IN YOUR FACE, SPACE COYOTE: The Simpsons Season 8 Poll

You Only Move Twice is the obvious showstopper to go for here, but I'm tempted by El Viaje as I saw it for the first time when I was starting to get into doing acid so obviously it was amazing for me back then. The scene where Homer comes up is materfully done. Mountains of Madness is a really solid episode that could easily be overlooked I feel.

Dislike The Springfield Files and the Old Man and the Lisa, HATE the Mary Poppins one.

File me in the group that LOVED the Frank Grimes episode. Very likely my vote, though "A Milhouse Divided," "Homer's Phobia" (tho way more dated now than I think I realized until a recent viewing) and Shari Bobbins are deep in the hunt.

I loved Grimey, too! I think that episode worked on every level that it was attempting to operate. As a Simpsons episode, as a riposte to fans, as a meta-look at what kind of character Homer had become, as dark humor, as everything.

Still, Hank Scorpio.

Everyone loves Grimey don't they?

You Only Move Twice was my childhood fav, tied with 22 short films. Didn't realize how they both came so late in the Simpsons run

Grimes to me always felt like a fleshed out version of the tall man in small car http://vimeo.com/49994281

Interesting season, has some of the best episodes of the show and then some really bad ones. Maybe they decided to focus their efforts on specific episodes. Never was an X-Files fan, and the plot amounts to almost nothing, but "The Springfield Files" has such a high density of good jokes, definitely one of my favorites.

Every poll I'm perplexed as to what seems like the consensus pick, but the love for the Hank Scorpio ep is a new level of IDGI.

If Scorpio's gonna run away with it, I can easily switch my vote to Hurricane Neddy.

Wow, I'd forgotten there were some brilliant episodes (Spin-Off Showcase) standing right next to absolutely horrendous ones (Secret War of Lisa Simpson).

"Mountain of Madness" an underrated candidate.

the love for the Hank Scorpio ep is a new level of IDGI.

Yeah, ditto. I love Albert Brooks, and I loved him in the thing I saw him in. But so much of the Scorpio episode just seemed forced. There were ok moments here and there, but for the most part I thought it fell flat.

Season's 5 worst eps:

"The Homer They Fall"
"The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show"
"Brother from Another Series"
"My Sister, My Sitter" (tho I do love Homer trying to entice Marge with Jell-O shooters)
"The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase"

I mostly like "Mountain of Madness" for the jokes about national parks, esp. Marge spacing out while watching John Muir ramble on film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUXjoInekU4

That one, at least, has some good jokes that have long outlived the episode's usefulness: Bart's prank with the megaphones, Wiggum's tour of the police museum ("A California cheeseburger!"), Willem Dafoe's prescient speech about the future job of the army cadets being to program robots, "I'm glad we snuck into town. That was some GOOD corn!"

Plus, "Slow down, Tubby! You're not on the moon yet!"

http://deadhomersociety.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/the-secret-war-of-lisa-simpson1.png?w=655

It was the time when they could still make a bad episode at least funny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fbj61a8M1w

Season's 5 worst eps:

"The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show"

GTFO.

Yeah, seriously. Poochie's getting my vote, even though I prefer to listen to Cheap Trick.

Were there even any jokes in the prohibition episode? It was the first time I remember being outright bored by a Simpsons episode, wondering when they were gonna get to the fireworks factory.

Not a huge fan of "Mountain" but it has probably my single favorite joke in Simpsons history

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyli0iyj3k1qfi8i2o1_500.png

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5zn67SWU0o

xp, god, yes, that joke

This may be the last season they allowed themselves focused, small scale, almost dramatic storylines with minimal wackiness, eg Milhouse Divided and Homer's phobia.

Just preferred the way Grimes punctured the Simpsons universe to Poochie.

And the 18th amendment episode has the season's other "tubby" joke:

Banner: Are you the beer baron?

Comic Book Guy: Yes, but only by night. By day, I'm a mild-mannered reporter for a major Metropolitan newspaper.

Banner: Don't crack wise with me, tubby!

Comic Book Guy: [indignant] Tubby? [looks down] Oh yes, tubby.

Plus the entire story of Homer and Bart's secret brewing/distilling operation is hilarious.

18th amendment has one of the show's all-time kickers: "The cause of and solution to all of life's problems."

Did the Simpsons ever bring back Roy? I figure if they have had Grimes Jr. on the show, surely they have brought back Roy.

I'm sure Michael Shannon's character in Boardwalk season 1 was modeled after Rex Banner.

xp, perhaps, but I do like it as the writers/producers kvetching about the machinations of making a television show: Fans getting bored with the show, focus groups, execs vs. writers, talent vs. fans, Homer hiding in the closet like Leno in The Late Shift, etc.

