The Simpsons: Classic Or Dud?

yeah there was one where Lisa met Steve Jobs or something and it was really weird

haha, yeah have the character's birthdays actually changed?

they've also made the mistake of delving too deeply into the backstories of one-joke characters and basing whole episodes around them (Comic Book Guy, Cletus, etc.)

Adventure Time does the same thing and it feels like I'm the only one who DOESN'T like that (on that show).

It's fine when there's some intention behind it or when it's sketched out in advance and only fully fleshed out much later, but certainly no one was looking forward to the extended biography of a character that was only created for the sake of a one-off dumb joke (sorry, Disco Stu, but you know it's true).

Stu you know it's true
Ooh, ooh, ooh Disco Stu

There's also something weird/wrong to me about the Simpsons having a bunch of electronic gadgets besides the TV - it makes them seem wealthier than they were, or something. I know smartphones are no longer an elite luxury item... maybe there was just something familiar and basic about the scene-dressing and world of a suburban nuclear family equipped with: (1) TV (2) treehouse (3) schoolbooks and toys (4) one kid's musical instrument (5) that's about it. Hardly "timeless" but certainly long-timey, going back to Leave It To Beaver, and it's not like you need anything more than that to tell a good or interesting story about a sitcom family.

aside from quality issues I think this idea that the show is, for viewers who watched from the beginning, "set" in the 90s actually makes a lot of sense as to why it's such a jarring and unpleasant experience to see a random recent episode. despite the silliness of the classic era it did capture something that seems deeply familiar from my childhood, particularly with Bart and Lisa. the show was remarkably adept at capturing a lot of real sweetness and nostalgia and even that mainstay of "small town American life"--this in retrospect it seems to have a lot more in common with older sitcoms than the shows it influenced.

I somehow missed the post above by otm! leave it to beaver is a good example.

I think one way they could have potentially ameliorated the drop-off in quality would have been for the characters to start aging in real time after, say, season 9 or 10, à la Doonesbury.

Homer's age has changed as the series developed; he was 36 in the early episodes,[10] 38 and 39 in season eight,[11] and 40 in the eighteenth season,[12] although even in those seasons his age is inconsistent.[1] During Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein's period as showrunners, they found that as they aged, Homer seemed to become older too, so they increased his age to 38.

I can't get my head around Homer as anything other than a boomer (maaaaybe borderline gen x-er). Homer being 36 would now mean that he was born in 1980, which I guess would make him a millenial?

yeah homer is a boomer through and through.

i refuse to believe that I am older than homer

In the classic rendition, they're late-ish boomers - 18 in 1973, so born in the mid-50s. I was born in 1981, so Lisa - an eight-year-old in 1989 - was my age. The idea that Homer and I are now contemporaries is very, very unsettling.

Yeah, I can somehow deal with that in comics but not wrt The Simpsons. So I was like slightly older than Bart when the show started but now I'm older than Homer? GTFO.

Homer always seemed way older than 36 to me.

ok but am i older than george jetson? how about ren?

In S10, Homer is established as 38.1 years old, but I don't know how "canonical" that is now:

https://frinkiac.com/meme/S10E02/101467.jpg?b64lines=IEJVVCBJJ00gQUxSRUFEWSAzOC4xLgogSSdWRSBXQVNURUQgSEFMRiBNWSBMSUZFLg==

36 in the 80s is a different thing than 36 today, too.

Plus I mean Kearney has a kid.

https://frinkiac.com/meme/S08E06/570569.jpg?b64lines=SSBTTEVFUCBJTiBBIERSQVdFUi4=

Speaking of Doonesbury, I was thinking that long-running comic strips are maybe the closest analog for the awkward temporality of The Simpsons. Peanuts went 50 years without aging its characters, but also referenced current events. Maybe it's a general pitfall of both comic strips and animated TV that time doesn't enter naturally into them. The world and characters will only change if you make them change, and if you want to situate the story in the present, then you need to actively work to make it present. Which is probably hard to do in a way that doesn't feel forced or obvious.

Yeah, it only kinda went south for "Peanuts" when Jet Fuel Can't Melt Steel Beams, Charlie Brown! aired on CBS.

irl lol

i think the platonic ideal i'm measuring simpsons against is really calvin and hobbes, which both froze its characters in time (calvin's family still has a rotary phone) and quit while it was ahead

Peanuts went 50 years without aging its characters, but also referenced current events.

