Colin Jacobson of DVD Movie Guide commented that after the episode "Bart the Murderer", this episode marks a regression, saying it was almost inevitable that it would not match up to the previous episode. He went on to say the subplot with Bart and Milhouse was more entertaining. Nate Meyers of Digitally Obsessed rated the episode a4 (of 5), writing that he enjoyed the Homer story but found the Bart and Milhouse subplot more interesting. He added that "Milhouse's mom won't allow him to play with Bart because she thinks Bart is a bad influence. It's rare for the show to allow Bart to feel genuine emotion, but there is plenty of it in this episode that makes for a nice character oriented story."