As for the argument that the Simpsons of pre-1997 vintage would have no place for something as wacky as Homer chasing a donut through the city (as a real Homer does in the winning video that brought the movie premiere to Springfield, Vermont), the writer must be forgetting a lot of wacky things that have happened on the show: Homer commandeering an ice cream truck during an insane attempt to save the power plant in “King Size Homer,” practically the entire last act of “Marge vs. the Monorail” (which, coincidentially, also involves a giant donut- is there anything they can’t do?), the pepper-induced dream sequence in “El Viahe Mysterioso De Nuestro Jomer,” most of the gags in “The Springfield Files,” which seem more at home in a Looney Tune than a Simpsons episode- the list goes on and on.
Plus, the Simpson’s have added nothing to our culture. So, let me be the first to welcome our new Simpson’s hating overlords.
worst. thread. ever.
How could anyone not like Principal Tanzarian?!!
I got it.
I was just commending him on his catch, and then making a (mostly) separate point.
I would like to contribute something to this thread, but I cannot even begin a conversation with someone who thinks the Simpsons isn’t funny anymore!!
Oh. Well, next time I say something stupid, please let me know before the edit-window expires, OK?
Yeah, because the Simpsons was sooo underground circa 1994-97 (best years ever). You simply know not of which you speak, and for that reason for the limited purposes of this thread, you shall be branded a moron, low grade.
I share Wee Bairn’s puzzlement. The show is simply unfunny now. So much so that I question the sincerity (not just the comedic sensibility) of those who laugh.
It’s not like I don’t get it, now. I get it fine; it’s not funny. The episode with the trip to Florida is a perfect example. It is simply no longer funny. Want humor today? Watch The Office or 30 Rock. Hell, even King of the Hill has still managed to remain clever.
The earliest years of the Simpson were not the best. The writers were still trying to find their groove. However, one cannot deny the absolute genius of
Marge vs. the Monorail, Lisa’s Rival, Much Apu About Nothing, Homer the Heretic, Boy Scoutz in the Hood, or Street Car Named Marge, to name a few. Nothing today even approaches those. The last funny episode was Weekend at Burnsies and that was like 4 years ago.
The fact that they would hire a head writer who had never seen the show speaks volumes.
…other than starting a Pit thread and insulting people who like the show.
I guess I’m as much of a hypocrite for reading and posting here as you are, but fuck, I’m goddamn tired of reading these complaints and being insulted for still enjoying the show. Why the fuck does it matter if somebody else likes it? Has the Simpsons so thoroughly crushed your hopes and dreams that you want everybody else to be bored, too?
Does this happen with other shows? I mean it, I have no idea. I don’t see a whole flotilla of Dopers calling people who still like Star Trek, The Sopranos, Desperate Housewives, Lost, South Park, Family Guy or any other show “worthless cunts” for saying ‘okay, maybe it’s not as good as it used to be, but I still like it more than other shows.’
:rolleyes: I disagree with you a lot, but I try to be civil - but are you serious about this? You know, you complain a lot for a guy who watches eight minutes of the show per week. I don’t think anybody is obliged to like the show, but fuck, why not just do something else for those eight minutes?
I believe you’ve been whooshed.
One thing I’ve noticed is that the comic timing isn’t as good as it once was. A good gag needs a certain amount of time to…percolate, but in the recent years the gags just keep coming at you with no breathing room.
Another thing is that they probably have run out of material to use/satirize, something especially relevant to the Treehouse of Horror eps; all of the really satirizable sci-fi/horror memes were tackled within the first 7 years or so, but after 15 of them (45 clips) or so the plots are getting mighty thin.
So Paul McCartney was in this band called the Beatles. Possibly one of the best pop/rock music bands of all time. Seriously. Then, a few years down the road, he gets kind of irrelevant, so he does a song with another once great guy, also geting irrelevant, Stevie Wonder. Ebony and Ivory. Whatever, inoffensive. Not good, but inoffensive. Sort of like the PGA Champions (formerly Seniors) Tour. The n a few months down the road, he does The Girl is Mine with Michael Jackson, circa Thriller. This is not Rubber Soul. This is Thriller. What the Fuck!
That’s how I feel about the later episodes of the Simpsons. Whenevr people laugh at the newer so-much-less-funny -it’s-hard-to-quantify stuff. It makes me sad.
maybe. If so, diagnosis moron withdrawn.
They could have rehired Conan O’Brien for all I know, and the next new episode could be the funniest thing in TV history, is why- I love a good witty comedy, and 8 minutes out of a day 22 times a year is not much risk, when funny shows are non existent these days. As **whole bean ** said upthread, the current writers do not even for the most part know what the original show was about- they have turned it into a completely different show with completely different humor. If people enjoy it great- the ratings are as high as ever think, many people like it, good for all who like it.
But it would be like if you tuned into Two and Half Men or whatever and they all of sudden turned it a show with dry British humor- one would notice the difference, tune in or tune out, and move on. Yes, I am an idiot for hoping a new show will ever come close to the early eps, same as I do with SNL, when I know deep down they never will. Hell, IIRC a couple of the long time voice actors have complained about the quality of the current writing staff, so it ain’t just me. It may be funny to many now, but surely no one who likes the show now would say the “type” humor they use now is the same as the type from the early seasons.
How, exactly, did this go down? Did the show’s writers issue a press release saying “We are the most supreme shit ever. As for our fans – ha! We mock them!”?
I’m serious. What exactly makes you think that the writers had the specific attitude you describe?
The only time South Park and Simpsons have ever done fairly identical episodes- World or Warcraft- South Park blew them away. And in all seriousness, no hyperbole, the writing on fucking SpongeBob SquarePants in better than current Simpsons.
I don’t think Rubber Soul is any better than Thriller.
For the record, if it is a whoosh, then I’m being whooshed, too. I read fluiddruid’s comments as being straight.
Anyhow, it may be nostalgia, but I don’t think so. I remember the Simpsons starting to lose it and get weird during whatever season had that hallucinogenic chile pepper episode. It seemed to me (and others at the time) that something weird was going with the Simpsons, that the humor was turning in a different direction, and I didn’t like it. Seasons 3 through about 7 seemed to be the high point for me, and I don’t recall seeing any Simpsons episdoe within the last four or five years that has made me laugh like in those years.
However, I am looking forward to the movie. I actually think it may just be good and recapture some of the magic of those seasons.
The movie had better be good. Otherwise, it’s the biggest shark in all of jumpdom.
So, they’d finally be jumping the shark after 17 seasons or so. Is that what you’re saying?
I sympathize, but honestly, you have to know that’s a little ridiculous.
If the risk is so low, why does it seem to bother you so much when it’s not good?
The writers definitely mock their own fan/critics at times, Baldwin. Then again, looking at a thread like this it’s not hard to see why they do it. 