SIMPSONS season 5 poll

for reference: SIMPSONS season 7 poll

on a recent re-watch i found myself completely shocked at how amazing season 2 was...

but for this season it's "$pringfield" definitely. Homer's wildly indignant "STRIKE THREE MARGE!" always kills me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FZYLJNNJlo

lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57mcaICRyTQ&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD-LB9z6nxg

season 2 is an interesting season you can tell the writers were really getting a sense of the show's own sensibility, theres lots of tonal inconsistency even within episodes

this season is just bonkers good tho... favorite weird small moment is homer singing this odd 50s lounge-y song about 'you have to play it cool' to grandpa, the way the animation gets so cold & angular

cape feare

i think that inconsistency was what i liked. like, there's these totally sweet moments within the family (bart and lisa especially) offset with homer completely raging about something or other wackiness.

this season is insane

'rosebud' is just about perfect, but 'homer goes to college,' 'sweet seymour skinner' and 'deep space homer' are all contenders. hell, they all are. even episodes i always forget about, like that boy scouts one, are packed with amazing stuff.

my least favorite is 'secrets of a successful marriage.' homer and marge 'marriage crisis' episodes are so depressing.

i rank the good seasons 4 > 5 > 7 > 3 > 2 > 6 > 1 > 8, i think.

Fuuuuck...impossible to choose. Have the Rolling Stones killed.

Just yesterday at work, after dealing with a client in the packaging design business, my co-workers and I went off on a long riff on all the box factory business from "Bart Gets Famous." I cannot tell you how often, IRL, I break out the box dude's indignant "I heard that!" (In response to Krusty's "One day you're on top of the world, the next you're some schmuck working in a box factory.") It may not be the next episode, but it's given me so much joy I can't not vote for it. Plus, it's the episode that gave us "Yoink!"

Also, that season's THOH is one of the greatest, especially the Dracula segment. "Well, if it isn't little … uh, boy!" and "Oh, Lisa, you and your stories. 'Bart is a vampire,' 'Beer kills brain cells. Now let's go back to that...building...thingy, where our beds and TV...is" are all-time quotable territory for me.

this season did seem to give us a huge percentage of quotables.

"you gotta improvise, lisa! cloves, tom collins mix, frozen pie crust..."

HAIL
ANTS

vs

DIE
BART,
DIE

voted Deep Space Homer.

"In a way,you're both winners. But in another, more accurate, way, Barney is the winner."

"where's homer simpson?"
"oh, i'm afraid he couldn't...BEE here today."

my least favorite is 'secrets of a successful marriage.' homer and marge 'marriage crisis' episodes are so depressing.

yeah honestly this is really the only marginal episode imo. theyd already done a bunch of episodes centered around marge & homer's marriage already and this one was just overkill, it doesnt say anything new about their relationship or reveal anything interesting abt the characters & the ending is p forced and unearned. it still has plenty of killer jokes but its p thin

the only other episode i cant really see as a best/favorite is 'homer & apu' which is just so slapdash. & yet that still has a bunch of killer jokes and a really good song. actually a lot of these have song good songs

is homer and apu where apu gets fired?

I instinctively wanted to vote for "Homer goes to college" purely for "I AM SO SMART, I AM SO SMART, S.M.R.T....I mean S.M.A.R.T"

Which apparently was Castellanata actually flubbing the line but they kept it in.

"Mrs Simpson, Gary spilt his ear medicine".

But yeah this season is impossible to choose from.

Skinner: "His brand of gum, Doublemint. Trying to double your fun, eh, Bart? Well, I'll double your detention... Heh. I wish someone was around to hear that."

Every episode here is perfect. It's frankly uncanny; I mean, really, there just aren't words for it.

Think I might go with the treehouse of horror, since I tend to favour those by default. Otherwise I think I'd say Cape Feare.

Wait, I mistook ToH 4 for ToH 5 (which is probably my favourite episode ever); so Cape Feare it is!

"No one must know I dropped them in the toilet; not I, the man who drafted the Paris Peace Accord."

(the reprisal of having Kissenger on Futurama was equally delightful: "We have already seen too many body bags und ballsacks"

Season 4 would genuinely be impossible, but season 5 has a lot to choose from based on different criteria. "Homer's Barbershop Quartet" is for the sentimentalist "heart" fans (as are "Last Temptation" and "Sweet Seymour Skinner"), but "Cape Feare" ("Sincerely, Little Girl," and the one and only awesome time-filling repetition gag) and "Rosebud" (Cybersmithers) and the THOH and "$pringfield," &c. Times like this I wish my Jay Batman puppet hadn't been banned.

