I feel like someone who isn't one of the staff members working on the show at the time needs to come forth and defend this episode.
If you don't know (though I'd assume if you looked up the specific episode of this show by title on IMDb then I don't need to explain this to you), a lot of controversy surrounds the subject matter of this particular episode--the people who reviewed it before me are prime examples of the general feeling about the show, with some going so far as to refer to it as the "worst episode ever." I don't necessarily think this is the best Simpsons episode ever, but it might be the smartest. I agree with Ken Keeler's description of the idea behind the episode whole-heartedly: it is, effectively, a careful satire of Simpsons fans (where the townspeople and their reaction to the Skinner/Tamzarian are the audience/the audience's reactions). I think its only fault is the extreme subtlety taken in its satire of the audience--we're not clearly in on the joke enough to realize that this is meant to be a joke, which is perhaps the reason it's gotten such harsh reactions.
In response to the reviewers before me, I would say: the idea of completely ignoring the events of the episode were built into this episode at the end. The last line is a demand that nothing change at all. The lack of respect shown toward Martin Sheen's veteran character Sgt. Skinner was not, I feel, meant to mock veterans. The joke had more to do with the town's reaction to this replacement Skinner: there is nothing wrong him, he's a nice man, he is a DECORATED VETERAN, yet they are completely unhappy with him, just as we the audience are completely unhappy with the idea that our Skinner has been replaced.
It's certainly not the funniest of all Simpsons episodes, but it pushes the show's post-modern sensibilities to an extreme in an interesting way, making the episode itself a sort of joke (albeit not a laugh-out-loud funny joke, but still a good joke). The idea that an intellectual experiment would ruin an already intellectual and (at least occasionally) experimental show or the career of a phenomenally talented writer such as Ken Keeler is absurd.
If you don't know (though I'd assume if you looked up the specific episode of this show by title on IMDb then I don't need to explain this to you), a lot of controversy surrounds the subject matter of this particular episode--the people who reviewed it before me are prime examples of the general feeling about the show, with some going so far as to refer to it as the "worst episode ever." I don't necessarily think this is the best Simpsons episode ever, but it might be the smartest. I agree with Ken Keeler's description of the idea behind the episode whole-heartedly: it is, effectively, a careful satire of Simpsons fans (where the townspeople and their reaction to the Skinner/Tamzarian are the audience/the audience's reactions). I think its only fault is the extreme subtlety taken in its satire of the audience--we're not clearly in on the joke enough to realize that this is meant to be a joke, which is perhaps the reason it's gotten such harsh reactions.
In response to the reviewers before me, I would say: the idea of completely ignoring the events of the episode were built into this episode at the end. The last line is a demand that nothing change at all. The lack of respect shown toward Martin Sheen's veteran character Sgt. Skinner was not, I feel, meant to mock veterans. The joke had more to do with the town's reaction to this replacement Skinner: there is nothing wrong him, he's a nice man, he is a DECORATED VETERAN, yet they are completely unhappy with him, just as we the audience are completely unhappy with the idea that our Skinner has been replaced.
It's certainly not the funniest of all Simpsons episodes, but it pushes the show's post-modern sensibilities to an extreme in an interesting way, making the episode itself a sort of joke (albeit not a laugh-out-loud funny joke, but still a good joke). The idea that an intellectual experiment would ruin an already intellectual and (at least occasionally) experimental show or the career of a phenomenally talented writer such as Ken Keeler is absurd.