Bart and Homer take a horse that’s about to be disposed of, and decide to have it used for racing. The other racers aren’t too pleased by the hot streak the horse has going on so they coerce Homer and Bart into throwing.

Meanwhile, Springfield Elementary School’s band loses to another school that uses visual aids. Angered, Lisa takes this up with Clinton, a lover of playing the saxophone and a former president.

Cutting to the chase here: That fucking jockey elves scene. It’s not the worst scene in Simpsons history, but it’s out of place and comes out of nowhere, atypical of Simpsons episodes. If they would’ve just appeared much earlier in the episode that would’ve been fine. The way the elves are defeated is lame too. Really? Soaker hoses? Is the Simpsons really that scared to having Marge use a gun?!

Seriously? Does Mr. Largo really only like John Philips Sousa? That’s like saying you like heavy metal but you only listen to only a few bands or even just one. I myself listen to all kinds of different metal bands: Tank, Witchfinder General (Thanks, James Rolfe!), Manowar, Helloween, Alestorm, Manilla Road, Iron Maiden, Tyrant, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath – including the era after Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules, Dark Angel, and that’s just only a few of the many – I can’t list all of them.

Using glow sticks to win a competition reminds me of Barney and Friends and how this little brat used peanut butter during a peanut race. Rather than punishing him for cheating they all say “he’s funny” which taught kids that cheating is fine. You think people think you’re funny if you’re playing DOTA 2 and scripting with a hero like Tinker or Meepo or playing in a very low rank and slaughtering players with those heroes? No. It’s not funny. It’s wrong, and just as wrong as stealing.

Scapegoating Comic Book Guy as someone going in the episode and giving the characters flack for recycling plots isn’t funny. Neither is him wearing a “Worst Episode Ever” shirt. Being self-aware that your show or the episode is bad doesn’t make any of this funny whatsoever. And besides there were 200+ episodes prior to this one, so obviously plots are going to be reused.

Rather than sticking with a plot, the plot is altered over and over. It makes the episode too confusing and uninteresting.

Homer is nasty in this episode. He says if the horse loses, he’ll send him to the glue factory. What the fuck?