― Pete, Friday, 5 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
Pete - I wanna 'sax' you up.
― Nick, Friday, 5 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― chris, Friday, 5 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― Nicole, Friday, 5 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― Martin Swope, Friday, 5 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― scott p., Friday, 5 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― Mike Hanle y, Friday, 5 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― Geoff, Friday, 5 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― Ally C, Friday, 5 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― Mr Noodles, Friday, 5 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― Madchen, Friday, 5 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― fritz, Friday, 5 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― Ronan, Friday, 5 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― nickie, Friday, 5 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― Prude, Friday, 5 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― Tracer Hand, Friday, 5 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― di, Friday, 5 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― Maria, Friday, 5 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― youn, Friday, 5 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― 1 1 2 3 5, Friday, 5 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
terri or sherri: you ruined our undefeated season. you ruined everything, ruiner...my sister likes you.
i absolutely cannot stand troy mcclure.
― ernest, Friday, 5 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― sundar subramanian, Friday, 5 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― maryann, Saturday, 6 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― your null fame, Tuesday, 9 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― Samantha, Tuesday, 9 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― Nick, Wednesday, 10 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― Damian, Wednesday, 10 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― Nude Spock, Wednesday, 10 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
Order of hatred (one being most hated):1. Bleeding Gums Murphy2. Maude Flanders3. Lisa Simpson4. Marge Simpson5. Marge's Twin Sisters6. Milhouse's dad, who got divorced.6. Oh yeah, and Apu's wife.
― rainy, Wednesday, 10 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― anthony, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― Michael Bourke, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― Mike Hanle y, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― Damian, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
lisa is also totally unfairly being shredded to pieces here, her less flattering attributes being focussed on. yes, she's moral and often quite vocal about it. but she also has a good laugh watching itchy and scratchy, is smart, went off her nut after drinking the water at duff gardens, is funny when she looks pissed orf.
nobody can argue that homer isn't classic. but recently, the show has become weaker and weaker as it relies more and more on homer's dumbarse hijinks. compared to homer these days, marge and lisa are fresh and intoxicating.
and yes, the worst character ever is bleeding gums murphy. also, ralph wiggum is a used cartridge, time to kill him off.
― minna, Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
Other duds: Grandpa Simpson and Groundskeeper Willy.
Underused character: Luigi.
― Andrew L, Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― powertonevolume, Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― marianna, Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― Wyndham Earl, Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― mark s, Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
i.e. classic
― chris, Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― ducklingmonster, Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― adam, Saturday, 6 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
I have an irrational hatred on Mr Van Houten. I think it's because he mocks my baldness.
― Mark C, Saturday, 6 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― petite verte, Saturday, 6 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
xp lmao wins
― flappy bird, Sunday, 3 December 2017 23:35 (seven years ago)
the scene in "Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo" where they're on the plane is hilarious, riding that incredibly offensive knife's edge:
"Come on, Homer. Japan will be fun. You liked Rashomon.""That's not how I remember it. Besides, if we wanted to see Japanese people we could've gone to the zoo.""Homer!""What? The guy who washes the elephants is Japanese. His name is Takashi. He's in my book club!"
and then the stewardess telling Bart to turn off his GameBoy because it fucks with the plane, he turns it off, "you're the boss," the plane nosedives
― flappy bird, Sunday, 3 December 2017 23:42 (seven years ago)
...how on earth is that last part a racial issue? Unless you mean her accent when she shrieks "turn it back on!"
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Monday, 4 December 2017 00:51 (seven years ago)
it's not i just thought it was funny
― flappy bird, Monday, 4 December 2017 00:56 (seven years ago)
o ok fair enough! Yeah I love that episode, I know a lot of ppl dont.
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Monday, 4 December 2017 02:47 (seven years ago)
also the super advanced toilet "i am honored to accept your waste"
― flappy bird, Monday, 4 December 2017 04:12 (seven years ago)
lmao and Homer just walking through the paper doors in the hotel. sorry im watching the episode on yotube
― flappy bird, Monday, 4 December 2017 04:13 (seven years ago)
"its loaded with wasabi!" was a phrase used in our house a lot at one point, Ive no idea why.
