In which episode(s) do you think Homer was at his most down-to-earth and realistic?
My pick would probably be 7F11 ("One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish"). I didn't notice any major eccentricities in Homer at all. It made for some nice viewing.
"Nice viewing" does not comedy make.
-- An XPeeple Production -- "As a child, I always wanted to bite his head off. This is my way of doing that... creatively." -Andy Dick as Marylin Manson "Most critics want to be authors, screenwriters and novelists, [but] they just suck." -Joe Rogan
"Bill McNeal" wrote in message news:20010818115949.15157.00004746@ng-
What are you talking about? That blowfish episode was one of my all-time faves. It was a really funny episode. So many good moments, and intelligently written. That Larry King bit at the end, alone, had me laughing out loud.
By contrast, wackiness for the sake of wackiness, painfully forced slapstick, cheap mean-spirited jokes, lack of continuity, and pointless celebrity guest appearances DEFINITELY "do not comedy make."
I agree.
"mirilidium" wrote in message news:[email]...
all-time
I'll agree with everything, except "lack of continuity".
"The Rack" wrote in message news:eOyf7.6475
What I meant by that is that the new plot lines meander all over the place. They can't even be called "lines" anymore -- at least not reasonably straight ones. More like spider webs made by drugged spiders. Lots of stuff going every which way and never actually meeting in the center. The thing I hate the most is that some of the shows have actually started out rather promisingly in Springfield, going along a certain plot for about 3-5 minutes, when all of a sudden it shifts into something completely unrelated, and never comes back to the original thing. Then even that second plot line is lost and another wacky shift happens. The characters get jerked from one ludicrous, implausible scene to the next. I hate that.
"Greg Jameson" wrote in message news:W5zf7.1373$[email]...
place.
3-5
unrelated,
line
one
Seems like they played with that idea in "Simpson Safari" when Homer keeps talking about the bag-boy strike while in Africa. As he's swinging on a vine "Overtime for bagboys... ridiculous!"
I think that demonstrates that their plots (if they can be called that) are written in this gag-to-gag style on purpose, and they know it. "Scullyesque" is the word for it, I guess.
I would term what you're talking about as "plot cohesiveness", although I can see how the "continuity" term could be applied. In Shamus Culhane's book on animation, interestingly enough, there's a chapter on writing. He directly covers this aspect of plots, versus a string of gags or situations in his chapter on writing.