Kredit Kookies: Flyby: Ned being carried off by a gargoyle (?!) Billboard: An ad for the Springfield Squidport: “Dead Seals Wash Up Daily!”, Chalkboard: We DO Need no Education. Couch Gag: Homer and the Family headbutt their way through New York traffic, eventually arriving at David Letterman’s studio.When their Stupid Human Trick proves to be sitting on their sofa, they’re played off by Paul and the band.

Lisa’s on trial and we discover through flashbacks how she ended up in court. After a family shopping spree at Springfield Commons lands Homer a new laptop and she discovers through Sherri and Terri that she’s (still) unpopular, Lisa creates a new Springfield-specific social network called SpringFace.Unfortunately, she and her crack team of nerds create a phenomenon that eats Springfield’s social sphere whole.The episode ends with a brief short in the style of Edward Gorey.

Two words for the first fifteen minutes: scattershot mess.The introductory segments at Springfield Commons lingered for far too long and humor burst forth at odd, random intervals; the best laugh I got was from the Squeaky Voiced Geek’s envisioning of Lisa’s story as a McBain picture.The rest of the episode was overly-padded with extraneous material.

The court room case is, naturally, a reference to the Social Network’s framing device, but in no universe in the world would Lisa actually be held liable for the idiotic behavior of her users; she could have reached the same conclusion without the mostly unfunny courtroom material.While several segments end with terrible Family Guy-style cutaway jokes, some of the Facebook-related obsession ones are funny (Bart playing a version of Call of Duty that involves blowing corpses up and killing his opponents with ‘ass shrapnel’; Reverend Lovejoy lamenting his decision to make the church a wifi hot spot).But the penultimate joke and message, dare I say it?Already have been done, and done better, by South Park in their internet episode several years ago.When the point is delivered in a sledgehammer-heavy way to the head, everyone loses.That’s right, folks: “don’t let the internet consume your social life; go outside and live without a mobile device attached to your hip!While you hashtag #thesimpsons on Twitter, shop at their luxurious Simpsons shop at the official site, and stalk Fox’s official Tumblr!At least other shows embrace their hypocrisy while The Simpsons ignores it.

And if any of you were coming to the party for the Winklevoss versus Bouvier Twins subplot, as advertised in the promotional material AS a subplot (I wasn’t one of them)?You will be extremely disappointed.But, in spite of its flaws, unlike last week’s episode this week’s was actually funny.I’m also throwing in some bonus points for the beautifully-animated short glued randomly onto the end of the episode.

Letter Grade: D