All Singing, All Dancing (The Simpsons)
| "All Singing, All Dancing" | ||||||||||||||||
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 Lisa: "There is something worse."
Bart: "And it really does blow." Everyone: "When a long running series does a cheesy clip show!" Well, at least they're self-aware... | ||||||||||||||||
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All Singing, All Dancing is the eleventh episode (originally going to be the last episode) of Season 9 of The Simpsons, It aired in the United States on January 4, 1998. It is one of the three episodes that is rated TV-G, along with "Miracle on Evergreen Terrace" and "Bart the Mother".
Plot
Homer is disappointed when the western he rented turns out to be a musical, so the family reminds him of the musical moments in the show's history.
Why It Intentionally Can't Sing Or Dance
NOTE: This episode was most likely made to be bad on purpose.
- Obvious factor out of the way: Much like most clip shows in the show, the episode relies way too much on filler to the point where the episode is extremely boring to get through.
- However, compared to all the other clip shows in the show, this one has the most filler out of all of them.
- The plot of this episode is extremely dull as it follows the cliché family sitting in a living room area story much like "Another Simpsons Clip Show", whilst most of the plots in the other clip shows were dull, at least they tried to tell a story, but here, there is barely even a story.
- The episode is extremely lazy, even for clip show standards as it feels like ¾ of the episode are just clips from older episodes and about ¼ of it is the actual episode itself.
- There were barely any funny jokes throughout the entire episode.
- Even though the idea of a clip show is based on the musical numbers in the show, it was poorly executed.
- Whilst the song selection was good for the most part, some songs from the show like "Happy Birthday, Lisa", The "Planet of the Apes" musical number, "Checkin' In" and plenty of other memorable songs in the show were not included for unknown reasons.
- In the Latin American dub, all the songs are completely dubbed. Some songs sound very horrible with the dub (depending on your view).
- Despite being rated TV-G, Snake appears and threatens to shoot the Simpson family.
Redeeming Qualities
- It's a very creative take on clip shows, instead of being about scenes from other episodes, it's about songs from other episodes.
- The musical numbers sung by The Simpsons family and Snake are unironically decent and not cringeworthy.
- Despite a lack of funny jokes, there were still a few good ones here and there:
- The jab against the "Paint Your Wagon" song at the beginning of the episode was funny.
- The fourth wall break joke that the family makes about how it blows when a long series will do a "cheesy clip show" was funny and is a nice jab at the episode itself.
- Snake was pretty funny in this episode as he tries to kill The Simpsons family with his gun, but he keeps forgetting his ammo, not to mention the scene during the ending credits where he tries to stop the credits music from playing is also funny.
- The treadmill couch gag where Homer struggles to reach the couch is also hilarious.
- Like all clip shows it does make newer fans of the show keep up with the series judging by the past episodes added in.
Reception
This episode was panned by critics and fans of the show. It currently sits at a 5.0 rating on IMDB, making it the fourth lowest-rated episode on IMDB behind Bart vs. Itchy & Scratchy, “The Star of Backstage” and Lisa Goes Gaga. It is also the lowest-rated episode of the golden age of the show. On NoHomers.net 50 worst episodes, the episode was placed 20th on the 2006 list and 33rd on the 2011 list.
Trivia
- This was originally going to be the last episode of Season 9, but the episode "Natural Born Kissers" took its place.
- Near the end of the episode, the family pulls out a banner that says "The Simpsons Clip Show #4 5F24", 5F24 is the production code for the episode.
References
- ↑ https://simpsons.fandom.com/wiki/NoHomers.net%27s_50_Worst_episodes#The_List%5B1%5D
- ↑ https://simpsons.fandom.com/wiki/NoHomers.net%27s_50_Worst_episodes#2011_List%5B2%5D