The Simpsons

when is the last season? is there any definitive answer?

Just saw the Lady Gaga episode, the first new episode I've seen in years (lol UK) and I am very unimpressed and saddened by it.

No one ever bumps this thread with joy.

"I rebuke thee, lady gaga" is a little bit of brilliance. up there with "baboon" as far as righteous lisa quotes will go.

Every time I've watched in recent years (usually because someone I like is participating in some way), it's been a very sad affair. Like visiting a senile relative who no longer remembers anyone's name.

i think my grampa peaked in season 7 but everyone else says season 5.

No one ever bumps this thread with joy.

― Jeff, Tuesday, May 22, 2012 7:50 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The Bill Plympton couch gag a few weeks ago was beautiful

You know, without a trace of zing, I was going to mention that WGW bumps this thread regularly with news that this show doesn't suck 100% of the time.

That's true though - bits and pieces of the newer eps have made me laugh, and it's at least on par with most of the other garbage that FOX runs. Then again being on par with Seth MacFarlane sets the bar pretty low.

Fucking hell, first time I've seen that 500th show end-card (lol UK redux); pure, dripping contempt for your (perceived) audience is truly nagl.

There's a very nu-Simpsons vibe to referring to "logging onto the internet" in 2012

There was a gag two weeks ago with Rod (or Todd) Flanders riding a tricycle with training wheels that was funny. Other than that I'd really have to think.

Bob's Burger's, OTOH, has been constant lolz for me.

>There's a very nu-Simpsons vibe to referring to "logging onto the internet" in 2012

srsly, I don't ask for much; Santa's Little Helper saying "chewy" is enough to raise a smile when I just think about it many years later, but to imply that the reason they're not funny any more is because it's your fault you don't get it, perhaps you might want to take a look at your own worthless lives? is some nth level shittiness.

there was one where Marge gets angry and throws a pair of socks at a car, which wind up shattering the back window, that was really funny

it's crazy how we've gone from "Futurama is good, but it's nowhere near the Simpsons" to "the only time the Simpsons are good anymore is when they do jokes on par with what Futurama does"

9xpost) They were kinda doing that way back in "Itchy and Scratchy and Poochie" with Comic Book Guy and the internet pundits, except that show was (imo) funny and 500th episode wasn't.

i feel like they should stop doing the show and just do couch bits and movies

The movie wasn't even that good, but there's a thread for that.

'itchy and scratchy and poochie' was directed at a fair target, since at the time while most of the newsgroup coverage was positive (contrary to how they pose it now, where it's suggested that the internet's hated it since virtually the beginning) there was that hardcore group of people determined to pinpoint the shark jump and complain about everything. but i think that episode was also pretty self-reflective, insofar as they felt that they were a good show that was coming close to the end of its run and it made sense that people were tiring of it or not getting what they hoped for. except now it's run for another 15 years, and i don't imagine the current staff are capable of that kind of reflection, or of empathy for the viewpoints of dissenting fans.

exactly - I'd look to the South Park "You're Getting Old" episode for a good example of this done right

(plus, the Towelie episode was a lot like the Poochie one)

they felt that they were a good show that was coming close to the end of its run and it made sense that people were tiring of it or not getting what they hoped for

unless there's a quote from someone involved w/ the show out there somewhere that suggests this it seems like hueg projection

that ep was like 1996/7 wasn't it? the idea that such an astronomically small % of the audience as online newsgroups would have been seen to represent the viewers at large seems really off

the poochie was supposedly based on actual network notes to add characters like poochie to the show, and seemed to me more directed against FOX than newsgroup haters.

ya sorry, i can't remember what they said exactly but that's the kind of attitude oakley & weinstein were projecting in the dvd commentary - i mean, it had been running for eight years at that point, it probably felt safe to assume that it was past peak popularity (which it was, obviously) and only had a couple of years (lol) of slightly declining popularity/critical favour (lol) to go.

xp

Fucking hell, first time I've seen that 500th show end-card (lol UK redux); pure, dripping contempt for your (perceived) audience is truly nagl.

― that mustardless plate (Bill A), Wednesday, 23 May 2012 04:39 (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

There's a very nu-Simpsons vibe to referring to "logging onto the internet" in 2012

― frogbs, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 04:42 (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

brought to mind a writers' room full of old men who tuck their casual vertical-striped shirts into their jeans and don't trim their wayward eyebrows

ian maxtone graham has a secret desk full of new socks and underwear.

it's crazy how we've gone from "Futurama is good, but it's nowhere near the Simpsons"

LOL WTF, I've always thought Fututama was in a completely different league to the Simpsons.

how old are you exactly?

who was that aimed at?

