Steal This Episode

"Steal This Episode" is the five hundred and thirty-ninth episode of The Simpsons and ninth episode of the twenty-fifth season.

Production
A pre-release image of Deputy Director Gratman was released along with the announcement of Will Arnett as a guest star. The episode's production code, SABF05, was also revealed.

Reception
The episode was watched by a total of 12.04 million viewers, beating ', ' and Family Guy. These viewing numbers make the episode the most-watched of the series since the twenty-second season episode "Moms I'd Like to Forget."

The episode received critical acclaim. A.V Club praised the episode for its "double-handful of funny lines and gags", "coherent story from beginning to end" and "satirically clever ending the show hasn’t pulled off all year." Giving the episode a B rating, they named "Steal This Episode" the strongest episode of the season thus far and summed up, "Not classic Simpsons by any yardstick, but certainly a welcome respite from what has been a streak of fairly dire late-run episodes." Den of Geek lauded the episode, particularly Julie Kavner's voice-acting work which "tugs and pulls at the emotions", and awarded it 4/5 stars. In a glowing review, TV Fanatic named the episode "a great return to form" and gave the episode a 5/5 rating. Bubble Blabber concluded, "Although this installment didn’t provide non-stop laughs, it still got some big ones, and entertained throughout with its classic humor. Though it may not go down as a classic episode overall, I’ll take anything remotely classic-esque" and gave the episode an 8/10.

Similar opinion came from fans of the show. On No Homers, the episode holds a majority 4/5 vote on the fan-poll and was praised for its gags and execution. Many agreed "Steal This Episode" was "the best episode in years" and "a post-classic."