The 10 Best Episodes of 'The Simpsons' Season 4, Ranked (2024)

The Simpsons is one of the most acclaimed animated sitcoms of all time, and its fourth season is widely considered one of its best. It's not hard to see why; Homer (Dan Castellaneta) is dumber than ever, which surely must have given the writers a sense of freedom to do whatever they wanted with him. Several episodes are lauded by most fans and critics as some of the funniest in the series, including "Marge vs. The Monorail," "A Streetcar Named Marge," and "Mr. Plow." There are twenty-two episodes in total, however, so there are many that deserve recognition.

Though season 4 saw a change in the writing staff, they were still able to churn out some excellent material to keep the Simpsons train chugging along as one of the world's most successful television shows. The jokes in general don't land quite as often as in previous years, but the quality of each installment is high enough for this to remain relatively unnoticeable. Especially in the 10 best episodes of this season, which largely retain the wit, heart, consistency, and satirical core that made this show such a big hit in its first few seasons.

The 10 Best Episodes of 'The Simpsons' Season 4, Ranked (1)

The Simpsons

TV-14

Comedy

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*Availability in US

Release Date
December 17, 1989

Seasons
36

Studio
Fox
Cast
Dan Castellaneta , Julie Kavner , Nancy Cartwright , Yeardley Smith , Hank Azaria , Harry Shearer

Main Genre
Comedy

10 "Kamp Krusty"

Season 4, Episode 1

The 10 Best Episodes of 'The Simpsons' Season 4, Ranked (6)

Season 4 starts things off with a fantastically disastrous trip to the worst summer camp of all time. Bart (Nancy Cartwright) and Lisa (Yeardley Smith) go to Kamp Krusty, but it's so poorly run that even the name of the camp is misleading. Krusty's not there; he's annoying the Queen of England at Wimbledon. In the meantime, Homer is losing weight and regaining hair without the stress of having to watch over his two older children. The counselors at Kamp Krusty are living the high life, making the kids at camp the only ones who are suffering.

With Jimbo, Dolph, Kearney, and Mr. Black in charge, there are rattlesnakes in the cabin, long marches through the woods, Dickensian working conditions, and the suppression of all the kids' mail (one poor guy can't even get his insulin). One of the funniest parts is when Lisa goes to so much trouble to send a letter home, and her parents don't even take it seriously. In light of the astonishing amount of neglect throughout, this episode makes the case that Krusty is one of the most immoral characters in the show.

9 "Marge vs. The Monorail"

Season 4, Episode 12

The 10 Best Episodes of 'The Simpsons' Season 4, Ranked (7)

In "Marge vs. The Monorail," a con man with a similar voice as Lionel Hutz (one of the worst lawyers in history) convinces Springfield to pay him a ton of money to build a monorail that won't even work. Lisa asks a good question: why build a mass transit system in a small town with a centralized population? But this guy is too crafty to answer that question directly, and too charming for Lisa to have a problem with that.

The only person in town who remains skeptical is Marge (Julie Kavner). In the meantime, the monorail is in such bad shape that a family of possums is living in it. This might not be such a big problem if the conductor were competent, but it's Homer. With guest star Leonard Nimoy delivering lines as only he can, this debacle of transportation takes the audience on a comical ride and winds up being one of Marge's best episodes.

8 "Duffless"

Season 4, Episode 16

The 10 Best Episodes of 'The Simpsons' Season 4, Ranked (8)

A baseball game without booze? No thanks. Aside from a couple of jokes that haven't aged well, this episode is a joy to watch throughout. Lisa has grown an enormous tomato that might one day wipe out world hunger, but Bart ruins it. In retaliation, Lisa runs experiments on him to see if he's dumber than a hamster. This amusing b-plot leads to a surprising and effective reference to A Clockwork Orange.

But "Duffless" is mostly about Homer's drinking problem. After a trip to the Duff Brewery, he gets caught drunk driving, and winds up promising Marge he'll give up beer for a month. Highlights include a great spoof on the JFK-Nixon debate and a brief but hilarious appearance from Lionel Hutz. The montage where Homer tries to go a month without beer is The Simpsons at its finest. Along with a wonderfully heartwarming ending, this is definitely one of the best episodes of the season.

7 "Krusty Gets Kancelled"

Season 4, Episode 22

The 10 Best Episodes of 'The Simpsons' Season 4, Ranked (9)

Season 4 started with Krusty, and it ends with him, too. In "Krusty Gets Kancelled," his show's ratings plummet in the face of highly entertaining competition. A puppeteer runs him out of show business, and it's up to Bart and Lisa to get him back on track. With their help, Krusty is able to assemble a formidable guest list for his comeback special. This includes the likes of Tonight Show icon Johnny Carson, the legendary Bette Midler, The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and Krusty's half-brother, Luke Perry.

The amount of big names is impressive, but these cameos are also funnier than the average guest appearances. The best might be when Bette Midler tracks down a car on foot to eliminate a few litterbugs. Johnny Carson's super strength is also quite entertaining, and even Elizabeth Taylor's brief appearances do her justice. This is one of Krusty's best episodes, one of the best Simpsons season finales, and a important reminder to never swear in front of a camera.

6 "Mr. Plow"

Season 4, Episode 9

The 10 Best Episodes of 'The Simpsons' Season 4, Ranked (10)

Homer begins "Mr. Plow" drinking brine and winds up becoming the town's reliable snow-plow guy to make a pretty penny. Moe won't give a free beer to freed Iranian hostages, but he'll give one to Mr. Plow. Impressed by Homer's heightened status, Barney decides to come up with a plow business of his own. Thus, the pitiful alcoholic who starts the episode chasing his giant diaper down the street winds up taking the key to the city from Homer.

