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Das Boo posted:I was pretty sad when I realized even the Halloween episodes were no longer good. Something about dolphins taking over and Ned running a biblical-themed haunted house that just had... no jokes. I was still watching new Simpsons episodes every once in a while back in middle/high school around 1999-2000 and I remember the painfully dull dolphins bit was close to my last straw with the show. Treehouse of Horror is supposed to be goofy, bizarre, slightly scary, and most of all, still really funny in a creepy way. But it seems like they already forgot that formula like 16 years ago. 
Cough Drop The Beat fucked around with this message at 14:16 on Feb 8, 2017 |
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Feb 8, 2017 14:13
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yeah some of those maxtone-graham eps are bad but i actually like the nyc and garbage man episodes.
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Feb 8, 2017 14:16
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new york episode is good but trash of the titans is garbage
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Feb 8, 2017 14:33
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I remember watching the episode where they go to the restraunt which is a de-railed train and there's a dude in a costume to make it look like he has no head. Being a dumb kid I didn't click that it was a costume. I remember thinking that it was a really stupid thing to have in The Simpsons. Everything else was (relatively) realistic and all of a sudden there's a dude who survived getting his head cut off AND he could talk? Get your poo poo together, Simpsons. Now we have Elves, T-1000 people and Homer is litterally immortal. loving hell. A headless conductor would be tame in comparison. Remember that episode where Mr. Burns went mad and made the "Spruce Moose"(?) that tiny model plane and tried to force Smithers into it? If they did that these days they probably would shrink down and fly it around.
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Feb 8, 2017 14:53
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Ein cooler Typ posted:new york episode is good but trash of the titans is garbage Is it the one where homer runs for office as waste commissioner? Maybe i only saw it once and have fond memories, whereas ive seen the nyc one multiple times
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Feb 8, 2017 14:54
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Drunken Baker posted:I remember watching the episode where they go to the restraunt which is a de-railed train and there's a dude in a costume to make it look like he has no head. 
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Feb 8, 2017 14:57
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Drunken Baker posted:I remember watching the episode where they go to the restraunt which is a de-railed train and there's a dude in a costume to make it look like he has no head. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuPHqhG66aM
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Feb 8, 2017 14:59
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Lumpy the Cook posted:seasons 9-11 Lest we forget. But in all seriousness, the NYC episode remains one of my favorites.
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Feb 8, 2017 15:07
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The NYC episode aired right before The Principal and the Pauper and is essentially the final episode of the golden era.
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Feb 8, 2017 16:31
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Feb 8, 2017 16:33
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Watching that just made me realize how much the early Simpsons had in common with King of the Hill....they were cartoons, but they didn't play them like that...I can't remember KOTH doing anything that wouldn't have been doable with live action characters (and probably a huge budget.) Seeing Homer get his head caught in a bridge and run over by cars without any consequences is a pretty stark contrast to seeing him bandaged up after Maggie hit him with the hammer.
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Feb 8, 2017 16:45
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See, jokes like these were really good fun when they first did them because they were rare, surprising moments of craziness. However, the writers have desperately, unsuccessfully been trying to imitate this sort of gag constantly for 20 years, and their half-assed attempts now make up a disproportionate amount of the show's content.
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Feb 8, 2017 16:56
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Worst jokes in modern Simpsons for my money, though, are just their lame attempts at character humor that basically boil down to "[character] has X one-dimensional trait." Crazy Cat lady throws cats! The bullies are bullies, and refer to themselves as such! Groundskeeper Willie is poor, get it?
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Feb 8, 2017 16:58
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Drink-Mix Man posted:Worst jokes in modern Simpsons for my money, though, are just their lame attempts at character humor that basically boil down to "[character] has X one-dimensional trait." Crazy Cat lady throws cats! The bullies are bullies, and refer to themselves as such! Groundskeeper Willie is poor, get it? That and their need to insert the supporting characters into any scene. It's like, let's say the family goes to the mall, they draw character names out of a hat of what supporting characters they can cut to at the mall for unrelated filler jokes. Also over-explaining jokes. The way they constantly do it makes it absolutely baffling that these are supposedly professional comedy writers.
