Things That Aren't There Anymore on "The Simpsons"

Cafe Society
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Inspired by the “rock bottom” Simpsons thread, I’m wondering what everyone here enjoys about the show that really hasn’t been there in awhile. Hell, if some of this came back, we might all perk up again.

For me:

Bart’s Phone Calls: We haven’t seen these since, what, season 3? I particularly loved the “Hugh Jass” one. Maybe they ran out of steam, maybe they got old. I thought they had a certain charm.

The Crowd: You know–the generic behavior of a mob of Springfieldians. Case in point:

Mayor Quimby: “You people are nothing but a bunch of fickle mushheads!”
Crowd: “Hey, he’s right! Give us hell, Quimby!”

I can’t recall the last time I saw random behavior like that on the show.

Lionel Hutz: Can’t be helped. Still, Gil doesn’t fill the void.

Burns can’t remember Homer’s name: Have they done anything with this in awhile?

(Actually, I recently mused to myself that Burns might be pretending to not know who Homer is as part of his revenge scheme, sworn at the end of “Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk.” Think about it: it’d make a great final-episode shocker whenever they pull the plug on the show.)

Subtle gay references with Smithers: C’mon, he’s out at this point. The recent episode where Homer went to live with two gay men really removed the hidden charm with Waylan. I was musing over this old moment:

Smithers: [walks up] Simpson! What in God’s name are you–
Lisa: [offers Smithers some candy] Zagnut bar, Mr. Smithers?
Razzles? Skittles? Whachamacallit? Twizzlers?
Homer: They all have hilarious names and are delicious.
Smithers: Well I am partial to Jolly Ranchers.

Honestly: it took me years to figure out that this was a gay joke. I find the little “question mark” moments much funnier.

Anyone else want to share?

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Marge nagging a lot less. Well, it’s not something I miss, but it’s something she hasn’t been doing for a while. She tends to follow along to Homer’s crazy schemes without objection nowadays.

3

Hey! My ears are burning.

No, my ears are really burning. I wanted to see inside so I lit a Q-tip.
There seem to be less funny signs too. Harry Shearers. You could be watching Mad About You right now.

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I think the biggest thing that isn’t there anymore is consistent writing.

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Celebrities not appearing as themselves. I hate the newer episodes that are built around celebrity appearances. If they’re going to appease the public with the current pop culture icon, they could at least make them play a character instead of themselves.

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Yeah: case in point: Steve martin’s stint as the trash comptroller or whatever was awesome. Most of the celebrity walk-ons, however, have blown.

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I think the latest prank call joke was in the season 13 episode “Homer the Moe.”

Thanks to snpp for the exact quote

I seem to remember from the season 1 DVD commentary that the writers stopped doing them as often because the audience seemed indifferent about them, and because it was getting harder to come up with new gags for Bart and more outrageous threats for Moe.

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I’m with Yumblie about the celebrities. They often have less famous people play characters, but the big ones only seem to play themselves. I don’t know why. Seems limiting to me.

Re: Marge- she isn’t the rock of sanity or normalcy that she used to be, she gets into stuff that’s a crazy as anybody else. Well, more often than in years past. But I think that’s inevitable as the show ages, she had to ‘get used to it’ to a degree.

I think that’s the case with a bunch of these things. If Bart was still regularly prank-calling Moe, I’m willing to bet some people would be complaining that it’s boring and they should’ve stopped doing it years ago. :stuck_out_tongue:

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**Re: Things That Aren’t There Anymore on “The Simpsons”
**

Mrs. Flanders. She’s not there anymore.

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“Hi, I’m Troy McClure…” :frowning: