This is the one exception to the general downward spiral of the quality of Sideshow Bob episodes, being a little better than “Sideshow Bob’s Last Gleaming” but not as great as the episodes before. A lot of it comes down to the ingenious point of inspiration: the idea that Bob has abandoned being evil and Bart, in chasing him, misses that his brother Cecil is actually committing the crime this time. Now that I think about it, it feels like a while since the show has grappled with some messy ethical quandary on this level; the question of the episode is “has Bob changed?”, with Bart definitively (and understandably) taking the ‘no’ option, and looking for proof that he’s correct. Bob appeals to the town with the idea that the basis of American justice is that time in prison reforms a criminal – that, when and if a person has proved they will no longer commit crime, they can go back into society. I’ll follow the episode’s lead in discussing the fact that the American justice system does not and most likely was never intended to live up to this ideal the same way the episode does – a one liner – and focus on interrogating that idea, because it’s not the only idea of justice and in fact its place in the grand scheme of things is pretty interesting to consider in light of the show. The episode is purely concerned with restorative justice as opposed to retributive justice, and in general the latter is the basis of natural human morality.

I’ll shift to a different point, and it’ll become clear why when I come back. If Bart and Lisa perfectly catch how my sister and I related to each other as kids, I find Bob and Cecil’s relationship mirrors our relationship as adults, minus the attempted murder. Growing up, I was the older child of two, and I’ve always had a wannabe-intellectual thing going on; my sister, for all the reasons you imagine and more, was never interested in living up to that archetype, but she did see that I was doing well in school and generally seen as a smart kid and was competitive enough and smart enough to compete with me over that. Now, I recognise that Bob and Cecil’s brotherhood is playfully stealing from Frasier, but this show has always had a streak of the Intellectual Thinker running through it, and so their conversation feels completely within its worldview; I’m certain the “yes, yes, the Cappadocians” joke was something that someone said in the writer’s room. Their repartee is that of two very smart people who not only speak the same language, they sing it, and sing it in harmony with one another, with conflict mainly coming down to both the actions each sibling has taken in life (actually, another way they resonate is the way the older sibling is the Fuckup Trying To Make Good with their more conventionally successful yet still resentful younger sibling) and good old fashioned sibling rivalry. The fact that both have identities as Intellectuals is merely the flavour The Simpsons brings to the dynamic.

And yet, it factors into my take on the show’s morality, and so we float back to the thoughts on justice. Retributive justice is the oldest form of morality; it borders on “the monster is actually Frankenstein’s Monster” in fashionability to say that ‘an eye for an eye’ was actually considered a merciful form of justice when it was introduced, attempting to prevent anyone from seeking vengeance beyond what they’d been forced to suffer. Restorative justice is a thoroughly modern concept – literally, in that the term wasn’t used in this fashion until 1977, but more generally in how it’s rooted in the Enlightenment thinking that people are naturally rational actors (which I know is hard to imagine here in 2020, but work with me here). Restorative justice definitely feels like an Intellectual’s idea of justice in how it runs under the assumption that a person can be reasoned into goodness; The Simpsons has always been a show that pushed the value of reason, especially through the process of showing comically poor reasoning. It’s not a form of justice that I think completely squares with either reality or human nature – I never saw anyone say “I’m glad Harvey Weinstein can go to jail so he can come back a changed man”, I saw people glad he could rot in jail – but I do buy that it’s something The Simpsons would believe in at least a little, and it’s hard not to believe in the way the show presents it.

Chalkboard Gag: N/A
Couch Gag: Everything is upside down when the family runs in. They fall to the floor.

This episode was written by Ken Keeler and directed by Pete Michaels, and was inspired by Keeler having watched a lot of Frasier. Kelsey Grammar returns as Sideshow Bob, and David Hyde Pierce appears as both Cecil and as the man in the crowd who says “Probably!”. The script was run by the Frasier producers, and the only thing they objected to was a visible character being referred to as “Maris”. Kelsey Grammar is as great as ever; his “good Bob” has a gentleness that he’s never had, and there’s a constant rage bubbling just under the surface that explodes on the line “Here’s a clue for you, Jack!”. David Hyde Pierce acquits himself well, delivering both his usual Frasier stick and an awesome supervillain archetype, calling forward to his eventual role in the sadly smothered-in-the-crib The Amazing Screw-On Head; my favourite line reading of his is “If anyone asks, I’ll lie!”

The only real bum note to me has to be the ending. The show sold me so well not just on Bob’s change but on the fact that he could work just as well comically as Bart’s cohort as he could his enemy that it feels like a lazy return to the status quo to have Bob go back to prison at the end (though I admit all the jokes are great, especially “Oh great! Now I look crazy!”). This could have even been a great last Bob episode! I do admit that the fact that we’ll never have a good Bob episode ever again may have affected my judgement.  The Cappadocians joke is one my favourites of all time, though I’m also fond of “That would be the Latour then,” which has influenced the way I make references.

I enjoy that Krusty gets to deliver a basic fact of comedy that I’ve since kept in mind my whole life (“The pie gag’s only funny when the sap’s got dignity!”). The confusing nature of the show’s timeline comes up when Bob references ‘ten years of being a homicidal maniac’. 

Krusty’s prison special is a reference to the Johnny Cash album Folsom Prison Blues. There are dozens of references to Cheers Frasier.

Iconic Moments:
Biggest Laugh: This was so hard to pick. The line “ESPECIALLY Lisa! But especially Bart.” comes high, but ultimately it was this, which has definitely influenced the way I make jokes: