Simpsons to reveal gay character

[vladyeti]

Simpsons episode to reveal gay character

Although the headline says that a gay character (singular) is to be revealed, as the episode features a marriage then surely this must mean Lenny and Carl will finally come out of the closet, rather than the utterly obvious Waylan Smithers.

Is the Simpsons still classed as comedy?

[weekender]

Is the Simpsons still classed as comedy?

That's the problem.  It seems like desperation tactics to me.

[Regular John]

That guy was gay!

I remember it vividly because I got accused of being a bummer as he had a shop with loads of kitsch items including 50s sci-fi stuff, and I have a few books of sci-fi poster art! Fucking parents.

[Frinky]

BBC News captions are, once again, gold:

A Simpsons movie is planned for when the TV show finally ends

Echoing the sentiments of a nation. Getting 50 Cent in as a (possible) guest voice is exactly the thing weekender is getting at. With the exception of getting Joan Collins to do Maggie's voice, nearly all of the early Simpsons guest stars were there for a good reason, be they relevant to the joke or topic at hand. And, usually, they actually had some voice-over skills, as well. If the shoehorning of dodgy celebs wasn't bad enough plotwise, the actual voice recordings were even more incongrous in thier shoddiness (ref, the London epiosde, and any of the last two years). The only good celeb voiceover I can think of in a recent episode was Keef Richards ("They're bloody cardboard!").

Of course, this is an old argument, but that's what has made it worse. Why aren't they listening?!

The only attempts I've seen to be like "old Simpsons" have been dire. There have been several attempts to blatently copy an old episode (A recent one has Homer starting his own security firm - it's a carbon copy of the old Cat Burgler [which, incidently, is still class] episode - right down to it using the Dragnet theme). And, in one I saw not long ago, they reused the "Marge, I'm not gonna lie to you" joke. There was a deliberate beat left in there to let the audience guess as to whether it was deliberatly referential or not; but if it was, that's just shit - the Simpsons isn't good enough to get away with being "knowing" any longer, and if it wasn't... well.

I miss the old Simpsons.

[Garfield And Friends]

Have 'The Simpsons' made an episode out of the 2001 'All Your Base..' fad yet? If not, well there ya go - stretch that into 22 minutes! Hurrah! Not.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Lenny and Carl would be a huge anticlimax. They may as well have come out of the closet already -- it was sort of ambiguous for the first ten or so years, but in the last few seasons it's become ridiculously gobsmackingly obvious (I'm thinking specifically of the episode where Homer and Lenny get a job at an oil well but there's been a few others as well), which is characteristic of the level of subtlety the show has been operating on for the past half-decade. If by some amazing stroke of semi-unpredictability it's not Lenny and Carl, I'm guessing it'll be either Patty or Selma. Anyway.

[DuncanC]

I'm guessing it'll be either Patty or Selma. Anyway.

After one of them already said something like "there goes the last lingering threat of my heterosexuality" years ago?

This is exactly the kind of shit that the episode where the Itchy & Scratchy people add a dog was parodying.

[Godzilla Bankrolls]

Aren't the majority of the characters in The Simpsons homosexual? The writers have often resorted to having characters display a hitherto unseen effeminate side.

[VorpalSword]

i would bet on Bart, except the whole marriage thing means he's ruled out.

unless it's one of their 'whatif this happens in the future' shows and in that case Bart will marry Milhouse.

[kidsick5000]

Principal Skinner.

Anyway. Its been a recurring thing, this "simpsons not as good as it used to be" thing.
Not having seen many later episodes, or series come to think of it, i figured it was just familiarity turning to contempt until.....

The other week i saw the  Simpsons got to England episode.
It was terrible. No pace, No jokes.  Clutching at straws for the Homer surrealness.

I guess Matt Groening is letting it run aground out of contempt for Futurama being cancelled.

[Dark Sky]

I guess Matt Groening is letting it run aground out of contempt for Futurama being cancelled.

Does Matt Groening have anything to do with the Simpsons anymore?  I thought he left a loooong long time ago along with the brilliant David Cohen to create and develop Futurama...  Did he go back to it?

The Simpsons running downhill is just so sad, I must say.  I refused to believe it until I saw it for myself.  My housemates, however, think that any new episode is great because "it's new".  And they dutifully laugh through the shots of Homer being pulled through bushes by aeroplanes or whatever.  They also dismiss any of the older classic episodes on the grounds that they've "seen them before".  

