Moe Goes from Rags to Riches
- Episode aired Jan 29, 2012
- TV-14
- 30m
IMDb RATING
5.8/10
1.4K
YOUR RATING
While Bart tries to regain Milhouse's friendship, Moe's bar cleaning rag tells his unlikely story of how he got to where he is today.While Bart tries to regain Milhouse's friendship, Moe's bar cleaning rag tells his unlikely story of how he got to where he is today.While Bart tries to regain Milhouse's friendship, Moe's bar cleaning rag tells his unlikely story of how he got to where he is today.
Photos
Dan Castellaneta
- Homer Simpson
- (voice)
- …
Julie Kavner
- Marge Simpson
- (voice)
Nancy Cartwright
- Bart Simpson
- (voice)
- …
Yeardley Smith
- Lisa Simpson
- (voice)
Hank Azaria
- Duffman
- (voice)
- …
Harry Shearer
- Ned Flanders
- (voice)
- …
Jeremy Irons
- Bar Rag
- (voice)
Pamela Hayden
- Milhouse Van Houten
- (voice)
- …
Tress MacNeille
- Allison Taylor
- (voice)
- …
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaIn this episode it is revealed (at least, according to a rag) that Moe's father is a Yeti.
- ConnectionsFeatured in WatchMojo: Top 10 Worst! Simpsons! Episodes! EVER! (2019)
Featured review
Bizarre rag
Absolutely loved 'The Simpsons' in its early years, where so much came together in great harmony. In its prime it was one of the best and most addictive shows on television in my opinion, with lots of hilarious moments and it handled the emotional moments brilliantly too. The characters are also iconic and still are. Sadly it has been nowhere near as good as it originally was for a while now and in recent years there have been some quite bad episodes.
"Moe Goes from Rags to Riches" is one of those bad episodes. Not quite as much as "Lisa Goes Gaga" for example, but there are many that consider it one of the worst 'The Simpsons' episodes and after finally seeing it, despite wanting so much to go against the grain, it pains me to say that they are correct here. Not even having Jeremy Irons as guest star or hearing his listen-to-for-hours voice can save it. The very worst episode? Maybe not quite but it is very close. The strangest? Oh yes, easily, haven't seen an episode for anything this bizarre in a long time. Am not saying that being bizarre is bad all the time, it's when it's overdone when it is and "Moe Goes from Rags to Riches" not just overdoes it but it abuses it. The title alone is misleading, nothing really is rich about this episode and Moe is barely in it. The only thing it has right is that a rag plays a big role in the episode.
Didn't think it was a complete abomination. The animation is as colourful and detailed as ever. The music at least fits with the action and sounds appealing, the theme song/tune is still iconic 30 or so years on and is one that nobody will forget or have trouble recognising.
Some of the voice acting is okay, though all have done better before and even since. So basically the good things are the things that have been consistently good from the get go since the show started, even when 'The Simpsons' lost its way.
There is so much wrong sadly though. One of the biggest problems being that it just isn't funny, none of the lines are remotely funny or memorable (although Homer has one that does bring a very half-smile to the face for a second or two) and it just feels tired. There is a lot of intended satire, ideally satire should be witty, sly and razor-sharp but that's not the case in "Moe Goes from Rag to Riches". Have not heard satire this tame or stale in a long time, it actually did start to lose me very early on with that Lionel Ritchie video recreation. And it is a real shame that the episode takes a premise so unlike anything 'The Simpsons' had done before and executed it so strangely and dully. Everything, even the regular characters, was so bland and went too far on the bizarre factor.
Any real jokes are not enough and they are rather stale, even those that are of the mocking kind (which are so overly-polite that it would impossible to offend anybody) while too much of the material goes nowhere. For example, the origins of the tapestry fails to really serving much relevance. The structure sounded promising but came over as disjointed and not as cohesive as it could have been. None of the three acts are interesting really, the least bad being the second one with Lisa and Nelson (for Nelson's reactions) but even that lacked irony. The first act was far too polite and tame with too little of the material being properly followed through and the last is so overly-sentimental to sickly sweet effect that it leaves an aftertaste that leaves one reaching for the sick bag. The Bart and Millhouse, who is also out of character to an insulting degree, subplot was far too rushed and random, the episode could have done without it too.
