The Simpsons - General Discussion

[JTMacc99]

So I just got a joke that somehow went over my head for the last twenty years.

From the clip show:

Lisa: "Like Halloween and Christmas, April Fools day traces its origins to pagan ritual."

Homer: "God bless those pagans."

 

Me, from the other room, "Hey... HOW HAVE I NEVER GOT THAT JOKE BEFORE?"  

Edited November 22, 2016 by JTMacc99

[BooksRule]

From 'A Milhouse Divided' (1996):

Rev. Lovejoy:  'Kirk, it's only a game.  Sometimes, we...'

Kirk Van Houten:  'Ah, cram it, Churchie!'

[honeywest]

"Marge, when I commit myself to an underground cult I expect a little support from my family!"

[honeywest]

Nelson: "How many monkey butlers will there be?"

Bart: "One at first, but he'll train the others."

[BooksRule]

Homer (to Marge):  'Now you're just making up rules!  Who made you Judge Judy and executioner?'

[honeywest]

Pilot: "Anything for a fellow Marine."

Homer: "Semper fudge."

Pilot: "Did you say 'Semper fudge'?"

Homer: "No, I said the right thing."

* * *

Marge: "Homie, what are you doing? You don't know how to fly a plane!"

Homer: "I drove a car over a cliff once; how different could it be?"

[honeywest]

Homer: "Aw, can't we have French fries?"

Cheech Marin: "Too high in trans-fats."

Homer: "Stop speaking Spanish!"

[Galileo908]

Quote

Homer has the opportunity to sue Mr. Buirns after a workplace accident; Marge seeks romance from an unexpected source; Lisa tries to maintain peace on the school bus.

[Galileo908]

Intro: Bubsby Berkley guy!

Couch Gag: Weird firing squad painting bit.

Burns has his own Enchanted Tiki Room, I'm jealous.

"Developed by?! What does that even mean?!" I love 4th wall credit gags. (Homer ate a "Developed By" credit at the beginning of one of the THOH episode. I forget which one)

I liked Smithers' attempts to get Homer to sign liability waivers, but it'll never top the waiver that led to the First Annual Montgomery Burns Awards For Outstanding Achievement in The Field of Excellence. I did like Marge & Smithers bonding because of "what do you see in Homer/Burns." It's quite sad and great.

Really liked Lisa's 1984 daydream about seating on the bus. They've spoofed this before, but I gotta give credit to Lisa for dressing for the part. She even included Ralph sitting next to his leprechaun that tells him to burn things. And of course no one's sitting next to Milhouse.

"S.O.S. This message could not be more clearer. The children need more sauce on their spaghetti!" That was great.

Burns ate the town panda, but my headcanon is telling me it's the same one that raped Homer, so I call that a win.

Edited December 5, 2016 by Galileo908

[Spartan Girl]

Homer summed it up perfectly: "Marge, your idea of fun makes me want to blow my brains out." 

Yet another episode where we are supposed to feel sorry for Marge while overlooking her hypocrisy. Homer can't be friends with a woman he has zero feelings for, but it's okay for Marge to form a romantic emotion attachment to Smithers as long as she takes her sexual frustration on Homer. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you double standards. She really is the Kellyanne Conway of cartoon characters.

I did love Mr. Burns' tiki room and the Mad Max school bus.

[TVSpectator]

I so want to have Mr. Burns' Tiki room. 

One thing that kind of bother me was that after Marge and Homer have sex on the couch Homer stopped wearing his bandages and was moving around like he was fully healed, which made me wonder if anyone would accuse him of faking his injury.

 

I also enjoyed how power hungry Lisa became and also how the bus turned into Mad Max. 

Edited December 5, 2016 by TVSpectator

[ottoDbusdriver]

Have we seen that new lawyer before ?  He's no Lionel Hutz, but I like his phone number.

[TVSpectator]

5 minutes ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

Have we seen that new lawyer before ?  He's no Lionel Hutz, but I like his phone number.

I don't think so. He seems like a totally new character. 

[Galileo908]

15 minutes ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

Have we seen that new lawyer before ?  He's no Lionel Hutz, but I like his phone number.

