(S18E18) Well, what do you know, Mickey Mantle did used to do commercials for Maypo. Thanks, Rich Texan!

In general, I liked this episode. At least, it had a lot more laugh-out-loud moments for me than last week's episode. I don't think the town has turned on Bart so savagely since that time he cut the head off the Jebediah Springfield statue. I thought the absurdity of everyone getting upset over children's sport made it even funnier. I also loved how, in the end, a picket sign that reads "Bart Sucks" lowers and then raises again with the phrase "We're Sorry."

I suppose the "mob mentality" thing has been done many times on The Simpsons, and the town has gotten worked up over sports before, but those moments in this episode were still pretty funny: everyone cheering Bart's butt and cheering even more when they're pelted with eggs. I know people accuse the show of repeating itself, but there's a difference between rehashing the same jokes (which the show has done in the past) and coming up with new ways to show how the characters never really stray from their true selves.

I thought perhaps the scene where Bart paints "I Hate Bart Simpson" all over town might have had more of an emotional weight to it, giving the episode that nice funny/emotional balance that is the stuff of all the best Simpsons episodes, but clearly this episode was meant to be played mostly for laughs. I'm going to give it a 5 out of 7.

Some favorite moments:

• Bart tearing down his J. Geils Band posters, and the fact that J. Geils is his favorite band for some reason
• Elanor Roosevelt becoming ugly when a baseball smacks her face
• Reverend Lovejoy's wife carrying him out to the car and placing him on top of the mattress on the car
• The hobo watching Marge and Homer making love on top of their car (the same hobo who watched them on their honeymoon)
• The announcer at the fake ball game describing God as, "the invisible giant you turn to when you're about to die."

Oh yeah, the homage to Charlie Brown when Bart's clothes fly off when he's nailed with a line drive made this lifelong Peanuts fan very happy.