And I can honestly say it had the best episode of Impy & Chimpy I ever saw.

I used to be a robust "classic period is seasons 2-8" guy but having watched this season again recently I think I may have to lop it off the end. The problem isn't the few outright bad episodes, just that there's a slew of middling episodes of a quality which weren't unheard of but were exceedingly rare in previous seasons.

Feel I should note that I hate hate hate the Mary Poppins episode though, far more than anything else in the first 8 and maybe even the first 9 seasons. When watching Sky's random rotation of episodes c. 2001 I always assumed it was from a lot later. 'Hurricane Neddy' is the opposite, I'd somehow never seen it until years after its first screening and, assuming it was a recent episode, I was shocked by how good it was. IT MAY GET MY VOTE.

What do people think of 'Homer's Phobia'? I think it's a good episode and a very valuable episode, but when rewatching I found it difficult to enjoy just because of how thoroughly horrible Homer is. I understand why they went down that route, but it still makes for tough viewing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-lu816sfkc

I guess people agree that there's a slew of middling episodes, but we seem to disagree on what they are. Poochie and prohibition eps are gr8 u maniacs.

The Homer of Homer's Phobia is a little bit of a reversion back to the entitled father-knows-best DNA of original Homer, who in the shorts and first couple seasons never actually talked about homosexuality obv, but you know if he did, he'd be 100 percent against it.

Homer is pretty horrible, even for him, but the progression of the episode is hilarious (the whole thing being kicked off by Bart's tennis-balls-in-the-dryer lottery game), every word out of John Waters's mouth is gold, gay steel mill, every word out of Moe's mouth is also gold . . . I find it hard to dislike the episode despite Homer's jerkassery.

These exchanges alone make it worthwhile for me:

Barney: I always hoped Bart would grow up just like us. What happened?

Moe: Aw, it ain't no mystery. The whole modern world's got a swishifying effect on kids today. And their MTVs and their diet sodas ain't gonna set 'em straight, neither. You gotta do it yourself, Homer, and you gotta do it fast.

Homer: But what would turn Bart into a man fast? You have to think for me!

Moe: Well, let's see now, uh, time was you sent a boy off to war. Shooting a man'd fix 'em right up. But there's not even any wars no more, thank you very much, Warren Christopher!

Barney: Hey, better yet, Bart could shoot a deer! That's like shooting a beautiful man.

Moe: Hey, he's right, Homer. After the boy bags a deer, all the diet sodas in the world won't turn him back. And you just sit right back and watch the grandchildren roll in.

Barney: Aw, we should've just stayed at the bar and shot some rats.

Moe: Hey, those ain't your rats, Barn.

Moe: Come on, don't take this so hard, Homer. You still got that other kid, uh... Lisa. Let's, uh, take her out hunting tomorrow; make her into a man.

Homer: Aw, she'd never go. She's a vegetarian.

Moe: Oh, geez! Homer, geez! You and Marge ain't cousins, are you?

xp Yeah, there are fewer better encapsulations of the American male psyche than, "I like my beer cold, my TV loud, and my homosexuals fa-laming!"

Actually a pretty good season in my view. Got my potential votes down to three:

* Hurricane Neddy
* The Springfield Files
* Mountain of Madness

YOMO and Homer's Phobia just miss out the cut (the latter, yeah, partly b/c it can be difficult to watch Homer as actually awful rather than just stupid).

I've got time for both Grimey and Poochie, but I haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate Shari Bobbins. That episode was beyond weak, just awful.

xp, perhaps, but I do like it as the writers/producers kvetching about the machinations of making a television show: Fans getting bored with the show, focus groups, execs vs. writers, talent vs. fans, Homer hiding in the closet like Leno in The Late Shift, etc.

And I can honestly say it had the best episode of Impy & Chimpy I ever saw.

― Ian from Etobicoke (Phil D.), Tuesday, December 3, 2013 10:07 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I've often felt this would/should have been the perfect series finale: going out on a high note, jabs at obsessive fans, but also admitting that they're running dry.

Also I have a weird affection for fishbulb, even though it's not actually very good.

Oh I quite like that one too. Lovejoy's action movie sermon is great.

No love for "Burns Baby Burns?!"

We rented Man Without a Face. I didn't even know he had a problem!

Holy cow, fishbulb is from this season. I nearly forgot. Yeah, the episode is pretty weak (although Moe's call to The Listen Lady is awesome), but the Mr. Sparkle thing is all-time.

The Shari Bobbins episode does have great songs, at least, but its combination of this-family-is-all-assholes and the pitch black humor is a little hard to take. I do honestly love Bart's game, whipping cupcakes.

Urgh I hate the songs in it.

Now I am obsessively watching the Mr. Sparkle commercial.

