Episode Recap: “Kamp Krustier” (S28:E16)

Hey hey friends! Wookiee back with a recap of a new Simpsons episode. Apologies for the week delay but life is crazy with school, etc. Better nate than lever, right? It’s time again for another episode recap for y’all. One of the many features we like to have on this site is recaps of new Simpsons episodes for all our friends who can’t watch them immediately or like our silly reviews of them. I love when there are new episodes of the Best. Show. Ever. on TV and it’s my privilege to not only watch new episodes, which I would do with or without this awesome site, but then break them down for all of you. I stuck to the stream of consciousness format for this. Basically I watch the episode once for my enjoyment and then a couple more times to catch as much as I can while jotting down notes. Without further ado… here’s my thoughts on Season 28, Episode 16: Kamp Krustier.

To start this off for accidental clickers who just prefer the synopsis, here’s what my DVR had for the episode that aired February 12th, 2017:

“Bart and Lisa return home from Kamp Krusty early, interrupting Homer and Marge’s romantic encounters; Bart and Lisa confront a source of trauma.”

Now on with the random recap observations of yours truly… fair warning, this is SPOILER heavy.

Air Force One followed by Putin on a brown Pegasus, the billboard advertises “This St. Patrick’s Day Kiss the Barney Stoned,” Bart writes “We’re the only house where the Christmas tree is still up” on the blackboard, and the couch gag is one of those old-timey games where you drop balls into slots. Lisa, Bart, Marge, and Maggie collect tons but Homer ends up with none… well one that chokes him.

A short while ago in Season 4… so this picks write up after the very first episode of the epis Kamp Krusty episode apparently so I’m all sorts of jazzed. Santa;s Little Helper follows a long line of discarded clothes to discover Homer Tarzan calling and gonging to announce the end of snuggling in every room in the house. Bring on the Jurassic Park footstep parody to show Wiggum arriving courtesy of an anonymous call about a gong (Flanders). I’m trying not to laugh at Homer using Bart’s slingshot to cover his tender area. Problem is Wiggum is intent on forcing the No Girls Allowed Sign on Bart’s treehouse. Also… according to King Shutthehellup, the Declaration of Independence is just some nonsense a kid wrote.

Bring on the flash to Kamp Krusty where they’re singing the camp song, everything is on fire, and Bart is flying on a vulture to bomb the local tennis camp.

Homer, Marge, Maggie, and Grampa arrive to pick up the kids from the camp bus. It’s been six weeks. Bart doesn’t have a mustache but the kids reactions as they scurry off the bus are pretty great. Gotta love any kid who models their life after Mr. Dangerfield.

You now it’s bad when Milhouse is back to sucking his thumb sparking Kirk to regress too. Also fun to see Martin, Janey, and Lewis’s parents in the background too. The kids all get counseling… well Wendell, Bart, Lisa, Janey, and Nelson. There they get a pot of goals at the end of the painbow. Bart claims to be fine but Lisa is pretty torn up over seeing the Parent Trap every night (the Disney magic is breaking up twins and not letting them know the other exists lol). The doc suggests the kiddos don’t go to school until they’ve decompressed. Hilarious that Lisa is now fine but Bart is suddenly tormented. Lisa proves it by sitting her chair around just like the therapist. So Bart is cleared from school and church. All you gotta do is crazily bubble your lips with your finger. Funny until Skinner shows up because his car was blocked in by the therapist.

So Bart is faking PTSD with an onion for crying, ice for clammy hands, a red sharpie for bloodshot eyes (too much so he uses white out… DON”T TRY THIS AT HOME KIDS) and Homer is ready for snuggling while Marge reads a self-help pamphlet, “Camp Made Me a Killer.” Marge is concerned the kids might be messed up. “Kids and summer are natural enemies” and Homer’s ready to reverse their play and be Penn to her Teller. No nookie for the happy couple though since Bart is scared to sleep. Also a classic Simpsons cut to drak with only eyeballs showing ruined by Homer bringing in Bart’s allowance of one dollar that’s Eye of Providence on the unfinished pyramid also shows. Ugh.

Marge is still reading the trauma pamphlet the next morning at breakfast. Bart is showing all the signs and gets to use Homer’s pillows for his butt. What a nice way to watch Itchy & Scratchy which has Tomcat Bergeron and Alleycat Deeley introducing the stunt which inevitably ends with Scratchy hurt/dead. I do laugh when Itchy tosses tons of sabers that miss only to throw an NHL player from the Buffalo Sabres. Interestingly, this cartoon, we don’t see the usual bloody end for the cartoon cat. Uh oh… what the heck is going on with this episode. Bart wants jelly bean sandwiches. Ok… there’s Scratchy’s head being used as a disco ball. Still… something’s off.

