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Yeah, when I looked up summaries of the worst episode the worst rating I saw was a C. This is what they had to say about that terrible Grandpa Wresting episode Robert David Sullivan of The A.V. Club gave the episode a B-, saying, "The season has already been heavy on nostalgia and on Grampa appearances, so it's not a pleasant surprise when the Simpsons stumble upon a storage unit with boxes of feather boas, wigs, and perfume sprayers in boxes marked 'Property of Abe Simpson'."
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Mar 24, 2021 18:09
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| # ? Jun 2, 2024 18:55 |
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Perkins rolling over in the Twitter thread is disappointing, but he did give an episode a few weeks later the worst grade I could find among the site's Simpsons reviews (a D)quote:Stray observations
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Mar 24, 2021 18:18
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Ghost Leviathan posted:A lot of older people are both hypersensitive to online feedback yet incredibly selective as to what feedback they get and from where. It makes actual communication with them next to impossible. I've noticed the same thing and really enjoy taking the piss using Boomer slogans. Lately it's mostly about snowflakes getting triggered over having to wear masks and that epidemiology facts don't care about their feelings. Doesn't solve jack poo poo, but it's fun.
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Mar 24, 2021 18:24
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This makes me uneasy. Chilling
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Mar 24, 2021 18:35
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It's probably mostly because the AV club is the only major outlet that still rates every episode of the Simpsons. It's funny, because some time ago they rewatched the classic episodes and rated them. So you get weird stuff like decent but less engaging classic episodes getting rated a D or something because they're being compared to other classic episodes, and more recent trash getting a B or C because they are just comparing to recent episodes.
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Mar 24, 2021 19:34
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sweet geek swag posted:It's probably mostly because the AV club is the only major outlet that still rates every episode of the Simpsons. It's funny, because some time ago they rewatched the classic episodes and rated them. So you get weird stuff like decent but less engaging classic episodes getting rated a D or something because they're being compared to other classic episodes, and more recent trash getting a B or C because they are just comparing to recent episodes. The AV Club stopped rating every new Simpsons episode a couple seasons ago.
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Mar 24, 2021 19:49
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PostNouveau posted:The AV Club stopped rating every new Simpsons episode a couple seasons ago. Lol
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Mar 24, 2021 20:17
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PostNouveau posted:The AV Club stopped rating every new Simpsons episode a couple seasons ago. yeah and the title of the review is "The Simpsons’ 700th episode reminds us why The A.V. Club doesn't cover The Simpsons any more"
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Mar 24, 2021 20:22
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Last Chance posted:This makes me uneasy. Chilling murderer mocking his victim.jpg
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Mar 24, 2021 20:31
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Lol, even the AV club has abandoned them. Just absolutely wonderful.
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Mar 24, 2021 21:41
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I mean it's like
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Mar 24, 2021 22:08
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Lmao
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Mar 24, 2021 22:32
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IBroughttheFunk posted:Looked at the tweet replies, and..... Tremendous "I think the third one is just as good as the first two godfathers" energy
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Mar 25, 2021 08:13
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The new one flashes back to 6 years in the past to answer the question of why is there an ornament on the Christmas tree that Todd Flanders made. Marge and Homer go to the work Christmas part, and she makes him stay sober. Homer calls another sober partygoers boring, causing the 4-year sober alcoholic to start chugging whiskey (there is no other "joke" to this). Lenny and Carl spike his soda, he gets blitzed, sings a version of "Hark the Herald Angel Sing" about how he hates Burns, and gets the hounds unleashed on the party (they have violent reindeer names). https://twitter.com/TheSimpsons/status/1373789831629770754 Marge bans him from the house until she's sure he's changed. Out of options, Homer goes to live with the Flanders. Maude is in this one! Homer gets put in Ned's bar but instead of like it looked in the past, everything is Jesusized. Maybe this is a joke about Flanderization? The taps are holy water. There's an Itchy & Scratchy! It sucks. Homer eventually pisses Maude off enough to get kicked out (he eats the Christmas ham with the plastic still on it). Homer goes to console himself at Moes, and Moe takes him for a walk to cheer him up. Moe points out there's a room over the garage because there's a window up there. They've been somewhat marketing this as a surprise that was hiding right in front of everyone the whole time, and I don't think it tracks. Homer overhears Maude going into labor (oh yeah Maude is pregnant) and he goes over to drive her to the hospital but she's like "it's too late" so he looks up on youtube how to deliver a baby. Maude requests he act like Ned (who is out giving turkeys to the poor), and he does, and Marge comes in for no apparent reason and sees this and decides that's good enough. Todd's middle name is Homer. (And for similar reasons, Maggie's middle name is Lenny.)
