the simpsons

This whole site is depressing as hell lately. Last few weeks the only active thread is "Football".
Got my hopes up for a some sweet Simpsons discussions as well.

Well here, discuss this:

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We all know how it happened, but this is the most concise and well put together video I've seen about the subject.

Half an hour for a show about The Simpsons? Hmm, I don't know..

Originally Posted by CeetjeBeetje

This whole site is depressing as hell lately. Last few weeks the only active thread is "Football".
Got my hopes up for a some sweet Simpsons discussions as well.

first of all, you can go to nhc for that. also posts like "can't wait for the new tree house of horror tonight" are not conductive to an actual discussion anyway. if he had come in with his actual thoughts on the episode in a well-thought out manner, i'd have no problem with it. but again, pointless posts like that out of nowhere come off as trolling and nothing more

as for "the fall of the simpsons" video, it's been discussed at length elsewhere, but i tend to agree completely with it. the most umbrage i've seen taken with it is it lists season 8 as the start of the decline, and some people don't like that. but to me, it very clearly was where the cracks started to show (i'd even go as far as to say season 7 tbh). it doesn't make those seasons "bad," and if season 8 was the last season (which in hindsight it ideally would have been), nobody would be saying those were a "decline." it's just that in retrospect of the depths the show has reached, you can see those seasons as a precursor if nothing else

Yeah. I still love season 8 and it's tonal shift of deconstructing the show. But it's definitely where the seeds that would grow into some of the biggest problems with the show were planted.

I find the video to be much better than the Zombie Simpsons article because it doesn't put so much emphasis on relatively minor things like Phil Hartman's death (we lost 2 great characters but they were not integral to the show), Conan O'Brien's contribution (he was merely part of a big ensemble that made it great), and "Marge Be Not Proud" (a great episode).

Anyone else excited for Hari Kondabolu's Apu documentary?

i'm interested. not sure i'd say i was "excited" about it

this has got to be close to a new page right? sick of having to scroll real fast past the barely censored simpsons porn

ugh i'm in lite mode so i can't see the post counts, but there are so many on this page

d'oh!

aye caramba!

lisa needs braces

Originally Posted by box elder

.

dental plan

Originally Posted by Fuzzy Dunlop

Anyone else excited for Hari Kondabolu's Apu documentary?

Originally Posted by box elder

i'm interested. not sure i'd say i was "excited" about it

continue

I enjoy the butthurt reaction from people who must defend their sweet Apu from vicious claims.

are people really still defending it? the best i could possibly see is the old "it was a different time!" with some kind of clause grandfathering the current episodes in. but actually defending a white guy doing that voice,

Originally Posted by box elder

but to me, it very clearly was where the cracks started to show (i'd even go as far as to say season 7 tbh).

thats...horseshit

if you want to dislike both oakley & weinstein seasons for their tone or recurring tendencies (i.e. inventing new one-time major characters out of nowhere rather too often or whatever) then fine, but to say it has any connection to what came after is nonsense. the quality started to dip towards the end of season 8 but that was more to do with episodes which were just a little bland (grade school confidential, the canine mutiny, the secret war of lisa simpson) rather than anything to do with the 100000-decibel vomiting of what was to follow. the wackiest episodes of the second half of season 8 were mountain of madness, my sister my sitter and the spinoff showcase. the wackiest episodes of teh second half of season 9 were trouble with trillions, trash of the titans and dumbbell indemnity, indicating the show was taking a complete stylistic turn (none of those episodes remotely resemble anything in season 8). the only thing season 8 has to do with season 9 is that some of the leftover season 8 goodness allowed some episodes in season 9 to be as good as your average oakley & weinstein episode

and the start of season 7 has bart sells his soul and home-sweet-home-diddly-whatever, which are two of the best episodes the show ever did, so idk where you're going with that

as for the apu thing, the only thing offensive about apu is the accent. everything else is fine.

It's great that over 10 years on since I joined NHC, my attitudes towards the show in some things can change, like finding Apu a bit problematic. While in other ways I remain resolute and still get annoyed at seeing someone claiming season 7/8 was the start of the decline.

Clearly if you want to go down that road you should pick Season 5 then instead, you idiot! You obviously don't understand the show at all, you prick!

Double points if they pick Homer Goes to College or some shit as one of the best episodes.

which they very often do. otherwise magnificent twitter person and simpsons nerd @pixelatedboat to name but one (in fact the only reason i dont suspect pixelated boat to be our own sloppy jimbo, given that he is australian and has a virtually identical style of humor, is his terrible choice of favorite simpsons episodes)

and other than hank azaria's voice acting (for which hank is not really to be blamed, as he apparently suggested at the time to the writers/producers that the only voice he could come up with was a bit stereotypical and potentially racist and they were like "whatevs brah"....and it was 1990) there is absolutely nothing wrong with apu. whatever fuckwit who posted that article to buzzfeed or wherever where he was like "the audience is laughing at apu rather than with him" is completely full of shit. at no point is the audience laughing at apu. i grew up in the 90s and i remember desi kids being bullied with "thank you come again", but that doesnt change the fact the "thank you come again" is not a joke AT apu, its WITH him. we are laughing with apu at his ruthlessness at being able to combine screwing people over with his procedural friendliness, in much the same way as we laugh with dr hibbert or a myriad of other characters, for the same exact reason. because the whole show is essentially a satire based around pitting supposed theoretical american values against those values when they are actually practiced, it is fundamentally something which aims to contrast theoretical american values with those values as they occur in real life. the primary characteristic of apu over all the seasons (up to whatever season aired in 2007 which is when i stopped watching, but i presume its just the same tedious al jean bullshit since then) has been that he is one of the most intelligent, hard-working, and self-reflective characters in springfield; his depiction in "much apu about nothing" is probably the most positive depiction of a long-running (voiced by the regular cast) character ever in the entire history of the series (including lisa). and most desis are immensely proud of the fact that their parents or grandparents worked insane hours in a corner store to put themselves or their parents through college. i repeat: nothing other than azaria's voice acting is wrong.

Yeah sorry, hadn't read the article. I did just mean the voice basically.

I’m not gonna write a big 8 paragraph response to all that garbage, but just for the record I’m not a big fan of homer goes to college. Good strawman though!

Originally Posted by prince jafar allah

if you want to dislike both oakley & weinstein seasons

l also specifically said l dont dislike them. Learn how to read

if you want to like both oakley & weinsteins less than 3-6 doyyyy

funny that it takes only 17 years or whatever in the workplace for english majors to shit themselves over a short paragraph tho

i guess i never really thought about apu as being problematic because my family has an indian friend who loves apu and thinks azaria does a legitimately great acccent and when he comes over we’ll often put on an apu episode. in retrospect i can see how it could be a bit problematic, but idk i’m not really an authority on the subject

I don't have huge problems w/ Apu other than the voice, yeah. But there's some people out there who are pretty much ready to boycott this thing because they dare to say ANYTHING bad about Apu. I think it's silly to have such a strong reaction. Either that or I'm just really not a fan of people trying to shut this down so hard for existing.

I'm gonna let the guy say what he wants and decide for myself how I feel in the end, but I think people (obviously not you, jafar, I'm mostly talking about whiny babies on NHC) should at least be open to the suggestion that there might be something slightly problematic about Apu, which again I agree is mainly the voice. Apu has always been one of my favorites almost entirely because he was "the brown one" growing up that seemed most competent at what he was doing in the show compared to other characters of color.