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nymusix
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Christmas intro time!

Title: Self flying sled!

Billboard: Stay 6 feet from Santa - for multiple reasons

Chalkboard: I will not put laxatives in Santa's cookies

Couch Gag: Pac-Man! Loved that.

Fun fact: This is the first episode Nell Scoville wrote since the Blowfish episode. Explains why we finally got an episode about Lisa and Miss Hoover...and it was quite good! Turns out she seems to live in Crackton, which isn't a shock.

I'm shocked that Lisa would settle for Yale. She used to dream of Vassar! What happened? I did like that it kept showing up. And they remembered Burns was a Yalie. Appreciated the Baby on Board callback with the song at the end.

The Superfriends are now the Hell's Angles. Good to see them again.

"Guilty as Marged."
"I'll accept that."

I liked Bart's lesson on half apologies. I wondered why this show hadn't approached this yet. Or Homer dreaming as the WWI Flying Ace. The credits with everyone else's projects was great, too. It was good to see Rex again (the actor kid from I Love Lisa), and Wendell's "Other Famous Pale People." Apparently he and Uter are in the second grade now?

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Good episode.

 

I thought they were finally going to do the full theme song, but they didn't.  Good couch gag.

 

So were the famous Pale People:  Casper The Ghost; The Michelin Tire Man; Frosty The Snowman; Pillsbury Dough Boy?

 

When did we learn the city was called "Crackton"?

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Is it weird that the Springfield tire fire was out, and covered in menorahs ?

Sign at Springfield Nuclear Plant/Santa's Workshop: Now Dwarfs, No Orcs, No Leprechauns

Abe holding a sign during the intro (after Bart on the snowboard lands on the pile of snow containing him): "Still Warmer Than Nursing Home"

Stores seen during Homer's '3 week earlier' flashback:
-- Just Chip Clips
-- Reformation Hardware (with a guy posting 95 Theses by Martin Luther on the door)
-- Pelicon - Stationary Bikes for Seabirds
-- Candy Most Dandy

So, Miss Hoover's "private pain" is that she is lonely, unlucky, poor and has a bad back.  I was half expecting that she didn't get into Yale either.

5 hours ago, nuraman00 said:

When did we learn the city was called "Crackton"?

Crackton was first mentioned way back in Season 9 in the episode "Lost our Lisa", and it's more of a section of Springfield, like the Russian District.

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Yeah Lisa is a know it all, but she apologized (when she had nothing to apologize for) and brought Ms. Hoover an expensive chair. Yet Ms. Hoover is still plugging in grades and not looking at individual work.

I know teachers get burned out but it’s the children who lose out. This hits too close to home to be funny. But at least Lisa learned teachers can’t be trusted 100%. That lesson will serve her well in high school and college.

  • Love 5
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I thought that was a really weak episode.  Not a lot of jokes!  And I know it's an animated sitcom, not meant to be taken deadly seriously, but lots of teachers have difficult personal circumstances without making no effort in the classroom or taking them out directly on their kids.  I've known a few!  So it just didn't work for me all around.

HOWEVER...I did laugh myself silly at "I’m inspired by The Masked Singer and...it won’t come off, help!”  So not a total loss.  Yes, I am seven years old.

  • Love 2
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I didn't like this last episode because it had such an unsatisfying ending. I don't think Lisa should have had to apologize because she was right: Hoover has been a terrible teacher. Sure, Lisa is a bit of a know it all, but she's also a gifted student who loves learning and wants to learn. And Hoover has been checked out for the entire series. I kept thinking it was too bad Lisa didn't have Krabapple (before she passed) cause she actually wanted to teach a kid! Lol. 

I know it's a few weeks back, but I loved the podcast episode. Loved loved loved! Definitely one of my top episodes. I looked up the writer but he hadn't written for a long time before this one. Hope he writes a few more again!

Edited by Maren
  • Love 2
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Ms. Hoover reminds me of my 1st grade teacher, who was horrible.  She was only at the school for a year (luckily for the next batch of kids) and was said to have later had a nervous breakdown, but she had no right to take out her problems on children the way she did. 

One thing I liked in this episode was Lenny and Carl's spoiler discussion/fight, especially when Lenny spoiled the Lady Gaga "Star Is Born" for him.  It reminded me of when I saw the movie and two older ladies nearby (who were very entertaining, particularly during the previews) were comparing the movie to previous versions right after it ended, essentially saying what Lenny did.

