Quote of the Day

“Alright, I’ll be back in the morning to pick up Stampy.” – Mr. Blackheart
“Here’s the keys.” – Homer Simpson
“Elephants don’t have keys.” – Mr. Blackheart
“I’ll just keep these, then.” – Homer Simpson

Quote of the Day

“Well, you sure don’t look twenty-five, but your unlaminated, out-of-state driver’s license is proof enough for me.” – Knoxville Bonded Courier Service Guy

Quote of the Day

“Next on Exploitation Theater: Blacula, followed by Blackenstein, and the Blunchblack of Blotre Blame.” – TV Announcer
“Ooh, funky.” – Homer Simpson

Quote of the Day

“Look, Mom, I finished my patch!  It depicts the two greatest musical influences in my life.  On the left is Mr. Largo, my music teacher at school.  He taught me that even the noblest concerto can be drained of its beauty and soul.  And on the right is Bleeding Gums Murphy.  He taught me that music is like a fire in your belly that comes out of your mouth, so you better stick an instrument in front of it.” – Lisa Simpson

Happy birthday, Alf Clausen! 

Reading Digest: The Simpsons Will Outlive Us All Edition

“Hey, Bart, according to this magazine, in another million years man’ll have an extra finger.” – Lisa Simpson
“Five fingers?  Eww, freakshow.” – Bart Simpson

For obvious reasons, this site takes the position that The Simpsons was and is the greatest show ever.  (Zombie Simpsons naturally excluded.)  Of course, plenty of people disagree about that for one reason or another, but the nice thing about being a Simpsons advocate is that I get to cite examples, lots of them.

For instance, this week we have a link to an article about the best sitcom of the 1990s, the author presumes that The Simpsons is grander than all of them and excludes it because it isn’t quite a sitcom.  We also have an interview with Anne Washburn, author of the Mr. Burns play, in which she discusses considering and rejecting a number of other television shows for her premise.  We also also have someone explicitly saying the show will never die while pretending to praise Zombie Simpsons.  And that’s before we get into the tattoos.  And while I can think of no reliable source of information to prove it, I’m willing to bet that Simpsons is the most tattooed show in history.  Oh, and we’ve got usage, fan art, and all the other usual stuff.

Enjoy.

35 Simpson Tattoos – Whoa, are there some good ones in there.  I’m partial to Homer as the jack-in-the-box from “Treehouse of Horror II”, Rod and Todd on the thumbs, and Floreda.  Baphomet Lisa is pretty evil too.  As a bonus, here’s another one via Maggie Roswell’s Twitter:

BWW Interviews: MR. BURNS, A POST-ELECTRIC PLAY’s Anne Washburn Ponders Pop Culture After the Apocalypse – The play is coming to Minneapolis, and this is a great observation:

Q: What about “The Simpsons” do you think captures people’s imaginations enough that it would survive a nuclear meltdown?
A: I think people would remember really enjoying it. And it’s a show in which the humor is so verbally precise that lots of people enjoy the act of remembering it even now, and so I think chunks of it would be in readiness.

“verbally precise”, yes.

NewsRadio was the best sitcom of the 1990s – The link above also has a bit about other shows she considered, but statements like this are part of the reason why The Simpsons won out:

This is a high honor. The ’90s featured a host of great sitcoms. There was Seinfeld and Roseanne and Frasier and Friends and The Larry Sanders Show, all shows that are the ancestors of so many great shows on the air right now. (They also had the golden years of The Simpsons, which I don’t classify as a “sitcom,” because it’s animated. Accuse me of splitting hairs, if you must.)

You can have a debate about Newsradio versus other shows.  You cannot have one about The Simpsons.  It’s so absurd that it gets its own explanatory parenthetical in the opening paragraph of an argumentative article at a mainstream media site.

The Simpsons Get A Film Noir Makeover – Some of these paintings I’ve linked before, but I think the Mr. Plow one might be new.  It is gorgeous.

Don’t Have A Cow, Man – This is true:

As a child, I was allowed to watch The Simpsons.

Other children my age weren’t so lucky. Some parents considered The Simpsons as an evil that could negatively effect the minds of their innocent children. It was to be avoided at all costs.

Usually when I see that statement, it’s “As a child, I was NOT allowed”.  Good on your folks.

Northland, Politics, Transport, and Pork – Via reader James T. comes this piece of excellent visual usage from New Zealand:

Why is this important? Well, I suspect what all of these conservative parties have done, including National, is held focus groups where they’ve asked people whether they support more investment in roads. In response, many of these people have said “yes”. Something like these guys.

The Simpsons makeup! – The Marge makeup as used by an actual person.  Bravo on the two tones.

Simpson Characters V2 – Fan drawings, including the rather clever and awesome “Sideshow Warhol”.

How ‘The Simpsons’ Became Immortal – This is one of the most halfhearted defenses of Zombie Simpsons I’ve seen in a while:

I quite enjoy the new Simpsons’ episodes. Granted, they are not as great as the glory years, but I quite enjoy the long-running series’ hot takes on political issues.
And, I can always keep re-watching the old stuff, too.

Talk about damning with faint praise.

Tampa Bay Lightning with the A+ Simpsons reference to mock Bruins fans – This is truly excellent usage:

Hiekkamyrsky Helsingissä – I’m not sure what this all says, but if you scroll down you’ll find a well done Simpsons family, with couch, in beach sand.

March 19, 1990: America loves ‘The Simpsons’; Buffalo, not so much – There’s an image of a TV column from The Buffalo News from twenty-five years ago.  Apparently, “Life on the Fast Lane” didn’t do so hot in the local ratings that week, though the guy (who looks like Ron Swanson) does note that it’s doing much better nationally.  He even closes with this little zinger:

“Elvis” is being marked return to sender, address unknown. ABC is removing its critically acclaimed series from the scheudle and says it will return at a later date. Despite a strong lead-in from “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” “Elvis” has been getting destroyed in the rations nationally by Bart, Homer and the rest of “The Simpsons”.

According to IMDb, ABC dumped the rest of the episodes in the summer then canceled it.

Day 196-Simpsonized – A simpsonized caricature, part the first.

Day 197- Simpsonized – And another.

The Joy of Glitches – I gave up on Tapped Out a while ago, but that is pretty cool looking.

Bartkira! – Is Bender sneaking in there too?

Homer Vs. Lisa And The 8th Commandment – The Mt. Sinai parts are just fantastic:

-The animation of Mt. Sinai is terrific. It’s the kind of quality you can only get with hand-drawn animation. I really wish at least one animated show nowadays would go back to hand-drawn. There was a Peanuts special a few years ago that did that, and it gave the cartoon some nice, charming feel.

-There are lots of funny things going on in the background at the beginning. People beating the crap out of each other, guys chasing woman, and my personal favorite: Homer (the thief) stuffing his shirt with calf idols every time the carver-guy turns around.

Don’t worry, they’ll be wandering out there two weeks, tops.

Brazil legend Pele to lease forehead for commercial advertising – Pele is king of the soccer field, to be king of your lapels, use Crestfield wax paper.

How I’m Feeling Of Late – Heh.

Has ‘Bob’s Burgers’ Surpassed ‘The Simpsons’? – Zombie Simpsons?  Of course.  I think they did that about ten minutes into the pilot.

New trending GIF tagged television the simpsons the… – Remember The X-Files?  They’re back.  In .gif form.

New trending GIF tagged the simpsons season 8… – Poochie would like you to recycle.

Happy Birthday, Spock! – No reason not to have some more Nimoy love, including Simpsons YouTube.

SMARCH with the Simpsons – And finally, I get to end with someone who agrees with us:

Every Sunday at Tattooed Mom, there are free arts and crafts. For the lousy Smarch weather, we’re going to have a Simpsons themed night. Classic Simpsons episodes will play, Ninties episodes only! You will learn how to draw the Simpsons, color the simpsons and paint eggs from Vincent Price’s Egg Magic.

If you’re in or around Philadelphia, that’s happening Sunday night.

Quote of the Day

“First question: if I could be any animal, I would be a) a carpenter ant, b) a nurse shark, or c) a lawyer bird.” – Mrs. Krabappel

Happy birthday, George Meyer!

Quote of the Day

“This is KUDD, 570 AM, hey, don’t touch that dial, you’ve got kud on it!” – KUDD DJ

Quote of the Day

“Ooh, look at this one: The Hammer of Thor.  It will send your pins to . . . Valhalla?  Lisa?” – Homer Simpson
“Valhalla is where Vikings go when they die.” – Lisa Simpson
“Oh, that’s some ball.” – Homer Simpson

Quote of the Day

“Selma, Jub-Jub is fantastic! He’s everywhere you wanna be!” – Troy McClure

Sorry this went up late.

