YMMV / The Simpsons S 30 E 7 Werking Mom

• Hilarious in Hindsight: The Old Jewish Man is horrified by the prospect that Bernie Sanders isn't the President. Just wait a few years, and Sanders actually campaigned to be President (though he ultimately lost out to Joe Biden)
• Informed Wrongness:
  • Marge lies to Homer about pretending to be a Drag Queen. When he finds out and confronts her, inadvertently revealing her deception, his actions are treated as a Moral Event Horizon. However, Marge has done this to Homer on numerous occasions, and not once was she ever depicted as in the wrong. Even when she put his life in danger in "The Seven Beer Snitch", Homer was the one shown to be at fault. Yet Homer is treated as selfish when he does the same to her. Even when outing her, he realized that he wouldn’t have had a problem with it.
  • Marge is a tourist. Inadvertent at first, sure, but immediately all-in on taking everything she needs from her new friends’ identities to shore up her own. So when Homer, spurred on by Moe’s meddling, crashes Marge’s next party and outs her as a woman, those lowered expectations lead us to think that the necessary rapprochement will simply be between the cis, hetero husband and wife, with the colorful, “fabulous” drag plotline being discarded as no longer necessary. But that’s not what happens. When the partygoers file out grumbling following Homer’s revelation, it’s not due to some stereotypical “Ew, straights” disgruntlement, but a genuine anger that a cis woman has been masquerading as a member of their community to take advantage of them, and their identity. They accuse Marge of “appropriating everything,” and they’re right. As much as Marge’s gripe with Homer for undermining her success and newfound confidence is legitimate, so ,s that of the people she’s used to get that success and confidence.
• Just Here for Godzilla:
  • Some only watched this episode for the drag performance. Particularly to see Smithers and Sideshow Mel in drag.
  • Or to see Marge all dolled up.
• Strawman Has a Point: Although even Homer himself decides halfway through calling her out that he was wrong, Marge was still lying to her customers and appropriating their culture to get them to buy things.
• Take That, Scrappy!: Marge telling Helen off.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: This major complaint of this episode is, while a decent episode it came off the rails, as it devolves into another marriage crisis episode that is quickly resolved through a grand gesture. It was a decent premise with some good moments for the most part, but the conflict and resolution were rushed, contrived, and something we've seen too many times before, rather than examine the larger and more problematic implications of Marge’s ruse.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Throughout this episode, Marge comes across as an outright Jerkass. Besides forbidding Homer from helping her for an incredibly petty reason, she lied to him about what she had been doing. As stated above, Marge has done this to Homer on numerous occasions without consequence. Yet the one time the shoe is on the other foot, it is treated as some unforgivable sin. Homer has been nothing but supportive of Marge throughout the entire episode, to the point that even when confronting her he realized he had no problem with what she is doing. All in all, it comes across as Marge Playing the Victim Card to make Homer her scapegoat, as suddenly all of her lies both to him and the Drag Queens are forgotten in favour of making Homer the Designated Villain.
  Marge: My husband and I have had more than the usual number of scrapes, but we've always gotten back to our love. But this time, you all made me feel understood and supported, and therefore made me realize how selfish Homer is.
  ALL: Oh - Oh, honey.
  Marge: And what hurts the most is that I can't imagine there's anything he can say or do to make me come back.

---