The Big Picture: The Simpsons Is Still Funny - Pt. 1
- Thread starter MovieBob
- Start date
Thank you SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH Bob for ripping apart the "Wah wah! *blank* went downhill!!" mental condition that an assortment of fans of every single fucking franchise in the world has.
Meh. I don't really agree. I don't really know exactly when The Simpsons went downhill, I think any specific time that can be pinpointed is down to personal preference, but I still think the show is far worse than it used to be. I used to watch it loads when I was a kid and in my early teens, then the channel that was showing it at the time stopped airing it. It showed up again before long on another channel but I never really went back to it. I watched a few episodes here and there, but I didn't watch it anywhere near to what anyone would call regularly. Then more recently I've tried to watch it more as new episodes have come on. Well there's episodes aren't actually new, they're re-runs, but they're still new to me. They also re-run older episodes too.
It's quite clear to me that the older episodes are far better. Their writing was far more witty and natural, and the storylines were very original. But now the newer episodes are bursting at the seams with cringe-worthy dialogue (usually from Marge), tired cliched storylines, and characters that have descended in to nothing more than self parody. The older episodes are still enjoyable, although not all of them are as great as I remember. But that's probably due to me being older, having seen them so many times, and the issues in them (if there are any) not being current anymore. But even with these things affecting the experience, they are still better than most of the newer episodes.
It's quite clear to me that the older episodes are far better. Their writing was far more witty and natural, and the storylines were very original. But now the newer episodes are bursting at the seams with cringe-worthy dialogue (usually from Marge), tired cliched storylines, and characters that have descended in to nothing more than self parody. The older episodes are still enjoyable, although not all of them are as great as I remember. But that's probably due to me being older, having seen them so many times, and the issues in them (if there are any) not being current anymore. But even with these things affecting the experience, they are still better than most of the newer episodes.
I think what also happened is the fact that the Simpsons became established. When it first came on the air during the late 1980s it was was something audiences had not seen before. The Simpsons was one of those early primetime sitcoms that had a disfunctional family. The Simpsons (and Married with Children which came out around the same time) were unlike their saccharine forebears and contemporaries (the Cleavers, the Bradys, the Waltons, the Tanners). Because of that new take on suburban families and its edgy language and everything else it got viewers and television networks looking at TV families differently. After The Simpsons you got show like Roseanne that focused on disfunctional families.
And during that time it got greater cultural exposure because it received that cultural backlash. George Bush Sr. famously said in a speech American families should be "more like the Waltons and less like the Simpsons." In the backlash against popular culture after the Columbine massacre I remember some critics called out the Simpsons as an example of the media's destruction of the American family. Now after twenty plus years of being on the air the Simpsons is part of the mainstream. It's a television institution in the way that some of the television programs it cut its teeth parodying were. Disfunctional families are the rule rather than the exception now, and so the Simpsons can't have the same punch it used to. And when you're part of the mainstream it's hard to maintain that edge.
And during that time it got greater cultural exposure because it received that cultural backlash. George Bush Sr. famously said in a speech American families should be "more like the Waltons and less like the Simpsons." In the backlash against popular culture after the Columbine massacre I remember some critics called out the Simpsons as an example of the media's destruction of the American family. Now after twenty plus years of being on the air the Simpsons is part of the mainstream. It's a television institution in the way that some of the television programs it cut its teeth parodying were. Disfunctional families are the rule rather than the exception now, and so the Simpsons can't have the same punch it used to. And when you're part of the mainstream it's hard to maintain that edge.
I think what also happened is the fact that the Simpsons became established. When it first came on the air during the late 1980s it was was something audiences had not seen before. The Simpsons was one of those early primetime sitcoms that had a disfunctional family. The Simpsons (and Married with Children which came out around the same time) were unlike their saccharine forebears and contemporaries (the Cleavers, the Bradys, the Waltons, the Tanners). Because of that new take on suburban families and its edgy language and everything else it got viewers and television networks looking at TV families differently. After The Simpsons you got show like Roseanne that focused on disfunctional families.
