XIX (Season 20, Episode 4, Aired November 2nd, 2008)
Alright, the opening sort of dates this episode to this episode to 2008. Still, with the craziness of the intervening 13 years in terms of electoral politics (and the rise of voter suppression laws), this sketch has only risen in relevancy, especially the line “This doesn’t happen in America! Maybe Ohio, but not in America!” It’s weird Homer is an Obama voter, but it’s hard to pin down his politics specifically. Still, ironically, this has actually aged well, especially with the aforementioned voter suppression laws and the peculiar, undemocratic institution of the Electoral College making politics exceeding frustrating. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but good opening, nonetheless.
“Untitled Robot Parody” is a parody of the Transformers franchise, and given the timing of the episode, seemingly Michael Bay’s 2008 movie in particular, though the designs seem reminiscent of the 80’s cartoon. This is another one where it doesn’t really seem like a parody. It just sort of seems like the Transformers are in the Simpsons universe, with a bunch of jokes that are just sprinkled in. The jokes themselves are occasionally funny, but mostly just kinda obvious and painfully telegraphed. The Transformer parodies don’t really have a lot of jokes. It takes them a bit too seriously, at least in comparison to the “normal” Simpsons characters. Also, the ending is just a rip-off of “Citizen Kang” from back in 1996. Literally, it’s the same ending, except the citizens are now those foosball kickers or…
