Simpsons Did It!: “Bart’s New Friend”

Well, here’s something…a guest writer.  Judd Apatow wrote the script for this one.

It can’t be any worse than the one that went up yesterday.

Don Bookner (guest star Stacy Keach) is retiring from the plant.  Who is he?  Homer is surprised to learn Don is the safety inspector for sector 7G.  You know, Homer’s job.  It turns out there’s two of them, and Don has been covering for Homer all this time.

Man, if this is what happens when someone is covering for Homer, I’d hate to see what would happen if no one did.

Actually, we soon find out as Homer is trying very hard to do his job right for once.  That means he’s tired and exhausted and Marge decides the thing to do is take him to the circus.  Why?  He says he’s never been since he was a kid, when Grampa tried to shield him from the tightrope breaking, an elephant trampling a guy to death, and $10 cotton candy.  Didn’t the family go to a French Canadian circus once?  Yes, actually.  Never mind that, Mr. Continuity.

But Homer can’t get good wifi in the circus and is mad about stacked parking, so the Simpsons leave the tent and Homer ends up in a hypnotists show.  His name is Sven Golly.  That’s actually kinda clever.  He manages to hypnotize Homer after Lisa tells him that hypnotism increases productivity.  She made that up.  Sven Golly makes Homer think he’s ten years old again, and before he can undo that, Chief Wiggum and the police show up to arrest him for using his hypnotism to get KISS into the Rock’N’Roll Hall of Fame.  Sven manages to hypnotize Wiggum and get away, but Homer still thinks he’s a kid, and Dr. Hibbert confirms that the same hypnotist needs to undo the damage or else it would make things worse.

Does that sound silly to you?  Well, it is.

That leads to weird situations, like how Homer won’t drink beer anymore, and he won’t share a bed with Marge but will with Bart instead, and Bart thinks Kid Homer is awesome.  Heck, Homer even listens to Lisa play the sax.  Heck, Homer plays along as Lisa plays the sax.  He dresses in adult-sized versions of Bart’s clothes, scares away bullies by seeming weird, and he and Bart are having tons of fun.

So, when Wiggum finally nabs Sven Golly with an anti-hypnotism task force (these cops all wore blindfolds), Bart decides to run off with Homer to enjoy his new friend who isn’t his horrible father.  That means a trip to Itchy and Scratchy Land, because why not?

But while Bart is having fun, Wiggum shows up with Marge and the tied-up Sven Golly who undoes Homer’s spell, but not before Marge puts in a request that Homer cuddle after snuggling instead of just falling asleep.  Yes, that is the only flaw of Homer’s she wants to correct.

One side effect there seems to be Homer no longer wants to strangle Bart, but instead hug him.

As for Sven Golly, he was locked up in a special plastic X-Men prison under the police station, where he played Wiggum at chess.  But he hypnotized Wiggum into thinking Sven was Wiggum and Wiggum was Sven, so Sven walked out and left Wiggum locked in the cell.

And then Loki showed up for some reason.