Season 8 had…
The Halloween special where Kang and Kodos impersonate Clinton and Dole
The Hank Scorpio episode (one of the all-time 10 best episodes)
Homer as a boxer
Bart at the burlesque house (in the top 20)
Ned going crazy after the hurricane
The X-Files episode
The Nuclear Plant mountain retreat episode
Itchy and Scratchy and Poochie
The John Waters episode
Sideshow Bob and his brother (in the top 20)
The Beer Baron (roughly in the top 30)
Mr. Sparkle
Frank Grimes (hmmm, maybe top 15)
The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase
Bart and Lisa at military school
That’s 15 excellent episodes (out of 25) and a few classics. Season 8 is definite golden years territory to me. It’s also the season with Homer’s spiritual journey after eating the pepper. I don’t particularly care for it, but a lot of people like it.
Jesus Christ, I know what “family jewels” means. Granpa’s list of words he doesn’t want to hear on TV ends with “family jewels,” which is the second time the words are spoken that episode. It’s a joke for nine-year-olds, but it’s still a meta joke.
Oh my god! He’s listing a bunch of words he doesn’t want to hear on TV… on a TV show!
Give me a fucking break. I’m a bigger Simpsons fanatic than anyone I know, but the constant barrage of people that want to make it “important” is extremely tiring after a while.
On a TV show that earlier in the same episode featured a character casually using a term which Abe feels shouldn’t be on TV. You really need a fucking break if you can’t make this connection.
And, no, it’s not important, but it is pretty funny. As I recall, it’s the third-time-punchline of Abe’s cranky letters in the episode, the first two being to the “sickos” at Modern Bride Magazine and a note to the President complaining that there were too many states; “please eliminate three.”
Just make an effort to stay on topic, okay? I didn’t say it was a brilliant joke; it isn’t. I was responding to your whole “the show was for kids” thing by mentioning this joke because I don’t think that nine-year-olds really go for meta-humor. The joke’s going to get a laugh from them anyway because they said “family jewels” again.
And all I’m saying is that you’re average nine year old is smart enough to pick up on “they said ‘family jewels’ before and now Grandpa is complaining about hearing the phrase ‘family jewels’ on TV.”
While “The Simpsons was for kids” may have been poor wording on my part, can we at least agree that the show was designed primarily to appeal to kids as well as adults?
Yeah, I’m not giving nine-year-olds enough credit there. Disney movies and other kiddie fare have those kinds of jokes, even if they don’t center around “family jewels.”
Sure. Now, let’s all go out for frosty chocolate milkshakes.
Alternately, let us our new arrangement with the adding of chocolate to milk.
Pssht. You guys with your funny “Simpson” quotes. All I can say is, I grew up watching the “The Simpsons” as a child (a nine year old child, even), and it didn’t affect me one iota.
Now, let’s forget our troubles with a big bowl of strawberry ice cream!
I would say The Simpsons was clearly created for adults, with enough low-level humor for the kids to keep watching. After all, it’s a cartoon and people are going to assume a cartoon automatically means “for kids,” so they do keep it framed in that assumption.
For me, the old Warner Brothers cartoons have that feel they’re made for kids with enough over-the-head humor thrown in to keep it interesting for the adults. I think The Simpsons is the other way around, and it always has been. To answer a previous question, I’m 32 and was 11 when I first saw the Simpsons on the Tracy Ullman Show (one of my favorite Fox shows, even at that age).
Those old Warner Bros. cartoons (the good ones with Bugs Bunny et al, not the crappy “cutesy” ones) are loaded with subtle cultural references from the time. The humor is often very adult.
The humor on the Simpsons was much more sophisticated than many of its contemporary sitcoms, like Home Improvement, Full House, The Cosby Show, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Saved by the Bell, and Family Matters. Those were all “family” oriented with very broad humor. You can’t judge a book by its cover. Just because it’s animated doesn’t necessarily mean it’s for kids, and just because it has live actors doesn’t mean it’s for adults.
