No Good Read Goes Unpunished

"No Good Read Goes Unpunished"
The Simpsons episode
Episode no.	Season 29
Directed by	Mark Kirkland
Written by	Jeff Westbrook
Original air date	April 8, 2018 (2018-04-08)
Episode features
Chalkboard gag	April showers did not date the President
Couch gag	A hand does a Dot-to-dot of the family, but Homer is drawn with three eyes and he says “D’oh!”

"No Good Read Goes Unpunished" is the fifteenth episode of the twenty-ninth season of the animated television series The Simpsons, and the 633rd episode of the series overall. It aired in the United States on Fox on April 8, 2018.

Plot

After Marge forces everyone to hand in their electronics, the family takes a trip to a book store. There, Bart discovers that he can use the book The Art of War to manipulate Homer into allowing him to go to a Tunnelcraft convention. Then Homer reads the book to in turn manipulate Bart by acting like Ned Flanders. Meanwhile, Marge purchases an old book that used to be a favorite of hers in hopes of reading it to Lisa, but then she realizes it is culturally offensive. Lisa decides to bring her to Springfield University, where she is told to her relief that the author was actually attempting to satirize conformity in the book.

Reception

Dennis Perkins of The A.V. Club gave this episode a D+, stating, "Irritating on several simultaneous levels, 'No Good Read Goes Unpunished' would be more bothersome if it were more memorable. It’s still pretty bothersome. We’ll get to the side issues presently, but, man, is this episode unfunny. Not in an offensive way, or even a disastrous way, but in its utter lack of jokes that reach for any laughs whatsoever. The script commits some of the signature latter-day Simpsons sins, but more than any other, it’s just comically inert. The story doesn’t drive forward, it lounges like Homer in a hammock and wobbles. There was one—and only one—joke that roused itself to at least cleverness, if not laughter. Homer, rattled behind the wheel by Bart’s Art Of War-inspired campaign of manipulation, rear-ends Wiggum’s cruiser. Producing a balloon, presumably for a sobriety test, Wiggum has Homer make a bunny, then hauls him off to provide the entertainment for Ralph’s birthday party."

The episode makes allusion to the 2017 documentary The Problem with Apu written by Hari Kondabolu, which addressed the issues surrounding racial stereotypes seen in Simpsons character Apu Nahasapeemapetilon. Kondabolu was disappointed that the show reduced "an entry point into a larger conversation about the representation of marginalized groups" into a specific complaint about whether the character is "politically incorrect".

External Links

• "No Good Read Goes Unpunished" at IMDb