Quote of the Day

♫”Twelve yards long, two lanes wide, sixty-five tons of American pride! Canyonero . . . Canyonero!
Top of the line in utility sports, unexplained fires are a matter for the courts! Canyonero . . . Canyonero!”♫ – Hank Williams, Jr.

Makeup Quote of the Day

“Charity, huh? What’s my cut? Nothing! I make more than that taking a schvitz!” – Krusty the Klown

Quote of the Day

“What’d he say, Lisa? What’d he say?” – Marge Simpson
“He said there’s no shame in their forbidden love.” – Lisa Simpson
“Ooh, Diego’s not gonna like that.” – Marge Simpson
“Oh, Raul, llevame alla abajo de la bola de bailar!” – Soap Opera Lady
“Take me here, under the disco ball.” – Lisa Simpson

Happy birthday Yeardley Smith! 

Double Secret Makeup Quote of the Day

“You can be so cruel when you’re sober.” – Sideshow Mel
“Well, I’ll fix that! I’m goin’ on the bender to end all benders!” – Krusty the Klown

Quote of the Day

“Excuse me, sir, do you like to laugh?” – Laugh ‘Til You Care Guy
“Why, yes. Yes, I do.” – Homer Simpson
“Well, then you’ll love our comedy festival. It’s for a good cause.” – Laugh ‘Til You Care Guy
“A rest home for pirates?” – Homer Simpson

Quote of the Day

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” – Canyonero Guy #1
“I hope so.” – Canyonero Guy #2
“I thought I made myself clear in Boston.” – Canyonero Guy #1

Quote of the Day

“Four drink minimum?” – Marge Simpson
“I’ll cover you, honey.” – Homer Simpson

Quote of the Day

“Oh, pew, what were you drinking, gasoline?” – Bart Simpson
“Yes, I was drinking gasoline, mother.” – Krusty the Klown

Quote of the Day

“Mom, these are at least two sizes too big.” – Lisa Simpson
“Perfect, you’ll grow into them.” – Marge Simpson
“When?” – Bart Simpson
“Oh, you’re both way overdue for a spurt.” – Marge Simpson

Quote of the Day

“Look at my life. I’m talking to a monkey and a . . . I don’t know what the hell you are.” – Krusty the Klown

Quote of the Day

“These days, people like observational humor, about things they deal with in everyday life.” – Jay Leno
“Oh, yeah, you mean like when your lazy butler washes your sock garters and they’re still covered with schmutz?” – Krusty the Klown
“Well, kind of.” – Jay Leno

Quote of the Day

“Uh, Krusty?” – Bart Simpson
“Hang on, kid, I got a tack in my head.” – Krusty the Klown

Quote of the Day

“That’s where you’re wrong, pal.  It’s not enough to want a cracker, you have to earn it.” – Homer Simpson

Quote of the Day

“Hey.  Hey.  I’m Kent Brockman, the clown, filling in for Krusty the Clown, who didn’t come in today.  He is presumed dead or on vacation.  Today’s top joke, it seems a local moron threw his clock out the window.  We’ll tell you why, right after this.” – Kent Brockman

Quote of the Day

“Wow, a clown!  Do you think he’s evil?” – Todd Flanders
“He smells evil.” – Rod Flanders
“Should we tell Daddy?” – Todd Flanders
“No,  let’s poke him a little while longer.” – Rod Flanders

Quote of the Day

“Oh, rats.  Talk about bad luck.  I forgot to wear socks today.  Guess I can’t try those on.” – Lisa Simpson
“No problem, you can wear the store sock.” – Gil
“Eww.” – Lisa Simpson

Quote of the Day

“Look, Homer, there’s that bird you like to argue with.” – Marge Simpson
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Professor Know It All.  Excuse me, Marge.” – Homer Simpson

Reading Digest: Old Reviews Edition

“They say any publicity is good publicity.” – Sideshow Mel
“You, sir, are an idiot.” – Krusty the Klown

This week’s Reading Digest has quite a few links to people discussing and reviewing things that are at least a few years old.  Someone delved back into Ortved’s book, there’s a post comparing The Simpsons to their awful movie, and there’s even a brief discussion of one of John Swartzwelder’s novels.  There’s also an announcement from one site rewatching The Simpsons and the birth of a new one doing the same.  In addition to all that we’ve got the standard array of excellent usage and odd ephemera, including a song by Harry Shearer, awesome Swedish song lyrics, and the best food party ever.

