Difference between revisions of "Judge Me Tender"

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"Judge Me Tender" is the twenty-third and finale episode of season 21 of The Simpsons and the four-hundred and sixty-fourth episode overall. It originally aired on May 23, 2010. The episode was written by Dan Greaney and Allen Glazier and directed by Steven Dean Moore. It guest stars Ryan Seacrest as himself, Randy Jackson as himself, Ellen DeGeneres as herself, Kara DioGuardi as herself, Simon Cowell as himself and Rupert Murdoch as himself.

Synopsis

"American Idol host Ryan Seacrest and judges Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson, Kara DioGuardi, and Ellen DeGeneres welcome a new judge to the show – Moe, who displays an exceptional talent in judging things; while Moe is away, Homer has more time to spend at home with Marge... much to her dismay."

Plot

Bart and Homer get Santa's Little Helper ready for the Ugly Dog Contest at the Springfield Pet Fair the next day. At the pet fair, Lisa walks around whilst Homer and Bart take Santa's Little Helper to the contest. Moe Szyslak arrives and tries to find a seat, but nobody lets him sit down as they all hate him, so he sits on the floor. The contest starts and Krusty the Clown is the judge. As Krusty judges each dog, he makes an unfunny comment which the audience hates. When Moe calls out Krusty for his bad jokes, the audience laughs. Krusty then makes Moe the judge as he decides to watch instead. Moe turns out to be a huge hit with the audience because of his mean jokes, even making Krusty laugh. The winner of the contest ends up being Santa's Little Helper, which makes the dog sad as people think he's ugly. The audience then all goes to congratulate Moe on his performance.

At Moe's Tavern, a man with a crazy beard asks Moe to judge an outrageous beard competition. Moe closes down the bar to do so, sending everyone home. Moe proves to be a hit at the contest and is asked to judge more contests, which he does. This, however, means that Homer has to spend more time at home with Marge. Moe is eventually approached by Ron Finkelsteinberg, a talent agent, who wants Moe to become a judge on television. He signs Moe on to American Idol and Moe goes to Los Angeles for filming of the show. Meanwhile, Marge gets annoyed at Homer and takes him to The Gridiron, a sports bar. Homer doesn't like it there though as it's for people who are really into sports so he leaves.

In Los Angeles, Simon Cowell shows Moe around the city. Meanwhile, Lisa helps Santa's Little Helper to feel better about himself and Homer starts causing more trouble at home as he's bored. When Grampa tells Marge that Homer should take up golf to give him a hobby, Marge agrees to do just that. In Los Angeles, Simon Cowell shows Moe clips from interviews with people of Springfield where everyone says that they hate Moe. Simon then tells Moe that being the nasty guy is lonely as everyone hates you.

On Moe's first day on American Idol, a female contestant performs. After each of the judges gives their opinion about her performance, Moe is asked to give his opinion. Instead of being nasty, Moe is positive and compliments her performance. After Moe's comments, Simon is asked for his opinion and he insults the contestant before insulting Moe and his comments. When Moe asks why Simon double crossed him, Simon said that it was because Moe does what he does, except he's cheaper to get. Moe then smashes a bottle and attempts to rip out Simon's voice box before he is dragged out by security.

Back in Springfield, Marge takes Homer to the golf course. As Homer was getting ready to play golf, an elderly golfer told Marge that once Homer takes his first swing, he'd be hooked like he was. The old golfer then told Marge that he missed every important event in his family's life to play golf. Marge then stops Homer from golfing and takes him home where they have sex. In Moe's later, Moe is back behind the counter. Moe tells everyone that he's been banned from Los Angeles and banned from showing Fox in his bar. Rupert Murdoch then shows up and tells Moe to put Jay Leno on TV.

Reception

In its original airing, the episode was viewed by an estimated 5.73 million American households with a 2.5 rating/8 share.^[1]

Robert Canning of IGN gave the episode a 6.5 rating. He called the episode a "clunker" and said that "there was little to get excited about". He felt that it would might not have been so disappointed with the episode had it not been the season finale.^[2] Meanwhile, Emily VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club gave the episode a D rating. She felt that this episode "just drove home for me how tired this show is and how little it tries anymore".^[3]

As of September 2020, the episode has a 6.4 rating on IMDb^[4] and a 7.0 rating on TV.com.^[5]

In other languages

Language Name Translation Deutsch "Richte deinen Nächsten" Judge your Neighbor Español "Júzgame con ternura" Judge me tenderly Español "Júzgame con ternura" Judge me tenderly Français "Moe, moche et méchant" Moe, ugly and mean (possible reference to the French title of the Despicable Me films) Français "Le jugement de sa..." The judgment of his... Italiano "Giudicami delicatamente" Judge me gently

Promotional images

• Judge Me Tender promo 2.jpg
• Judge Me Tender promo 3.jpg
• Judge Me Tender promo 4.jpg

References

Wikisimpsons has a collection of images related to "Judge Me Tender".