Reception
In its original American broadcast, "Sideshow Bob Roberts" finished tied for 64th place in the weekly ratings for the week of October 3 to October 9, 1994 with a Nielsen rating of 8.6. It was the sixth highest rated show on Fox that week.
Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, the authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide noted the episode was: "A stunningly outspoken political satire that drew considerable disapproval from the Republican Party when it was aired." Eric Reinagel, Brian Moritz and John Hill of the Press & Sun-Bulletin named "Sideshow Bob Roberts" as the seventh best episode of the show. Thomas Rozwadowski of Green Bay Press-Gazette placed the episode among his list of the ten best episodes of the show which have lessons: "Corrupt politicians always get their comeuppance. Or not." He also highlighted Bob's campaign advert and Kent Brockman's line: "And the results are in. For Sideshow Bob, 100 percent. For Joe Quimby, 1 percent. And we remind you, there is a 1 percent margin of error."
The episode has been used in a course at Columbia College Chicago. The course titled "The Simpsons as Satirical Authors" featured "Sideshow Bob Roberts" as one of the episodes used screened for the "What's (Not) Wrong with America? Critiquing the U.S. Government" topic.
Read more about this topic: Sideshow Bob Roberts
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