However, it's around this time that we see the shift into Jerkass Homer...

i never understood the 'jerkass homer' thing. homer's pretty consistently awful and selfish throughout the run of the series, and generally all the funnier for it.

that said, a couple of these episodes actually deepen his character in interesting ways -- the one where he considers having an affair with his co-worker is maybe the only time we see homer work out a moral dilemma entirely on his own, without some other character giving him a pleading expression, and 'rosebud' sees him willing to give up a fortune to make his daughter happy.

i think 'homer loves flanders' actually pulled off what 'homer's enemy' was trying to do -- demonstrating that what makes homer a hilarious character from a distance would make him an awful person to actually be around. it works better in the flanders episode because homer is clearly convinced that he's being a great friend and neighbor; he's not deliberately trying to annoy flanders the way he (sometimes) seemed to be with grimey.

freemasons rule the country.

Every episode here is perfect. It's frankly uncanny; I mean, really, there just aren't words for it.

Seriously. Could this be one of the greatest seasons in the history of television? Still haven't voted, but I'm starting to lean towards "Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song" for the Van Peebles reference and for "I know you can read MY thoughts, boy. Meow-meow-meow-meow, Meow-meow-meow-meow, Meow-meow-meow-meow, Meow-meow-meow." And for "Hurry up. My liver's failing," which I use in everyday conversation.

homer's pretty consistently awful and selfish throughout the run of the series, and generally all the funnier for it.

He wasn't so much selfish as well-meaning but bumbling, crass, and short-sighted. The whole jerkass argument is about how the oafishness no longer surrounded a core of magnanimity. In any event, "Rosebud" and "Last Temptation" reflect the older Simpsons-as-animated-sitcom moral center, and only one or two episodes (or a handful of moments in certain episodes) show him being abrasive and mean for the sake of being abrasive and mean.

Some homers, like elephants, are just jerks.

"Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song" is the greatest Simpsons episode title ever!

little rudiger

"Homer's Barbershop Quartet"...just one of those perfect episodes

yeah thats a good pick, i like that ep a lot

honestly i still cant narrow it down to even a top five there are too many good jokes in all of them ://

I'm very fond of Deep Space Homer as it was the first episode I ever saw (lol UK) and I was frankly stunned by how funny it was.

this is tough....im going for the "homer loves flanders" episode....i love the T2 parody where homer runs after flanders` car with the 2 golf clubs

The problem with Simpsons polls, for me, is that I would literally have to watch the whole season to know which episode is best.

Otherwise my vote would weigh more heavily towards nostalgic plots instead of the amount of good gags. And really gags are more important. It's just impossible to remember all of them without having seen this season recently.

I do not approve of these Simpsons polls because too many votes are gonna be based on plot/nostalgia instead of gags.

I take polling seriously and maybe it's because I've taken college classes entirely dedicated to statistical things like surveys.

The Sideshow Bob episode, Cape Feare, gets the highest average rating (of season 5) on SimpsonsCrazy.com

No one who speaks German could be evil.

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

lol lorax sticking his neck out and saying what i wouldn't have the nerve to

Rosebud it is!

i actually just rewatched this whole season and was astounded by how good it is

bart gets an elephant, though, had me absolutely rolling. the homer in a tar pit scene is one of my favorites from the whole run of the simpsons.

Yeah, "have the Rolling Stones killed" + "I think I'm blind" + "Happy birthday, Mr. Smithers" = I'm voting Rosebud.

man, do all you guys own this box?

I own S1 thru 13 on dvd box actually.

i havent even watched an episode in years but s1 through s10 or so are laser-etched in my brain for all time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8w2GcCUjBM

That has one of the all-time best background/sight gags: the Kwik-E-Mart K landing behind Skinner and Bart.

That right there is one of my alltime, most loved gags in the show ever. So perfectly timed and understated.

Rewatching Homer's Barbershop Quartet. Not as funny as last time I watched it... lotta the jokes don't have much depth beyond "Beatles reference." But I love this one:

Skinner: Gentlemen, Us Magazine just came out with its "What's Hot and What's Not" issue.
Homer: Are we hot?
Skinner: We are not.

and hell if "Baby On Board" isn't a great song.

it's the banjo that really makes it

Baby on board
something something
Burt Ward

Because of this thread, I've just spent the past hour compulsively zooming through the wiki summaries of Simpson episodes.

Damn you, people!

snpp.com is a much more insanely comprehensive resource. Tho sadly it kind of stops after season 14. I think thats about when Usenet fell over into a hole.

barbershop episode features the amazing plate of infinite brownies (would love a list of similar corner-cutting moments including roger myers jr, bart and lisa and walking past the same cleaner 3 times)

That second one was intentional though.

But yeah I love noticing animation goofs and crappiness. In "$pringfield" when theyre having the town meeting theres this one old man on the left, who keeps turning his head round (to look back at marge when she speaks) and turns his entire head round while his body faces forward. Ive seen that episode a jillion times and only noticed that last night.

Nerd 2: Come! You must be tired from the chase. Oliver! [claps]
Bring our friend a hard-boiled egg and some prune juice.
Martin: Finally, Bart's one of us!
Everyone: Excelsior!