And during that time it got greater cultural exposure because it received that cultural backlash. George Bush Sr. famously said in a speech American families should be "more like the Waltons and less like the Simpsons." In the backlash against popular culture after the Columbine massacre I remember some critics called out the Simpsons as an example of the media's destruction of the American family. Now after twenty plus years of being on the air the Simpsons is part of the mainstream. It's a television institution in the way that some of the television programs it cut its teeth parodying were. Disfunctional families are the rule rather than the exception now, and so the Simpsons can't have the same punch it used to. And when you're part of the mainstream it's hard to maintain that edge.
And during that time it got greater cultural exposure because it received that cultural backlash. George Bush Sr. famously said in a speech American families should be "more like the Waltons and less like the Simpsons." In the backlash against popular culture after the Columbine massacre I remember some critics called out the Simpsons as an example of the media's destruction of the American family. Now after twenty plus years of being on the air the Simpsons is part of the mainstream. It's a television institution in the way that some of the television programs it cut its teeth parodying were. Disfunctional families are the rule rather than the exception now, and so the Simpsons can't have the same punch it used to. And when you're part of the mainstream it's hard to maintain that edge.
The He-Man thing was a good reference but as I look back on the 80s era, I'm finding that a lot of the cartoons we watched were done by either Filmation or DIC, including He-Man/She-Ra, Ghostbusters (the original, not the cartoon version of the Ghostbusters movie: The Real Ghostbusters), Bravestarr, Inspector Gadget, Heathcliff, Super Mario Bros., etc. And looking back on these "gems" of the 80s, I'm finding that on the whole, the production quality is pretty bad. Same goes for Voltron, which REALLY did not age well on a fresh viewing. It really makes me appreciate how good shows like Robotech were, despite a convoluted, even nonsensical meshing of three different shows, and re-use of stock footage in various places. Another shining aspect of the decade was the ability to turn adult-level movies into kid-level shows. Bill and Ted was an okay example, Beeltejuice a more sublime one.
It's part of the reason that I wax tragic about how kids today get all the cool shows. Yes I loved me some He-Man and Robotech and Ninja Turtles and such, but man, I really liked some crappy crap as a kid. By the time I was growed up, kids already had Batman and X-Men and Rugrats and Animaniacs and Ren and Stimpy and Doug. Now they have Transformer shows that are way better products than the films, Ben 10, Powerpuff Girls, Foster's, Fairly Odd Parents, Kick Buttowski, a TRON cartoon (!), a Star Wars cartoon not focused on Ewoks or Droids, and I'm sure there are a half-dozen others I'm not even thinking of. The quality of these programs is just getting nuts, and more than a few of them are quite well-written.
It's part of the reason that I wax tragic about how kids today get all the cool shows. Yes I loved me some He-Man and Robotech and Ninja Turtles and such, but man, I really liked some crappy crap as a kid. By the time I was growed up, kids already had Batman and X-Men and Rugrats and Animaniacs and Ren and Stimpy and Doug. Now they have Transformer shows that are way better products than the films, Ben 10, Powerpuff Girls, Foster's, Fairly Odd Parents, Kick Buttowski, a TRON cartoon (!), a Star Wars cartoon not focused on Ewoks or Droids, and I'm sure there are a half-dozen others I'm not even thinking of. The quality of these programs is just getting nuts, and more than a few of them are quite well-written.
It was in the middle of a song, when Homer is singing about going to "hobnob with the stars in Malibu".petrolmonkey said:
Steve Buscemi had another appearance by the way, as a bank robber:
http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/I_Don%27t_Wanna_Know_Why_the_Caged_Bird_Sings
I have no problem with brief cameos like that; even in the early days they did some cameos along those lines -- remember Barry White's apperance in "Whacking Day"? What about Micky Rooney on "Radioactive Man"?
My big problem is that many (but not all) of their recent celebrity-appearance episodes have involved only the guest and Homer, and those are about the only two characters with lines in the whole episode. See the season opener with Keifer Sutherland, essentially playing Jack Bauer, when The Simpsons has already done a "24" parody episode. The last several episodes have involved very few lines from either Hank Azaria or Harry Shearer, both of whom are incredibly talented actors that are getting paid to say one line each in recent episodes. I suppose Hank Azaria could have told them to give him less screentime so he could do other work like Free Agents, but still...
