Release and Reception
In its original American broadcast on December 3, 2000, "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes" received a 9.0 rating, according to Nielsen Media Research, translating to approximately 9.1 million viewers. The episode finished in 28th place in the ratings for the week of November 27-December 3, 2000, tying with an episode of the news magazine Dateline NBC and the CBS sitcom The King of Queens. After the episode was released, The Simpsons' writers created a website called mrxswebpage.com, which was made to resemble Homer's website in the episode. This was at a time when many television shows created websites to promote episodes; earlier that year, Fox created a website called whatbadgerseat.com in conjunction with the season premiere, in which badgers played an important role. On August 18, 2009, the episode was released as part of a DVD set called The Simpsons: The Complete Twelfth Season. Mike Scully, Ian Maxtone-Graham, Don Payne, John Frink, Matt Selman, Tom Gammill, Max Pross, Mark Kirkland and Joel H. Cohen participated in the audio commentary for the episode.
Following its broadcast, "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes" received mixed reviews from critics. Giving it a positive review, DVD Talk's Jason Bailey described the episode as a "smart piece of social satire". He especially enjoyed Homer's part in the episode, and found that his incompetence at handling computers is "comedic gold". Casey Burchby, another reviewer for DVD Talk, also enjoyed the social satire in the episode, and although he found the parody of The Prisoner "bizarre", he maintained that it was "bold". Writing for DVD Verdict, Mac MacEntire argued that the episode is "hilarious", provided one has seen The Prisoner. DNA Smith described the episode as "memorable". The episode is also often considered to be a fan favorite, according to Matt Haigh of Den of Geek. On the other hand, DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson was less impressed with the episode. In his review of The Simpsons: The Complete Twelfth Season, Jacobson wrote that he enjoyed the episode's take on "Internet idiocy". He wrote, "Some parts of it feel dated, but the web features even more ill-informed opinions today than it did nine years ago, so much of it remains timeless and on target." However, he was critical of the episode's third act. "The side of the show feels like it was intended to amuse a few fans and it doesn’t show a lot of real cleverness or wit", he wrote. He summarized the episode as being decent, but inconsistent. The Tonawanda News's Paul Lane considers "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes" to be the worst episode of the series. He was especially critical of the ending, which he found incomprehensible. "Why an island? Why are they happy? How’d they get back? Horrible, HORRIBLE writing", he wrote.
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