Enjoy.

The Mission Statement – Smooth Charlie’s Link of the Week is a new blog that is dedicating itself to going through all the old episodes:

The idea: To watch every single Simpsons episode in order, from Season 1 to present, and give whatever commentary I can.

Is this an original idea? Probably not in the slightest. I can think of a few similar things off the top of my head, and credit where credit is due, chiefly to markreads.net where I first got the strange notion that people might actually be interested in what some dude says about stuff on the internet. If anyone’s tried this specific undertaking before, then my apologies for seemingly stealing your idea – I can at least promise that I didn’t steal your brain, and so my thoughts on each episode should at least be different from yours.

He’s through four episodes so far and uses a lot of screen grabs to illustrate his points.  The main URL is here.  Good luck, and I hope you keep it up!

A Brief Announcement – Our old friend Mike is still doggedly plowing through the old episodes, most recently “The Springfield Connection”.  But he’s also going back to school, and that means his time is getting reduced right as he’s entering the ever declining era of the show.  Honestly, I think a slower posting regimen might be an improvement.  I’ve enjoyed his posts, but he puts them up with such frequency that I haven’t been able to read them all.  Good luck as well.

Giant donut and Skittlebrau highlight of Simpsons food party – The click is worth it for the giant donut picture alone, but there are also a lot of tips for pulling off some of the stranger foods the show came up with.

A Look at The Simpsons’ Failed Prime Time Cartoon Competitors – There was that brief spasm of network enthusiasm to copy The Simpsons in the early 1990s.  It, uh, didn’t work.

The Return of the Sitcom Laugh Track – My loathing of laughtracks is well documented.  Here’s some nice support for it:

A 1974 study published in The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suggested that laugh tracks did prompt some laughter at unfunny jokes. More recently, however, Dartmouth professor Bill Kelley studied brain scans of folks watching samples of both Seinfeld (laugh-tracked) and The Simpsons (non-laugh-tracked), and discovered that the laugh regions of their brains lit up equally, whether cued or not. Put those two pieces of research together, and you may have your answer: If the show’s funny, a laugh track doesn’t make any difference. If it’s not, the laff box may help.

That sounds about right.  The only thing I’d add is that when something actually is funny it’s kind of a distraction.  Also, it wrecks timing.  And it feels like orders.  God I hate laughtracks. 

Sideshow Bob | Flickr – I’m not even sure what you’d call this, but it’s a drawing of Sideshow Bob, on a mail label that’s been stuck to a no smoking sign.  Oh, and Bob is saying “Fuck You”.

Made with the love of a mama – Awesome:

Now her family is grown with their own families and is spread out across Canada; she now has 21 grandchildren and 16 great grand children. She wanted to be able be an active part of her children’s lives so seven years ago she set up a mobile seamstress business and has been basically living out of her car between traveling rotations at her children’s homes.

Her son-in-law suggested she make a Maggie Simpson inspired jump suit for infants.

"I didn’t even know what the Simpsons was. So he showed me and from there I decided to make them. I made a pattern and the ‘star suits’ have been selling like hot cakes ever since. I can’t make them enough" said Bernier, who had a booth with her hand made items at the Festival of Trees in Stony Plain two weekends ago.

Sadly there’s no photo of a completed Maggie star suit.

The Sexy League of Busssssssy – Oh, Toronto, you have all the fun.  First Classic Simpsons Trivia, now geek themed burlesque shows:

The cast switches up each time but organizers (the aforementioned Betty & Leelando in addition to Sevvy Skellington) have already determined the next theme: Simpsons! Wheeeeeee!

Is it called “We Put the Spring in Springfield”?  You know it is.  March 10th, 2012.

Our Favorite (Fake) Booze – Some fantastic fake beers, including a great Duff poster.

Dope Art: No Homer Edition…… – According to the post these were done a few years ago for Format Magazine, and they are spectacular.  Though I don’t think you can really capture the style of a guy like Andre 3000 in a drawing. 