I accept the challenge of Mr. Sparkle, but I thought the Lovejoy storyline was pretty weak.

"El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer (The Mysterious Voyage of Homer)" was the first episode I actually remember hating. "The Springfield Files" was the first time I remember thinking "okay, enough with the guest stars."

On the flip side, "Homer's Enemy" actually stunned me at the time with how cynical they could get with their satire.

"El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer (The Mysterious Voyage of Homer)" was the first episode I actually remember hating.

I am ever grateful for Homer's "We're missing the chili" dance, and for "Less artsy, more fartsy." Plus, "Don't quit your day job, Chief. Whatever that is."

And Homer's phone call looking for his soul mate. "Is this 'GBM?'"

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5dp3uxcvk1qenmfzo1_500.png

And Johnny Cash provided maybe the best value-to-screen-time ratio of any guest voice ever:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMR53zHrdzg

I think that episode is mostly good. It's just a bit too sappy for me.

Second half yeah. First half is magnificent.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/4175d3a0d3534934beb42c64dd931141/tumblr_mpdg0hY9V81qz8ca1o2_250.gif

Some seriously amazing animation in that one.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/0c54faf6bc502d66fd1c97dda64ead16/tumblr_ml978dFZr51s9c682o1_500.gif

Scorpio for the win. I like to pretend it predicts Google.

He's definitely gonna seize the East Coast on this poll.

Consarmit, looking through the episode descriptions, I just realized that this is the first season in which I've avoided seeing entire episodes.

Also: never liked Grimey, never will.

Anyone who lumps "Brother From Another Series" in with the Milhousian duds is talking crazy talk -- if it weren't for YOMO, I'd vote for that one.

Also I have a weird affection for fishbulb, even though it's not actually very good.

Fishbulb IS eternal.

Also: never liked Grimey, never will.
Anyone who lumps "Brother From Another Series" in with the Milhousian duds is talking crazy talk -- if it weren't for YOMO, I'd vote for that one.

Safe to say we watch this show for very different things, then.

"Brother" does have two of my favorite Sideshow Bob punchlines.

Bob: You do know I used to have a...problem with trying to kill people.

Cecil: Goodness! I had no idea! For you see, I have been on Mars for the past decade, in a cave with my eyes shut, and my fingers in my ears.

Bob: Touche, Cecil.

% While they dig around, Sideshow Bob happens upon them. They scream.

Bob: [Angrily] You again! Well, that's it. [ominously] I'm going to do what I should have done a long time ago.

[at the Simpson home, there is a knock at the door. Marge opens it to reveal Bob].

Madam, your children are no more... [pause] ...than a pair of ill-bred troublemakers.

Homer: Lisa too?

Bob: _Especially_ Lisa. But, _especially_ Bart.

Also: That guy's a genius! He's gonna change the way we think about getting hit by pies.

You Only Move Twice is the obvious showstopper to go for here, but I'm tempted by El Viaje

Same here. Went for El Viaje for being the most extreme combo of weirdness and sentimentality. A touching headfuck is hard to do. Also for the "missing the chili cook off" dance - my favourite excited-Homer moment next to "tram-am-poline".

Don't forget the Princeton lol!

Eric, almost certainly true. I watch(ed) for the funnies -- you?

I watched for the genius.

And Kodos.

I guess that makes me a Kang man!

Enjoy the whip.

I don't see why we can't both enjoy it.

That's the best offer I've had in years.

We've gone this long without mentioning Rodney

Man gets no respect

He gets no regard, no regard at all. No esteem, either.

Rodney D's up there with Albert Brooks as an all-killer guest star. Every line is quotable.

'mountain of madness' is probably the single weirdest episode of the 'classic' years. everything about it just seems slightly off: the endless pauses between lines, marge watching that john muir film, even burns inexplicably caring about his employees' morale and being buddies with homer. it almost feels like all the characters are stoned or something.

not a lot of episodes i out-and-out love here: you can tell they were running low on ideas at this point. i get the sense that the show creators expected that the series didn't have much longer to go: there's a definite sense of winding things down and 'ending' certain character arcs (sideshow bob finally reforms, flanders finally snaps, skinner and krabappel finally hook up, milhouse's parents divorce). and of course 'homer's enemy' is basically a cynical kiss-off to the entire series.

probably will vote for the chili episode which really is great from start to finish. maybe the only 'homer and marge have a marriage crisis' episode that's actually good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGJImK897yg

there's a long, insane diatribe from a 'fan' on the snpp capsule for the poochie episode that has to be read to be believed. about halfway down: http://www.snpp.com/episodes/4F12.html

there's a definite sense of winding things down

Was this season on the cusp of a contract renewal? I know at one point the voice actors demanded $50k/episode and Fox balked (or pretended to).

