What is everyone's problem with The Simpsons?

I just felt like writing this post, even after bashing The Simpsons a lot recently. It seems to me that most people on this newsgroup are just finding any excuse to have a go at the show, so I've decided to defend the show that most people claim to love so much.

Below are a few points which people have raised which I feel need addressing.

1. UNREALISTICNESS Why is everyone complaining about realisticness? I don't think you ever have before Seasons 10/11. (I may be wrong). Here are some of the many unrealistic bits from earlier Seasons.

a) Bart Vs. Thanksgiving A Bart balloon flies by in the parade, just as Homer says "If you have a balloon for every flash-in-the-pan character, you'll turn the parade into a farce." This is unrealistic because the show is about a normal family who aren't famous, so would not be on a balloon, in the show. But still, it's funny.

b) Boy Scoutz N The Hood The second Homer walking past the window. This is funny as well, just like most of the new unrealistic stuff in the show.

C) Bart The Daredevil Homer falls 60-100ft

There are lots more, but I think (well, hope) I've made my point clear.

2. CHARACTERS ARE WEIRD AND HAVE CHANGED TOO MUCH What? That's what the show is all about. If the characters were exactly the same all the time, the show would have got very boring by theend of Season 2/3.

3. HOMER IS TOO STUPID Another "WHAT?" from me. How can Homer get any stupider than he has been for the past 10 years. If anything, he has got more intelligent. One particular example I remember is some one telling me that him saying "He's named like my name!" in Homer To The Max showed just how stupid he has become. I totally agree - of course it shows how stupid Homer is, but what's your point? Are you saying it's bad? I don't think it is! This episode was on this guy's worst episodes ever list. It's on my best episodes ever list. Not in the top 20 or anything, but generally a good episode.

4. NO CONTINUITY a) It's a cartoon! Get over it! Why does there have to be continuity all the time? b) There is plenty of continuity. Homer's trip to space has been mentioned in about 3/4 episodes since Deep Space Homer; Burns seems to be 104 now, and has been in about 4 eps; The Simpsons address is 742 Evergreen Terrace, and has been since Season 6; Milhouse's parents are still divorced; Skinner and Krebappel are still together... the list goes on!

Oh, what about the peach tree? the swimming pool? the tennis court? the countless other things they've had installed in their back garden? Well, OFF got rid of them, obviously! Just because we don't see the family get rid of them, doesn't mean that they should still be there.

5. THE SHOW IS MOSTLY AIMED AT KIDS Well, to be fair, most of the audience IS kids & teenagers! I think the show is more aimed towards teenagers or generally, young people. Of course there are gags in there which appeal to kids. But there are gags which appeal to adults as well. Remember HOMR? The Prisoner parody? If you don't remember the parody, maybe you're too young. I didn't recognise the parody until I saw a clip of the Prisoner.

Any more problems with the show? I'd like to know of some more things people have to say about The Simpsons.

=== Scott Vivian.

Well done Scott!

I couldn't have put it better myself, I intended to do some research and make a similar post but there is no need now

kudos to you

electroretro

"Scott Vivian" wrote in message news:[email]...

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On Sat, 19 May 2001 23:18:21 +0100, "Scott Vivian" wrote:

[big snip]

One word: Amen.

The Simpsons may not be at it's peak, but I still love it. Relax a little!

Scott Vivian wrote:

Just becasue I like somthing, it doesn't make it above reproach.

'Unrealistic bits' says it all. Nowadays, the entire plot tends to be unrealistic while the older episodes had a more real base with a smattering oddball jokes.

At the time, it was an in joke becasue Bartmania was everywhere and the entire episode was nearly plausible.

Another 'bit' in a realistic plot.

Actually, he never fell more than a few feet at time on the way down.

Bart's no longer the mischeivous child, Marge just nags, and Homer has gone from a grouchy father to lovable oaf to a total jerkass. Now he's somewhat tolerable again, though.

No disagreements with #3....

I don't care about continuity, but I don't like how Homer is suddenly 39, or how Apu's 8 children seem to have aged.