The Science of Sarcasm? Yeah, Right – Ooh, studies about sarcasm, that’s real useful science!  (via)

Top 7 Adult Cartoons – There was a list with some love for Mission Hill in last week’s Reading Digest, but here Oakley and Weinstein’s ill-fated program snags the top spot.  The Simpsons comes in at #3.

Quirky App Of The Day: Homerisms – A free iPhone app that displays Homer quotes.

The Darkside of Black Friday – Given the occasionally violent insanity of the Friday after Thanksgiving, here’s a Simpsons suggestion for next year:

When there are problem people like this I like to look to The Simpsons for guidance. Two episodes come to mind. The first episode that comes to mind is when the nuclear power plant Homer works at is up for inspection.  Smithers gathers the dumbest employees in the basement and puts them in charge of guarding a bee. Of course Homer “the head bee guy” knocks over the jar containing the bee and gets stung just and pops out of a conveniently placed man hole right where the inspectors happened to be standing. The other episode is a similar situation only at the elementary school. Superintendent Chalmers is coming for a visit and Principal Skinner gathers up the worst kids in the school and locks them in the basement, telling them they have all won new mountain bikes. Of course Bart gets out and hits the superintendent in the rear with a tractor.

Although these plans backfired on Smithers and Principle Skinner I think with the proper planning we can lead the most dangerous Black Friday shoppers into a locked basement with the promise of free garbage. That way American consumers will be able to shop for their precious “Fast Five” Blu-Ray for three dollars with out fear of being shived.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Family – Cute picture of a five-year-old freaking out next to one of those life sized Homer statues that came out with the movie.

Vildhjarta, Masstaden, and the Simpsons – I’m not up on Swedish metal these days, but this is pretty cool:

So Vildhjarta has finally released their long anticipated full-length album Masstaden.    I happened to be reading posts to Vildhjarta from fans today on Got-Djent.com and came across a post that translated the bands songs from Swedish to English.

“Benblåst = Bonestorm (got this title from simpsons actually!)

Ha.

QUICK QUESTION: Which TV Shows Have Had the Best Holiday Episodes? – “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire” is the headline act here.  Jebus, I love that episode.

Review: John Ortved’s The Simpsons, The: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History – Pretty much what it says.  He identifies most of the same problems that I did when I reviewed this way back when, but he’s a bit more perturbed by the book’s negatives than I was.  Also, nice WordPress theme.

Review: The Time Machine Did It by John Swartzwelder – Yet another person who thinks Swartzwelder’s novel is funny.  This, though, is pretty innovative:

Bottom Line: Sharpie over the text on the front of the book “By the writer of 59 Episodes of The Simpsons” and recommend it to your long-time friends mom who wouldn’t let you watch The Simpsons over at their house when you were a kid. She’ll probably still hate it.

Heh.

Doh! Motorist arrested after police chase – Peoria, IL – The ancillary benefits of adding Simpsons to your vehicle:

Shortly before 10:30 p.m. Friday, a reserve officer with the McDonough County Sheriff’s Department spotted a vehicle reported as stolen — a 2005 Ford Escape with a Homer Simpson character affixed to the grille — on U.S. Route 67 near the Good Hope junction.

Homer Simpson Theme – A Homer theme for Firefox.  I haven’t tried it, but it is there.

The Simpsons’ Best Episode: Stark Raving Dad – This is massive click bait, but it makes a couple of good points.

Pepper-spray cop ballad sung by Harry Shearer, voice of Mr. Burns – Burns may be a poster boy for the 1%, but Harry Shearer ain’t having it.  The song is funny, and includes great lines like, “So I adjusted my goals/started beating up proles” and “It’s eat or be eaten/it’s not me who’ll be beaten”.

Candy Gives Us So Much Pleasure, So Why Shouldn’t We Return the Favor? – This is stupid, but I chuckled.

San Francisco Giants Positional Breakdown: Right Field – Excellent usage:

"I’m afraid all of those players have retired and, uh… passed on. In fact, your right-fielder has been dead for a hundred and thirty years." -Smithers "The Simpsons" (Homer at the Bat)

7 hit shows that have stayed too long at the party – TheWrap.com thinks Zombie Simpsons has overstayed its welcome.  They’re awfully gentle, but the conclusion is dead on:

And by the time "The Simpsons" hits its 25th season — it was renewed earlier this year for its 24th and 25th seasons — we’re going to be longing even more for those earlier years when the show could still surprise us.

