Negative themes in the Simpsons?

*if you haven't seen the episode, "The Haw-Hawed Couple", don't read this

Hi everyone, I'm writing in response to yesterday's episode on Feb. 18, 2007. It was "The Haw-Hawed Couple" from Season 18. Very good episode but it had to be done sooner or later (c'mon, Nelson friends with Bart?)

Bart was warning his schoolmates not to go to his birthday party. Martin then picked up a twig and snapped it and then he picked up a bunch of twigs mentioning that all the kids form a "faggot" and not go to the party. Just when Martin says this, the english definition of "faggot" shows on-screen, something about wood or whatever.

My main concern is that there could be another meaning to this. Were the writers anxious to get that word said on the show and hide it behind something hardly subtle? I know there's something behind that, no one thinks of the word "faggot" without associating it with gay people, c'mon people.

This episode had another link to homosexuality when the kids were on a trip and they said "Skinner loves Bart!" and then Skinner said "No, Nelson loves Bart." And pardon me for noticing this but, the whole "Nelson friends with Bart" thing had its "awkward" moments and I even thought that the two might have a thing for one another (*ahem, the scene with Bart and Nelson talking in the locker and Skinner and Chalmers walking by saying it's best for them to work it out...)

I want peoples' responses to the show and I want some constructive criticism. If I'm wrong, prove it. I just hope the producer's are making fun and not trying enforce their own beliefs onto the show. I think the whole episode was great but slightly marred by a message that bothered me. Thank-you, post your reaction!!!

On Feb 19, 7:26 am, [email] wrote:

It's Hershey highwaymen like them that made me fat.

Hi, what exactly do you mean?

I've also been concerned about what seems to be the slowly rising level of smut on the show. It's a shame and unnecessary I think. Examples (probably not from current series): (1) Burns confronting an ATM with Smithers, unsure where to put his ATM card. He asks Smithers to 'Guide me in'. Smithers says 'With pleasure sir'. I find this, and the other implied gay relationship between Lenny and Carl, tiresome and borderline offensive. (2) A sign reading 'Springfield Heights Institute of Technology'.

Giggle giggle. But there is so much clean humour on the show, which is quite a rarity, that I find it a shame and a little sad that the writers have begun to insert this sort of toilet humour into it. There are plenty of other outlets for such humour, and it's nice to be able to avoid it when you want to.

wrote in message news:[email]...

Hi. Yeah, your first example about the ATM is kinda more raunchy than offensive. I'm not sure what you mean by offensive. Do you mean offensive to gays or offensive that they would have gay humour?

And the Lenny and Carl business is getting tired. In earlier episodes, they're portrayed as normal straight guys anyway.

I also think that there should be an episode where Smithers points out his love to Monty and confronts him about it. Monty should react to him in a cold way but in the end, still be friends...

As for the slowly rising level of smut on the show, I welcome it. I'm glad the Simpsons haven't been censored and dumbed down in any way whatsoever. If we should fear anything, we should fear the loss of in- your-face humour the Simpsons gets away with all the time.

-Ol

It's really a matter of preference, and I recognise that my reaction is personal. I don't like the smut. I don't object to smut, but I just don't want to see more of it than I have to. The Simpsons was welcome because it managed to be humorous, satirical, and ironic without smut; a rare combination these days. If the smut keeps rising it will become like South Park (I guess - I saw a bit of the SP movie and nothing else) or any number of other shows that rely on smut for their laughs. That would be a shame - for me, and I'll stop watching.

It's not the hinting at the gay relationship between Burns and Smithers that I find offensive so much as the crude sexual reference. It's not the gayness; it's the crudity I don't like. And in the end, the crudity becomes predictable I find. Most British comedy of the 1960s and 70s relied heavily on it. Those shows might have been funny in those days. They're utterly unwatchable now. Well; by me anyway. But chacun a son gout, as they say.

wrote in message news:[email]...

On Feb 22, 10:16 am, "Tristan Z Krumpacker III" wrote:

I've got a similar opinion on the matter, I really don't care about "smut". I'd certainly never write any complaints over anything I see or read, quite simply because it's a pointless endeavour. I think being politically incorrect can be very funny if it's used properly. The Simpsons used to do it ALL the time, although in recent years it seems like they've got some 12 year old kids writing the politically incorrect gags.

I don't know when the writers are going to realise that using foul language for the sake of it is NOT FUNNY. No matter how many times they get Bart to say "fart" or Homer to say "ass" (or "boobs" is another one that's crept into the show's vocabulary), it's not getting any funnier. It just sounds like lazy writing, and it's one of the reasons almost everyone you ask will tell you that the "new episodes" (i.e. the past few years) aren't funny. You can make swearing absolutely hilarious if you do it properly, so why does it feel like the writers have a checklist quota of "naughty" words to slip into the episodes? I wouldn't care if Homer started saying "f**k", as long as it was funny and not just tacked on.

If they're trying to be as funny as Family Guy by copying it's style of humour, it's not working. Homer Simpson isn't Peter Griffin. When Homer starts talking like Peter Griffin, it sounds like the writers talking, not Homer.

The show just isn't funny, and hasn't been for a long while. I don't say that as a protective fan, and I guess it depends what you consider "funny" to be. But it's like music that's listenable but generic and boring. Movies that are watchable but mediocre. Games that you can play for a couple of hours but could just as easily turn off and never play again. It's just completely mediocre television, nowhere near cutting edge anymore. I don't think the show's long run is a worthy excuse, either, as I can still watch old episodes and find them mindblowingly good. I don't sit there and think "hang on, this episode is from 1994, so D'oh! hadn't been overused, therefore it's funny" or "ugh, it might have been funny at the time, but I've seen Flanders getting on Homer's nerves a million times now". It's all in the writing, directing, animation and voice acting. Yeah, the animation is crisper now, but it ain't as funny! Freeze frame gags stay onscreen for longer, cars pull up rather than screech, Homer falls down things slower. It's lost it's edge. All of it.

Harry Michaels