  • Love 3
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An episode about making a Hallmark Christmas movie...that's written like a Hallmark Christmas movie, and hits all the tropes of one. It's even scored like one. Mary Tannenbaum (ha) is the big city executive that hates Christmas movies (her father died making Jingle All The Way!) goes to a small town and learns to love Christmas movies, and Skinner was the small town man she fell for. Loved that, and loved how Skinner called her out on how awful her decision making was. That was so great. Christmas movie protags never think the ending through. She would have to move there and uproot her entire life? Skinner never even brought up that he lived with his mother, and Mary never even knew his first name.

Richard Kind was perfect as the burnt out director. "This is the worst thing to happen to happen to this movie since someone wrote it."

I like that this story justified Bart causing trouble: He couldn't sleep and he was desperate.

Edited by Galileo908
  • Love 3
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A woman who hates Christmas movies forced to produce a Christmas movie to get a promotion at the Heartmark channel is pure Heartmark Channel.

How dare you not be charmed by us.

I thought the ending with Skinner saying Mary should of course go with her hot doctor was a great way to subvert Hallmark movies that usually go the other way.  I mean yeah,  where were they gonna live with his mom?  Plus the gag that this wasn’t the first time this happened.  Fun episode.

Edited by Chaos Theory
  • Love 5
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29 minutes ago, Snow Apple said:

I've been enjoying this season but I don't remember when one of the Simpson's were the main story. Is something going on in the background?

Nice to see Apu and family even though they don't speak anymore.

I like that they've been changing it up lately. 

  • Love 1
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2 minutes ago, Galileo908 said:

I like that they've been changing it up lately. 

Oh I agree. It's nice to get a break from Marge nagging and Homer's selfishness. I'm just wondering if something was up. But now I remember Lisa had the main story just last week.

  • Love 1
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I really liked this! It did a good job sending up the Hallmark Christmas movie tropes.

It’s funny they mentioned Jingle All the Way, because I was growing up in Minneapolis when it was filmed there and I actually saw some of the set since they filmed the scenes in front of their homes near us, fake snow and all. I still remember how weird that was for me to see snow when it was late spring/summer at the time. Also; the first toy store they go to was in a neighborhood near us and was a store we went to a lot growing up! My mom actually got a picture of Arnold reading a script the family still has somewhere. This episode was extra funny for me because of all this...

  • Love 4
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This is the first time in a while since I saw a new Simpsons episode.  I was pleased!  Loved how they played with the Hallmark Movie tropes.  Loved the movie lady's excuse for hating Christmas movies (her poor father, and it was Jingle All the Way of all movies), the lettuce and tomato festival, the hot doctor fiance, and the deconstruction of the tried and true "leaving the fiance for the hometown boy" Hallmark trope.

Also, the look on Bart's face after looking at Lisa ceiling was legitimately funny.

I'm guessing it's a weird rare thing to see Apu and his family nowadays? 

Also, the change in Carl's voice actor wasn't that noticeable.  They did a good job with that casting.

Lastly, there was something very satisfying seeing Marge laying on the couch, wine in hand, binge watching the Christmas movies.  Not often we see a contented Marge.

Edited by bmoore4026
  • Love 2
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Several decades ago, was there a film the Springfield Elementary kids watched at school (maybe hosted by Troy McClure) that promoted the importance of zinc?  I think that some kid in the movie wishes that there was no zinc in the world for some reason, so Troy (?) shows him what the world would be like, and the kid wakes up yelling, "Come back zinc!"  There's a commercial for vitamins that is on a lot that mentions zinc, and it reminds me of this so that I have no choice but to say, "Come back zinc!" every time. 

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10 hours ago, KWalkerInc said:

Several decades ago, was there a film the Springfield Elementary kids watched at school (maybe hosted by Troy McClure) that promoted the importance of zinc?  I think that some kid in the movie wishes that there was no zinc in the world for some reason, so Troy (?) shows him what the world would be like, and the kid wakes up yelling, "Come back zinc!"  There's a commercial for vitamins that is on a lot that mentions zinc, and it reminds me of this so that I have no choice but to say, "Come back zinc!" every time. 

You're thinking of the Season 3 episode 15 -- 'Bart the Lover'.

https://simpsons.fandom.com/wiki/Bart_the_Lover/Quotes

  • Love 1
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Holy crap, they got an Asian voice actor for Kumiko. Really, Tress MacNeille was cast as her long after the show should've known better. Jenny Yokobori was great here. And seeing her try to seduce CBG as the hot lady Gremlin from Gremlins 2 really...uhh...sparked some feelings.

