" The Food Wife " is the fifth episode of the twenty-third season of the American animated comedy The Simpsons . It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 13, 2011, and was seen by about 7.5 million people during this broadcast. In the episode, Homer felt abandoned when Marge, Bart, and Lisa joined a group of foodies. Their personal blog quickly became popular and the trio were invited to the molecular gastronomic restaurant. Feeling sorry for Homer, Marge invited him. However, having begun to worry that he would reclaim his position as the parent who is considered the most fun by the children, he sends it to the wrong address. Homer unknowingly arrives at the meth laboratory, where the firefight starts when the police barge in.
This episode was written by Matt Selman. It contains several references to different foods and famous chefs, and is largely devoted to food culture, which Selman has said that he "always thinks funny and fascinating.The idea of ​​food is not just something you enjoy eating, but as something you are so passionate about with it so you boast a bit. "Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, stars and creators Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! , guest starred in this episode as two culinary lovers and performing hip hop songs that make fun of foodies. Chef and media figures Anthony Bourdain, Gordon Ramsay, and Mario Batali also starred in the episode, but as themselves in the dream sequence. Although "The Food Wife" has received positive reviews from television critics, especially for hip hop songs, it also drew criticism from certain food critics.
Video The Food Wife
Plot
Homer brought his children, Bart and Lisa, to a video game convention for another Saturday's fun. After they returned home, Marge was annoyed that Homer became a "nice father", while he was stuck doing things that were not fun with the kids. Next Saturday, he decided to take Bart and Lisa to the "X-Games" convention, thinking it would be fun. However, when they arrived, they were disappointed to learn that it was a Christian event, and the real name of the convention was "The Game". The car engine died on the way back and they were forced to stop in the Little Ethiopian neighborhood, where the three entered a restaurant serving Ethiopian food. Despite initially rejecting exotic food, Marge is reminded that she wants to be a pleasant mother and therefore asks for the most authentic dishes on the menu for her and her children. The three of them enjoyed the food. At the restaurant, Marge, Bart, and Lisa meet a group of food lovers, who encourage them to start their own food blog, "The Three Mouthketeers". Blogs quickly became popular and all three spent a lot of time together trying new foods and writing about it. This makes Homer feel abandoned and sad.
When the trio got an invitation to an exclusive molecular gastronomic restaurant called El Chemistri, Marge invited Homer out of pity. After announcing this to Bart and Lisa, he regains the title of "pleasant father", leaving Marge worried about losing his new bond with the children. In one of his dreams that night, he and the children tried a new meal with chef Anthony Bourdain when Homer jumped on a ball and ate it all, taking the children's attention from Marge. Homer, Bart, Lisa, Bourdain, and other eminent chefs who appeared, such as Mario Batali, then jumped from Marge with a jump ball, leaving him alone. After that, Gordon Ramsay appeared next to him, using profanity while saying that he should not invite Homer. The next day, he deliberately gave Homer the wrong address to the restaurant.
When Marge and the children arrive at El Chemistri, Homer unknowingly arrives at the illegal meth lab which he thinks is the real restaurant. While the trio ate their food (deconstruction Caesar salad) with other foodies, Marge felt guilty about misleading Homer. Meanwhile, Homer meets with shabu and other drug addicts, whom he believes to be a food hipster. Just as he will have a meth taste (which he says are foods produced with the help of molecular gastronomy), police explode and shootouts occur between them and the drug addicts. At El Chemistri, Marge receives a frantic text message from Homer asking for help, and she asks other foodies to help rescue her husband. They refused, so he, Bart, and Lisa headed straight for the meth lab after receiving a doggie bag from an angry chef as they were leaving. Upon arrival, Marge throws the apple pie from the doggie bag into the mouth of the shabu dealer. It caused a flashback in his mind to childhood when his mother used to make apple pie. With the help of this intrusion, the police postponed it. After Marge apologizes to Homer, they and their children decide to have fun together as a whole family from now on.
Maps The Food Wife
Production
"The Food Wife" was written by Matt Selman's executive producer The Simpsons. The writing process begins around September 2010. According to Selman, the main episode revolves around Homer and Marge who compete about who is considered the most fun by Bart and Lisa, a situation that he thinks parents can identify with real life. This episode is also very focused on blog foodies and food. Selman said in an interview with New York's magazine Grub Street publication that the food culture is "just a world that I always thought was funny and fascinating." The idea of ​​food is not just something you enjoy eating, but as something very "I am the one who found this Korean pork neck soup restaurant," and you can claim it as your own.Blogging just feeds into the kind of territorial element that I always thought was basically funny.And when I wrote episode Simpsons , I try to start with a world that I think is funny, and think, 'What's a good story we can say in that world, using the characters we have?' "
Describing herself as "a kind of foodie", Selman has said that food is always in her mind and that she loves to read Jonathan Gold's food critic at LA Weekly . She told LA Weekly ' about the Squid Ink food blog she likes foodies, despite making fun of them at "The Food Wife". She commented that on the show, she often "picked up something I loved, found a little weird, bad stuff about it and made fun of it", gave the foodies an example and wrote: "You can make fun of them because of the arrogant or arrogant or fun.You prefer to shoot something rather than taste it is a funny nuance of that phenomenon.That's more about sticking your flag on something than actually enjoying it.We sort of make fun of foodies, but in real life we're right loves them. "
Selman is pleased with the end result of the episode. He noted in an interview with Grub Street that Marge started writing about food "does not sound interesting inherently, but the episode itself is actually very interesting, and I'm very happy with how it happened." Selman thinks the strong thing about the episode is the fact that, despite Homer's love for food, Homer is not the person who became a foodie as expected. He explains that this is because even though Homer likes to eat, "he's the kind of person who likes to eat foreigners who do not like foreign food, weird food, enjoy food, digest food, write blogs about it, photograph him - he just wants to cram all the time."
