Yeah, that too. Replacing all his classic characters with boring fucking Gil was a showstopper for me.
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What was the moment where the Simpsons died for you?
- Thread starter Uzumaki Goku
- Start date
Ironically, this episode was actually the 302nd to air. It was just marketed as the 300th episode. Hence why they made that joke.
Episode 300 was actually the absolutely awful one where Marge got addicted to steroids, became a bodybuilder, raped Homer in bed and then ran amok in Moe's bar and beat up like two dozen guys. That ep also ruined Ruth Powers who was a great character in her other two appearances. The only good thing about it was the agoraphobia plot in the opening act.
Hard to believe we're now up to Episode 685.
The Principal and the Pauper was for me, where the show started feeling like it had burned itself out, using the mystery of who would be revealed as fake to build hype for the new season, but it never felt earned.
was the time I gave up on the show completely. Family Guy had taken the nuclear family to absurdism better (in its initial run) and Futurama was just all around better by that point. The Simpsons started to feel like every episode was a Halloween episode in that everything is self contained and no one acts like the characters that were developed over the first 9 seasons. Basically if Grimey's funeral scene became the entire raison d'etre for everything that came after.
was the time I gave up on the show completely. Family Guy had taken the nuclear family to absurdism better (in its initial run) and Futurama was just all around better by that point. The Simpsons started to feel like every episode was a Halloween episode in that everything is self contained and no one acts like the characters that were developed over the first 9 seasons. Basically if Grimey's funeral scene became the entire raison d'etre for everything that came after.
Wow, yeah. I hated that one, too. I know the Tony Hawk one was 302, but I didn't know the actual 300 was just as bad.
As terrible as The Strong Arms of the Ma was at least it wasn't written by a serial sexual harasser like Barting Over.
That episode is cursed in so many ways.
Trash of The Titans, season 9. I remember being excited for this episode because it was the 200th and Fox was hyping it up. Not even five minutes in something about it felt off to me. Homer didn't seem like the Homer I knew and neither did any of the other characters. None of the jokes were making me laugh. By the time it was over I still hadn't laughed and I thought the story and ending were stupid. I knew the show had changed for me and I've never liked a new episode since.
Tony Hawk and Blink-182 killed it for me. Haven't seen an episode since, or the movie for that matter. Talk of it always seemed lukewarm at best, anyway.
Yeah, i know everyone loves the golden era of the Simpsons, but there's some episodes that are pretty much right-wing propaganda with some funny jokes here and there.
I remember the movie being my first introduction to The Simpsons, barring the excellent arcade game, and thinking "I liked that enough, I'd watch the show". A few random episodes of not enjoying any and this:
completely made me go "welp this sucks"
Not only is it extremely unfunny, but it lasts forever. I didn't find it funny the first time, let alone the billionth.
completely made me go "welp this sucks"
Not only is it extremely unfunny, but it lasts forever. I didn't find it funny the first time, let alone the billionth.
i like Gil, but they tried too hard to make him a Hutz replacement
Season 9. Stopped being clever and I would chuckle maybe once during an episode. Who watches it now? Is it kids? It's still going on but I've never heard anyone talk about it in decades.
The movie was worth watching once for the nostalgia factor. It does NOT hold up on rewatch like so many countless episodes of the show... past or present. You give me a choice between rewatching the movie or rewatching the best episodes from Season 31 and I'll take the latter option every time.
I'm going with the jockey elves for this one.
I dunno if I would ever say it totally "died" because there are good episodes randomly throughout. But I remember watching Saddlesore Galactica and thinking, "I don't think the show's ever going to be the same again." I like how on the DVD commentary it's clear Matt Groening was surprised by it.
I dunno if I would ever say it totally "died" because there are good episodes randomly throughout. But I remember watching Saddlesore Galactica and thinking, "I don't think the show's ever going to be the same again." I like how on the DVD commentary it's clear Matt Groening was surprised by it.
Another sign of when things got bad is when they brought in more and more celebrities. When they did before it was always subtitle or they would play other characters..then they just came on as themselves and it felt very much like Scooby DooIn retrospect, it really should have been sooner but this moment is literally the moment the where I just couldn't anymore..I stopped watching new episodes after this episode and mainly because of this scene
I still watch it. But there was a season where they did multiple episodes where they retold stories with The Simpsons as characters. And they did this like 3 fucking times that season with what felt like 2 in a row.
There were a few episodes that really stood out to me. The episode where Bart and Marge have tea time, the story of Moe's bar rag, and a later season bowling episode that was not the pin pals and felt almost like they were playing it at 1.5x speed. It was not a repeat.
There were a few episodes that really stood out to me. The episode where Bart and Marge have tea time, the story of Moe's bar rag, and a later season bowling episode that was not the pin pals and felt almost like they were playing it at 1.5x speed. It was not a repeat.
I think it was this one too. It had started dipping before that (season 8-10 were not consistent, but still had strong episodes), but I have a recollection of watching this episode and thinking it was painfully unfunny from beginning to end.
I gave up on the show shortly after that, I believe. And holy fuck, that was 20 years ago. 😭
Yep... Specifically, having Lisa really grapple with the mystery of what 'yvan eht nioj' could possibly mean.
It was a pretty clear demarcation line that the show was no longer being run by smart comedy writers.
I think for me I stopped watching weekly for a long while. Wanted to get back to it and saw the episode where homer/lisa got an imac, went to the apple store and all the generic references and jokes that piled on were just insanely boring. I think it had Gaga in it too or something I dunno. That's when I officially stopped watching.
