Best, and worst, Simpsons episodes (ever)?

Cafe Society
41

This is one of my top three, because it contains Stop the Planet of the Apes I Want to Get Off. BRILLIANT. “I hate every ape I see, from chimpan-a to chimpanzee/you’ll never make a monkey, no you’ll never make a monkey, you’ll never make a monkey out of me!/oh my god, I was wrong, it was earth all along/I love you, Dr. Zaius!”

Other top two are “Marge v. the Monorail” (Batman’s a scientist!; I call the big one Bitey) and “A Streetcar Named Marge”. “Stella! Can’t you hear me yell-a! You’re putting me through hell-a. STELLA!”

Worst: ditto on the Florida redneck episode. WTF? I haven’t watched new episodes with any regularity for the last couple years, though.

42

My favorite is still the one where Homer becomes the Union negotiator (Lisa need braces).

43

I cannot say there is an episode of the Simpsons that I really don’t like (except for maybe the Gabbo episode, but that one just gets on my nerves).

I would like to agree with others who have put Cape Feare at the top of the list. It is by far my favorite episode. Followed by an episode I cannot remember the title of, but I call it Big fat Homer.

44

That’s my favorite, too! I love Lisa’s union song, I love Burns and Smithers running the plant themselves, I love the Grinch parody at the end. I love every minute of that episode. Perfection!

I also adore the Cape Fear episode. It’s such a spot on perfect parody. Favorite moments: Sideshow Bob writing death note, laundry list, and “Dear Life in These United States” anecdote in blood; Homer out-obnoxiousing Bob in the movie theater; and Homer tying the dog up “out back” of the houseboat. I love it :slight_smile:

As for the worst, I’ll admit it, I’m one of those insufferable fans who’s been griping that the show’s been in decline for years now. I don’t think we’ve watched it regularly since we got married back in 1998.

The episode where Lisa became a vegetarian was the first that hit a few sour notes for me, including how she went from being the conscience of the show and family to being a preachy, judgmental brat, and unlikely celebrities showing up as themselves (Paul and Linda McCartney regularly hang out on top the Kwik-E-Mart with Apu? Right…). I hate when celebrity guests play themselves (with the possible exceptions of musical acts like Aerosmith, Spinal Tap, and The Ramones). The most obnoxious were Kim Bassinger and Alec Baldwin. Ick, why did they get an episode based around them? The best thing to come out of that one was Ron Howard’s drinking problem (Homer, we need more vodka!). Otherwise, I wish that episode didn’t exist.

So, anyway, I’m not saying that there have been no diamonds in the dung heap over the last 2 or 3 or 10 years, but there’s been a hell of a lot of dung to dig through to get them.

45

The favorite is hard. There are just to many. some from the 3rd and 4th season (when they were at their best, IMO) Include: Saturdays of thunder,

46

The favorite is hard. There are just to many. some from the 3rd and 4th season (when they were at their best, IMO) Include: Saturdays of thunder, Flaming Moe’s,
Mr. Plow, Marge v. Monorail (Mono means one and rail means rail), and the oft overlooked Marge in chains.

For some reason the scene in marge in chains where Grampa battles the alligator never fails to crack me up.

For worst:

Beyond Blunderdome, which poked no fun at M. Gibson, an eminently pokeable person.

Alone again Natura-diddly: This isn’t the worst per se, but it’s the moment I pick where the Simpsons jumped the shark.

47

Unquestionably best: Stonecutters.

Worst: Any season 1 episode (except the elctroshock one, which was OK): The animation was horrible, and the shows *just weren’t funny. *

48

Best: When Homer had to go to New York to get his car back.

“Mountain Dew or crab juice?”
“Eww, blech, gah, give me a crab juice.”
Worst: pick most any first season show. Those eps have not aged well because of the crappy animation.

49

Best: $pringfield (Homer declaring war on “Gamblor”, Smithers putting up with Burns’s insanity, the state costumes)

Worst: Saddlesoar Galactica

50

Unfortunately, I doubt if that episode will ever be seen again. It takes place at the base of the Twin Towers and one part of the episode shows people lining up to jump off the top of one of the towers. After 9-11, that doesn’t seem as funny any more. :frowning:

My favorite episode is “Behind the Laughter”. From the breakdancing of Jimmy Carter, to Willie Nelson’s auto-braider, it is a classic. It also includes my #1 favorite Homer line. “I’d like to set the record straight. I thought the cop was a prostitute.” :smiley:

51

Worst episode? The President Wore Pearls (Evita parody from 2003). Painful.

/Ms. Cyros

52

I agree with 22 Short Films About Springfield being the best.

The worst in my opinion has to me “To Dish Upon a Star” because that episode was basically Homer talking to Alec Baldwin and Kim Bassinger for 30 minutes. It wasn’t the least funny episode, but it set the precedent of having celebrities on the show for no apparent reason.

53

It repeated this past weekend in my neck of the woods (Canada). Can’t say as I remember that particular scene, however. Perhaps it has been edited?

/Ms.Cyros

54

I’ll have to dig that up again, but I recall the line Homer breaks into was waiting for the elevator to go to the observation deck (where the restroom that Homer was in desparate need of).

That’s where the rich snobby lady says, “Well, I do hope someone stabs him in the eye!”

