The Simpsons - General Discussion

[Kaboom 2.0]

Can't help still loving Artie Ziff after all these years, Jon Lovitz's cracks me up. 

Was not disturbed by Moe's robotic legs but WAS disturbed by Lenny and Carl literally bound together in Hell with Barney's head between them. Ew. 

Was that Martin's CHUM as the rowing team's coxswain?? 

[Galileo908]

43 minutes ago, Kaboom 2.0 said:

Was that Martin's CHUM as the rowing team's coxswain??

And later drunk under a tree.

[ottoDbusdriver]

53 minutes ago, Galileo908 said:

Those seem to be clips from times between age eight and eighteen.

What confused me initially was that those scenes were right after the college dorm scene, so I thought those were scenes from Lisa's college years.

[TDT]

7 hours ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

I like the end credits tribute to the ending of "All in the Family" -- in addition to the piano scene.

Only thing missing was Homer saying something like"The Simpsons was recorded  before a animated studio audience." though that probably wouldve led to Norman Lear replying"This gives me another reason to sue!" lol

[Snow Apple]

"Lisa it's your Birthday" - Good to hear that again even with updated lyrics.

[AConspiracy]

With white Michael Jackson again, holding a monkey!

[Thrifty]

I kind of hated the callback to Lisa's birthday song.  I hate it when they reuse the old heartfelt moments for silly new jokes.

[Snow Apple]

5 hours ago, Thrifty said:

I kind of hated the callback to Lisa's birthday song.  I hate it when they reuse the old heartfelt moments for silly new jokes.

I didn't think it was a silly though. Bart remembered Lisa's birthday and was doing something nice. I even thought the new lyrics were sweet, updated from hoping for a first kiss to finding first love now that she's fourteen.

[Machiabelly]

Homer: My one small flaw is that I have many large flaws.

[xander874]

Quote

Must. Stop. President Kid Rock.

I hope this is not another prediction that comes true, like when they mentioned President Trump...

I liked this episode, but it was weird to me that Maggie seemed the same age when Lisa was 7 than she is in the "present" of the show. She should've been a newborn at that point.

[M. Darcy]

Russia has been banned from the Winter Olympics.  We are going to win a lot of free Krusty burgers! 

[ottoDbusdriver]

Simpsons 2017 Christmas couch gag
 

[Galileo908]

Quote

The town puts together a search party after Bart goes missing; Sideshow Bob tries to force his whereabouts out of Milhouse.

[Galileo908]

Intro: Santa! And Christmas themed! I feel like we've seen this intro already. Tom Petty can be briefly seen as an angel, but I didn't notice anything else that was different.

Chalkboard: Snow Angels Are Not Frozen Hobos

Couch Gag: Everyone's popcorn. Looked painful.

This was a decent way to shoehorn Sideshow Bob into an episode. Good to see he still has the "The Bart, The" tattoo, too. I also thought teaming him up with Milhouse was a great idea, too. Yeah, it's odd that after all this time, the show got self-aware about why Bob keeps wanting to kill Bart...so he doesn't.

I actually liked Bart's adventure in the missile silo. Of course the first thing he does when he finds a phone is to call Moe.

Not gonna be able to un-see Young Agnes Skinner on a cover of Playdude. I was also concerned that we saw a Calvin & The Hipmunks record and not Melvin & The Squirrels, but Calvin was much more violent, so I'll let it slide.

Shaq had a funny cameo. So he's probably Superman?

Edited December 11, 2017 by Galileo908

[ottoDbusdriver]

Record albums in the bunker

-- Sinatra Ruins Dylan
-- Elvis Presley in Doin' it for the Money
-- Calvin and the Hipmunks

Tracks on the Calvin and the Hipmunks album cover
Side 1 -- I Bite Ike
           -- Oh Darn ! It's Nuclear War
           -- Who's This Feller in my Fallout Shelter
Side 2 -- I Bite Ike (Part 2)
           -- All I Want for Christmas is Less Front Teeth
           -- You're the Squirrel for Me
           -- Having a Ball at the Berlin Wall
       
Lyrics on the Calvin and Chipmunks song Bart played -- 'God Bless America.  Give me back my tomahawk.'

Who knew that Agnes Skinner was 'Miss Cold War' in Playdude magazine (circa 1962) ?

Abe: "Son, I can't go no further.  I wanna just lie down and die."
Homer: "Dad, you can't die here. You have to die in a nursing home where your body falls apart as you burn through your savings 'til you're a worthless vegetable. You know, with dignity."
Abe: "You're right son. We're here on a mission.  Now let's pick out that Christmas tree."
Homer: "We're here to find Bart."
Abe: "Right, right, but we got a nice eight footer over here. She's got a bare patch but we'll turn that to the wall."
Homer: "That's it, I'm not listening to another word."

