E-I-E-I-D'oh (S11, E05-231)

They grew that tomacco together.

Plot Summary
At the theatre, Homer and the family watch a rather nonsensical version of Zorro.  At the movie's climax, Zorro challenges the Scarlet Pimpernel to a duel using a glove slap to initiate the challenge, a challenge the Pimpernel cowers away from.  Homer loves the scene so much so that he tries it out himself on Snake, who was being rude at the time.  Later on, Homer is insulted by Moe at the bar, and glove slaps him.  Fearful of a duel, Moe gives Homer a free beer.  Upon realizing the perks he could get, Homer starts glove slapping everyone so they'll cave in to him rather than duel him.

This plan backfires, though, when he inadvertently glove slaps a southern duel-enthusiast.  The man gladly accepts the challenge, and Homer is forced to dual at sunrise at his house.  With Marge's help, though, Homer and the family are able to escape the man, but the man has set up his trailer home in front of the Simpson yard, not going anywhere anytime soon.

Needing a place to hide out, Homer realizes he's near the farm he grew up in as a child, and decides to hide out there despite the house being dilapidated (though it seems to be in slightly better shape than last time).  Homer tries to grow crops to make a living, but the soil at the farm is pretty much worthless, and nothing will grow.  Desperate, Homer calls Lenny at the plant, and has him mail Homer some liquid plutonium to use on the soil.  The plan works, something begins to grow and Homer's plan is saved.

Though the crop appears to be a tomato, the insides are brownish.  Bart takes a bite, but finds it tastes terrible, yet smooth and addictive.  It seems that the tomato and tobacco seeds Homer haphazardly threw together merged with one another from the plutonium.  Upon learning of its addictive nature, Homer starts selling the crop under the name "tomacco".  As the crop becomes popular, Homer is met by a cigarette company looking to buy the plant so they can sell it to children.  Though the family is offered $150 million, they try to go for broke and ask for $150 billion, but the offer is refused to put it nicely.  Just then, Homer finds that farm animals have found their way to the crop, eating all but one tomacco plant.  Homer salvages it, but the animals also become addicted and break into the farm on a rampage to recover the plant.  Homer tosses it to them to end the pain, but the plant is caught by a rep from that cigarette company, and makes her escape (though thanks to another animal, the plant sees its end soon enough).

Homer's farming plan officially done, he heads back home completely forgetful as to why he left in the first place.  The southern man who challenged him to the duel is still there, though, and the two go through with it.  Homer gets grazed in the arm, but he doesn't seem to mind so much.

Quick Review
I loved the opening act of the episode, with the odd Zorro movie and Homer challenging everyone to duels.  It was a wonderful few minutes.  The fun slows down, though, when Homer starts up on the farm, and though the Tomacco bit has its moments, it wasn't really all that funny.

Final Score: 8.0

Lisa the Beauty Queen (S04, E04-063)

If he had given Lisa that sceptre sooner, Lisa would've been hit.  Krusty is a true hero.

Plot Summary
At a school fair, Lisa has a caricature drawn of herself.  Not understanding the purpose of a caricature, the resulting drawing leads Lisa to believe she's ugly.  Meanwhile, Homer wins a raffle, and the reward is tickets to the Duff Blimp.  Later, however, he notices Lisa being sad and learns why, and is bothered that he isn't able to help Lisa feel better about herself.  At the bar, Homer sees a commercial for a "Little Miss Springfield" beauty pageant, hosted by a cigarette company, for ages 7-9.  Needing $250 to apply Lisa into the contest, Homer sells his blimp tickets to Barney to pay for the cost.  When Homer tells Lisa what he did, she's upset (especially when Homer told her he used Lisa's caricature as the picture to apply with).  Knowing the reasoning behind Homer's deed, Marge is able to convince Lisa to do it after telling Lisa what Homer sacrificed to get her in.

At the pageant, Lisa sees the top competition: Amber Dempsey, who had fake eyelashes implanted in Portugal or somewhere.  Marge helps Lisa get beautiful at a parlor, while Bart trains her for other pageant-related things.  Soon, the pageant occurs, and Lisa goes in and does well, but ends up in second place behind Dempsey.  Shortly after that, Dempsey is at a store to unveil some tire spikes, when lightning strikes her sceptre, leaving her unable to perform her duties.  As such, Lisa as the runner up becomes sworn in as the new Little Miss Springfield.

Lisa's duties start off simple enough, seeing off deportees and appearing at Fort Springfield alongside Bob Hope.  However, she learns that, because the pageant was sponsored by a cigarette company, they now want Lisa to be her spokesperson to increase youth smoking.  While hesitant at first, she decides to go along with her duty, however at a parade she sees kids picking up free cigarettes and decides that's enough, and begins to rebel against smoking, and then college football.  When its learned she's next going after the mayor, panic begins to mount among the top ranks.  Fortunately for them, however, they found a technicality that removes Lisa from the position: when Homer filled out the application, in the space "Do not write here", Homer wrote "OK".  Her title stripped and returned to Dempsey, Lisa is still happy that Homer went through so much effort to make her feel better about herself.

Quick Review
Lisa the Beauty Queen is a superb episode, which is odd for a Lisa-centric episode but Homer really pulls through in the episode as well.  The few moments Krusty the Klown was in were great too.  It is one of Season 4's best episodes.

Final Score: 9.6