I can't believe it took the show this long to cover bar trivia, but I wish that went longer. I gotta wonder how Apu, Disco Stu, Artie Ziff, and Manacek formed a trivia team. I miss all the themed teams like back in Team Homer, but that one's got a story behind it.

Oh hey, Dan Aykroyd is CBG's dad, and he was a stamp collector. It fits so well. I enjoyed that CBG's origin was told through a Wes Anderson spoof (complete with Bob Balaban as the narrator). CBG being an unlucky baseball player that turned to comics to escape a loveless life is pretty relatable. All in all, a really sweet episode.

Edited by Galileo908
  • Love 3
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I watched "Last Exit to Springfield" a while ago, back when The Simpsons was a lot cleverer. It's still one of my favorite episodes, from Lenny's "So long dental plan!" to Homer's realization that it means he'll have to pay for Lisa's braces, to the call outs to "Batman" and "Wrath of Khan," and, of course, Grandpa's story about the onions and the bees, which was the style at the time.

 

  • Love 6
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The photos of the Simpson family members sitting on the couch alone during the end credits

had several objects lying around each family member:

Marge  ---    three eyed fish,  police officer cap, portrait of Ringo

Homer  ----   Grammy, bowling pin, model of "The Homer".

Bart     -----  black facemask,  red ball cap, Krusty doll

Lisa   ------   saxophone, tie-dye T-shirt, hockey helmet, statue of Buddha

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https://medium.com/the-atlantic/the-life-in-the-simpsons-is-no-longer-attainable-81feb1a8222e

Interesting article on how the Simpsons now represent unobtainable dreams.

For many, a life of constant economic uncertainty — in which some of us are one emergency away from losing everything, no matter how much we work — is normal. Second jobs are no longer for extra cash; they are for survival. It wasn’t always this way. When The Simpsons first aired, few would have predicted that Americans would eventually find the family’s life out of reach. But for too many of us now, it is.

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16 hours ago, qtpye said:

https://medium.com/the-atlantic/the-life-in-the-simpsons-is-no-longer-attainable-81feb1a8222e

Interesting article on how the Simpsons now represent unobtainable dreams.

For many, a life of constant economic uncertainty — in which some of us are one emergency away from losing everything, no matter how much we work — is normal. Second jobs are no longer for extra cash; they are for survival. It wasn’t always this way. When The Simpsons first aired, few would have predicted that Americans would eventually find the family’s life out of reach. But for too many of us now, it is.

Frank Grimes sort of told us that this was the case way back in Season 8.

  • Love 3
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Season 32, ep 12: Diary Queen

Quote

Bart finds his old teacher's diary and leans a surprising secret; Lisa discovers an even bigger surprise.

Airs 2/14/21 2/21/21 but a weather delay for the Daytona 500 is delaying all the Fox Sunday shows, so who knows if it'll even air tonight.

Edited by Galileo908
Daytona 500 weather delay
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According to the cable channel guide, the Daytona NASCAR race was supposed to end around 6pm -- they already ran out of interviews and are now showing highlights from previous Daytona races.  Yay !!! Highlights !!! #sarcasm

At some point they should have just gone back to regularly scheduled programming with a crawl along the bottom indicating that the race is on a rain delay and could resume at any time.

  • Love 4
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On 2/14/2021 at 7:50 PM, Galileo908 said:

Season 32, ep 12: Diary Queen

Airs 2/14/21 2/21/21 but a weather delay for the Daytona 500 is delaying all the Fox Sunday shows, so who knows if it'll even air tonight.

Let's try this again. 

Airs 2/21/21

Edited by Galileo908
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Title: Eagle carrying a sign reading "IS IT SAFE YET?"

Couch Gag: The family goes to Mars! And Homer doesn't have a helmet.

Flanders has a garage sale! And the animation was great for the song. I loved the literal swear jar with all the naughty words Flanders cut out of all his books. 

I was wondering how they'd handle the plotline of Mrs. Krabappel's diary, and they only used her voice for two lines (which I thought was pretty sweet). Liked the reveal that Edna wrote about her cat and not Bart, and Bart was too dim to realize it. Lisa just HAD to ruin Bart's self improvement because she felt anxiety that he misread the diary. Aside from that, the episode was legitimately sweet. 

Liked that Edna was watching the Bob Newhart Show, a nice shout out to Marcia Wallace.

Edited by Galileo908
  • Love 6
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