Two people mentioned the Flying Hellfish Episode, but neither of them mentioned my favorite part of it - the big guy, who we’re meant to assume is dumb is introduced as “Ox.” Later, he gives an accurate description of a Tontine scheme, and we learn that the nickname is short for “Oxford.”
My favorite stories are the Halloween one with the Time Toaster, and the Halloween one with the Clinton-Dole election. My favorite regular episode - at the moment, at least - is the one where Bart falls for the new neighbor’s daughter, and Homer sues Captain McAllister for not letting him stay until he’s literally had all he can eat:
Lionel Hutz: Mrs. Simpson, tell the court…after you were ejected from the restaurant, what did you two do?
Marge: We went straight home.
Hutz: You’re under oath, Mrs. Simpson.
Marge, looking mortified: We drove around town looking for another all-you-can-eat seafood restaurant.
Hutz: And when you didn’t find one, what did you do?
Marge, looking even more mortified: We went fishing.
The look on Marge’s face is just PERFECT. And the rest of the episode was great, too.
A lot of people do. (It’s been on for over a decade.) As animation, the characters can visually remain constant (compare that to “The Beaver”). The Flintstones, IIRC, didn’t last nearly as long.
Please bare with me; this post is a little long, but has a legitimate point.
Even so, this thread eventually will be one of those that has so many pages you don’t even bother to open it. Already it’s getting "me too"s.
My own “me too” is the Monorail episode, if nothing more than for the opening few minutes: Burns tries to dispose of nuclear waste in a city park, he’s fined by the EPA, and the city has a town-hall meeting to decide what to do with the fine the EPA imposes on Burns (which for some reason goes to the city, rather than the Feds). (When have you ever been to a town-hall meeting? Those three members of this message board can raise your hands now.)
Mayor Quimby (the proverbial corrupt politician) tries to trick the town populace into thinking the fine is lower, but LISA, a girl of about 12 years of age, is the only one to protest (clearly a feminist assertion, which is common in the series).
Then a guy shows up who’s obviously a modern-day Professor Harold Hill (The Music Man). (Those three members of this message board who have seen The Music Man can raise your hands now.)
The (incredulous) audience (of the town-hall meeting) erupts into a quintessentially American entertainment phenomenon of breaking into (Broadway-style) song and rhyme. (A common “Simpsons” practice.) It is obviously based on the *The Music Man’*s song “…and that rhymes with “P” and that stands for ‘pool’.”
My point is that truly to enjoy the “Simpsons” you have to have a deep knowledge of American culture, and if you’re not familiar with American culture over the past, let’s say 20 years, you won’t get a lot of the humor. There was a Super bowl episode where the characters covered their mouths because it was during the Clinton impeachment time. (The idea being that maybe Clinton wouldn’t be president by the time the show aired; clearly the writers didn’t think the Senate would convict Clinton–it was just a joke that only someone up-to-date with U.S. politics would see as a jab at the U.S. Congress.)
The “Simpsons” airs in many countries besides the U.S.
(It’s for that reason, I think, that they put in a lot of the slap-stick humor–Homer scratching his butt, etc.) They want to send the show abroad, and increase profits and residuals. This has, in the past, confused me.
For example, how do you communicate Mayor Quimby’s accent in Spanish? His Boston (Kennedy) accent is meaningful only to people in the U.S. I have no idea how the Spanish-language voice-over artists accomplish this–or whether they even try to accomplish this. (They recently went on strike, but I don’t recall why.)
What other countries will get the joke of the beginning of the Monorail episode, where clearly they are doing a parody of a very American Broadway/Film musical classic (“The Music Man”), which predates the births or most of their viewers?
My favorite SUB-PLOT (not episode)? It’s when they take the old Christmas tree (in May) to the dump, and, all (except Marge, who becomes a religious adviser), delight in finding things discarded by others. Homer finds a box of detergent that has an emblem that uncannily resembles himself. The Japanese company sends him a video with an ad that promotes the detergent, and which is both realistic and hilarious.
