LONG DUK DONG

(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.

too bad there no other simpsons threads

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.

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.

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".

John Swartzwelder was pretty personally conservative but the show itself was massively anti-authoritarian from the beginning

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.

I mean he uses his gun as a remote

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.

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.

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

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.

second half of the last sentence answers the first half

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

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 ago
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/jul/16/theaputragedy

― 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.

Let’s not invent some “always punching up” narrative about the show that gave us Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel

Al Jean has been running the show for 18 years. I imagine lost touch with reality some time ago

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.

https://media.giphy.com/media/32V6UqfX4ffHO/giphy.gif

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.

pro-gun is the default stance in America, not something one party does and another does not.

look at all the gun legislation during Obama's 8 years in office. we had a Democratic congresswoman shot in the head and she still supported gun rights.

that's a pretty shitty way to frame her considering she has been adamant about pushing for gun control legislation for 7 years

i love this thread's detour into high school architecture

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/25/entertainment/hank-azaria-apu/index.html

Don't know if this has been posted before.

https://la.eater.com/2018/4/30/17303328/yellow-fever-restaurant-backlash-over-name

Omg that name

Wtf

Even overlooking the racial aspect naming your restaurant after an illness is pretty dumb

"Dengue Dave's"

Matt Groening Says Debate Around Apu Is 'Tained'

er, 'Tainted'

Groening is being so fucking dumb about this, like anyone would care if they stopped putting Apu in a show that everyone agrees has sucked nuts for like 15 years

I don’t think anyone at the Simpsons saw my film #TheProblemWithApu so they make the same points over & over. Points I have already acknowledged & responded to in a 49 minute documentary that is readily available on iTunes. https://t.co/QDvNYTTZgo

— Hari Kondabolu (@harikondabolu) July 18, 2018

For my interview, Netflix stipulated that I not ask Groening about Apu controversy. I asked Netflix, "Is Matt declining to comment on Apu?" They declined to answer that, so I went ahead and asked Matt about Apu. Netflix halted the interview immediately and disconnected the call. https://t.co/RCf3lpwjvI

— Brad Wheeler (@BWheelerglobe) July 18, 2018