Santa's Little Helper greyhound's lack of intelligence. In an article that compared "The Simpsons" to the animated series "Family Guy", Todd Camp of the "Fort Worth Star-Telegram" noted that "though Santa's Little Helper may be the only Simpson who's dumber than Homer, the Griffins' pooch <nowiki>[</nowiki>Brian Griffin<nowiki>]</nowiki> is the brainiest member of the household". In 1991, Copley News Service's Alison Ashton described Santa's Little Helper as a "sweet and stupid dog". Tom Coombe of "The Morning Call" wrote in 2002 that "fans of "The Simpsons" will tell you that the cartoon family's dog [...] is often dumb, disobedient and skittish. Fans of the
Brother's Little Helper 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[ing] 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