This was the last season covered in the original authorized paperback episode guide.

i voted poochie even though scorpio is my favorite, and then maybe misterioso viaje.

i love this shit so much. this is my favorite season of any television show ever.

I have to vote YOMO not just bcz Scorpio, but bcz it has some bits that have become personal twitches/memes between me and my housemate. This is going to sound dumb as fuck, but most times if we give each other a hug or a pat on the back/arm, we'll so so once, twice, then thrice really hard, and the other person immediately snaps "WARREN!".

I'd forgot Mr Sparkaru is in this season,tho! But that does not a whole episode make. Still. The salaryman in the spa."oh! Hullo!" The presumably SHonen Knife gals in the ad. I AM DISRESPECTFUL TO DIRT.

Love Grimey, love the darkness of him basically killing himself in front of everyone. Didn't think of it as an episode having a dig at the fans in the way Poochie did tho - Phil, can you elaborate on that?

lol YOMO. YOMT, obv.

I also really LOVE "brother from another series", but I am a big Frasier fan, so that helps matters. The banter between them was pitch perfect. Especially loved the other cameo bit Hyde-Pierce did because he wanted to voice a generic background yeller, so get to shout "probably!" somewhere in the crowd.

I almost voted for "Bart After Dark" for "I'm pedaling backwards!", the plane ricocheting off Smithers' head, "This...is the National Air and Space Museum, isn't it?", "I have misplaced my pants," and the song...that wonderful, wonderful song.

"madam, your children are NO MORE (long pause) than a pack of ill-bred troublemakers."
"even lisa!"
"ESPECIALLY lisa. but ESPECIALLY bart."

xxp - I feel like Grimey is kind of an audience stand-in, reacting like a lot of alt.tv.simpsons denizens did to what they called "jerkass Homer" behavior and sort of lampshading what it would be like if a character on the show reacted to Homer's actions like the usenet audience did. It's a little more subtle than what they did with Poochie, but I think it's there nevertheless. (Although it's even less subtle than the upcoming "The Principal and the Pauper," an episode I love that most people hate.)

Anyway:

http://media.screened.com/uploads/0/4570/582300-tumblr_lahv1zml3y1qdoghio1_500.png

This has been a source of endless joy in my life:

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lut7tqfcko1qha84jo1_500.png

one trend i notice, looking over this list, is that at least half the episodes here end with some 'fake suspense' shit. oh no, homer might actually get killed in the boxing ring! oh no, homer might get killed by a reindeer! oh no, flanders is being attacked by baboons! oh no, marge might get shot by the mafia! oh no, the cops might (inexplicably) shoot homer! the scorpio episode really stands out for me here because it's an episode that could easily go that way but deliberately doesn't.

I like "The Principal and the Pauper"!

Is the "Canadian slow, eh?" line the show's Mondegreeniest? Because I always quote it completely wrong.

i can see what they were going for with the grimes episode but the thing is, homer doesn't even act particularly badly in that episode. he seems genuinely saddened that grimes doesn't like him and even tries to improve his behavior. i also feel like the point they were trying to make -- that homer would be an awful person to actually know or work with -- was made a lot better, and less heavy-handedly, in a lot of earlier episodes. bart owning a factory is funny though.

Surprised that the Simpsons go to Japan was in a later season than this

'principal and the pauper' is actually not a bad episode, it's about as well done as it could be given the insane concept, but its very existence kind of indicates that the show was running out of things for the characters to do, and the only thing left to do was to start taking them apart.

"lawd a mercy, how I wish I weren't so fat"

http://www.uproxx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/you-only-move-twice-1.gif

"Look, Big Daddy, it's Regular Daddy!" Spin-off Showcase not going to win any polls, but some solid gags throughout.

Yeah I love the first bit with Wiggum PI but the rest falls really, really flat for me. I get the pastiches, but because what it's mocking is already so lame (C grade 60s sitcoms and horrible "very brady xmas" type specials) it just really didnt work. Which is a shame cos they could have done so much with that concept, and I still wish they would.

Viaje Misterioso is wonderful for the gorgeous animation in the trip scene and for Cash's part of course. It only loses to Scorpio because after that part, Homers whole "whos my soulmate!?" bit got a bit schmaltzy.

Mind you, the hotpants cargo was funny.

We've gone this long without mentioning Rodney

Man gets no respect

― 乒乓, Tuesday, December 3, 2013 6:32 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

in my head this is like season 5 or something? can't really explain why

recall reading a bunch of snpp guides round the first time I had reg internet access, 98/99, and yeah the Poochie episode people seemed ludicrously shook at the time. tbh it prob hadn't occurred to me that the writers might be directly lampooning the actual ppl who were commenting

Mysterious Voyage/Hurricane/Milhouse Divided, any of those three maybe

This was the last season covered in the original authorized paperback episode guide.

