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Empty Sandwich posted:I was trying to find the Fierstein quote about refusing to return for a gay-themed episode and the search ourobourosed back to the thread from a year ago: Whoa I didn't know that, good for Fierstein being more concerned about the quality of the show that anyone working on it nowadays when I'm sure that would have been an easy paycheck. Carl was one of my favorite characters as he is clearly gay but isn't treated as a punchline or trying to seduce Homer or anything else you'd expect from an episode from the early 90s. He's one of the most competent people to ever be at the nuclear plant and gets a dignified exit trying to help Homer, which fails because of the awful plant culture but he did his best.
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Mar 8, 2022 19:22
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| # ? May 27, 2024 14:26 |
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It's always shocking to me that that episode was the second episode of season 2.
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Mar 8, 2022 19:46
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porfiria posted:There are a lot of reductive heuristics for determining when the Simpsons lost its mojo (when celebrities started playing themselves, when Phil Hartman died), but regular episodes becoming indistinguishable from Halloween episodes is one of my favorites. I distinctly remember an episode where Kang and Kodos are just hanging out in a non Halloween episode as a bit of a watershed for me. Same, but with the "jockey elves" episode.
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Mar 8, 2022 20:05
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Ghost Leviathan posted:A big problem is that 'Simpsons writer' is one of the best gigs for a worthless showbiz failchild, because there's clearly no standards. Empty Sandwich posted:again I think about the guy who'd been on the show for 14 years and couldn't name a single joke he'd gotten on the air https://twitter.com/BusinessInsider/status/1121577129508884480
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Mar 8, 2022 20:33
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I said it before, but the last episode of the Simpsons should just be a regular episode that turns spontaneously into a recreation of the end of Cross of Iron except with Ned and Homer.
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Mar 8, 2022 20:38
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Detective No. 27 posted:Simpsons and anime is a potent combination. Bartkira worked really well. A Bart vs Sideshow Bob fight in the style of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure practically writes itself. Joseph Joestar is basically swole Bart Simpson. Bart's canonical middle name is Jojo.
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Mar 8, 2022 20:51
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Vincent Van Goatse posted:I said it before, but the last episode of the Simpsons should just be a regular episode that turns spontaneously into a recreation of the end of Cross of Iron except with Ned and Homer. The remains of Earth will be the way that fledgling space-fairing species come together. They will be drawn to a mysterious signal that has consistently broadcast new episodes of The Simpsons for millennia.
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Mar 8, 2022 20:56
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emgeejay posted:it’s worth a repost Jesus, how bad are the hundreds of jokes that don't make it into the episode?
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Mar 8, 2022 20:57
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emgeejay posted:it’s worth a repost Hey man he worked really hard to be born to the same parents as the guy who wrote "Flaming Moe's." (I actually really like the episode "Any Given Sundance" from S19 that he references towards the middle of that.  )
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Mar 8, 2022 21:07
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SweetMercifulCrap! posted:It's always shocking to me that that episode was the second episode of season 2. Despite being a Big Homo I thought that Homer's Phobia was the only "gay episode" of the classic years. Guess S1 and S2 never really reran in my area.
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Mar 8, 2022 21:15
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Empty Sandwich posted:Bart's canonical middle name is Jojo. Hm, The Simpsons in the style of a Jojo OP...
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Mar 8, 2022 21:50
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"Moe I think I need your advice." "Yeah?" "I've got this manga named Joey JoJo's Bizarre Shabadoo" " That's the worst name I ever heard"
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Mar 8, 2022 22:06
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SweetMercifulCrap! posted:It's always shocking to me that that episode was the second episode of season 2. Yeah the accepted idea the gold was seasons 3 to 8 but 2 needs no apologies, it is as essential as the rest. As it was still a bit grounded in reality we get excellent character moments and I think it has the best emotional core of any of the seasons with "Bart vs. Thanksgiving," "The Way We Was," and "Lisa's Substitute."
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Mar 8, 2022 22:07
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Hyrax Attack! posted:Yeah the accepted idea the gold was seasons 3 to 8 but 2 needs no apologies, it is as essential as the rest. As it was still a bit grounded in reality we get excellent character moments and I think it has the best emotional core of any of the seasons with "Bart vs. Thanksgiving," "The Way We Was," and "Lisa's Substitute." I sometimes wish there was an alternate version of the show that stayed the way it was in season 2. Sure, most of the funniest stuff came later, but the emotional core and darker tone of season 2 would be fresh even today, I think.
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Mar 8, 2022 22:28
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SweetMercifulCrap! posted:I sometimes wish there was an alternate version of the show that stayed the way it was in season 2. Sure, most of the funniest stuff came later, but the emotional core and darker tone of season 2 would be fresh even today, I think. It seems like a lot of the show's original adult fans were frustrated with the increasing cartooniness in the post-Brooks/Simon seasons. We were little kids so we just had our brains literally reshaped by it.
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Mar 8, 2022 22:49
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Mellow Seas posted:It seems like a lot of the show's original adult fans were frustrated with the increasing cartooniness in the post-Brooks/Simon seasons. We were little kids so we just had our brains literally reshaped by it. I said it recently but yeah, homer's heart exploding in front of Mr. Burns I was like "wtf show is this becoming? *turns knob to the left*"
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Mar 8, 2022 22:56
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SweetMercifulCrap! posted:I sometimes wish there was an alternate version of the show that stayed the way it was in season 2. Sure, most of the funniest stuff came later, but the emotional core and darker tone of season 2 would be fresh even today, I think. Yeah, I mean we got great stuff from the show becoming zanier and season 2 Homer would not have gone into space but having Bart care about failing a test after he really studied was relatable. Also season 2 is a better starter for introducing someone to the show than s3, as the episodes establish many of the relationships like Burns being a tyrant or Flanders being Flanders. And season 3 starts with Stark Raving Dad which even aside from the Michael Jackson cameo isn't a powerhouse ep.
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Mar 9, 2022 00:53
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The key thing about those zanier episodes is that they have a real emotional core at them. Homer goes into space - a father wants to impress his son, and he also wants to face his own fears, and James Taylor wants to teach NASA a thing or two about pest control. Hank Scorpio - Homer has to choose his happiness in his dream job or his family's happiness. James Taylor does not appear.
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Mar 9, 2022 05:22
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emgeejay posted:it’s worth a repost Lisa: Dad, you'll be playing yourself Homer: Why? Because I'm fat?? is a pretty decent joke. But you know they wouldn't have stopped there and would have continued riffing on it until its ruined.
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Mar 9, 2022 05:53
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Revolution Makeup has a Simpsons collection, and I paid full price for it! Like a sucker! Not the whole thing, just a bunch of eyeshadow, but point being it’s all half off now. Where is the justice?
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Mar 9, 2022 05:57
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SweetMercifulCrap! posted:Lisa: Dad, you'll be playing yourself Or they'll have Lisa go "hrmm" and roll her eyes so you know that's the punchline.
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Mar 9, 2022 06:27
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I.C. posted:Revolution Makeup has a Simpsons collection, and I paid full price for it! Like a sucker! Not the whole thing, just a bunch of eyeshadow, but point being it’s all half off now. Where is the justice?  ???
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Mar 9, 2022 06:35
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Vincent Van Goatse posted:I said it before, but the last episode of the Simpsons should just be a regular episode that turns spontaneously into a recreation of the end of Cross of Iron except with Ned and Homer. I'm thinking more it suddenly turns into The Day the Clown Cried with Krusty leading everyone into the chamber and begging for the end.
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Mar 9, 2022 09:50
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The new one: Bart, Nelson, for some reason Dolph but not Kearney or Jimbo are sentenced to a character-building wilderness hike (unsupervised) for some minor crimes. (Bart put tide pods in the town fountain, Nelson smashed Moe's love tester with a bat and stole all the quarters, I forget what Dolph did.) Martin shows up at the start and says he's doing it for his resume to get into a good middle school. Willie, who is dropping them off at the start, tells them to keep an eye out for the "greatest of all treasures." They stumble on a goat in a cage and Nelson is convinced this is what they were looking for because all his other reform programs included stupid word puzzles. They get chased by Satanists in animal costumes who claim the kids stole their sacrificial goat. They get away but split up when they find a canoe that Dolph and Nelson want to take but they can't get the goat into it. Bart and Nelson continue walking with the goat. Nelson has a freak out when Bart tells them they aren't friends and reveals that he isn't there voluntarily, he broke into a pharmacy to steal more study aids because his parents are putting too much pressure on him with extracurriculars like waltzing lessons and mathletics. Dolph and Nelson find an AirBnB and have a living-it-up montage until the Satanists arrive. They're strapped to a sacrificial altar when Bart and Nelson arrive and jump in to save them. The Satanists reveal they're film students faking a found footage movie. One of them, mad that their shot got ruined, starts kicking the set, causing the bladed pendulum they were using to spazz out and swing wildly. In the dumbest joke of the episode (probably the whole season), Martin realizes the pendulum is not swinging randomly but is in time with "Blue Danube". He invites Bart to waltz with him, and the two dance around the blade and untie Nelson and Dolph before the contraption hits them. The goat eats the phone the film students were shooting the movie on. In the B story, with Bart gone, Lisa packs up Maggie to the aunts and demands an "only child" experience. She makes Homer and Marge call her Jules throughout. This is mostly real dumb and amounts to nothing. This episode had an OK premise and they blew it real bad. Everything with the Satanists and the goat was loving dumb. It also had a joke very emblematic of late-season Simpsons where Lisa wants to play Suffragette Monopoly and Marge says "I didn't even know we had it" and the camera pans to the box and Marge actually says "And there's the box". And Lisa says it's because they always play Bart's games, and the camera pans over to a stack of games (the only one I remember is Pranksters of Catan), and Lisa says "and there's the boxes". Like ... they're actually verbally calling out sight gags now. Edit: It happens about 20 seconds in here: https://twitter.com/TheSimpsons/status/1500640821133070339 No couch gag on this one like last week. I dunno why I guess they thought they had pure gold.
