The Simpsons: A Journey Through Shit

[samadriel]

A recent episode called 'Pixilated and Scared' is absolutely lovely. It's basically a two-hander between Homer and Marge (also, no B-plot which is something that seems to be happening more) as they survive in the woods after getting lost.

Simpsons did it.

[neveragain]

Yes, but it's handled very differently.

Read over the plot if you're interested: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixelated_and_Afraid

Anyway, The Simpsons is never perfect these days but this was quite heartwarming.

[Virgo76]

I've only seen a few scattered episodes since stopping at season 7. These sound abysmal.

Lots of good ones after season 7 surely?

[QDRPHNC]

Nah.

[Small Man Big Horse]

A recent episode called 'Pixilated and Scared' is absolutely lovely. It's basically a two-hander between Homer and Marge (also, no B-plot which is something that seems to be happening more) as they survive in the woods after getting lost. Very much about how they work as a longstanding couple and their relationship feels very real and sweet. Best I've seen for ages.

I've given up on the show after defending it for a long time, if only because the ratio of four or five watchable episodes a season was just too low for me in the end, but I watched the one you mention above and quite liked it. I only laughed out loud once

Spoiler alert

(the crotchless fishnet stockings gag) and I'm not quite sure how I feel about Homer bludgeoning an animal to death even if it was in self defence,

[close]

but I agree with you about how their relationship felt real and sweet and for once it wasn't the two of them bickering a lot and its heart was in its right place.

[idunnosomename]

there cant be any good episodes of the simpsons anymore. it was good mainly because it was pin-sharp satire of modern life in the '90s, that destroyed so many sitcom tropes laid before it. it was dangerous, new, and rang true.

Homer is a boomer. Bart is essentially the end of gen X, while his sisters are millennials, but before that generation's character was known. none of how they work as a family makes any sense anymore. they're just all like commedia dell'arte tropes now, acting out the same old shit over and over.

[The Mollusk]

there cant be any good episodes of the simpsons anymore.

There can be surprisingly good episodes, though, and that's almost the same thing but actually not really, in an "even a stopped clock" kind of way.

It's really easy to get suckered into the buzz of "there's a good new Simpsons episode out!" I've been victim to it myself, with the double Emmy nominated "Halloween of Horror" from ^{*chokes a bit on coffee googling this*} 7 years ago?! I enjoyed it a great deal and I felt oddly warmed afterwards, like when a loved one with substance abuse issues cracks for a couple hours and breaks down and says they really need help even though you know later this evening they'll be back on the sauce again. What do I gain from this? I'll support it, I'll go and tell people the good news, but I know it's just a flash in the pan.

That episode would never make it into my top 100, and I'm almost certain to never feel like revisiting it when I'm on a binge of the classics. But the success and cultural impact of The Simpsons in its golden years is so gargantuan and unparalleled that a return to form almost two decades after it stopped being good, even if it's just a 7/10 episode, still feels like it's worth championing. It's weird.

[JamesTC]

I liked the episode where Marge sends Homer to a crackhouse and he thinks it is a fancy restaurant.

[dissolute ocelot]

I liked the episode where Marge sends Homer to a crackhouse and he thinks it is a fancy restaurant.

I always love it when the Simpsons takes a promising low-key plot and resolves it with a massive gunfight. Hilarious no matter how many times it happens.

[JamesTC]

Can Lisa Goes Gaga be topped?

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

Watched this video a little while ago and thought of this thread:

[idunnosomename]

They should have had people guess who it was supposed to be

[Video Game Fan 2000]

Would people who still watch the Simpsons even care if it wasn't the real celebrity, just a character called Willie Irish? One of the many bizarre things about Zombie Zombie Simpsons is the effort to keep current. Why? Who's suffering through hours of bad gagst but still wants the show to pretend its got its finger on the pulse?

At this point why not replace half the cast.

[idunnosomename]

Just found out it's going to be a Disney+ short, not an episode. So not really comparable to Lisa Goes Gaga

[idunnosomename]

Ive seen it. A few minutes of absolute pointless piss. Most of the cast aren't in it either as far as I can remember, it's just Yeardley Smith and the guest voice for the most part.

So obviously a way to get people born after the show went shit interested in this jaundiced husk.

[JamesTC]

Disney+ Short - When Billie Met Lisa

Lisa plays her saxophone in her room when Homer texts her to tell her to stop as he cannot do his work. Homer is lying in a hammock drinking beer in his underwear in the garden.

Lisa tries the living room but Marge is hoovering up. She tries the treehouse but Bart threatens her with a chainsaw. She tries the school practice hall but it is full of other children practising badly.

