The Simpsons -- "The D'oh-cial Network" -- 01/15/12
 

"The D'oh-cial Network"

Re: The Simpsons -- "The D'oh-cial Network" -- 01/15/12
 

Uggh

Re: The Simpsons -- "The D'oh-cial Network" -- 01/15/12
 

Some of my favorite episodes have been Lisa-centric, so I'm game for this.

Re: The Simpsons -- "The D'oh-cial Network" -- 01/15/12
 

Lisa episodes are kind of mixed so this one coud go either way for me.

I know a lot of people think The Simpsons has declined in quality over the years, but I think the past few seasons or so the show has become better. The show is waiting for me on my DVR at home and I'm looking forward to catching it.

Re: The Simpsons -- "The D'oh-cial Network" -- 01/15/12
 

The last few seasons have been infinitely better than the dreck most of the teen years produced, but the original audience has mostly moved on so they don't realize the show has gotten decent again.

Re: The Simpsons -- "The D'oh-cial Network" -- 01/15/12
 

Every time someone tells me that the show is good again, I tune in and I'm only disappointed. It's still incredibly dull.

I watched an episode on Hulu recently, and they had a huge collection of clips, almost all of which were from the first 6 seasons.

Remember that realllllly old episode (god, i'm old) about Itchy and Scratchy and Poochie? that's what the show has actually turned into.

Re: The Simpsons -- "The D'oh-cial Network" -- 01/15/12
 

Somebody actually remembers Poochie? :lol:

Re: The Simpsons -- "The D'oh-cial Network" -- 01/15/12
 

This episode was awful. They clearly didn't have much of an episode to begin with. To start with, the opening credits were super long (which according to the commentaries, if they have a long opening, the episode was running short). Then once the episode ended, there was about 4 MORE minutes of filler at the end with Patty & Selma and some stupid cartoon about Bart that used a different animation style. I'd say there was maybe 16 minutes of the actual episode itself. But the episode itself was terrible, so maybe that's a good thing.

Re: The Simpsons -- "The D'oh-cial Network" -- 01/15/12
 

Meh. Who castrated "The Simpsons"?

Man, I wish there was an adult-oriented animated TV series that had the intelligence of "The Simpsons" but the balls-to-the-wall moxie of "Family Guy". Sort of like a cartoon that had the essence of George Carlin.

Re: The Simpsons -- "The D'oh-cial Network" -- 01/15/12
 

that was an all-time classic.

"I must go now, my planet needs me!" :lol:

Re: The Simpsons -- "The D'oh-cial Network" -- 01/15/12
 

The closest thing might be The Cleveland Show, but only by process of elimination.

Re: The Simpsons -- "The D'oh-cial Network" -- 01/15/12
 

American Dad

Re: The Simpsons -- "The D'oh-cial Network" -- 01/15/12
 

http://i41.tinypic.com/20usoc8.jpg

"...to the extreme!!!"

Re: The Simpsons -- "The D'oh-cial Network" -- 01/15/12
 

I'd say this season has been a significant step up in terms of quality of the writing. I'm finding myself laughing quite a bit more this season that the previous few. :up:

Re: The Simpsons -- "The D'oh-cial Network" -- 01/15/12
 

South Park.

I think people have to realize that while The Simpsons is no longer in it's prime by any means for being on as long as it has it does still have the ability of being a pretty funny and intelligently written show. It's just that being on for so long the show isn't at it's wittiest and has done so much. It still entertains me though :shrug:. Maybe it's just my love for the characers but I'll tune in until the end.

Re: The Simpsons -- "The D'oh-cial Network" -- 01/15/12
 

No, no, and no.

Those shows aren't funny, or intelligent, or witty. They're dumb. Compare the following Michael Jackson jokes:

South Park: A cartoon version of Michael Jackson acts exactly like the real Michael Jackson, and then his nose falls off.

The Simpsons: Bart: "Lisa, there's no such thing as a soul. It's just something adults made up to scare children, like the boogeyman or Michael Jackson".

See the difference? not to mention the Simpsons episode with the real Micheal Jackson that was an instant classic, an episode that holds up even to this day despite how creepy he became.

No, the show isn't good any more. Anytime there's a compilation of "best of" episodes, they're all from 20 years ago. And it's not just the jokes; the writing is bad. You'll have an easier time defending Star Trek: Voyager when it comes to bad writing.