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Mar 9, 2022 15:18
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PostNouveau posted:It also had a joke very emblematic of late-season Simpsons where Lisa wants to play Suffragette Monopoly and Marge says "I didn't even know we had it" and the camera pans to the box and Marge actually says "And there's the box". And Lisa says it's because they always play Bart's games, and the camera pans over to a stack of games (the only one I remember is Pranksters of Catan), and Lisa says "and there's the boxes". Like ... they're actually verbally calling out sight gags now. Video Game: The Board Game is almost a good joke.
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Mar 9, 2022 15:29
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Kearney had to spend time with his kid, unless he’s disappeared
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Mar 9, 2022 16:07
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emgeejay posted:it’s worth a repost This feels like a Clickhole video making fun of modern Simpsons.
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Mar 9, 2022 17:18
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bobjr posted:Kearney had to spend time with his kid, unless he’s disappeared The last Simpsons episode is Kumiko desperately trying to convince Dr. Hibbert that all the residents of Springfield are missing while he denies they even existed. Final credits scroll is an in memoriam.
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Mar 9, 2022 17:25
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Homer is ordered to undergo therapy with Dr Marvin Monroe after a hostage ordeal. Homer doesn't see what the problem is, even though Marge did have to strangle a chicken to keep it from making noise and giving away their hiding spot.
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Mar 9, 2022 17:45
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Hyrax Attack! posted:Whoa I didn't know that, good for Fierstein being more concerned about the quality of the show that anyone working on it nowadays when I'm sure that would have been an easy paycheck. Carl was one of my favorite characters as he is clearly gay but isn't treated as a punchline or trying to seduce Homer or anything else you'd expect from an episode from the early 90s. He's one of the most competent people to ever be at the nuclear plant and gets a dignified exit trying to help Homer, which fails because of the awful plant culture but he did his best. Is that episode a purposeful version of the trope where a token minority comes along and fixes the protagonists life for no good reason? Because that makes the ending even funnier.
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Mar 10, 2022 06:52
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LIVE AMMO COSPLAY posted:Is that episode a purposeful version of the trope where a token minority comes along and fixes the protagonists life for no good reason? Reminds me of the Mary Poppins parody in later seasons when she ends up driven to drink because she can only make temporary progress at best.
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Mar 10, 2022 08:10
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Ghost Leviathan posted:Reminds me of the Mary Poppins parody in later seasons when she ends up driven to drink because she can only make temporary progress at best. lol I was literally going to make the comparison. But the Sherry Bobbins episode ending is less clever about it. Though I guess technically they are probably jokes about the status quo.
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Mar 10, 2022 08:16
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LIVE AMMO COSPLAY posted:lol I was literally going to make the comparison. Also the one where Marge makes the family clean the house and literally within seconds the kitchen is even filthier than before.
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Mar 10, 2022 09:13
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Ghost Leviathan posted:Also the one where Marge makes the family clean the house and literally within seconds the kitchen is even filthier than before. 
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Mar 10, 2022 09:17
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Hyrax Attack! posted:Whoa I didn't know that, good for Fierstein being more concerned about the quality of the show that anyone working on it nowadays when I'm sure that would have been an easy paycheck. Carl was one of my favorite characters as he is clearly gay but isn't treated as a punchline or trying to seduce Homer or anything else you'd expect from an episode from the early 90s. He's one of the most competent people to ever be at the nuclear plant and gets a dignified exit trying to help Homer, which fails because of the awful plant culture but he did his best. What episode is this?
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Mar 10, 2022 14:28
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Nvm I was thinking of Carl Carlson and was confused.
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Mar 10, 2022 14:31
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I think that Fierstein's character was spelled Karl
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Mar 10, 2022 14:34
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Improbable Lobster posted:I think that Fierstein's character was spelled Karl Yeah it just took me a second because it's been literal years since I saw that episode.
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Mar 10, 2022 14:42
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I saw a story earlier today about a recentish episode where Lenny and Carl meet Smither's fashion designer boyfriend. Lenny asks him what he thinks of his top, and the guy looks at Carl and says, "Very nice." Not a great joke, but all right as modern Simpsons jokes go. The best thing is that it doesn't overstay its welcome. So of course the guy who wrote the joke said that everyone else wanted to cut it because they didn't think people would get it.
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Mar 11, 2022 02:17
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I'm really curious about the "and there's the box" lines. Are they making fun of their own tendency to point out the jokes? Or are they actually pointing out the jokes?
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Mar 11, 2022 05:34
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