Cape Foure: The Simpsons Madness Goes On...

[Reply #80 on:]

Why get so nit-picky ? We know it's there, but you keep trying to rub it out...

[Reply #81 on:]

 

Originally posted by Otis P Jivefunk:
Why get so nit-picky ? We know it's there, but you keep trying to rub it out...

Huh?  I don't even understand that.

[Reply #82 on:]

Yeah, I realalize that it's a THOH, but, usually (not always, of course), those keep within the standard bounds of 'Simpsons' reality, apart from whatever the story has shifted to make it into a Halloween story.

However, in that particular episode, the 'deal' is that the family are being minturised in order to go into Mr Burn's body. There's no way I can see that Burns having a lizard tongue fits into that. That, as far as I can see, makes it a far too cartoonish consession for a joke that I can see being very funny.

[Reply #83 on:]

You also know nothing of the context (assuming there is one) for the lizard tongue.  Perhaps he contracts some strange disease and that's why he's taking pills (and thus swallows Maggie).  We don't know anything about it and its literally a one or two second shot in a Fox ad (and we all know how reliable those are).  We don't even know anything about the plot itself behind a very basic outline.  If the only thing you knew about "Time and Punishment" was "Homer goes back in time", would seeing the lizard tongues from the end in a Fox ad bother you?

I also don't really see how they "those keep within the standard bounds of 'Simpsons' reality, apart from whatever the story has shifted to make it into a Halloween story".  "Nightmare Cafeteria" has the family randomly being skinned alive by fog for no reason and with no relevance to the main Halloween twist.  Nearly every THOH has a random Kang and Kodos cameo with little to do with the main story.  In "Time and Punishment" (to bring that up again) Mr. Peabody and that snot-faced kid show up for no particular reason.  For that matter it also features donut-rain and other ridiculous nonsense that even with the "changed future" make little sense.  Point is these things have always been extremely random, within and outside of the main stories and halloween twists.  That's part of what makes them enjoyable, the hilarious twists and turns and suprise jokes that would never be acceptable in the main series.  For all we know this particular gag is a major plot point (again, the only thing we have is a very basic synopsis, which simply isn't reliable when it comes to a Halloween special).  But even if its just a random passing halloween joke (perhaps it turns out Burns is satan or something, who knows), I don't see the complaint when that's half the point of these things anyway.

[Reply #84 on:]

   

Originally posted by DotheBartman:
 Huh?  I don't even understand that.

It means exceptions this, exceptions that. We have our lines, and despite these so-called exceptions, it's only since these exceptions that our lines have been crossed. Our lines are drawn, and pretty much in the same place, but you keep trying to rub them out with these exceptions, when the fact of the matter is those exceptions don't match up to the cartoony level and sheer quantity of cartoony elements incorporated within the show since roughly Season 10...

[Reply #85 on:]

But thats beside the point here. all DTB is saying is that its ridculous to get so bent out of shape over a lizard tounge in a THOH. Which for one thing we don't even know the context of, and which has been done before anyway.

[Reply #86 on:]

Yeah, and I'm also primarily comparing the Jean era (especcially the last season or two of it) with these so called "exceptions" (not so much with THOH though which have never really changed in thier wackiness level, despite obvious changes in thier quality level).  Of course the Scully era was far, far worse then anything in the classic era in terms of surrealism.  But I truly don't think that season 15 is even any different in surrealism then most of the classic era.  If anything season five is probably far crazier.

[Reply #87 on:]

I still don't like the lizard tongue. And I still think it's a different case to much classic era stuff. I just can't adequatly explain why. Sucks to be me, I guess.   

 

But thats beside the point here. all DTB is saying is that its ridculous to get so bent out of shape over a lizard tounge in a THOH.

Who's getting bent out of shape? I just said I didn't like it (well, I said it made me sad, but I digress). Then I flailed about trying to explain why.

[Reply #88 on:]

Ok not bent out of shape, I don't know why I used that term.
But again I maintain that if you can't justify this opinion then you shouldn't criticise. Ir if you're going to, criticise classic eps as well, Like Monorail, that has a squirell with radioactive eyes, that shoots a beam from them causing a nut to fall from the tree, which it then swallows with its lizard tongue.

[Reply #89 on:]

Yeah, I agree with user name. Looking back, "Marge Vs. the Monorail" had a LOT of surreal humor.

• It begins with Homer sliding down a pipe, flying through the air, and smashing through his car window. He then drives away and crashes, singing that he's "about to hit a chestnut tree."
• Burns hides nuclear waste in a hollow tree, causing it to grow tentacles.
• A glowing radioactive squirrel runs out of the tree, blasts an acorn from a branch with its laser eye beams, then eats it in mid-air with its lizard tongue.
• The entire town spontaneously breaks into song.
• A solar-powered monorail goes out of control, threatening the lives of everyone on it.
• Homer develops a daring plan to save the passengers by borrowing a lasso from a cowboy who's there for some reason, tying it to the letter M on the side of the monorail, and using it as an anchor.
• His plan actually works.
• When the anchor is skidding, it separates a pair of conjoined twins.
• Leonard Nemoy disappears into thin air.

Not to mention the craziness in other classics like the robot attacks in "Itchy and Scratchy Land" or the fates of the ballplayers in "Homer at the Bat". It makes Burns' lizard tongue look downright realistic, doesn't it? Not to mention that the tounge is from a THOH episode, which are supposed to be surreal.

[Reply #90 on:]

Speaking of the new THOH, the Fox Simpsons site finally made itself usefull and has posted two clips from it.  Can't seem to actually find the links on the site but they've been posted in the Season 16 info thread at NHC (I don't think you need to register to access that part).  If I feel compelled maybe I'll cut and paste them here.

