Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner?

"Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner?"
The Simpsons episode
Episode no.	229
Prod. code	AABF21
Orig. airdate	October 24, 1999
Showrunner(s)	Mike Scully
Written by	Al Jean
Directed by	Nancy Kruse
Chalkboard gag	"I am not The Last Don"
Couch gag	The Simpsons sit down as normal. Marge notices the name "Matt Groening" written on the carpet, gets up, and wipes the name off. Groening comes in and rewrites his name on the floor.
Guest star(s)	Ed Asner as the newspaper editor
DVD commentary	Mike Scully Al Jean George Meyer Dan Greaney Matt Selman Nancy Kruse
Season 11 September 26, 1999 – May 21, 2000 "Beyond Blunderdome" "Brother's Little Helper" "Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner?" "Treehouse of Horror X" "E-I-E-I-(Annoyed Grunt)" "Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder" "Eight Misbehavin'" "Take My Wife, Sleaze" "Grift of the Magi" "Little Big Mom" "Faith Off" "The Mansion Family" "Saddlesore Galactica" "Alone Again, Natura-Diddily" "Missionary: Impossible" "Pygmoelian" "Bart to the Future" "Days of Wine and D'oh'ses" "Kill the Alligator and Run" "Last Tap Dance in Springfield" "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Marge" "Behind the Laughter" List of all The Simpsons episodes
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"Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner?" is the third episode of the eleventh season of the American animated sitcom The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 24, 1999. In the episode, Homer becomes a food critic for a Springfield newspaper and ends up annoying the restaurant owners of Springfield after he makes negative reviews just to be mean, advice he took from fellow critics. Springfield's restaurant owners then attempt to kill Homer by feeding him a poisoned éclair. American actor Ed Asner guest starred in the episode as the newspaper editor that hires Homer. The episode has received generally mixed reviews from television critics since airing.

Plot

Springfield Elementary arranges a trip to the offices of The Springfield Shopper for the students. Homer volunteers to escort children on the trip and drives to the newspaper office. There, they are introduced to the newspaper's beginnings and the workings in the inner office. While they are there, Homer smells cake and follows it to a retirement party for the newspaper's food critic. Homer crashes the party and starts pigging out on the food. The editor, seeing Homer's liking for food, offers him a job as their food critic. He asks Homer to prepare a 500-word sample review first.

Homer initially struggles with the review, but he soon gets the help of Lisa who helps him express himself. Soon Homer gets a reputation for giving out excellent reviews to every restaurant he visits. At the Springfield Shopper office, the editor introduces Homer to other critics. They chide him for being too generous in his reviews. Homer gives into their peer pressure and starts giving out a series of bad reviews, criticizing everything. Lisa argues with him for being needlessly cruel and declares she won't help him with his reviews. Homer attempts to continue reviewing by himself. Meanwhile, the local restaurateurs hold a secret meeting, regarding Homer's negative reviews. Soon, they decide to kill him. A French chef declares that he will do the deed, by feeding Homer a poisonous éclair at an upcoming food festival.

At the food festival Homer goes on his reviewing duties. Bart overhears some of the restaurateurs discussing the murder plot and alerts Marge and Lisa. They split up, looking for Homer before it is too late. Homer, meanwhile, has reached the French chef's stall and is about to eat the éclair. Lisa runs up and shouts that it is poisoned, but when Homer shrugs it off, she yells that it is low-fat. Homer throws the lethal pastry away in revulsion, causing it to "explode" when it lands on a krater. The police rush to the scene and arrest the Frenchman. Homer and Lisa walk off into the distance with an angry mob stalking him. After the scene goes black and the end credits begin, Homer is clearly heard receiving his comeuppance, in the form of a beating, from the restaurant owners.

Production

Actor Ed Asner appears in the episode as a character based on Lou Grant.

"Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner?" was written by Al Jean and directed by Nancy Kruse as part of the eleventh season of The Simpsons (1999–2000). American actor Ed Asner guest starred in the episode as the newspaper editor that hires Homer. The character is based on Lou Grant, the character Asner played in the series The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Lou Grant. The episode features several other references to popular culture. For example, the song Homer sings upon being given the food critic job is set to the tune of "I Feel Pretty" from the musical West Side Story. The restaurant Planet Springfield is a parody of Planet Hollywood, containing items such as the film script for The Cable Guy (1996), Herbie from The Love Bug (1968), a model of the RMS Titanic from Titanic (1997), an alien similar to those from Mars Attacks! (1996), models of a TIE Fighter, an X-Wing and C-3PO from Star Wars, as well as "the coffee mug" from the film Heartbeeps (1981) and "the cane" from Citizen Kane (1941), which is not a real prop.

Reception

"Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner?" originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 24, 1999. On October 7, 2008, the episode was released on DVD as part of the box set The Simpsons – The Complete Eleventh Season. Staff members Mike Scully, Al Jean, George Meyer, Dan Greaney, Matt Selman and Nancy Kruse participated in the DVD audio commentary for the episode. Deleted scenes from the episode were also included on the box set.

Since airing, the episode has received generally mixed reviews from critics. In 2003, Ryan Lane of The Daily Orange listed it as the ninth best episode of the series, noting that the "most recent episode on the list is also perhaps the show's last classic." Nancy Basile of About.com listed the episode as one of the episodes she felt "shined in season eleven". In 2011, Keith Plocek of LA Weekly's Squid Ink blog named "Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner?" the sixth best episode of the show with a food theme. While reviewing the eleventh season of The Simpsons, DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson on the other hand commented that "after the solid ['Brother's Little Helper'], Season 11 dips with the more mediocre ['Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner?']. Oh, the show has its moments, especially when Homer’s criticism becomes more mean-spirited. Still, the program rarely becomes anything more than okay; it’s certainly enjoyable but that’s about it."

Karma Waltonen and Denise Du Vernay analyzed "Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner?" in their book The Simpsons in the Classroom, in which they demonstrate how episode of the series can be used in teaching. They wrote: "Although the show's characters do not often model expository writing, we can still find ways to use The Simpsons to illustrate the importance of style. Young writers, for example, may find that their writing resembles Homer's when he attempts to write restaurant reviews in 'Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner.' Homer's diction is poor, his piece rambles off, and he attempts to make the word count by repeating 'Screw Flanders' several times. We can thus illustrate that students need to reduce wordiness [...], while developing their arguments through pertinent content or parallelism. We can also stress revision by showing what Lisa is able to do when she helps her father brainstorm. For example, when they need two more words to end the review, Lisa replaces 'Screw Flanders' with 'Bon appétit'."

External links

• "Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner?" at The Simpsons.com
• "Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner?" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
• "Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner?" at the Internet Movie Database