Best Simpsons episode ever

THE four, huh? My four favorite episodes happen to be the EXACT four episodes that you'd list if someone (not me) asked you to point out when the show began a steep decline in quality? Those exact four episodes out of 400?

Remarkable. Nay, downright miraculous. Doncha think?

Face it, dude, your taste sucks and people who describe episodes of The Simpsons as shit like a "deep (and funny) understanding of the inequities of American capitalism" make me want to barf and never watch teh show again.

So insightful. I love you.

Why???

WHY? well, seeing as i think the frank grimes episode is fucking awful*, bringing the character back as a sort of sideshow bob for homer wasn't really an improvement.

* the "inequities of modern capitalism" point is interesting. i don't agree with it and i think for it to really stand homer would've had to return to being himself in the next episode instead of the braying jerkass he's been ever since. since that presupposes his character being drastically changed just to make a point.

I don't know why, but my 3 favorite Simpsons episodes are probably:

New Kids on the Blecch (When Bart becomes part of the boy band Party Posse)
Grift of the Magi (When Kid First Industries takes over the school and tricks the kids into creating Funzo, a Furby rip off)
Skinner's Sense of Snow (When the kids get trapped in the school during a blizzard)

glancing over the last few feet of this thread here's a top 5:

bart sells his soul (great plot, great subplot)
frank grimes(why would anyone not like this ep? extremely meta but also extremely fucking good)
pta disbands
gabbo
duff gardens

bringing the character back as a sort of sideshow bob for homer wasn't really an improvement.

Oh sorry. I was asking about why you didn't like the Frank Grimes episode which you answered anyway. Sorta:

i think for it to really stand homer would've had to return to being himself in the next episode instead of the braying jerkass he's been ever since.

But he's always been a braying jerkass. He was in the Frank Grimes episode and he was in the episode(s) before/after that. More importantly, he's a lazy, stupid braying jerkass. He's gotten ahead of Frank Grimes (and many others) in life through sheer luck. Basically, this episode is telling us that hard work does NOT get you everything in lfie and there aren't many American cultural products willing to wrestle with that reality.

I still don't know why you don't like this episode. But you're definitely not alone. It's well-hated.

Aja, I love all those episodes, esp. The Party Posse one (the greatest band since music's birth). Best line in that one is Milhouse's: "The Statue of Liberty? Where are we???"

Smile-Time Variety Hour is really funny I think but did sort of open the door for later spinoff episodes that were nowhere near as good. Similarly, Frank Grimes episode is great but sort of proto-Family Guy (a lot of people will consider this more problematic than I do, I guess)

My personal favourites have always been the following (not in order of preference):

Homer the Heretic
Last Exit to Springfield
Simpson and Delilah
You Only Move Twice
Homer Bad Man
King Size Homer
Homie the Clown
The Mysterious Voyage of Our Homer
Homer vs. The Eighteenth Amendment
Lemon of Troy

I've always felt season 13 was a very slight return to form but seasons 2-8 are the peak obviously.

I hate the Party Posse episode.

Aja, I love all those episodes, esp. The Party Posse one (the greatest band since music's birth). Best line in that one is Milhouse's: "The Statue of Liberty? Where are we???"

-- Kevin John Bozelka, Monday, July 30, 2007 8:12 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Link

I think the best line is the one by that crazy VJ.."And that was the add for the new Stridex Pads! (I think that's what she says...or is it Tampax??) Whoo!!...And up next we have the new video from P squared! Whoo"

Or something like that...that character had too much energy...

I hate the Party Posse episode.

-- Curt1s Stephens, Monday, July 30, 2007 4:23 PM (18 seconds ago) Bookmark Link

Ok...what episodes do you like???

most of them! I just don't like the Party Posse one.

ok...

I also like the one with John Waters...you???

Love it. Camp = when a clown dies.

Two Bad Neighbors (I like singing "Table 5" over "stayin alive")

http://youtube.com/watch?v=z0Ki12mWpq8

Oh, I almost forgot about that episode!

that reminds me I really like the one where Ned opens the leftorium.