Cultural reference
Selman wants to include things in the episode that "only really hard-core foodies will know what we're talking about. It's like a love letter for food culture." The food references featured in this episode include jokes about sriracha and sous-vide sauces, referrals to Wylie Dufresne chefs, Frank Bruni, and Ruth Reichl, mention of soup ph? from Vietnam and how to pronounce it correctly, and the entry of El Chemistri owners based on the Spanish chef JosÃÆ'Â © AndrÃÆ'Ã… © s (known for using molecular gastronomy). Selman has commented that food produced with the aid of molecular gastronomy is "well suited for comedy" There is a dish [in El Chemistri], for example, called Regrets.Waiters cry to your soup as he serves Human tears are the last ingredient. " The Swedish Chef is also seen in the episode, and the scene where the meth dealer is reminded of his childhood after eating apple pie is a reference to the Pixar movie Ratatouille , written and directed. by former Simpsons consultant Brad Bird.
In addition to the food culture, "The Food Wife" parodies the video game industry and reference games such as Assassin's Creed , God of War , Half-Life , < i> BioShock , Call of Duty , Dig Dug , Driver: San Francisco , Hello , Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 , Star Wars Lego , Medal of Honor , Madden NFL , Q * bert , Rayman Origins , Resident Evil: Revelations , Shaun White Snowboarding , and Angry Birds . In the episode, Homer, Bart, and Lisa visit a video game convention called Expensive Electronic Entertainment Expo (E4), which is a reference to Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) presented annually in the United States by the Entertainment Software Association. This marked the first time that the family visited a video game convention at The Simpsons . Selman and other staff members at the previous show have visited E3 during the release of The Simpsons video game such as The Simpsons Game . While appearing on GameTrailers TV with Geoff Keighley on November 11, 2011 Selman commented that "We've been to so many [E3s] and we've pushed around, and knocked around, and seen so many PR people [ talking] about how hard it is to work in their game.We've seen how expensive the food is, and how great it is, and the bloggers, and the photos, and just the voices [...] We have to do it on the show.
In the episode, Homer and his sons wanted to see the opening of a new Funtendo console called Zii Zu, which is a reference to the Nintendo Wii Nintendo console. As he and the kids walked through the lively convention to get to the opening, the screen turned into a first-person shooter game through Homer's eyes. He uses Frisbees and fire extinguishers as a weapon to move forward. According to Selman, the inspiration for this comes from the fact that "if you've been to E3, you know it's crazy, it's super-crowded, it's super-hard, and goes through it like a video game, like a video game's first person nightmare from blogger and nerds. You just want to get what you want to get. "
Guest appearances
Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, stars and creators of the American sketch comedy series Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! , guest stars in the episode as foodies Amus Bruse and Fois Garth, respectively. Both of these characters are one of the food lovers that Marge, Bart, and Lisa met in Ethiopian restaurants. In the episode, they sing a hip-hop song that Selman says is "all boasting how amazing and cool you are as a foodie." It was co-written by a duo, and was inspired by the song "Empire State of Mind". Selman commented that "In animated TV shows, whenever you try to show people having fun doing their stuff [in this case, Marge and kids create content for their blog], it just kind of becomes a boring montage. And we've been doing so many montages on The Simpsons for 25 years, it's like, oh God, no more montage. [...] So we're like, 'Why not do a ridiculous rap song? 'Rap is something that is inherently arrogant, and there's something about being an inherently boastful foodie.This is like the pride that connects these things.So Tim and Eric do rap music songs on ridiculous rap shows, and his name is deliberately silly: 'Blog Blogging Food.' "
American Chef guest star Anthony Bourdain starred in the episode as himself. Selman wants it on the show because he is a big fan and he thinks Marge will love it. Bourdain's appearance was disconnected because the episode ended too long, and as a result, his "bad boy persona was not fully explored," Selman told Squid Ink. In addition to Bourdain, guest stars in this episode include chefs and media personalities Gordon Ramsay and Mario Batali as themselves. All three appeared in Marge's dream. When asked by Digital Spy about his performance, Ramsay said that "I grew up watching The Simpsons and liked that they are foodies," and joked that "By God, I have to promise Marge a place in MasterChef to appear on a bloody show! "Selman hopes that he can give Batali more than one line, but admits that" you can not put it all into a 21-minute show. "
Release
This episode aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 13, 2011. It was watched by about 7.5 million people during this broadcast. In a demographic for adults aged 18-49, this episode received a 3.4 Nielsen rating (down five percent from the previous episode) and an eight percent share. The Simpsons became the highest rated program in the Animation Domination Fox range that night both from the total audience and in the 18-49 demographic, ending before the new episode of Family Guy , Dad America! , and Allen Gregory . For the week of November 7-13, "The Food Wife" finished seventh rank among all prime-time broadcasts in 18-49 demographics.
