Production codes for all previous Xmas specials. Look at any episode and it is assigned a unique identification number. Done. Too bad the Simpson's seem to be a place where new writers get vetted. There's rarely a narrative arch allowed to hold the whole piece (a whole episode) together as a whole. What we get are pop culture jokes for the sake of pop culture jokes. There is much left to explore about the dark, sometimes troubling inner experiences of childhood meets adult world ...but the writers here seem uninterested or too young, naive, or timid to explore them. They go for the go nowhere joke bc they seem to just want to start a normal career and avoid any conflict.
Too bad the folks they wish they could become did just the opposite. Smh.