Ended up voting for Bart The Murderer because this:
FlowersByIrene
― The Miracle of the Jimmy Smits (King Boy Pato), Thursday, 24 October 2013 08:33 (ten years ago) link
And also that it shows up Moe as the asshole he really is - why is Homer even friends with him, with all the times Moe's stolen his ideas/taken advantage of him!?
http://popdose.com/wp-content/uploads/homerbeer5.jpg
― ͼѾͽ (sic), Thursday, 24 October 2013 10:30 (ten years ago) link
Haha yes fair point :)
― taxi tomato or bag tomato (Trayce), Thursday, 24 October 2013 10:36 (ten years ago) link
STING!MOM!DAD!
― subaltern 8 (Michael B), Thursday, 24 October 2013 10:39 (ten years ago) link
What's up with Homer recognizing Sting and never having heard of Michael Jackson?
― Sir Lord Baltimora (Myonga Vön Bontee), Thursday, 24 October 2013 22:53 (ten years ago) link
well, homer is also the guy who didn't seem to recognize george harrison and has a starland vocal band tattoo
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Thursday, 24 October 2013 23:12 (ten years ago) link
yeah, good point. A tattoo that appeared once and vanished forever: Contoonuity!
― Sir Lord Baltimora (Myonga Vön Bontee), Friday, 25 October 2013 17:52 (ten years ago) link
Lisa the Greek: Easily overlooked but great. While the climax is a little too labored to really strike home, there are some great gags, including one of my all-time favorite Marge moments:
BART: Mom, do you know why these clothes are on sale? It's because the kids who wear them get beat up.MARGE: Well, anybody who'd beat you up for wearing a shirt isn't your friend.
― Doctor Casino, Saturday, 26 October 2013 03:18 (ten years ago) link
haha, that is such a universal 'mom' thing to say.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Saturday, 26 October 2013 04:08 (ten years ago) link
It's going to be hard not to vote for either "Lisa the Greek," "Homer Alone" or "Flaming Moe's" simply because they were a few of the episodes that I recorded on VHS at the time of airing and watched over and over. Classic era "Simpsons" is always major comfort food for me anyway, but these episodes in particular.
That said, "Lisa the Greek" is probably my fave because it evokes years of Sunday afternoons of my dad watching football and me occasionally trying to care enough about football to join in.
― a fifth of misty beethoven (cryptosicko), Saturday, 26 October 2013 04:49 (ten years ago) link
You
have
reached
the
coach's
hot
line
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Saturday, 26 October 2013 04:51 (ten years ago) link
"Not Duff Dry, Washington!" "OK, OK, they're both great teams."
― jmm, Saturday, 26 October 2013 05:21 (ten years ago) link
In sad news related to these polls, Marcia Wallace died yesterday. :(
http://www.tmz.com/2013/10/26/marcia-wallace-simpsons-newhart-show-dead-70/
― Dave Froglets (Phil D.), Saturday, 26 October 2013 16:32 (ten years ago) link
Very sad to hear.
According to Al Jean, they're going to do the right/respectful thing:
“She was beloved by all at The Simpsons and we intend to retire her irreplaceable character. Earlier we had discussed a potential storyline in which a character passed away. This was not Marcia’s Edna Krabappel. Marcia’s passing is unrelated and again, a terrible loss for all who had the pleasure of knowing her.”
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Saturday, 26 October 2013 17:46 (ten years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Thursday, 31 October 2013 00:01 (ten years ago) link
Watched a bunch more of these over the last few days... "Stark Raving Dad" is indeed as good as y'all said (though the song seemed kinda generic). "Lisa's Pony," "Radio Bart," "Saturdays of Thunder" - all have moments of greatness, though in some the plot mechanics get in the way (I still sort of cringe at the resolution to "Flaming Moe's" - like, Moe couldn't call Homer on the phone once he'd made his decision?). Agreed that "Homer Alone" sort of doesn't go anywhere, and I don't get anything out of the kids hanging out with the aunts. "Separate Vocations" is a solid Bart-and-Lisa episode - Lisa going in the 'bad girl bathroom' is great, but they don't have enough for Bart to do as hall monitor (the great newspaper montage notwithstanding).
