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Iron Crowned posted:The Simpsons was a satire of TV sitcoms at the time. In 1988, just about everyone on TV was white and protestant. The difference is the Simpsons was actively turning that core value on it's head, it's why it was so controversial. Homer the Heretic was apparently very controversial among some circles because it revolved around Homer deciding to stay home from church. Homer the Heretic is considered to have aged badly for basically treating non-traditional and personal religion as illegitimate, iirc, though at the time it was probably progressive for the ending treating various religions as legitimate, even with the joke about Hinduism being a setup for Apu to point out there's almost a billion followers. (Which is a little more complicated in practice as with most things, but still) Like with the Buddhism, if the writers had done just a little more research they'd probably be both less offensive and find a lot more to make jokes about, but I think the problem when you have a writing room that spends most of the time circlejerking about being Harvard grads is that they already believe they know everything. I remember the catholic episode also having Lovejoy make jab at Unitarians, but the joke seemed to be clearly him being petty and spiteful. The funny thing is originally, Lovejoy and his church seemed like they were intended to be more generically Christian than specifically Catholic or Protestant, but that fell by the wayside as the made more specific cultural jokes, which is probably just as well. I think they also have one episode where the Simpsons visit a black gospel church that has about every recurring black character in it.
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May 28, 2020 08:48
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Phlegmish posted:I feel like the Simpsons has always been very 'heartland' in that regard, not only is almost everyone white, they are also specifically Protestant, and this is apparently a thing that matters since people are still religious. It's almost quaint in how antiquated it is. Maybe a combination of writers taking inspiration from their own childhoods decades earlier, and the fact that it took many elements from the family sitcoms it was satirizing. I live in Louisville, a fairly non-religious city in the Bible Belt with the second-biggest population of Catholics in the south after New Orleans and I still semi-regularly meet people who draw a distinction between "Christian" and "Catholic" (not even in an obviously hateful way its just obvious to them Catholics aren't Christians) and street preachers who are very firm that the pope is the anti-christ.
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May 28, 2020 15:44
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they make fun of Unitarians a couple times. 
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May 28, 2020 16:34
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Empty Sandwich posted:they make fun of Unitarians a couple times. And the video game where you shoot Bibles at people to convert them. 
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May 28, 2020 17:00
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Homer the Heretic having Marge say things like "It's Chruch, you HAVE to go!", thinking that only Christianity can give someone morals and values, forcing her family to get dressed, and being extremely mad about it to the point of threatening divorce really seems hilariously outdated in 2020. I know there are Karens in the midwest who might be like that but I think pretty much everyone else does it mostly as a social thing first if at all.
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May 28, 2020 17:05
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Yeah, Marge was always weirdly forgiving of Homer's worst habits, but would always threaten divorce over things like Homer dancing near a belly dancer or not wanting to be forced to go to Church.
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May 28, 2020 18:31
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Our long national nightmare is finally over https://twitter.com/verge/status/1266059171591606277
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May 28, 2020 18:43
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PostNouveau posted:Our long national nightmare is finally over lol wow, what an insane, everestlike challenge to allow multiple versions of media assets on a video player. i certainly am glad we have the technical wizards and imagineers at disney to build such a thing that exists only in our dreams
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May 28, 2020 19:10
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Plan Z posted:Yeah, Marge was always weirdly forgiving of Homer's worst habits, but would always threaten divorce over things like Homer dancing near a belly dancer or not wanting to be forced to go to Church. She is such an excellent satire of a white midwestern suburbanite mother
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May 28, 2020 20:25
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Last Chance posted:lol wow, what an insane, everestlike challenge to allow multiple versions of media assets on a video player. i certainly am glad we have the technical wizards and imagineers at disney to build such a thing that exists only in our dreams Yeah, they're hilariously whiny about it in a way that makes me think someone sandbagged the project for months to keep their bosses off their back. "Man, I am swamped today. So much work on the Simpsons aspect ratio. You wouldn't believe how long each episode takes!"
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May 28, 2020 20:32
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do they have commentaries and deleted scenes on there or do you still need to go to the DVD's for that
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May 28, 2020 20:44
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PostNouveau posted:Our long national nightmare is finally over They're still making new episodes, I wouldn't call it over yet
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May 28, 2020 20:53
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brugroffil posted:do they have commentaries and deleted scenes on there or do you still need to go to the DVD's for that I feel like the only person who's been complaining that those were available online on simpsonsworld and are now gone, so I suspect they're never to be seen again. It took this long for the aspect ratio to be fixed even with tons of fans complaining about that. Now everyone will be happy and we'll never see the commentaries or deleted scenes ever again.