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Monday, 4 December 2017 05:50 (seven years ago)
Lisa is amazing for those reasons. She acts as a proxy for the square audience member who comments critically on the absurdity of what's going on. She is a manifestation of the smug audience member who questions continuity. Without her this show would just be Family Guy
I had this post in the back of my mind when I watched last night's episode (I don't often watch new ones, but I've been under the weather and couch-bound all weekend, and it was on). It was about an adult Lisa reflecting back on three of her birthdays--so right away, they're combining three formats that they've often fallen back on in the lean years: flashback episode, future episode and three-story compilation. One of the segments is about Lisa discovering, on her fourteenth birthday, that Marge is planning to leave Homer (blah blah blah scheme to get them back together), and another is about Lisa's eighteenth birthday coinciding with her first day at Harvard, where she meets her freshman-year roommate (hints of a possible lesbian affair to come are dropped). There's a scene where Bart, now a twenty-year-old dirtbag scoring with Harvard girls wanting to piss off their fathers, tells Lisa that if anyone deserves to be at Harvard, it's her. I dunno. The episode wasn't funny, well-written, well-structured or inventive (they've officially run out of clever riffs on the post-Trump, technophile future), but stuff like this really gets to me these days. Despite the ever-fluid temporal setting, I really have come to see Homer/Marge, and Bart/Lisa, as generational avatars, with the former as boomers (read: my parents) and the latter as whatever the post-Gen X, pre-millennial designation is (read: me), and when the series makes even the sloppiest attempt (as this probably was) to suggest anything about the long-term durability of the relationships within this family, well, I guess that's something of a soft spot for me.
So yeah, weak episode, but I was damn near in tears by the end of it.
― iCloudius (cryptosicko), Monday, 4 December 2017 13:44 (seven years ago)
On the Apu character isn't racist side as well. I suppose these days you'd say it was great they put a fully-rounded immigrant character on TV.
spanish speaking bumblebee man is really just a dumb running joke about the Spanish language in the US.
I always felt there was an affectionate pastiche of Chespirito, whom this was based on:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/29/chespirito-comedian-dies-simpsons-mexico-bumblebee-man
(I watched "El Chavo" mostly, his work was pretty surreal but I'm willing to bet -- without spending a few hours watching this again -- that it captures a certain sorta vibe his work had)
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 4 December 2017 17:00 (seven years ago)
you are insane
― Οὖτις, Monday, 4 December 2017 17:04 (seven years ago)
It seems pretty shitty to dismiss the concerns of the stereotyped/offended group in these kinds of scenarios. I have distinct memories of my Indian/South Asian friends - who were also Simpsons fans - stating in no uncertain terms that Apu was a racist caricature in the mid-90s, and it's pretty clear that the character is built around an offensive stereotype, no matter how nuanced or developed the character came to be. He still has *that* voice and *that* job and *that* appearance. There are still jokes/storylines/gags centered around Apu that I think are great, but yeah at heart we're talking about a racist caricature voiced by a white person specifically for that purpose.
― Οὖτις, Monday, 4 December 2017 17:09 (seven years ago)
I wish someone would make a documentary or something so we don't have to have this stupid argument
― mag gerwig! (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, 4 December 2017 17:11 (seven years ago)
the trailer for which prompted this thread revive
― Οὖτις, Monday, 4 December 2017 17:14 (seven years ago)
The trailer pretty much lays it all out! I don't understand how anyone can watch the whole trailer and still have more to say about this!
― mag gerwig! (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, 4 December 2017 17:16 (seven years ago)
I'm not dismissing your friend's concerns, but its not as if its just someone with a funny accent, no back-story, or that Apu is the butt of everyone's jokes. There is very little cruelty that I could see, and if some arseholes took that as license to make fun in the playground or what have you that's sad but that's how people behave in general, with no sensitivity at a certain age.
Like many I only watched The Simpsons to season 10 or so but in that time and through several eps they put Apu centre stage and specifically developed the character. Like Krusty and Skinner and others too.
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 4 December 2017 17:16 (seven years ago)
saying it "isn't racist" when a bunch of other Indians/South Asians explicitly call it out as racist (like they do in the trailer, which incidentally does not include any of my friends) is literally dismissing their concerns.
― Οὖτις, Monday, 4 December 2017 17:18 (seven years ago)
Twenty years since they introduced Manjula :o Wonder how many episodes she's appeared in since.
― nashwan, Monday, 4 December 2017 17:19 (seven years ago)
Its the first time I am having this argument. Let me have it in peace thanks.
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 4 December 2017 17:19 (seven years ago)
amusingly enough there's a recent Simpsons episode centering around Apu's nephew who in the end calls out Apu for being a tired and offensive stereotype, I was pretty surprised that they'd go there
― frogbs, Monday, 4 December 2017 17:20 (seven years ago)
dismissal vs disagreement
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 4 December 2017 17:22 (seven years ago)
Ooh they begged him to join the Stereotypes bowling team, begged him.
― nashwan, Monday, 4 December 2017 17:22 (seven years ago)
haha yeah that's from what, season 7 or something?
― Οὖτις, Monday, 4 December 2017 17:23 (seven years ago)
have you ever uh been online before?
― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Monday, 4 December 2017 17:40 (seven years ago)
I hear that if a shark stops swimming it dies
― Evan, Monday, 4 December 2017 17:42 (seven years ago)
i hear that all the sharks swimming in flooded houston freeways died when they stopped swimming
― j., Monday, 4 December 2017 17:43 (seven years ago)
I tot see (now) why Apu is objectionable. I am unsurprised that The Simpsons' creator and staff, having grown up in the '70s, didn't see it that way. "Funny accents" were everywhere in comedy, being done by white comedians.
