 4 times where there's been a plot about Moe changing his bar. Are the writers just throwing darts at old scripts to pick the next episode's plot?) After a bad "Self-aware montage" Moe and Smithers throw out the "E" in Moe's sign and the bar is changed (Even Mommy Beerest was more creative in the way they did the renovation of the bar). Smithers then tells some gay people that got rejected from the gay bar (Including Mr. Largo, refresh my memory, when did he go gay?) to go over to the new Mo's. We then go inside to find out, the design's exactly the same but looks fancier (I'm calling lazy bullshit here!)

Looks like a brand new place, must have taken them 4 hours of furniture shopping to get it here

As Homer, Lenny and Carl walk in they prove that they aren't the brightest lightbulbs in the box (Or the basement, or the dump, or the...) as they don't catch on to what's happening until Moe drops some exposition on them (And shows all the different versions Moe's used to be. Okay, now you're just shameless writers, you could have played coy). After Moe forces them to accept what's going on, we cut to school where Mr. Largo announces to the kids that he's leaving. After announcing he found his soulmate, Milhouse mistakes Chalmers as the soulmate (Okay two things; 1. Which room does Chalmers live in? He clearly lives in the school now, there's no doubting that anymore. 2. Hank Azaria cannot voice Chalmers anymore as he struggles with his lines throughout the episode). Chalmers then introduces the class to the new teacher; Ms. Juniper as we soon find out that she has the free spirit of a hippie along with the brains of one on pot. We then cut back to Mo's where we see Marge and Homer drinking there and having a good time. However that's all cut down as the writers decided to make a gay cousin for Comic Book Guy and have Marge be mistaken for a Drag Queen by transvestites (This episode reeks of abject failure).

Not since Vince Vaughn have we seen such bad taste in gay people

How is it that there seems to be so much going on already but neither plot seems to be getting off the ground? After some unfunny padding, Marge tells Moe to tell the customers that he's not really gay so they'll stop hitting on him (Excuse me for a moment *Laughs uncontrollably* Oh that was precious, for a minute there I thought the writers were being serious and trying to make us believe that Moe was attractive to men. Oh that was precious). As Moe's about to tell them the truth, he decides not to because he fears that he'll lose their business (Okay, I did find the 2 shoulder devils for Moe to be a funny joke only because that seems like the bitter Moe I know). Unfortunately, we then cut to Moe getting everyone in the bar to do a gay dance (Joy, just when I was starting to like it, the plot got back in the way). We then cut to Ms. Juniper teaching music class outside with a guitar and continuing to be a hippie (Okay I have no problem with hippies, but there's no better way to describe her).

The hills are alive, with the sound of crappy writing

Skinner then arrives and passes out from having to walk all the way to the mountains they're on, after he wakes up he instantly falls in love with her (Thanks to a dream sequence. As much as I want to call bull I have to bite my tongue because it was established that Edna and Seymour broke up. I hated that but it's canon) (As I am a fanfic writer, I am not constrained by canon. LONG LIVE SEYMOURxEDNA!). We then cut to Smithers showing Burns what he accomplished and Burns is happy for Smithers and respects him (Wait, why?) (Show, don't tell). Burns then gets hit on by a grizzly gay and Smithers gets Burns out of the bar (I know he has a name, but screw it, they're all poorly written stereotypes to me). After Moe shoots down grizzly gay again, Smithers tells Moe that he doesn't approve of what he's doing to the customers but Moe uses the logic of money to put his mind at ease (And has Homer as more comic relief, joy). The next day, Skinner calls Bart in and tells him about his crush on Ms. Juniper and how he wants Bart to help (For Christ sakes, THIS IS THE BASIC PLOT TO GRADE SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL. They're not even trying are they?) Skinner tells Bart to go out with Juniper's daughter and in exchange, Bart'll get extra weeks off from school (Yep basic premise all the way) (Wait, GSC, Bart's role made sense. Here, how will dating this lady's daughter get Seymour closer? It's not like Bart's related to Skinner!). At the arcade, the daughter (Melody) is all giddy for Bart as he could care less about her (Am I the only one who thinks she's borderline stalker?).

Come on Bart, let's pose for the promotional poster

Juniper then tells Skinner out of the blue that she loves him and decides to dance with him right there and that she wants him over at her house later (Like I've said before; "I couldn't make this shit up if I tried"). Later, grizzly gay and some others go to Moe and tell them about their problems which leads to them asking Moe to run for town council to represent the gay community (Okay time-out, Patty is among the group, doesn't she of all people know that Moe isn't gay?) Smithers then confronts Moe and tells him that he's gone too far and he shouldn't be their fake leader. However, Moe let's it go through one ear and out the other and assures the gays he'll run. The next day, Skinner comes in happy, butchering "I'm Walking on Sunshine" (*Sigh* You know the drill by now; Recycled plot element from GSC) and has a pointless conversation with Chalmers outside his new bedroom (I can only assume).

Why did I agree to this piece-of-crap of an episode?

Later, Bart breaks up with Melody (In an anti-climatic, underdeveloped, "who gives a rat's ass?" way, just like this plot) and it causes Ms. Juniper and Melody to leave town (Um why?). Oh yeah, quick thing: Melody was voiced by Alyson Hannigan despite only having two scenes. Who says that this show just gets shameless cameos to boost their ratings? After a small conversation between Ms. Juniper and Skinner (and Agnes), Skinner decides he'll go with her and her daughter (Okay, as much as this makes no sense and is unceremonious. I will give a kudos to the writers for throwing a creative curve ball at us. But I'll revoke it if Skinner comes back within the episode). After Willie gets promoted to Principal (Another bad joke), we cut to Moe as he's giving a speech to get elected and it's interrupted by Smithers as he reveals that Moe is straight. Moe denies it but Smithers corners him into confessing that he is straight. The gays all turn against him and leave, after they leave, Moe kisses Smithers once to see what it's like (Like last week's episode wasn't a punch to my stomach before) (And, trust me, I don't think any fangirl was asking for that). We then cut to Springfield Elementary as Skinner gets off a bus and tells Bart that it only lasted a day (Bart tells him it was three months. You know that kudos I gave, forget it, in fact replace it with a FU right back at the writers).

Final Verdict: This episode sucks, the writing is awful, the plots are poorly paced and not developed in any sense, the jokes suck and the gay stereotyping was awful. The plots were unoriginal and the initial kickstart to the "A" plot was completely pointless as it had nothing but a token ending. Bottom line, terrible episode fitting into a terrible season.

Final Grade: 2.7/10 Just despicable