Peanuts aged its characters, but at different paces - younger kids all eventually end up the same age as Charlie Brown & Lucy.

(Spike, also, was obviously used to make explicit commentary on aging.)

https://68.media.tumblr.com/3e5f7770ccef9641bc2e65f7d4e43e15/tumblr_oi9mab9PuY1u1vkloo1_1280.jpg

Thread bump reminded me that it's time for my annual viewing of this holiday classic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Os7jCGHdWnA

Is there a concrete explanation as to why The Simpsons is so big in Australia? So many instagram and other online Simpsons/Simpsons meme things are Australian. If I recall, a lot of Simpsons fans from ILX are too. The big question is, does this all precede "Bart goes to Australia" — was that episode aimed at an already big fanbase there? — or is that episode responsible for this Australian Simpsons fascination?

it was hyped to shit when it launched in '89/'90, and our tv landscape back then was utterly dismal (five free-to-air channels, no cable at all until three years later). the network which bought it rotated it heavily, and when cable tv did come along simpsons marathons were a feature iirc.

Indeed. But that was the case in the US and UK too right?

I love the Rock Bottom FB group. Their ongoing "tobias vs Bunnings snags" memes are a cack.

And no, that episode wouldve had nothing to do with us being into the show (heck I cant speak for everyone but I thought most aussies I knew hated it for being so bad)

Indeed. But that was the case in the US and UK too right?

dishes were definitely a thing in the uk around then, but yeah, the landscape wasn't too different from ours (a britisher should confirm this obv)

(heck I cant speak for everyone but I thought most aussies I knew hated it for being so bad)

i've yet to meet anyone who didn't love that episode

I hated it and I still dont care for it much. It just has so many stupid mistakes in it. Groening himself said he knew zero about the place so he just made crap up. It shows. Call me a whinger but it felt vaguely disrespectful I dunno.

maybe, i just thought they took a cartoon version of australia and had fun with it. i'm much more concerned with actual americans who think actual australia is a cartoon.

I spose its no different to the Japan ep in that regard and I loved that.

i never rly thought that the portrayal of australia in that episode was intended to be remotely serious, it's more like a takeoff on dumb american stereotypes about australia (they all have boomerangs, drink a lot, kangaroos are everywhere, etc). i wonder if the french were offended by that early episode where bart goes to france.

it's more like a takeoff on dumb american stereotypes about australia

yep 100% this. the notion of a prime minister who sits in a blow-up doughnut and kicks people up the arse can only be a pisstake of a dumb stereotype.

actually that bit didnt bug me! It was stuff like "but thats not where parliament house is arghgfd" cos im a nong.

Did either of you sign this: https://www.change.org/p/change-the-australian-currency-name-to-dollarydoos

never

I used to receive Yo La Tengo's fan newsletter in the '90s. They're huge Simpsons nerds, and after their first Australian tour (and prior to the Australia episode), they proclaimed with glee that Australia was by far the most Simpsons-aware place they'd ever been.

Also, I believe Australia had a Simpsons theme-park (or something along those lines) years before the US got one.

can't believe Simpsons writers would indulge in lazy stereotypes unwittingly. Thank you, come again.

Indeed. But that was the case in the US and UK too right?

Until the BBC bought it later in the 90s, The Simpsons was only available on Sky iirc, the satellite channel owned by Murdoch. We never had satellite or cable, and it wasn't too widespread until later in the UK, I think.

Like when Homerpalooza aired, I had to get a friend who had Sky to tape it for me,

it's more like a takeoff on dumb american stereotypes about australia (they all have boomerangs, drink a lot, kangaroos are everywhere, etc)

this is why it's funny. see also France episode etc.

"I need more wine for my children"

imo it is lazy humor. ironic stereotyping has a v short self life if it works at all

In this particular case the shelf life is remarkably long though, as an Australian in the USA I still get people quoting this fucken episode to me endlessly

tbh since I left Australia I have noticed that Aussies (including friends & family that I grew up with) get amusingly defensive/pedantic abt comedic portrayals of Australia

i never noticed while i was living there but it's def a thing

either not finding it funny at all and/or listing all the inaccuracies and mispronounced placenames

which is funny bcz we are collectively the least patriotic so idk maybe we just dont like getting picked on lol

What about the Simpsons episode that made fun of the US - you know, ALL OF THEM.

are u ok pplains