I know why I stopped Watching The Simpsons

[Nardpuncher]

Slightly off-topic (but related to J. Allen's post), doesn't anyone else find it harder to watch things on TV (even shows you like) in this day and age with DVR and so much available online? For example, why watch commercials and force yourself to have to watch a show at an exact time and day when you have the option of watching any time you want without commercials and the ability to pause it? The biggest motivation for me to watch a TV show live would be it being a show that I know needs ratings help to survive. That's why the last show I tried to go out of my way to see live on TV was "Dollhouse".

Because my wife and I are 53 years old and that's the way we've always watched TV. *shrug*

The Onion had a funny thing about guys who had a lot of time on their hands but still downloaded TV shows that were being "streamed" to your TV right now at the rate of one second per second anyway.

I just bought Dexter season 1 on DVD and my buddy asked why i didn't just download it. I said I'd probably get a bad seed or whatever the hell it's called and also this way I can watch it on my TV with the stereo system hooked up to it, then he said there's a cable you can hook from the computer to the TV, then I mentioned that although my girlfriend speaks English very well, she would prefer to have subtitles if a show has too much slang or they speak too fast, so my buddy tells me you can easily download from sites in Asia that have Mandarin subtitles.
I'm actually just assuming he said the last part as by then I'd gone to get another beer.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

This is all sorts of awesome:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX1iplQQJTo&feature=player_embedded[/yt]

I saw that last night and it's odd, despite the panda and unicorn bit there's really no humor there, it's just a mean and nasty comment on a mean and nasty situation, one of which they're as complicit as the audience. Not what I expected from The Simpsons.

 

[Nardpuncher]

I could just as easily have referenced Seth Macfarlane, who seems to think that constantly reminding people that he's obsessively familiar with 1980s television minutiae somehow constitutes being funny.

Oh god, he is just awful in all of his incarnations. Even Patrick Stewart himself can't salvage Seth's crappiness, and Stewart single handedly carried TNG through its awful first season.

For anyone confused as to why anyone would think Family Guy is awful, please check out the corresponding episode of South Park. They do a better job than I could in mere words.

I'd seen bits and pieces of The Family Guy on the net and was unimpressed.
Then when i was in Scotland back in July I decided I'd watch a whole episode and it stunk. I didn't laugh once. Then later I checked that it was supposed to be one of their better episodes. It was the one where he goes with his friends to find out where all dirty jokes come from.

 

[Roger Wilco]

I saw that last night and it's odd, despite the panda and unicorn bit there's really no humor there, it's just a mean and nasty comment on a mean and nasty situation, one of which they're as complicit as the audience. Not what I expected from The Simpsons.

Well, it's made by Banksy. It's not supposed to be funny just for fun's sake.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I saw that last night and it's odd, despite the panda and unicorn bit there's really no humor there, it's just a mean and nasty comment on a mean and nasty situation, one of which they're as complicit as the audience. Not what I expected from The Simpsons.

Well, it's made by Banksy. It's not supposed to be funny just for fun's sake.

oooh, Banksy.... I get it, I was just surprised to see it on The Simpsons, it takes things to a farther level than they normally do.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Yeah, it's certainly unusual, but I think it's effective.

 

[scnj]

This is all sorts of awesome:

That's awful. I can't believe they actually aired that. This used to be a comedy show.

 

[Too Much Fun]

I'd seen bits and pieces of The Family Guy on the net and was unimpressed.
Then when i was in Scotland back in July I decided I'd watch a whole episode and it stunk. I didn't laugh once. Then later I checked that it was supposed to be one of their better episodes. It was the one where he goes with his friends to find out where all dirty jokes come from.

"Family Guy" is like "The Simpsons" in the way that it's been on a downward spiral comedy-wise for years, but had some great years before that. Even at its best, it never reached the peaks of the best Simpsons years, but its first three seasons are still a pleasure to watch.

I've been re-watching them again and they still make me laugh a lot. "Family Guy" only had three classic seasons before it started to stink, while "The Simpsons" had eight. Before you write it off completely, I'd recommend checking out those first three early seasons, or at least some of their best episodes like my personal favourites "Road to Rhode Island" and "Fifteen Minutes of Shame".

"Brian Wallows and Peter's Swallows" is also worth watching for its deservedly award-winning song and the way it serves as surprising proof that "Family Guy" actually has the potential to be funny and moving like "The Simpsons" was in its prime...a potential it never really tried to realize before or since that episode.

As far as that couch 'gag' goes, I don't know who the hell thought that would be funny, but I think it sucks. We used to be able to rely on "The Simpsons" to at least deliver cool couch gags even when their episodes were terrible and now they can't even do that. How sad.

 

[Forbin]

The one truly great Family Guy episode in recent years was The Road to Germany. Oh, and that alternate universes one.

An occasional gem in a sea of turds. But it's probably not worth wading.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I like all this stuff - The Simpsons, South Park, Family Guy, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Superjail, The Venture Bros. Sue me.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I like all this stuff - The Simpsons, South Park, Family Guy, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Superjail, The Venture Bros. Sue me.

 

[RandyS]

I don't see the offensiveness here. I do agree however that as their couch gags go, it was stupid, but only because it was at least five times longer than the usual ones.

 

[Nardpuncher]

I like all this stuff - The Simpsons, South Park, Family Guy, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Superjail, The Venture Bros. Sue me.

Even double-posting in not a sueable ( is that a word?) offense.

 

[Amaris]

I watched both episodes on Hulu today. I found Family Guy to be funny, I laughed several times and generally enjoyed the episode. The Simpsons surprised me, in that I actually laughed out loud several times as well. Much, much better than the season opener, and it almost felt like a classic episode.

 

[Too Much Fun]

it was stupid, but only because it was at least five times longer than the usual ones.

Long can be good. Remember the evolution of Homer? I loved that one.

 

[Listener4]

I stopped watching the Simpsons last season. The movie was disappointing.