Simpsons Review: "So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show"

Happy April Fools' Day, all! It's been a while since I've written a review of a Simpsons episode, and with today being the aforementioned holiday, I just have to talk about this episode. It's a landmark episode, in more ways than one, so let's get to it.

It's April Fools' Day in the episode, and no one is more excited than Homer, who plays a bunch of pranks on Bart--including putting tape over Bart's eyes, and giving Bart milk that was left on the radiator for six weeks. Blech. Bart vows to get Homer back, and that prompts Lisa to tell how April Fool's Day began. We get a flashback of the Simpsons portraying a pagan family celebrating New Year's Day on April 1 (which used to begin the New Year until the Christian changed the calendar). As Lisa stated, the Christians would ridicule those who didn't change their calendar, and they (portrayed by the Flanders family) did so by giving a wrapped gift of rubber snakes to the pagans.

Bart remained set on payback on Homer, and after overhearing Homer say that beer was his weakness, and that he would have been "quite the fool" if that can was shaken. That's all Bart needed to hear. Bart takes that can of Duff to a hardware and uses a paint can shaker to really shake up that Duff. The result is a very unstable can that is set to blow, but that's Phase One. Phase Two is getting Homer parched enough to get him to the fridge. Making the house about as hot as Death Valley in July will do it. With the thermostat up all the way, a sweaty Homer heads to the fridge and takes out the can and opens it.

Bart is unable to complete the "April Fools!" exclamation, as the result is a big explosion that is noticed by Chief Wiggum, who only runs out when he's told that the explosion is beer-related. Homer is hospitalized and in a wheelchair as a result of the explosion, and Dr. Hibbert notes that Homer's suffered many different blows to the head, and this is where we get clips from a number of past episodes, with the clips showing those blows to the head. The erratic brain waves are explained via the "Shock Therapy" clip from Season One's "There's No Disgrace Like Home," and Marge tries to suggest that Homer could have been affected by that time he kept falling off the cliff (the Springfield Gorge scene from Season Two's "Bart the Daredevil").

After the veterinarian from Season Three's "Dog of Death" is recognized, the family gathers around Homer and they talk about how much he and they have survived (via clips from "The Call of the Simpsons" and the first "Treehouse of Horror"). Homer's visited by Moe and Barney, with the former giving him a beer, but Homer--still having PTSD from the explosion--trembles in fear. It's followed by Barney incapacitating Homer with a pillow, and then he picks up a water fountain, smashes a window, and runs for help--apparently.

"He really needs a girlfriend," says Moe.

Homer worries that he may end up permanently incapacitated, but Marge says that their marriage has survived worse, which is followed by the memorable end clip from Season One's "Life on the Fast Lane." The doctors try to get Homer to walk, but to no avail, though a chocolate candy machine gets Homer up and about. His attempt to get the candy sees the machine fall on him, followed by various candy bars falling into his mouth. While Homer still somehow delights in the sweet taste, this occurrence puts Homer in a coma. Grampa Simpson visits, humorously saying that he's been in and out of comas all the time, and says that it's not painful, adding that one relives long lost summers and kisses girls from high school.

"It's like one of those TV shows that shows clips from old episodes," Grampa says.

Magical. That line is pure magic.

Anyway, Mr. Burns enters and attempts to pull the plug on Homer to save money, but Dr. Hibbert stops him, but Dr. Nick Riviera appears with a second opinion. The second opinion: no signs of life, pull the plug. Burns does, but Marge plugs it back in and asks how Burns can be so cold.

"You have no idea, woman, what that man's put me through," Burns says, right before a clip from "Dog of Death" showing Homer asking Burns for money to help an ailing Santa's Little Helper is played.

Lisa visits, fretting over not being close, but mentioning that there were times they connected, leading to a clip from Season Two's "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blowfish," where Homer asks Lisa play her sax for her. Lisa does so in the present day as well, and afterwards, Bart appears and admits that he has been a troubled kid, but voices his gratitude to Homer for always being there for him (as we see in various clips, incluing the shaving lesson from the aforementioned Season Two episode). It's followed by Bart confessing to shaking up that beer can and causing the explosion as a prank. That, slowly, gets Homer out of his coma to give Bart the "Why, you little!" response.

So Homer's back, and he tells his family that they're going to Hawaii, but laughs and reveals it's an April Fools' joke, saying it's still April Fools day for two more minutes. However, Lisa tells her father that it's May 16, and that he had been in that coma for seven weeks. Homer is also told that he lost 5% of his brain.

"Me lose brain? Uh-oh!"

The family has a good laugh afterwards, but Homer wonders, "Why I laugh?" Why, indeed.

"So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show," was the 18th episode of Season Four of the series, and aired 33 years ago today--April 1, 1993. Regarding the title, the writers had to make the series' overall 77th episode a clip show because they spent Season Four being quite overworked. The series managed to celebrate April Fools' Day with the first half of the episode, as well as the airdate, but the second half was still a nice mixture of dramatic/humorous moments, mixed in with clips of episodes from the prior three seasons. This was the series' first clip show, and while I do love the episode, my actual favorite clip show is the "All Singing, All Dancing" episode that aired five seasons later.

Now, I have to talk about this. The episode has been the center of a long-running, overly repeated theory by Simpsons fans, and you know what I'm talking about. For the last 10 years, fans of the show look back at this episode and claim that while it did end with Homer out of the coma, he's actually still in it. The episodes that have aired since then have seen some wild storylines, and have seen the family (especially Homer) encounter a lot of big celebrities. The fans believe that everything that we've seen on the show since that episode is a long coma-induced fever dream from Homer. I've never believed that. A near 35-year-long coma fever dream? Come on.

This was one hell of an episode; again, I loved how the first half centered on April Fools' Day, and then it took that turn to the true core of the episode's storyline--the aftermath of Bart's prank. The clips were well used, and we even got bonus material from "Bart the Daredevil." This was truly one of the best Simpsons episodes ever, and it truly made the series the iconic landmark show that it is.