Gump Roast (S13, E17-286)

Its okay, its a clip show, nobody thinks its canon anyway.

Plot Summary
In an obvious nod to Forrest Gump, Homer (dressed as Forrest, mostly) tells Chief Wiggum (there to arrest him for movie impersonation) some of his life's story shown via clips.  Before he can get far, his family arrives to take him to a secret location.  As it turns out, Homer is taken to a roast in his honor.

At the roast, more clips are shown chronicling Homer's life while a few jokes are made at Homer's expense.  After awhile, though, the aliens Kang and Kodos burst in through the ceiling.  They've been observing humanity and will decide whether to let the planet live or die based on Homer's memory.  Viewing a rather biased set of clips of Homer being an angry brute, they decide to destroy humanity.  However, Lisa convinces the two to see Homer through the memories of an innocent child: Maggie.  They agree, but are only more outraged by the few compassionate clips they see, actually vomiting through their eyes.  However, Maggie continues to 'remember', this time recalling several guest stars from the past few seasons.  The aliens remember they like celebrities and spare the planet under the necessity to keep those stars alive, with the sole condition that they get tickets to the People's Choice Awards.  Afterwards, a rather cryptic montage concludes the episode, promising viewers they've got "stories for years" (including one, which I'm sure was a joke at the time, where Grampa marries Patty and Selma which partly becomes an actual episode).

Quick Review
Gump Roast is the 5th and, up through Season 24, final clip show of the series, a clip show that mostly references episodes from Mike Scully's run (Seasons 9-12).  This clip show doesn't try to hide the fact that its a clip show, showing the first clip just a couple of minutes in, nor does it try to spruce up the clips in some kind of special (like the 138th Spectacular), or within the confines of a normal episode's plot (like the other three).

Comparing this to the other clip shows, its better than the love-themed one from Season 6, but that's more of a 'better by default' thing.  Otherwise, this clip show is mostly unspectacular.  The clips barely had any context (and in some instances no context at all), and the scenes with Kang and Kodos in the latter half of the episode seemed like a throwaway "yeah, whatever" bit that served only to find some excuse to shove in more clips.  It just makes for an episode not really worth watching.

Final Score: 6.4

All Singing, All Dancing (S09, E11-189)

"Gonna paint your wagon, gonna paint it fine.
Gotta use oil-based paint, 'cause the wood is piiiine."

Plot Summary
Homer and Bart return from the video store, video stores still being profitable at the time.  Despite Marge and Lisa's recommendations, the two men rented a movie they would rather enjoy: a shoot 'em up western.  However, they are unaware that the movie they rented, Paint Your Wagon, is actually a western-themed musical.  After seeing Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin sing and dance, a disgusted Homer stops the movie, openly wondering why a perfectly fine wagon tale had to be ruined with song.  Just then, Marge and Lisa help start up a song as well to try and prove to both Homer and Bart that not only do they like to sing and dance (using clips from previous episodes to show as much), but that the entire towns loves to as well (using clips from previous episodes to show as much).

After the first set of clips, Snake jumps in through an open window, planning to take the Simpsons hostage, however when they sing about their predicament, Snake can't handle it and leaves.  However, after the second batch of clips, Snake returns, having gotten a tune stuck in his head because of the Simpsons, and plans to shoot them to make it stop.  However, he forgot to load his gun, and leaves again to get some ammo.  After the final batch of clips, where Homer and Bart are convinced that musicals are not so bad (and not nearly as bad as when a long-running series does a cheesy clip show), Snake returns yet again to end his madness.  However, the family has finished up, and are no longer singing.  Snake no longer holds a grudge and takes his leave again.  Marge closes the window but then it gets shot at.  Snake then continues to shoot up anybody playing a song even during the credits.

Quick Review
All Singing, All Dancing is the fourth clip show of the series, and like the two that preceded it, this one comes with a theme: musicals.  The Paint Your Wagon scene to set up the clip show, I thought, was excellent, by far the best part of the episode.  I don't know who voiced Lee Marvin, but hearing him do his singing lines was just hilarious.  The continuous plot line involving Snake was a nice touch as well to break up the monotony of the clips.  The clips themselves were okay for the most part, but most of the episode's good will came from its new content.

Final Score: 8.5

The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular (S07, E10-138)

I wonder how many people looked like this when seeing Good Night for the first time.

Plot Summary
The episode acts like a special, with Troy presenting clips in some sort of order.  The first few clips are actually the full-length 'episodes' of the show that were featured on the Tracy Ullman Show, where The Simpsons originated from.  After that, Troy answers some letters that were mailed in, showing clips that may or may not show "Homer getting stupider" every season and the "real deal" with Mr. Smithers.

Then comes the true gem of the episode: deleted scenes.  The first few shown are nice, but then the last couple are fairly big: an alternate scene in Burns' Heir where Homer tries to retrieve Bart from Burns concludes not with Burns simply locking the door, but rather sicking a Richard Simmons robot on Homer before it goes haywire and blows up.  The other big set of clips occur from the conclusion of Who Shot Mr. Burns?, where its revealed that several scenes of different people shooting Burns (including those who weren't suspects, like Apu) were animated, and an entire ending where Smithers ended up shooting Burns was animated to prevent anybody from leaking the real ending where Maggie did it.  With those scenes revealed, the show ends with what everyone was waiting for: hardcore nudity, though most of it is just ass and more ass.

