Even weirder than the idea of "an entire Simpsons episode about Superintendent Chalmers" is the idea of "an entire Simpsons episode about Teddy Roosevelt." As with last week's episode about Moe's bar rag, I feel like if you're going to make an entire Simpsons episode about Teddy Roosevelt AND Superintendent Chalmers, it had better be a pretty great one. For one thing, why waste that combination (however random) on a mediocre episode?

I liked the Teddy Roosevelt of Bart's imagination a lot more than the real Teddy Roosevelt, or rather, the manly, nature-loving Teddy Roosevelt of Chalmers' imagination. It was an interesting comment on the Rashomon style effect that happens when people latch on to historical figures as idols. These figures become who we need them to become, whether it's liberals clinging to the dream of JFK, or conservatives cuddling up with their Ronald Reagan full-body pillows at night.

 

Still, though, it's hard to see past the central fact of this episode, which is that it's an entire Simpsons episode about Teddy Roosevelt. There's no B-Plot, either - it's just 22 minutes of Rooseveltiana. In service of being "an entire Simpsons episode about Teddy Roosevelt," many other points of logical consistency are thrown aside. Like how, if SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS Chalmers thinks schools aren't teaching our kids properly, doesn't that mean that he is failing at HIS JOB?

 

The show never addresses this, sweeps aside a massive liability lawsuit, and lets Bart take Teddy Roosevelt's spectacles home I guess, since after their discovery, they next reappear in Bart's treehouse. Shouldn't they be at a museum? Wouldn't Bart be more likely to sell them on eBay than to carry them with the proper reverence they deserve, being fragile and all?

 

We accept a lot of sloppiness when it comes to Homer's job and the nuclear power plant that inexplicably sees fit to employ him. I suppose we should extend Chalmers the same courtesy. But I wish the show had poked a bit of fun at this, or at least had Lisa make a snotty remark about it.

 

There were a lot of funny bits in the show, but they were all throwaway gags. I loved the school decorations for the fundraiser, which took the cliché "Under the Sea" theme and turned it into "Drowning in Debt." The art direction - including the animation, coloring, rendering, and lighting design - of the wilderness scenes was also really great. I love it when the show steps outside its usual set design and palette!