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The time the camera panned down through the earth to Vishu at the centre operating it was the geologically lowest point
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Jan 18, 2020 16:30
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| # ¿ May 13, 2024 20:00 |
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WeaponX posted:You know none of this Apu stuff would matter if this show ended ten seasons ago like it should have this but unironically, also at least fifteen Cursed idea: The Simpsons will be in the next Kingdom Hearts game
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Jan 25, 2020 15:35
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bobjr posted:King of the Hill would be a unironically good choice. Summon Hank to fight Thanos with a lightsaber keyblade
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Jan 26, 2020 11:31
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It's not like anybody sane's been paying attention for years.
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Jan 26, 2020 15:17
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Like it's a shame because despite propagating stereotypes Apu still managed to be maybe one of the most three-dimensional side characters in the series, and almost unique in being an Asian man portrayed as attractive and desirable.Bust Rodd posted:LMAO, the controversy wasn’t that Azaria had done so recently, it’s that American media was so completely devoid of Indian people in the 90’s that Apu’s stereotypes became absorbed in the US media zeitgeist and informed racist notions of Indians for decades to come. The near-total void of Indian characters does stand out in retrospect. Even with token characters they'd almost always be Chinese or Japanese. (Yes, the King of the Hill joke comes to mind) British media actually had a lot more Indian characters, and probably because they've got much stronger cultural connections for obvious reasons. I mean hell, the last Indian characters I can think of are Connie from Steven Universe (who just looks generally brown unless you look up her last name, and her family seems otherwise assimilated) and freaking Raj from The Big Bang Theory. (Who apparently is popular in India anyway, probably because he exactly fits their own nerd stereotype)
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Jan 27, 2020 07:40
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Actually there's also Baljeet from Phineas and Ferb, who also fits the nerdy Indian stereotype. (also his superhero persona is Hanumanman)
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Jan 27, 2020 14:22
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Frasier is all about ridiculous miscommunications and dramatic irony but they actually made it work with characters generally having a reason to draw ridiculous conclusions. (said reasons usually being that Frasier and Niles are pompous idiots and drama queens)
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Feb 2, 2020 08:21
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ikanreed posted:Alright maybe, but it wasn't good because of that lazy writing Well yeah, just came to mind as an exception because A: It was explicitly a running theme of the show, 2: they worked hard at actually making it funny, and A: there'd frequently be more or less realistic consequences for it in the end that add to the comedy rather than laughing it off, usually in the form of everything coming crashing down on them. Then again, those Frasier plots are typically explicit farces, in which sustained misunderstandings and escalating lies are key parts of the plot and humour. I don't think you typically have farces as Simpsons plots, I'm not sure if any come to mind, besides maybe the one where Marge gets a fancy outfit and is pretending to be well-off.
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Feb 2, 2020 15:28
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The Simpsons comics seem to have been a drat sight better than the show for years. Definitely more creative.
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Feb 16, 2020 15:18
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A lot of the good Simpsons parodies theme to have a theme in that they have exactly one major influence, which they may not expect the audience to have heard of, and stick to it. Reminds me of the episode with the Count of Monte Cristo riff, and they simplify the plot with, among other things, having Homer accused of British sympathies (since explaining 19th century French politics would be way too much effort) that gets him sent off to prison. Maybe coincidentally, this actually more resembles the real-life case that the novel was inspired by.
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Feb 17, 2020 11:21
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Barney having an easygoing job and employed by his father would explain a lot. Was the Bowlarama the same setting of every bowling episode? Though I forget that And Maggie Makes Three is a flashback episode. (If a relatively recent one, given Maggie is around one year old generally) Ghost Leviathan fucked around with this message at 12:42 on Feb 24, 2020 |
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Feb 24, 2020 12:40
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On quick research, it's actually his uncle, my mistake.
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Feb 24, 2020 12:49
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If they're going to be riffing comic book movies they could at least be using Radioactive Man. (Though the Fossil Fuel Four might be the peak there) The comics had some Radioactive Man 'issues' spoofing various eras of comic books.
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Feb 26, 2020 09:35
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finalellipsis posted:someone's going to make at "incredible bulk" joke about Homer They already made this joke in the show with a whole episode leading up to Homer becoming the Hulk, and again in the comics (maybe before, I forget) where he turns into a Hulk analogue when everyone in Springfield gets superpowers
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Feb 26, 2020 14:58
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Data Graham posted:Is it too late for the Simpsons to double down on SOME GIZMO jokes Even bad episodes of the Simpsons iirc tended to be surprisingly on the ball about technology; the early seasons had very 90s depictions of absurdly violent games that kids love which is fair enough given it was the heyday of Mortal Kombat and Carmageddon, one of the dotcom bubble episodes has online cartoons that are pretty apropos for the era of early Newgrounds-style stuff, and even the MMO episode which does the usual things of mixing up Everquest style games and Second Life (to be fair some games deliberately blur that line) doesn't seem too off the ball. And the good old days have video games used as vehicles for jokes, like My Dinner With Andre. (and Stickball) Homer's computer-illiteracy is always played for laughs, but he's honestly better than a lot of boomers.