― Maintenance Engineer of Foolhardiness (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, December 3, 2013 8:23 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

also yeah ^this is what informs my personal sense of an era ending far more than ppl grousing on places like here tbph

"litter is my most treacherous foe" is one of my all time lines

Never was an X-Files fan, and the plot amounts to almost nothing, but "The Springfield Files" has such a high density of good jokes, definitely one of my favorites.

― Vinnie, Tuesday, 3 December 2013 14:33 (Yesterday) Permalink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FcA1MXJyt8

Ooo, forgot to mention this amazing punchline from El Viaje:

Marge: It's like I'm from Venus and you're from Mars.
Homer: Fine, give me the one with all the monsters.

in my head this is like season 5 or something? can't really explain why

the thing about this season is i feel surprised that half the episodes weren't from season 5 (esp a milhouse divided, you only move twice, twisted world, homer's enemy) and the other half weren't from season 13 (old man and the lisa, mountain of madness, the one where lisa dates nelson)

the only one that really really feels right is hurricane neddy. maybe the x-files one cause i remember the commercials before it aired.

not trying to build a good/not-good dichotomy, it's just that my brain apparently doesn't think season 8 exists

This was the last season covered in the original authorized paperback episode guide.

― Maintenance Engineer of Foolhardiness (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, December 3, 2013 8:23 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

YES, i was gonna mention this, i remember the boot camp episode being the last one in the book and the picture for it was i think bart and lisa doing pushups in the rain? or smth like that

I have to say, sometimes I genuinely dont get this "oh thats more like s4 than S9" thinking. Im a massive fan and even for me that seems bizarrely trainspotty, and yet so many of you mention it.

I mean, I can clearly delinate between 4 things: Klasky-Csupo, Rough Draft celshaded, Rough Draft digital, nu-starting theme.

Beyond that, its n either here nor there for me, and I'm into the show well into S15 at least.

I have to say, sometimes I genuinely dont get this "oh thats more like s4 than S9" thinking.

I think people are largely talking about vague impressions based on memories of when this stuff first aired more than anything else. Like if they were that trainspotty they'd KNOW which season each ep came from.

yeah. honestly my head remembers different episodes in this season with wildly differing picture qualities. like the burlesque episode? if you asked me before these polls what season it was i'd have guessed 4 or 5. it's not a compliment, it's just how i remember it. i started watching the show as it aired i guess around 7 and 8, maybe 6 -- i remember several of them airing, but at the time a lot of these episodes really felt like they'd been in my head forever.

it also has to do with tone. i haven't seen it in a million years, but the burlesque episode feels so much quieter and less, idk, star-studded than all the 'event' eps. relatively low-key.

it's also like "what feels canon vs what feels un-canon", like in my head at the time there's a very distinct separating line between the simpsons i grew up with and what the show became. most early episodes became cemented in my head as "the real stuff" but this season is so shifty. it's REALLY weird to think of homer's enemy premiering the week after the old man and the lisa, cause the latter one felt like something i had watched near the end of my simpsons watching and homer's enemy always felt like it'd been around forever. hard to imagine myself watching it for the first time u know.

also i was like 8 years old. i'm guessing people who were watching these as they aired as grown people don't have this problem as much

They should have ended the whole series with "Homer's Enemy".

I think people are largely talking about vague impressions based on memories of when this stuff first aired more than anything else

That makes sense. Its something I donrt think about cos I saw all this as an adult, and on top of that ive had vhs/tivo/dvd recordings of loads of the series for so many many years now, nothing much is a suprise to me anymore heh :/

"I'm like a rug on Valium"- I always had the idea that this was a pre-existing Rodney Dangerfield line that they worked into the show, does anyone know if this is the case?

has grimes ever said where she got her name from? always kind of figured it was from the simpsons episode.

I love Rodney - he's my favorite, vastly underrated comic - but.... Scorpio

This guy's got more bread than a prison meatloaf

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lvaiggy9d21qh59n0o1_500.gif

YES. I love that the animators went that deliberately "cartoony" with the arm poses and blur there.

That Poochie rant linked upthread was intense.

Fan preciousness about TV show franchises makes me want to barf

they take it all so personally

Seems strange that he thinks the jokes about the fans will go over the heads of everyone but the fans. I was unaware of online discussion and dissection when this episode first aired, and the jokes in it seemed fairly universal to me, poking fun at anyone who takes anything too seriously.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

"This just in: Powersauce is amazing!!"

I watched the Mary Poppins episode for the first time in years yesterday and I was surprised by how dreadful it was, also the extent to which it was a foretaste of bad trends to come (there's even the first of the time filling montages set to a pop song that seem to be in every episode after a certain point, and an extended pastiche of a particular film or tv show in place of a plot). I think I quite liked it at the time just because of how different and odd it seemed?

