The Decline of The Simpsons

Excellent analysis. While there have been some decent episodes in the years since, I agree with the consensus that The Simpsons should probably have called it a day with Season 8. It was perhaps inevitable that it would eventually become part of the establishment as the culture it was created to mock dissipated, but the desperate veneration of celebrity is sad to see; I found the fawning propaganda piece for Elon Musk that recently aired on Channel 4 especially cringeworthy. The blatant product placement for awful companies like Amazon is also symbolic of how little the show has to say these days.

"Homer's Enemy" was the end for me. It's a perfect story, showing how a hard working regular joe with a real underdog story fails to live up to an absolute idiot's reputation...we're all a little "Frank Grimes" with certain shows and movies. The scene at the funeral has the best epiatah for the show before or since: "Change the Channel Marge"

I have to say I only check in on The Simpsons very rarely. I remember when it was a show our whole family loved and talked about back in the 90's. Bart the General was the first one we hired and watched from the video rentals, and it immediately became a favourite.

Then some point in the early 2000s I stopped watching TV regularly so I didn't actually see the point of decline, but I do know that episodes I've seen since (Prankster Rap, Lisa Goes GaGa) have been at once weak sauce, and yet at the same time felt like a nasty mischaracterization of Bart and Lisa that completely misses the heart of their characters.

Tanmann wrote:I have to say I only check in on The Simpsons very rarely. I remember when it was a show our whole family loved and talked about back in the 90's. Bart the General was the first one we hired and watched from the video rentals, and it immediately became a favourite.

Then some point in the early 2000s I stopped watching TV regularly so I didn't actually see the point of decline, but I do know that episodes I've seen since (Prankster Rap, Lisa Goes GaGa) have been at once weak sauce, and yet at the same time felt like a nasty mischaracterization of Bart and Lisa that completely misses the heart of their characters.

An episode that helped kill the show for me was the one where Homer writes the song about Ned Flanders.

To me this made Homer too nasty. I know he was always a bad guy like when he strangles Bart, but still before his awfulness stemmed from either stupidity or he was so literally cartoonish that you couldn't hate him.

Here however it seems more malicious the way he gloats about Ned's dead wife, who he caused the death of! "Don't laugh at Ned. His wife is dead." At that point I wanted Ned to go over to his house and beat the absolute shit out of him.



At that point he went from me from being a stupid cartoon character who can now and again be sympathetic, to a nasty piece of work that you hope gets his just deserts. I'm sure there are other moments before that, but that really clinched it for me.

Still I think people are a bit hard on the Simpsons as the earlier seasons still represent some of the greatest comedy of all time.

I could imagine old Homer writing the song privately just to get his frustrations with Ned out of his system (maybe not including that line about his dead wife though), but then shelving it and coming up with something more reflective and good-natured to replace it.

Old Homer wouldn't be stupid or cruel enough to sing it publically or release it commercially and air that kind of spite in Ned's face, especially about his wife and 'creepy' kids.

It comes off a bit to me like they wanted that cameo from that record producer to happen quickly and the song to be a sensation to build a montage out of right away.

It's the whole "They had an end in mind, and they don't care how they butcher the characters to get there" mindset.

When did it start to go bad? I only ever saw the classic episodes on repeat honestly.

I can only go by second-hand sources, but most would say it started to go wrong with Season 9, and specifically with the episode The Principle and the Pauper where Principal Skinner gets his entire backstory retconned.

Certainly from listening to clips from the writers' DVD commentary on that episode (where they talk about the fan backlash they got and make out there's something 'strange' and mockable about the fact the audience were invested enough in the characters to care enough to get angry at the rug being pulled from under them), it was definitely where the makers had begun to stop caring and started to have contempt for their audience.

Is it weird that I get boners over Marge?

Commander Maxil wrote:Is it weird that I get boners over Marge?

Look Maxil, I'm usually understanding of your strange fetishes but on this occasion.....

Hey, different strokes for different folks. Don't judge, bro.

I never got the love for The Simpsons. I was always a South Park kinda guy. lol

A quite poignant sequel to the original video essay.

burrunjor wrote:

Tanmann wrote:I have to say I only check in on The Simpsons very rarely. I remember when it was a show our whole family loved and talked about back in the 90's. Bart the General was the first one we hired and watched from the video rentals, and it immediately became a favourite.

Then some point in the early 2000s I stopped watching TV regularly so I didn't actually see the point of decline, but I do know that episodes I've seen since (Prankster Rap, Lisa Goes GaGa) have been at once weak sauce, and yet at the same time felt like a nasty mischaracterization of Bart and Lisa that completely misses the heart of their characters.

An episode that helped kill the show for me was the one where Homer writes the song about Ned Flanders.

To me this made Homer too nasty. I know he was always a bad guy like when he strangles Bart, but still before his awfulness stemmed from either stupidity or he was so literally cartoonish that you couldn't hate him.

Here however it seems more malicious the way he gloats about Ned's dead wife, who he caused the death of! "Don't laugh at Ned. His wife is dead." At that point I wanted Ned to go over to his house and beat the absolute shit out of him.



At that point he went from me from being a stupid cartoon character who can now and again be sympathetic, to a nasty piece of work that you hope gets his just deserts. I'm sure there are other moments before that, but that really clinched it for me.

Still I think people are a bit hard on the Simpsons as the earlier seasons still represent some of the greatest comedy of all time.

That's not even the worst.  There's an episode where the entire town of Springfield bullies Bart just because he didn't catch the ball during a game of baseball. It's absolutely ghastly.

Homer's characterization in the early ones was very much the lovable, well meaning father who obviously had a few screws loose. This is established from the very first episode when he tries desperately to get money for the family after he didn't receive his Christmas bonus. His relationship with Flanders was particularly interesting back then because he obviously despised him yet knew when he had crossed the line. Remember when Ned's shop closed down because Homer had wished for it and they both cry together? That's just a lovely moment because Homer realizes that he was in the wrong and he eventually does set things right again by telling everyone about Ned's shop. Now he's just an idiot like the rest of them are. I watched some recent episodes the other day and I actually couldn't believe how horrible people in Springfield are now. Nelson had a plan to crush Bart to death to get back at Homer in one episode and in another episode Krusty wanted to murder Homer for writing a bad review on one his shows. It just feels off to me.