555...ah jeez, that's gotta be phony.

[ottoDbusdriver]

2 minutes ago, Galileo908 said:

555...ah jeez, that's gotta be phony.

Uh, what's the number between the first three 5s and the last six 5s ?  Homer at his finest.  Right up there with what the V in 'VIP' stands for on their trip to Washington.

[Galileo908]

or "Operator, give me the number for 911!"

Edited December 5, 2016 by Galileo908

[Galileo908]

Quote

Krusty and his daughter spend Christmas with the Simpsons; Reverend Lovejoy tries to attract converts aftrt church attendance drops; a spooky Christmas toy haunts Maggie.

Edited December 12, 2016 by Galileo908

[Galileo908]

Intro: The three ghosts! (Lisa: Past, Barney: Present, Burns: Future)

Couch Gag: Burns summons the Christmas Hounds! Great.

Hey, it's Krusty's daughter we forgot about for about 16 years! And after all this time, Krusty is STILL a bad father one week out of the year. Speaking of recycled themes: Itchy & Scratchy getting sanitized (with bonus Poochie), the Psycho violin fakeout (The Springfield Files), and the joke about getting 20 seconds of room tone (the ep with Colbert). This was less of a straight story and just a collection of scenes.

Yeah, it's about time this show tackled Elf on A Shelf and it was appropriately creepy. Even Wayne Gretzky can't stand up to a gnome with a gun. I liked the name "Narc in The Park," I wish we saw that one.

Man, everyone's sounding old it was distractig: Julie Kavner, Harry Shearer, Jackie Mason, whoever was playing Sophie now. It was Natasha Lyonne, so pretty much the opposite of Drew Barrymore.

[TVSpectator]

1 hour ago, Galileo908 said:

Intro: The three ghosts! (Lisa: Past, Barney: Present, Burns: Future)

Couch Gag: Burns summons the Christmas Hounds! Great.

 

I really did enjoy that the Christmas Hounds had little antlers on them. So festive for Burns to do it. 

 

As with this story, I prefer the Elf on the Shelf  and also that Maggie went full Fargo on both of them (and why would Marge need a paper slicer?)

[ottoDbusdriver]

3 hours ago, Galileo908 said:

Hey, it's Krusty's daughter we forgot about for about 16 years! And after all this time, Krusty is STILL a bad father one week out of the year. Speaking of recycled themes: Itchy & Scratchy getting sanitized (with bonus Poochie), the Psycho violin fakeout (The Springfield Files), and the joke about getting 20 seconds of room tone (the ep with Colbert). This was less of a straight story and just a collection of scenes.

Yeah, it's about time this show tackled Elf on A Shelf and it was appropriately creepy. Even Wayne Gretzky can't stand up to a gnome with a gun. I liked the name "Narc in The Park," I wish we saw that one.

Man, everyone's sounding old it was distractig: Julie Kavner, Harry Shearer, Jackie Mason, whoever was playing Sophie now. It was Natasha Lyonne, so pretty much the opposite of Drew Barrymore.

Complete with Krusty's Custody Calendar -- did Krusty say that he gets Sophie one week a year ?  It would have been even funnier if it was Krusty's Kustody Kalendar.  Just saying.  I liked that the balloon Bart had in the hospital was a Krusty Get Well balloon.

Phone-Henge -- Hah !!  Ba'al Pit -- that was good too.

Why was there an ice sculpture of Stevie Nicks in Jack Frost's Ice Garden ?  

Sign at Springfield Hospital: The Perfect Christmas Gift ? Your Organs !

Krusty's source for elephant pain killers was none other than Dr. Nick Riviera (per the business card he gave to the nurse).

The Krusty the Klown Sober Contemplation Hour.   Pray Pray Kids.