Abe: "That sounds like the ignition sequence of a LGM25C Titan 2 2 ballistic missile."
Homer: "I've had just about enough of your nonsense."
<Rocket blasts off in the distance>
Homer: "Alright, I owe you one."

Abe: "I just can't get a clean shot."
Homer: "Also, you don't have a gun."
Abe: "I'm useless alright."

I liked the 6 month follow-up with the therapist in the prison -- Sideshow Bob has several more weights on top of him and the therapist was icing his knee (which seems odd after 6 months).

Willie: "Sooner or later, it all comes down to mopping."

Overall, a pretty decent episode.

[AnnieBeez]

21 hours ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

...

I liked the 6 month follow-up with the therapist in the prison -- Sideshow Bob has several more weights on top of him and the therapist was icing his knee (which seems odd after 6 months).

/snip

It was also odd that there was still snow on the ground 6 months later. 

[Thrifty]

Marge: I never should have bought those North Korean fortune cookies.  "You are a coward."  No-one wants to hear that after a nice meal.

[SmithW6079]

Grandpa: "...which was the style at the time," from "Last Exit to Springfield."

Actually, that episode has a number of great quotes.

Edited December 14, 2017 by SmithW6079

[Thrifty]

I think from the same part of the same episode as above:

 

Grandpa: In those days, nickels had pictures of bumble bees on them.  "Gimme five bees for a quarter!" you'd say.

[JTMacc99]

Not so much a great quote as one of my favorite bits of animation with great voice work: Bart and Lisa (from Lisa on Ice) do the thing upstairs where Bart starts swinging his arms and says, "if you get hurt, it's your own fault" and Lisa starts kicking her leg and says the same thing. As they actually start fighting, Marge is taking a pie out of the oven and before leaving to break up the fight, she says, "Now Homer, don't eat this pie..."

Homer then says, "Okay Pie, I'm just going to do this [closes his eyes and makes a biting motion with his head and mouth], and if you get eaten, it's your own fault." Then he does it about 4 or 5 times walking towards the oven when he bashes his head into the range hood, leaving a massive dent in it. He loudly says, "OW! AH! Oh my... Oh the hell with it" and grabs the pie and starts eating it.

Heh.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Binging with Babish made Flanders' hot chocolate and Homer's moon waffles:

 

Edited December 14, 2017 by ElectricBoogaloo

[TVSpectator]

Not technically as good as those youtube videos (and I so want to add some rum/vodka to that hot cocoa and thanks for posting them, btw) but this article was posted today about Disney buying up all of FOX Entertainment:

 

An episode called "When You Dish Upon A Star," which first aired on November 8, 1998, depicted a sign on the front of a building that read "20th Century Fox, a Division of Walt Disney Co."

The episode from the long-running Fox cartoon focuses on an unlikely relationship between Homer Simpson, Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger. The sign appears toward the end, as Ron Howard successfully pitches a movie about "a killer-robot-driving-instructor that travels back in time for some reason" and "a talking pie," and receives bags of money for the project.

That Disney-Fox prediction became a reality on December 14, 2017, when Disney (DIS)said it was buying a huge chunk of 21st Century Fox, which owns 20th Century Fox, for $52.4 billion.

"The Simpsons" prediction was noted on Thursday in a tweet by ESPN reporter Darren Rovell, who included a screen shot of the cartoon sign.

 

http://money.cnn.com/2017/12/14/media/simpsons-disney-fox/index.html

[JTMacc99]

I say "Mindy has a motorcycle" all the time. 

Pretty much any situation where I find myself thinking about a person I'm infatuated with, or anytime anybody just starts talking about something only that person cares about when the rest of the conversation had nothing to do with it.

[Thrifty]

Marge: "I just realized we never had a wedding for the cat and the dog.  They've been living in sin this whole time!"

[Peace 47]

A little late, but in the spirit of the season:

Bart: Aren't we forgetting the true meaning of Christmas? You know, the birth of Santa.

Speaking of Santa, I really enjoy that gag from the “Flying Hellfish” episode where Mr. Burns accidentally goes crashing through the wall of Lisa’s bedroom on a utility truck bucket in the middle of the night, apologizes  to her (offscreen) and all we hear is Lisa’s disoriented, “Santa?” in response.

[Fex]

Homer: Your conscience?! Lisa, don't let that pushy little weenie tell you what to do.

For Canadians, MuchMusic is playing a best of Simpsons marathon. A lot of classics!

[Thrifty]

Appropriate for today, this one popped into my head:

 

Marge: "Remember that New Year's Eve party at Lenny's?  He didn't even have a clock."

[Peace 47]

Marge:  It must be wonderful to ring in the New Year over and over and over.

Waiter at TGI McScratchy’s:  Please kill me.

”We’ve got another jumper on the roof of TGI McScratchy’s.”