[Comic Book Guy]I believe Lisa is eight. If she were 12, that would make her older brother Bart a teenager.[/Comic Book Guy]
[Professor Frink]No you can’t play with it. You won’t enjoy it on as many levels as I do… The colors, children![/Professor Frink]
Heh, and I always thought they put it in because it was funny!
All mocking aside, The Simpsons truly does have a broad appeal, and is packed with both broad humor and more subtle references that will fly over many people’s heads. Unlike many of the other shows it’s often compared to, it really does appeal to all ages.
I’ll pick *Homer vs the 18th Amendment * as my favorite.
BOOM !! - exploding still in the basement
Marge: What on Earth happened down there??
Bart: One of the stills b…
[Homer puts his hand over Bart’s mouth]
Homer: Nothing, Marge. I think it must have been that bean I had for dinner.
My favourite episode is Space Coyote (aka Guatamalan Insanity Peppers, as already mentioned by a couple of people).
My favourite moments from various and sundry episodes:
Knifey spoony
When Homer buys a gun and asks Marge to close her eyes and prepare for a surprise - she opens them to find herself looking down the barrel and screams. First time that aired, Dad and I laughed so hard we cried.
When Millhouse passes the note to Nelson for Lisa, and Nelson thinks it’s from Millhouse. “Guess who likes you”… “He can’t hear you now. We had to pack his ears with gauze”.
Moe: “That baby can flash-fry a buffalo in 40 seconds.” Homer : “40 seconds?..Awwww, but I want it now!”
Mr Sparkle. Awesomo power!
George Bush, after they wigged him. “Are there any questions?” -hands go up- “Keeping in mind that I’ve already explained about my hair” -hands go down-
I love the joke from the Australia episode where Bart is calling various places in the Southern Hemisphere. He is randomly dialing numbers from the phonebook.
Cut to a car in Argentina, with the vanity plate “Adolf-1.” Car phone begins ringing.
A very aged Hitler walks slowly up the the car saying, “Eine minuten, eine minuten” (sp?) but the phone stops ringing as he opens the door.
“Ach! Der carphone ist der nuisance phone!”
At which point a guy rides past on a penny-farthing bicycle, wearing the stereotypical Argentine costume.
“Buenas noches, mein Fuhrer!” with Nazi salute.
“Ja, ja,” responds the exasperated Hitler.
For some reason, “Buenas noches mein Fuhrer” strikes me as one of the funniest things ever.
I have watched the Simpsons for many years now, and it’s my opinion that the best episodes have enough universal humor to make them worth watching (and indeed very worth watching they are). But it is also a trademark of both the Simpsons and Futurama that there are many references and points behind the scripts, some obscure, some not so obscure. If you catch them, you’ll likely enjoy the episode a bit more, but it won’t hurt if you miss them.
I recently saw the episode Bart of Darkness and my girlfriend pointed out that murder plot is a straight homage to the Hitchcock film “A Room With a View”. It made a lot of sense when she pointed it out, but it’s a hilarious episode nevertheless.
It can get frustrating when you watch an episode and a scene makes you think “That just HAS to be a reference to a movie, I just haven’t seen it”. But that’s why you have Google, right?
Hitchcock never directed a film called A Room With A View. The movie was called Rear Window. In fact, in one scene, Bart is using his telescope to spy, and he sees Jimmy Stewart’s character from the film also spying with a telescope.
My favorite episode changes from time to time, and I can’t think of what my favorite is right now, but since everyone is saying that all these episodes have great moments, I’ll say the same thing about “Bart of Darkness”: Milpool, Klassic Krusty (ugh), [Sc]human [Farms] Head [of lettuce], and Bart’s bizarre play: “Kippers for breakfast, Aunt Helga? Is it Saint Swithins Day already? '‘Tis,’ replied Aunt Helga.”