With the 37 results pretty obvious, pushing ahead very aggressively here partly to make sure we post Pool 44 before I leave for New Orleans next week. That'll be five days of no blogging (therefore obviously none of this); two of you regular commenters will be down there for the same reason anyway.
After that, there'll be 12 pools left, or three weeks. Given that TRASHionals also affects multiple regular commenters, even though I won't be going to Pittsburgh myself, expect a hiatus/workaround for it.
Pool 37 Results (my initial ranking in parentheses)
1. Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington (2)
2. Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song (1)
3. When Flanders Failed (3)
4. Tennis the Menace (5)
5. Simple Simpson (NR)
6. A Star Is Born-Again (6)
Aside from Simple Simpson, the relative ranking of the other five was almost unanimous. Coen never commented on this pool, so maybe his opinion of Pieman would have been relevant. Its place above splits the difference between potential slots.
(See the category archive for other results.)
Pool 38, Pool 39, and Pool 40 are all still open (not to mention poppin' fresh).
Pool 42 ETA Friday, Pool 43 ETA Sunday, Pool 44 ETA Tuesday.
As usual, I let a pseudorandom number generator choose six episodes, then post my on-the-spot rankings and observation. You comment, ideally with your own rankings. A week later I post my revised rankings, reserving the right to be autocratic (though in practice I almost always go with the consensus).
NOTE TO SELF: =INDIRECT("A"&(FLOOR(RAND()*(335-COUNT(C2:C336)),1)+COUNT(C2:C336)+1))
Numbers...
53: 8F15 (SI-315 / S03E18) Separate Vocations
After taking the Career Aptitude Normalization Test, or CANT test, Lisa finds out she's more suited to be a homemaker, while Bart is more suited to be a police officer. While Bart enjoys his taste of authority, Lisa turns into a bad kid.
156: 4F03 (SI-803 / S08E03) The Homer They Fall
Moe turns Homer into a successful boxer after discovering Homer can absorb massive blows to the head, but Marge is worried that won't save Homer in the upcoming match with Dreaderick Tatum, the heavyweight champion. Michael Buffer and Paul Winfield guest star.
115: 2F09 (SI-609 / S06E12) Homer the Great
Homer joins a secret sociality, where his greatness is revealed, but only after he destroys the secret parchment and stripped of his membership. Patrick Stewart guest stars.
226: AABF20 (SI-1020 / S10E23) Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo
After losing their last million yen, the Simpsons agree to participate in a dangerous Japanese TV game show in exchange for air fare back home. Guest voice George Takei as the Game Show Host.
91: 1F08 (SI-508 / S05E10) $pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)
When the local economy stalls, everyone, including Marge, votes to legalize gambling on Springfield. Mr. Burns even opens up his own casino, Homer gets to be a blackjack dealer, and Marge is addicted to the slot machines. Robert Goulet and Gerry Cooney guest star.
56: 8F20 (SI-320 / S03E21) Black Widower
Sideshow Bob gets paroled, and marries Selma. However, Bart suspects that Sideshow Bob has something else up his sleeve.
My first impressions:
"Separate Vocations" is definitely "one to beat." A strong personal favorite, though not as easy to remember out of the blue as other personal favorites. A strong pool indeed if this falls below #1, though it's not a lock for the top spot.
Homer as a boxer is very difficult to watch. Season 8 starts off really strong, but when that DVD set comes out in a couple years this will be an episode people skip over to get from/to the true classics.
Damn Stonecutters. I bet this wins the Pool, but I won't be happy. "Separate Vocations" is clearly a better episode. Compare, contrast, and discuss, especially if you do rank "Homer the Great" ahead.
Season 10 ends so dismally, even the looking over the episode titles makes my brain hurt.
Wow. Maybe Stonecutters won't win this pool. The Robert Goulet sequence really sells me on "$pringfield," not to mention Burns as Howard Hughes. Easily top-25 material in my book.
And a Sideshow Bob episode?!? Not as good as some of the other ones, but still, it's Sideshow Bob and yet through no fault of it's own it looks ticketed for #4 at best. Well, at least the bottom half of this will be trivial to rank.
In fact, the ordering of all six is obvious to me. You ("WE DO!") will probably disagree.
Preliminary rankings:
1. $pringfield ("I'm Idaho!")
2. Separate Vocations ("I will not expose the ignorance of the faculty")
3. Homer the Great
4. Black Widower
5. The Homer They Fall
6. Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo
This is a very strong pool, actually.
1. Separate Vocations -- Hits exactly the right blend of hilarity and sweetness.
2. Homer the Great
3. $pringfield -- In a normal bracket this would be #1, but it's definitely flawed compared to the first two.
4. Black Widower
5. 30 Minutes Over Tokyo -- In a weaker bracket this could easily contend for #3 or 4. It's not a great episode, but it does have some good moments. "Is the answer Japan?"
6. Homer They Fall -- "Yes, but I imagine she would die of grief."
I would flip-flop Paul's last 2, but keep the top four in his order.
Posted by: Mark at March 30, 2005 01:20 PM1. Separate Vocations -- so he didn't have leprosy! Just a fun episode from top to bottom.
2. $pringfield -- spoofs Vegas craziness at its worst. The Robert Goulet appearance (VERA said that?), Gamblor, Barney the human slot machine -- could be #1 in a weaker bracket.
3. Homer the Great -- it's got "the song" and the hazing rituals, but it loses points for fizzling out at the end.
4. Black Widower -- again, could be higher in a weaker bracket.
5. The Homer They Fall -- at the end, it's a perfect spoof of PPV boxing at its worst. But it doesn't pick up until 18-20 minutes into the episode.
6. 30 Minutes Over Tokyo -- the game show was funny. That was it.
Posted by: James Dinan at March 30, 2005 05:53 PM1. Homer the Great - Why? "I'm going out... to... stalk... Lenny and Carl... D'oh!" "Kids can be so cruel." "Um, I think he should have to take a different oath." "Everything lasts forever." And Patrick Stewart as Number 1. On a side note the Royal Sampler is a legal poker hand in Dutch Poker (a modified version of Greek Poker which is itself a modified verison of Chinese Poker... which ZD picked up from somewhere.)
2. $pringfield - "Once something has been approved by the government, it's no longer immoral."
3. Separate Vocations - The lines in the Stonecutters ep are much, much better. I'll grant that this doesn't have the parable/fable style plot that Homer the Great does but it also doesn't have monkey civil war reenactors. I don't know, SV never struck me as great. It's solid but it's not the sort of episode that comes to mind when I think of classic Simpsons.
4. Black Widower
5. The Homer They Fall - This pool is solid all the way down to #5.
6. Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo - "Don't worry. That 'lava' is just Orange-aid, made by our sponsor Osaka Orange-aid Concern."