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Mar 26, 2021 03:48
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Their first flashback episode was set nearly 50 years ago, their current flashback episodes don't even go back far enough in time for youtube to not exist yet. Grim.
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Mar 26, 2021 04:10
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spaceblancmange posted:Their first flashback episode was set nearly 50 years ago, their current flashback episodes don't even go back far enough in time for youtube to not exist yet. Grim. Homer and Marge take an Uber home from the work party.
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Mar 26, 2021 04:13
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PostNouveau posted:
Lol
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Mar 26, 2021 05:31
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If they are serious about The Simpsons having no continuity, they should bring back Maude Flanders. No flashback. Just have her alive again. Don't even explain how or why and don't have characters act like she's been dead for the past twenty years.
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Mar 26, 2021 05:40
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I mean they brought back Dr. Marvin Monroe.
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Mar 26, 2021 05:52
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Harry Shearer sounds like he either doesn't give a gently caress or isn't entirely sure where he is and Smithers' line not ending in "sir" is jarring. The visual of the guys having an ineffectual punch-up in the isolation glove box is honestly pretty funny and has Good Seasons Energy but it makes zero sense in this context. Everyone's panicking and running for their lives because they've had the hounds set on them, so why have these two suddenly decided to start brawling? It's like someone pulled up Gag ideas/Chaotic situations/power_plant.txt and just dropped it into the script
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Mar 26, 2021 06:04
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Pretty good posted:Harry Shearer sounds like he either doesn't give a gently caress He generally doesn't give a gently caress about anything but boring conservative radio, and he's been talking poo poo about the quality of the show for like twenty years. How long has it been since he quit and they bribed him to come back? Five years?
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Mar 26, 2021 08:32
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from several pages ago so apologies, but this thread blew up since last i came inIron Crowned posted:I will die on the hill that the Principal and The Pauper is a good episode. same, friendo  we've discussed it many times in this thread, but i maintain it's the Best Worst Episode. i hated the idea from a conceptual level, but the episode itself has some solid jokes, and i really appreciate the 'torture' line at the end a lot more as an adult (especially during the bush years). even as a kid when i first saw it, i still thought the episode itself was perfectly fine minus the plot. i also find it interesting when compared to the frank grimes episode. at the time, the principal and the pauper was the episode i thought the simpsons had jumped the shark, but the grimes episode never registered to me the same way. i did notice it seemed 'off' a bit in a way that previous episodes weren't. but i never had the same visceral reaction to it the way i did with the PatP. Cemetry Gator posted:Yeah, it was an early attempt at doing digital ink and paint. yes, yes i did. thanks for this but did i read you correctly saying that The Rescuers Down Under was the last disney film to use cels? cause if so...  that was season 16? and marge's voice is already THAT bad? 
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Mar 26, 2021 11:36
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So does Homer sing one of these godawful Homer songs in like every episode now? They've just decided that's a key feature of his character, to make him a lyrical parody savant? Christ
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Mar 26, 2021 12:04
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Pretty good posted:Harry Shearer sounds like he either doesn't give a gently caress or isn't entirely sure where he is and Smithers' line not ending in "sir" is jarring. I collected my thoughts on the clip while watching, then scrolled down to see you'd posted them. Quite nice of you!
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Mar 26, 2021 12:09
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Do people really think principal and the pauper is bad or is it a group mentality hatred I always just thought it showed how much of a odd fellow the fake Skinner was and could picture him doing it 
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Mar 26, 2021 12:15
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Muk Dumpster posted:Do people really think principal and the pauper is bad or is it a group mentality hatred There was a video I watched on YouTube some years ago that took a look at it as the moment the Simpsons jumped the shark because it was the first episode where it was disrespectful to the continuity of characters. Even they agreed that it was a good episode, but it was the turning point in the series.
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Mar 26, 2021 12:23
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Was it Super Eyepatch Wolf?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqFNbCcyFkk I love that dude's poo poo.
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Mar 26, 2021 12:29
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Data Graham posted:So does Homer sing one of these godawful Homer songs in like every episode now? They've just decided that's a key feature of his character, to make him a lyrical parody savant? Christ Any time a writer makes something that can legally qualify as a song, they get a extra money for as long as the episode is syndicated (aka forever) from royalties
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Mar 26, 2021 12:56
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The Principal and the Pauper was just the latest in the line of more experimental, fourth wall breaking episodes they had started doing at the time. 22 Short Films About Springfield being another example, but people never bring that one up as having a weird tone to it, which it definitely does. Watching at the time, it just kind of seemed like the natural progression of a show that had gone for 9 seasons and was starting to branch out into not just doing the same kind of stories over and over, and actually had some clever bite to it - there was clearly some creative drive there to start subverting tropes they had played in for years and do more wild, unexpected poo poo, which as far as I’m concerned is much preferable to the alternative of just making the same garbage for 20 years which is what they are doing now.
