Tommy Collison

Twitter’s great. I knew of people’s reaction to the new Simpsons episode in real time! Now, why should I care about this particular Simpsons episode? Because the Simpsons went to Ireland!

Yup! The simpsons traveled to the Emerald Isle, also known as Potato Land, also known as the Land of Poetry, also known as the land of Bad Poetry.

Even from the short snippet above, you can understand what sort of episode this was. A good, old-fashioned sent up of the Irish.

We’ll start at the very beginning, which, as it turns out, is a very good place to start. When you read you begin…

The Simpsons begin by going to a gardening expo, where they spot a hot-tub. They all make up enough reasons to buy it and it’s the new greatest thing in the world. They spend night and day in this tub, and forego everything else, including that envelope on the fridge marked “Urgent”.

Turns out, that envelope contained details of an event at the Springfield Retirement Home, the exact details of which escape me. A kind of sports day, anyway.

The Simpsons are a no-show and Grandpa is very annoyed. He comes around to Evergreen Terrace, where The Simpsons are still relaxing and explains that when you’re an old fogey like him, every day counts. Embarrassed, the Simpsons agree to do something on Grandpa’s “things-to-do-before-you-die” list. The one they choose is “one last drink at O’ Flannigan’s pub”.

Where is O’ Flannigan’s pub? Where else would it be in an Irish themed episode? Yes! The land of bad poetry of course!

Tom O’ Flannigan’s pub has fallen into disarray, but Homer and Grandpa convince him to give them a drink, and, in a fit of Simpson drunkiness, they buy the pub.

The pub is now theirs, but still no customers. They ship over Moe the bartender, who explains that to be successful, one must offer something that no-one else gives?

So, Homer and Grandpa’s bar now allows smoking.

The pub is a hit until police break down the door and close the place down. Homer and Pops are deported by Mr. Potato head the judge.

Analyses

OK, The Simpsons haven’t been good since 2000, but one good thing that’s always remained is their fantastic ability to do quality send-ups.

One thing that stood out at me is that the episode is written for an American audience. Gardai (Irish police) are referred to as “police”. Not because the producers didn’t know, but purely because US audiences wouldn’t have gotten what they were talking about.

All the Irish accents were done by American actors too, which probably helped US audiences understand and enjoy the episodes. No-one in Ireland really speaks like that anymore, obviously.

The sub-plot, of Marge and the kids sight-seeing was good too. The Blarney Stone scene was true-Simpsons-style and the Giant’s Causeway joke with Q-Bert had me LOLing. (Sorry, nerdy moment!)

Overall, I found it quite enjoyable, which is what these things are meant to do. Since when is it a criteria of the Simpsons to be accurate? Never. They’re made to entertain us, and as far as John, Mum and Dad are concerned, they succeeded.