Brother's Little Helper - Reception

Reception

In its original American broadcast on October 3, 1999, "Brother's Little Helper" finished at no. 51 in the ratings, according to Nielsen Media Research, making it the most watched television program on Fox that night. Despite being the most watched program of the network, the ratings were considered disappointing by the Deseret News. On October 7, 2008, the episode was released as part of The Simpsons - The Complete Eleventh Season DVD box set. Mike Scully, George Meyer, Mark Kirkland, Ian Maxtone-Graham, Matt Selman and Tim Long participated in the DVD audio commentary of the episode.

Following its broadcast, "Brother's Little Helper" received positive reviews from critics. About nine years after its original broadcast, Robert Canning of IGN posted a "flashback review" of "Brother's Little Helper". Canning, calling the episode "funny" and "a standout episode in this later season," was particularly fond of the episode's opening. However, he was less impressed with the third act of the episode, calling it "lackluster." He felt that the part involving Mark McGwire was "a silly cop out" and that it wasn't as funny as what was leading up to it. He also stated that he was put off by the writers wanting to come across a message. "It's not that I necessarily disagreed with this sentiment," Canning wrote, "but at the time, I didn't think I needed to be taught a lesson while I watched The Simpsons. I still don't." He did, however, "love" the "tag back" to the volunteer fire department seen in the beginning of the episode, and "the fact that they can't find how to fight a satellite fire in their handbook."

In his review of The Simpsons - The Complete Eleventh Season, Brian Tallerico of The Deadbolt considered "Brother's Little Helper" to be one of the season's best episodes. Colin Jacobsson of DVD Movie Guide was favorable as well, calling the episode "pretty good" and that it "provides some good laughs." He especially liked seeing Bart well-behaved. He also appreciated the episode's message, writing that "the show offers a clever spotlight on issue." He did, however, dislike the characterization of Bart. He wrote that Bart is normally "not particularly overactive or distractible," and that the writers "trie to make seem more hyper than normal." He concluded by saying that "Bart's a behavior problem but not ADHD."

Five months after the episode aired, Bill Clinton, who served as president of the United States at the time, held the first ever White House conference on Mental Health. Scripps Howard News Service columnist Deroy Murdock mentioned the timeliness of the conference in connection with the episode as being an instance of The Simpsons "clairvoyantly predict the news." In 2007, the fictional word "exorcism tongs" appeared in Cracked.com's list "From Cromulent to Craptacular: The Top 12 Simpsons Created Words", ranking in at number 10. The word is used in a scene in which Homer eats a mixture of taffy and Focusyn, which puts him in a "mildly hallucinogenic state." Seeing this, Todd Flanders asks his father, Ned, "Does Mr. Simpson have a demon, daddy?" To which Ned replies, "Looks like it. Run and get daddy's exorcism tongs." About the word, Mark Peters and Daniel O' Brien of Cracked.com wrote "We'd be lying if we said we didn't go out to every Christian-themed general store in the country hoping to acquire our very own set of exorcism tongs the day this episode aired."