Attempted Chemistry – Who Shot The Simpsons? – And finally, I get to end with someone who agrees with us.  Going through “Who Shot Mr. Burns” and comparing it to the crap that’s out today (including the movie), he writes:

Released in 2007, The Simpsons Movie was a missed opportunity to return to form, to rethink the show and to produce something that, if not as good as it’s giddy heights of yore, could at least be mentioned in the same breath.

Instead they put together a flimsy, overly long glorified episode that, while it had it had some laughs, must be held dear to no one.

It probably isn’t. 

Compare & Contrast: Flapping Dickey

“It ain’t comedy that’s in my blood; it’s selling out.” – Krusty the Klown

I’ve started quite a few Compare & Contrast posts this season by noting that there were a lot of different possibilities for what to compare and contrast.  It’s true as well for “The Man in the Blue Flannel Pants”, the two big, blinking neon obvious ones being the raft trip and Homer becoming an executive.  The raft trip in “Boy Scoutz ‘N the Hood” contains things like Flanders doing “Eeny, meeny, miny, moe” with the books of the Gospel and Homer actually bragging that they’re all doomed.  The promotion in “Simpson and Delilah” is because of a crooked union contract and comes only because of the world’s prejudice against bald people.  (Oh, and there’s Karl.  I love you Karl.)  In both cases The Simpsons had things that fit better in the overall story, made more sense, and were actually, you know, funny.  I could elaborate, but I’ve harped on those things a lot in the last few weeks.  Instead I’d instead like to take a look at a smaller incident that illustrates the comedic weakness of Zombie Simpsons. 

Back in Season 9, as a way to explain that Krusty’s clown/1950s standup routine was painfully dated (oh, the irony!) they had him epically bomb at a charity comedy festival.  Just as things are going completely off the rails, none other than Jay Leno asks rhetorically, “What’s he gonna do next, a flapping dickey?”.  Immediately Krusty indeed begins, ahem, flapping his dickey.  The audience remains unimpressed, and Krusty swiftly gets the hook. 

Simpsons era Krusty knew this wasn’t funny.

On Zombie Simpsons though, the flapping dickey is a working gag rather than a sign of being abysmally unfunny.  Its mere existence is supposed to be funny in and of itself.  (It even goes to 11.)  Moreover, Krusty is expecting it to work.  As he says, “Why can’t I be funny with just my words?  Bill Maher doesn’t put dangerous things near his crotch.”  Zombie Simpsons is thinking something like “A flapping dickey?  That could be funny if we make it extreme!”.  Yes, they’re implying that Krusty is lame, but at the same time they’re expecting you, the audience, to laugh at the thing itself. 

Apparently the spinning bowtie didn’t make the cut.

This episode has a lot of problems far worse than its earnest treatment of the flapping dickey, even including the scene’s lame conclusion when Krusty’s machinery backfired and he fell down.  But it’s indicative of the overall cheapness that Zombie Simpsons brings to its humor.  It’s one thing to take low hanging comedy fruit, it’s another to take the stuff that already fell off the tree and try to package it as gourmet. 

Nor is the flapping dickey an isolated incident.  Just in this episode there’s things like pouring Homer a bunch of consecutive glasses of bourbon, pretty much everything (the wrong family, the chopped up contract, the lawn mower-foot thing) from that montage, and Homer stopping to take a whiz while swimming between the rafts that inexplicably can’t see each other.  If you’re feeling generous you could give them high marks for at least trying to keep things busy, but are any of those things supposed to actually be funny?  They aren’t even halfway to clever. 

Things like this are why Zombie Simpsons is such a bore to watch if you want to do anything other than stare blankly.  It’s a hash of things that have been done better before and the dumbest, least imaginative things anyone could think of.  That’s why the flapping dickey is such a perfect example, it’s not just a repeat, it’s a repeat of something that was deliberately not funny. 

