Simpsons Did It!: “Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife”

Is Ricky Gervais funny?  Your opinion on his effectiveness as a comedian may affect your enjoyment of this episode where he does a guest appearance.

Also, the opening credits were live action instead of animated, so that was going on.

Lenny’s having a party, and there ain’t no party like a Lenny party.  It looks like every adult in town is there aside from Cletus and Brandine since they fear elevators.  What’s the occasion?  Lenny just got a big plasma screen TV.  Good luck getting Homer out of your house now, Lenny.

Seriously, good luck.  Homer stays on Lenny’s couch for a few days just soaking in the plasma screen goodness.  Finally thrown out, Homer goes home.  The Simpsons can’t really afford a plasma screen TV, but Marge enters a contest to get one.  The Simpsons don’t win it, but they do get a handful-of-expenses paid tour of the Fox Studio in Los Angeles, where Homer can taunt Tracy Ullman Show cast member Dan Castellanetta.  While there, Homer learns of a new reality show (one Lisa points out was based on an idea stolen from another network) that will get the family enough money to buy a plasma screen TV.  What sort of show is?  A wife swap show, where Marge will go live with another family for a period and the wife from that family will move in with Homer and the kids.

Marge actually agrees to go along with this which is good, because otherwise there’s no show.

So, a snooty English woman named Verity comes to live with Homer and the kids.  She was the youngest professor ever granted tenure at Yale.  Her sad sack husband Charles (Gervais) is so beaten down by life, he doesn’t even know who his son Ben’s real father is.  He’s narrowed it down to two guys.

So, while Verity makes Homer and Bart do homework based off the TV shows they watch to avoid whatever chores they’ve been given, or just takes to burning all of Homer’s underpants for some reason, Charles is having a good time because Marge is actually both interested in what he does as an office manager (he works in an Office, huh?), but she’s actually nice to him.  That never happens, so he falls for Marge.

Marge turns him down.  She loves Homer.  Heck, even Charles admits there’s something charismatic about Homer.  So, he returns with Marge to Springfield, intending to tell Verity off.

He’s too late.  She wants a divorce.  Now she’s seeing Patty.  They get along just fine out of a mutual hatred of Homer.

Well, that shattered one man, but Homer got that plasma screen TV out of it, so I guess it worked out…