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May 28, 2020 20:54
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PostNouveau posted:Our long national nightmare is finally over Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, etc have literally never run into this issue before, but I guess Disney is uniquely equipped to gently caress this up.
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May 28, 2020 20:55
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brugroffil posted:do they have commentaries and deleted scenes on there or do you still need to go to the DVD's for that I just checked eBay and someone sold the first 9 season DVDs for $60.
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May 28, 2020 20:56
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PostNouveau posted:Yeah, they're hilariously whiny about it in a way that makes me think someone sandbagged the project for months to keep their bosses off their back. Which is really funny considering the FX app had the option years ago. I know you don't just plug in the old code on the new app, but it's crazy how long it took Disney to get on that.
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May 28, 2020 20:57
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IUG posted:I just checked eBay and someone sold the first 9 season DVDs for $60. I still need seasons 9 and 10 to complete my collection 
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May 28, 2020 20:57
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Iron Crowned posted:I still need seasons 9 and 10 to complete my collection You actually own Seasons 12-20?
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May 28, 2020 21:06
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Inspector Gesicht posted:Isn't SNL an avante-garte show? How else can you explain a program presented by comedians can run for 45 laugh-free years? there may be episodes that are way less funny, but in terms of plot and lessons learned, that's probably my most hated episode of the series.
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May 28, 2020 21:16
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Iron Crowned posted:They're still making new episodes, I wouldn't call it over yet I legitimately thought that that's what they were talking about at first
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May 28, 2020 23:11
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IUG posted:I just checked eBay and someone sold the first 9 season DVDs for $60. The early season menus are so painfully bad ughhhhh
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May 29, 2020 02:25
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brugroffil posted:The early season menus are so painfully bad ughhhhh The best is the one where you have to click multiple times until a spinning mix and match puzzle gets solved before you can do anything
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May 29, 2020 02:32
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Phlegmish posted:I legitimately thought that that's what they were talking about at first
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May 29, 2020 02:58
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Daikloktos posted:If the Simpsons was cancelled the news would be pinned to the top of GBS In celebration
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May 29, 2020 03:30
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Ghost Leviathan posted:Homer the Heretic is considered to have aged badly for basically treating non-traditional and personal religion as illegitimate, iirc, though at the time it was probably progressive for the ending treating various religions as legitimate, even with the joke about Hinduism being a setup for Apu to point out there's almost a billion followers. (Which is a little more complicated in practice as with most things, but still) Like with the Buddhism, if the writers had done just a little more research they'd probably be both less offensive and find a lot more to make jokes about, but I think the problem when you have a writing room that spends most of the time circlejerking about being Harvard grads is that they already believe they know everything. i like that episode but the message was really muddled. is it that homer is right and going to church is a dumb waste of time? well god agrees! as homer managed to convince him (quite easily). and yet despite that, he gets punished with his house being set on fire, only to be saved thanks to the selfless actions of a faithful churchgoer. however, although homer is convinced that the right decision is to start going to church again, he sleeps all through it. is the moral that doing the bare minimum is enough to be saved? is it that impressions are more important than actual change? again, great episode, but i'm not sure what to take away form it.
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May 29, 2020 03:38
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There's no moral, it's just a bunch of stuff that happened
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May 29, 2020 05:05
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Well, it's the dichotomy of Homer's character. My dad used to say Homer wasn't stupid - he's "simple". He has a sort of wit, he's just kind of dense and slothful and easily lead around by his heart. It's obviously too much to ask that an episode of the yellow cartoon solve the question of organized religion once and for all but I think the moral is entirely about Homer's motivation. Homer may or may not be right about which approach to spirituality is correct and he's not being deceptive about truly believing what he says, but it's a motivated cognition. He's ultimately making this decision in order to be lazy, and disregards the alienation it drives in such a large part of his family's life. loving Lisa was literally terrified her father was going to literal burning Hell for stealing cable while Marge, whether she believes or truly believes in the metaphysical crap or not, actively embodies Christian faith and values in some unbelievably tender scenes of crisis. It ties into what a competent plotline for Maude's death would have been instead of that nonsense with the country singer guest star at the end. The idea of Flanders having religious doubt in losing his wife; the natural progression would be that as a father he can't disengage from that connection with his kids as they're having crisis of their own faiths. But of course by that point we were far, far beyond The Simpsons wanting to talk about Christianity to any sincerity. Daikloktos fucked around with this message at 06:10 on May 29, 2020 |
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May 29, 2020 06:03
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On that note I was just watching the Cable episode and they have the Cable guy come through the backdoor which "wasn't locked in any serious way" to try and sell Homer a car stereo. I know Season 2 is still rough but they nailed like a half-dozen other negative externalities of theft in clever and driven ways so like, did they just have to get the script out the door before they could figure out a more elegant way to hit that thread? It really doesn't seem that hard, Harvard dudes.