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Feb 8, 2017 17:12
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sweetmercifulcrap posted:Also over-explaining jokes. The way they constantly do it makes it absolutely baffling that these are supposedly professional comedy writers. Kind of ironic, considering that the Simpsons was partly built on unexplained, obscure cultural references.
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Feb 8, 2017 17:18
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sweetmercifulcrap posted:Also over-explaining jokes. The way they constantly do it makes it absolutely baffling that these are supposedly professional comedy writers. This was super apparent in that Homer Votes clip. I mean all of it, but just looking at one fragment: The front of Smithers' shirt was a perfectly serviceable joke. But you as the audience are surely too stupid to recognize Hillary's campaign logo, so the kindly writer will use the entirety of Smithers' back to explain the joke to you.
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Feb 8, 2017 17:24
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Does the over-explaining jokes thing maybe tie in a bit to the show having a more global audience today vs. 20-25 years ago? They have limits to how much can be changed in a script for each market, so better make sure everyone knows exactly WHY this is funny in case you're not from a culture that gets it. I guess a good example is I remember how I'd watch a few anime here and there that would have disclaimers at the start of the episode to explain something like, "This show directly references as part of the plot something that US audiences will not understand, so here is a summary of this and a western approximation" or used to include little pamphlets with the video with facts and trivia that would sometimes explain why a cut-away gag or a line of dialog was really funny but it due to culture/language it didn't translate to an actual joke, so just watch the scene with this explanation in mind so you can feel free to laugh.
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Feb 8, 2017 17:42
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I thought the "Lisa trains to go to Mars" episode was pretty good. Couple funny parenting advice jokes by Homer and the conflict between Marge/Lisa was entertaining.
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Feb 8, 2017 18:06
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Feb 8, 2017 18:21
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JediTalentAgent posted:Does the over-explaining jokes thing maybe tie in a bit to the show having a more global audience today vs. 20-25 years ago? They have limits to how much can be changed in a script for each market, so better make sure everyone knows exactly WHY this is funny in case you're not from a culture that gets it. I mean it's possible, but hasn't the show pretty much been global since the mid 90s? Often it's not even explaining something that requires it though. I'll make up a scenario: Lisa: "dad, you shouldn't leave this manhole cover open, it isn't safe!" Homer: "oh it's fine Lisa etc" Classic episode: they walk away and someone falls in behind them and they don't see it or it ends up helping someone somehow Modern episode: *man falls in seconds later* Homer: "OH MY GOD IT TURNS OUT I WAS WRONG AND IT WAS IN FACT A BAD IDEA!"
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Feb 8, 2017 18:53
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However, I can see the argument that the Sunday night audience for Simpsons might have faced some competition in recent years since about the start of the more severe trending drop. What was it against for several years on Sundays? Looking at the shows Simpsons was up against on Sundays from 2000-2005, I see: 2000-2001 Simpsons had an average of about 15M viewer and was a lead-in to the then popular Malcolm in the Middle. Other channels in the same block showing Wonderful world of Disney*, Touched by an Angel*, Dateline, Ed, Steve Harvey. 2001-2002: Simpsons had avg. 12.5M viewers. Other shows on at the same time were again the Disney and Steve Harvey as well as The Education of Max Bickford, Weakest Link. Simpsons did better than all of them, and this is considering how popular Weakest Link was in that window of time. 2002-2003: Simpsons has 14.5M avg. Competition was more Disney, Charmed, Becker/Big Fat Greek Life, and American Dreams. 2003-2004: Simpsons drops to 11M. What caused this big a drop? American Dreams and Charmed still run against it, but it gets big competition from Cold Case and Extreme Makover Home Ed. 2004-2005: Simpsons at 10.2M: Almost no competition changed other than American Dreams gave way to a boxing reality show (The Contender) but Cold Case and Extreme Makeover are both shows in the top 20. Also, Extreme Home Makeover is a lead in to other popular shows: Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy and Boston Legal. 2003-2004 probably marked the first of the real competition to Sunday nights for Simpsons. After that, for the next 5-7 years it was going up against events and must-see TV like Amazing Race, West Wing, NBC's Sunday NIght Football, Big Brother, CSI:Miami and so on. Two of the worst overall seasons (ratings wise) were 2012-14 where they were doing about 5-5.5M avg. , where they were up against: Once Upon A Time, Big Brother, Amazing Race, The Bachelor and Football. So, is it maybe a combo of Simpsons never really having strong Sunday competition (and coming off a few years where they had some big shows like X-Files and Malcolm surrounding them), but then it faced a combo of popular programs up against them and people liking the show less? edit: A thing note is that even though in the late 90s/early 00s, Disney and Touched By and Angel aired opposite of the Simpsons, all three did really good ratings for the time, it seems. So perhaps my observations don't hold water. It also doesn't take into account the increase of popular cable programming that would have maybe aired on Sundays in that slot in the last 6-7 years. JediTalentAgent fucked around with this message at 19:30 on Feb 8, 2017 |
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Feb 8, 2017 19:21
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Reminder: people who've never had a good Simpsons episode premiere in their lifetime are going to be old enough to vote soon.