Still love 'I'll teach you to comb it over so no-one notices, just like my hair!', though.

http://thumbnails.hulu.com/10/370/35502_384x288_generated__MnZNbgMB2069yskjBMYO6A.jpg

but apart from that and Bart throwing cupcakes at his wall I think that really all I'd save.

"This just in: Powersauce is amazing!!"

Wrong season, Milpool.

I think some of the changes status quo in this season like Milhouse's parents separating and Skinner and Krabappel becoming a couple work fine in those particular episodes, but pretty much every future joke involving these new set ups in future series was awful, so they kind of feel tainted by association? Similar to how the next series has the debut of Duffman and the mad cat lady, who were both funny in the one scene they originally appeared in, but always terrible when they were inexplicably brought back in every other episode.

Duffman's appearances rarely bother me, but there's no way that crazy cat lady should have ever been a recurring character (though, yeah, I laughed the first time).

The repeated use of the crazy cat lady is baffling, it's like if they kept bringing back the 'I'm tired of the jokes about my giant hand' dude, like there was something inherently funny in the character rather than it being the punchline to a specific joke.

B b but Duffman is thrusting in the direction of the problem!

Disco Stu was a brilliant specific-joke punchline (no idea what season) that actually worked when they brought him back. I think they were trying to recreate that awesomeness with Cat Lady.

Disco Stu debuted in the George Bush episode. I remember this because it (and the concluding Gerald Ford gag) were the only things I laughed at in that episode when it aired.

It bugs me that it took me an aeon to twig that the Disco Stu character was riffed from off that initial joke.

tbf he doesn't advertise

lolll

I think I quite liked it at the time just because of how different and odd it seemed?

― elegant eyes, aristocrat face, gorgeous hair (soref), Saturday, December 7, 2013 7:26 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I remember finding it hilarious at the time, but wow, it really doesn't hold up (but props to Itchy and Scratchy for decapitating Tarantino).

who were both funny in the one scene they originally appeared in, but always terrible when they were inexplicably brought back in every other episode.

― elegant eyes, aristocrat face, gorgeous hair (soref), Saturday, December 7, 2013 7:44 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

The award for this belongs to Gil

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

What the hell, Hank Scorpio owns Grimes

The award for this belongs to Gil

― 乒乓, Sunday, December 8, 2013 6:59 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

Okay I just did some googling and apparently the one in the pretzel episode was not Gil but "Frank Ormand"?

What was the gag with the sacks of flour with mealworms in them

Was that the pretzel episode

yeah, that was a Jack Lemmon guest spot, then Gil first appeared in the Marge as real estate agent episode, basically doing an amplified Jack Lemmon in Glengarry Glen Ross.

also, WEIRD RESULTS, but finally I'm not appalled by the 0s.

Good I thought I was going crazy cause the Frank Ormand on simpsons fan pages looks way too happy

Gil was great, the last worthwhile recurring character to be introduced on the show, I think.

He was good in "Lisa Gets An 'A'" (the only worthwhile season 10 episode).

Grimey won. Makes ya think.

I love Frank Ormond and his "open your.. ugh... flour.... check for... *shudder* ugh... MILLIPEDES..."

And wtf with his front yard full of weird kitch! And homer deciding it meant he was doing very well for himself.

Frank was great cause you had the contrast with the shining gleaming Fleet a pita

Can't remember a thing about Gil I don't think he's ever done a funny joke

Gil first appeared in the Marge as real estate agent episode

I think this was also the first episode with Cookie Kwan? (who was always terrible). I had the idea that the Texan was introduced about this time, but wikipedia says he'd been around since season 5- they started using him more frequently around this point I think, though.

STAY OFF THE WEST SIDE!!!!!!!

so many shitty characters :''(. disco stu's had some good moments (e.g. the dead goldfish in his shoes, actually that's in the pretzel episode too, isn't it?) but him becoming an actual character diminishes the original disco stu joke terribly.

Think I blocked Cookie Kwan from memory

Does she ever become anything more than a stereotypical dragon lady

At least Apu got fleshed out as a character

I dont think she ever says anything apart from "you stay off the west side!" p much.

the female executive from Itchy and Scratchy and Poochie is another good one-off inexplicably made into a regular. All downhill from here.

She was introduced in season 5, I think... Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy.

ah right, for some reason i was thinking of that as a later episode.

I was looking at a list of recurring characters on simpsons wiki, and I had no idea how many episodes Booberella had appeared in.

Behind the Laughter Edit
Booberella is a parody of Elvira, who is in turn a spoof of Vampira.

Booberella's name is likely a play on words of Vampirella and Barbarella, or boobs and Vampirella.

