Large Marge (S14, E04-295)

Even the women are captivated by the magumbos.

Plot Summary
After losing a bet to Lisa, Homer spends time with Lisa by building homes somewhere.  Giving Lisa a replication of his wedding ring so that it doesn't get paint on it, Homer attracts the attention of some desperate single women.  Marge catches him seemingly showing off to them (though he's really just roleplaying Marge giving birth to Bart), and starts to wonder if she isn't as attractive as she used to be.  Manjula furthers this thought by making Marge realize she's gotten a bit fat in certain places, and shoves Marge over to a doctor's office to get some liposuction, all before Marge can really figure out that, hey, exercise could've done the trick as well.  The doctors botch the operation, though, by accidentally giving Marge breast implants meant for Mayor Quimby's mistress instead.  Marge is furious over this, and has to wait 48 hours before she can have them removed.

Meanwhile, Bart and Milhouse are watching an episode of the 60s Batman show, where they find out that Krusty the Klown was a villain in the show: Clownface.  Clownface traps the dynamic duo in a spinning carousel of death, and they decide to emulate it at school under the belief they'll be okay because Batman and Robin were okay afterward.  After the attempt at school goes horribly wrong, Bart pins the blame on what he saw Krusty do, and Principal Skinner decides to direct his outrage at Krusty.  A media firestorm erupts, and Krusty is forced to do lame, non-emulatable acts of safety on his show, which troubles Bart further.

Homer finds out about Marge's new 'equipment' in a rather fun way, and decides to have the family go out for dinner.  Through the ever-powerful means of song, Marge begins to like her enlargements, and she's not the only woman to think that either: a manager for a modeling company invites Marge to model for this and that, and Marge willingly accepts.  She enjoys the work at first, but the combination of those ever leering eyes from perverts, combined with her newfound back spasms due to her added weights, and Marge begins to reconsider her decision.

Bart decides to help Krusty's career get back on track.  At the shoe expo, he plans on having his old pet elephant, Stampy, 'crush' Milhouse while Krusty comes in and says a magic word: "magumbo", which puts Stampy in a harmless state.  At the same time, Marge is modeling at the shoe expo where her back pains and the howls from shoe vendors don't improve any.  Krusty goes in to 'save the day' for Milhouse, but forgets the safety word.  Stampy panics and puts Milhouse, then Bart and eventually Homer in its mouth.  The police arrive to shoot Stampy, probably injuring the three in the process.  Marge sees this and desperately thinks of a way to stop the police, resorting to what she believes is her only option: distracting everyone by baring her 'large Marges' to everyone.  The ploy works: not only are the police distracted, but in describing what he's seeing, Krusty remembers the word "magumbo" is able to get Stampy to release the three.  Krusty is returned to hero status, and Marge decides to have her implants removed.

Quick Review
This episode started off pretty promising.  I particularly liked the Batman skit, with Adam West and Burt Ward appearing to reprise their old roles.  However, the episode's humor slows down when the plot focuses on Marge for awhile, and the Krusty sideplot fades away.  The two plots combine at the end, but the oddities that comprise the ending (the unexpected return of Stampy, Marge's desperate plan, that song that plays during the credits), really don't work out for me.

Final Score: 7.2

Bart Gets an Elephant (S05, E17-098)

You can tell its just playing because it hasn't bitten down yet.

Plot Summary
With the house an absolute mess, Marge forces the family to clean it up, much to everyone's dismay.  Bart tries to pass the time by listening to the radio, where he overhears a contest where people are called and have to reply with a certain phrase.  Eventually, the station calls the house and Bart is able to pick up and give the reply.  As the winner, Bart is supposed to win either $10,000 or a "gag prize", an elephant.  Caring not for currency, Bart opts for the elephant, making a big fuss when the radio guys can not provide him one.  Facing the loss of their jobs, they finally do find and give Bart an elephant.

The elephant, whom Bart calls "Stampy" tends to put people in his mouth and is an overall nuisance to peanut giveaways, trees and silence enthusiasts throughout town.  More importantly, keeping Stampy is a massive drain on the Simpsons' finances.  Bart eventually gives Homer the idea to have people pay $1 to see the elephant and $2 to ride it, but the profits are not nearly enough to compensate.  Homer decides that he has to sell the elephant.  A man from a nature preserve offers Stampy a chance to be with other elephants in a free-roam environment, but as he can not offer any money, Homer declines the offer much to Lisa's disdain.  Instead, Homer agrees to sell Stampy to a guy who probably deals in ivory.  Fearing the worst, Bart decides to run away with Stampy, but Stampy runs loose, leaving Bart to chase after him.

With Bart and Stampy missing, the family goes to look for them.  Stampy causes havoc throughout town as the day progresses, but by night it settles at a tar pit where Bart finds him as does the family.  Homer still plans to sell him to the ivory dealer, but as he finds himself sinking into a tar pit, Stampy is able to rescue him.  His life saved, Homer finally relents and Stampy goes to live at the nature preserve where we find out that after the life Stampy has lived, its become a big jerk.

Quick Review
Another rather silly premise this season, the episode really works out very well.  The cleaning plot to set up the episode works very well, and the antics of the elephant are funny enough to sustain the rest of the episode.

Final Score: 9.0