Nowadays I love rewatching the old episodes and playing "Spot the Futurama style jokes", and then cheering if I get it right and David Cohen is listed in the credits.  That's always good fun.

-Nick

[Rev]

I'm voting for Sideshow Mel.

It'll probably be another anticlimactic gimmick episode like that one where Maude dies, but I'm cautiously optimistic about the Simpsons just now.  As a whole, the 15th series was an improvement on the previous couple, and they chose to close it with two episodes - 'Bart Mangled Banner' and 'Fraudcast News' - that attempt the kind of satire I'd thought they'd left far behind.  The jokes are weak in both of them, sadly, but the ire seems to be back.  Both of these episodes stick out like sore thumbs, and the fact that the series ends with them suggests that there's been something of a re-think.  The next series should be interesting.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

I'm guessing it'll be either Patty or Selma. Anyway.

After one of them already said something like "there goes the last lingering threat of my heterosexuality" years ago?

Maybe the unpredictable part is that they'll be getting married to each other.

[Bilko]

I don't think there'll be any logic or in who is gay, I mean there was none in Maggie shooting Mr Burns.

[Darrell]

It's Patty, who has a lesbian wedding in the aforementioned episode. It's been known info for some time as the episode in question is a holdover from the fifteenth season, and a few reviewers have viewed it already. People are reading this as 'desperate publicity seeking', when in actuality it's just some Fox press release made into some tedious article by a BBCi chancer. The writers of The Simpsons simply wanted to tie up Patty's story (the lesbian-ness has been blatant for ages anyway, they're only knotting the loose ends) - how's that anything to hurl abuse at?!

And I'll have absolutely nothing against recent Simpsons. I was always against the last five/six years - out of standard herd mentality above anything else - and swore blind they were crap with all the clichés usually touted (such as the ones in this thread!), but over the past month or two I was catching up on most of the last five seasons (thanks to a friend with a big DVDR collection), and it's virtually all brilliant, and totally up to standard.

The plots are still fresh - the increasing lack of conventional plots has led to some brilliant and genuinely surprising episodes, in terms of theme and twists in the stories themselves; the jokes are as good as they ever were; the songs are better than ever (and they're more frequent); the 'incongruous guest stars' thing has, bar the London episode, been phased out almost completely since Al Jean took over (the best producer the show has ever had); the animation has become astoundingly beautiful, especially since Rough Draft Studios took over); the nods to the show's past are always really well done (the return of Homer's mother, the Marvin Monroe appearance); and, basically, The Simpsons is as good as it ever was. And it'd all be worth it anyway just for that overexcitable cowboy character they introduced.

DON'T let yourself get dragged down into the standard opinion clichés without thinking much about it. Just watch the programme, and, be it reluctantly or not, you'll see there's still a superb comedy programme there. I was a stubborn arsehole about all this for half a decade, and missed the chance to watch over a hundred episodes as they happened. I now feel completely ashamed for ever having adopted a mentality attitude such as this, grounded in sod-all actual evidence, and am grateful at least that I can at least catch up on five years of a brilliant comedy show.

This is a genuine heartfelt request. Please give the last few years of The Simpsons another chance. Don't be stubborn - get them, drop your stony-faced 'oh, it's shit now, everyone knows that' attitude, watch them, and you'll realise that there's an absolutely superb comedy show there, still in its prime, that you've been badmouthing for far too long. I feel very strongly about this, as my realisation that I'd been totally wrong about all this for so long really shook me up, especially in view of the state of comedy today and how I'd been longing for something good to come along. The Simpsons was there all along and I'd been slagging it off for so long.

Come on. Do it for comedy. Stop celebrating mediocrity and learn to appreciate something which is not just an amazing comedy show, but an amazing comedy show with soul.

[king mob]

Of course its a gimmick, it'll get some people watching then be swiftly forgotten about.

Watching the season 4 DVD does show how it has got lazy & repetitive, the Kamp Krusty episode is fucking wonderful.

[Darrell]

Of course its a gimmick, it'll get some people watching then be swiftly forgotten about.

King Mob's incredible powers of reason make their fat arse known again.

[DuncanC]

I'm guessing it'll be either Patty or Selma. Anyway.

After one of them already said something like "there goes the last lingering threat of my heterosexuality" years ago?

Maybe the unpredictable part is that they'll be getting married to each other.

How 'bout a crazy wedding, where something happens, and doo-doo-doo-doo-doo.