 

Quote of the Day

“By the way, old timer, I do wills.  Why don’t I just give you this pen with my phone number on it?  It looks just like a cigar!  Isn’t that something?” – Lionel Hutz

Quote of the Day

“Slow down, Bart, my legs don’t know how to be as long as yours.” – Ralph Wiggum

Quote of the Day

“The dump?” – Marge Simpson
“We’re gonna get rid of the Christmas tree, starting to turn brown.” – Homer Simpson

Reading Digest: Moar Sam Simon Tributes

Sam Simon was so widely beloved that there was no way to sort through even a part of people’s tributes to him last week.  Now that the noise has settled down and big media outlets are on to the next thing, this week we’ve got a ton more great stuff about the man.  There’s other stuff too, of course, but mostly it’s Simon.

Enjoy.

My buddy Sam Simon. – Smooth Charlie’s Link of the Week is this long and loving encomium for Simon by a writer who met him over poker.  It’s long, but it’s a great read.

Someone built all of Springfield in Minecraft to recreate the ‘Simpsons’ opening – Now this is an impressive act of geekery:

There’s a little tour of the place at the link.

Dark Ink Art To Release Dave Perillo’s Second Simpsons Treehouse of Horror Print On March 17, 2015 – I do not have $50.  But that is gorgeous.  (And no Zombie Simpsons!)

The secret heart of The Simpsons – Our old friend Alec Nevala-Lee takes a look at the creative mix that made the show and how it’s impossible to either pin down or overstate Simon’s contribution.

Remember Sam Simon – Well put:

 Sam Simon’s legacy for The Simpsons was the creation of a cartoon that an educated person could watch and not be ashamed at; the humor would be intelligent and not dumb itself down for the lowest common denominator.

The Simpsons pub trivia is SUPER SERIOUS. – A great writeup of the last trivia in Chicago.

Easton Hospital buys site for new hospital in 1915 – Almanac March 11, 2015 – Look at all the neat stuff you can find digging through newspaper archives:

25 years ago: Be cool, dude: In answer to an Express Street Talk question about U.S. Postal Service plans to raise the price of stamps from 25 cents to 30 cents, “Who do you think should be on the new stamp?” Donna Snyder, of Allentown, said, “Tom Petty. I like his tunes.” Joanne Panulla, of Belvidere, said, “Boomer Esiason, he looks great on a football card and he would look even better on a postage stamp.” Said Phillipsburg student Robin Torquati, “Bart Simpson. He’s a cool dude and he’s my idol.”

Bartmania lives on.

Simpsons Homer Dan Castellaneta Remembers Sam Simon – Some nice words from Homer himself:

“I first met Sam while we were doing “The Tracey Ullman Show.” My first memory of him from those days was that although he had already been in the business for a while, he was still kind of a wunderkind.
He’d be sitting there with all these experienced guys — Jerry Belson, Jim Brooks — and there’d be times when people would be stuck for a line. I’d see Sam thinking and talking to himself, and then he would say something. At least 70% to 90% of the time, it would be a really great, succinct line.

Mad Men’s Peggy Olson and the allure of TV spin-offs – Excellent usage:

“Spin-off”! Is there any word more thrilling to the human soul?” Troy McClure, the Simpsons’ fading actor once asked. It’s a question you’d imagine AMC would respond to with a resounding “yes”, given how eagerly they seem to be churning out the things.

Akira, Redrawn Using The Simpsons, Is Incredible – More Bartkira, including a .gif of Bart on the motorcycle.

Robyn Urback: An ode to ‘Simpsons’ co-creator Sam Simon, the most cromulent guy around – We’ve all had moments like this:

Indeed, The Simpsons facilitated a type of cartoon-osmosis through which I learned the songs of an 1878 comedic opera, though that was just one of many worthwhile literary and cultural references I absorbed by staring at the show every weekday. There were references to the Salem Witch Trials, the Freemasons, contemporary American politics, religious and environmental issues and so forth, all delivered through a cartoon cast that was somehow made real. And if you ask those who know the behind-the-scenes of the show best, that was Sam Simon’s doing.

The Glesga Simpsons: student gets creative with Scottish inspired drawings of hit show – Fan made Scottish Simpsons images.

