Precambrian posted:

I liked the Talking Simpsons episode on Homer's Enemy, because they had some of the Chapo guys who were pretty much in agreement with this thread until it got posited to look at Homer/Grimes as a Boomer/Millennial workplace relationship. And it was hilarious because 1) once it became their personal identity politics, the Chapo guys flipped

Maximum Sexy Pigeon posted:

I agree, they basically chose a character whose entire development throughout the show had been based entirely and exclusively on his past, and outside a world of excellent lines, the interesting parts of his character were exclusively relegated to the past that shaped him into the character we know as Skinner. Without it, he would be incredibly bland, a 2-D straight man and nothing but Bart's foil. Retconning him into being a grown-up version of Bart only to have him accept a life of obsequious subordination to an old woman he had never previously met just doesn't make any sense.

And his NAME, I think it was the first time I truly felt like they phoned it in, like some wannabe writer pulled "Tamzarian" out of the air and everyone lied to themselves that it didn't sound like a poo poo, made-up name pulled from a low-grade sci-fi.
Only matched by the sheer, cringing laziness of "Jeff Albertson".

16-bit Butt-Head posted:

it owned. the prisoner stuff kinda sucked but homer running a lovely geocities website led to some good jokes

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.

Mr Interweb posted:

okay, i may have asked this before, so i apologize, but how is this show still running (ON PRIMETIME!!) with ratings like this?

Wikipedia posted:

Voice actors Julie Kavner and Harry Shearer both strongly objected to the celebrity cameos in the episode, considering it tasteless, which led to Kavner boycotting it entirely; as a result, this is the only episode of the series to date in which Marge does not have any speaking parts.

The Wicked ZOGA posted:

PTSD!Skinner is hilarious and I miss him

Mantis42 posted:

I think there was an episode in one of the newer seasons where some sci fi thing made them all swap genders. Or maybe I imagined that, idk, but the show definitely got more into barely disguised fetish territory later on.

Happy Landfill posted:

Homer and Marge being Millennials fucks with me in a way I can't explain

Junk posted:

just wait till there gen z

Annabel Pee posted:

Just got past the awful Musk episode on my watch, and I've noticed the next two episodes have both talked about Musk wrecking the plant? So weird to start adding continuity to the storylines half way through Season 26.

spaceblancmange posted:

Hyrax Attack! posted:

I really noticed bad Simpsons creeping in with Lisa the Skeptic, when the angel is found all the townsfolk instantly materialized for one liners including ugh Sideshow Mel. And later they form an angry mob & that’s needed every episode (although to be fair it did give us the robot feeling pain & Moe hoping medical science will cure him.)

Most Power Alex posted:

I remember hearing someone say that the term shouldn't be called Flanderisation because people becoming more religiously fanatic as they age is just a thing that happens in real life. Every other character in the Simpsons is a better example of the phenomenon.

SeANMcBAY posted:

It’s weird when the new ones reference something they could have done 30 years ago.