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.

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==