Take My Life, Please

"Take My Life, Please" is the tenth episode of the twentieth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons.

Later, at Moe's Tavern, Lenny and Carl confess to Homer that his old high school principal Harlan Dondelinger had ordered them to bury the ballot box containing the votes to the election.

He remains unconvinced and becomes more depressed after seeing that his life would have been a lot better if he had won, even leaping into the pot to try to "live in the sauce", much to the saucier's consternation.

[2][3] The Simpsons creator Matt Groening told the New York Post: "The clouds at the very beginning of the main title were always unsatisfying to me.

[5] In the class presidential election at least one vote is shown to have been cast for Fonzie, a character from the sitcom Happy Days, while Homer fails to understand that Bruce Wayne is the true identity of the superhero Batman.

[5] Additionally, Homer's election poster claims he is endorsed by the films Star Wars and Jaws and sees him hugging Darth Vader and the shark, respectively, from each.

Rene Rosa of UGO wrote: "When the self-referential jokes about the episode's switch to HD were the things that made me laugh the most, and they last only a few seconds, I realized something was not good.

The show has been around for 20 years; I would imagine that there would be plenty to mine from digging deep into a simpler story line for 19 minutes.

"[9] IGN's Robert Canning thought it was a fun episode, and said that it "helped that the major flashbacks involved took place in a fantasy world as to not effect the whole of the show.

"[10] Erich Asperschlager of TV Verdict said he had always liked flashback and alternate future episodes, and he thought "Take My Life, Please" put them together in a "clever way".

The finale dragged a bit, and they could have spent more time with the surreality of Homer's almost-the-same alternate past, but those are minor quibbles.