Here’s exactly what would happen if EastEnders characters were in the Simpsons – Heading South from Scotland, here are some fictional Londoners done the same way.

Ranking The Simpsons Season 8 – a review – I’d probably only have “Burns, Baby Burns” and “The Homer They Fall” under the “Meh” category, but at least they’re both there.

Groening and Barry Take New York – I think these two might just make it in showbiz.  Not everyone gets a writeup in The New Yorker.

‘Milhouse From Memory’, A Book Featuring Artists’ Illustrations of Milhouse From ‘The Simpsons’ Drawn From Memory – The link has a couple of samples.  Cool.  (via @DailySimpsons)

RIP: Sam Simon – Our old friend Noah says goodbye in cartoon form.

Let’s NP-Ify: The Simpsons – And has some great sketches of the rest of Springfield.

The Thrill: Kimmy Schmidt, Can-Con, and the Simpsons – A CBC podcast that discusses Simon and his legacy starting at the 26:50 mark.  They also spend some time agreeing with us that the show has gone to hell.

Ron English x Garageworks Industries x The Simpsons 1:1 Bart Grin Sculpture – A four foot tall Bart sculpture with teeth that are borderline H.R. Geiger.  Neat.

The Way We Was – Love this line:

“Get off the edge of your seat. They got married, had kids, and bought a cheap TV, okay?”

Homer Simpson’s Profound Quotes In One Place – Some of these are a little screwy, but at least there’s some YouTube and very little Zombie Simpsons.

128th-Final, Round 4: Homer and Apu vs. Sideshow Bob Roberts – That’s a tough one.

128th-Final, Round 5: The Homer They Fall vs. Lady Bouvier’s Lover – But this is not.

7 Wild ‘Simpsons’ Fan Conspiracy Theories – Reader Dan O. sends in this list of pretty out there theories.  As he said via e-mail:

5. THERE ARE MULTIPLE MOLEMEN. LOL

The Simpsons Meets Metal! – Great fan made metal version of the opening theme song:

The Simpsons – Building an Icon Set by Oliver – Fan made set of Simpsons sketch icons.  Bravo.

Hey, Kwik-E-Mart truck: Where’s the (wadded) beef? – A picture of that truck they sent to SXSW.

Bruce Vilanch to Lead SIMPSONS Writer Mike Reiss’ RUBBLE Reading Next Week – Reiss wrote something (play? movie? I’m not sure):

The story of RUBBLE is as follows: Alvin (Vilanch), an aging, down-on-his-luck comedy writer who — much to his chagrin — has narrowly escaped fortune, fame, and Emmy awards, is on a last-chance meeting with a network executive. During a spirited pitch of his new series idea, “My Brother, The Pope,” a massive earthquake hits LA, leaving him buried up to his neck in a pile of rubble. What ensues are a series of hilarious visits – from his older-and-more-useless-than-dirt agent Lee (Adler) and his ex-wife Brie (Wilson), to a pompous Dad (Still) and a singing and dancing Jesus (Maroulis).

Lisa Simpson’s Guide to Geek Chic (Book Review) – They released another officially licensed book.  Here is a review of it.

April ’15 – Sonic Youth – Once you were on The Simpsons, it defines you forever:

JAMIE: I still remember the very first time I heard of Sonic Youth. It was about 1996 and a 12 year old me was watching an episode of The Simpsons called Homerpalooza.

Vintage-loving hipsters can eat my shorts – Excellent usage, albeit copied and pasted direcrtly from Wikiquote.

Hold on to your hats! – Nebel with a great pull:

In the episode “Brother from the Same Planet,” Homer engages in a long, drawn-out fist fight with Bart’s Bigger Brother, Tom. It wasn’t until I bought the DVD set of season 4 in 2004 that I learned this was a direct reference to the 1952 John Ford film.
Showrunner Al Jean explains in the episode’s audio commentary:
“We were looking to rewrite the ending of the show, and [Sam Simon] suggested that we look at the movie ‘The Quiet Man,’ the John Wayne movie where he and Victor McLaglen have this huge fight that goes all the way across Ireland. And I remember we came in on a Saturday to watch that movie, or to watch at least the fight sequence, which goes on for a long time.
It’s a great fight. Just two huge guys pounding each other all the way across Ireland. And the people in the community really love the fight. John Wayne, at one point, is dragging his wife across town, and a woman comes up and goes, ‘Here’s a stick for you to beat the pretty lady with.’ It’s these attitudes you certainly couldn’t put in a movie now.”

