Bob, that's all valid theorizing, and I get your point... but there's no mention of how the writing has clearly declined. I guess you could just say "The writing is as funny as ever!" but come on, we all know that's not true. Something happened around seasons 15 and 16, and the show has not gotten better.
You can invent a logical argument showing how people create fallacies because of their own skewed perspective, and it may be partially true, but that doesn't explain the obvious drop in quality. And no, it isn't me being nostalgic, the way I watched that show makes nostalgia basically impossible. It's clear that the writing has gotten worse, that's a fault of the writers not the fans. No amount of theorizing can change the shows almost objectively noticeable decline.
Though I'll admit, I gave up completely after season 20 and have hardly watched any new episodes since. If it's gotten better, cool, but I doubt it. Season 1 was not that great, season 7 or 8 was the apex, season 14 was the last genuinely good one. If we're still talking about the funny (and I assume we are, despite most of this episode being largely unaffiliated with The Simpson's humor), then you should focus on that. Guessing about why people no longer think it's funny and why it's not as popular as before are two different things. The original fanbase might've grown up, but how does that automatically mean they no longer appreciate humor? How does growing up excuse the decline of funny writing?
I see "The good writers left/got burnt out/realistically ran out of ideas after fifteen years" as a much more likely scenario than "A select group of fans became blindingly nostalgic at the same moment but let's ignore the other dissenting fans that don't fall into the original category. And by the way, the writers have been going strong for over twenty years." But I guess the obvious answer wouldn't have made an interesting Big Picture episode.
You can invent a logical argument showing how people create fallacies because of their own skewed perspective, and it may be partially true, but that doesn't explain the obvious drop in quality. And no, it isn't me being nostalgic, the way I watched that show makes nostalgia basically impossible. It's clear that the writing has gotten worse, that's a fault of the writers not the fans. No amount of theorizing can change the shows almost objectively noticeable decline.
Though I'll admit, I gave up completely after season 20 and have hardly watched any new episodes since. If it's gotten better, cool, but I doubt it. Season 1 was not that great, season 7 or 8 was the apex, season 14 was the last genuinely good one. If we're still talking about the funny (and I assume we are, despite most of this episode being largely unaffiliated with The Simpson's humor), then you should focus on that. Guessing about why people no longer think it's funny and why it's not as popular as before are two different things. The original fanbase might've grown up, but how does that automatically mean they no longer appreciate humor? How does growing up excuse the decline of funny writing?
I see "The good writers left/got burnt out/realistically ran out of ideas after fifteen years" as a much more likely scenario than "A select group of fans became blindingly nostalgic at the same moment but let's ignore the other dissenting fans that don't fall into the original category. And by the way, the writers have been going strong for over twenty years." But I guess the obvious answer wouldn't have made an interesting Big Picture episode.