Great, now Skinner's mother is dead.

Boobarella, Cookie Kwan, Cat Lady, female executive, can't fault latter-period Simpsons on its representations of women.

I guess it's part of a trend of them going for more obvious or crass jokes as inspiration began to run dry? They started doing more reactionary christian right jokes about Flanders as, which seemed a departure from how he'd been portrayed before, and less interesting.

It's weird looking back at some of the jokes about Smithers being gay that they did in the mid to late 90s episodes, they seem dated considering how recent they are now that having the character in the show be openly gay would not be any sort of big deal (I think?). I was trying to remember at what point they stopped doing those jokes/ At some point they switched from jokes about Smithers being secretly in love with Mr Burns (which were/are funny!) to jokes about Smithers being secretly gay (which were generally less funny I think)

I don't see new episodes that regularly but I kind of get the impression that the Smithers being in love with Mr Burns thing is not really referenced at all these days?

Probably because they figure its flooging a dead horse to make a joke of it now everyone knows? I dunno.

Are there jokes about his gayness being secret, tho? I cant think of any but TBF I dont think ive seen a single ep beyond about S16, so.

Grimey won. Makes ya think.

I knew we shouldn't have polled this season.

the female executive from Itchy and Scratchy and Poochie is another good one-off inexplicably made into a regular. All downhill from here.

― Merdeyeux, Sunday, December 8, 2013 7:58 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

She was introduced in season 5, I think... Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy.

― jmm, Sunday, December 8, 2013 8:01 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

― Merdeyeux, Sunday, December 8, 2013 8:02 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Nope, ~ Lindsey Naegle ~ comes in at Itchy and Scratchy and Poochie. The businesswoman in Lisa Vs Malibu Stacey is just a generic character. Different look, different voice. The joke is it's a new character in an episode about introducing new characters, not to mention the decline of popular cartoons in an episode about....

Wait are we talking about Stacey the inventor of malibu stacey or was there a Nagel-like genericlady in that one too?

(I'm vaguely recalling a line like "I'd cry if I could, but I cant - botched facelift")

http://25.media.tumblr.com/ac9181566b86372f20ddfac0765a6967/tumblr_mfystuM8uF1rwl09fo1_500.gif

Ah yes. Also, lol could not be more of a you post if that tried. :P

don't pretend you don't like it

Are we doing season 9 or is that it?

Just revisited the season 9 rundown of eps and, yeesh, there's your perilous drop-off in quality.

we should keep going and when it gets to the stuff no one's seen do it like the Eagles thread, commit ourselves to watching every episode in a marvelous act of masochism.

Well, yeah.

imo season 9 isn't that big a drop-off in quality from 8, but somehow there's much more of a seed of how horrible the show is about to become which makes everything seem a lot worse.

Season 8 was the last seasson in which good episodes outnumber bad, so voting will be much easier

The wikipedia synopses of the more recent episodes are so bizarre I feel like it watching the actual episodes would spoil them:

"Love Is a Many Strangled Thing"
Homer is sent to parenting therapy after tickling Bart until he wets his pants during a football game, but when the therapist is shocked to hear that Homer regularly physically abuses Bart, he puts Homer through shock treatment by having Kareem Abdul-Jabbar strangle him to make Homer feel as weak and helpless as Bart.
Guest Stars: Paul Rudd, Kevin Michael Richardson, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

sorry, there were meant to be more words in the middle of that first sentence.

I've been looking at the season pages on wiki, and it's sort of astounding that this particular one, perhaps the end of the peak years, aired when I was in 8th grade.

9 is the first season in which I can remember thinking certain episodes were rubbish when they first aired. But there's still good stuff there.

This is the last season with which I bother. The drop-off after the already-middling season 9 is very steep indeed.

In a hypothetical world where the Simpsons ended before it became shit, they should have saved "Lisa's First Word" from whichever season that was and aired it as the last episode of this season (and the series as a whole). That'd have been the perfect way to wrap up the whole story.

although I probably haven't took enough part in these polls for my opinion to carry much weight, I think it would be cool if ppl talked about later seasons and the good eps/jokes/etc therein rather than just parroting received wisdom at each other and calling it a night

Why not start a new thread about it? I'd be interested as well.

ugh, lindsay naegle. just hearing that voice makes me flinch.

season 9 has some really excellent episodes.

I'm on the road for work all week but will set up a season 9 poll when I get back.

"We're talking the original dog from hell!"
"You mean, Cerberus?"

I love Lindsay Naegle. "I'm a financial planner, not a financial consultant" is something I saw more often than someone who's not a financial planner should.

We have to do at least to season 12, cmon. Pray for Mojo! The carnys! Homer and Flanders do Fear & Loathing and marry their vegas wives! The Japan episode! (shut up, I like it)."nibbles, chew through my ball sack!"!!!