VIDEO: Conan And Zachary Quinto Remember Leonard Nimoy – O’Brien recalls freaking out when he first met Nimoy.

The Simpsons Kwik-E-Mart Comes to LEGO and Second Series of Minifigures – Want to see lots of pictures of the Lego Kwik-E-Mart?  Here you go.

“Stupid sexy Flanders” – True:

During times like this, it may be better to try not to think about the thing we want to remember. Rather, just relax and let your mind wander back to what it’s supposed to be thinking off in the first place.

It includes YouTube.

Ballarat Swap Meet: Barney – Streaking Barney as a hood ornament?  Awesome.

Good Old Classic Homer – “And Maggie Makes Three” really should be the official episode to get parents to let their kids watch the show.

100 Funny Signs From Around Springfield on “The Simpsons” – And very little Zombie Simpsons.

Sam Simon – Please to be forwarding this to the Zombie Simpsons staff:

Simon cuts straight to the heart of the matter. He tells Maron there are 3 rules for good writing:
1. Story above all.
2. Don’t be afraid of the quiet moments.
3. Love your characters.

Can’t Do It: TV Shows I Stopped Watching – This is about when I quit:

When I Bailed: Midway through Season 14

A Sam Simon lament: Depression in the creative industry – Among a discussion of how writing and sadness seem to go together, here’s a full George Carlin quote:

“The biggest problem, though, was that Sam Simon was a fucking horrible person to be around. Very, very funny, extremely bright and brilliant, but an unhappy person who treated other people poorly.”

Universal Studios Hollywood: March 2015 Harry Potter and Simpsons Construction Update – The Simpsons land is coming to California, and there are construction pictures.

Annoying Popcorn, and Some Stuff About Sam Simon – Plenty of us did this:

People think it’s ridiculous to say some entertainment was important for your childhood, but “the Simpsons” really impacted me. I remember watching it in kindergarten, but others say I was interested in it from birth. One of my favourite feelings in the world is lying around on a lazy Saturday, maybe when it’s raining outside, and watching reruns of the show. I did that all the time when I was a kid, and sometimes I still indulge. When I felt lonely being the little kid in the house, I watched the show. When I dreaded going to school the next day, I watched the show. When I came home from the mall where I was supposed to meet my dad – separated from my mum – and he didn’t show up, I watched the show.

It’s a guaranteed pick me up.

The 8 Tragic Misfortunes In ‘Homer At The Bat,’ Ranked – Ozzie Smith needs to be higher here.

Man Seeking Woman Creator: The Simpsons is Behind Every Great TV Comedy – It’s true!:

I’m sure the cause is a lot of factors as to why TV has gotten so good, and some are cultural, some are just a shift in commercial realities, but if I had to point to one thing, I would say it’s The Simpsons. I know that sounds simplistic, but I think 25 years ago, nobody had ever seen The Simpsons, and now, every comedy writer has seen The Simpsons, and as a result, comedy in America has gotten funnier. I’ve never been in a writers room before where somebody didn’t reference The Simpsons once an hour. I don’t know how you would ever write a good show without constantly trying not to rip off a specific Simpsons script. So if I had to point to one factor, it would just be the fact that every comedy writer in 2015 has seen between 50 and 200 episodes of The Simpsons.

New trending GIF tagged the simpsons mr burns… – Mr. Burns tenting his fingers.

New trending GIF tagged cartoon the simpsons the… – Blinky blinking.

New trending GIF tagged cartoons & comics cartoon… – Homer lounging in Herb’s pool.

New trending GIF tagged kiss 90s retro simpsons… – Homer kissing Flanders.

The Password Is: The Simpsons – How the show can warp on-line dating.

R.I.P. Sam Simon (1955-2015) – A fitting send off ends with:

There was a great outpouring of mourning and gratitude on social media following the news of Simon’s passing. All that can be said has been said by the right people.
So all I can say is: Thanks, Sam.

Amen.