While saying that some of the voice acting is okay, the audio doesn't always do them many favours, Lisa sometimes sounds odd. Personally thought that there was too much of Bar Rag even for the premise and that he was a not particularly compelling or developed character, in all fairness it would have been quite a task in the first place in making a dish rag interesting. Not even Jeremy Irons can save this, he is one of my favourite actors but the writers don't give him particularly much to work with and what he has is weak and far too weird that any actor would have struggled to make sense of it. And it seemed that Irons knew this, because this was a very rare phoned in performance from him.
In conclusion, very disappointing episode. A generous 3/10
"Moe Goes from Rags to Riches" is one of those bad episodes. Not quite as much as "Lisa Goes Gaga" for example, but there are many that consider it one of the worst 'The Simpsons' episodes and after finally seeing it, despite wanting so much to go against the grain, it pains me to say that they are correct here. Not even having Jeremy Irons as guest star or hearing his listen-to-for-hours voice can save it. The very worst episode? Maybe not quite but it is very close. The strangest? Oh yes, easily, haven't seen an episode for anything this bizarre in a long time. Am not saying that being bizarre is bad all the time, it's when it's overdone when it is and "Moe Goes from Rags to Riches" not just overdoes it but it abuses it. The title alone is misleading, nothing really is rich about this episode and Moe is barely in it. The only thing it has right is that a rag plays a big role in the episode.
Didn't think it was a complete abomination. The animation is as colourful and detailed as ever. The music at least fits with the action and sounds appealing, the theme song/tune is still iconic 30 or so years on and is one that nobody will forget or have trouble recognising.
Some of the voice acting is okay, though all have done better before and even since. So basically the good things are the things that have been consistently good from the get go since the show started, even when 'The Simpsons' lost its way.
There is so much wrong sadly though. One of the biggest problems being that it just isn't funny, none of the lines are remotely funny or memorable (although Homer has one that does bring a very half-smile to the face for a second or two) and it just feels tired. There is a lot of intended satire, ideally satire should be witty, sly and razor-sharp but that's not the case in "Moe Goes from Rag to Riches". Have not heard satire this tame or stale in a long time, it actually did start to lose me very early on with that Lionel Ritchie video recreation. And it is a real shame that the episode takes a premise so unlike anything 'The Simpsons' had done before and executed it so strangely and dully. Everything, even the regular characters, was so bland and went too far on the bizarre factor.
Any real jokes are not enough and they are rather stale, even those that are of the mocking kind (which are so overly-polite that it would impossible to offend anybody) while too much of the material goes nowhere. For example, the origins of the tapestry fails to really serving much relevance. The structure sounded promising but came over as disjointed and not as cohesive as it could have been. None of the three acts are interesting really, the least bad being the second one with Lisa and Nelson (for Nelson's reactions) but even that lacked irony. The first act was far too polite and tame with too little of the material being properly followed through and the last is so overly-sentimental to sickly sweet effect that it leaves an aftertaste that leaves one reaching for the sick bag. The Bart and Millhouse, who is also out of character to an insulting degree, subplot was far too rushed and random, the episode could have done without it too.
While saying that some of the voice acting is okay, the audio doesn't always do them many favours, Lisa sometimes sounds odd. Personally thought that there was too much of Bar Rag even for the premise and that he was a not particularly compelling or developed character, in all fairness it would have been quite a task in the first place in making a dish rag interesting. Not even Jeremy Irons can save this, he is one of my favourite actors but the writers don't give him particularly much to work with and what he has is weak and far too weird that any actor would have struggled to make sense of it. And it seemed that Irons knew this, because this was a very rare phoned in performance from him.
In conclusion, very disappointing episode. A generous 3/10
helpful•93
- TheLittleSongbird
- Nov 27, 2019
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