Highlights in the Advent Calendar:
Day 1 -- Smithers and Santa
Day 3 -- Lisa and Grandpa (dressed as Santa)
Day 4 -- Nelson
Day 5 -- Hans Moleman with a sign that says Seasons Greetings
Day 6 -- Lisa as an angel
Day 9 -- Bart being strangled
Day 10 -- Snowball 2 (3 ? 4 ? whatever) with Xmas antlers
Day 11 -- Nativity scene with Mr. Teeny as baby Jesus
Day 12 -- Marge with her hair decorated as a Xmas Tree
Day 15 -- Maggie in a Xmas stocking
Day 16 -- Moe in a Santa hat
Day 17 -- the Grumple
Day 18 -- Comic Book Guy holding a sign that says 'Bah! Humbug'
Day 19 -- Funzo
Day 20 -- Kang and Kodos
Day 21 -- Selma kissing Sideshow Bob under the mistletoe

[Kaboom 2.0]

Thank you for the list of Advent calendar images! Even though I paused the dvr a few times I missed a few. Enjoyed this ep more than I thought I would especially Mr. Burns' Christmas hounds and their adorbs reindeer antlers. 

Loved Maggie ridding herself of all of those creepy Elves on the Shelf first via paper cutter and then via lawn mower. That's my girl! 

[xander874]

My cousins do elf on the shelf with their kids and I just don't get it. I think it's creepy and kind of mean. So, I'm glad they tackled it. The Gnome sounded just like the Robot Devil from Futurama so that was a bit distracting for me.

I guess Drew Barrymore wasn't available to reprise her role? That seemed odd to me. Between the Gnome, Lovejoy and Krusty, this episode felt a little too busy.

And I admit to being a Judaism dunce, but who was sitting next to God at the end?  I thought both religions had the same God.

[honeywest]

Homer: "Oh, you want the Mr. Plow who does driveways. This is Tony Plow, from Leave It to Beaver."

[Galileo908]

Quote

Marge becomes obsessed with the Japanese way of life; Homer must find a new home for the family pig and Lisa must say godbye to her saxophone.

[ottoDbusdriver]

46 minutes ago, Galileo908 said:

Quote

Homer must find a new home for the family pig

The Return of Spiderpig ???

ETA:  Yes !!!!!!

Edited January 9, 2017 by ottoDbusdriver

[Spartan Girl]

Spider-Pig/Plopper brings more joy as a cameo character than Marge ever does as a main one.

[Galileo908]

Intro: Goodbye and Good Riddance 2016!

Couch Gag: Merch that Bart can't buy! That's great.

Heh, so the Simpsons car is a Plymouth. An 86 Junkarola to be exact.

Spider-Pig returns! No surprise everyone forgot about him. You know, I LOVED Homer gleefully getting into van with a gimp rather than having to give the pig to Snake.

"We'll take good good care of Spider-Pig."
"(gasp) You know his secret identity?!"
"And your son is El Barto. These things are very easy to figure out."

Also, loved Burns falling for Spider-Pig, and that the relationship was clearly one-sided. You can't separate Homer and the pig, you can't.

The Mayo Clinic stuff was great, just lots of great silliness.

5 minutes ago, Spartan Girl said:

Spider-Pig/Plopper brings more joy as a cameo character than Marge ever does as a main one.

It WAS weird that Marge couldn't bring herself to throw anything away. She's always the one who wants to toss everything. It was like her to find the book at the Car wash, too.

I am so like Bart when he has to throw things away. Everything KIND OF brings him joy. Except Milhouse. And, like Lisa, nothing gives me joy, either.

Edited January 9, 2017 by Galileo908

[rubaco]

The ER (er, Mayo) tag was brilliant. So what if that show was so 1990s. Its opening credits will always be iconic.

Loved how the snake kept bouncing around after Homer threw it into the bounce house.

This was a fun episode. It was great seeing Spider Pig again. I had often wondered what happened to him. 

[ottoDbusdriver]

Other books at the Car Wash
-- Eat, Pray, Love, Divorce
-- You'll See Me Later, by Joyce Carol Oates (turns out it was true)
-- No One Edits Me, by Stephen King
-- Killing Hannity, by Bill O'Reilly 

Marge: "Oooh, a best seller.  And nobody goes to Heaven."

