Irish eyes are smiling in this week’s Simpsons, when Grandpa and Homer take a trip to a pub-and accidentally end up the owners- in this week’s edition of “The Simpsons” “In The Name of the Grandfather.”

Kredit Kookies: Chalkboard: "Four Leaf Clovers Are Not Mutant Freaks." Couch Gag: The Simpsons are competitors in the Westminster Dog Show – Bart wins, which leads to a confrontation with Homer. The billboard features Dr. Nick, and proclaims "Come in for sextuplets, get an octuplet for free!". 

Dumbing It Down: Marge tricks the family into an outing to a home and garden show, where Bart pranks Skinner and the family becomes enchanted with a hot tub.

The Simpsons spend hours of their time in the tub, and even Flanders ends up joining them for an all-night soak. The device so relaxes the group that they forget all of their obligations, including Homer’s agreement to attend family day at Grandpa’s home. 

To mend fences between them, Homer reluctantly takes Grandpa and the family to Dunkilderry, Ireland, where Grandpa’s always wanted to have another pint at O'Flanagan's, a pub where he had a joyful night of carousing  in his youth (apparently while on leave from military service).

Ireland, however, isn’t the carefree place Abe recalls; Dunkilderry’s part of Ireland’s tech boom, and the town has been gentrified into a yuppie haven. O’Flanagan’s still stands, however, and in spite of his desperation the pub’s owner offers to pour them a drink.

While Homer and Abe bond, Marge and the kids go sightseeing, playing a modified game of Q*Bert at Giant’s Causeway, encountering Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová (the Oscar-winning singer-songwriters from “Once”), and causing mischief at the Blarney stone (where Bart tries to trick people into kissing his butt, which goes horribly awry). The family realize they’ve run out of fun things to do when they attend Bloomsday festivities in Dublin.

Homer and Abe come to after a night of drinking to discover that they agreed to buy O’Flanagan’s from an overjoyed Tom O’Flanagan in their drunken stupor. Father and son struggle to find a hook to liven the pub's business, eventually importing Moe for advice. Mr Syzlak naturally suggests they play dirty and offer the people of Dunkilderry whatever they cannot legally obtain elsewhere.

The trio learn the town has banned smoking, and promptly turn the pub into a smokeasy. Naturally, in spite of their success, the police shut Homer and Abe down, and though Homer makes an impassioned speech the Simpsons are punished with deportation.

The episode concludes with an extended gag featuring Chief Wiggum, who’s come to Ireland to escort The Simpsons home.

Red Dress Press: Another “The Simpsons are going to…” episode, “In the Name of The Grandfather” ultimately plays out with all the blandness of the Irish cuisine mocked in the episode. The funniest gags sprouted from the home and garden show; Bart’s prank on Skinner, and Homer voiding the warranty on the digital scale/welcome mat. Things take a negative turn when the Simpsons suddenly decide to purchase their hot tub.

First, it’s hard to reconcile the notion of a family that can’t afford a pool or air conditioning being able to afford a hot tub, even on a payment plan. It’s a simple gag and easy to ignore on the basis of “the It’s in the script” principle, but I couldn’t resist bringing it up.

From there onward, the episode gradually coasted downhill, scoring some decent gags (the best was the Once callback, referencing the real-life breakup of Hansard and Irglová), but providing none of the liveliness of episodes such as “Thirty Minutes over Tokyo” or “Bart Simpson Vs Australia”.

Nonsensical gags abounded: Krusty episodes broadcasting in German? The family flopping like fish after being removed from the hot tub? The endless Q*Bert parody? These feel like recycled jokes from a discarded Family Guy script. And what happens to the pub now that the Simpsons have been forcibly deported from the country? And what can be said for the weird Kathy Ireland gag, other than it’s the obvious result of something going awry behind the scenes? Perhaps axing the gag would have worked better.

And that gag with Wiggum at the very end drags on and on, playing out with agonizing pointlessness,

In the positive, nothing felt terribly OOC in this episode, and Colm Meaney did an excellent job with his role as Tom O’Flanagan. The numerous sight gags - U2 Movers and Blarney Rubble were the best – also helped to punch up the episode.

"In the Name of the Grandfather" is anything but special, bland for a vacation episode and dull compared to other Abe/Homer bonding episodes.  A disappointing outing.

Did It Fail At Masonry?: You know what you’re getting when you watch a vacation-themed episode of the Simpsons; easy gags, simple plot, guest stars from the region. If you like your Simpsons light-minded, you will love “In The Name of the Grandfather”.

What The Screwballs Think: “In the Name of the Grandfather” scored 957,000 viewers in its Sky1 debut on the seventeenth. The show’s North American debut scored a 3.6, third place for its timeslot and the second-highest rated program in the Animation Domination block.

Springfield Shopper: “Wedding for Disaster” is set to air March twenty-ninth. Check back here on the thirtieth for a full review!