How does Barney, someone whose drinking problem makes Homer's look tame by comparison, drive a plow so well? Don't think about that too hard, and you should have a blast. The ridiculously artsy commercial for Mr. Plow is top-tier, and the parody of William Friedkin's criminally underrated Sorcerer is cool. This episode is full of jokes, and some work better than others, but a few of the best include a German car exhibit and everyone at the retirement home staying inside.

5 "Homer the Heretic"

Season 4, Episode 3

The 10 Best Episodes of 'The Simpsons' Season 4, Ranked (11)

There are several reasons why Homer doesn't want to go to Sunday mass: he doesn't care about faith, it's a cold winter morning, he wants to sleep in on the weekend, and his church pants are torn. What follows is a terrific contrast between Homer's blissful morning alone at home and the rest of his family's terrible morning at church. Homer has such a great time that he deems this the best day of his life. Thus, he vows to never go back to church again.

Marge tries to get Homer back in the pews, and Flanders tries even harder. He and his family relentlessly play biblical songs for Homer at all times of day, leading to a spectacular chase scene that feels like an old police procedural. Homer even meets God himself, though the Simpsons team is tactful enough to not show his face. This is a season-four classic, and it would take a whole sermon to list all of its positives.

4 "Homer's Triple Bypass"

Season 4, Episode 11

The 10 Best Episodes of 'The Simpsons' Season 4, Ranked (12)

Ever take a plate of spaghetti, a whole turkey, a bowl of gravy, a cake, a pizza pie, and a bottle of Diet Cola to bed? Good, because then your heart might be having as much trouble as Homer Simpson's. One of the best parts of "Homer's Triple Bypass" involves watching his heart react to Mr. Burns' oscillation between compliments and insults. Anyone who's seen a decent amount of Simpsons will know these heart attacks are a long time coming.

This isn't even related to the issue at hand, but Homer has so much radioactive material flowing through his veins that the doctor can see his circulatory system without injecting the special dye. The price of the surgery gives Homer another heart attack, which, of course, only makes his triple bypass even more necessary and expensive. This episode is almost funny enough to give the viewer a heart attack, but it also has a touching moment at the end that elevates this story above most others.

3 "Last Exit to Springfield"

Season 4, Episode 17

The 10 Best Episodes of 'The Simpsons' Season 4, Ranked (13)

A hilarious McBain movie (one of the show's best running gags) starts off "Last Exit to Springfield." Even funnier is how the show cuts to Mr. Burns laughing at a man about to fall to his death. It's terrific how that one kid from the 1909 flashback predicts how unions will win workers' rights and later become "corrupt and shiftless." In the meantime, Lisa needs braces. The dentist doesn't screw around, either, calling two people liars and mercilessly showing on a computer how Lisa will look if she doesn't get braces.

The Big Book of British Smiles, the fate of the power plant's former union president, and a thousand monkeys typing at a thousand typewriters to write the greatest novel of all time are just a few top-notch moments in this stellar entry. It rivals Mr. Burns' best episodes, a few of which Burns alludes to as he struggles to remember Homer's name. Mr. Simpson is such an accidentally good negotiator that the nuclear worker's strike for a dental plan has a chance to succeed. There are so many laughs in this one that it's undoubtedly one of the best episodes of the season.

2 "Lisa the Beauty Queen"

Season 4, Episode 4

The 10 Best Episodes of 'The Simpsons' Season 4, Ranked (14)

Lisa doesn't think of herself as a beauty queen, but Homer is about to fix that. He sacrifices his free blimp ride to sign her up for the Little Miss Springfield competition. Marge takes her on a trip to the salon, which playfully shows Lisa with a bunch of different hairstyles, and Homer informs Bart of the one thing he knows about women. By the time Lisa gets on that stage, she has the sense of self-worth that her father hoped she would get from the beginning.

But the conflict doesn't end there. Once Lisa becomes Little Miss Springfield, she takes a stand against its horrible sponsor: Laramie Cigarettes. Great gags include a gang of nerds storming a football field, pageant-host Krusty arriving late, and Homer sadly pretending a pickle is a blimp. With a heartwarming scene between father and daughter to finish the story, this is easily one of Lisa's best episodes and one of the underrated highlights of season 4.

1 "A Streetcar Named Marge"

Season 4, Episode 2

The 10 Best Episodes of 'The Simpsons' Season 4, Ranked (15)

Marge needs to get out of the house and meet some other adults, pronto. Luckily for her, a musical production of A Streetcar Named Desire needs a Blanche who can really understand the character. (By contrast, it also needs a Stanley who simply has the same physique as a young Marlon Brando.) Over the course of the rehearsals, Mrs. Simpson is able to express and channel her rage towards her husband and the ways he neglects her. This character arc alone makes this one of Marge's best episodes.

Then there's the subplot: Maggie is left at a daycare while her mother is practicing for the show. Unfortunately, she's left in the humorously named Ayn Rand's School for Tots, where the woman in charge takes away everyone's pacifiers. Maggie takes it upon herself to not only recapture her own but get everyone else's back, too. The great comedic heights in this episode are matched by its allusions to other famous films and its overall emotional power, making it the finest entry in season 4 and one of the best episodes of the 90s in general.

NEXT: 'The Simpsons Movie's 10 Best Quotes, Ranked'

The 10 Best Episodes of 'The Simpsons' Season 4, Ranked (2024)

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