These things don't bug me...

One of the former animators who posts on another board came out and said the show, begining around the 8th season was quietly aiming the writing at younger audience. Why? They, the writers, felt the longtime fans were getting too 'old' to please so they decided that they wanted to attract a new fan base to replace us.

But overall, he did fall 60-100ft. And are you saying you could survive that onslaught? Like to see you try :).

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So you'd rather have them stuck in limbo forever? I prefer having them actually move onward in time a bit. Makes it a tad more realistic.

Chris Hill wrote:

If EVERYONE grew up alongside them, that would be realsitic. Also, now there's a five year age gap between Marge and Homer. Explain that one!

Jake

Why do I think you wrote your points especially because of my points about why the show is bad now? Personally I�d say I never try to find an excuse to have a go at the show. There are people here who do that but I wouldn�t count me among them. I just write what I think and feel when I see recent episodes and I see many things I don�t like.

To your points:

Good point, but I think the balance between unrealisticness (aka wackyness or cartoonish nonsense) was way better in the earlier seasons. There was a more serious or satirical or whatever plot and there were some funny bits or good meta-humour like the examples you mentioned. Not that I think an episode really need cartoonish or surreal bits and scenes but it didn�t bother me back then. The Thanksgiving scene was one of the earliest and greatest scenes of meta-humour and so was the second Homer (the meta-humour with Osmodiar who appears twice in HOMR to tell us that cartoons don�t have to me sense was on the other hand IMO a little over the border.) The Homer torture in the Springfield Gorge seemed even to me a little unneccesary back then.

We had unrealisticness but we had it in moderate use and in little bits in every episodes. From season 9 or 10 on those surreal scenes started to take over and dominate the episodes more and more and were often essential and rather childish elements of the plot. Pink monsters from Loch Ness, Mermaids and underwater cars, the entire "Hello Gutter Hello Fadder" which is full of wacky scenes such as nuclear waste eating or the rescue scene with Maggie, the motorbike scenes from "Take my wife", the damn Jockey Elves, the crayon story, the radioactive monkey etc etc etc.

Satire and content was more and more replaced by surreal things. These were no longer the little and funny bits but IMO something of a completely different show. Personally, I prefer episodes completely without unrealisticness but I have no problems with the earlier moderate bizarre style but I do have one with the total nonsense in many current episodes.

I think there were some bad und unnecessary changes e.g. Marge becoming an hysterical housewife in many new episodes or Homer becoming a jerkass, rude and mean and always angry for no apparent reason. Homer seems to be back a little to his old self now but his behaviour was very very strange in season 11 and he was extremly and annoyingly stupid there ("Jebus"). Bart is today more of a flat and very evil brat, just take "Skinners Sense of Snow" whit all the Skinner torture.

I think it depends on the writer and the characters are sometimes better and sometimes worse, sometimes closer to their self and sometimes more far away. Character development is a good thing but I think they did it sometimes in a wrong direction and many characters are IMO no longer what they were supposed to be.

I think he is too stupid now sometimes (just take the Jebus thing) and more worse many episodes just exploit his ignoranz and stupidity to make a plot out of it. I don�t want an intelligent Homer but I want one who is able to think at least a little and to lead a normal conversation (just take Insane Clown Poppy "What were we talking about...hihi...a clown...). I want the Homer I know and not a one-dimensional superstupid cartoon idiot.

They started it as cartoon with continuity (that was part of Matt�s concept. He said in one of the early interviews on snpp that episodes will affect later episodes and that it is something that makes the Simpsons really different from shows like The Flintstones) and they had very good and subtle continuity in the first seasons. Now it seems they can end episodes as wacky and senseless as possible.

I don�t say continutiy has to be there all the time but a little bit wouldn�t be bad. The thing with the Simpsons farm was IMO very bad. There is sometimes continuity even today but I think the writers just don�t care any longer about it. If it fits let�s do it, if not: who needs continuity. That�s not Matt�s concept.

