"The Mysterious Voyage of Homer" is one of my favorites.
Chief Wiggum: "That Simpson, he thinks he's the pope of chilitown!"
and Homer's distress when he finds out he's missing the chili cook-off is priceless.
"I'm missing the cook off! I'm missing the coooook offfffff!"
Chief Wiggum: "That Simpson, he thinks he's the pope of chilitown!"
and Homer's distress when he finds out he's missing the chili cook-off is priceless.
"I'm missing the cook off! I'm missing the coooook offfffff!"
And, from "Bart Gets An Elephant":Al Gore doll: "You are hearing me talk."
I didn't even know who Al Gore was at the time but that still cracked me up.
Marge: Oh my, it looks like it could gore!
Homer: Heh heh, it DOES look like Al Gore...
It was never the same after Phil Hartman died. Seemed like the show lost its soul.
Stupid cocaine-addicted wife. Not only did she kill someone. She also had to ruin TWO TV shows for millions.
Reading all of these old school Simpsons quotes makes me feel all warm & fuzzy inside. Being able to quote Grandpa's story that doesn't go anywhere is one of my most prized useless skills.
Even in its prime, I rarely followed the show during its initial run. Somehow, episodes, even ones I hadn't seen before, always seemed better in reruns. So it's hard for me to pin down a single moment where the show went completely off its rocker. I'd guess somewhere around Season 12. The last really great episode I can recall was the one with Mel Gibson.
The single scene I can recall that made me realize the show had become an empty husk of its former self was in some episode where Homer took over Moe's Tavern. Homer tries to be like Fonzie and make the jukebox work by hitting it. Instead, he breaks the glass and his hand bleeds profusely all over the place. Apparantly, this was the best the episode could come up with, since this was the scene that FOX played over & over in its ads.
Ultimately, the show lost its soul when it became simply about watching Homer injure/humiliate himself, rather than about his good-hearted (if ill-advised) attempts to make things right.
I sort of agree. However, it's difficult to compare the two shows. What made The Simpsons work so well was how much heart it had. Even after all of the bizarre stuff that happened, Homer always figured out a way to make it right by the end.
Family Guy has almost never had that. During the few episodes that it did, it felt very disingenuous. On the contrary, what makes Family Guy so brilliant is its unwavering commitment to making its jokes as extreme & surreal as possible, regardless of how unlikable it may make the characters.
But while that formula works very well for Family Guy, it doesn't work for The Simpsons for a few reasons:
1.) I don't think the writers of The Simpsons have the cojones to take their characters as far as they would need to to make that really effective.
2.) Even if they did, it still probably wouldn't work because it would clash so badly with everything that has come before.
3.) The Simpsons writers are too well educated to become quite that random. Maybe that's changed over the years but in the beginning, The Simpsons had the best educated writing staff of any comedy series on TV. If you closely watch the early episodes, it's amazing how many really intellectual jokes were just slipped in there, like when Marge left Maggie at the Ayn Rand daycare center...
"Do you know what a baby is saying when he asks for his bottle?"
"'Ba ba?'"
"He's saying, 'I am a leech.' Here we try to nurture the bottle within."
I will say that I do agree with Matt Groening's criticism of the episode "A Star Is Burns" (from season 6) which led to him removing his name from the opening and closing credits of that episode - as well as being merely a tie-in with The Critic, it just simply wasn't a particularly funny or good episode in itself. (Thank goodness for the episode that followed it, though...)
See, I thought that episode was fantastically funny and one of S6's many highlights.
"On closer inspection, these appear to be loafers."
"Just connect it to my veins!"
However, I am something of a Critic diehard as well, and I hunted down that series basically on the basis of my love of this episode. I enjoyed that series an unreasonably great deal.
Agreed. I love The Critic. At the time, I loved it even more than The Simpsons. Pairing them up on Sunday nights was the best thing FOX ever did. And I'm a huge fan of crossovers, so I don't see what the problem is.