Enough can't be said about buying sushi from a car wash.  Or a convenience store.  It's basically food poisoning roulette.
Kind of like the hot dogs at the Kwik-E-Mart.

Homer: "I thought your mother was going to tell us that Grandpa died."
Grandpa: "The meeting ain't over yet."

Homer: "I'm not giving him to you.  You make guys with a windowless van look bad."

Marge: "Wow Homey, gravy is one of your top 3 strangulation triggers."

Wilhelm scream during Burns' football flashback.

I don't think Maggie will be too happy that the Elf on a Shelf was saved by Marge.

Romeo Brand Window Tapping Pebbles.

I thought that was actually a pretty good episode.  The writing was sharp with lots of references -- like the 3 different versions of Maibu Stacy.

I liked Homer's Mayo clinic dream and nightmare.   Fruit !!!!

We even got Plopper's squeal over the credits instead of the shushing.

ETA: 
Homer: "To a less secure man, being mistaken for a pig would be a wake up call."

Edited January 9, 2017 by ottoDbusdriver

[Galileo908]

1 hour ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

Other books at the Car Wash
-- Eat, Pray, Love, Divorce
-- You'll See Me Later, by Joyce Carol Oates (turns out it was true)
-- No One Edits Me, by Stephen King
-- Killing Hannity, by Bill O'Reilly 

Only caught Killing Hannity. Say what you will about the quality of the story writing, but the background gags are still great.

[ottoDbusdriver]

The display of Simpsons merchandise was on sale 3 for $1 as part of a Close Out Sale, and consisted of Simpsons-branded Couch gag play sets, trucker hats, snow globes, briefcases, individual action figures of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and the Couch, the Simpsons Video Game, and standalone versions of the Simpsons on the couch.

The Amazon delivery drone beheaded one of the fairies that boxed up the Japanese Warrior Monks' book.

Japanese Translation sub-titles:
Supervisor: "Attention ! America has ordered our book. We need to make one million copies."
Worker: "One Million ?! That's Dilbert Territory"
Supervisor: "The hell with fine work. We're going mass market."

The robot that committs sepuku after accidentally producing a book with two front covers has a spider-bot heart that crawls out after the robot carves his torso open with a sword.

Sign at the Springfield Car Wash -- Workers Now Have New Employee Smell
Also seen at the Springfield Car Wash -- a Buzz Cola machine and Burly paper towels.

Homer: "Marge, before you go cuckoo for cleanliness and throw everything out think of the kids.  The kids working in overseas factories to make this crap."

Comics Seen at The Android's Dungeon
-- The Incredible Mulk
-- Radioactive Man vs. the Kansas City Royals 
-- Zebra Girl
-- From Heck
-- Radioactive Man vs. Libby

Marge has no less than 15 Japanese Warrior Monks' 1000 sock boxes in her closet -- that's 15000 pairs of socks

Marge: "We've had him since you found him, but I'm the only one who takes cares of him."
Homer: "How hard can it be to clean up after a pig."

Which is particularly funny since it was that silo of pig crap that helped cause Springfield to be encased in a dome in the Simpsons movie.

Gregslist Springfield -- I guess the Simpsons' writers didn't want to sully Craigslist's good name. </snark>

Dr. Nick: "How many opioids would you like ?"

Carl: "Is that Homer or a pig that looks just like him ?"
Lennie: "Sounds like Homer but smells like truffles."
Carl: "Toss in a bag of chips." (watches pig devour chips) "Yep, that's Homer."

Springfield Nuclear Family Day -- part of the settlement for your sterility program

Homer: "Everybody's looking at us. It's like bringing Elizabeth Taylor to the Oscars."

Doctor: "The dogs contused his baby back ribs, of course there is the luau option."
Homer: "I will not subject him to something that has 3 vowels in a row."

Smithers: "Uh sir, I'm kind of worried a lawsuit. Our Lloyd's of London policy excludes the hounds."
Burns: "Damn that Lloyd. He's worn a grudge ever since I took his girl to see Lunardi's balloon."
Homer: "What are talking about ?"
Burns: "I'm not sure myself."