Quote of the Day

“Oh, hi, Bart, how much this time?” – Ned Flanders
“Dude, you got me all wrong.” – Bart Simpson
“Yeah.  Just answer me this: are you holding your mooching sack?” – Ned Flanders
“My little one.” – Bart Simpson

Quote of the Day

“A soy based snack will calm me down.” – Lisa Simpson

Happy 20th Anniversary to “Lisa’s Wedding”! Original airdate 19 March 1995.

Compare & Contrast: Vintage Duff Commercials

“Only Duff fills your Q zone with pure beer goodness.  So drink up, and up, and up!” – Cartoon Doctor
“Duff Beer, proud sponsors of Amos ‘n Andy!” – Narrator 

It’s always nice when Zombie Simpsons provides a wealth of options for Compare & Contrast.  For “Waiting for Duffman”, I could’ve gone with Homer quitting drinking like he did in “Duffless”.  Of course, there he quits because Marge thinks he might have a problem and we see just how awful and ubiquitous beer advertising really is, whereas here he gets a fake microchip implanted in him and screams a lot.  I could’ve also gone with the Duff calendar contest from “Pygmoelian” against that hapless, celebrity voiced reality show facsimile they strung together this week.  I almost contrasted the time Lisa rejected being a corporate spokeshack in “Lisa the Beauty Queen” with Homer’s abrupt and nonsensical about face as Duffman.  Hell, I could’ve even gone with Homer being dropped into a store’s publicity event, which is done much better in “Homie the Clown” than it was this week.

Instead, I want to take a detailed look at that one-dimensional Yogi Bear beer commercial and how poorly it fares next to the one Homer and Barney see on the brewery tour in “Duffless”.  The premises here are exactly the same: wildly sleazy commercials from a time when advertising could get away with even more than they can these days.  The differences are all in the execution.

The problems with the Zombie Simpsons version begin even before the commercial itself.  The scene preceding the commercial is that big Game of Thrones montage that takes up nearly a minute and a half.  That thing finishes with Homer taking an oath in this room:

From there, the family and the beer guy are walking in this hall:

And from there, with nary a single word of intervening or introductory dialogue, they walk over to a TV and start watching:

Normally, I accuse Zombie Simpsons of overexplaining things, be they jokes, plot points, or whatever.  (And Jebus knows they do that enough elsewhere in this one.)  But this is them actually doing the opposite.  We can infer from the stuff on the walls that they’re in some kind of Duff museum, but the beer guy doesn’t appear to be giving them a tour (he certainly isn’t saying anything) and the TV they walk up to just snaps on without any of them so much as even looking at it.  Immediately they all stare at it and we go into the commercial in full.  There’s no transition, no continuity, just one unrelated bit stuck between two others.

By contrast, at the Duff Brewery in “Duffless”, not only do we know where they are and why they’re there, but we get a quick introduction that sets up the commercial.  The tour guide, fresh off denying that a batch of Duff had been contaminated with strychnine, says:

Here’s one of our favorite Duff beer commercials from the early 1950s.

This is how you set up a bit: it’s short, the tour guide is still in character with his fake pride (“one of our favorite”), and it seamlessly drops in the historical context.  From there we get the commercial itself, which is wall to wall with jokes at the expense of both Duff and the 1950s: “q zone”, the doctor telling people to drink “up, and up and up”, and, of course, “Proud Sponsors” of Amos & Andy, last and grandest of the nakedly racist mainstream minstrel shows.

Plus, look what Wikipedia just told me:

Adapted to television, The Amos ‘n Andy Show was produced from June 1951 to April 1953 with 78 filmed episodes, sponsored by the Blatz Brewing Company.

Real life Amos ‘n’ Andy was actually sponsored by a very Duff like beer brand, that’s fantastic!  That’s the kind of density this show has: it’s twenty years later and I just got something new.

Compare that with the unintroduced, not quite Yogi Bear ad.  This is the full transcript:

Narrator: When life looks hopeless, it’s not.

Chorus: Duff beer, feeling no pain/
Made from Canadian rain

Chorus: Tastes like nickle champagne/
Not Yogi: It will tickle your brain

Animals: Duff beer, feeling no pain/
Made from Canadian rain

By Zombie Simpson standards, that song is pretty good.  It only repeats a lyric once, and it doesn’t even have a clock eating montage stuffed into it.

But it also takes much longer than the commercial in “Duffless”, and, worse, it doesn’t come at the expense of anyone but Yogi.  It’s just this little, self contained thing that, however funny it may or may not be on its own, can be dropped into a random scene because it relates to precisely nothing else in the episode.