Bart is still sleeping in his parent’s bed and Marge can’t even rendezvous with Homer at the dog’s bed because her arm is pinned. Homer can’t sleep or snuggle so he does the unthinkable. He goes to work early. Homer discovers there’s lots of parking, donuts, hot coffee, and things to do when he actually works. He even reads the safety manual.

Flash to inside Homer’s brain which has been off, out of order, and without a clue for 1,377 days. Homer’s reading sets off a claxon which causes the workers to fire up the assembly and send steam out his ears. I love this. It’s weird because he keeps reading and doesn’t even stop to settle a red beans and rice versus red beans on rice debate for 3 grand between Lenny and Carl. I agree with Lenny that Homer not wanting to screw around is “like Aqua-man moving to Phoenix.” At least it works to inspire Carl to do his job as VP of marketing. Flash back to Homer’s noggin which is at full steam for go-getting. They cycle from that to boot licking andsettle on butt kissing. Color me intrigued as Homer goes to Burns’ office to keep the plant from paying full newsstand price for the free subscription of Nuclear Safety (signs in Homer’s brain include Success, Kudos, Bladder Full, and Caution: Nearing Sobriety). Homer’s a real go-getter. He admits he’s sexually frustrated to Smithers who knows all about that.

Commercials (Note: I’m honestly more interested in the Power Rangers trailer than what I’ve seen so far and I think that movie is going to be awful).

Bart still in bed having legit bad dreams about Kamp Krusty (Homer’s bad dream is a hamburger dream about no ketchup that Marge is aware of). Flash inside Bart’s brain where something went bad in a canoe for him, Lisa, and a mystery kid. It’s enough to wake Bart up in terror (too funny that Homer is sleep drinking ketchup in the background). Bart realizing he really is traumatized and goes to wake up Lisa. She asks if it can wait until morning and big shocker, Bart actually does. Lisa semi-remembers too and they’ve both repressed their memories. Bart does foley work throughout the segment. The armpit farts are funny at least.

In the kitchen, Homer has made breakfast, made a reservation for Mother’s Day which is 3 months away, and kisses Grampa good morning. I agree with his old man and lady love… who is this guy? Bring on super productive Homer at work whose brain is full of actual ideas. Homer sorts the Uranium 232 from the 235 (actual isotopes) and actually places valid suggestions in the plant’s suggestion box which he shares with Monty (Make Atheists Work Christmas, Install Slot Machines at Workstations, Rent Out Core for Weddings). Homer is doing so good he actually gets a raise and his own trap door button.

Bart and Lisa are at Half a Dozen Flags Amusement Park (the So Cal kid who likes Magic Mountain smiles at this) where you can find rides like The Grunions Ride: All Washed Up. Lisa is waiting in the long line and Bart shows up with a front of the line therapy pass. Lisa freaks out when she sees a red vest on a Grunion and has a little Shining moment. She gets a pass too. The only joke that makes me laugh way too hard falls here. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. If everyone has a cut the line pass, no one has a cut the line pass.” Lisa rides twice while Bart whines and puts and although the joke isn’t that funny, it made the amusement park employee in me laugh and laugh.

Homer is organizing the closet at home but is tempted by Mage is a blue chemise thingy. She’s ready to get back to cuddling in the bathroom since Maggie is asleep and the kids are at the amusement park with Grampa. Homer says he’s pledged his “abstinence like all the most successful rock stars.” Marge wants to get her groove back but Homer says “No means no. I looked it up in the dictionary.” Homer has discovered no whoopee equals him being productive like the men who built the “pointy pyramids of Egypt, the Duomo, which I now know is a thing. You don’t name a company Microsoft when you’re getting some.” Uh oh… I think Marge would rather have old Homer than a man who’s there for her in every way except physically, spiritually, and in the zipping up dresses sort of way. Now the kids and their marriage have problems. Homer and her might need therapy. Why the heck does Homer suddenly have a Theremin? I digress but seriously at this point I fell down a wormhole of videos of people playing the instrument created by  Léon Theremin. There’s a crazy version of “Over the Rainbow.”