Turns out Lunardi's balloon launch was a real thing -- in 1784. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincenzo_Lunardi -- I did not know that.

Marge: "You were imagining a clinic full of mayonnaise doctors, weren't you ?"
Homer: "Some were just interns."

During Burns' football flashback:
Burns: "Yay ! Yale wins and only 3 killed."

Of course old Gil is getting married in a self-storage unit, heck he probably lives there.

Edited January 9, 2017 by ottoDbusdriver

[Anakerie]

Barney.  "I'm Mr. Plow now!" 

[Twilight Man]

23 hours ago, Galileo908 said:

It WAS weird that Marge couldn't bring herself to throw anything away. She's always the one who wants to toss everything.

I was actually reminded of the episode where Marge discovers that she has a hoarding compulsion.

(The Crazy Cat Lady takes over the Simpson house).

[Kaboom 2.0]

I agree, it was a better-than-usual episode than what we've been getting the last few (or more) years. 

Smithers' clenched fist of agony at his unrequited love for Burns (right after Burns unknowingly mooned all as he searched for Plopper) made me cackle. Give it up, Waylon, just let it go!

[TVSpectator]

I finally have a chance to reply for this episode. First I couldn't watch it live but I was able later to watch it and I liked it. At first, I thought that the story will be all about Marge's new found craziness about cleaning but instead that was literally put on the backburner for the c plot. Although, it all fitted in nicely, IMO, especially when Marge wanted Homer to get rid of Spider-Pig and Homer became dedicated to finding Plopper a good home (and also a home that won't eat him). The Craiglist parody (I think it was called, "Greglist") was hilarious and yes, meeting those people can be scary. 

I also liked that it was Burns who fell in love with Plopper/Spider-Pig and that Smithers knows that Plopper is Spider-Pig and El Barto is Bart (and even did a meta joke about it all being obvious and easy to figure this out). I also liked that Plopper became Homer's very own support animal.

 

The only thing that I really didn't like was Lisa's story about being depress and why/how did she become so depress?

[Galileo908]

Quote

Mr. Burns seeks revenge against a musical mogul who conned him, with help from Homer, Bart, rapper Jesse James and the mogul's ex-wife; the richest kid in town demonstrates interest in Lisa; Smithers embarks on a journey; Marge opens a shop.

Hour-long gimmick episode time! Featuring the cast of Empire! (anyone watch that show? I don't.)

Edited January 16, 2017 by Galileo908

[Galileo908]

The advantage to the long runtime is that the writers can finally allow ideas to breathe. And also to stretch ideas out, they still had time to kill. 

But was it funny? Like most episodes made in the past many years, kind of. I probably would've gotten more out of this episode if I'd actually read the Great Gatsby. I also appreciated that most of the history of Hip-Hop was covered in this, mostly thanks to Milhouse (= Bart's friend). And then it became a spoof of Empire for five minutes.

They really nailed the Hamptons, though. Lots of pretentious stores owned by rich men's wives and filled with 19th century doctor kits for some reason.

I loved Homer's relationship with the goose. Even after it kept biting him, Homer still saved its life.

All in all, better than Family Guy's take on Gatsby.

[ottoDbusdriver]

Didn't really enjoy the episode -- it just wasn't that funny.  Who thought this would be a good idea for an hour long episode ?  

And how did Monty get his money back at the end of the episode exactly ?

But the only redeeming factor -- when Monty missed his basketball shot and Charles Barkley said "Still better than Shaq".  Now that was funny.

Edited January 16, 2017 by ottoDbusdriver

[Galileo908]

Another complaint: Hardly any of the rapping was done by actual rappers. RZA, Common and Snoop were there but they had, what, two rap lines each?

[ottoDbusdriver]

And the whole 'The War of the Roses' stuck in a chandelier ending scene did not work for me either.

[Galileo908]

It was also fun reading all the background stuff, especially in the Burns mausoleum. My favorite was Ebeneezer Burns: "The ghosts taught me nothing."

[ottoDbusdriver]

51 minutes ago, Galileo908 said:

It was also fun reading all the background stuff, especially in the Burns mausoleum. My favorite was Ebeneezer Burns: "The ghosts taught me nothing."

