I’ll take that as a concession.
:rolleyes:
If it pleases you.
No, it’s absolutely not pure genius. It’s dreck, comparable to any other unfunny, unoriginal prime time “comedy,” made so much more disappointing by the show’s groundbreaking origins. In episodes produced over the past few years, the jokes are so forced and nonsensical that they fail to be funny in any way. It’s as if the producers pulled random joke ideas out of a hat and assembled them into a show, with no regard for the quality of the ideas. How else can you explain Arnie’s “I am watching you through a camera” song at the end of the episode where Marge is offered one million dollars to spend a little time with him? How else can you explain Homer’s inexplicable panic-and-run from a tennis match when he realizes that he will be playing against… the people he knew he would be playing against? It’s just not funny.
I think the Simpsons writers, knowing that the comedic potential of the show is exhausted, have tried to turn it into some sort of über-parody that makes fun of the very idea of situation comedy. I agree that the “jokes” aren’t funny, but in and of themselves they’re not supposed to be funny—they’re more a means for the show’s creators to elbow you in ribs as though to say “Aren’t sitcoms like this lame?”. Moe clapping his ears and going “WHAAAAAA??!!” isn’t funny. The idea of someone thinking it’s funny is the point. You laugh (if you do) at the very absurdity of laughing at something so stupid.
I can see why some people consider this form of humor “intelligent”—certainly it’s an intellectual cut above a more ordinary lame sitcom. But “intelligent” or “clever” doesn’t equal “funny;” if your premise is so worn there are no longer any funny variations in it, it needs to end; otherwise you’re just selling product. The Simpsons’ plunge into hyper-irony strikes me as naked desperation, people frantically trying to keep the boat afloat in order to forestall the inevitable.
Or maybe they just can’t write worth shit anymore. shrug