55

At the top. Harvey Feirstein as Karl the Secretary

Another one that comes to mind.

Homer eats a blue sandwich and is sick with food poisoning. Selma and Patty take the kids to Duff Gardens. Lisa gets high. Bart tears the place apart. Homer gets better. He and Marge rent some soft-core porn: staring Norman Fell. They come home from Duff Gardens. Homer is in a sheet tied into toga. It ends with one of the sisters (who thought she wanted kids) singing “You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman” to a lizard, ala “Murphy Brown”

Another one that was good mainly because of last scene. Homer become intelligent when a crayon is dislodged from his brain. By the end of the show, he’s decided that he doesn’t want to be smart anymore. He has Moe pound the crayon back in to his brain. He hits it a few times, and each time he does, Homer would says something dumber. Finally, Homer says, I’ll take the extended warranty. Moe says, ah the sweet spot.

HM – Monorail (of course). Stonecutters. Worlds Fair. The 138th Episode.

Worst. I only have seen a handful since 1996-97. By the way it’s trashed on the board, it sounds like I’m not missing much.

56

The version I saw this weekend on a Global affiliate seems to have been intact (the towers are very much there, the employees yelling at one another from across the plaza), but for the references to the jumpers. He visits both towers to try to find a washroom and waits in line, but that particular line of dialogue seemed to have been omitted.

/Ms.Cyros

57

Indeed, you are right. I believe there is no scene involving suicidal jumpers on the World Trade Center. Homer did try to kill himself by jumping off the Springfield State Building in the episode in which he became a flavor-of-the-month after bowling a perfect game (taking his place in a line for “Jumpers”), but saved himself at the last minute by grabbing on to a bungee-jumping Otto.

In the New York episode, Homer goes into an elevator and pushes a lady out of the way (prompting the “stabs him in the eye quote”) and discovers the bathroom is out of order, so he goes to the other tower. Unfortunately, the time he’s picked to use the bathroom is also the time Officer Steve Grabowski has arrived, leading to a resounding “D’OH!”

(Source: The Simpsons Archive episode capsules for The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson and Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder)

58

I don’t know if it has been mentioned yet, but I love the one where Homer goes into space.

So many great quotes…

“And I for one welcome our new ant overlords”

“I knew if anyone had some tang, it would be you…Shut up!”

“It’s an Inanimate Carbon Rod!”

“We’ll be fine, as long as don’t send us to that terrible planet of the apes. Wait a minute…statue of liberty…that was OUR planet!” (Charleton Heston monologue)

“It begins…!”

“No…I don’t think we’ll be doing that…EEK EEK EEK!”

As for the worst…The one where their are underground jockeys and a whole bunch of other weird crap. What the hell was that?

Honorable mention: any clip show beyond the first few. After awhile being self referential about clip show is a cheap way of trying to blur the obvious…that we are in fact watching a crappy clip show.

And the first season…ugh.

59

Huge Simpsons fan here.

I really love the “Who Shot Mr Burns” pair. Soooo many memorable line what keep bringing themselves up in my life:

Mr Burns: “I need to send this parcel with profit projections to Pete Porter in Pasadena”

Headline: "Awful School Awful Rich.

Willy: “I want a new crystel bucket for me slop water…ooh, and a new filthy blanket”

Ralph: “Chocolate microscopes”

Willy: “Ach!. I’ll kill that Mr. Burns and ach, …wound that Mr. Smithers!”

Inspector: “Man alive! There are…men…alive in here.”

Grandpa: “Hey…the lamp’s runnin’ awaaay.”

Mayor Quimbey: “Also, it has been brought to my attention that many of you are stroking guns.”

Burns: “Have you ever seen the sun set at thrrree Pm?”
Sea Cap’n: “Aye, once. I was sailin’ round the arctic circle an…”
Burns: “Silence!”

Grandpa: “Ya, Spingers did it. Now where’s my hat, I’m going to the outhouse.”
Homer: “My tool shed!!”

Jasper: “Slow down…this sidewalk’s for regular walkin’…not that fancy walkin’.”

All time funniest sequence:
Eddie: “Did you hold a grudge against Montgomery Burns?”
Moe: “Noooo” buzz* “All right, maybe I did but I didn’t shoot him.” ding!
Eddie: “Checks out. Ok, sir, you’re free to go.”
Moe: “Good, cause I got a hot date tonight……a date……dinner with friends……dinner alone……watching tv alone……Awriiight, I’m gonna sit at home and ogle the ladies in the Victoria’s Secret catalog……Sears catalog. ding!..Now will you unhook this thing please…I don’t deserve this kind of shabby treatment…buzzzz.”

Wiggim: “Ohh…did you have that same wierd backward talking dream with the flaming deck of cards?”
Eddie: “…I’ll drive.”

Wiggim: “We need a DNA test.”
Sarcastic technician: “Whoa, whoa…that takes 8 to 10 weeks.”
Wiggim sighs and hands over carton of cigarette
Sarcastic tech: “Did I say weeks, cause I meant seconds.”

Wiggim: “No jury in the world is gonna convict a baby…mmmaybe Texas.”

60

There was a line in the New York episode concerning the WTC that was something like “they put all the jerks in tower two”. I wouldn’t be surprised if THAT was cut in syndication, although I don’t know for certain. It is a great episode.