REVIEW: E Pluribus Wiggum

Topic: Sometimes the voices tell me to change the topic.

Users: @SuzyQ

irc.simpworks.com

[Stretch Dude]

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Firstly, I liked the couch gag. Long, but amusing. I also enjoyed the first act's use of one of the Awesomest Songs Ever.

Act 1 took a while to get to the point, but Act 2 made up for lost time. Jon Stewart's surprisingly lengthy cameo, the media glut, the boring candidates, Homer's think tank, Clinton... Some funny stuff here. Ralph's victory came about pretty much exactly how I pictured it would, but I ain't complainin'.

Loved Act 3, and how Lisa was the only one who saw the sheer illogic of the whole situation. And I liked how both parties were spoofed, as well as the callback to "I Love Lisa." And the ending...since there's a whole "Ralph in '08" thing going on, I shouldn't be surprised that the episode doesn't come to a quick-and-tidy conclusion, but I am. I'm also surprised that Ralph is smarter than he looks.

Vote Wiggum!

Favorite joke:

Bill Clinton: *on a cell phone* Honey, how many more of these signs do I have to put up? *holds phone away from his ear; yelling can be heard* 25?! What'd I ever do to you to deserve this? *louder yelling* You're never gonna let that go, are you?

[Kiyosuki]

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I'm also surprised that Ralph is smarter than he looks.

Someone and I elsewhere once joked that maybe Ralph has supersanity. lol The whole "he's more than he seems" thing's been subtly hinted at a lot over the show's history, I like to think he's meant to be more one of those very "different" kids who's kind of not in the same world as everyone else, and certainly not a retard like some think. That's what makes him fun.

Well it wasn't what I was expecting. They advertised that this was Ralph-centric like crazy but he only comes literally in the last three minutes of the episode. So...I feel a bit dissapointed over that. I was looking forward to seeing how his Dad would take it all, or maybe even Quimby. Maybe see a little bit of the emnity between those two again over it but they barely appear too. It's really more a 20 minute political agenda venting using this show's setting and characters as a disguise than a full blown episode. It's even very 4th wall...from Jon telling Krusty he'll "remember him like he used to be", to Homer making tones of out of show self references, to Ralph winning Lisa over to his side and all that stuff in the end just like that. It's really almost more a message about the upcoming election than a story or even a satire.

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Some of the political humor was pretty eye rolling, it really doesn't seem to be one of this show's strengths now. There were some other pretty funny moments though, a few of the jokes were very funny I thought. Cheap, and not too cleverly written but for what they were...the episode wasn't very subtle about what it was.

So the jokes themselves were pretty good...enough I think to save it from the episode's pretty painful meandering pace a bit. It really wasn't an episode about Ralph which is a real letdown for me since he's my favorite character, but I guess it was...ok.