"Homer at the Bat" the best surprise of the bunch; I pretty much tuned it out as a kid because baseball, but there are some hilarious jokes in this thing even if I just take the sports people as a bunch of unknowns getting to do funny lines. The warp to another dimension, the 'sideburns,' and Strawberry kissing up to "Skip!" Plus the Wonderbat and basically everything Burns says or does.
I hoped to get around to "Dog of Death" which I think I really like, and "Black Widower" about which I remember almost nothing.
Still, though: "Bart the Murderer."
― Doctor Casino, Thursday, 31 October 2013 13:12 (ten years ago) link
i'm guessing the 'dinosaurs' parody that opens 'black widower' is one of the more baffling you-had-to-be-there jokes for kids these days and non-americans.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Thursday, 31 October 2013 19:07 (ten years ago) link
Dinosaurs was broadcast in the UK as well! (I don't know about other parts of the word). We didn't have sky so I saw Dinosaurs years before I ever saw an episode of the Simpsons.
― kirti madam you're not a gag mrs thatcher eighty advantage and myspace (soref), Thursday, 31 October 2013 19:10 (ten years ago) link
I could probably make a long list of US cultural phenomena and figures who I only knew about as a kid via references the Simpsons.
― kirti madam you're not a gag mrs thatcher eighty advantage and myspace (soref), Thursday, 31 October 2013 19:12 (ten years ago) link
Does anyone have first hand information about what kids of today make of the George H W Bush moves in next to the Simpsons episode?
― kirti madam you're not a gag mrs thatcher eighty advantage and myspace (soref), Thursday, 31 October 2013 19:13 (ten years ago) link
I mean, they've probably heard of him! I was aware that Nixon jokes were Nixon jokes even if I couldn't always find them funny.
― Doctor Casino, Thursday, 31 October 2013 19:42 (ten years ago) link
"the man never drank a Duff in his life"
― Number None, Thursday, 31 October 2013 19:45 (ten years ago) link
When I saw the episode with the Jimmy Carter statue I had no idea who Carter was, same with Ford at the end of the end of the Bush episode. I used to irritate my Dad by asking him to explain all the references I didn't get.
― kirti madam you're not a gag mrs thatcher eighty advantage and myspace (soref), Thursday, 31 October 2013 19:46 (ten years ago) link
I don't remember ever not knowing who Nixon was, though.
― kirti madam you're not a gag mrs thatcher eighty advantage and myspace (soref), Thursday, 31 October 2013 19:47 (ten years ago) link
haha i'd just done a report on nixon for school when i saw that episode and i felt so proud of myself for understanding why that was funny. ditto the alger hiss joke they made in another episode.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Thursday, 31 October 2013 19:47 (ten years ago) link
I think the only famous person ever mentioned on The Simpsons that I wasn't familiar with right away was Pablo Neruda. #philistine #yolo
― Dave Froglets (Phil D.), Thursday, 31 October 2013 19:49 (ten years ago) link
I saw the 'Lisa's first word' episode for the first time in years recently and finally got the 'where's the beef?' 'no wonder he carried Minnesota!' bit that had baffled me when I was 12 or whatever
― kirti madam you're not a gag mrs thatcher eighty advantage and myspace (soref), Thursday, 31 October 2013 19:49 (ten years ago) link
Makes me think of reading old Mad magazines as a kid and having to figure out references based on context.
― Immediate Follower (NA), Thursday, 31 October 2013 19:50 (ten years ago) link
"I'm afraid it's splitsville for Delta Burke and Major Dad" was a puzzler. Still funny tho
― Number None, Thursday, 31 October 2013 19:51 (ten years ago) link
I was also surprised when I found out MacGyver was a real TV show.
― kirti madam you're not a gag mrs thatcher eighty advantage and myspace (soref), Thursday, 31 October 2013 19:51 (ten years ago) link
what about Matlock?
― Number None, Thursday, 31 October 2013 19:52 (ten years ago) link
have to admit i had no idea who linda lavin (object of bart's prank calls in some episode) was until recently.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Thursday, 31 October 2013 19:53 (ten years ago) link
And Dr. Demento's been off the air for a few years, so that might be another noodle-scratcher for today's kids.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 31 October 2013 19:55 (ten years ago) link
They used to get the Mad super special/ reprints in my local newsagents when I was a kid, but not the new issues, and I must have spent hours reading spoofs of American TV shows that that got cancelled years before I was born, and possibly were never broadcast in the UK anyway.