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Feb 27, 2020 07:45
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PostNouveau posted:In the new one, Lisa decides to write a school essay about Frink, who is about to launch Frinkcoin. He plays her a long video of Jim Parsons explaining what cryptocurrency is. The new coin is an instant hit that makes Frink rich, but it's not really explained how at all. Despite throwing in the video, I don't think they know how cryptocurrency works. Neither do the most enthusiastic users of cryptocurrency, so.
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Feb 27, 2020 14:47
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Empty Sandwich posted:My first "holy poo poo, the Simpsons predicted this" moment was after watching S01E06, "Moaning Lisa." In the B-plot video game, Bart does a finishing move that knocks off the other player's head. In early 1990, we found that joke hilarious and absurd. Okay, impressive for it being before Mortal Kombat. I think it might be a case where especially in early seasons they know that a good chunk of the audience is going to be kids and families who are entirely familiar with video games (and of course, nerds) and so it's both better and much funnier to depict them accurately. (or clearly deliberately inaccurately) Actually, while children's cartoons and adult's live action TV from that era both tended to be jarringly bad at depicting video games realisticaly, the niche of adult-oriented cartoons tends not to be, King of the Hill and South Park are usually fairly accurate.
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Feb 27, 2020 16:57
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They actually show that game earlier in the episode on the discount rack.
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Feb 28, 2020 09:25
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"There are people who'll get this obscure reference and people who won't, so we need to make this funny to both of them" is a comedic philosophy so very few writers understand, but it works so well when they do.
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Feb 28, 2020 15:27
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Why do I read this cursed thread
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Feb 28, 2020 16:31
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They really did miss the opportunity to use Radioactive Man.
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Mar 3, 2020 06:01
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Junk posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0lSI3jLxX8 Family Guy seems best watched in out of context YouTube clips. American Dad seems to hold together better as a whole, though. Kinda funny that they realised with Roger a character who can be and do literally anyone and anything is absolutely perfect for an animated sitcom.
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Mar 3, 2020 06:15
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Iron Crowned posted:They really have just stopped trying. IIRC Roger has a few alter-egos that completely fool exactly one member of the Smith family, who otherwise are used to seeing through his disguises. (though they play along to kayfabe a lot of the time anyway, since Roger tends to get lost in character) In general, American Dad seems to lend itself better to wacky plots, since between Stan's job at the CIA and Roger's whole thing they can accommodate more or less any setup fairly naturally, (not to mention the school principal being basically a GTA protagonist) but with plenty of room for mundane stuff as well. I always feel like the core of a show's cast is how well they function as a toolkit for the kind of plots and setups you want to do, to make them feel natural and to be able to give each character something to do.
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Mar 4, 2020 13:03
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I'm pretty sure the Vindicators has already been the name for some obscure Marvel team. There's a lot of those. Good superhero parodies are surprisingly hard to do. The Tick latest series (RIP) did a decent job in updating characters and introducing new ones to better fit the cinematic era of superheroes, complete with what turns out to be the equivalent of Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier with foreshadowing you can spot if you know what to look for. Often the best idea is just to establish something in-universe and keep using it with tweaks as necessary, since that's how superheroes already work. Bust Rodd posted:I personally love American Dad but hate the Roger character plot device and the characters in the 12-13-14th seasons have all had episodes or jokes where the gag is they are letting someone and right before it happens they go “oh this is just gonna be Roger” and then it is. That was funny once and they’ve done it like half a dozen times now. I recall they did one where it turns out the character isn't Roger, and even Roger is surprised. And they started out quickly running out of ideas of what to do with Klaus, and then decided to just make that part of the joke and have him do absolutely whatever.
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Mar 4, 2020 13:26
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Kinda the funny thing is that Radioactive Man actually is the name of a comic book character, though an obscure villain. The Homer car reveal video trended on YouTube around the Tesla reveal, although older ones mention the Aztek, and make me wonder how long til they do a recycled version of that script if they hadn't already sucked off Elon Musk. That said, people miss the point of the original episode, that massive overhype for a car everyone immediately recognises as ridiculous is one of the oldest stories in the automobile industry in particular, and a result of engineers having to work with a clearly underqualified and unsupervised designer making a vanity project. Of course, people also miss the point that Herb's no genius himself- Powell Motors is clearly a typical poorly run American car company where the CEO, board and engineers hate each other and can't communicate, with cost-cutting, poor market research and refusing to address obvious gaps in the market that the Japanese manufacturers are filling causing them to lose sales and put out badly thought out cars even with competent engineers, and putting Homer in a position he's obviously unqualified for then encouraging him to not take no for an answer. (and Homer even makes some suggestions that are now common in new cars, like the larger cupholder and built in video game system) Though they're still pretty on point with the Canyonero years later- massive, impractical and dangerous, but its consumers don't care. Ghost Leviathan fucked around with this message at 03:52 on Mar 5, 2020 |
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Mar 5, 2020 03:03
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Or call it Pear, Avacado for extra millennial points, Eris if you're being fancy. Then again I have a feeling the writers stopped giving a poo poo decades ago.
