The Simpsons 20x13: "Gone Maggie Gone" (SPOILERS)

[Christopher]

This was a fun one. I'm not familiar with The DaVinci Code, but I liked the puzzles for the audience, giving us something to think about over the act breaks. That's actually really cool. The first puzzle, the river-crossing one, is an old one so I didn't have to solve it so much as remember the solution. As for the second one, I had it figured out right after the commercial began, though I was worried for a moment when Lisa came up with a different answer. Alas, I couldn't figure out the third one; it was too long an anagram to work out in two and a half minutes.

But get this -- during the break, I decided to enter the phrase into the Internet Anagram Server to see if it could provide any hints. I got back a message saying that its server use was too heavy to calculate any anagrams "longer than 0 letters." I realized the server must've been overloaded by thousands of Simpsons viewers typing in the same phrase at the same time!

I thought for a moment that I'd caught a mistake when they referred to the first full moon after a solar eclipse. Naturally, the moon is new during a solar eclipse, so it wouldn't be full until two weeks later. But then I realized -- the morning after the full moon, Marge's bandages came off her eyes, and didn't Dr. Hibbert say the bandages would have to be on for two weeks? So miracle of miracles, a television show's writers actually got basic astronomy right!

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

It was decent.

The ending was typical out-there stuff that they no longer constrain to Halloween shows and the like, but still amusing.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I was sort of aghast at the whole episode. It had the weird, drugged out quality that The Simpsons had in the 2000-2003 period, only it was funny this time. I mean, seriously, roll on the floor funny. The whole Rube Goldberg machine inside the pipe organ had me in stitches. I couldn't believe I was seeing this. And the bit about the secret Freemason conspiracy with Franklin, Washington, and George III was hilarious. What was it Skinner said, "They faked a revolution"?

I loved it.

 

[Sephiroth]

did anyone else get the cut-down opening?

 

[Christopher]

Come to think of it, it would've been nice if they'd had a bit of continuity and used the Stonecutters from that old episode instead of the Freemasons.

 

[Praetor]

It was decent.

The ending was typical out-there stuff that they no longer constrain to Halloween shows and the like, but still amusing.

Come to think of it, it would've been nice if they'd had a bit of continuity and used the Stonecutters from that old episode instead of the Freemasons.

Seconded, to both.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Yeah, but all three of those historical figures were Free Masons, so I'll cut them a little slack there.

 

[Mr Light]

This was the first episode of this batch to underwhelm me... I mean really, they're just now doing the DaVinci Code? That is SO old. That's like doing an episode about OJ Simpson being innocent/guilty

 

[Christopher]

Yeah, but all three of those historical figures were Free Masons, so I'll cut them a little slack there.

Given all the other historical inaccuracies in this one, what's one more?

This was the first episode of this batch to underwhelm me... I mean really, they're just now doing the DaVinci Code? That is SO old.

Animation takes a long time to produce. It's not really practical to be topical.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Yeah, but all three of those historical figures were Free Masons, so I'll cut them a little slack there.

Given all the other historical inaccuracies in this one, what's one more?

Weren't they intentional?

 

[Rygel XIX]

Wow. Last night's episode entertained me like the Simpson's used to! I had given up on it several years ago. How long has it been good again? The Simpson's has once again been must-see TV for me.

 

[Christopher]

Yeah, but all three of those historical figures were Free Masons, so I'll cut them a little slack there.

Given all the other historical inaccuracies in this one, what's one more?

Weren't they intentional?

So is what I'm proposing.

 

[Praetor]

Burns was also less eccentric and more evil than he's been being. That made me happy.

And since 'Angels and Demons' is coming out soon, it's still rather topical.

 

[Mr Light]

The book came out in 2003... six years ago. The movie came out in 2006... three years ago. I thought the production cycle on the Simpsons was one year?

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Given all the other historical inaccuracies in this one, what's one more?

Weren't they intentional?

So is what I'm proposing.

Well, no. One is done as an intentional misrepresentation to get laughs. The other is just to changed the name of an organization to reference something in the past (but at the same time, kill the joke about the fact that they were all but of the same organization).

 

[Praetor]

Eh, Mr. Light? I meant the 'Angels and Demons' movie.

 

[Sephiroth]

and they are still doing DaVinchi code-esque movies, I chuckled as the first commercial shown was for that movie "knowing" and aren't they doing two more national treasure movies?

 

[Praetor]

I'm pretty sure you're right, there, Sephiroth.

 

[Mr Light]

I meant DaVinci not Angels. I guess it could have been timed for Angels... I don't remember the book well enough now, was that the one with the backwards written Illuminati thing?

 

[Praetor]

Yep.