Simpsons_Missionary_Impossible.jpg
Fair play to Homer – this show has become more insane thanThe Flinstones. No, I am not having a yabba-Dabba-do-time.

"If you watch even one second of PBS without contributing, you're a thief! A common thief!" – Betty White. To be fair, PBS didn't take the greatest show on television, drive it into the ground, and keep digging for twenty years afterward. I might slide them some cash.

Airdate : February 20, 2000.

Written By : Ron Hauge.

Plot : Homer's excitement over PBS's airing of laddish BritcomDo Shut Up is doused by one episode being interrupted by a pledge drive for $10000. Homer, naturally, fake-donates the money to try and get the episode back on the air. However, PBS merely uses this as an excuse to film him handing over the money… and chasing him down when he can't come up with it. Facing certain death at the hands of theSesame Streetmuppets (…yeah…), he manages to get driven to safety by Rev. Lovejoy. The cost, however, is that he must do time as a missionary in the Pacific Islands. As you can tell from the above screengrab, it goes over well.

Review :

Last time onScullyfied Simpsons, I was left floored at the greatest bit of television incompetence I've seen ever.

No, seriously – barring some sort of anti-miracle, I honestly think that with "Alone Again, Natura-Diddily", the Mike Scully era ofThe Simpsons officially bottomed out. For every bad episode that follows, nothing will be quite as destructive to what was once the greatest TV show of all time as Ian Maxtone Graham's utter debacle of a half-hour that sent Maude Flanders off in the most humiliating way possible. Between that and "Saddlesore Galactica", the show's characters and reality have formally collapsed into an element of nothingness.

What I'm trying to say is that virtually anything,anything would have represented an improvement over the disaster area that has been the last two-three episodes ofThe Simpsons. Yes, even if the episode consisted of a test pattern all while the audio fromCartoon All-Stars to the Rescue aired.

So, what about "Missionary: Impossible"? Can this possibly surpass my rock-bottom expectations? Or at least, come close?

Now, let's be reasonable here. This episode was written by Ron Hauge. And he actually has a reasonable track record. He actually wrote the first script of "Homer's Phobia" – notable not just because it tackled homophobia just months beforeEllenhad it's protagonist come out, but because that episode came close to being mothballed by the censors, before they were all fired and replaced with more agreeable censors. He also penned "Canine Mutiny", "Miracle on Evergreen Terrace", "Dumbbell Indemnity", "Mayored to the Mob", and "Life's a Glitch, Then You Die" from "Treehouse of Horror X". None of these are particularly bad episodes (although everything past "Canine", barring the THOH segment, are "mixed bags" rather than really "good"). But his track record is at least… serviceable so far.

That said, Season 11 has really taken the show and ripped it to shreds. Will Ron Hauge be the exception to the rule?

Well, we at least begin with a riff on PBS and affiliate tendencies to air British series to fill their schedule. Being aRed Dwarf fan, I have to appreciate this riff – it was through the PBS affiliates that Americans got introduced to the series. As a result, while the show is somewhat mired in "cult status" here in the States, it's certainly not unheard of in contrast to many other sitcoms. Even further, it demonstrates the contrast between the normally reserved presentation of PBS and the often intense comedy and/or drama that can be found in British shows. Personal note – WLIW in New York does air some sitcoms (Keeping Up Appearances, for one), but one idiosyncratic quirk in their schedule is that they're airingEastEnders episodes from adecade ago.

Adding to that is the take on the more "laddish" strand of Britcoms.Do Shut Up is clearly a riff on shows such asBottom andMen Behaving Badly,riffing on their often excessive violence and laddish behavior of their protagonists. (One could argueThe Young Ones as well, although that was more of a political/university satire than anything.) While the sitcoms themselves often presented their protagonists with an ironic slant, this episode makes it known that some viewers, such as Homer, will take it at face-value.

Even further,The Simpsons absolutely mocks PBS and the constant pledge driving that seems to occur. Again, this is not unusual – I've seen WLIW ask for donations in between decade-oldEastEndersepisodes (…no, I don't know why I watch it.) Given that the United States has a) a decentralized Public TV system, and b) no TV license fee (wouldn't fly in America), PBS affiliates have to rely on government grants, corporate contributions, and private donations. It's weird. But the tendency to seemingly shame the viewer into donating while offering cheesy bribes (tote bags, for starters) hocked by celebrities (Betty White – who actually has a somewhat consequential and quite funny role in this episode) is quite spot on.

So this episode actually has a quite well-done first six minutes.

Then Homer's $10K scam is found out, and a chase ensues, making this twice in three episodes that Homer is forced to leg it after doing something asinine. Give this episode some backhanded credit, though – while "Saddlesore Galactica" produced it's completely insane chase in the third act after two innocuous and moronic acts, this episode is no more than eight minutes old before it goes off the rails. Let's see, Homer gets chased down by Mr. Rogers (which is surprisingly the least egregious aspect), Yo-Yo Ma, the cast ofSesame Street (by which I mean the puppets from Sesame Street), and Teletubbies (ironically the product of the BBC) who shootlasers out of their antennae.

