★★★★★ 4
"I ordered Christian fairy tales on the internet and they sent me Hans Christian Andersen ones by mistake!"---Ned Flanders
Format: Paperback
As was first done with "Simpsons Comics Hit The Road," "Simpsons Comics Get Some Fancy Book Learnin'" actually follows the theme of the title and cover art. All the comics have the Simpsons characters portraying figures in literature from Greek Mythology to Shakespeare. The longer comics are very well done but some of the shorter ones at the end fall flat. Still, I enjoyed this change of pace from the usual Simpsons comics. It offers a very clever use of characters.
"Greek To Me"--Homer plays, well, Homer (the Greek poet) who tells four stories to a gathering of children. The first is "The Labors of Hercules" with Bart as Hercules. He only completed 10, but hey, 10 out of 12 is a B+ which is the best grade Bart ever got. In the second story, Homer is Hades who abducts Marge...er, Persephone...and is taken to court over it. In the third story, Selma is Medusa and Perseus (Bart) has to cut of her head or face 100 years detention. Finally, Homer tells a string of Aesop's Fables like "The Fox and the Grapes," "The Tortoise and the Hare," and--my favorite--"The Ant and the Grasshopper" where Homer is the grasshopper and Flanders is a hilarious-looking ant! There are a lot of clever lines in this one, especially Barney as Oedipus.
"Pandora, Jr."--A 5-page comic with Lisa explaining the story of Pandora's Box to Maggie. Maggie doesn't learn the lesson.
Fairy Tales--Ralph plays Humpty Dumpty in a 2-page short, then there are a string of Hans Christian Andersen tales that Lisa saves from the Flanders's book burning BBQ. Lisa reads the stories to Rod and Tod. There is "The Little Mermaid", "The Prince and the Pea" (featuring Smithers and Mr. Burns), "The Shadow" (featuring the Comic Book Guy), "Thumbelina", and "The Story of a Mother." My favorite is "The Ugly Duckling." I like the scene where Marge the swan takes in the ugly duckling Bart saying, "It's not like I haven't compromised before," while watching a fat Homer swan swigging beer and burping.
Arabian Tales--Dunyazad (Marge) tells King Shahryar (Moe) stories to keep from being put to death. The first one is the best. Ned Flanders is Aladdin who finds a lamp containing an incompetent genie (Homer). His wishes grant him an all-you-can-eat buffet and go-go bar and an angry wife Maude brought from the dead in skeleton form. The other stories are "Apu Baba and the Four Thieves" and "Sinbart The Sailor."
Shakespeare--Plays parodied are "Antony and Cleopatra," "Julius Caesar," "Henry V," "Romeo and Juliet," "The Two Gentlemen of Verona," "Richard III," "Titus Andronicus" (in Itchy and Scratchy cartoon form), and "King Lear." Most of these, in terms of punch lines, are pretty weak.
Bible Stories--Bart tells Rod and Tod some Bible stories to calm them down after they find out Sunday School is canceled. The stories parodied are "The Prodigal Son," "Abraham's Sacrifice," and "Noah's Ark." These comics were, on the whole, funnier than the Shakespeare ones.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2010
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