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Monday, 4 December 2017 17:55 (seven years ago)
Considering that the show got its start on The Tracy Ullman Show, I'm a little surprised there weren't more "funny accent" characters from the get-go.
― Embalming is a flirty business (DJP), Monday, 4 December 2017 17:57 (seven years ago)
there are things in the simpsons that stick out as dated now (teachers smoking in school, homer strangling bart, the gay panic in the john waters episode) but apu is ott, and stories like Vinnie's are sobering, there's no getting around it. i'm not sure there's anything else in the show that is as offensive and dated
― flappy bird, Monday, 4 December 2017 18:01 (seven years ago)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlRV6yxZUSQ
― mag gerwig! (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, 4 December 2017 18:04 (seven years ago)
Well, the other Asian characters might qualify (eg akira(?) the Japanese waiter), certainly in terms of performance
― sonnet by a wite kid, "On Æolian Grief" (wins), Monday, 4 December 2017 18:05 (seven years ago)
not denying the show used plenty of stereotypes. this was the 90s, this was pre-internet. Apu was very bad, they should not have done that. it really sucks that this show contributed to the bullying of specific people by someone in a more powerful position. from what it sounds like, the voice actor purposefully used a stereotype because he thought it was funny. somewhere else i have read it wasn't that, and that the writers wrote him that way. i am not sure what the story is tbh. does the documentary clear this up? i know Azaria refused to be in it...
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, 6 December 2017 17:23 (seven years ago)
I am unsurprised that The Simpsons' creator and staff, having grown up in the '70s, didn't see it that way
didn't Harvard/National Lampoon played w a lot of ironic hate comedy?
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, 6 December 2017 17:25 (seven years ago)
https://imgur.com/gallery/H1X8R
― mag gerwig! (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 6 December 2017 17:37 (seven years ago)
https://longreads.com/2017/12/29/the-other-people-in-springfield
― Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Friday, 29 December 2017 16:37 (seven years ago)
That's a really shitty way to respond.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/09/arts/television/the-simpsons-responds-to-criticism-about-apu.html
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 9 April 2018 20:21 (seven years ago)
it's pretty obvious stuff but I loved Paper's takedown of this
http://www.papermag.com/the-simpsons-apu-2558301508.html
RIP The Simpsons
― boxedjoy, Monday, 9 April 2018 20:26 (seven years ago)
cancel the simpsons
― global tetrahedron, Monday, 9 April 2018 20:27 (seven years ago)
some discussion here LONG DUK DONG
― Louis Jägermeister (jim in vancouver), Monday, 9 April 2018 20:31 (seven years ago)
https://www.wpr.org/simpsons-problem-apu-drop-dead
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Monday, 9 April 2018 21:29 (seven years ago)
The youtube regurgitation engine recently brought this to my attention and it made me a bit sadhttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p8M2tg2RkIQ
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Monday, 9 April 2018 22:09 (seven years ago)
I want the Lisa who rightfully recoiled from the sexist nonsense spouted by Talking Malibu Stacy to come forward in time and talk some sense into this Lisa.
― Millennial Whoop, wanna fight about it? (Phil D.), Monday, 9 April 2018 23:00 (seven years ago)
fuck the Simpsons. worst possible response
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:03 (seven years ago)
They had an episode a few years ago where Utkarsh Ambudkar played Apu's hip nephew Pujya who criticized Apu for being a cliche. Then the nephew never returned and Apu remained the same.
― adam the (abanana), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:49 (seven years ago)
I mean, Azaria himself said he was instructed to make Apu's accent "as offensive as possible" when he got the part. I'd almost respect The Simpsons more if they just said some version of "fuck yeah, we're out to offend people".
― No purposes. Sounds. (Sund4r), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:57 (seven years ago)
still not sure where this matt groening went given that he apparently had helped in the writing of this latest
doing deep Simpsons research and noticing a LOT of notes from MG about removing racist/ableist/homophobic jokes pic.twitter.com/JJBl2cCjPy— Wow, Bob Mackey! (@bobservo) July 27, 2016
― global tetrahedron, Tuesday, 10 April 2018 14:06 (seven years ago)
good job getting anyone to gaf about a new simpsons episode tho
― Google lobster hierarchies (Bananaman Begins), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 14:43 (seven years ago)
update pic.twitter.com/wB0CMLvogl— MGK Hockey 1234 (@mightygodking) April 10, 2018
― Millennial Whoop, wanna fight about it? (Phil D.), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 15:23 (seven years ago)
Lisa is the milkshake duck Simpsons character
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 21:31 (seven years ago)
i don't like her saying it was "inoffensive". she does not get to decide what is offensive or not. it is a misuse of power. the show is now a bully.
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 21:32 (seven years ago)