Critical review
Since airing, this episode received mostly positive reviews from television critics. Ology (website) Josh Harrison gave it eight out of ten ratings, writing that "You must love these Simpsons episodes that really go into the heart of the subculture.Catch the world's first head of foodies and food blogging (after a funny geeky pit in a video game exhibit), 'The Food Wife' shish-kabobs gourmet diehards while highlighting the very real issues between Homer and Marge. "He concludes that the episode was" a sure swing for the fence, and I think it achieved its full objectives. " The scene in the video game convention was praised by Anthony Severino from Game Revolution as well. He commented that the authors "put it on. Everything from the great look, the long lines, and even the look of the Los Angeles Convention Center is very appropriate.The best part is how they describe people with 'VIP pass', you know the things we journalists get, as douches who think they are better than fixed. "
In his review of "The Food Wife", Alan Sepinwall of HitFix praised him for "staying true to character, of course children would regard Homer as a pleasant father at the time when he really tried, and of course Marge would feel jealous with this, and if he goes too far trying to make this a special thing, he also knows it soon, feels guilty throughout the meal and then goes to save the day, complete with great respect for her.. "Sepinwall also praised the episode for being" full of great jokes ", such as Heidecker and Wareheim's hip hop song and a scene at a video game convention where the screen turned into a first-person shooter game. Similarly, Haydens Childs of The A.V. Club praised this episode as "funny and observable", gave it a B value, and quoted hip hop as the episode. He also praised Bourdain, Batali, and Ramsay, and stated that he hopes Bourdain will get a bigger share in the episode. Childs further writes that "The best thing about this episode is that it does not try to trap any strange storyline or characters beyond the character below the viewer's throat.This is attached to the basics: family dynamics are combined with gently mocking the ongoing fashion I say 'still fluent' because although it may be true that food blogisation is slightly past its expiration date in some cities, I do not think that it has been excessive everywhere. "
Feedback from food critic
The Food Wife's acceptance of food critics has been mixed to be positive. Before the episode aired, Robert Sietsema from The Village Voice rejected it because it was outdated. He commented that "this event should have been done, say, two or three years ago, when blogging was hot food.Nowadays, many of our food contact bloggers have migrated out to pay for the show, and the concept of food blogs has been co-opted by every media outlet great, presenting a real food blog - an old-fashioned type, where someone stands alone in a cooking kitchen, or explores the interior looking for unique delights - almost obsolete. "Sietsema also criticized scenes showing molecular gastronomy because he thought it was outdated, because gastronomy molecular is, "now, well past its prime." Chris Shott, food critic for Washington City Paper ' s Young & amp; The hungry columns and blogs, writing negatively about a character that has El Chemistri and is a parody of JosÃÆ' © AndrÃÆ' © s. He commented that "For one thing, the character seems to be much quieter than kooky, the cheek-eyed cheek-eyed chef we saw in Conan." Satir here, involving deconstruction of Caesar salad from foam, gel and airs, is more of a riff on molecular gastronomy in general than sending Andrà © 'over-the-top personality'.
Food critic Katharine Shilcutt of Houston pressed the episode for giving what she thought was an inaccurate portrayal of food enthusiasts, because people who were "tacky, insolent, a little racist, hoarding the food experiences you collect like rare jewels and patronizing the heads of others. "Shilcutt added that he was annoyed that what he believed to be the moral of the episode was that" educated and enthusiastic people are elitists. all the hard work that people give to creating good and honest food is a joke, and not very funny There is no balance in the episode between snobbish, arrogant, obnoxious foodies and those who have genuine interest and insane in food and all the essential permutations in our lives. "
Other food critics have written positively about "The Food Wife". Lesley Balla from the Squid Ink blog LA Weekly ' lists ten of her favorite quotes from the episode, placing all hip hop songs about foodies and food blogging on it. She commented that "Many people are in jokes in the foodies' shopping episode season, so it's funny as a non-food-world person like that to someone who can identify every culinary personality in Marge's dream [...]" Safe to say, yes; it's still The Simpsons .For foodists, the whole episode is entirely cited - we believe it will be on the food blogosphere for years to come. "Laine Doss, a food blogger for Miami New Times and New Times Broward-Palm Beach , commented that he "liked Lisa Simpson's list of the funniest vegetarians [appearing on the blog], including Paul McCartney, Russell Brand, and Edward Cullen. "Doss, as well as Elizabeth Gunnison from Esquire's s Like Like Man blog, also praise hip hop songs.
References
External links
- "The Food Wife" in IMDb
- "The Food Wife" on TV.com
- "The Food Wife" at The Simpsons.com
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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