― kirti madam you're not a gag mrs thatcher eighty advantage and myspace (soref), Thursday, 31 October 2013 19:55 (ten years ago) link
i had never heard of alger hiss until right now. i guess that joke flew by me each of the hundred times i heard it.
― Merdeyeux, Thursday, 31 October 2013 19:56 (ten years ago) link
I used to get kind of freaked out as a kid when they would have caricatures of Peter Lorre or Bing Crosby etc in loony toons cartoons.
― kirti madam you're not a gag mrs thatcher eighty advantage and myspace (soref), Thursday, 31 October 2013 19:56 (ten years ago) link
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-H7_3XKUG_5U/TxJYcU1dwbI/AAAAAAAAMJ4/fDg2cfl000g/s1600/OUTTA%2BWOIK.png
― kirti madam you're not a gag mrs thatcher eighty advantage and myspace (soref), Thursday, 31 October 2013 19:57 (ten years ago) link
Coming up next season we have STOCKDALE FOR VEEP
― Dave Froglets (Phil D.), Thursday, 31 October 2013 19:58 (ten years ago) link
i still don't know who rory calhoun is.
― Merdeyeux, Thursday, 31 October 2013 20:02 (ten years ago) link
Actually, thinking about Mad, there's a Simpsons gag that is both about this kind of thing and was an example of it for me when I was a kid, where Bart and Milhouse are reading a Mad super special: 'they're really sticking it to this Spiro Agnew guy! He must work there or something'.
― kirti madam you're not a gag mrs thatcher eighty advantage and myspace (soref), Thursday, 31 October 2013 20:08 (ten years ago) link
xp He's the one that's always standing and walking.
― Dave Froglets (Phil D.), Thursday, 31 October 2013 20:09 (ten years ago) link
ah right.
― Merdeyeux, Thursday, 31 October 2013 20:10 (ten years ago) link
Dammit Phil beat me to it.
I'd only heard of Alger Hiss this past week, when he was the answer to a crossword puzzle.
― Matt Groening's Cousin (Leee), Thursday, 31 October 2013 20:12 (ten years ago) link
As someone who grew up in the UK consuming a lot of US TV/movies/comics etc, looking back I'm always disconcerted at how easily I just didn't notice a lot of the references I was unfamiliar with, it makes me worry about how much I'm still missing now.
― kirti madam you're not a gag mrs thatcher eighty advantage and myspace (soref), Thursday, 31 October 2013 20:14 (ten years ago) link
I don't know if this ever came up in the 'that's were I'm a viking' thread, but I wonder if non North American viewers were more likely to interpret the line as 'ralph means that sleep is an area in which he excels', because they were used to there being references/phrasings etc that they were unfamiliar with and inferring what they meant based on context, and N Americans were more likely to understand the line literally if they had never heard 'viking' used as a metaphor for 'adept'.
― kirti madam you're not a gag mrs thatcher eighty advantage and myspace (soref), Thursday, 31 October 2013 20:17 (ten years ago) link
(I had always taken it to mean 'ralph means that sleep is an area in which he excels', and I don't think it occurred to me it could be read any other way until I saw that ilx thread.)
― kirti madam you're not a gag mrs thatcher eighty advantage and myspace (soref), Thursday, 31 October 2013 20:19 (ten years ago) link
more likely to understand the line literally if as they had never heard 'viking' used as a metaphor for 'adept'
― kirti madam you're not a gag mrs thatcher eighty advantage and myspace (soref), Thursday, 31 October 2013 20:20 (ten years ago) link
"and that little boy that nobody liked, grew up to be.... Roy Cohn"
was the first time I ever heard of Roy Cohn (altho I was familiar with HUAC and the blacklist and McCarthy etc.)
― Ayn Rand Akbar (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 31 October 2013 20:25 (ten years ago) link
that line still makes me lol. Harry Shearer's delivery is so perfect, the pause lasts exactly the right amount of time.
― Dave Froglets (Phil D.), Thursday, 31 October 2013 20:26 (ten years ago) link
I have always gotten Nixon (and Alger Hiss!) jokes thx to reading Doonesbury when I was like 8
― Ayn Rand Akbar (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 31 October 2013 20:27 (ten years ago) link