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I think Gil is a fine character idea and I think he has potential to be pretty funny, or at least likable in a moleman sort of way. However, he suffers from being introduced just as the bad seasons start, so I think he's not very funny just because the show isn't very funny at that point. Never really had a chance, honestly.
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Jun 4, 2020 16:29
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Gil is a good example of the show getting more mean-spirited, since the humour around him mostly consists of him failing and getting dunked on even when he tries his best. Especially since he largely fills the shoes of Lionel Hutz, whose failures are consistently a direct result of his own incompetence and immorality.
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Jun 4, 2020 16:32
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Gil's desperation and Cookie's territorialism worked great at establishing the sort of company Marge was joining, but neither character needed to be seen again.
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Jun 4, 2020 16:50
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bitterandtwisted posted:Gil's desperation and Cookie's territorialism worked great at establishing the sort of company Marge was joining, but neither character needed to be seen again. Yeah, it's this. It was around this time that one off characters became regular characters, and only famous people who play themselves, would be one off characters. I mean I laughed my rear end of the first time I saw Disco Stu, he never needed to return, it's OK to have one off characters that are never seen again.
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Jun 4, 2020 16:55
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I actually think Gil's appearance was probably one of my earliest signs that the show was irreversibly slipping in quality. Like there have been episodes throughout the good Simpsons that I didn't care for, but I think I always assumed they'd always bounce back. Maybe I've never been into lazy, mean-spirited humor for the sake of laughing at someone's misfortunes.
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Jun 4, 2020 17:02
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i thought gil was the old grey mare guy, going to stick with this interpretation
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Jun 4, 2020 17:07
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Gil being so unsuccessful and unpopular as a character is pretty meta, so points for that.
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Jun 4, 2020 17:16
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Nookie Kwan is the cousin of Cookie Kwan. She is physically identical to her cousin and the number one realtor on the east side of Springfield. She appears when her cousin is dating Professor Frink. Like Cookie, she is also of Chinese heritage.
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Jun 4, 2020 17:31
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bitterandtwisted posted:Gil's desperation and Cookie's territorialism worked great at establishing the sort of company Marge was joining, but neither character needed to be seen again. Wonder how it might have gone if they had Cookie as the female Lionel Hutz. I remember one later episode she's asked why she keeps changing jobs and says "I'm a sexual predator."
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Jun 4, 2020 17:32
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There was a weird series of episodes where there was another prospector character named Cookie who appears and then disappears forever. It’s like they tried the idea out and it was so bad they just got rid of him.
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Jun 4, 2020 17:41
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Ghost Leviathan posted:Wonder how it might have gone if they had Cookie as the female Lionel Hutz. Lindsey Nagle also has the job-hopping trait. Lindsey and Cookie are pretty similar. I wonder if all of Lindsey's appearances had been Cookie, thus not diluting the "sociopathic striver" appearances between two characters, if she would have been a hit.
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Jun 4, 2020 17:43
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PostNouveau posted:Lindsey Nagle also has the job-hopping trait. I was actually thinking of Linsey Nagle and can't remember who Cookie is.
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Jun 4, 2020 17:54
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oh man, tha'ts right. gil DID appear in that real estate episode with hutz. poo poo, i take back what i said then. though that being said, he still came off as very manufactured. i did like one line he said though, which he says after some barely successful thing he accomplished: "oh man, gil''s gonna eat food tonight!" Mr Interweb fucked around with this message at 18:20 on Jun 4, 2020 |
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Jun 4, 2020 18:18
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edit: dp
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Jun 4, 2020 18:18
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Doggles posted:Waldo Geraldo Faldo RIP 
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Jun 4, 2020 18:48
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I agree with what that other guy said, Gil was a perfectly fine character in the first episode he appeared in and never needed to come up again
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Jun 4, 2020 21:24
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Lemon posted:I agree with what that other guy said, Gil was a perfectly fine character in the first episode he appeared in and never needed to come up again He reminded me at first of the pretzel wagon franchise guy. "Check for ... ughh.... millipedes..." Today that guy would just be Gil.
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Jun 4, 2020 22:08
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Data Graham posted:He reminded me at first of the pretzel wagon franchise guy. "Check for ... ughh.... millipedes..." That makes sense, as the Pretzel Wagon guy was voiced by Jack Lemmon, who played the character in Glengarry Glen Ross that Gil is based on. I suppose that they created Gil to continue using leftover Glengarry Glen Ross gags, and the writers just kept on using him.
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Jun 4, 2020 22:55
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gil is great and so is grimey I don’t care if they make you sad or whatever
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Jun 5, 2020 03:38
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iamsosmrt posted:I disliked Gil from his first appearance and I wouldn't be shocked if I've never laughed at a single Gil gag. The first episode is funny enough and the rotary mobile phone scene gets a laugh but for the most part Gil follows the trajectory of the show. The Fred Willard (rip) character in the super bowl ep feels Gil-ish too. I wonder if it was originally and they rewrote it when theye got a guest voice. spaceblancmange fucked around with this message at 03:52 on Jun 5, 2020 |
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Jun 5, 2020 03:50
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iamsosmrt posted:I disliked Gil from his first appearance and I wouldn't be shocked if I've never laughed at a single Gil gag. I laughed when he tried to sell the school a Colecovison Adam. So weirdly specific a reference.