[M. Darcy]

You can't win friends with salad!  Avoid Romaine Lettuce

[Thrifty]

I always refer to two certain celebrities as "Bill Crosby" and "David Letterson".

[Thrifty]

Sometimes, in response to a topic, I will say "I don't see what any of this has to do with Groundskeeper Willie".  It really is the perfect all-purpose non-sequitur.

Edited January 4, 2018 by Thrifty

[Thrifty]

(The children bounce up and down on a wild, fast, and unsafe school bus.)

Milhouse: It's like Speed 2, but on a bus!

[Galileo908]

Quote

The Simpsons go to a STEM conference; Lisa falls for a crooning jazz pianist (Ed Sheeran); Bart discovers he has an affinity for chemistry.

[Galileo908]

Title: Abe 2017 out, Maggie 2018 in

Looks like we're in for a musical episode. So many familiar faces, like Jacques. Weird to see cats singing on this show, even if its for a song number.

I need to know the names of all the booths at the STEM conference, there were lots of good ones. Stuff like Printable Soup reminded me of the Chili Cookoff, and I consider that a good thing. Speaking of background gags, Krusty met up with a lady clown to trade monkeys, and Frink's still with his robot wife (who is pregnant).

Ed Sheeran is essentially Milhouse if he had talent. And confidence. No wonder Lisa's smitten. "Lisa, you sure know a lot of weird guys." Understatement, Brendan. I'm happily surprised that it was Nelson fighting with the Boy of The Week instead of Milhouse. I'm with Ed Sheeran, I'm shocked that there was even a choice between him and Nelson. Getting Brendan out of the show was TOO clean.

Spider-Pig is making meth with Cletus? How the mighty have fallen.

The "Flanders Finger" is a thumbs-up WITHOUT a friendly wink. Love it.

While I liked that Bart would get in to chemistry, again Marge ruins the plot. She knows it's essentially a coin flip to whether to trust Bart (usually trusting him works out, like it did here), but man, it wa so telegraphed that Bart was innocent. I did like the twist that Bart didn't pour sulfuric acid into Chalmer's drink, but Willie, and he was forgiven because he was trying to poison Skinner. But then he spikes the punch at the end, so I don't know what to think now.

And we end on a "timely" last year's Oscars reference. Of course everyone wants to watch X-Men: Apocalypse over Moonlight (except Lisa).

[ottoDbusdriver]

Many, many booths at the STEM conference:
-- Alcohology (manned by Moe)
-- Boxing - the Science of the Sweet Science (manned by Dredrick Tatum)
-- The Science of Wonder Woman (manned by one of the Nerds)
-- Nuclear Power (manned by Monty Burns himself)
-- Meth-A-Matics (manned by Cletus)
-- Solar Fracking (unknown)
-- The Math of Itchy and Scratchy (unknown)
-- Dr. Nick's 3 Minute Sex Change (Dr. Nick, of course)
-- Insta-Grandma
-- Assisted Suicide 
-- VR: Technology Nobody Wants
-- Printable Soup
-- Shepherdless Sheep (that were even shearing themselves)
-- First Self-Aware Robot (apparently a killer robot, what with the axe)
-- Artificial Intelligence that Writes TV Recaps (boy would that come in handy around here on these forums)
-- Visible Man
-- Chemistry -- The Science of Goo (and Glop)

Loved the brochure at the Nuclear Power booth -- produced by the Institute for Purchased Science (Cigarettes Stop NFL Concussions)

In the Chemistry booth, the Periodic Table of the Elements was up to date with the most recent elements added (Moscovium (Mc), Livermorium (Lv),  Tennessine (Ts,), and Oganesson (Og).

Krusty and the Clown Woman exchanging monkeys was just ...... odd.

Abe: "Aaaah !  German Chemistry."

Seen in the Simpson Garage -- box labeled "Couch Gag Props Used"

Homer: "Banging on the walls is a true American art form, and I'm a Picasso."

Lou: "Why do we do that Chief ?"
Wiggum: "Fat Man courtesy Lou, Fat Man courtesy."

Cletus: "Meth Lab -- Proud Sponsor of the 2020 Opioid Olympics"

That meth Cletus is cooking must be good because Spiderpig's tail went straight.

Is that the first appearance of "The Flander's Finger" ?

Wiggum: "Drop the beaker Screwy Pasteur. Heh ha"
Bart: "No I wasn't doing anything bad. Pour the beaker and you'll see."
Wiggum: "We are not going to let you mix those chemicals. We got a tip from an anonymous source named Seymour Skinner."
Skinner: "Do you even know what anonymous means ?"
Wiggum: "Uhhhh, helpful."

Edited January 9, 2018 by ottoDbusdriver

[xander874]

Even a year too late, I did love the La La Land opening number. The rest of the episode was fine. Maybe Brenden and Thelonius (Trilogy of Error) can start a Lisa-exes band at West Springfield.