Lisa eventually ends up under a bridge. Billie Eilish arrives and thinks it is John Coltrane before she remembers that he is dead. Lisa is described as much younger than Eilish which I suppose technically is true but I do find it amusing that Lisa is actually 15 or so years older than her.

Lisa and Eilish decide to jam together where Eilish is due to play in Springfield. Eilish fires her orchestra and tells them she is replacing them with a girl she found under a bridge. Eilish coughs up multiple spiders.

Bart chats to Brother Eilish (whatever he is called, who cares). Bart cannot believe that Brother Eilish willingly works with his sister.

Billie Eilish looks at The Simpsons theme tune written down and calls it garbage. The musical notations act sad on the page but then Eilish says she will give it a try.

Lisa, Billie and Brother all play the theme tune and everybody in Springfield stands and applauds. The old people at the retirement home turn young for some reason and throw away their pills. Some other stupid shit happens but I can't be bothered writing them down.

Eilish asks Lisa is her parents are supportive, and she says no. Credits roll.


What the hell is the point in these shorts? Who are they for?

[Catalogue Trousers]

She tries the treehouse but Bart threatens her with a chainsaw.

Well, that escalated quickly.

Eilish coughs up multiple spiders.

...wait, what?

[Pauline Walnuts]

Spoiler alert

(the crotchless fishnet stockings gag) and I'm not quite sure how I feel about Homer bludgeoning an animal to death even if it was in self defence,

[close]

It was that Yum-Yum Fish scene in the Wife Aquatic that ended the Simpsons for me. This was not the character I loved.

Even thinking about it now makes me feel the sad.

[JamesTC]

I think it was when Marge raped Homer for me.

[king_tubby]

https://twitter.com/Chris_E_Winter/status/1519643342564298752

[JamesTC]

There was a complexity to Homer that is lost now. In the past, Lisa would say the same thing, but then would be shown that Homer actually has his moments of being a caring father.

I think more than any other, the Lisa/Homer relationship was the heart of the show. But they have really lost touch of what made is special.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

The best version of Homer was rarely selfish, but incredibly impulsive and easily distracted. He seemed selfish to others but the viewer could see him try not to be. The sequence where he tries and fails to buy Lisa a new reed before the talent show is a good illustration of his character.

[Pink Gregory]

Yeah, when he's shown the error of his ways, explicitly or implicitly, he's never bitter about it or unwilling to resolve it.

He can be quite empathetic.

[DJ Bob Hoskins]

The Ringer had quite a nice article on the subject of Homer & Lisa's relationship, through the prism of the season 3 ep "Lisa the Greek".

In short: Even when he was being a terrible parent during the classic era, it didn't mean he didn't care about her feelings.

https://www.theringer.com/tv/2022/2/9/22924228/simpsons-lisa-the-greek-super-bowl-nfl-betting-episode

[idunnosomename]

he's a bit of a cunt to Lisa in Moaning Lisa, but then he seems genuinely remorseful when he lets her work on her fingering on the saxomaphone

I've been watching The Simpsons critically from the beginning last couple weeks (as I have Disney+ at the mo) and here's some thoughts. some of which might be completely fucking obvious. I've not seen some of these episodes for decades and have never watched them in order

- Wow it really is the family cast - And Harry Shearer. He does pretty much all the supporting stuff. Sometimes Dan Castellaneta helps him with a supplementary voice (Crepes of Wrath, Two Cars in Every Garage, Bart Vs Thanksgiving) but the amount Shearer holds it up is amazing. Hank Azaria hardly plays into it in the early seasons. I think he gets the gig for more voices mostly because of his Moe, which he dubbed over early work by Christopher Collins.
- You know I never knew Mr Burns was originally voiced by Christopher Collins, a VA who was well-known for doing baddies like GI Joe's Cobra commander, who was a bit of a cunt and didn't get rehired because of it. Harry Shearer's early S2 voice for Burns is more "a bit off" than Collins' original performance. He died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1994.
- Same with Albert Brooks in Life on the Fast Lane (an episode I hated as a kid, tbh) and Cowboy Bob the salesman at the beginning of Call of the Simpsons
- The house style is pretty much established by the end of season 1, Krusty Gets Busted and the reanimated parts of Some Enchanted Evening are pretty indistinguishable from season 2
- Basically no B plots in any episode
- There are so many exact dates implied. How old Marge is (34). How long ago they were married (11 years). How long they've owned their house next to the Flandereses (8 years). It roots them exactly as the late boomers that underpinned the whole concept of the series, and why I think the series fell apart when the timeline was stretched beyond a decade and became floating and none of the characters were genuinely satirical of their time anymore.
- fucking hell when Homer falls down Springfield Gorge is still funny

edit also found it interesting how Bart the Genius is the only time Marcia Wallace did a voice that wasn't Edna Krabappel (she also does Bart's special school teacher and the RDRR line). sad she passed but she is one of the older members of the cast

[JamesTC]

I'm leaving too long between these reviews. I need to catch up. At least Disney+ is regularly adding actually good stuff so I don't feel so bad renewing for another year.

