Simpsons Did It!: “Trust But Clarify”

I…I…I don’t know what to make of this one.

I’ve complained in the past about episodes co-written by Dan Castellaneta being largely subpar.  This one was written by Castellaneta’s co-star Harry Shearer.  And it wasn’t bad.  In fact, parts of it were rather amusing.  It’s just none of the plots seemed to work well together.

There were three.  The least of them showed Homer deciding to dress better to try and get a promotion.  The very thought of a make-over excites Marge, but it turns out dressing for the job you want doesn’t work on Mr. Burns.

Then there were the other two.  One had Krusty releasing a new candy shrimp (just roll with it), and it’s actually good.  But there are no ingredients listed, and Lisa finds an odd side effect after tasting one, so she and a reluctant Bart go to the factory where it isn’t organically made.  Nope, it’s made by robots.  And it’s full of Formaldehyde.  That can’t be good.  Actually, it isn’t good.  Like, at all.

And the final plot had Kent Brockman make up a Brian Williams-like story about wartime reporting while on Jimmy Fallon’s talk show (not really Fallon’s voice).  Why is a local newsman on a national talk show?  I don’t know.  He gets fired and depressed, where it takes weird, folksy sayings from guest star Dan Rather to take Lisa’s candy story and get his job back.

And that’s, well, that’s what happened.

I think I need to lie down for a while.