Fox’s The Simpsons is still chugging along in its 35th season, and Sunday night’s episode saw them take a lot of shots at various sports cheating scandals. “Do The Wrong Thing” covers the stories of Homer and Bart cheating at blue-collar sporting events, from fishing to a rock-skipping championship (called by Dan Patrick!) to cornhole, disc golf, and even a “face-slapping championship” mocking Dana White’s Power Slap. It also has Marge fake Lisa’s application to a university summer camp in a way straight out of the infamous NCAA athletic scholarship scandal. And along the way, a whole lot of sports and sports scandals get roasted.
To start with, here’s Patrick reading a “Trucker Hat Sports Network” promo for “LIV Pickleball” and then calling competitive rock-skipping. That has bartender Moe Szyslak say “They are really scraping the bottom of the barrel for new sports content,” getting a “Yeah, and barrel-scraping is up next!” from Barney Gumble. Patrick then calls the rock-skipping (which has an ad for “Try Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson ‘The Rock’ Rocks), and has some great lines like “Next up, Homer Simpson; a first-timer, but using the same equipment as these pros: a flat rock he found on the ground.”
Dan Patrick guested on The Simpsons to call competitive rock-skipping on the Trucker Hat Sports Network, which also features LIV Pickleball and barrel-scraping. pic.twitter.com/uaLzxXrqwe
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 25, 2023
That’s then followed by quite the montage of Homer and Bart cheating at everything from cornhole (“sponsored by Cornhub”) to disc golf to the “face-slapping championship,” which has “What have we become?” painted on the ring canvas. But Lisa eventually gets into the University of Springfield Camp (repeatedly referred to as USC, and her preferred choice over her “total safety camp” of Florida State) on a rowing scholarship thanks to Marge’s doctored photos of her rowing.
However, that then leads to the USC football team bringing them before Dean Belichick (Ken Marino). And Belichick encourages the cheating, says USC “has a proud history of embracing cheating” and “Here at USC, we decided to own cheating.” He also offers Homer a professorship “in our faculty of cheating studies” (at Sam Bankman-Fried Hall), referencing the Houston Astros along the way.
Ken Marino’s Dean Belichick: “It may surprise you to learn that this institution has a proud history of embracing cheating. After all, this is University of Springfield Camp: USC!” pic.twitter.com/SSp0Q7XvFz
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 25, 2023
“This is the world we live in! Taxpayers hide money from the IRS, dating profiles are nothing but lies, and right now, the Houston Astros are dreaming up ways to cheat that would blow your mind.” pic.twitter.com/ySWN45HjUt
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 25, 2023
But while both Lisa and Homer turn Dean Belichick down in the end, the whole family doesn’t feel the same way. The episode ends with Bart taking a role teaching “Intro to Cheating 101” at the “Jim Harbaugh Center for Competitive Imbalance.”
And Bart Simpson is now teaching “Intro to Cheating 101” at the Jim Harbaugh Center for Competitive Imbalance. pic.twitter.com/2rH626QPso
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 25, 2023
There are some pretty funny shots in there. And it’s interesting to have The Simpsons take such aim at everyone from Belichick to Harbaugh to USC and LIV Golf, and to have Patrick guest star for that.
[Awful Announcing on Twitter]
