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| Not... not everyone enjoys the comic stylings of Ellen DeGeneres. |
Homer and Bart prepare Santa's Little Helper for an Ugliest Dog contest, but they just can't get the dog ugly enough, but Bart has a plan. The next day, tons of people attend said event, including Moe who can't get anybody to let him sit next to them. Krusty is the judge who is tasked with providing jokes depending on how ugly the dog is, but his jokes are old and he gets pretty tired of telling them during the contest. Moe takes a shot at the lethargic Krusty, and with the crowd behind him, Krusty lets Moe do the rest of the judging. Homer and Bart finish the contest with their entry: Santa's Little Helper's butt made to look like a really ugly face. Moe falls for it, after making a superb joke, and the two win the contest. The crowd, though, is only interested in Moe and how great of an insult judge he was.
Soon, Moe is invited to judge a crazy beard contest, but to make time Moe has to close down the bar. This leave Homer with plenty of time to spend at home with Marge. Marge is initially appreciative (though well aware why Homer is home), but when Homer starts tinkering around the house - poorly, Marge tries to come up with ways to occupy Homer. She tries taking him to a sports bar, but Homer doesn't really like it, and continues to stay at home. Grampa offers a more permanent solution: golf, but warns Marge that once he starts, he may never come back. Still, with Homer unwittingly causing more damage, Marge takes that chance.
The word on Moe's judging ability continues to grow, and soon he gets an offer to judge for one of FOX's many reality shows though by the time the FOX rep gets done naming them all, all of them are cancelled save one: American Idol. Moe agrees to help judge that and he gets flown to Hollywood. He meets Simon Cowell, who is impressed by Moe's insults. However, Simon offers a word of caution to Moe: if he sets himself up as the "mean judge", he'll become hated and lonely just like Simon has become. During the first airing of American Idol, Moe takes Simon's words to heart and instead of mocking the first singer, he gives her plenty of praise. The crowd seems okay with it, but as Simon goes on his usual rant against the singer, he also takes time to take a jab against Moe's judging. As the crowd rallies against Moe, Simon reveals that he wasn't about to give Moe a chance to upstage him in the mean judge competition. Guards take Moe away before he can stab Simon with a broken bottle.
Marge is ready to let Homer get hooked on golf, but after seeing an elderly man admit he barely knows his family thanks to golf, Marge reconsiders at the last second and prevents Homer from taking his first shot. Marge takes his mind off golf by making love to him, and by this time Moe has returned so Marge doesn't have to worry about Homer's presence anymore. The two attend Moe's grand reopening, and Moe tells everyone that he's now been banned from California for his actions, but on the plus side he's also banned from watching FOX, so the bar is as popular as ever now that he's only got NBC going on the TV, much to the delight of the 'actually-voiced-by-him' Rupert Murdock.
Quick Review
Learning that this episode was going to feature American Idol in some capacity, I feared the worst. Thankfully, those fears weren't realized as this episode isn't as bad as I thought it'd be, and its not as bad as it could've been. Simon Cowell provide another strong guest appearance, and the other judges from that show's particular season didn't do anything to detract from the episode (though Ellen did try). The subplot with Homer and Marge has its moments, and while its kinda odd to have another Moe-focused episode so soon, Moe brings a good amount of comedy to keep the episode decent.
Final Score: 7.2