Crazy Noises: The Last Temptation of Krust

“But you endorse everything!  In fact, this endorsement contract comes from your line of legal forms.” – Canyonero Guy
“It’s a quality form.” – Krusty the Klown

There’s no new Zombie Simpsons until September at the earliest (October? fingers crossed!), so we’re going to spend the summer overthinking Season 9.  Why Season 9?  Because we did Season 8 last summer, and Season 9 was when the show started becoming more Zombie than Simpsons.  Since we’re too lazy to do audio and too ugly to do video, we’ve booked a “chatroom” (ours is right between the one with the sexy seventh graders and the one with the bored federal agents pretending to be sexy seventh graders).  So log on to your dial-up AOL and join us.  This text has been edited for clarity and spelling (especially on “Garofalo”).

Today’s episode is 915 “The Last Temptation of Krust”.  Yesterday’s was 920 “The Trouble With Trillions”.  In a special twist this week, Bob Mackey joined us.

 

Mad Jon: I have many strange mixed feelings about this episode.

Charlie Sweatpants: Strange and mixed feelings like being in the locker room as a twelve year old, or the other kind?

Mad Jon: Can’t it be both?

bobservo: Even at the time, it astounded me that an episode about stand-up comedy would feature such greats as Jay Leno, Bruce Baum, and Bobcat Goldthwait.

Mad Jon: And not have any of them tell a joke?

bobservo: I mean, The Simpsons still had a lot of pull in the 90s — couldn’t they have gotten anyone better?

But I at least give them credit for making Jay Leno more likable and funny than he is in reality.

Charlie Sweatpants: The quality of the stand up comedians is kind of lacking. But, with the exception of Leno, they’re just there as background.

Mad Jon: I get that. However, I did find Garofalo just as funny in this episode as I do in real life.

Dave: Which is to say not at all?

Charlie Sweatpants: Do you need a setup for your punchline about how that means she’s not funny?

  Oh, Dave did it.

bobservo: The problem with this episode is that it tries to create humor that both we and the characters accept as being funny. That’s an impossible feat in writing without coming off as being disgustingly self-congratulatory.

Mad Jon: I thought the punch line was implied.

Charlie Sweatpants: Bob, you kinda lost me on that point.

bobservo: It’s a hard point to get across.

In The Simpsons (and I guess in fictional comedies in general), most characters are not aware that we, the viewers, are finding their various situations and predicaments funny.

Charlie Sweatpants: I’m with you so far.

bobservo: Which is why Krusty’s new Carlin-y act is embarrassing. It’s supposed to be intentionally funny from the character’s point of view, but it’s not.

So it’s strange to see the fictional audience laughing at something that we are also supposed to find funny.

  Sorry, this is a baffling concept that I’m still trying to grapple with.

Charlie Sweatpants: Well, I think his press conference is better than his standup at Moe’s (which has standup now, dontchaknow).

bobservo: Oh yeah, definitely.

Mad Jon: Every night of the week apparently.

Charlie Sweatpants: The press conference is making fun of the mostly low quality of standup, where as the actual standup is just regular, low quality standup.

bobservo: I’ll stop going in this direction if I’m confusing everyone, but it seems like Krusty’s new, edgy persona was more of a tribute to Carlin than a send-up, which is why it failed in my eyes.

It was just a writer imitating Carlin, rather than satirizing his style.

Charlie Sweatpants: What bugs me, and Bob maybe this is my clumsy definition of what you’re grappling with, is that they’re imitating both audience and performer. Krusty’s bomb at the charity festival is supposed to be terrible, and it is, but why would I want to watch that? And his edgy performances at Moe’s basically have a laughtrack, which I hate.

bobservo: The writers did plenty of Dangerfield-style jokes in Burns Baby Burns, but they also satirized his jokes a bit.

Charlie Sweatpants: Either you’re the performer or the audience, you can’t be both.

Mad Jon: Well, this got pretty deep pretty fast.

Charlie Sweatpants: And I’m not even high.

Mad Jon: I should have taken more notes.

bobservo: I think Krusty bombing in front of The Simpsons was his funniest “act,” since we had the interplay of the family. It was also a good parody of observational humor.

Charlie Sweatpants: That’s a good point, that really was parody.

bobservo: In that you could take a lot of Seinfeld-style jokes and kind of point out how they’re not so clever because the writer/performer is ignoring various things.

