Data Graham posted:

Said someone not in the South.

Drive through any medium sized town and every third building is a church I swear to gently caress

SlothfulCobra posted:

I was never with "it" and now I think with the internet fracturing off groups of people into their own niche interests, there may be no "it" to be with anymore.

Which is part of why the Simpsons can't do its old formula of playing off the monoculture because there is no monoculture anymore, no group of current topics everybody is talking about.

Ghost Leviathan posted:

If anything kinda lol given as a dumbass baby boomer Homer would have aged into the majority of pop culture still laser-aimed at him specifically.

The New yorker posted:

What do you make of the compliment “Swartzweldian”?

I guess I understand what they’re driving at, and it all sounds very complimentary, and I thank everybody for that, but I can’t help thinking “Swartzweldian” is about the most awkward-sounding word in the English language. I mean, I thought “Oakleyesque” and “Vittiriffic” [after “Simpsons” writers Bill Oakley and Jon Vitti] were bad, but “Swartzweldian”!

So how would you describe your sense of humor, your comedic sensibility?

Swartzweldian.

Cosmik Debris posted:

If you guys haven't read John Swartzwelder's interview with the New Yorker I highly recommend it. He's hilarious. There are a lot of great lines in it. As far as I'm aware it's the only interview he's ever done.

quote:

How much time and attention did you spend on these scripts? Another “Simpsons” writer once compared your scripts to finely tuned machines—if the wrong person mucked with them, the whole thing could blow up.

All of my time and all of my attention. It’s the only way I know how to write, darn it. But I do have a trick that makes things easier for me. Since writing is very hard and rewriting is comparatively easy and rather fun, I always write my scripts all the way through as fast as I can, the first day, if possible, putting in crap jokes and pattern dialogue—“Homer, I don’t want you to do that.” “Then I won’t do it.” Then the next day, when I get up, the script’s been written. It’s lousy, but it’s a script. The hard part is done. It’s like a crappy little elf has snuck into my office and badly done all my work for me, and then left with a tip of his crappy hat. All I have to do from that point on is fix it. So I’ve taken a very hard job, writing, and turned it into an easy one, rewriting, overnight. I advise all writers to do their scripts and other writing this way. And be sure to send me a small royalty every time you do it.

Toxic Mental posted:

is there another layer to it other than "nearly half the time" or am I missing something

dads_work_files posted:

Modern Simpsons would follow "...Four Krustys!" up with another gangster saying "You've got double vision from using this highly-volatile gun wax in an enclosed space!" and then holding up a jar of "Oily Dan's Super Toxic Gun Wax" and a gleaming pistol, and then Legs would say "Aww... I just like to keep my gun lookin' its best!" before passing out from the fumes, and the good joke would be buried underneath a bunch of bad ones.

Tree Bucket posted:

Urghh, that's distressingly plausible.

dads_work_files posted:

SweetMercifulCrap! posted:

The jar would also say Warning: May Cause Double Vision

FireWorksWell posted:

With a close up shot lasting four seconds

Junk posted:

and Lisa leaning in for a closer look saying "Ohhh, HERE'S your problem" with that weird post season 9 sing-songy voice

Hasturtium posted:

I gave up on The Simpsons not long after the Skinner-wasn’t-Skinner-all-along episode, because I was a senior in high school and I had skirt to chase other things to do. And my life has grown from there - college, career, marriage, kids, master’s degree, and enjoying adulthood - but The Simpsons still exists as a means to keep the merchandising alive. It’s surreal and gross, knowing less than a third of the show’s output is reliably any loving good yet they’ll keep making it as long as the money flows.

Tree Bucket posted:

Well, what do you call it?

Tree Bucket posted:

Well, what do you call it?

dr_rat posted:

A learners degree obviously. Who thinks they've mastered a subject just because they got a stupid degree, mastering a subject takes a life time, if not more!!!!