Marge Gamer (S18, E17-395)

We were all this bad once, though for some they were this bad when they were five.

Plot Summary
Marge gets tired of being left behind on things because she doesn't have an e-mail address.  So, not only does she get an e-mail address, but she becomes an internet addict, doing practically everything on it.  One night, while waiting feverishly for e-mail, Marge notices a banner ad for an MMORPG called Earthland Realms.  After creating a character that looks like her and some initial hiccups, Marge becomes adept at the game, though she loses a lot of sleep in the process.  She learns that many other Springfield residents play the game, but then learns that everyone is terrified by the Shadow Knight, a powerful player capable of killing everyone and anyone easily.  After witnessing the Shadow Knight's massive power, Marge goes to do laundry in real life, but then overhears Bart playing the same game... as the Shadow King.  Marge greets Bart ingame, much to Bart's embarrassment as he has online cred to maintain.  Bart saves Marge one day in the game, but returns to his castle in horror as he learns that Marge discarded his trophy room to turn it into a Hello Kitty expansion pack monstrosity.  Bart starts tearing apart the room in rage, but accidentally kills Marge's character in the process.

Meanwhile, Homer takes Lisa to her soccer game, but its about to be cancelled as the ref has quit.  Learning that referees share in snack time, Homer gladly takes over but as expected makes a total ass of himself during the game, earning Lisa's scorn.  Reeling from said scorn, Homer studies hours of soccer footage, and the next time he refs he becomes quite competent as the job.  Homer calls a foul on Jessica Lovejoy after she trips Lisa.  As the Lovejoys yell at Homer for his call, he insists the call is right, and play continues.  Lisa figures out that taking falls mean calls going your way, and with her father as the ref, takes full advantage and becomes a gigantic flopper.  After one such dive, which Homer falls for, he gets into an argument with Cletus (whose kids supposedly committed the foul).  Ronaldo, a soccer player famous everywhere except America and maybe Canada, arrives to confirm to Homer that Lisa flopped, and Homer has no choice but to penalize Lisa with a yellow card.  Lisa tears it up in rage, forcing Homer to give her a red card instead, kicking her out of the game.

Homer and Bart meet up later on as Lisa and Marge, respectively, are mad at them over their silly games.  They go to Moe's, where Moe (or a guy that kidnapped and replaced Moe) suggests Homer appeals to Lisa's reason, and Bart to Marge's feelings.  Homer gives Lisa a DVD documentary, which shows her just how bad soccer hooliganism can be.  Lisa realizes she was in the wrong, and that she won't get stupidly upset over soccer like the Europeans and South Americans do, and she'll only play for fun now.  Meanwhile, in Earthland Realms, Bart uses his abilities to revive Marge's character, but the process leaves Bart with only a third of his health.  The other players, thanks to an unwitting Marge, learn of this and quickly storm Bart's castle and overwhelm him, celebrating the fall of the Shadow King.  Bart mostly doesn't care and goes outside to join Lisa and Homer in soccer, but Marge promises to get vengeance for him, going on a killing spree on everyone in game and becoming a Shadow Queen herself.

Quick Review
Admittedly, I thought this episode was going to be terrible.  This episode aired back when World of Warcraft was still popular somehow, so the show, along with a few others, tried to capitalize on its popularity by making episodes themed around that game (the 'newbie parent embarrasses their pro gamer kid in game' trope is present in most of these).  This episode feels like it was written with no real knowledge of the game or genre, or that it was disposed in favor of quick not-that-funny gags like making Skinner a turkey in game and what not.

The soccer side story wasn't all that funny.  Ronaldo's appearance seems pretty throwaway and didn't really add anything to the episode.  The episode's score ends up being pretty low as a result, but its still much higher than what I thought it would be going in as episodes focused around video games can very easily become disasters.

Final Score: 6.7

Blame It on Lisa (S13, E15-284)

They got $50,000 and the love of a Stockholm syndromed American.  That's win-win!

Plot Summary
The Simpsons get a rather expensive phone bill, with much of the charge due to a phone call to Brazil.  Believing there was no such call, Homer and Marge fight the charge at first, losing their phone access in the process.  However, they learn that it was Lisa that made the call.  As it turns out, Lisa has been sponsoring a Brazilian boy, but he hasn't been heard from in awhile.  She shows the family a tape of the boy, Ronaldo, showing off a new pair of dancing shoes he was able to buy thanks to Lisa.  The family decides to go to Brazil to find Ronaldo, thanks to the internet's cheap airplane rates, as Bart points out that now he will have visited every continent except for Antarctica, which Homer promises to visit next year.

The family reaches Brazil and conga their way to the hotel.  As Bart watches an odd children's show full of big-breasted women and mascot animals like flamingos, Lisa urges the family to begin their search.  After a failed first day, the family splits up to cover more ground.  They're not only still unsuccessful, but Homer ends up getting kidnapped as well.

The kidnappers force Homer to call his family for $50,000 in ransom money, but the family doesn't have nearly enough.  Homer tries calling people in Springfield for money, but just ends up owing Moe another $50,000.  The family tries to look for Homer, but get caught up in Carnivale.  One of the mascots in the parade, the flamingo from the kids show, recognizes Lisa and reveals itself to be Ronaldo.  He tells Lisa that he couldn't write Lisa because he didn't know which state the family lived in, and that his new dancing shoes got him the gig on the show, and now he makes as much money as "Malcolm in the Middle".  He gives the family the $50,000 they need to save Homer.

The family and the kidnappers meet high up on cable cars as per Homer's idea.  The kidnappers get their money and Homer is free to go, but when Homer tries to jump over to the other car, the force of his jump causes the cable the snap and the car falls and the tumbles to the ground.  The family ends up okay, and Homer thanks Marge for bailing him out (again), but now Bart is dancing away after being eaten by a snake of some sort.

Quick Review
Wow, this... this episode was bad.  The episode tried to make jokes, tried it did, but so many of them just were not funny at all.  The only salvageable moment of the episode was Homer's interactions with his kidnappers, but it was too little, too late.  This was very nearly the worst episode of the series.

Final Score: 3.2