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Mar 26, 2021 13:07
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Mr Interweb posted:
No the Little Mermaid is the last theatrical film Disney did that used cels. The Rescuers Down Under was the first to be fully digital ink and paint. Disney got on first, and they were doing really good work. I don't know when their television division switched over, but I know the Aladdin cartoon series was cel animated. I'm guessing they did what most of the rest of the TV side did - make the switch around 1999-2000.
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Mar 26, 2021 13:27
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I think it is fair to use Principal and the Pauper as a prime example of the "continuity doesn't matter" writing mindset. A lot of early Simpsons comedy came from established familiarity with a character because we had expectations for how they should act, and then gave us a punchline that was surprising while being congruent with the character. Skinner having a mother complex no longer makes sense for his character after that episode. I got distracted while writing that by thoughts of how much that Christmas clip doesn't work. I'm trying to figure out how there's no comedy because "character acts exactly as expected" while there also being no comedy because "no action is personal to any character." How is that even possible.
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Mar 26, 2021 13:38
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Yeardly smith pitching a fit over that review might be the lowest point of the simpsons by a considerable margin and has done more to damage the reputation of the show than every clip I've seen in this thread yet. I couldn't imagine having her luck in life and being so thin skinned, so petty and so all around lovely. The reviewer should have doubled down
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Mar 26, 2021 13:46
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Das Boo posted:I think it is fair to use Principal and the Pauper as a prime example of the "continuity doesn't matter" writing mindset. A lot of early Simpsons comedy came from established familiarity with a character because we had expectations for how they should act, and then gave us a punchline that was surprising while being congruent with the character. Skinner having a mother complex no longer makes sense for his character after that episode. Yeah, like this clip I just saw in another thread — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX4u4J6m5Pg Marge saying "how the hell" is so out of character for her (and it's in the context of these two aging boomers futilely trying to keep a grasp on a concept that they thought they'd have a hold on forever) that it's just irresistibly funny. She's letting her facade crack, just briefly, and in front of the kids even. Probably never happen again, and we all understand that — that's why it benefits so much from the preponderance of continuity and status quo.
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Mar 26, 2021 13:53
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The other thing about Principal And the Pauper was that around that time the writers all knew the show was getting cancelled soon so they decided to get really weird with it.
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Mar 26, 2021 14:32
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spaceblancmange posted:Their first flashback episode was set nearly 50 years ago, their current flashback episodes don't even go back far enough in time for youtube to not exist yet. Grim. the simpsons have become unstuck in time
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Mar 26, 2021 15:24
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Riptor posted:the simpsons have become unstuck in time Yeah, but they weren't stealing a space station when it happened
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Mar 26, 2021 15:28
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The Principal and the Pauper is a hilarious parody of cartoon continuity. And it's funny once when at the end of the episode you just say "ok we will all just pretend none of this happened" and say continuity doesn't matter. It's not funny when you do that for 20 years. Family Guy is guilty of this all the time too now. Maybe a random gag where Peter fighting a giant chicken that has nothing to do with the plot for a couple minutes is funny when you do it once because it's messing with normal cartoon timing, but it's not funny when you do it every episode for 20 years
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Mar 26, 2021 15:37
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you broke my grill posted:The Principal and the Pauper is a hilarious parody of cartoon continuity. And it's funny once when at the end of the episode you just say "ok we will all just pretend none of this happened" and say continuity doesn't matter. It's not funny when you do that for 20 years. What was the lowest point of Family Guy? There was a recent episode where Peter became a nurse and he connects with the job by nursing the chicken back from a seemingly terminal illness because they give each others' lives meaning through antagonism.
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Mar 26, 2021 15:44
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I don't even know because like the Simpsons there are now more episodes I've not seen than episodes I have seen
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Mar 26, 2021 15:45
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The problem was that it was part of an increasing trend of veering out of their lane. The Simpsons was initially grounded in reality and had plausible scenarios that a real family might deal with, with occasional cartoonish lapses (i.e. Homer falling down the cliff repeatedly, the monorail episode). Season 8ish is when they started to turn into a cartoon family where people throw ducks at balloons and nothing is as it seems. That's why modern Simpsons doesn't resonate with fans of the original 8 or 9 seasons: They're a cartoon family with cartoon problems now, and other shows do that a lot better because they're not saddled with 30+ years of episodes of wildly different quality and writing teams.
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Mar 26, 2021 15:58
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