Anyhoo… Homer and Marge are at the Masters and Johnson Institute (If we weren’t doctors, we’d be arrested) for therapy.  It’s time for a series of questions about intimacy and self-gratification and then the pants come off. No surprise, the problem in Marge and Homer’s love life stems from the kids time at camp. The answer is to return to Kamp Krusty. Otherwise Homer is bound to be successful like a nun. They leave right as a real deviant shows up for therapy. Not sure how I feel about Moe turning a helicopter ride for kids into his new lady. Ugh.

So Homer is now the man Marge always wanted but really doesn’t and they’re on the road to budget summer camp. It’s only 5 smiles ahead. Oh wait… that’s a snake. Boy oh boy is it dilapidated… until it isn’t because it’s be overhauled as Klub Krusty… an adult retreat. Now folks can relax in terry cloth bath robes like Macedonians.

Commercial

Klub Krusty is actually pretty sweet and something I’d have liked to see in game provided I get over that it’s a joint venture between Krusty and Caligula’s World Family Entertainment. There’s eyelash glitter and a Kids Klub (Have fun wile your kids don’t). There’s camp songs about stealing cookies from the jar (it is funny when Wiggum apprehends Courtney and Tyler) and Bart is enjoying making a pot holder that says “Get Baked” but Lisa wants to break out and go confront whatever happened to traumatize them. Homer and Marge walk past all the options of Klub Krusty. Mr. Teeny’s Martinis, Sideshow Smell’s Aroma Therapy, and The Ha-Ha Spa. Homer isn’t even tempted by all the offerings… he’d rather check out the business center.

Bart and Lisa recognize a shed full of red life vests. Their traumatic memory is from trying to escape camp by canoe with a kid named Charlie. They tipped over and Charlie didn’t make it. Krusty shows up to welcome the kids and they confront him with the awful truth. Meanwhile, Marge is still trying to romanticize her hubby who’s still reading the nuclear safety manual. Homer finally gives in and I laugh at all the workers in his brain heading below the belt when promised sex and stating they will not be back. One plays the violin Titanic style but is convinced to play more mood-enhancing music like the trumpet fanfare before a race. Homer’s brain boys are funny. Krusty takes the kids to the security office but as the writing on his teeth says, he wants Raphael the sarcastic security guard to do nothing. It eneds up not being a big deal since Charlie in the red vest is discovered to be a little person who know works as a masseuse in Klub Krusty. Turns out he was just a spy for Departures Magazine and everything is all right (until “Kamp Krustiest,” Season 52 which is bound to get low ratings lol). Flash to Homer and Marge post-coitus. Marge marvels at the stars and Homer want pizza. Also… a nice laugh at CBG floating in the water and being mistaken as a diving platform… for the fifth time. Homer’s brain is once again decommissioned and he’s watching FOX.

Commercial

The last little bit is the little workers of Homer’s brain setting themselves on fire by burning coal for power, a hilarious gauge from Cletus to genius, loading bad ideas onto conveyor belts, replacing Think signs with Drink, eating popcorn out of hardhats on a girder a la the famous “Lunch atop a Skyscraper” photo, chillaxing in a Jacuzzi, and then being passed out drunk. It’s how I imagine Homer’s thoughts to be on the regular and super funny that it’s all set to an Isaac Hayes sexy reworking of one of his classics tying in with the reason Homer goes back to normal. The end.

While it was an interesting idea to follow-up on the events after Camp Krusty, Faking PTSD didn’t strike me as the best plot device. I suppose I could point out that the kids would have gone to Tijuana before arriving back to their homes so is the trauma from camp or that? I felt let down by them using such a classic episode as the jumping off point and then not having it pay off. Perhaps this is just another example of the sequel not being as good as the original. With that being said, Homer becoming a good worker courtesy of no nookie was funny. I’d have rather seen a while episode about this. I summed up this episode to a friends and basically said “Kamp Krusty is revisited but it’s different so I don’t know where this story truly falls… there’s a little person and there’s some jokes and then it’s over. Homer is funny as a sex-deprives excellent worker.” Suffice to say… my friend liked the latter info. While there were some jokes that made me laugh… on my blah/meh/oooh/aaaah/wowza/woo hoo scale… I give this a solid meh. There were too many ugh moments for me to rank it any higher.

But enough with my words… what did you think of the episode? Anything you loved or hated that I didn’t mention? Are you enjoying Season 28? How would you grade this episode? Sound off in the comments and happy classy tapping. I’ll be back with more recaps as new episodes air.

TTFN… Wookiee out!