Reception
In its original broadcast, "Three Men and a Comic Book" finished twenty-third in the ratings for the week of May 6–12, 1991, with a Nielsen rating of 12.9, equivalent to twelve million viewing households. The episode was the highest-rated show on the Fox network that week. It was the first time The Simpsons beat The Cosby Show in the ratings. Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television critics. DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson lauded it for its use of new characters, commenting that "of all season two’s Bart-focused episodes, only 'Bart the Daredevil' offers competition with 'Comic' as the best of the bunch. It’s a tough call, but I’ll take 'Comic' in a squeaker. The show melds the series’ deft satirical tone with exceptional character development. Bart seems to grow especially strongly, and his psychological meltdown in the third act is hilarious." "Three Men and a Comic Book" was named the best episode of the season by IGN. The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, commented that unless you have a "passing understanding of comic books and their buyers' behaviour, some of the jokes will pass you by." Doug Pratt, a DVD reviewer and Rolling Stone contributor, criticized the episode for not being inspired enough, and added that the Wonder Years parody "seems pointless".
"Three Men and a Comic Book" is Bryce Wilson of Cinema Blend's favorite episode of the season. Wilson praised the episode for its cultural references, calling them "true greatness". Surrey Now's Michael Roberds praised the Treasure of the Sierra Madre parody, saying that it is "one of the more clever film parodies hidden within a typical Simpsons plot." Colin Kennedy of Empire called the Treasure of the Sierra Madre parody the ninth best film parody of the show, commenting that "Bart turns a perfect Bogart – grizzled, paranoid and sleep-deprived. With lighting and camera angles half-inched from Huston, this priceless gag is joyfully pitched over the heads of 90 percent of the audience." The episode's reference to Saboteur was named the 25th greatest film reference in the history of the show by Total Film's Nathan Ditum.
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“To the United States the Third World often takes the form of a black woman who has been made pregnant in a moment of passion and who shows up one day in the reception room on the forty-ninth floor threatening to make a scene. The lawyers pay the woman off; sometimes uniformed guards accompany her to the elevators.”
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“I gave a speech in Omaha. After the speech I went to a reception elsewhere in town. A sweet old lady came up to me, put her gloved hand in mine, and said, “I hear you spoke here tonight.” “Oh, it was nothing,” I replied modestly. “Yes,” the little old lady nodded, “that’s what I heard.””
—Gerald R. Ford (b. 1913)
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)