There are a couple of funny moments, but this one is pretty flat. It suffers from a lot of the same problems other later season episodes suffer from. The central premise is pretty weak and makes questionable sense. Why would anyone see a couple on a stadium "kiss cam" and then consult them for marriage counseling, especially someone who presumably has a great deal of financial resources? Homer is unpleasantly terrible to Marge. He literally tells a bucket of chicken that he wishes he had met it before the mother of his children.
How are we supposed to view his "chicken grease neck rub" with Tabitha Vixen anyway? He seems to be there just for the chicken, but he is sexually attracted to women, even Tabitha Vixen at other points in the episode. It's just stupidly and lazily written. It's all about having a dumb gag in that one moment even though it makes the character too stupid to function as an emotionally identifiable character presence. Tabitha Vixen, on the other hand, seems to be coming on to Homer even though she realizes he's more into the bucket of chicken. She somehow is turned on by having his greasy hands on her neck. Her character is pretty thinly thought-out and just exists to produce reactions from the other characters.
The story's "resolution" resolves nothing, and it feels like the writers were just happy to have filled twenty-two minutes with material. Nothing has changed for this couple.
There's also some kind of blunted parody going on of early 00's sexualized youngish girl singers that doesn't really add up to much of anything, despite the actual presence of Mandy Moore. Two forgettable songs are performed, and while it's clear that they're parodying that suggestive yet not terribly explicit style of early Brittany Spears songs, they're not funny or clever in any way (just a few years earlier, the show provided a much more inspired parody of boy band lyrics in "New Kids on the Blecch").
One continuity question: has the show stuck with the premise that there are multiple "Duffmen"? Not that Diffman is that beloved of a character, but this feels like another gag that sacrifices character continuity for a joke that's not even that funny in the moment.
Even bad episodes of The Simpsons have their moments, but this one is about as lame as they get.
How are we supposed to view his "chicken grease neck rub" with Tabitha Vixen anyway? He seems to be there just for the chicken, but he is sexually attracted to women, even Tabitha Vixen at other points in the episode. It's just stupidly and lazily written. It's all about having a dumb gag in that one moment even though it makes the character too stupid to function as an emotionally identifiable character presence. Tabitha Vixen, on the other hand, seems to be coming on to Homer even though she realizes he's more into the bucket of chicken. She somehow is turned on by having his greasy hands on her neck. Her character is pretty thinly thought-out and just exists to produce reactions from the other characters.
The story's "resolution" resolves nothing, and it feels like the writers were just happy to have filled twenty-two minutes with material. Nothing has changed for this couple.
There's also some kind of blunted parody going on of early 00's sexualized youngish girl singers that doesn't really add up to much of anything, despite the actual presence of Mandy Moore. Two forgettable songs are performed, and while it's clear that they're parodying that suggestive yet not terribly explicit style of early Brittany Spears songs, they're not funny or clever in any way (just a few years earlier, the show provided a much more inspired parody of boy band lyrics in "New Kids on the Blecch").
One continuity question: has the show stuck with the premise that there are multiple "Duffmen"? Not that Diffman is that beloved of a character, but this feels like another gag that sacrifices character continuity for a joke that's not even that funny in the moment.
Even bad episodes of The Simpsons have their moments, but this one is about as lame as they get.