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Feb 8, 2017 19:21
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super sweet best pal posted:Reminder: people who've never had a good Simpsons episode premiere in their lifetime are going to be old enough to vote soon. i hope they vote against russian president vladmir putin
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Feb 8, 2017 19:27
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Drink-Mix Man posted:i hope they vote against russian president vladmir putin Who? I need more information.
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Feb 8, 2017 19:29
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Blind Pineapple posted:Another point I'd make against Principal and the Pauper is that Itchy, Scratchy, and Poochie had already made all the same points, but did in within the context of the show. It was also just funnier all around despite the super cringe-y scene where they use Bart as a proxy for their "not like you nerds could do any better" rant even though it makes no sense for Bart's character to hold such a position. The iconic scenes with the kids focus group and "Poochie died on the way back to his home planet" more than make up for that. That's also when any criticism of the show was foisted off onto Comic Book Guy, which was a pretty classless way to handle it. Now I'm starting to remember why that mentality drove me away from the show: "gently caress you for liking our show, you're supposed to give us a break because it's free." Yeah, if you're too touchy to deal with criticism and have to resort to mocking your fanbase, take a hike. Drink-Mix Man posted:I have to say I am shocked that this thread wasn't ten pages of "gently caress that episode with the racehorse and the jockey elves." That was one of the few cases where the Simpsons went off into a weird tangent and it didn't work. Didn't help it was right by the Maude Flanders death episode, either. Honestly, I think my last constant episode of the Simpsons had something to do with the Super Bowl and it being dull as hell. Alan_Shore posted:I really like Burns Baby Burns cos it introduced me to Rodney Dangerfield and Anyway You Want It. "No regard, no regard at all! No esteem, either!" I can dig that episode as it's at fun and Dangerfield was great as the character. Even if he didn't hang around, at least there was something fun and entertaining about the episode instead of just a general lack of humor. luncheon meat posted:Norm Macdonald is the best. I never heard this story, and I feel Norm did humanity a big favor. Wasn't Maxtone-Graham hated because he was given a position of authority yet claimed never to have watched the show before? Cough Drop The Beat posted:I was still watching new Simpsons episodes every once in a while back in middle/high school around 1999-2000 and I remember the painfully dull dolphins bit was close to my last straw with the show. Treehouse of Horror is supposed to be goofy, bizarre, slightly scary, and most of all, still really funny in a creepy way. But it seems like they already forgot that formula like 16 years ago. Indeed. I think it goes back to the main complaint: someone lost the plot a very long time ago and when you go to the Halloween shows where you counter the main thrust of the show, you show just how empty an exercise it is. All shows die, but the Simpsons is the cancer patient that never knows that sometimes dead is better. Drink-Mix Man posted:See, jokes like these were really good fun when they first did them because they were rare, surprising moments of craziness. However, the writers have desperately, unsuccessfully been trying to imitate this sort of gag constantly for 20 years, and their half-assed attempts now make up a disproportionate amount of the show's content. I have to wonder if The Simpsons won't be like one of those big shows of past decades that just vanishes when it finally leaves the public view. It's been on far too long to really be good rerun material (if those even exist anymore) and to be fair a lot of it seems to be stuff written so writers become producers and get a solid paycheck without having to work for it anymore. Are there fans of the show nowadays, and if so, can they tell us why they like it? I'm downright curious.