I like Futurama a lot but to suggest it was at any point better than peak period Simpsons is crazy

I dont agree! Not entirely.

I didnt say Futurama was better than all Simpsons. I said it's in a different league. Apples n oranges. When Futurama appeared it was a breath of fresh air compared to Simpsons - not talking down to its damn audience as much, imo.

The veneration for S2-8 of the Simpsons has always been deeply weird, to me. Its good, but theres plenty good later on, there's plenty good in season one, and I cant help but wonder if people who lament it sharkjumping that early on are people who like, havent actually *watched* it much since it orginally aired and are leaning on memories.

And Im not sure what my age has to do with anything. (fwiw I've seen both shows right from their beginnings and have all of them on DVD, if that helps?)

"In a different league" doesn't mean the same thing as "apples and oranges"

and to say the two shows aren't comparable is kind of weird anyway

There are Futurama episodes I personally think shit all over much of the Simpsons, thats all I'm sayin. I just dont agree with frogs's assertion that implied when it came out people were saying "pffff its no Simpsons". They werent, no one I knew was anyway.

xpost well no of course there's comparable areas, theyre both Groening shows! Anyway.

I'll tell you what really lost its quality control, is Life In Hell.

tbh I haven't read it since it was 16 panels of Akbar & Jeff talking about Bush and WMDs

Haha :D Does he even still do LiH? I have a couple of hardcover books of it stashed away at home somewhere.

xpost

Now, that really is apples & oranges inasmuch as you believe the almost nonexistent input Groening had on the creative process of either The Simpsons or Futurama. That Simpsons oral history was an eye-opening tome, I tells ya.

I know Futurama is really Cohen's baby. But the genesis of it was def both him and Groening, doodling bored in Simpsons meetings, coming up with the idea for a sci-fi cartoon.

"theyre both Groening" shows doesnt mean "he writes and draws every episode himself! By hand! omg heeroe!~"

tbh I haven't read it since it was 16 panels of Akbar & Jeff talking about Bush and WMDs

Me neither. And my alt weekly stopped running it so I have no idea if it is any good or not these days.

xpost

No, seriously, in that oral history, several people pretty blatantly say that Groening was largely hands-off from the start. Like, "do some doodles and collect a check" hands-off.

well, he's the creator. it's his drawing style, his characters, his general sense of humor. at a certain point it doesn't really matter how much else he did beyond that.

Thanks to ILX, I've finally come to fully understand the purpose behind that old term paper saw about restating the thesis in your closing statement.

The veneration for S2-8 of the Simpsons has always been deeply weird, to me. Its good, but theres plenty good later on, there's plenty good in season one, and I cant help but wonder if people who lament it sharkjumping that early on are people who like, havent actually *watched* it much since it orginally aired and are leaning on memories.

S1 is pretty great too, but yes, I've watched the 'classic' ones whenever I could, and they're still great

Around me the Simpsons and Futurama got compared A LOT, even though we knew you're not really supposed to

well, he's the creator. it's his drawing style, his characters, his general sense of humor. at a certain point it doesn't really matter how much else he did beyond that.

part of what i like about the first couple seasons is that it's very groening-ish humor -- like, you can read 'childhood is hell' and 'school is hell' and watch those episodes and recognize that, whether he wrote any of it or not, it's definitely stamped with his sense of humor and general outlook on life. i haven't read that oral history but i assume he had at least some more input in the early days?

the only episode that matt groening actually wrote, 'colonel homer' (where homer is lurleen lumpkin's manager), has always been one of my least favorites.

uh, 'whether he wrote any of it or not' referring to the simpsons, not LIH.

I remember being all excited when I heard that the Life In Hell guy was going to have his own animated show (I somehow missed the Tracey Ullman shorts). I hoped that the series would spend a season on an animated version of Groening's 5th grade diary (from School Is Hell). I'm glad it didn't, though.

When Futurama appeared it was a breath of fresh air compared to Simpsons - not talking down to its damn audience as much, imo.

lack of back-patting science nerd references /= "talking down"

i think the tracey ullman shorts are great but apparently few other ppl do since they've never been released on dvd (unless there's some rights issue or something).