Quick Review
While this episode is a dressed up clip show, its still a very well dressed up clip show, one very much unlike the last effort where this one takes clips, some of which have never been aired, and wraps it up in a nice package presented by Troy McClure.  As a result we end up with a very strong episode.  The retrospect was, well, okay, but the deleted scenes at the end plus the portrayal of Matt Groening as some kind of right-winged nut were both well done.  Finding a way to get Troy McClure included in this was an excellent move as well.

Final Score: 8.9

Another Simpsons Clip Show (S06, E03-106)

FOX executive trying to convince producers a clip show is a good idea.png

Plot Summary
As the non-clip portion of the episode begins, Marge starts to wonder if classic romance has died, whether she and Homer, as adults, have failed to carry on those virtues to their children.  The next day, Marge gathers up the family in an attempt to teach them about the values of romance.  Failing to come up with a good example, she finally settles on that time she was nearly swooned by the bowler Jacques.  Homer, stunned by the revelation that Marge nearly had an affair, decides to vengefully reveal his near scandal when he found himself attracted to a new co-worker.  With neither story exactly giving off a romantic feel, Marge asks if anyone else has a romantic story.  Lisa, instead, offers another romantic tragedy: the time she gave Ralph a Valentine's Day card out of pity and he took it the wrong way.  Marge then has Bart recall a romantic memory that didn't end tragically: the time Bart was infatuated with the new girl next door, but then remembering that she had a boyfriend, Bart is left sad, hell, everyone is sad now.

Trying desperately to salvage the conversation, Marge tries to bring up other family related romances.  She almost brings up that time Selma got married, except that didn't go so well.  She then retells how her mom and Homer's dad almost sorta kinda hooked up.  With neither kid inspired, Marge gives up.  Homer, however, saves the day as he does have a story of a romance with a happy ending: the story of how he and Marge got together.  Recalling kiss after kiss, the two share a few more with the kids having left over the incoming PDA.

Quick Review
Its time for another one of these episodes.  Unlike the last clip show, where the episode still had an original and even somewhat creative plot with several brand new jokes and good use of clips, this one pretty much just mails it in.  This episode ties in not just clips, but segments of entire episode premises under a romance theme and it just... doesn't work.

Since this clip show was centered around romantic encounters, the chances for good jokes either new or old ended up being quite limited.  All said and done, this has been the worst episode of the show thus far, 106 episodes in.

Final Score: 5.8

So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show (S04, E18-077)

Insert some kind of "Bartbeat" in place of "heartbeat" joke here.

Plot Summary
In what is generously called an episode, Homer keeps messing around with Bart on April Fools Day.  Determined to get back at Homer, Bart investigates to determine Homer's weakness.  Learning quite easily that beer is that weakness, and that a shaken can of beer can make one look quite the fool, an April Fool as it were, Bart takes a can of beer and shakes it up hardcore at a paint store.  Homer eventually goes to open the can up, but before Bart can declare the joke, the can blows up, and Homer is knocked out.

At the hospital, while the clips start coming in, its learned that Homer may never walk again.  Attempts to help him do so seemingly fail, however Homer sees a candy machine and, after reminiscing about that land of chocolate, is able to walk to it.  However, the machine gives him difficulty and after Homer shakes it around, it falls on him, ironically choking him with bars of chocolate.

Now in a coma, the family has a moment with Homer.  Bart, in grief, admits to his unconscious father that he set up the can, that it was all an April Fools joke.  Having heard it in his coma, Homer is able to wake up, and choke the boy in rage.  With his miraculous recovery, Homer tries to pull one last joke on the family, except its May 16th and Homer had to lose 5% of his brain.  Good times.

Quick Review
As the title implies, this is the first of a few clip shows featured in the series, finally happening after 76 episodes.  As such, I find it a bit difficult to score such an episode as most of its content is comprised of clips from older episodes.  Should I grade solely the new material, knowing full well the episode will be scored low from there not being much new material?  Instead, I still give credit to the types of clips that are used and, hey, they're still funny even if the context for them are much more flimsy than previously.  As a result, we end up with what is perhaps the best clip show of all time. ...okay, not really.

I also find it funny that the show aired on April Fools Day, which is also the episode's theme.  It's like: "hey this was a pretty cool start to the show huh?  I wonder what's gonna happen to Homer and- APRIL FOOLS IT'S A CLIP SHOW, TAKE THAT SUCKERS".  As I've said, though, what little new content there is turns out to be most excellent and connects the many clips very well for the most part.

The original content by itself (the April Fools Day plot, the appearances by Barney, Grampa, Mr. Burns and Dr. Nick), is very strong and if it had been laid out as a full episode I'm sure it would've been one of the classics.  Even though it actually just serves as a reason to insert old material into a new context, its still funny stuff.  Some of the clips work well in this episode, others are brought up somewhat weakly, not that it derives from the clips any.  This score may seem high, but for a clip show episode, this ends up being superb.  I don't expect any of the other clip show episodes from the series to get this high a score.  Well, maybe the 138th episode spectacular, but that'll be for later.

Final Score: 8.7