Count Vlad Burns -- Father, Son, Impaler
Cordelia Burns -- Beloved Wife, Widow (repeated 24 times)
Chastity Temperance Burns -- Famed Beauty
John Wilkes Burns
Tom Marvolo Riddle Burns -- <something> dark lord
Benedict Burns -- I regret that I have but one country to betray
 

[Kaboom 2.0]

I truly enjoyed Milhouse's history of hip hop lesson, Praline calling Homer Boo Boo Kitty, and Homer's obsession with Goosious. Almost everything else was meh.

Oh and I've never been to the Hamptons but liked seeing the descriptions of all the Hamptons towns and who goes there, hee! 

Almost forgot to mention that I thought Charles Barkley was voiced by someone else tho I did lol at his "still better than Shaq."

Edited January 16, 2017 by Kaboom 2.0

[Galileo908]

Oh I live on Lengthy, er, Long Island and the Hamptons were dead on. I stopped at one of those towns and felt like Homer going to the fancy bar, with the waiter request he leave without making a fuss.

[ganesh]

That was worth it for the RZA, Common, Snoop, and Milhous explaining 90s rap. And the goose. 

The end kind of reminded me of The War Of The Roses, but that might be a stretch. 

Edited January 16, 2017 by ganesh

[BatmanBeatles]

I work as a server at a high school cafeteria. When I see the signs that remind us to wash our hands I say to myself, "That's your policy, not mine!"

[Kel Varnsen]

Apparently according to the most recent census the city i live in has grown a lot since the previous on. So the the headline in the local free paper was: City on the Grow.

[Galileo908]

Quote

All of the fast food restaurants in Springfield go healthy, forcing Homer to turn to the last bastion of greasy food for comfort.

I have no idea what happened to ep 13, this is listed as ep 14.

[ottoDbusdriver]

I guess since the last episode was an hour long it counts as Episode 12 and 13  -- that's all I've got.

ETA: Wikipedia has it that way -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Simpsons_episodes#Season_28_.282016.E2.80.9317.29 -- complete with 2 episode production codes (WABF04 and WABF05) for the 2 half hours

Edited February 13, 2017 by ottoDbusdriver

[Galileo908]

Billboard: Kwik-E-Mart: Your two days til Valentine's day headquarters

chalkboard: If we're so good at predicting, how come my dad bet on Atlanta?

Couch gag: Maggie in a safe behind the painting

"Who's the boys?"
"Marge's boobs!"

I'm with Homer with being bored at the DMV Awards ("Less fun than it sounds!"), and the whole bit when he left was great. "The winner is me because I'm leaving!" Patty & Selma pretty much re-enacting Kill La Kill was an image I didn't need to see. And hey, someone remembered Ling and Jub-Jub existed!

So...it took 28 years for Homer to discover the phenomenon of putting chili on hot dogs. Then again, turns out he knew it the whole time, he just blocked it out due to childhood trauma. I liked Homer trying to bond with the hot dog guy, even if they couldn't remember each other. I loved their hot dog song, but then Michael Price (the writer) tweeted that it's a song by the Archies.

"I'm going to save that caboose full of hot dogs, which is what my father used to call me!" It was good to see CBG doing something.

Love that Homer is on the news so much, he has his own theme song. That climax was weird. Homer and a bunch of fat guys steal the caboose, Homer & the old guy reconcile, the caboose explodes, Wiggum lets Homer off the hook, then the Moon plays the sax (EDIT: Confirmed to be a Mac Tonight spoof), and the Wiggums somehow can see it. That whole cabal of fast food mascots didn't do too much, sadly. Loved the ending tag with everyone eating Mayor McCheese, though. Also, Lisa's plot didn't amount to much, either.

3 hours ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

I guess since the last episode was an hour long it counts as Episode 12 and 13  -- that's all I've

Yeah, that makes sense.

ETA: I liked that when Homer imagined everyone as food, that Bart was a Butterfinger bar.

Edited February 13, 2017 by Galileo908