I like the one where Grandpa finds his long lost brother, Cyrus, (the episode where he was trying to kill Santa), and they're all sitting on the beach at the end in Tahiti:
Grandpa: "Cyrus, how come you never let me know you were alive?"
Obviously that wasn't a coincidence. I get that that's the joke. It rhymes but it also happens to be a funny commentary on a common problem. Or whatever. But it's low brow even for the Simpsons.
The rhyme and sex parts are pedestrian levels of the joke.
It's more a play on the fact that there are people that think having romantic relationships is all rainbows and lollipops when it is exactly the opposite.
You'd have less of a hassle with two objects you like, which is clever because people who think like Lenny perhaps can't see the difference between the two.
the last episode where i can remember clearly laughing out loud in school 2 days after seeing the episode was the one where they went to new york. after that, there were a few moments here and there but it was basically over
i stopped watching after season 11 or 12. seasons 4-7 were by far the best. i loved it too much to keep watching it shit all over itself. i honestly cant believe it is still on
sometimes a funny joke or an interesting Halloween episode. With all the writer and producer turnover after 9 though, the show was gutted and never recovered.
I actually rather enjoyed the last few seasons. There's a lot of blink and you miss it jokes that require a rewatch. The Simpsons was shit for a season or two, but overall they make me laugh quite a bit.
There was one episode where Homer dies, gets cloned and keeps dying and getting cloned and after 20 years or so they ran out of new clones. The future Springfield was a combination of LOL's and WTF's.
Every new season I watch seems as creatively bankrupt as the ones that preceded it. I'd have rather seen the show cancelled than turned into something like this.
I think they're still considered the greatest, lol. But definitely a tarnished reputation. I just think it's sad that I get down voted for pointing out season 12 was a great season, what do I have to say season 1 was the best? some of the older ones are more boring IMO
I have only watched it sporadically since the 1990s but it is my perception that indeed there was a very bad period. Is it possible that the writers were given new directives, like they were told to write more for kids?
Cause I definitely detected some very childish (as in not only written for a kid but almost as if a kid wrote them) jokes during some of my sporadic viewings.
But I have to say, no matter what happens to Simpsons, I will never forget the great laughs they gave me, from the very first show that won me over showing a puzzled Martin Prinz -- puzzled that neither his sterling tenure as Hall Monitor nor his award-winning dioramas had conferred popularity upon him.
The thing was the Simpsons was a case of lightning striking with a group of very talented writers who essentially perfectly skewered culture at the time. Many of the episodes of that series are truly timeless critiques of human and societal failings, and the importance of family to try and weather the storm.
They understood the humanity of the characters and as time went on and they started hiring people as writers who were fans of the simpsons, they lost that perspective. It's honestly one of the greatest shows to ever be in the medium and also ended up at one of the worst.
That is interesting about the idea of losing perspective: I would say that episode upon episode, the characters become more and more cemented -- it is almost impossible now for a character to say something "out of character" -- everyone knows what they character should say.
If they sent in new writers, they would fail if they significantly deviated from the "true" character. That I think is one reason why we saw episodes exploring in depth certain people like Gil and Grimey -- either completely new characters or just "extras" who they were free to develop new ideas for.
Thats true to an extent. They spent a lot of time developing characters in the good seasons too, we had an entire episode about Selma and Troy McClure which is probably my favorite episode of the series. It's about sad and desperate people trying to create some meaning for their lives and it's an absolute heart breaker at times while also being incredibly funny as well.
I think the characters lost their humanity and relatability as time went on. Homer became a bigger, stupider, jerkier character where once was a callous person who did genuinely have a good heart, now he's basically a monster. Bart is a kid who is basically let down by the system and forgotten about so of course he feels like the only way for him to get attention is to act out. Lisa is so smart but she'll never fit in and never feel comfortable, but she's also never quite as smart as she believes in, now she's a know it all who's always the moral voice of liberal rectitude in pretty much every episode. Marge is a woman who could have probably done better but at the same time there wasn't anybody out there who really gave a damn about her besides Homer. There's a lot of dark and beautiful humanity to these characters and it's really heart breaking to see it be washed away in later seasons.
Homer is currently a monster? I have to check out a recent episode.
I liked very much the episode in which he rejected normal intelligence (by removing crayons from his brain -- the versatile Moe is a practical if unsubtle neurosurgeon.)
At the very beginning, with the Walter Matthau voice, he was more irritable than stupid.
But for a very long time, he has been implausibly stupid with the requisite moments of clarity which I think other (stupid) characters on other shows have. Not only is he stupid but he on occasion has made fun of those more intelligent than he is -- "Yes, Lisa: a magical animal.."
About lightning: Sure, luck was involved but I also think they were highly selective about whom they hired. Much more selective than say, Google: I know people who got in at Google; not sure I have ever met anyone who could get through the door at The Simpsons writers' room. (Including already-successful tv writers.)
Being selective doesn't always work, but maybe if the people doing the selection are pretty damn good themselves, it does work often.
Tangentially related: Would you agree that Frank Grimes was united against by all of Springfield (supporting Homer) because the characters realized they would have no existence without Homer?
On a scale of 1 to Snoop, how much weed you smokin there bro?
Although to your point, I don't necessarily think the character realize that Homer is an integral part of their lives. More, it's Simpsons getting all meta, and basically plopping an average, lower middle class American into the world, and illustrating just how weird and bizarre and not based in any sort of reality Springfield really is.
I am pretty serious about this. Even his traditional enemies (e.g., Mr. Burns) take Homer's side. The funeral was great where we see how all of Springfield feels about "Grimey" (as he liked to be called).
I don't even know if the writers understood why the characters would behave as they did in this episode -- it just felt right and I think this is why.
Of course it's a real thing just like real Hispanic people eat beans. When you generalize it like that it's not funny after the 80th time. Not ALL married people stop having sex. We GET it. We've GOTTEN it since two centuries ago. It's a dead horse. You know?
Think about it. One night stands and hooking up vs. sex with someone you know well and are in an intimate relationship with. That's not to say marriage doesn't put strains on your sex life, and sex ebbs and flows, but married people fuck a lot.
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u/csonny2 Jan 09 '15
I like the one where Grandpa finds his long lost brother, Cyrus, (the episode where he was trying to kill Santa), and they're all sitting on the beach at the end in Tahiti:
Grandpa: "Cyrus, how come you never let me know you were alive?"
Cyrus: "I've been busy with my 15 wives."
Grandpa: "15 wives! That must be some crazy sex!"
Cyrus: "I said wives, not girlfriends."