In addition to being part of an episode that goes out of its way to mock beer and beer advertising, the “Duffless” commercial had a point: the 1950s sucked and we are well rid of them.  Justly deserved ridicule is rained down on commercials where beer gets sold with health claims, minstrel shows on television, and the people dumb enough to fall for the former while enjoying the latter.  The Yogi hunting commercial, on the other hand, is little more than cartoon violence.

Ha ha, they got shot [snare drum].

And while there’s nothing wrong with cartoon violence (I’m certainly a fan), if you want to be The Simpsons or even pretend to, you need more than just that.  Your beer commercial needs to be part and parcel of a larger whole; one that itself is making fun of huge variety of subjects.  It’s a tall order, I know, and Zombie Simpsons is never up to it, but The Simpsons always was.

Quote of the Day

“Look, Dad, I don’t know what’s going on, but once you gave me some advice that might help.” – Bart Simpson
“I gave you advice?  Get out of here.” – Homer Simpson

Quote of the Day

“Homer, that’s our wedding photo.” – Marge Simpson
“Marge, quit living in the past.” – Homer Simpson

Behind Us Forever: Waiting for Duffman

“Hey, it’s Duffman, a guy in a costume who creates awareness of Duff!” – Lenny

I was just getting ready to watch last week’s Zombie Simpsons when news of Sam Simon’s death broke.  I guess Wiggum got a jetpack or something.  This week, however, there was nothing to do but plow through it, as Homer got yet another job, this time as Duffman, and quit drinking at the same time.

– Couch gag wasn’t too bad, right up until Homer’s severed head.  Which was weird.

– This bicycle parade just keeps going.  And it’s filled with that really formulaic “setup-beat-punchline” stuff that is the hallmark of uncreative sitcoms, like Lou telling Wiggum not to go into the donut shop, only to have Wiggum immediately go into the donut shop.

– Hospital sign “Wishing You a Cold, Smooth Recovery” is pretty good.

– Brockman’s little broadcast with the Chinese landing on Mars was brief, at least.

– Homer’s explaining why he wants to be Duffman.  I’ll bet this is not the last time we have this explained to us.

– The “America’s Next Top Whatever” game show thing is going on way too long.  This is almost as bad as that American Idol episode they did.

– At least Homer got stabbed in the eye and is bleeding.  Haven’t seen that in a few minutes.

– Oh, another Game of Thrones opening.  They like these, don’t they?

– Homer’s monologue vow thing is really bad and goes on for the better part of a minute.

– Even the old timey beer commercials are long and boring and expositive.

– That aside with the formula and safe certainly ate some time.  So nice of them to put in an object, have someone ask about it, then drop it completely.

– “Duffman can’t drink”, that got repeated several times.

– Now Marge is expositing while Homer moans and beats himself about the head.

– Did they have to have Flanders stare at the camera like that after the t-shirt cannon thing?  Is this what counts as fan service these days?

– Uh, why were Burns and Smithers at this whatever ceremony in costume?  Oh, right, meaningless filler.  Now I remember.

– Montage.

– And a really drawn out scene about there being lots of executives.  That just kept going.

– And now, Homer’s looking at people through a beer telescope from a blimp.

– We dodged a bullet on that blimp fire.  They actually cut away.

– Now, in an attach of conscious that has been preceeded by nothing except a weird blimp ride, Homer is against beer.

– Homer getting away again and again in a race car only to circle back.  I’m actually surprised they stopped at only three.

– “Now, there’s one way out of your hell, prove you still love beer.  Drink this.”  When they have lines, and whole exchanges like this, you know the ending is a mess.

– Now Homer is back at Moe’s because the episode needed to fill some more time.

– And now we’re revisiting the old Duffman.  Oof, this one must’ve come in even shorter than most.

– Nice little Simon tribute, though.

Anyway, the numbers are in and they remain awful.  Last night, just 3.61 million viewers wondered what job Homer was going to get next.  That’s good for #9 on the all time least watched list.  With (probably) five episodes to go in the season, last year’s record low viewership average of 4.99 million is in real jeopardy.  The current Season 26 average is 5.32 million, and numbers that continue in the 3.60 million range will drop it well below five million by the end of the year.

 

Quote of the Day

“Look at me, I’m the Prime Minister of Ireland!” – Homer Simpson