[2/10] You know, I don’t think anything related to *The Simpsons* shocks me anymore. It’s been more than thirty years. The show has sold out in more ways than you can imagine. It’s gone creatively bankrupt and back again multiple times. It’s had Marge rape Homer, Homer pin a DUI on his wife, and even had Marge pose in *Playboy*. I’m sure there’s some further line they’ll cross eventually, but I’ve lived through a lot of nonsense with this series.

Somehow, this still ranks somewhere toward the bottom. I don’t know why there’s something that feels so wrong about a Simpsons short that’s really just an ad for a streaming service. They’ve already done this twice before with the Star Wars/Marvel crossover shorts. But there’s something that seems so crass and soulless about this.

There’s hardly any effort to satirize or even poke fun at Disney Plus. It’s just a crop of “here are a bunch of your favorite characters from the House of Mouse mixed with some of your favorite Springfield residents. Oh and please continue to pay for our streaming service.” That’s it! There’s no wrinkle, no angle, nothing!

The closest is Homer’s sad friendship with Goofy, but even that’s pretty weak. There’s little in the way of gags which approach “mildly decent” territory, just a bunch of lazy references. I don’t mind *The Simpsons* being a part of this massive corporate conglomerate. It lived under the same corporate umbrella as Fox News for years, so it’s nothing new. But sullying even this already-sullied show with such a shameless pitch in the guise of #content feels awful even for a series with very little integrity left.

A thirty second commercial for the service? Sure, why not? A four minute short masquerading as an actual bit of *The Simpsons* that’s really one long pitch for Disney+? Somehow, someway, you’ve managed to disappoint me once more.