we're all praying for an end to the depression at this point
― Number None, Monday, 9 April 2018 21:29 (six years ago) link
that response is some bullshit you'd see in a libertarian meme cartoon
― omar little, Monday, 9 April 2018 21:29 (six years ago) link
This is similar to recent Seinfeld bullshit in that the sheer witlessness is more shocking than the defiant commitment to bigotry if you stopped paying attention a long time ago. Like, ppl becoming more shitty when their shittiness is pointed out is not uncommon, and obv everyone knows they've lost it but how do you lose it this much?
― scotti pruitti (wins), Monday, 9 April 2018 21:34 (six years ago) link
what recent Seinfeld bullshit? as much as I love the show he's always had a huge blind spot when it comes to race
― Nhex, Monday, 9 April 2018 21:37 (six years ago) link
my original answer ITT was way wrong and I'm sorry for it
― fuck the NRA (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 00:25 (six years ago) link
Simpsons used to be subversive (like 25 years ago) and most of the targets were the super rich, the media, idiot cops, etc. and now this, it feels like punching down in such a mean spirited cynical way, fuck this show & that smartass response
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:18 (six years ago) link
Let’s not invent some “always punching up” narrative about the show that gave us Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:23 (six years ago) link
And said they wanted to blast Al Sharpton and Spike Lee into space
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:24 (six years ago) link
yea I think the Simpsons has always been fairly right-wing as a whole
― frogbs, Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:25 (six years ago) link
television has always been fairly right-wing as a whole tbf
― star wars ep viii: the bay of porgs (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:31 (six years ago) link
pretty sure guys in the 40s and 50s used to punch up tho
― vermicious kid (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:43 (six years ago) link
Twelve Tolerant Men
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:46 (six years ago) link
i was thinking of those gangster movie uppercuts
― vermicious kid (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:46 (six years ago) link
TV movie of 12 Angry Men where the racist guy is a 5 percenter still one of the most hilarious movies ever
― vermicious kid (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:47 (six years ago) link
feel free to invent the "someone said always punching up even though they just said 'mostly'" narrative
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:51 (six years ago) link
also wow they made fun of a white trash person totally the same as making fun of Indian American immigrants
http://12-geschworenen-die-hume-cronyn-mykelti-williamson-4-rcm0x1920u.jpg
― vermicious kid (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:52 (six years ago) link
L-R: this thread, Adam B
"white trash person"
― vermicious kid (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:53 (six years ago) link
I don't think it's fair to categorize the show as "fairly right-wing" or as liberal so much as always shooting at targets of opportunity. The three-eyed-fish episode where Mr. Burns ran for office took a dim-view of right-wing faux-populism, but there's also
https://frinkiac.com/meme/S03E21/1277580.jpg?b64lines=SSdMTCBCRSBCQUNLLiBZT1UgQ0FOJ1QgS0VFUAogVEhFIERFTU9DUkFUUyBPVVQgT0YgVEhFCiBXSElURSBIT1VTRSBGT1JFVkVS
― Millennial Whoop, wanna fight about it? (Phil D.), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:54 (six years ago) link
hahahahahaha
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:55 (six years ago) link
xp-to-adam no one's making that false equivalence
they definitely had the very light version of the toxic "everyone's a target" crap animation shows jumped wholeheartedly into in the late 90s, but it was a little less obvious because the core of the writing was really that 90s middlebrow white dude view that we've mostly solved racism, sexism, and inequality and anyone still affected by those is probably just not working past it
― alvin noto (mh), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:55 (six years ago) link
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-djhW_W-QwQ4/VXKKXd9CX3I/AAAAAAAADSc/YdtVltmjH7M/s1600/belief-as-truth-1.jpg
― vermicious kid (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:55 (six years ago) link
totally thought this thread bump was about the molly ringwald piece. are we talking about that somewhere else?
― 龜, Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:56 (six years ago) link
NV, you're gonna give me nightmares
― alvin noto (mh), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:56 (six years ago) link
Stampy the elephant crashing both the Democratic and Republican national conventions is one of my all-time favorite political jokes.
― Chris L, Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:57 (six years ago) link
https://playitagaindan.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/12-angry-men-george-c-scott.jpg
BUT THE WHITE TRASH PERSON DAMMIT
― vermicious kid (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:58 (six years ago) link
Homer was woke before any of you.
https://frinkiac.com/meme/S05E13/426975.jpg?b64lines=CiBJVCdTIFRSVUUhIElUJ1MgVFJVRSEKIFdFJ1JFIFNPIExBTUUu
― Millennial Whoop, wanna fight about it? (Phil D.), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:58 (six years ago) link
(several xposts)
Some discussion of the Ringwald piece over at the John Hughes thread, though, oddly, it largely turned into a discussion of Baby's Day Out.
