Simpsons Did It!: “McMansion & Wife”

Oh hey, someone else bought the house on the other side of the Simpson home.  How long ago did Ruth Powers move away?  I don’t even know.

Actually, this episode opens with a coach gag that involves Homer imagining himself the owner of a Lamborghini.  This car has everything Homer could ask for, like a jet that refuels it while he’s driving if he nearly runs out of gas and some glider wings in case he won’t get across Springfield Gorge again.  That leads him to almost hit Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (complete with a Dick Van Dyke cameo), but then he gets home and finds out there’s no food and the dog got sprayed by a skunk.  Then Homer wakes up and curses his imagination.

But hey, potential good news:  the Simpsons have new neighbors, and Marge says they have to get to know these folks fast before the other neighbors convince the new folks that the Simpsons are, well, the Simpsons.

As it is, the seemingly rich and hip couple there don’t mind Bart’s antics and hit it off with Homer and Marge right away, especially the husband with Homer.  And that man sells…Lamborghinis.

Oh my god!  He’s going to convince Homer to buy a car he can’ afford!

Wait, no he isn’t.

Is this guy on the level?  I mean, it would be a pretty lame episode if he was.  I’d have to focus more on the B-plot, where Nelson gets more vicious after some guy brings in some anti-bullying videos.  Nelson is even successfully beating on Skinner and Chalmers.  Bart is a major target, but then Lisa intervenes with a computer, uploading embarrassing videos of Nelson to the web if Nelson doesn’t back off.  That lasts until Nelson drafts (forcibly) his own computer expert in the form of Hubert Wong.  Then the fight mostly goes into one between Lisa and Hubert while Bart and Nelson just shrug and hit the see-saw together.  Lisa and Hubert eventually realize this won’t look good on their college applications, and that’s the end of that.

Oh, but then it turns out Homer signed something for his new buddy allowing them to loudly renovate their home with no known date to finish.  Homer’s efforts to get that fixed get him a bribe of a loaner Lamborghini, but that doesn’t work when a second floor blocks out the sun for the Simpson house and the air conditioner blows stuff into the Simpson yard.  About all Homer and Marge can do is sit there and grumble,  Grampa joins them because he’s an expert at that.  Is there nothing the Simpsons can do?

Yeah.  Hubert and Lisa learn the Simpson house is actually a historic landmark connected to Jebediah Springfield.  Even Homer can’t fix up his own house, and that suits him fine.  All he has to do is return the car in such a way as to ruin the new guy’s sales for the day, and Homer’s good at that sort of thing.

And in the future, the Simpson house is a museum where a filmreal of Jebediah Springfield shows him holding a baby that looks an awful lot like Monty Burns.

I think I’m done on that note…