Review: The Simpsons – “Simprovised”

The Simpsons just can’t seem to catch a break.

Spoilers Below

Homer, for some reason, has to give a speech at work. When he freezes on stage, he begins to feel like a loser. To cheer him up, Marge takes him to the local comedy club, which happens to have an improv group on stage. Homer falls in love with the way the improv actors are able to work off the cuff. He ends up taking an improv class, where he finds out that he is a natural. With Lisa at his side, he forms his own successful improv troupe. However, when the group gets invited to perform at a fringe festival, Homer starts to get stage fright again. Moe offers to feed him ideas from the audience, which horrifies Lisa. On stage, Homer begins to freak out but ends up finding his confidence again. The audience loves his performance.

Meanwhile, Bart is feeling some treehouse envy. Marge offers to fix up his old treehouse but Bart isn’t convinced a woman can do it right. Amazingly, Marge builds an awesome treehouse. She overhears Bart telling Milhouse that he doesn’t need to thank his mother because this is her job. Marge, rightfully, gets upset. Instead of coming out and reprimanding Bart, she passive aggressively nags at him during dinner. When she finally says that she is mad at Bart, Marge ends up sending Homer to talk to the boy. But all Homer does is give Bart a standard “I’m sorry” speech, showing the boy isn’t really sorry.

While I liked Homer’s storyline, I was a little perturbed by the Bart and Marge storyline. Once again, Marge’s feelings are pushed aside for one of the men in her life. Instead of truly being sorry and offering a sincere apology, Bart brings her a breakfast with a speech that Homer keeps in a box for when Marge is mad. How misogynistic. You would think that, after all these years, the writers would treat their female characters better.