QUICK SYNOPSIS

Homer recounts the story of Bart’s first day of school, which corresponds with the story of how Lisa got her saxophone.

POINTLESS GUEST STAR(S)

Fyvush Finkel as himself playing Krusty in a biopic is about as pointless as it gets, but I’ll give it a pass since no one under the age of 85 knows who Fyvush Finkel was.

WHY THIS EPISODE SUCKS

This is a good episode, but something is definitely off about “Lisa’s Sax” that makes it teeter on the brink of the Zombie Simpsons cesspit. It cannot be overlooked that this is the first episode in the show’s history to be written entirely by Al Jean. “Al” as in “Al-ways looking like he’s taking a giant dump, but also unsuccessfully thinking he’s keeping it a devilish secret”. My beef with Jean is that he too out of touch. He has been involved with the show since the beginning, literally. He was the lone showrunner for 20 straight seasons, nosediving the show into the cesspit itself from which it will never return. He’s like a pile of rotting garbage. Clear it out already.

My hatred of Al Jean aside, “Lisa’s Sax” is probably the most perfect amalgam of classic vs. current Simpsons. Flashback episode? Great! Those are always a hit! “The Way We Was”, “I Married Marge”, “Lisa’s First Word”, “And Maggie Makes Three”, these are all fucking great episodes! But what makes “Lisa’s Sax” off is its inclusion of some jokes that are just not very smart. I’m looking at you in particular “For no reason, here’s Apu.” There’s also something fanfiction-y, childish, and “lol random” about Grampa Simpson’s tangent about 19-aught-6, Sarah Bernhardt, and the “Sexy Grampa” dance (before falling asleep on his feet, of course). There is also an instance of over-explaining jokes that will get very prominent as time goes on. The big offenders here are the “Balzac” bit (where instead of letting Homer’s ignorance of the novelist end the joke, Marge continues by going “BUT BALZAC IS THE NAME OF THE…” before getting cut off again) and Lisa reading the new inscription on the sax at the end of the episode. It would have been great to let the viewer read it themself, but noooooooo. Lisa has to read it for us. Pretty soon Lisa will read everything for us. Oh, and don’t get me started on Homer and Marge doing the All in the Family bit TWICE. Once was bad enough.

80% of “Lisa’s Sax” is very in-tune with the classic era, though, so don’t let me bitch too much. Bart’s traumatic early-school experience is gold, as is Homer stealing the Flanders air-conditioner, as is Homer cowering in fear of Bart’s drawing. Lines like “lousy traumatic childhood” and “museums don’t have foosball, do they” remind me why Season 9 is still ok.

IMDb TRIVIA FUNHOUSE!

While Brockman introduces his piece on the heat wave, the graphic shows a dog tugging off his bathing suit, just like in the famous Coppertone Ad (commercial).
Oh Brockman, you so naughty.

The episode was written with a small staff that consisted of Al Jean, Mike Reiss and David M. Stern, among others. According to Reiss, the final episode contained 80-90% of Jean’s original script.
There’s a nonzero chance that everything I hated about it was written in by Jean. When you don’t have Mike Reiss to reign you in you might get stupid, I always say!

The boy who eats worms was conceived by Al Jean. He used to eat worms as a child and he looks similar to him.
Need I say more?

Al Jean conceived the idea for the All in the Family (1971) style opening while waiting to get tickets to the O.J. Simpson murder trial.
That was THREE YEARS BEFORE THIS EPISODE AIRED. Imagine having an idea in your life that was so pivotal that you remember when you came up with it. Fuck the O.J. Simpson trial tickets, the real winner here is the shitty cold open that he thought of while standing in line with board shorts and socks with sandals, probably. What a mook.

FINAL GRADE
B