I think what would really put The Simpsons back on track is to take advantage of their huge cast of characters, and the fact that we still know very little about many of the characters, even after more than 20 years. It took until this season for us to see Superintendent Chalmers for more than a minute at a time; he finally got his own episode and we learned a bit more about him.
personally i've felt that it's gotten better throughout the years. sure the early stuff was fun, but the art, voice acting, and plot intricacy has all improved. rather than saying oh "they've done this before," i just look at how well they do it in a given episode.
the point is though, i find it hilarious when family guy makes fun of them for being tired and played out when that show only got four good seasons before becoming... desperate?
the point is though, i find it hilarious when family guy makes fun of them for being tired and played out when that show only got four good seasons before becoming... desperate?
Some good points but still
(a) I still don't like watching the show anymore and
(b) look at how over its lifetime the show has adopted, for example, all the hollywood insider jokes, Homer transitioning from a somewhat buffoonish lug to a retarded, pervy manchild, Lisa Simpson as a Mary Sue for social climbing liberal yuppies, etc.
(a) I still don't like watching the show anymore and
(b) look at how over its lifetime the show has adopted, for example, all the hollywood insider jokes, Homer transitioning from a somewhat buffoonish lug to a retarded, pervy manchild, Lisa Simpson as a Mary Sue for social climbing liberal yuppies, etc.
I couldn't disagree more with bob on this one. I've actually bothered to go back and rewatch many old episodes of the simpsons and compare them to the more recent seasons and I find the humor of the 90s episodes especially way more witty, clever and overall just funnier and more entertaining. The newer seasons ended up relying too heavily on pop culture, celebrity cameos, and more slapstick dumbed down humor as apposed to humor that was much more indirect and subtle.
The stories even seemed far more original and interesting in the earlier seasons too. For me they started to dip in quality around 13-14. Occasionally I'll find a newer one and still laugh but it is far far less frequent. The movie proves this even further a I watched it and found very little of it to be clever or funny.
The stories even seemed far more original and interesting in the earlier seasons too. For me they started to dip in quality around 13-14. Occasionally I'll find a newer one and still laugh but it is far far less frequent. The movie proves this even further a I watched it and found very little of it to be clever or funny.
I think The Simpsons is still funny, though that may be attributable to me being, well, 13. I watch both new episodes and reruns whenever I can, and I've noticed there is certainly something different from the older to the newer, probably most notably after the new intro. Given my age, I can't really figure out exactly how "good" any of the phases are. However, you can't fault the show for not trying to adapt to modern times, which may be one of the things that turn off older fans.
Im still trying to decide if it should be the Simpsons are or the simpsons is to be honest. Dont quote me and tell me what it should be, I dont care enough, its mostly just cause I dont usually hear people say the simpsons is.
more OT I still watch the simpsons rather religiously on Sundays despite being a Sophomore in college. In fact, I get so excited for it I do everything so from 8-10 pm, I have nothing to do and nothing will shift me from watching it. This is also why I start to get pissed if a football game looks like its going to be running a bit too long and run over into the Simpsons time slot. And usually the episodes make me at least smile, if not laugh out completely.
so yeah. I still enjoy the simpsons.
more OT I still watch the simpsons rather religiously on Sundays despite being a Sophomore in college. In fact, I get so excited for it I do everything so from 8-10 pm, I have nothing to do and nothing will shift me from watching it. This is also why I start to get pissed if a football game looks like its going to be running a bit too long and run over into the Simpsons time slot. And usually the episodes make me at least smile, if not laugh out completely.
so yeah. I still enjoy the simpsons.
I don't know if this episode really works on the Escapist. I can more or less agree as I'm close to the same age, but what Bob is trying to address is mainly for people that are around 30. The average escapist age is probably closer to 20, to which the meaning of what Bob's trying to say won't make as much sense.
so ....
1 more week before you do something more interesting? -.- joy
still waiting on the death and return of super man, AND samurai pizza cats eps there bob
just sayin
1 more week before you do something more interesting? -.- joy
still waiting on the death and return of super man, AND samurai pizza cats eps there bob
just sayin