― Dangleballs and the Ballerina (cryptosicko), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 14:00 (six years ago) link
too bad there no other simpsons threads
― President Keyes, Tuesday, 10 April 2018 14:14 (six years ago) link
are
Pretty sure somewhere on the web there is a right wing message board on which users are arguing to which extent the 90s Simpsons is on the left.
― Van Horn Street, Tuesday, 10 April 2018 21:35 (six years ago) link
classic simpsons was never remotely right-wing -- the al sharpton/spike lee joke is from after that era, i remember being pissed off by it at the time. the jokes about democrats being soft on crime or giving away free money or whatever are clearly jokes about popular right-wing talking points.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 22:26 (six years ago) link
classic simpsons was never remotely right-wing
John Swartzwelder, who wrote for the Simpsons from the start for 14 years and wrote more episodes than any other writer is a self-described "hardcover conservative", libertarian, and has been described as an "anti-environmentalist".
― Louis Jägermeister (jim in vancouver), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 22:43 (six years ago) link
John Swartzwelder was pretty personally conservative but the show itself was massively anti-authoritarian from the beginning
― Glower, Disruption & Pies (kingfish), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 22:44 (six years ago) link
Xpost
swartzwelder's views don't seem to have made it into the episodes he wrote. i guess he did write the episode where homer buys a gun, but i wouldn't say that episode was really pro-gun.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Wednesday, 11 April 2018 02:12 (six years ago) link
I mean he uses his gun as a remote
― fuck the NRA (Neanderthal), Wednesday, 11 April 2018 02:12 (six years ago) link
It's definitely pro-gun in that seemingly every other adult (I think including Krusty and Bee Guy??) in Springfield is a responsible gun owner.
― Philip Nunez, Wednesday, 11 April 2018 06:22 (six years ago) link
would like to point out tho that the Simpsons persuasively pointed out the one danger of owning a gun for your own protection, in that it can lead to a child getting its hands on it and accidentally shooting someone.
― omar little, Wednesday, 11 April 2018 06:28 (six years ago) link
There was an interesting thread on Twitter yesterday where someone was going over old drafts of early episode storyboards and Matt Groening was having to tell writers to take out racist / ableist jokes and make sure the show universe was inclusive.
Separately, Al Jean seems like an ass.
In case you had any doubt about where The Simpsons was coming from with its response to "The Problem With Apu" last night, this is what showrunner @aljean was retweeting afterwards. :( Count me as another once-devoted fan who has closed this door for good. pic.twitter.com/FRpHckk9Ak— jay smooth (@jsmooth995) April 9, 2018
― Wag1 Shree Rajneesh (ShariVari), Wednesday, 11 April 2018 06:49 (six years ago) link
Yeah Jean tweeted about the episode before it aired anticipating the outrage afterwards. So what was the point of addressing it if all you can offer is a welp shrug and resort to a cheap publicity grab for a show that's been stagnant and practically irrelevant for nearly twenty years.
― nashwan, Wednesday, 11 April 2018 11:43 (six years ago) link
second half of the last sentence answers the first half
― vermicious kid (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 11 April 2018 11:48 (six years ago) link
also i would factor in what i assume is a massive sense of vanity and entitlement
anyway stop posting about it in THIS THREAD i keep forgetting
― vermicious kid (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 11 April 2018 11:49 (six years ago) link
Can only speak up to season 10/11. The notion The Simpsons was right-wing doesn't land for me. Not was it especially left-wing. It just represented whatever the conversation might have been going on at the time. Homer is a moving target. Lisa is probably getting to left-wing, but is developing. Marge could be a version of a grown-up Lisa (she voted for Carter twice etc.)
pretending Apu was ever acceptable is bullshit isn't it? I mean here they are getting called out on it 11 years agohttps://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/jul/16/theaputragedy― thomasintrouble, Monday, 9 April 2018 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― thomasintrouble, Monday, 9 April 2018 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I'd like to see the doc on Apu. Its a shame he was used to mock US/North American Asians as I do think he was overall a pretty positive depiction given the constraints of not being a main character, and then being a character on a cartoon show at that (Apu having a PhD is as much a part of the caricature as the accent. Its just what Indians do, you know.) Overall I was laughing with Apu back then.
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 11 April 2018 12:11 (six years ago) link
― scotti pruitti (wins), Wednesday, 11 April 2018 12:14 (six years ago) link
Al Jean has been running the show for 18 years. I imagine lost touch with reality some time ago
― Number None, Wednesday, 11 April 2018 12:20 (six years ago) link
https://media.giphy.com/media/32V6UqfX4ffHO/giphy.gif
― like hell, but with more ketchup (Ye Mad Puffin), Wednesday, 11 April 2018 13:21 (six years ago) link
pro-gun is the default stance in America, not something one party does and another does not.
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, 11 April 2018 20:58 (six years ago) link