Ricky Gervais is best at the following things - awkward silences, cringe-inducing scenarios and subtle humour. While these may work well on Channel 4, they just don't work in a cartoon, especially one like the Simpsons. Though Ricky does try to give this episode his own humorous signature, it just doesn't work. He should really have tried to cook up an ingenious and original plot and some imaginative new humour that would make this truly special and give a new face to the Simpsons' brand of humour, but this was abandoned in favour of improving his own public image. The plot was cheap, cheerful and cr*p (in the form of a wife swap), and it is evident that this was merely a publicity vehicle for himself in the sense that he and Marge hogged all the screen time and we saw sod-all of Homer and his new wife. Not surprising that all had to be resolved very quickly and badly at the end, so much time was wasted. Though it is good that Ricky has tried to combine the Simpsons' style of humour with his own brand of comedy, this really was over-rated and over-publicised and just didn't feel like the Simpsons we've known these past two decades. One word sums this up - FLAT. 3/10
