THE SIMPSONS 11/16: "Homer and Lisa Exchange Cross Words"

[Christopher]

Well, for the most part, this was a letdown from last week, a return to the more mediocre, gimmicky storytelling that defines the show these days. Most of it was "wacky Homer job/Lisa hobby of the week," and the emotional beats were fairly cursory and quickly gave way to zany gags instead of going in a sincere, human direction.

But what made it a noteworthy episode was the crossword puzzle at the end. As I watched it, I realized I recognized the clues. I solved that puzzle this morning! It's the actual New York Times Sunday crossword for today, November 16, 2008, written by Merl Reagle and edited by Will Shortz. And it actually does contain the hidden messages from the episode! Wow.

One thing, though -- it took Lisa 43 minutes to solve it and that was a personal record? Not to brag, but I finished it in 13 minutes flat, and I'm sure I'm nowhere near champion levels.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I thought the final reveal of the clues and the hidden messages was rather touching.

I laughed quite a bit at it. Certainly far more than I did at Treehouse of Horror this year.

 

[Christopher]

Yeah, it was a fairly good episode by the standards of today's Simpsons, but it was a letdown after last week's exceptional episode.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Sadly, I didn't see last week's; I was on the road between Raleigh and Baltimore. *shrug*

 

[Siwilliams]

Laughed a lot with this episode and last weeks. The crossword stuff was good, as was the Jack Lemmon type character fooling Lisa with his glasses scene.

 

[Aragorn]

I was expecting Homer to blow all his winnings. Other than what he bought with it, I guess that money now goes into the magic pot that keeps them independently wealthy no matter what happens.

 

[Siwilliams]

Homer has new shoe laces

 

[TGTheodore]

Actually, the Crossword tournament was a GREAT takeoff on an exceptional documentary last year about those who write, do, and study crosswords.

--Ted

 

[Hermiod]

I was expecting Homer to blow all his winnings. Other than what he bought with it, I guess that money now goes into the magic pot that keeps them independently wealthy no matter what happens.

It's on one of the DVD commentaries - one of the writers says that the Simpsons are fabulously wealthy on paper but Homer is so bad with money and has so many legal settlements to pay off that they're always flat broke.

Homer owns the Denver Broncos (how many poor NFL franchise team owners are there ?), he had a massively successful career as a singer songwriter with The B-Sharps and despite his protest that he forgot to ask for any money surely Screen Actors Guild rules say he is due royalties from his brief career as Poochie.

 

[Christopher]

Actually, the Crossword tournament was a GREAT takeoff on an exceptional documentary last year about those who write, do, and study crosswords.

Yes, it's called Wordplay, and I recognized that it was the inspiration for this episode. It heavily featured Will Shortz and Merl Reagle as well as various top tournament solvers. Heck, it was that movie that inspired me to start using the clock on AcrossLite Plus when I solve NYT crosswords, which is how I know it took me 13 minutes to do the puzzle from the episode. And I'm pretty sure that the top solvers there were doing Sunday-level puzzles in maybe half that time, which is why Lisa taking 43 minutes to do it seems so wrong.

 

[Kryton]

Dude...she's EIGHT!

 

[Christopher]

^^Yeah, but she was shown to be one of the two finalists in a citywide championship -- and she was overtly shown in the montage to be filling in the grids at lightning speed. Gil needed trickery to beat her and he was able to fill in the grid in mere seconds. So the "43 minutes/new record" thing was not only contradicting external reality, it was contradicting the rest of the episode itself.

 

[Kryton]

Heh...I only caught the last 3 or 4 minutes so I missed that part of the setup.

 

[Siwilliams]

Heh...I only caught the last 3 or 4 minutes so I missed that part of the setup.

http://www.fox.com/fod/play.php?sh=simpsons

You can watch the whole episode at the link

 

[Thespeckledkiwi]

I liked the episode, though it had shades of when the last time Homer's mom came to visit.

 

[Siwilliams]

I liked the episode, though it had shades of when the last time Homer's mom came to visit.

That was a good episode too, was just on tv, repeats

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

I like that Homer bet on Lisa losing and won. Because what happened before with the spelling B contest, she lost the final match.

The best sight gag was "ILSA", the disappointed German girl after the Simpsons reseated so their shirts spelled "LISA".

 

[Siwilliams]

The couch gag was good too. I wonder if it wad related to the episode with Sideshow Bob in Italy

 

[Siwilliams]

DAMN! The Simpsons is not on next week, I was hoping for a Thanksgiving episode