Thank you, Mr. Medical Science-Type Person!

(Bart as Jerry was jaw-droppingly brilliant on first viewing...hell, it still is)

Was there a season 4 poll yet?

I guess Yo La Tengo must be fans of the The Simpsons, because they have a song called Let's Save Tony Orlando's House, and in the episode Marge on the Lam there's a reference to a telethon with the same name. Weird coincidence, since I was just listening to that album earlier and am watching that episode now.

how many ilxors are there whose names are stolen from simpsons jokes?

Ahem.

YLT also did a version of the theme tune one episode. Um... I forget which one now, but it was all psychedelic.

Possibly the Homer hangs out with the hippies ep?

'Leee' is stolen from a simpsons joke?

Leee Carvalhoo.

wait that's not how you spell his name. I guess that scuppers my Leee CarvalHOOS add-on.

leee was making a joke about being matt groening's cousin

Robert Goulet: Are you sure this is the Casino? Mr. Burns' Casino? I think I should call my manager...
Nelson: Your manager says for you to shut up!
Robert Goulet: Vera said that?

YLT also did a version of the theme tune one episode. Um... I forget which one now, but it was all psychedelic.

It was the one where Homer worked on a farm with George Carlin and Martin Mull. Totally forgettable episode. But YLT were (are?) huge Simpsons fans. Their newsletters in the early 90s were lousy with Simpsons references, and they gushed about Australia (on their first tour there) being "the most Simpsons-aware place on earth."

Other musicians who dig the Simpsons: in his commentary for "A Tale Of Two Springfields," Roger Daltrey talks about being completely starstruck on meeting Dan Castellaneta. "It's the guy who does Homer, standing right here!"

It was the one where Homer worked on a farm with George Carlin and Martin Mull. Totally forgettable episode.\

No way. The whole opening bit with Mr. Burns trying to make the recruitment film is like all-time for me.

OTM. So many good bits in that episode: "In a way the 60s ended the day we sold that van: December 31st, 1969." Also, the hippies' reaction to Grandpa Simpson at Woodstock: "Get a load of Captain Bringdown."

leee was making a joke about being matt groening's cousin

what's the extra e for?

Yeah I love the hippies episode! Sure it's not pinnacle canon material but it's good fun. Especially the bit where everyone's drank the peyote fruit juice and grandpa and Jasper are sitting on a park bench, giggling for ages, and then Abe says "We are soooo old". Cracks me up.

In retrospect (and with the 10 years of crappy episodes that followed), I guess it doesn't seem so bad, but the show had been on an insane roll just a year or two earlier. This was one of the episodes that felt like they'd dropped off a cliff.

Somebody please explain to me the "Freemasons run the country!" joke.

he is paranoid about lots of stuff and paranoid people think that freemasons run the country

/ he's being howard hughes

From the Wikipedia synopsis for Cape Feare: "...Sideshow Bob comes out from under the car. In doing so, he steps on the teeth of a number of rakes repeatedly, causing the rakes' handles to swing up and hit him in the face. At this point, Bob develops a hatred toward rakes."

Love the inclusion of the last line, as though it's a vital character development moment.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Didn't vote for "Marge On The Lam," but Bart's lunch -- "pack of sugar and peanut butter smeared on a playing card" -- is one of my favorite lines of the whole series.

"Oh Margie, you came and you gave me a turkey
On my vacation away, from worky"

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

first among equals?

Man, these results seem crazily unbalanced to me for what is a top-to-bottom great season.

LUV
HĀT

ooh ice cream ville

Suprised "secrets" got so many votes when it was reasonably heavily panned in this thread.

Oh wait lol 2 is not "so many". Its early. NM.

on the commentary track for "Cape Feare" they mention that a lot of the funniest parts were added to the animatic after the script was officially finished. the rakes and the hms pinafore particularly.

"Burns' Heir," while not the best of the season, is loaded with great gags. This has entered my Jell-O vernacular:

Burns: Oh, this day, you can have anything you want to eat. Even...some sort of gelatin dish. It's made from hooves, you know.

Somehow I had completely forgotten this gag from $pringfield and it's been making me laugh whenever I think about it for the last couple days.

Homer's photographic memory

And then I said to the President, "Get this!" https://t.co/u0wo9OVVmA pic.twitter.com/QiewUL7Qes

— Brioche 🛬💥🏝️🥥 (@BriocheWindows) August 14, 2021

“SHH! i’m trying to teach the baby to gamble!”

the way homer says this line is just amazing

$pringfield is my favorite simpsons episode probably

How have I completely forgotten this exchange in the cat burglar episode:

“Any sign of the burglar yet?”
“He’ll show.”
“How’s that?”
“It’s his job.”
“How’s that?”
“He’s a burglar.”

DUN, DUH-DUN DUN!!!

“It smells funny in there.”
“No it doesn’t.”