Season 24 - Episode 10 - A Test Before Trying

It feels strange to have an episode with a full length opening titles now. The couch gag is also a significantly longer one. This episode must have under ran. The couch gag is an overly long parody of movie trailers.

Mr Burns announced a significant price rise in the cost of electricity. The Simpsons once again predict the future. The price rise is determined by having a group of economists with random numbers on their back and the hounds are tasked with catching one. Prices go up by 17%. Hans Moleman's plug is pulled at the hospital because they cannot afford to keep the life support going.

At the school, the teachers are annoyed at the budget cuts. Super Nintendo Chalmers announces that one school is due to be shut down in the area and that each school will run standardised tests to determine the lowest ranked school. Lunchlady Doris murdered her husband and turned him into a pie which she offers to the teachers.

Homer goes to the dump to get rid of electrical items which they cannot afford to use anymore. Whilst there, Homer finds a parking meter. There is a Mr Sparkle box at the dump.

Proctors arrive to run the standardised tests. They are the worst school in the state. All of the children are ushered to new schools. Sherri and Terri are sent to different schools and when they walk away from each other they suddenly begin to age into old women. Nelson is sent to Arkham School for the Criminally Insane and the bus is being driven by The Joker which then blows up. Bart arrives and reveals he didn't take the test as he was playing with a beetle. Lisa believes that Bart could take the test and raise the average to save the school.

Homer moves the parking meter to different places in order gain money. Bart is studying when Homer drags a huge sack full of quarters up the stairs.

Bart is worried about the test. Skinner tells him that if he doesn't take the test it will destroy the school. Bart fantasises that the school is in ruins and Skinner has hanged himself on the flagpole. Skinner believes they need to get more time for Bart to study. Bart suggests pulling the fire alarm. Bart has an additional day to study. The police are looking for the person stealing parking money.

Bart isn't studying. Lisa gets angry at him but he falls asleep. Bart dreams that the town has turned into morons. The bullies can't work out how to split a pizza of 8 slices between 4 people. The school has been turned into a spinach farm being tended to by Popeyes. Bart wakes up and asks Lisa for help.

Homer is dragging the parking meter through the streets when Chief Wiggum bumps into him. Homer manages to drive away but the parking meter hits him in the bollocks causing him to crash into a fire hydrant and the parking meter smashes through the windshield. Homer cradles the parking meter like it is a dying partner in an action movie and the message on the meter changes to EXPIRED causing him to should out in anguish.

Bart is struggling with the studying. Lisa tells Bart that if he doesn't know the answer, he should just put B. Bart takes the test. Homer is caught with the quarters by Marge who says they will use it to make things better. Homer and Marge take the change to a well to throw them all in and make wishes for all the town. Bart has ten seconds to answer the last question when a beetle leaves his pocket and goes over the circle which the proctor thinks Bart has filled in. Bart passes the test by 1.

3/10

[JamesTC]

Part of the reason I've spent so long not watching is that the rest of the episodes this season seem so bland. Nothing stands out as interesting or potentially awful. Just malaise.

I have looked ahead to some plots from future seasons. Some excitement awaits.

30 years in the future Lisa is married to a zombie and Homer is just a face on a screen.

When Bart puts a curse on a teacher, she gets pregnant and childless couples turn to him for help.

Homer regresses to the mind of a ten year old and becomes Bart's best friend.

Kirk and Homer coach lacrosse.

Bart befriends elderly ladies while Lisa and Homer get caught up in a Pokemon Go style game.

Marge becomes a successful Tupperware saleswoman because customers think she's a man in drag.

Todd loses his faith in God.

Professor Frink develops a crypto currency that makes him rich.

Cletus becomes a helium tycoon.

Comic book guy and his wife Kumiko debate having a baby.

Bart becomes a successful caddy.

Cletus becomes a singing sensation.

Much excitement to look forward to. Not telling if I made any of those up myself.

[retsuza]

https://twitter.com/Chris_E_Winter/status/1519643342564298752

Why does Billie Eilish look like someone paid a "Simpsonsify your friend" Facebook ad

[neveragain]

Not telling if I made any of those up myself.

That Tupperware one was a King Of The Hill plot, wasn't it? I remember an episode where Peggy does ...something... because people think she's a man.

[JamesTC]

That Tupperware one was a King Of The Hill plot, wasn't it? I remember an episode where Peggy does ...something... because people think she's a man.

Rings a bell. Also happens in Arrested Development. And it kind of happens in Friends.

The Simpsons are at least a decade too late to that sort of plotline, basically.