That is partly correct but I�d also say it�s now aimed at a new group of teenage fans. Little satire, little intelligence but more crude and tasteless stuff with sexual references and burp and fart. An example: Homer�s and Marge�s relationship became more strange maybe because the younger audience don�t want to see something about her love life. Bart became more one-dimensional because the young audience want to see chaos. Lisa became more and more annoying and mocked by others because the new audience don�t like her and her intelligent and satirical comments form earlier seasons. Do I have to go on? I think it�s clear.

Sure, if I would search. But I try to see the good in the show and season 12 was a start.

Your points are all good and partly valid but so are mine and I think you will maybe agree if you consider them.

Chris

P.S. Pardon my English. I�m in a hurry. Simpsons season 2 is on TV in exactly 2 minutes :-)

"Scott Vivian" wrote in message news:[email]...

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Homer didn't fall 60-100 feet, he bounced off of the rocks on the way down. Granted, that still would brutally injure him, but it isn't guaranteed death.

The other ones were just one-off jokes, quick snippets of meta-humor. That's very different (and more funny) than having Homer dragged into a barn to be threatened through song and dance by a troupe of evil jockey elves.

yeah me too you lot havin a go,you try writing a script for 22 mins.then have a go ,its easy to criticize sat in front of you pc ,typin not as good as etc,maybee you knockers of show are probably parodies of the comic store guy.with you big fat lard asses.whinging on on go out a night get your self out of the house now and again.in gods good earth, otherwise shut the FCUK up you peeons "Rich Bunnell" wrote in message news:41LN6.20601$%[email]...

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"Scott Vivian" wrote in message news:[email]...

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<snip loads of points>

Basically it's not as good as it used to be. Simple as that.

But it's sometimes very hard to put the finger on just why, and put it into words - maybe thats why you feel that peoples points have been wrong and could have described earlier shows as well.

Homer isn't as lovable anymore. I can't explain exactly why - maybe he is more stupid or maybe he does more nasty things.

Because of the earlier wacky storylines I get the impression the current writers think they can get away with anything.

I simply don't enjoy watching the new shows as much as the old ones, even the ones i've seen tens of times. There's probably hundreds of reasons why - i'm not going to try and work them out. It's still worth watching though - as below par simpsons is better than anything else out there.

If the Simpsons was as good now as it was 6-7 years ago, it would be a miracle. There's no way you can keep a show at a consistent high of writing for over a decade. And an interesting fact: recent figures from the US shows the Simpsons is actually still growing. Pretty spectacular, don't you think?

Myself, I agree with the fact that it isn't as funny as it used to be, but then I'm being realistic. The new eps still blitz a lot of the other stuff on TV.

Chris Hill wrote in message news:z9MN6.11765$[email]...

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I should think it's growing ever-more popular for younger children, as it was already described in this threat that a former writer said they were aiming at a younger audience. This wacky version of the cartoon isn't the one I know and love.

Alton.

Just an addition to my comment to your points:

I think your points about why the show is still good and watchable are as valid as my points (or the points of someone else) why it isn�t any longer what it was supposed to be.

I think it depends on the personal point of view and on what a certain viewer expects from the show and maybe also for how long he or she�s watching it. Many people will agree with your points (even I do to a certain degree) while others will agree with my points and say "It sucks now and was way better in the past." (I�d say it indeed was.)

It�s not so much a problem of people who try to say something bad about every episode (though those people exist) without really considering the quality of the episode, it�s more a problem of different points of view and different expectations and a problem that certain people can�t accept that (such as the guy who replied with a "Shut the fuck up".)

We had no season 2 but a season 1 episode that morning on TV, "Homer�s Night Out" and that is what I call a good Simpsons episode but I partly understand people who don�t like it and consider it as too serious and sappy.

People have different opinions, expectations and they agree to different points and arguments (at least some agree to mine) and that�s not the real problem. The real problem are the people who bad-mouth every episode without reason *and* the people who can�t accept other opinions than their own and only argue with stuff like "Shut the fuck up, you lousy complainers." I don�t know what group is worse. Do you?

Chris