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Let me repeat – this show has dabbled in silliness during the classic seasons. Hey, Leonard Nimoy ended his episode by being beamed away. But, again, they were part of very brief gags or were used to satirize our contemporary world. Here, they're jokes that are meant to stand on their own, and fall flat on their face as a result. I mean, this sequence still isn't the most insane the show gets all season ("Saddlesore Galactica" still has this beat by a mile, and this is on par with Maude Flanders' Shirt Cannon Demise), but still. You have to wonder, "Jesus, what's next?"

Well, Jesus is next, weirdly enough. This PBS chase seems but disconnects itself from the rest of the episode as Homer requests sanctuary at the church. Lovejoy rescues him from the mob, but in return, he's put on a plane to Microasia – a riff on the Micronesian islands. I say "seems to" because, really, I can see where the writers were going here, sort of. Homer attempted to bypass a fund drive for a TV station to get back to his seemingly lowbrow and vacuous comedy. As a result, his life was saved, but he is dragged far away from the comforts of his home. No couch, no TV, no beer, Homer, therefore, something, something.

Even further, this episode absolutely rips into the concept of missionaries. The patronization of those they claim to help by dismantling their faith, all while leaving their work undone, combined with their somewhat racially insensitive attitudes (to put it mildly), it's really not a pleasant endorsement. Add onto that, Homer's own attempts at being a missionary wind up leading the Microasians to debauchery often lamented in fundamentalist circles (drunken gambling). So there are a couple of kernels of a decent episode within.

Unfortunately, those kernels remain largely unpopped.

For one, only one Microasian is really given a character – Lisa Jr. She serves as the rather adorable, relatively morally standout of the characters. The rest are, broadly speaking, merely Pacific Islander stereotypes with little depth behind them. (More was given to the callous missionaries.) I barely remember their names. Yes, not all characters are meant to be sympathetic, with individual backstories and dimensions, but to turn them into mere joke fodder really impacts the stakes when they are raised.

Second off, Homer's own character still leaves quite a bit to be desired. Yes, he is better than he was back in "Alone Again", but that's more because I'm surprised that the Homer fromthat episode ended the episode without being borderline garroted by somebody. Cultural insensitivity aside, he's still framed as the "wacky" guy taking yet another "wacky" job (albeit forced into this against his will, sort of). This episode does get some credit, as I did feel like the writers toned down the outright odiousness of his character. He's still rather annoying compared to his classic era (the PBS fraud, for starters, is something I doubt that evenhe would do before Scully – he would likely switch to another channel), but most of his "out there" characterization is framed more in the sheer insanity of this episode.

And by the way? This episode is insane – in fact, you could argue that this episode is up there in outlandishness alongside "Saddlesore Galactica". Don't get me wrong – that episode is the gold standard for the show's descent into insanity, it always will be, and it was the moment when the show began to ski towards the shark tank. But this episode practically starts at insane and goes from there. Not only does Homer manage to construct a casino within a month, and a chapel within a similar timeframe, but his ringing of the bell manages toopen up the Earth underneath him, leaving Homer and Lisa Jr. close to death…

…only to be saved by Betty White running a FOX telethon.

Yup, this episode was so insane that it actuallybroke itself. To that, I give it the slightest of credit over "Saddlesore", as this episode can easily be written off as just a bad fever dream. Hell, given that Homer actually licked toads during the second act, I have a hard time believing that everything from that moment onwasn't a drug-fuelled hallucination on an increasingly insane Homer's part.

This includes the B-plot.

Oh, boy, the B-plot. It's barely there, anyway. While Homer is away, Bart is upgraded to "man of the house". What would've been an otherwise cute joke actually is given two brief add-on scenes. The first, he's at the Power Plant, where everybody mistakes this ten-year-old kid for Homer. This includes Mr. Burns. While I might be able to buy him suddenly remembering Homer just as his son is filling in as a cute twist to an old running gag ("That's Homer Simpson, sir, one of your (X) from Sector 7G"), it's canceled given Bart's prior interactions with the miser, as well as Burnsie's continued ineffective behavior here. The second scene – a conversation between Bart and Marge – is not much better.

Therefore, we lose a potential ending to this episode thanks to a worthless B-plot. What else is new?

And let's get back to that ending. Again,The Simpsons did do silly. But this is completely outrageous, yet another example of the writers trying to mess with our minds. I did find the idea of Rupert Murdoch having to form a telethon to save the FOX network amusing, if only because I love seeing Murdoch humbled. I would also suspect that this was a sly hint at the possibility that the show was going to wind up soon – this somewhat arrogant take that withoutThe Simpsons, FOX was going to flounder.