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Jun 5, 2020 05:59
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Has there been a Gil episode yet? Where is successful or something.
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Jun 5, 2020 07:49
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Flannelette posted:Has there been a Gil episode yet? Where is successful or something. He becomes successful when he moves to Arizona and becomes a real estate agent, but then Marge torpedoes his career and he moves back.
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Jun 5, 2020 08:14
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That episode ends with them all moving to a house in Scottsdale.
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Jun 5, 2020 10:12
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I legit thought this was Gils first appearance, because I misremembered the Jimmy Stewart impersonation being more in line with Gils stammering https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bzz8BvaQL9Q This has been my Gil story.
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Jun 5, 2020 12:31
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So what's the general consensus for best episode to show someone who has never seen the Simpsons before?
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Jun 9, 2020 17:50
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Nutsngum posted:So what's the general consensus for best episode to show someone who has never seen the Simpsons before? Although "You Only Move Twice" is the best episode, it relies a lot on taking The Simpsons out of their natural habitat in a way that might not land if you don't know what their natural habitat is. "Marge vs. the Monorail" is probably a can't miss episode.
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Jun 9, 2020 18:07
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WeaponX posted:gil is great and so is grimey I don’t care if they make you sad or whatever It's from later Simpsons, but I have to say "Gil's eating FOOD tonight!" is one of my favourite lines and deliveries in the history of the show.
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Jun 9, 2020 18:40
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I saw a very specifically dated episode which I feel the plot was common in a lot of shows at the time. Bart befriends a middle eastern kid who Homer thinks their family are terrorists, and the family works in demolitions so Homer things they’re going to blow up a building in a terrorist act. Homer saves Moleman from drowning and the family forgives him. I swear in 2003-04 there were tons of shows that did this kind of plot, where a character on a show thinks a middle eastern person was a terrorist only for it to be a misunderstanding.
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Jun 9, 2020 18:49
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Yeah the office did it with Michael Scott and the IT guy
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Jun 9, 2020 18:51
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bobjr posted:I swear in 2003-04 there were tons of shows that did this kind of plot, where a character on a show thinks a middle eastern person was a terrorist only for it to be a misunderstanding. Yeah, American Dad and 30 Rock also spring to mind
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Jun 9, 2020 18:52
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The Simpsons never did an AIDS episode right? A lot of those early 90s sitcoms wrote in that one new kid or guy at work who's really awesome but had AIDS and thus no one would be let em in the same room for fear of spreading it. The kicker was they almost always qualified the character's infection with a moral innocence like it was transmitted via blood transfusion or something like that.
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Jun 9, 2020 20:35
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PostNouveau posted:Yeah, American Dad and 30 Rock also spring to mind Yes. It was like how every single show in 2007-2008 did an episode about Trans fats.
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Jun 9, 2020 21:14
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Nutsngum posted:So what's the general consensus for best episode to show someone who has never seen the Simpsons before? $pringfield (or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)
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Jun 9, 2020 21:33
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Scaramouche posted:I laughed when he tried to sell the school a Colecovison Adam. So weirdly specific a reference. Now let's talk about rust-proofing. These Colecos will rust up on you like *that*...[shut up Gil, close the deal, close the deal!]
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Jun 9, 2020 22:05
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PostNouveau posted:Although "You Only Move Twice" is the best episode, it relies a lot on taking The Simpsons out of their natural habitat in a way that might not land if you don't know what their natural habitat is. I was born a "Homer at the Bat" advocate, and I will die a "Homer at the Bat" advocate I don't think it relies too much on context, it's just absolutely funny as gently caress on its own
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Jun 9, 2020 22:36
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Nutsngum posted:So what's the general consensus for best episode to show someone who has never seen the Simpsons before? The most recent one.
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Jun 9, 2020 22:58
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steinrokkan posted:The most recent one. 
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Jun 9, 2020 23:00
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Code Jockey posted:I was born a "Homer at the Bat" advocate, and I will die a "Homer at the Bat" advocate Definitely in the running. I'm not from the US and still don't have any idea who any of the baseball players are to this day but that lack of knowledge doesn't detract from the episode at all. In fact, I only recently learned that the song at the end is based on a real baseball song, which was a real  moment when I heard it in the wild.
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Jun 10, 2020 12:19
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I only recently learned that the version of that song that I grew up with was not in fact written originally for my home team and the songwriter made a custom version for every team  e: yes I was a ridiculously credulous mark for all those "college folklore" stories that are told to freshmen as though they happened at this school, but then eventually you realize they are told at every single school in the universe Data Graham fucked around with this message at 13:13 on Jun 10, 2020 |
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Jun 10, 2020 12:21
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