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May 29, 2020 06:16
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"Dear Lord, help guide Homer to the mattress straight and true" was one of the best jokes the Simpsons ever pulled off I gotta say
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May 29, 2020 13:28
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Riptor posted:The best is the one where you have to click multiple times until a spinning mix and match puzzle gets solved before you can do anything I think that's just Season 2
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May 29, 2020 13:41
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Mr Interweb posted:i like that episode but the message was really muddled. is it that homer is right and going to church is a dumb waste of time? well god agrees! as homer managed to convince him (quite easily). and yet despite that, he gets punished with his house being set on fire, only to be saved thanks to the selfless actions of a faithful churchgoer. however, although homer is convinced that the right decision is to start going to church again, he sleeps all through it. is the moral that doing the bare minimum is enough to be saved? is it that impressions are more important than actual change?
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May 29, 2020 13:42
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Mr Interweb posted:i like that episode but the message was really muddled. is it that homer is right and going to church is a dumb waste of time? well god agrees! as homer managed to convince him (quite easily). and yet despite that, he gets punished with his house being set on fire, only to be saved thanks to the selfless actions of a faithful churchgoer. however, although homer is convinced that the right decision is to start going to church again, he sleeps all through it. is the moral that doing the bare minimum is enough to be saved? is it that impressions are more important than actual change? That's a good question. I feel like there's some interesting things with Homer deciding that his personal relationship with God is what's important- and he's not necessarily wrong, given he briefly goes all St Francis of Assisi. On the other hand, the end seems to support that community is also important. And finally, Homer showing up to church as an obligation has him walking with God in his dreams implying it's the effort that counts even if Homer has the enviable ability to fall asleep in a church pew.
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May 29, 2020 13:54
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Data Graham posted:"Dear Lord, help guide Homer to the mattress straight and true" was one of the best jokes the Simpsons ever pulled off I gotta say  Flanders reaction got a hard laugh out of me.
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May 29, 2020 16:40
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I watched Home Sweet Home-Diddly-Dum-Doodily because some goon said it was bad, but mostly because I was randomly selecting episodes for a friend and I to watch. I don't agree that its bad, but it might be the first time Flanders is "Flanderized"? Like he goes from hosting awesome cookouts to eating unflavored ice cream because "religious people are lame and therefore eat bland food".
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May 30, 2020 19:14
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lol I just realized that a non-trivial part of why I’m trying to learn how to mix drinks is because I internalized it as a cool thing Flanders once did
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May 30, 2020 19:19
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Daikloktos posted:On that note I was just watching the Cable episode and they have the Cable guy come through the backdoor which "wasn't locked in any serious way" to try and sell Homer a car stereo. I know Season 2 is still rough but they nailed like a half-dozen other negative externalities of theft in clever and driven ways so like, did they just have to get the script out the door before they could figure out a more elegant way to hit that thread? It really doesn't seem that hard, Harvard dudes. what are you talking about
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May 30, 2020 19:48
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Data Graham posted:lol I just realized that a non-trivial part of why I’m trying to learn how to mix drinks is because I internalized it as a cool thing Flanders once did Pipe down college boy.
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May 30, 2020 19:58
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SweetMercifulCrap! posted:I watched Home Sweet Home-Diddly-Dum-Doodily because some goon said it was bad, but mostly because I was randomly selecting episodes for a friend and I to watch. I don't agree that its bad, but it might be the first time Flanders is "Flanderized"? Like he goes from hosting awesome cookouts to eating unflavored ice cream because "religious people are lame and therefore eat bland food". It's non dairy ice milk and maude has the unflavored kind ya dingus
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May 30, 2020 20:00
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SweetMercifulCrap! posted:I watched Home Sweet Home-Diddly-Dum-Doodily because some goon said it was bad, but mostly because I was randomly selecting episodes for a friend and I to watch. I don't agree that its bad, but it might be the first time Flanders is "Flanderized"? Like he goes from hosting awesome cookouts to eating unflavored ice cream because "religious people are lame and therefore eat bland food". He and his family stalked Homer woth cutesy sing-a-longs in Homer the Heretic and then one season later he had a sweet-rear end home bar set-up. Hes always been exactly as mich a religious nut as the plot and jokes require.
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May 30, 2020 20:04
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Ann Landers is a boring old biddy!
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May 30, 2020 20:38
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