The Review Nebula

“When you get a job interview, try not to call your employer a punk, or a skank.”  – Marge Simpson. Give this episode credit – we could take her advice here.

Airdate: November 28th, 1999

Written By: John Swartzwelder

Plot: A trip to a 50s kitsch diner lands Homer a motorcycle in a dance competition. Having learned to ride it, he decides to start up his motorcycle gang. They mainly serve to commit petty annoyances around town. But trouble starts when a biker gang with the same name as Homer’s gang comes into town, livid.

Review:

Season 11 of The Simpsons is a season that, quite frankly, doesn’t know what the hell it’s really doing so far.

On one hand, you have episodes such as “Eight Misbehavin”, “Days of Wine and Do’hses”, and “Alone Again, Natura-Diddily”. These episodes attempted to dramatically shift the status quo of one of the most iconic television franchises in all of history. However, most of these changes didn’t concern the immediate Simpson family. Which is fine, except that these episodes would ultimately mix in the Simpson family, by which I mean, Jerkass Homer would be welcomed into their lives despite oftentimes screwing things up royally. Besides that, these episodes couldn’t resist a lot of trappings of their contemporaries – attempts at seriousness and occasional social commentary were damaged by the inane plot twists, increasingly unsympathetic characterization of our protagonist, and the show losing grip of reality.

Then, of course, there are episodes that don’t really pretend to be about anything and tend to revolve more around stuff happening. They’re both equally bad – the “serious” episodes often befuddle (if not outright offend) me because of how poorly they measure up to their predecessors in Seasons 1-8, while the latter… well, they have no freaking structure at all.

Hence, “Take My Wife, Sleaze”, or as I like to call it, “We made Homer an artist and a director already, let’s make him a biker.”

Think about this for a minute. Homer. Trying to become a gang biker. These two things don’t feel like they match up in the Simpsons canon. This is not a new sentiment in this blog, but I find this example particularly fascinating. Like “Eight Misbehavin”, this episode has a plot that seems out of place in the grand scheme of The Simpsons. The issue here lies in how it treats our protagonist as a grand plot device, rather than as a character that can encounter situations based around his personality.

I mean, take “Deep Space Homer”, one of the more “out-there” episodes from the pre-Scully era. Homer didn’t go into space because of some arbitrary rationale. He entered space because NASA needed an Average Joe to boost TV ratings to save their space program, Barney disqualified himself thanks to his alcoholism, and he even confronted a sudden attack of nerves as he approached the Corvair. It’s all rooted in what his character was – an everyman who, despite his sloth and thoughtlessness, was a genuinely decent and relatable man who was just placed in a bizarre scenario that fit the mold for an agency looking for the almighty dollar. It could only work with Homer in the scenario.

Here? The Simpson clan goes to a 50s-themed Diner (which is at least a cute setpiece), competes with other townsfolk to win a dance-off, and wins the motorcycle. You could take almost every other character and do the same exact thing with them. Unfortunately, Homer has become the protagonist instead of the “family ensemble” that the show once utilized, so… yeah.

Not helping matters is that, while the first act is largely just an excuse to explore the setpiece and give Homer the bike, the second act is crammed full of plot, and much of it could have been pared down. I’m serious – the rationale for the conflict between Homer and the Biker Gang makes no sense. Even if you could buy the idea of Homer getting mixed up in a biker gang row, the execution doesn’t make much sense. He sees an old 50s movie on TV (think a pastiche of The Wild Ones) and is inspired to start his own gang, committing petty offenses along the way with his fellow members (only three of whom have motorcycles).

I guess Swartzwelder (what happened to you, man) was trying to harness the power of “Homer Goes to College”, in which Homer’s views of university life are inspired by an Animal House-inspired movie, only to face a more sober and academic atmosphere alongside some nerds. (By the way, we’ll be seeing them a bit later on in the season.) The difference there was that the whole atmosphere and the characters contrasted with Homer’s philosophy, and thus, allowed for contrast even in Homer’s more destructive moments there. (“Sir, six cinder blocks are missing from our construction site.” “There’ll be no hospital, then – I’ll tell the children.”) And even then, Homer never quite crossed into a malicious, obnoxious man, and even felt guilt over his actions in that episode.