All good. There aren't many crappy ones.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ki_dEXCIDZ4&mode=related&search=

But he's always been a braying jerkass. He was in the Frank Grimes episode and he was in the episode(s) before/after that. More importantly, he's a lazy, stupid braying jerkass

No, no, no that is so not true! The writers who took over around this time apparently felt that he'd "always" been a braying jerkass, when he was actually nothing more than a well-meaning if occasionally selfish/immature goofball. Slow-witted but not downright insane. An average Joe Schlub, not the worst father/husband in town! The utter INFLATION of Homer Simpson is emblematic of that once-fine series' way-protracted decline - "Best show ever" might've been true in 1995 or even '97, but not today.

(Having said all that, I have to admit that the Grimey episode is indeed pretty funny in and of itself. But that Party Posse one was gawdawful.)

But even if all that is true (which I find debatable), I still don't see how it applies to the Frank Grimes episode.

And I'm perfectly willing to concede that my critical faculties are null and void when it comes to this show because it still makes me laugh and think to this day. Come on, that Statue of Liberty line from the Party Posse episode is fuckin' hardcore comedy.

I can't believe I'm meeting Milhouse!

Myonga OTM.

I hate the Party Posse episode.

serrrrrriously. the cognitive dissonance is killing me.

Love that this is on ILM for no good reason.

post season 8, the last half of season 12, season 13, and the first half of season 14 were ace, m8s. other than that, it's all handful of funny episodes in a pile of shit.

The one where Mr Burns decides to become charitable and throws his money around in the form of coins and one gets lodged in Lenny's skull. Also the one where Homer's car rolls down a hill: he gets thrown out the car, bounces around a bit and is thrown back in again!

the one where homer gets a gun
― ernest, Wednesday, June 6, 2001 8:00 PM (9 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

so glad this one was in the first few posts. saw this last night and was lmao nonstop

there's so much gold in that one. love the beatnik. zen new jersey nowhere!

That was Homer the Vigilante.

One more year and that show's been as bad as long as it's been good

― Whiney G. Weingarten (whineyg), Monday, April 3, 2006 3:04 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

u_u

The one where Millhouse gets a girlfriend way back in S3 is nothing special plot-wise, but is crammed with incredible jokes. It has the subplot of Homer using the sleep-hypnosis tape which increases his vocabulary as well: "In the bedroom, the gourmand becomes the voluptuary!"

huh, I was thinking that was a season or two later than that, It has that balance of the sincere & grounded and the crazy that seasons 4 and 5 got perfect. I love that subplot. My gastronomic rapacity knows no satieties. :'(

the thing that still bugs me in that episode is where milhouse's girlfriend at the end goes "it's pretty nice but they won't let me oot". what the hell is oot-ing?

"Homer Goes To College" has been my fave since high school and still is.

xpost they're Canadian nuns, she's saying 'out' in an allegedly Canadian accent!

the thing that still bugs me in that episode is where milhouse's girlfriend at the end goes "it's pretty nice but they won't let me oot". what the hell is oot-ing?

― hobbes, Thursday, June 17, 2010 6:20 PM (22 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

They're French-Canadian nuns and Canadian ppl pronounce "out" as "oot." The joke is that she's so indoctrinated by them that she's picking up their mannerisms

In recent times, the one where Homer blacks out and thinks he clobbered Marge was uncomfortable territory in a good way, and makes me think the show could get a fifth wind if it goes Todd Solondzylvania.

my childtime favorite is the one where homer goes to work for hank scorpio, not sure if it'd hold up now.

My childhood favorite was the teacher's strike episode. "There's very little meat in these gym mats."

k i wasn't exposed to canadians until college. disappointed the joke itself is so crappy. no shit they won't let you out, you're in a boarding school or whatever

Saw the Scorpio one relatively recently, it's still a cracker.

xpost - did you think 'oot' was an entirely different verb of which you were unaware?

ban hobbes

timmy o'toole

Hank Grimes, people. Funniest episode ever, and just a fantastic piece of satire no matter what you compare it to.

"Making people laugh is the lowest form of comedy." - Michael O'Donoghue

hank grimes?

"Homer Goes To College" has been my fave since high school and still is.

"Hello, Dean? You're a stupidhead!"
"Homer?"
"Aaaah!!"

gotta go with "Last Exit to Springfield". dental plan! lisa needs braces.

Last Exit won some, I think it was Entertainment Weekly? poll, seems like a totally fair choice.

Homer Badman is satire at its best, perhaps.

But the best? I'm going to have to say Treehouse of Horror 4, with the Shinning, Time and Punishment, and whatever the one where they eat kids is called.

Wow a Simpsons thread I haven't posted in, what are the odds.