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Feb 8, 2017 19:57
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It's funny how much the show likes to harp on environmentalism through Lisa, since the Simpsons did more than anything else to make people terrified of nuke plants. Every week people are reminded that nuke plants are ready to explode, have green radioactive fluid oozing out of every surface, mutate everything they're near, and have absolute idiots at the helm. Yes, I am directly comparing the show's effects to the media's harping on Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, and I stand by what I said
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Feb 8, 2017 20:01
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I thought the principal and the pauper as well as grimey were both pretty good episodes and I will never get why they got so much hate. Having a Vietnam veteran who saw messed up poo poo coming getting adopted by an old woman who wants to ignore that her beloved son is dead was a pretty good plot, and something that could have been made into a legit movie on its own. The ending where they just sent him away again was also a pretty good joke on the whole "everything returns to normal after the episode ends" that a lot of shows did/do.
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Feb 8, 2017 20:06
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That god drat monorail episode
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Feb 8, 2017 20:06
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I don't see why Marge v. Monorail is constantly ranked as the best Simpsons episode. Sure, it's good, but I don't think it's the best. I'd give that honor to Last Exit to Springfield. But, good for Conan for only writing 3 episodes and having one of them be the consistently-ranked best.
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Feb 8, 2017 20:11
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Mad Doctor Cthulhu posted:That's also when any criticism of the show was foisted off onto Comic Book Guy, which was a pretty classless way to handle it. Now I'm starting to remember why that mentality drove me away from the show: "gently caress you for liking our show, you're supposed to give us a break because it's free." Yeah, if you're too touchy to deal with criticism and have to resort to mocking your fanbase, take a hike. Yep, and I mean I can understand the frustration back then when it was legit good, which it still was at the time, and it was only extreme fringe nerds criticizing the show. But they held on to that, from what I can tell, to this day. "Oh, the show is different than it used to be but it's still as good as ever. You don't like it? Well you're just a Comic Book Guy then!"
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Feb 8, 2017 20:47
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TwoStepBoog posted:I don't see why Marge v. Monorail is constantly ranked as the best Simpsons episode. Sure, it's good, but I don't think it's the best. It's no "You Only Move Twice"
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Feb 8, 2017 20:53
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRsPheErBj8
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Feb 8, 2017 20:55
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when homer referred to himself as jerkass homer yeah there were still funny episodes after season 8, but they were much fewer and farther between like the one where homer is really dumb because of the crayon in his nose "no money down? how could i lose!"
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Feb 8, 2017 20:59
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Did you know that awards given to "The Simpsons" were up 700% by the year 1997? If these trends continue... aaayyyyy! 
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Feb 8, 2017 21:04
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I always thought it was kinda funny that Grimes was basically mad at Homer for being a cartoon but then he did this
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Feb 8, 2017 21:07
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sweetmercifulcrap posted:Yep, and I mean I can understand the frustration back then when it was legit good, which it still was at the time, and it was only extreme fringe nerds criticizing the show. But they held on to that, from what I can tell, to this day. "Oh, the show is different than it used to be but it's still as good as ever. You don't like it? Well you're just a Comic Book Guy then!" It's been a very effective strawman for a very long time, too. That's probably the big reason why the show lost a lot of viewers: it's obvious the criticism was getting to the writers and instead of just lumping it they took it to heart and ended up making an entire character around their rage over it. It's definitely one of the few times in television history where a writer got a bug up their rear end and couldn't let it go. Lemon posted:I always thought it was kinda funny that Grimes was basically mad at Homer for being a cartoon but then he did this If only he stuck at that instead of getting himself killed, he might have gotten Homer's luck given how the rest of the series went.
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Feb 8, 2017 22:17
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remember the episode with Frank Grimes Jr. who had the exact same plotline and died the exact same way because gently caress creativity right
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Feb 8, 2017 22:24
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CharlestonJew posted:remember the episode with Frank Grimes Jr. who had the exact same plotline and died the exact same way because gently caress creativity right What   That is somehow more offensive than homer getting panda raped.
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Feb 8, 2017 22:31
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upon further research apparently frank grimes jr. did not die. but it was still a thing they seriously did
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Feb 8, 2017 22:43
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LISA NEEDS BRACES DENTAL PLAN LISA NEEDS BRACES DENTAL PLAN
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Feb 8, 2017 23:01
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