[Purple Tentacle]

How 'bout a crazy wedding, where something happens, and doo-doo-doo-doo-doo.

Nernenernenernenerner British airfield.

[DuncanC]

Sorry Darrell - you're not going to convince me there never was a dip in quality and I only believe there was through herd mentality. I watched the episodes until I came the conclusion, on my own, that they were terrible. I hated having to do it, and I'm the last kind of person to write things off prematurely. However, it's perfectly possible that the series has improved since I left it. If you're trying to say it's got over its slump, then ok (lack of celebrity guest stars is a very good start) but you seem to be saying it's always been of consistently high quality, which I know can't be true.

[Godzilla Bankrolls]

I've posted my feelings on how the whole production got lazy before. Have you seen Missionary: Impossible yet, Darrell?

I will admit that the most recent series has improved, but it's still a shadow of it's former self.

[Robot DeNiro]

I think there has definitely been a dip in quality.  I haven't seen season 15, but in 13 and 14 I would say that it was about 50/50 good and bad episodes.  And what makes it more noticable is that the bad episodes are really bad - plots that contradict what we already know about the characters, rehashes, celebrityvoiceathons and just too many bad jokes.

But the good episodes are still really good, so I agree with Darrell that it's too early to give up on the Simpsons, and I look forward to catching up with season 15 soon.

If anyone's interested I would recommend these episodes from 13 and 14:  Homer the Moe, Hunka Hunka Burns in Love, The Blunder Years, Jaws Wired Shut, Half Decent Proposal, The Lastest Gun in the West, I am Furious Yellow, The Great Louse Detective, Special Edna, Large Marge, I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can, Mr Spritz Goes to Washington and there's some others as well probably.

Avoid these at all costs: Tales from the Public Domain and How I Spent My Strummer Vacation.  Worst episodes ever.

[Alberon]

I never made a concious decision to stop watching the Simpsons, I just did, which is rather unlike me as I tend to stick to the bitter end even a show has turned to shit.

What makes it so hard to go back to now is I'll always be thinking about the callous and rather pointless way Futurama was cancelled. Perhaps the setting meant it had less reach than the Simpons, but I still think it was superior in just about every way.

[Artemis]

I don't think The Simpsons has 'turned to shit', but I do think there's just way too much of it. If they brought out a new series every 18 months or so, then fair enough, but they've just overloaded us all with too much, and it's a bit OTT, I think. A great show, but I'd prefer not to watch it on TV and just enjoy each series as it comes out on DVD - there's more time to enjoy each one.

[Darrell]

I don't think The Simpsons has 'turned to shit', but I do think there's just way too much of it.

What, 22x22 a year? The standard US season length?

Star Trek was four times that and more in the mid-nineties...

[Purple Tentacle]

I don't think The Simpsons has 'turned to shit', but I do think there's just way too much of it.

What, 22x22 a year? The standard US season length?

Repeated twice (three times??) a day on Sky forever and ever until you're dead.

[Darrell]

Repeated twice (three times??) a day on Sky forever and ever until you're dead.

But that doesn't affect how much of it there is.

It's just slightly over 8 hours a year. How is that in any way excessive?

[Godzilla Bankrolls]

Well, considering how dire some of the latest seasons have been, a Quality over Quantity order should have been issued.

[Dark Sky]

It's just slightly over 8 hours a year. How is that in any way excessive?

Because it's frequently flung in our faces by being shown and advertised far too much?

I dunno.

I mean, I'd always heard that the Simpsons had gone downhill, but a year ago I was still watching them on the BBC, who hadn't gotten up to season ten, as far as I know...  Now we have Sky, and seeing the new episodes come out now, I was actually quite appalled and disheartened.  Though to be fair, I only watched them sporadically and perhaps missed some decent ones.

The trouble is that of the ones I saw they'd just become the formulaic  "Homer becomes a - ", with a crappy Clausen song at the end.

What's so great about Futurama is that it started at a run before being plucked off the ground and so had a consistent quality throughout, which I *do* believe was higher than the Simpsons.  Some people would say it's the weaker show because Futurama only has cult appeal, whereas the Simpsons is more mainstream, but that's one of the reasons I love Futurama, whereas just like the Simpsons.

The thing about the Simpsons is that it's just a given that everyone likes it and casually watches it.  Occasionally you get the odd person who is obsessed with it, but they're weird.  

What am I rambling about?

-Nick

[Darrell]

a crappy Clausen song

Are you some kind of shit?