Simpsons 300th and 301st Episodes: CRAP-tacular!

Yeah, it's happened.

The Simpsons has de-evolved. First it was the best damn television show period. Episodes such as "Homer the Heretic" and "Lisa's Pony" stand alone as classic entertainment that generations to come will watch and enjoy. Numerous academic papers have been written on "Homer the Heretic" itself. How rare is it that a crudely drawn cartoon show transcends it's medium! The Simpsons were more like the family next door than most "3D" families such as the Cosbies and the Cleavers. The show widely appealed to children and adults and in Groenings own words, "rewarded people who paid attention." It rarely resorted to low-brow humor, cheap sight gags and fart jokes. There were no blatant drug references or crude sexual humor. It was the best damn television show period.

Then Homer gets blasted off into space.

And all sense of restraint is gone. The Simpsons has de-evolved into a cartoon. It's still the best damn television show period. But episodes such as "Bart Gets an Elephant", "Bart's Comet" and of course THAT episode threw any sense of plausibility out of the window. It's still funny though. And regardless of how outlandish the storylines are becoming, the show is still classier than "Married...With Children."

Fast forward to "Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo". That single episode is loaded with toilet humor, drug references and is one of the first of many episodes which were so culturally insensitive that the country which is being mocked officially complained about it. See "The Bart Wants What it Wants" and that Brazil episode. Having run out of original ideas, the writers resort to writing many more "The Simpsons are going to X" episodes. That in itself becomes a running gag. The show still manages to be funny despite itself.

Then having completely run out of original ideas, they start bringing back characters from old episodes. There's that Marty guy, Vic Grimes, Sideshow Bob...

And then we get to the 300th episode. What was disguised as a "parody" of the extreme sports/music culture was really just a lame excuse to put some hipster guest stars (Tony Hawk and Blink-911 or whatever) on the show in the hope of expanding the shows viewer base. I was watching this with a roomful of people and there was beer and salsa. And nobody laughed once.

And the less said about the "Spelling Bee" episode the better. Now they're ripping from SNL. Alex, the boy everybody loves. How sad is that?

Big Dawg:

I think these things have always existed, but, like you say, they used to be less common and blatant. For instance, Otto was always supposed to be a heavy drug user, but it was only recently we actually saw him holding a joint.

What Marty guy? If you mean Marty from Bill and Marty, he's been a recurring character for years, and has never been all that major. Sideshow Bob was a recurring character before some of the classic episodes you've mentioned were aired. And just to needlessly nitpick, it's Frank Grimes, not Vic.

The guy Marge dated in one of the earlier episodes. He was voiced by Jon Lovitz.

Cheers, BD

Big Dawg:

That would be Artie Ziff.

While I do agree with you on some points (the simpsons are going to X, recurring one time characters, more toilet humor, drug references), I don't think that there was any bad at all about the two shows last night. The plots were funny and there were many good gags here are some parts that at least ONE person must have laughed at in your beer fueled room

I don't remember being in a commercial (eats butterfinger) Nowadays people only want to watch ozzy osbourne, Look at me, I'm a drug addict! Caution- will cause early death Milhouse's dad crying Anything to do with the Ribwich Tony Hawks extreme-talk Why should I think about your feelings? that's so stupid (i know that wasn't exactly what he said, but it was funny)

I think that last night's episodes were the best since angry dad, which was the best since Mr. X, which was the best since homer was a food critic...

[email] (Peter Zahut) wrote in message news:...

The ribwich subplot was actually funny. I have to admit, it did get a few chuckles and reminded me of the off-the-wall humor which characterized the 9th season. The spelling bee angle, with Lisa running around spelling words, was IMO horrendously unfunny. And they pretty much recycled this from the episode where Lisa cheated on her test and got Springfield Elementary ranked as one of the top schools and received more funding. And then Lisa had to choose between living a lie and telling the truth, etc.

Cheers, BD

On 17 Feb 2003 11:31:03 -0800, [email] (Big Dawg) wrote:

Some people are too stupid to understand the new Simpsons humor style. They get upset when the jokes all fly over their heads. Go read a book by Henny Youngman or something you filthy animal.

"Big Dawg" wrote in message news:[email]...

Is this guy fer real?! Is he a troll? I mean, he's just bringing this up now! The last time I checked this list (1999) we were talking about this.

That's his big contribution to the last 1000 posts? All that typing, just to inform us of <that> opinion?

(Sorry that I've been away - I was in a coma the last 3 years. I know...I know... why don't I go back where I came from.)

Bill

"bilaval" wrote in message news:...

Yeah. Well ATS has been nitpicking about the show long before it became truly mediocre. Until this week, I've always found something to like about a Simpsons episode. I even liked the one with the Critic. Even though the show was "de-evolving", it was still funny. The last few episodes haven't been that funny. And it's not going to get any better.