Charlie Sweatpants: If you ever did a word cloud of Carlin or Seinfeld’s standup, “notice” and it’s variations would be huge.

bobservo: Maybe we should move on to plot stuff?

Mad Jon: So would Fuck. But Krusty didn’t say that in this one.

Standup without vulgarity is like weekends without beer.

  Eat me Sinbad.

bobservo: I dunno, pre-sitcom Cosby was pretty good.

If you can believe that.

Charlie Sweatpants: It was, strangely enough.

Mad Jon: I’ll have to take your word for it, I barely remember the sitcom.

Charlie Sweatpants: But in terms of plot, this one doesn’t bother me as much.

Mad Jon: It’s more boring than bad.

Charlie Sweatpants: It puts a lot more care in solving the problem of getting a Simpson (in this case Bart) to interact with the rich and powerful (in this case Krusty) than the Trillions episode does with Homer and Burns.

Dave: Yeah, boring basically sums up my take.

Mad Jon: In the writer’s defense it was all plot driven behavior.

bobservo: This isn’t really plot-related, but I noted two good jokes that were kind of ruined by the writers revisiting them. As if we needed a reminder to understand why said jokes are funny.

Dave: What are those, Bob?

Charlie Sweatpants: The real conceit is that Krusty would pass out in the Flanders yard, but it’s done in one quick scene instead of the extended horror that is Burns tour of his mansion for Homer

bobservo: I enjoyed the Bart and Krusty stuff, as well as his undying love for the clown, despite Krusty continually treating him like dirt.

Charlie Sweatpants: Yes, what are they? I didn’t mean to step on your toes there.

bobservo: No prob.

Mad Jon: Ah the treachery of the chat room.

bobservo: “There’s that bird you like to argue with.” It’s funny on its own, and we don’t need to see Homer actually argue with the bird.

Mad Jon: That definitely was a self-inflicted gun wound.

bobservo: And that weird little follow-up to Lisa burying the money. Kind of sucked the darkness out of a great joke.

Mad Jon: two for two.

Charlie Sweatpants: I’m going to disagree with both of you on both jokes.

Mad Jon: Do as you wish.

Dave: I’m going to disagree with the second.

bobservo: I can entertain disagreements.

Charlie Sweatpants: I like that Homer’s disagreeing with a parrot wanting a cracker. That he doesn’t realize the parrot isn’t actually debating him makes it work.

Lisa’s little moment of thumbs up sweetness isn’t as good, but it passes very quickly. As a joke callback it’s quick enough that I don’t mind it.

bobservo: I guess I might be willing to waffle on the second joke, but I think the actual parrot argument is less funny that it could have been if it was only implied.

Dave: I like the cake-topper aspect of Lisa’s joke. Like Charlie said, it’s quick and painless.

Mad Jon: Meh.

Charlie Sweatpants: I think the fact that all the parrot is saying is that it wants a cracker adds something substantive to it.

Mad Jon: Yeah, I can see that.

I still like the reference to conflict jokes when Homer is involved.

bobservo: It’s clever, but I don’t think it’s necessary.

Charlie Sweatpants: Fair enough, honestly the only thing I don’t like about the very beginning is Gil.

Mad Jon: Agreed.

bobservo: Yeah, Gil’s actually crammed into both of these episodes.

Mad Jon: One of Gil’s less than stellar moments.

bobservo: They sure seemed to love Gil.

Dave: Gil’s a non-character that has had more screen time than is reasonable.

Mad Jon: Gil reminds me of Jimmy Fallon

Charlie Sweatpants: When did “Glengarry Glen Ross” come out on DVD? Were they binging on it while writing Season 9?

Mad Jon: Both were present after the death of Phil Hartman, but neither could ever hope to fill his shoes. And I have to watch.

bobservo: I think Realty Bites made them go Gil-crazy.

Mad Jon: He did have a couple of good lines in that one.

bobservo: Yeah, I liked him in that episode.

Charlie Sweatpants: That goes to the overall lack of creative depth in these declining seasons, they came up with a good idea, and instead of coming up with more they recycled it ad nauseum.

