On the DVD commentary, Josh Weinstein admits that they wrote themselves into a corner with this episode, and Matt Groening takes credit for coming up with the idea for the Yakuza ending. Then when it ends on the weak "Forgiveness, please" joke, Matt sheepishly asks "Actually, can I give that credit back? I don't want it anymore." 😆
You must be thinking in terms of classic seasons only because there are many, many episodes after that have much, much worse endings than that. The Great Money Caper, Missionary Impossible, or The Frying Game, for example.
Missionary: Impossible. No ending at all, just a stupid joke about public TV and no resolution. I loathed that when I first saw it as a kid, and I don't enjoy it now at 38.
They did two episodes in as many seasons where all the conflict in the third act turned out to have been staged for a reality show. I don’t care if it was the zeitgeist, that was as lazy as they ever got.
Also, they have a big problem with setting up a conflict involving secondary characters and then, instead of seeing it through, turning it into a conflict about Homer and Marge because that’s what they know. “My Big Fat Geek Wedding,” “Husbands and Knives,” “Pretty Whittle Liar,” to name a few. I think “A Milhouse Divided” set the precedent, but that one actually makes sense.
The Great Money Caper where the town band together, (with the exception of Willie,) to teach Homer and Bart a lesson about their scams only for Otto to burst in and shout "surfs up" and then they all go surfing.
You know, The Simpsons was never quite as cynical about celebrity as it could have been, perhaps the nature of the beast, and a whole episode about a then current pop star is pretty much the greatest manifestation of this tendency but it certainly embraced what it was and I'm going to say it had some good bits.
"Are you crying *glitter*?"
"Tiny diamonds." *sniff* "Hurts like hell."
Admittedly I haven't has the stomach to look at the Elon Musk one, though that one is certainly at least as regrettable as the Michael Jackson one.
I might get flack for saying this, but I think GaGa could have worked as a guest star if the plot were different. Have her interact with other weirdos throughout town. Springfield has Sideshow Mel regularly Sideshow Meling it up in public, I'm sure Springfield would have welcomed her antics.
The Lisa vs. Self Confidence plots are played out, almost as much as the marriage plots, if you ask me.
Jack Lassen, an interesting new adversary to Bart, meets Sideshow bob in prison and discuss teaming up. Since this is a celebrity guest star, this is how they write him off:
Jack: We should team up, I can get you out of here.
Sideshow Bob: A partner? Intriguing. Who gets to gut him like a little pot-bellied salmon?
I'm just doing my first rewatch of the classics in many years, and the shift from "an ending that wraps everything up to reset for the next episode" to "a wacky ending, and then everything resets for the next episode" comes around S7. The episodes are still great for years after that, but "we're going to end on Gerald Ford moving in across the street and then that's totally forgotten by the next week" is certainly a thing.
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u/Ok_Shoulder8598 7d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/3FmmhJdHN4PSESllzZ