[Galileo908]

Quote

Fearing that the end of the world is near, Mr. Burns tasks Prof. Frink with testing all of Springfield's residents to determine who is worth saving.

[Spartan Girl]

Yup, nobody but Smithers would be willing to be stuck on an ark with Mr. Burns.

Ralph really skates on the dumbest of luck.

Is it just me, or is Marge's voice getting more grating? I know you could chalk it up to Julie K getting older, but man sometimes it's really painful just to listen to her.

But you know what? Homer writing cursive letters to her was so cute, I can't even be too annoyed that this turned into yet ANOTHER Marge "improving" Homer plot.

[Galileo908]

Title: Agnes as a pterodactyl

Billboard: Moe's Tavern: Now with ladies room!

Chalkboard: Strangling is not an effective parenting tool (written by Homer)

Couch Gag: Couch gives birth to baby couch. 

So this episode was basically a Futurama episode with different characters. Frink pretty much became Professor Farnsworth for this one. Even the ending was Futurama-esque, with Burns' arc floating into space while he's choked out by a robot. He'll be fine.

"Release the comforting hounds!"

Hey, it's The Brain! Er, Maurice La Marche as Orson Welles. I really want to see his version of a rainbow.

How did everyone know that Homer was the stupidest man in town? Homer tweeted it. Of course.

Heh, Manjula is in Mensa now. But where was Skinner? Or Lisa? I, too was surprised that Ralph of all people scored one point higher than Lisa. I don't even want to know why Wiggum would need to tell Ralph not to open up the phone through voicemail. Lisa and Ralph's plot ended kinda anticlimatically. It turned into one of those "chasing a kid through a construction area" cartoon tropes, and Frink just fudged Lisa's score to feel better, not knowing exactly why Ralph scored so high.

"Smithers, Waylon, Soon To Be Wanda" Okay, then.

I liked that Jesus (er, Jebus H. Christ, Esquire) has a monogrammed "Jebus" on his robe. Speaking of callbacks, I liked seeing the return of the poolside microwave.

5 minutes ago, Spartan Girl said:

But you know what? Homer writing cursive letters to her was so cute, I can't even be too annoyed that this turned into yet ANOTHER Marge "improving" Homer plot.

At least their marriage wasn't in trouble, and yeah, I liked this, too. Homer's heart will always be in the right place, and that's why they've endured for so long,

Edited January 15, 2018 by Galileo908

[ottoDbusdriver]

Meh.  Didn't really enjoy this.  There were a couple of light laughs -- "never be a cat in cartoon" was bang on.

The whole Homer starts correcting his sloppy handwriting as the solution to all his learnin' problems was kind of weak.

[Twilight Man]

14 hours ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

There were a couple of light laughs -- "never be a cat in cartoon" was bang on.

Unless you're Heathcliff............... or Garfield (90% of the time).

[ganesh]

I'm having a hard time that the entire town took the test, but it's the show. 

The best laugh for me was Nostradamus predicting the breakup of Fleetwood Mac. 

[M. Darcy]

Quote

The whole Homer starts correcting his sloppy handwriting as the solution to all his learnin' problems was kind of weak.

Especially when we all know the reason is because there's a crayon in his brain. 

[JTMacc99]

Poison, poison, poison, tasty fish!

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Binging with Babish made Skinner's POW fish stew and Ralph Wiggums' crayon sandwich (rainbow grilled cheese):

This is when he made the less edible version of the crayon sandwich on Good Mythical Morning with actual crayons:

[Brandi Maxxxx]

I just saw this episode for the first time and really did not like it. It felt like a rejected Family Guy script that got retooled into a Simpsons episode.

[VCRTracking]

‘The Simpsons’ Oral History of ‘Last Exit to Springfield,’ The Best Episode Ever

I wouldn't say it's THE best, but it's definitely one of the greats and a classic.

[Thrifty]

"That's my 3rd monocle this week.  I simply MUST stop being so horrified."

[Galileo908]

Quote

When Homer is accused of stealing a million-dollar painting, only a detective from the 1970s can clear his name.

[Galileo908]

The writers seemed pretty pumped about making a parody of Banacek (Especially the late Kevin Curran, whose name is on this episode). It's pretty much an excuse for Bill Hader to take over for an episode, but I'm not complaining. "Who would have expected that it was someone we never met before?" I'm assuming that 70s cop shows were this nonsensical, but I liked how it was ultimately Lisa.

"There's nothing wrong with being an art lover...as long as it's being representational." I do like how Marge only likes representational art (she also wasn't a fan of the modern art).

"Did you know we had to lay off a third of the police force?! That's right: Eddie!" Man, it was weird seeing Eddie out of uniform.

Aww, Stephen Hawking tribute.

Edited March 19, 2018 by Galileo908