Simpsons Did It!: “A Midsummer’s Nice Dream”

Aw crap.  I never really like episodes co-written by Dan Castellaneta and his wife.  They always seem so lackluster, and we get stuff like Barney quitting drinking or Homer getting roasted for some reason as an excuse to run a clip show.

Wait, why is Lisa playing a trumpet during the opening credits?

Actually, this one wasn’t so bad.  Cheech and Chong, played by guest stars Cheech and Chong, are coming back to Springfield where they got their start as some straight-laced weathermen until the police burned a pile of confiscating marijuana outside the studio and they discovered  the joys of pothead humor.

Homer’s all happy, but Bart doesn’t know who they are.  Homer’s explanation that they were Homer’s generation’s Beavis and Butthead doesn’t mean much because Bart doesn’t know who those guys are either.  And playing the album doesn’t do much for Bart or Lisa either.

He and Marge still take the kids to the show, a show everyone except a very tall man seems to enjoy thanks to a mysterious cloud wafting through the audience.

But there’s a problem.  Chong ain’t happy doing the old standbys, what with the fact he’s over 70 and still doing stoner comedy.  He wants to experiment and do more.  As such, super-fan Homer has to leap in and take Chong’s place since he knows all the lines.  That leads to Homer going on tour with Cheech as part of a new act called “Cheech and Chunk”.

Meanwhile, Chong holds auditions for a new partner and chooses the least funny man he can find in the form of Principal Skinner since that’s the experimental way to go in his new pairing called “Teach and Chong”.

While all this is going on, Marge finds out the Crazy Cat Lady is a hoarder and opts to help her by sending her to see Cats while a team of cleaners fixes the woman’s house (and, incidentally, her mind).  But then Marge opts to keep the stuff for some reason.

The long and the short of it is Homer hates working with Cheech since it’s actual work and not just stoner fun.  He expects this when he’s promised a reward:

Instead, he goes to a Latino cultural museum.  Not the same thing.  Chong loved that stuff.

Well, Homer needs to help the family for a change, and he manages to get the Crazy Cat Lady to reclaim her stuff and to get Cheech and Chong to make up.

And then, given the title, Bart comes out for some iambic pentameter as Puck.

And that was that.  Dave’s still not here.