That said, given thatThe Simpsons has far outlasted every other show seen on the telethon despite arguably suffering one of the most infamous quality declines in the history of American television, maybe the writers were begging to be saved, or something. (That said, FOX was in a poorer position in 2000 compared to 2018, ratings-wise.)

Or maybe I'm just overanalyzing a joke ending put in because the writers ran out of episode.

In short, "Missionary: Impossible"is an improvement on the prior threeSimpsons episodes reviewed here. However, improvement is relative. This episode is still quite a clunker – slightly improved characterization is balanced out by insane plotting that goes nowhere (although at least it's a consistent insanity – barely a compliment, but still.)

This would be Hauge's last written episode, and in my opinion, he goes out with something of a whimper. He did, however, get promoted to a writer, and stayed on as a producer until 2010. So somebody up at FOX liked his work.

Hey, at least he didn't try and bribe FOX with a fraudulent $10K donation to save the series. The merchandise does that for them…

Tidbits :

  • A couple of interesting facts aboutDo Shut Up that I should bring up…
    • For one, the show is produced by Thames Television. Thames was the ITV affiliate in London from 1968 to New Years Eve 1992, and (along with Granada) are probably the most recognized ITV Production company here in the States. They were responsible for distributingBenny Hill, Mr. Bean, the aforementionedMen Behaving Badly, and the originalDanger Mouse. They lost their license to broadcast after Margaret Thatcher's government reformed TV licensing laws in 1990 – Thames TV got outbid by Carlton. Some speculate that this was due to their production of the IRA-focused documentaryDeath on the Rock, which did not sit well with the pro-unionist government. (Not helping matters was that Thatcher came within feet of being blown up by the IRA in the Brighton Hotel in 1984 – several cabinet members were injured in the bombing.)
    • Also, in spite of the characters having heavy cockney accents and the show being produced by a London-based company, a banner on their wall indicates that they support a Manchester soccer club. The red color strongly implies this is Manchester United – under the management of Sir Alex Ferguson in the 90s and 2000s, one of the most powerful soccer clubs in the world (winning the Treble in 1999 – the only English men's club to do so). A part of me suspects that this is a sly rip at the stereotype of United fans being found outside of Manchester, while "locals" trending more towards the then-obscure-outside-of-England Manchester City. Likewise, it could be a rip on the fan stereotype of unceasing arrogance – as if United were Manchester's only team. (Sergio Aguero and David Moyes sure humbled them.) More likely, though, it was a bit of an oversight on the writer's part, and they wrote in the first soccer team they could think of. (As an Arsenal fan who takes schadenfreude in Man United's recent drama, I resent the lost opportunity to crack a North London Derby riff.)
  • This episode is also known for Homer's memetic plea to let him off the plane. "I don't even believe in Jebus!" And as the plane takes off? "Save me, Jebus!" I just love Dan Castellaneta's delivery of those lines – turning a rather silly joke into something iconic.
  • Yeah, Marge knows how to use Ham Radio. Okay…
  • One of the most insane aspects of the end telethon was Betty White begging the viewer to save "crude, low-brow programming", before turning off a TV featuring theFamily Guylogo. I know that I'm facing death at the hands of scores ofSimpsons fans when I say this… Season 2 ofFamily Guygave the viewers "Holy Crap", "Brian in Love", "The King is Dead", "Running Mates", "Fifteen Minutes of Shame", "Let's Go To The Hop", "E. Peterbus Unum", "Wasted Talent", and not least of all, "Road to Rhode Island". In my opinion, Season 2 ofFGhad, at worst, an on-par batting average than Season 11 ofThe Simpsons in terms of script quality. Go ahead and flame me. (To be fair, modernFamily Guy is as unwatchable as modern Simpsons,so…)

Wrap-Up :

Zaniness Factor : 5. Teletubbies firing lasers out of their antennae and the earth swallowing Homer and Lisa Jr. whole, all interrupted by a FOX pledge drive. What sort of rotisserie chicken were the writers even eating?

Jerkass Homer Meter : 3. It's definitely an improvement over the last two episodes, but Homer is still more of a "zany, amIright" type compared to earlier episodes. And half of his behavior here is still beyond "brain-dead moron" territory.

Favorite Scene : The PBS pledge drive, given that it takes up a good chunk of the review…

Least Favorite Scene : Any of the scenes featuring Bart as the "man of the house". Way to waste time that could've been used to properly end the episode.

Score : 4. It's somewhat funnier and somewhat less offensive than the prior two, I will admit, but not by much either way. Or, who knows, my standards have been lowered just that bit.

…maybe Mike Scully was right. Lower the standards, you can go on forever.

Lastly, before I sign off, I want to say my thanks to Stan Lee, who died yesterday at the age of 95. Others have covered his legacy in such great detail that I would merely be echoing what they have said. All I'll say is that his largest and most prolific characters – amongst the most human in all of entertainment – will prove that Mr. Lee lives for generations to come.

Excelsior, sir.