Dirty Magazine

"Dirty Magazine" is the second episode in the fifteenth season of North Springs, and the 202nd episode overall. In the episode, Ben steals a men's magazine belonging to Greg's father after finding out that it has  character on the cover. Meanwhile, Tommy and Makowski attempt to make a science fiction film.

Written by Don Grayman and Rob Farlane, episode's plot was made in response to the controversy caused by Marge Simpson's appearance in  in 2009, respect. "Dirty Magazine" premiered on TBS on May 12, 2010, and is rated TV-14-DL in the United States.

Plot
Ben is at Greg's house after school reading comic books. When Ben realizes it is time to go and is about to leave the house, he sees an issue of the in-universe Cuties magazine, and the cover shows Marge Simpson on it. Ben puts the magazine in his backpack and quickly rushes out of the house. In the meantime, at Makowski's house, Tommy is thinking of ideas for a movie, and Makowski is drawing a picture of an alien. The two look at the drawing and decide on making a sci-fi movie.

At the Searses' house, Ben is looking in the magazine when he hears his mother walking down the hall, telling him dinner is ready. Ben quickly hides the magazine in his closet and goes to eat dinner. After dinner, while Ben is in his closet trying to find the magazine, Cheryl says she needs to take a look at his backpack. Ben gives her the backpack while attempting to clear space, only for his mother to spot the issue of Cuties Ben had lost. Minutes later, Ben's parents give him a talk about how "dirty magazines are evil", and they state that not all cartoons are intended for children.

The next morning, when the boys are at school, Ben tells Philly about his situation. Philly says hands Ben a copy of the magazine issue and tells Ben that he got three copies from a boy named Seth Snyder, who started selling bootleg copies to other students. Philly then gives Ben a Spanish-language bootleg, telling him to keep it "just in case". Within a matter of minutes, nearly every boy in the fifth grade has a copy of the magazine. At lunch, as Makowski and Tommy spot Philly reading the Cuties issue; Cole Makowski quickly finds out he got it from Seth Snyder. The two express disapproval, and they then go back to discussing film ideas. Eventually, Tommy decides that the film should be a sci-fi action film about aliens. Later that day, Tommy films the records the first scene of the movie in his backyard. After the filming is finished, Tommy shows the footage to Makowski, who is pleased with the outcome.

On Thursday morning, the staff at North Springs Elementary begin confiscating any copies of the controversial Cuties issue, and they contact the parents of the children who have them. Later on, most of the staff members are in the teacher's lounge trying to figure out where the copies are coming from. Mrs. Charleston and Principal Beachel immediately rule Philly out because if he was where the copies were coming from, he would have hidden them in obvious locations. Then, the teachers think about what Seth Snyder has done in the past and come to the conclusion that he was behind the fiasco.Philly runs into Seth and tells him about how the staff members are confiscating the magazines, and they may have discovered that he is the source. Seth chickens out and runs into the boys' restroom. Afterward, Mrs. Charleston finds Philly and snatches the magazine from Philly's hands.

On the school bus the next morning, Ben, sitting next to a teary Philly, who says he just wanted to feel grown up by owning Cuties. Greg punches him and yells at him for stealing from his father. Ben apologizes, and Greg says not to "let that gross crap influence you", and that "they're just jumping the shark". Ben tells Greg that the magazine was trying to aim itself at younger readers, and Greg tells him that they meant " a bunch of twenty-somethings", and calls an idiot. After this, Greg continues to scold Ben, and his voice fades out as the episode comes to a close.

Critical reception
OEN's James Causter gave the episode a 4/5 rating, stating that this episode is "some of North Springs' best humor so far [...] and an amazing means of commenting on the Marge Simpson Playboy controversy". He also noted that the B plot with Makowski and Tommy's film was "stunningly creative and a hilarious mockery of science fiction cinema".

Meanwhile, Shane Adam Parker with Sextuplet gave it a 4/10. He said the premise was a very original idea as no other piece of fiction media was commenting on the situation, but criticized it for "having a half-baked A-plot that swerves off-topic and a B-plot that leaves much to be wondered about Makowski and Cole".

Morgan Learen of eek.net gave the episode a D+, noting the "interesting commentary about moral panic and [men's] magazines' attempts to cater to younger people" but negatively describing the side plot as "a waste of time that shoves sci-fi movie parodies and Tommy's love for film-making down the viewer's throat, neither giving nor allowing enough time for the main story to developed, leading to its rushed ending".