The Simpsons: Girls Just Want to Have Sums

(S17E19) "Honey, you're just as smart as a man. Sometimes when I'm with you I feel like I'm doing it with a dude." --Homer, to Marge

Last night's episode grew on me slowly. To quote Lisa from an early episode, it started off kind of "meh" but by the end I was drawn into its hysterical appraisal of both sexes and their inherent flaws. The Itchy and Scratchy musical at the beginning had some moments that cracked me up, but spoofing the Lion King musical seems like an idea whose time had passed long ago.

After Principal Skinner's clumsy praise for the play's director, a woman who also went to school at Springfield Elementary, he's accused of being sexist. The woman (voiced by Francis McDormand) takes over the school and divides it in half, boys on one side, and girls on the other. The girls' side is immaculate, complete with fountains, Muzak, and paintings by famous women. The boys' side, however, is a lawless dystopia where fights break out at the drop of a hat, and, according to one shot of the playground, some unknown sap had his head smashed with the see-saw. Lisa loves her new school, but soon realizes she won't actually be learning anything because all the girls talk about is how the numbers make them feel. Determined, she dresses herself up as a boy and gives herself a name no one would ever expect is fake: "Jake Boyman." Of course, everyone calls him/her "Toilet," a name Bart bestows on her before he finds out it's really Lisa.

I've said elsewhere that often these new episodes need time to sink in. Now that we're seventeen seasons in, it's not always fair to judge the episodes on just one viewing, or to expect them to immediately floor us as they might have when the show was in its early years. I loved how "guns" became a recurring theme on the boys' side, such as Nelson drawing a picture of a gun made out of guns, and of course the obligatory "finger gun" shoot out that breaks out on the playground, which Lisa gleefully joins. At this point, familiarity has diluted the impact of certain gags that would have killed years ago, but despite that, I think The Simpsons still remains one of the sharpest programs on television.