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Mar 5, 2020 05:15
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CodfishCartographer posted:Honestly this kind of thing applies to most major companies in most major industries. This exact poo poo happens in the video game industry, the movie industry, mobile app store industry, etc. Oh, absolutely. It's just kinda funny that Homer gets basically used as the scapegoat by everyone when honestly he's probably least at fault. The writers might have had the Edsel in mind, which wasn't a bad car on a technical level, and had a lot of then-new features that would become standard, but was ugly, overpriced, overbuilt and frequently poorly constructed due to being rushed through the assembly lines.
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Mar 5, 2020 07:34
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I just figure they do not give a poo poo and put off everything to the very last hungover minute.
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Mar 5, 2020 12:33
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Empty Sandwich posted:despite my post, I think this is correct. the actual fact somehow gives them carte blanche to use the real name, and it will be funnier than any joke they'd put in the corner. It's going to be in the next Kingdom Hearts: Incomprehensible Subtitle
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Mar 6, 2020 05:02
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Empty Sandwich posted:yup, that. Though did some up that bloody and violent video games weren't invented by Mortal Kombat, it was a logical next step in escalation, especially since with the popularity of cheesy horror movies all the boys were into schlocky blood and guts. Either way, it's a parody that works.
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Mar 7, 2020 15:05
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They later on had the episode where the babysitter (the one that Homer accidentally rear end-grabs while trying to get the candy) gets Bart to behave by promising him 10 minutes with a game where convicts fight each other to the death with rusty meat hooks.
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Mar 7, 2020 17:45
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Man, I wish I could have made a walking whale in City of Heroes.
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Mar 8, 2020 07:18
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Libya really is a land of contrasts.
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Mar 8, 2020 14:15
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Actually, come to think of it, there's a fair few episodes involving poorly thought out business ventures that involve Homer in an important position, but his own actions really aren't actually key to its inevitable failure. Powell Motors, sure, but also Poochie and the monorail. (Of course, the last one was deliberately set up to fail and all) The trend is more that any business venture that lets Homer get involved already has people making many, many poor decisions.
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Mar 11, 2020 13:58
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Globex might be an exception here, given Homer was hired based on seniority rather than performance (and because they couldn't get Smithers) but wisely put into a management position where he's not expected to do much actual work, and is savvy enough to let the eggheads stick to their job and keep their morale up with donuts. Then again, given their whole world domination thing, maybe a different set of genre conventions are at play and Homer actually slips into the role of the lovable doofus comic relief henchman who the villainous mastermind plays off.
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Mar 12, 2020 08:25
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Drunken Baker posted:Simpsons predicted Manhunt. It's a bit of a chicken-egg situation, given how a fair few gory games were specifically made to spite and get free publicity from moral majority type groups, which I think died out around the time of the Dante's Inferno game which had outright fake protesters.
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Mar 12, 2020 12:47
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Like a lot of shows it really starts to get annoying when the writers get caught up in their favourite will-they-or-won't-they pairing. Thing is that it kinda works at least because Leela isn't exactly opposed to hooking up with Fry and likes him, but it is established she sets very high standards for herself, especially for her dates, and Fry obviously isn't the best prospect given he's a developmentally disabled guy who is entirely content in a dead-end job and living in a robot's closet.
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Mar 13, 2020 16:15
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Like most sitcom couples, Fry and Leela is mostly made obnoxious about how they get way too much focus without actually making any progress.
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Mar 13, 2020 18:19
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YeahTubaMike posted:Alien-era Leela had pity sex with Zapp Brannigan though, it's not like her standards were through the roof to begin with. It's more she thought Fry was a sweet guy but not good enough for her, and her upbringing was basically defined by insecurity over her totally unknown origins and having no family who care about her. Does seem like she subtly chills out and gets more comfortable with herself after meeting her parents, though she definitely shows some issues in trying to do-over her childhood that one time they get de-aged. (Which I think a lot of people can sadly relate to, mind) That and I think initially Leela has the career woman problem where she's basically the senior employee at her job and doesn't want to date down, but pretty much all the men who do fit her standards are entirely willing to. Zapp does technically fill her original standards as a wealthy, famous, high-status man, just he's a pathetic jerk and possibly a semi-functioning sociopath.
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Mar 14, 2020 13:50
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| # ¿ May 13, 2024 20:00 |
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A Fish Called Selma is... interesting in retrospect, since it's one of the only times we see Troy as an actual character. You can see why he's so prolific; he's got that star quality of being ridiculous charismatic and charming despite not being the sharpest tool in the shed, which just means he'll do whatever gets him a paycheck, but his relationship with Selma is ambiguous- he is nothing but nice to her even before he realises he has something to gain from it, complete with lighting up a cigar to take the ire off her for smoking in the restaurant. And while obviously the fish thing is played to be as bizarre as possible so there's no real equivalent, the way he acts around the idea of Selma's sexual expectations... looks a lot different with some modern awareness of asexuality and similar topics; he's basically being pressured into something he has no desire for and no idea how to to do, and his discomfort is pretty obvious.
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Mar 18, 2020 06:29
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