Re: The Simpsons -- "The D'oh-cial Network" -- 01/15/12
 

That Michael Jackson joke isn't particularly clever or funny, it was also really obvious at the time (I recall there were a ton of MJ pop shots back then). The Michael Jackson episode though is classic hinging on the heart and joke of having MJ as an overweight white dude in a mental ward, the rest of the episode was never particularly great to me, the premise (Homer gets sent away for wearing a pink shirt) had slight commentary but was also tremendously stupid :shrug:

American Dad is pretty funny to me and not to you, so be it, but we can all agree The Simpsons is a shadow of it's former self. The Simpsons did pride itself more on cleverness back in the earlier seasons than pretty much any animated show does today, most of which reach for odd cut aways for quick gags, to me The Simpsons have never been hilarious but they used to be of a higher quality in terms of character and storytelling, both of which have definitely gone down.

That said I actually kind of enjoyed this episode.

Re: The Simpsons -- "The D'oh-cial Network" -- 01/15/12
 

The Beer Baron episode was on as a re-run last week. That's all it takes for me to remember why I stopped watching the current episodes.

Re: The Simpsons -- "The D'oh-cial Network" -- 01/15/12
 

Would you believe that's the only Michael Jackson joke that the show ever made? there's something to be said about the subtly of humor. I thought the premise was great - a criticism of conformity and pop psychology all at once.

I agree, it isn't just the humor that's suffered, it's the writing. Take the episode where Bart joins the junior campers. I used to think that was 3 different episodes, and when I saw it on DVD again for the first time years later, I couldn't believe that it was a distinct 3-act story just crammed into 22 minutes.

Re: The Simpsons -- "The D'oh-cial Network" -- 01/15/12
 

The opening was funny and they aren't trying to hide anything since they told us that when the show runs short the opening is long.
The Patty and Selma as was the rest of the show was a parody of a little known movie
" The Social Network"

THe animation at the end was also a parody and was called "the show is too short, short" or something to that effect, so they again weren't trying to put one over on anyone.

I thought it was funny, oh well.

Re: The Simpsons -- "The D'oh-cial Network" -- 01/15/12
 

I can agree with you on the Seth MacFarlane created shows. His stuff isn't clever at all really for the most part. He mostly seems to string together random jokes and pop culture references and a paper thin storyline to keep his shows in tact. South Park on the other hand I'd have to disagree with you. I'd say it's easily one of the better written comedies on, animated or otherwise. I understand if maybe you don't care for it but pulling one joke and using it as the basis for saying the show isn't funny, intelligent or witty is pretty unfair. South Park has it's share of silly moments where they make a stupid exagerrated joke, but Trey and Matt also can write clever satire when they want.

As far as The Simpsons goes, as I said I realize it's not the classic it once was and is no longer in it's prime, but they still have their moments. Using compilations as a defense as to why the show isn't good isn't really that fair though either if you ask me. They probably know that if they used more new clips the fanboys would bitch about it anyways but it's still not the best defense as to why the show isnt good.

Re: The Simpsons -- "The D'oh-cial Network" -- 01/15/12
 

Really? It may not be one of the best episodes, but it has one of the best lines ever written:

Re: The Simpsons -- "The D'oh-cial Network" -- 01/15/12
 

I might get booed for saying this, but "American Dad!" (in it's middle seasons) is the only show that has ever approached the wit of the "The Simpsons". I loved it. (It's quality has waned the last couple of seasons, sadly) But, watch an episode like "With Friends Like Steve's" or "Finances with Wolves" and try not to laugh.

And people like to slag MacFarlane's shows for the non sequitur gags (which AD! doesn't rely on), but the one thing where *all* 3 of his shows excel at is the DIALOGUE. The characters have amazing snappy patter with each other. In fact it gets no credit.

"South Park" on the other hand has absolutely atrocious comedic dialogue (you could have a drinking game where you take a drink you hear words like: "dude", "lame" "***" "hippy" and "weak" in between dry expositional dialogue about today's message [TM] By the first commercial break they'd need to pump your stomach).

Re: The Simpsons -- "The D'oh-cial Network" -- 01/15/12
 

Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment is one of, if not the, best episode(s) of the Simpsons.

Re: The Simpsons -- "The D'oh-cial Network" -- 01/15/12
 

Well the South Park characters are kids so I don't really hold that against the show. It seems in line with how younger people would talk amongst each other to me.