If anything bothered me about that crossover, it was the scene where Homer's stomach out-growl's Jay's. Now, Homer may have a voracious appetite. But as any fan of The Critic knows, Jay's stomach has achieved independent self-awareness. It speaks to Jay the way that Simpsons characters talk to their brains.
But then, Homer's liver seems to be at least mildly sentient.
Homer: "...I'll have to stop drinking."
Homer's liver: "Yay!"
Homer: "Shut up, liver!" (Punches himself.) "Ow. My liver hurts."
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And thus we have the beauty of the Simpsons. I read this line and instantly saw that scene in my head and just started busting out laughing.
J.
This reminds me of a snippet that's been floating around in my head, but I don't remember which ep it's from...
And thus we have the beauty of the Simpsons. I read this line and instantly saw that scene in my head and just started busting out laughing.
J.
Homer: "I'll never drink again."
Beer salesman: "Beer here!"
Homer: "I'll take ten."
At least, I THINK it was Homer. Maybe at a ballgame?
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This reminds me of a snippet that's been floating around in my head, but I don't remember which ep it's from...
And thus we have the beauty of the Simpsons. I read this line and instantly saw that scene in my head and just started busting out laughing.
J.
Homer: "I'll never drink again."
Beer salesman: "Beer here!"
Homer: "I'll take ten."
At least, I THINK it was Homer. Maybe at a ballgame?
It was from Season Six's "A Star Is Burns", where Springfield held a film festival. Homer, who is one of the panel judges for the film festival, says this after watching Barney's production of "Pukahontas" where Barney depicts the sad details regarding the life of a man enslaved by alcohol. Right after the movie, he starts tearing up and looking sad and that's where your quote comes in. That's also the episode that has the crossover with The Critic. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, I'm going off of memory (and if I'm right, then Jesus Christ what have I done with my life?
).J.
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I just watched the latest episode last night on Hulu, "Rednecks and Broomsticks", and I have to say I laughed very hard. This has to be one of the better episodes I've seen. One of my favorite quotes of the episode had to be Homer's quote when the "Bonk It!" game got stuck under the brake pedal, "Oh, why do all of my actions have consequences!?". It took me back to some of the much earlier seasons (around 5 and 6), and it was nice to really belly laugh at a Simpsons episode again.
J.
J.
Thespeckledkiwi
Vice Admiral
Best quote ever:
Billy Corgan: Billy Corgan, Smashing Pumpkins
Homer Simpson: Homer Simpson, smiling politely
Billy Corgan: Billy Corgan, Smashing Pumpkins
Homer Simpson: Homer Simpson, smiling politely
You're dead right. As I affirmed, a very funny episode -where else does Lost Weekend compete with Ben Hur only to become deadlocked by America's Funniest Home Videos? Genius comedy!It was from Season Six's "A Star Is Burns", where Springfield held a film festival. Homer, who is one of the panel judges for the film festival, says this after watching Barney's production of "Pukahontas" where Barney depicts the sad details regarding the life of a man enslaved by alcohol. Right after the movie, he starts tearing up and looking sad and that's where your quote comes in. That's also the episode that has the crossover with The Critic. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, I'm going off of memory (and if I'm right, then Jesus Christ what have I done with my life?
From that same episode.Best quote ever:
Billy Corgan: Billy Corgan, Smashing Pumpkins
Homer Simpson: Homer Simpson, smiling politely
Grandpa Simpson: " I used to be with it and then they changed what it was and I wasn't it."
I'll take a mediocre Simpsons episode over just about anything else that's passing itself off for comedy on TV these days.
Dr. Who...yes. I don't think those others were on for over a decade...maybe Mash...but not by much.
Plus it's Sideshow Bob that gave those other 2 shows any value in the first place...
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I feel the same way about Star Trek. As much as the latter half of VOYAGER, and pretty much all of ENTERPRISE annoyed me, I'd still rather watch those than anything else on TV now.
MASH, Cheers, and Fraiser all ran 11 years each, so you're both right and wrong.
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