Like they have always had that style but it was never the ENTIRE episode in the past. Even episodes that featured celebs were rarely all about that cameo. I was just so uninterested after seeing this coming off a long break of the show.
Like they have always had that style but it was never the ENTIRE episode in the past. Even episodes that featured celebs were rarely all about that cameo. I was just so uninterested after seeing this coming off a long break of the show.
Yes. The writers wrote that episode with those players in mind, and then actually got them on the show. Also Talkin' Softball is classic.
As a counter example. U2 went to the show and asked to be written into an episode (Steve Martin was better in it)
I'm sure there were shit episodes long before the Lady Gaga episode, but this...not a single joke landed, not a single moment could every be considered amusing, and often it felt more like a 30 minute promotion of Lady Gaga that had the Simpsons in it sometimes...
I never really watched the show weekly as it aired, mainly just re-runs. Seasons 3-8 are hilarious though, I still love going back to them. Just so many jokes and classic moments.
Holy shit. I didn't know that about John Swartzwelder and never took as deep a look at why that episode felt like a turning point, but the video and you are correct. There are a lot of episodes that espouse thinly-veiled right-wing ideologies throughout even the good years of the show.
That was a joke post to make fun of/out the people who just shit on the Simpsons. So congrats on falling for it?
Considering it made me stop watching the show *shrugs*
Doesn't really feel like I was being tricked, more just like I was bored and stopped.
By the start of season 8 the three head executives and most of the writers were gone, John Swartzwelder kept working though, so the decline on the writing of every episode is apparent.
I time-stamped a supereyeparchwolf video that researched this (around 19:22 if the stamp doesn't work):
Also Al Jean was using Fox news and right-wing fringe sites to defend himself during the Apu debacle.
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For me it's the episode where they go to Brazil.
It's not even an aggressively bad episode and I'm also sure there have been worse ones before. But for whatever reason that Brazil episode is the first one I saw that made me go "Wait....this isn't good. This is.....different from the not so great episodes I've seen before...."
Important to notice that I don't think I ever saw the Simpsons in chronological order here, just however ProSieben (TV Channel) decided to air them.
I have to say tho, I absolutely love some of the episodes people list here lol
Seasons 9-11 weren't as good but still had more great than mediocre episodes. Season 12 had more bad than mediocre episodes but still one or two decent ones. After that? No idea.
It's not even an aggressively bad episode and I'm also sure there have been worse ones before. But for whatever reason that Brazil episode is the first one I saw that made me go "Wait....this isn't good. This is.....different from the not so great episodes I've seen before...."
Important to notice that I don't think I ever saw the Simpsons in chronological order here, just however ProSieben (TV Channel) decided to air them.
I have to say tho, I absolutely love some of the episodes people list here lol
I think that's where I'm at.
Seasons 9-11 weren't as good but still had more great than mediocre episodes. Season 12 had more bad than mediocre episodes but still one or two decent ones. After that? No idea.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Simpsons_138th_Episode_Spectacular Once you do stuff like this, not only are you smelling your own farts but it's just lazy.
Season 9 has a clear decline. I skipped Principal Pauper on my classic Simpsons rewatch last month but the episode where Homer joins the Navy Reserve and ends up in charge of a nuclear sub is just really, really bad.
I've also seen Holidays of Future Passed from season 23 held up as some kind of modern-day classic, but it was neither funny nor touching for me.
I've also seen Holidays of Future Passed from season 23 held up as some kind of modern-day classic, but it was neither funny nor touching for me.
I was rewatching pretty frequently up until the tail end of season 9. Still some good episodes there, but they were starting to get a little too "out there" and you could sense the oncoming fall.
Looking forward a few seasons there are a couple of good episodes I'll probably watch (the one with the barbeque, and I vaguelly remember the perfect 300 game episode being cute) but yeah.
Looking forward a few seasons there are a couple of good episodes I'll probably watch (the one with the barbeque, and I vaguelly remember the perfect 300 game episode being cute) but yeah.
Season 11 was definitely the first just straight up bad season with the episode where Maude dies being the apex of that awfulness .
The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace
It was that Thomas Edison episode. Everything felt off about it, the animation, the shading, Homer's voice and everything else that I'd care to mention.
I think the last episode just before that one was the grease episode; Lard of the Dance. It was ok, not very memorable but funny enough. Wizard of Evergreen Terrace though? Yeesh. A real stinker.
Episodes may have been aired out of order in the UK for whatever reason, and I was watching this on Sky One at the time. I still remember that overwhelming feeling that something was wrong when that episode came out.
The one with Bart and the eggs came straight after. Jesus that was bad.
It was that Thomas Edison episode. Everything felt off about it, the animation, the shading, Homer's voice and everything else that I'd care to mention.
I think the last episode just before that one was the grease episode; Lard of the Dance. It was ok, not very memorable but funny enough. Wizard of Evergreen Terrace though? Yeesh. A real stinker.
Episodes may have been aired out of order in the UK for whatever reason, and I was watching this on Sky One at the time. I still remember that overwhelming feeling that something was wrong when that episode came out.
The one with Bart and the eggs came straight after. Jesus that was bad.
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The last episode I remember watching was the one with Side Show Bob's son yelling vendetta or something, never really watched any episodes after that.
That being said, I still go back and watch episodes from seasons 1 - 9. Still classic stuff.
That being said, I still go back and watch episodes from seasons 1 - 9. Still classic stuff.
No single moment for me. Post season 8 the jokes just lacked the magical wit of those first seasons, wit that still holds up today. Instead, it is replaced with cringe... a lot of the time. I still pop a newer episode on and will laugh here and there, but the classics are dropping 5 layer deep jokes every 10 seconds.