"Spritzer...Spritzer...Spritzer..."

Okay, Mojo and Nibbles are pretty good episodes. I didn't realise they were so late.

"Spritzer...Spritzer...Spritzer..."

LOL as this is a drink I often imbibe at pubs, this line come out a lot (usually by ppl taking the piss at me).

The only thing I remember about the Japan episode is the cartoon that gives people seizures, but I'd be tempted to vote for it on that alone.

"In jail we had to be in thisdumb kabuki play about the 47 Ronin, and I wanted to be Oshi, but they made me Ori!"

Skinner's Sense Of Snow is one of my all time favorite episodes.

That one really irritated me cuzza all the penile humour. But Skinner writing "I AIN'T NOT A DORKUS" and complaining about its grammar still makes me smile.

I too will rep for the Japan episode.

"Is the answer Japan?"
"Actually it is"

The Japan one's fine, but it set the template for many lame holiday episodes to come, in that it's just a string of sketches with no actual plot.

Yeah agreed there. In 2002, I got to see Mike Reiss speak about his showrunning days and I asked him what his least favorite episode ever was. He said it was the one where they go to Africa.

That may be so, but I'm not going to hold later imitations of it against it, esp. since for me it brought the lolz hard.

man watching "Homer's Phobia" in 2021 is such a trip. it was also incredibly weird to watch as a 12 year old. I wanted to rewatch it after reading about how it won several awards and was viewed as being a "groundbreaking" episode but it's really...I dunno...kind of bad? the message of "see, homophobia is wrong, you never know when you might need a gay man to save your life" hits a little weird right now

Even gay storylines from like 3 or 4 years ago are cringe now so yay progress?

It hit a little weird back then, one clue is in the episode itself:

John: "Well Homer, I won your respect. And all I had to do was save your life."

20 mins of gay jokes with a “gays are people too” message at the end was a whole thing in 90s sitcoms, there was a time when that seemed to me like the best you could hope for. actually the later simpsons episodes are somehow much worse at handling gay jokes and themes than that one

stuff like that episode and the south park episode from around the same time (also to some extent the whole smithers thing) somehow felt radically validating to me in the context i saw them but stuff like that also helped me internalise a whole narrow stigmatising conception of gayness that I probably could have done without

i still love the steel mill bit

hot stuff comin' through

yeah steel mill part and "all I had to do was save your life" were the two best parts of the episode to me. I guess the other thing was despite still being from the "good" Simpsons era this episode in particular is just not very sharp. unless you find gay panic really funny.

I wonder if the writers considered that kids would be watching this, because one impression I got from this was that I could be "turned" gay if I hung around the "wrong" places. I was really confused by that. Also I think between this and the Big Gay Al South Park episode the whole "gays are people too!" message came with an implicit "...because they're so entertaining and friendly!" like I've always wondered if gay people feel pressure to be the most "fun" person in the room because that's what makes them "acceptable"?

Been a few years since I've seen this clip, but Matt Baume's takes on gay TV history are generally spot-on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFbOL-rBJZ8

I kinda want a cigarette

i saw homer's phobia several times as a kid and found it confusing bc john seemed awesome and wore cool shirts and i didn't understand where homer's issues were coming from

in retrospect....

What's the episode where Homer is wearing some kind of hi-tech binoculars and spies Smithers, and the screen pops up with "Homer-sexual?"?

He had Terminator-vision

https://i.redd.it/3inz0pbmfms51.png

S2, "Principal Charming" (Skinner dates Patty)

https://frinkiac.com/meme/S02E14/386413.jpg?b64lines=IA==

^^Homer's view of Smithers

ah thank you

can't remember how Smithers acted in the early seasons but I wonder if the original plan was to have Skinner be the gay one?

Possibly not? The Skinner thing came from Bart using the office phone to prank call Moe's and ask for 'Homer Sexual'. Homer then has to pick Bart up at school, and that's when he sizes-up Skinner with a phrase he'd just heard.

This was his reasoning:

https://frinkiac.com/meme/S02E14/580908.jpg?b64lines=IA==

Rewatching all the great seasons right now. I really hate how the episode titles are nowhere to be found in the actual episodes. It wouldn’t have killed them to just place them in the end credits? Like WTF is “The Secret War of Lisa Simpson”?

You know, I don't think I've watched a second of any Simpsons old or new in MANY YEARS now. I think I finally burned myself out on it!

i can still remember how hard i laughed when Moe raced to backroom of Moe's when he thought the FBI knew about his animal smuggling ring.

tfw u haven’t watched a second of any simpsons old or new in many years now

https://i.imgur.com/cxwSeSv.jpeg