Episode: Them, Robot Take a promising storyline (Mr Burns decides to replace his employees with robots), throw in an inspired choice of celebrity guest (Brent Spiner, lending his voice to all of the robots), add Homer (who is kept on as the plant's maintenance guy/scapegoat) and surely you have the recipe for comedy gold? Sadly, no. The episode barely raises a smile but its absolute nadir comes from Homer's attempt to ingratiate himself with his metallic workmates. Unsure how to act when in a roomful of robots, he decides to open with the age-old joke ''Working hard or hardly working?'' What with them being robots and all, they don't get the humour. And so he says it again. Once more, nothing. And so he tries a third time. Repeatedly, loudly and for a whole thirty seconds. Eventually, and as a punchline that has come all too easily over the years, one of the robots electrocutes him. For such a ridiculously long build-up, it's a shamefully weak pay-off. Homer yells, gets electrocuted. Remember when The Simpsons used to be better than this?
Yorkshireman (hence the surname). Often spotted sacrificing sleep and sanity for the annual Leeds International Film Festival. For a sample of (fairly) recent film reviews, please visit whatsnottoblog.wordpress.com.