Here? He manages to recruit his two best friends, Moe, and even Flanders into his petty gang (the latter has a rumpus room), and acts like a complete and utter jackal around town, all without any sort of repercussion or remorse. There’s no dramatic irony here – the world is practically enabling him, and most of the scenes don’t build to anything. And all of them share the simple fault that there is nothing sympathetic about Homer’s character here. I mean it – in any other show, he would’ve been punched out or ostracized for half of the stuff he pulls here.

The kicker? While “College” rebuked every idea that Homer had about university life, “Sleaze” proves him right by having a biker gang crash into his house (literally) and take over, claiming copyright infringement. They trash the place. Now, I will give the show credit here, as John Goodman and Henry Winkler do a great job as Meathook and Ramrod. They do get quite a few funny lines, and their performances are top-notch, giving an aura of naivete to their wanton insanity. That, and the show does showcase an intriguing partnership between the bikers and Marge, as she teaches them about the “outside” world. It’s just breakneck pacing to an insane degree that adversely impacts the episode.

The big conflict comes when Marge is kidnapped by the bikers, albeit not for purposes you would imagine. It’s strictly platonic – in fact, Marge winds up pulling a “Pygmalion”-esque transformation on them, turning them from a murderous gang into civilized members of society. And to be fair, I do like this. This is where the episode starts to approach the aforementioned “College”, as it starts to play with the biker-related tropes that one would find. It gives humanity to these one-note characters. And with this, it does feel like the episode is going to rebound.

Homer barges in and knocks them out. And when he announces his intent to take Marge back like an insolent child, Meathook challenges him to a duel that eventually escalates into a swordfight with motorcycles.

A swordfight with motorcycles.

And then Marge tosses a motorcycle up to Homer to give him an advantage.

There is so much wrong with the second half of Act Three that it almost becomes funny. Almost. I mean, not only is the character development of the bikers largely reset (although the last straw for Meathook is losing Marge), but the story tries to play Homer off as unironically heroic despite him being a petulant jackass willing to hire a mail-order bride to replace Marge in case the worst occurs for her. (He claims he doesn’t want to be lonely, but… come on.) In fact, after belittling and dehumanizing her, Marge helps him with the swordfight. This character has turned into a madman enabled by much of the world around him.

And we all know the big complaint most people (or at least, most obsessive fans such as myself) would have with this episode. The swordfight with motorcycles. This ending single-handedly tops the mole people and Homer being pulled to shore by an infant combined in terms of straight-up insanity. I do give it credit in that there was no attempt to combine this with gravitas (as in the suicide/mole people) or emotional resonance (as in being pulled to shore), but it’s still irritating to watch the show try and go for over-the-top endings – all without the ability to create convincing human emotion behind the actions.

“Take My Wife, Sleaze” was a debacle from beginning to end. A largely empty first act, a second act full of empty calories, and a third act that has a lot of noise but nothing to ground it – pretty much sums up the episode.

Tidbits:

• Ironic how this episode starts with a mockery of the Guinness Book of World Records, when at this point, making the record books is one of two reasons why The Simpsons is still making new episodes. The other is money. Heck, you could even consider spite, as well.
• Admittedly hilarious was how Greaser’s Cafe, “where the 50s are never going away”, financially collapsed within a month.
• All I have to say about that Wild Ones pastiche is simple… Red Dwarf did it far better.

Wrap-Up:

Zaniness Factor: 4.5. Do not try and swordfight with motorcycles.

Jerkass Homer Meter: 4. I can’t think of a single scene where Homer shouldn’t have been punched in the jaw.

Favorite Scene: I think Marge teaching the bikers good manners was quite delightful. That, and it was interspersed with Homer constantly getting kicked out of a bar, which amused me for the aforementioned reason.

Least Favorite Scene: Much as the motorcycle fight was just stupid, what sticks out more in my mind was Homer sending in a rather private picture of Marge to the motorcycle magazine. This one scene epitomizes just how the writers didn’t care to set boundaries for our protagonist, be it with the limits of his abilities or his rapidly eroding moral code.

Score: 3.5. Yes, this was worse than “Eight Misbehavin”.