I still like this episode though, there’s just too many good jokes, from “Maybe if he had better arch support they wouldn’t have caught him”, to “Don’t you hate pants”, to the Canyonero.

Dave: Take me here under the disco ball.

Charlie Sweatpants: That’s a great joke.

Mad Jon: I agree on all these points. Although the pants joke is another one that in my book didn’t need following up, i.e. the pants being thrown.

bobservo: I really love Marge’s reaction to the “Do you like to laugh?” guy. And how he moves on to Homer while she’s still talking.

Mad Jon: The survey guy is near classic throwaway Simpsons

Charlie Sweatpants: Agreed.

This one has enough solid actual humor shot through it that I don’t mind it’s relatively minor flaws, whereas Trillions is mostly flaws with a few jokes keeping things from being completely dead.

Mad Jon: I would most certainly rank this one significantly higher than Trillions

Dave: It’s higher than Trillions but not on my regular playlist.

bobservo: I enjoy the core story, though a lot of the surrounding material is meh.

Dave: The quality of jokes does not make up for what is, in my book, just a boring episode through and through.

Mad Jon: Not much from 9 goes on my regular list.

Charlie Sweatpants: Does this one?

bobservo: What does? I’m just curious.

Mad Jon: No.

Charlie Sweatpants: You’re harsher than me.

Mad Jon: From 9?

Less patient is probably more apt.

Charlie Sweatpants: I’ll agree with that.

Dave: For me, the episodes are Lisa’s Sax, The City of New York Vs. Homer Simpson, and a couple others that escape me now.

bobservo: I find myself a little more forgiving of seasons 9 and 10 than the general DHC consensus.

Charlie Sweatpants: I’m much harsher on 10 than I am on 9.

Mad Jon: From 9 you’d probably find “Lisa’s Sax” “Trash of the Titan” and “King of the Hill” although the last one is a bit of a guilty pleasure.

Dave: I think I’m the outlier here, Bob, in that I generally loath both.

Charlie Sweatpants: I think I said this last week, but for my money 9 to 10 was the biggest single season drop in quality.

bobservo: Agreed.

Mad Jon: 10 is almost completely entirely unwatchable.

  But I think we can wait until next summer to talk about why.

Charlie Sweatpants: There’s a pleasant thought.

bobservo: I’m scared.

Mad Jon: Sorry to ruin your night, or year, whatever you’re thinking.

Dave: Year. You bastard.

Mad Jon: But assuming we don’t get sued or most of us die between now and then, it’s probably going to happen.

Charlie Sweatpants: To put it in perspective, here the Canyonero is a nice gag to end the show and make fun of SUVs, the next season they built a whole episode around it.

Mad Jon: Oh yeah, that was only season 10?

  Goodness, they really do all blend together after nine.

  The Canyonero commercial is pretty funny.

bobservo: I think the Canyonero stuff validates this episode.

If only for the line “unexplained fires are a matter for the court.”

Dave: The song is eminently catchy and hummable.

Mad Jon: I like how it smells like steak.

Charlie Sweatpants: Sixty-five tons of American pride!

bobservo: Is this the episode where they bring up the Canyonero’s mileage?

Charlie Sweatpants: I don’t think it’s this episode.

Mad Jon: I don’t think so either.

Charlie Sweatpants: They’ve ruled it unsafe for highway or city driving, but I don’t think there’s a mention of the mileage.

bobservo: Just checking.

  I just remember “1 highway, 0 city.”

Or maybe I made that up.

Mad Jon: That may be from the devoted episode next season.

bobservo: Right, right.

Charlie Sweatpants: I think it is, I’m not willing to wade through it just now.

Okay, so the standup comedy leaves something to be desired and Gil didn’t need to be here, but there’s quite a few good jokes. How’s that by way of summary?

Mad Jon: Appropriate

bobservo: I’ll agree with that.

  And an unrealistically flattering portrayal of Leno.

Dave: That works.

Charlie Sweatpants: Okay then, I think we’re done.

  Bob, thanks for joining us.

Mad Jon: Thanks Bob.

  It was interesting to have a different person in on the breakdowns.

bobservo: Cool, hope this was productive.

Dave: It was fun, thanks Bob.

bobservo: Thanks for having me