TVSquad

(S06E09) Angry mob outside the Simpson house: Two, four, six, eight, Homer's crime was very great! ... "great" meaning "large" or "immense" we use it in the pejorative sense!

The plot: Homer is accused of sexual harassment when he peels a piece of candy from the babysitter's butt and she mistakes it for a sexual advance. He tries to clear his name, but the media launches a smear campaign and the entire town turns against him.

Okay, now that we got that out of the way we can talk about all the great moments in this episode. The Simpsons always manages to cram a plethora of jokes upon jokes into an episode, but damn, this one had gags that just kept coming at you. I loved the opening scene when Bart curses the "damn FDA" for not allowing cereal made entirely of marshmallows, and Lisa yelling at him for not throwing the grain pieces in the trash. The candy convention that Homer and Marge attend had some great moments, too, such as all the "gummi" candy ("Gummi Jawbreakers?") and their final escape from the convention with the Gummi Venus De Milo where Homer mixes Pop Rocks and Soda into a makeshift grenade. Also, Frink appears in this segment and you can see his pupils through his glasses. I'm not sure if that was the only time that happened.

The morning after the convention, Bart and Lisa come down from their rooms, their stomachs aching from all the candy they ate the night before. Marge suggests they give the remaining candy to needy children, but Bart and Lisa want none of that and begin to eat the candy. The Simpsons has a lot of outlandish moments, but I love it when the characters behave like human beings, and kids who will choke down candy they don't even really want to keep it out of the hands of other kids is about as real as you can get. That's one of many things that sets The Simpsons apart from other animated primetime shows.

Speaking of outlandish moments, this episode also contains one of my favorite scenes, Homer suggesting they all live under the sea to escape his problems. There will be "no accusations, just friendly crustaceans." Marge yells at Homer because this seems to be his solution to everything.

Other great moments included a made-for-TV movie about Homer called Homer S.: Portrait of an Ass Grabber, Homer making "homemade Prozac" ("needs more ice cream") and the tabloid news show "Rock Bottom" apologizing for defaming Homer and then scrolling a list of all the mistakes they've made in the past, which include such gems as:

• Styrofoam is not made from kittens
• The nerds on the internet are not geeks
• If you are reading this you have no life
• Roy Rogers was not buried inside his horse
• Cats do not eventually turn into dogs