EDIT:  Clips are easily accessable from the main SNPP page.  So just go there.

[Reply #91 on:]

I think I've pinpointed my reason for disliking the tongue thing (and I know that you're all waiting with baited breathe). There seems to be no logical reason for it.

Now, before you give me a list of examples from previous episodes, let me take a few of the examples that have already been placed upon the table:

Why was the monkey super intelligent? Because it went into space.
Why were there flying monkies? Burns had engineered them, some how.
Why did the treegrow tentacles? Why did the squirrel have laser eyes? Because Burns had stuffed the tree full of radiactioactive waste.
Why did Nemroy disappear? Movie parody (I give allowances for these, which is why I don't complain about Supercali-etc.).
Donut rain? Yep, screwing with the timeline.

Now, many of these explanations don't make that much sense. But they ARE explanations. This lizard tongue thing, from what I can glean from materials available, would have no explanation what so ever beyond the 'Burns is evil' thing. Like that ciggarette company guy, in Marge vs. etc. Just stupid cartoonish 'zaniness,' designed entirely to piss me off.
Like I said. It's far to close to 'Arooga' type sound effects, and whirly running legs. This isn't a Warner Brothers cartoon.

[Reply #92 on:]

I'd agree if the tongue had already occured in a normal episode where we were able to see whatever context was in it and there wasn't any.

But literally all we've seen is, like, a one second shot of him with the tongue.  Its literally like a screenshot.  Again, if you saw a second of the lizard tongues in "Time and Punishment" with no context, would you be concerned about it?  Plus again this is THOH, where any "explanations" of crazy gags are always suspicious to say the least, even by standards of Simpsons surrealism (apparently they were stripped of their skin by fog?).

Again, I'd agree if we'd seen it in an episode already with no explanation (and the episode wasn't a THOH).  I'd even maybe agree if the ad was for a normal episode, albeit I'd still be willing to wait for an explanation before passing any judgement (in that situation it could always be a dream sequence, etc).  But come on, its a screenshot from a THOH about the family traveling through Mr. Burns' body.  What's so bad about a crazy lizard tongue joke in that?

Maybe Burns has some bizarre disease (which again would make sense given the plot).  Maybe its a movie parody.  Maybe the tongue is part of a halloween costume.  We literally have no idea what that joke is about.  I mean, I've seen some judgemental reactions to Fox promos (including, I'll be honest, from myself on occasion) but this is ridiculous.

[Reply #93 on:]

I've already explained why it bugs me.

I'll wait until the episode actually airs before passing final judgement, but I don't think it bodes well.

Now, let us all put my obsession with lizard tongues to rest.

EDIT: If, however, this thing goes down exactly as I'm worried it will, then everyone owes me a million dollars. 

[Reply #94 on:]

I can easily see why you're worried. The last five seasons having been adding surreal jokes that serve no real purpose and have no explanation. I'd be willing to bet that SJM's right.

[Reply #95 on:]

Its a THOH though!  How much explanation is even needed!

Also, just for fun, name me ten examples from season fifteen of wacky jokes without explanation (I'm sure there are some, but give me some).

[Reply #96 on:]

The problem with the ridiculous things in the more recent episodes is the fact that it often has a bigger effect on the storyline. Things like having Dracula at a republican convention in one of the old, classic episodes is fine because it was just a little side-joke, whereas having the Loch Ness Monster in Monty Can't Buy Me Love was just plain fucking stupid, and had a major effect on the plot. At the end of the day, I don't really mind the wacky jokes - just as long as they're funny. If it makes me laugh, then I really don't mind - but it just irritates me when a deliberately wacky joke completely falls flat.

[Reply #97 on:]

 

Originally posted by Beamer:
 At the end of the day, I don't really mind the wacky jokes - just as long as they're funny.

Exactly.  The previously mentioned jokes worked because they were either a) minor and/or b) funny.  Surreal jokes like Dracula being a  Republican or Leonard Nimoy 'beaming up' have an appeal because, at the time, surreal jokes weren't used very often in the Simpsons.  They were new and therefore funny.  The problem now is that too often the shows rely too much on surreal humor for laughs.  It's just not funny when every line is out-of-this-world wacky...that's "Family Guy" territory, and "Family Guy's" surreal jokes fall flat more often than they hit.

[Reply #98 on:]

I think it works with Family Guy, but that's because Family Guy was made to be a non-stop funny show that makes no sense and relies very little on plot. The Simpsons, on the other hand, started out as a fairly realistic animated sitcom. As the seasons went on, it became less realistic and more "possible, but extremely unlikely" until it finally reached stupid, impossible standards in the Scully era.

Like The Old Man And The 'C' Student... Don't get me wrong, I like the first 2 acts of this episode fine, but Act 3? Ughhhh... okay, so Homer's flushing springs down the toilet. The Simpson's sewerage pipes lead conveniently right into the ocean, where the old people's boat just happens to be? Not only is that stupid, but it's fucking disgusting.

Besides, even if there were all those springs under there, they wouldn't be able to make the boat bounce up & down on the water's surface. I know jack-shit about physics, but it's obvious that once that boat was filled up with too much water, it would sink to the bottom, regardless of how many springs were down there. Now, I know there have been a lot of totally impossible sollutions to situations the characters have gotten in, but this one particularly pissed me off for one reason of another.

Luckily, this has been happening a lot less lately, and the majority of the recent wacky jokes have been pretty damn funny (I already stated a while back how hilarious I thought the Dr. Marvin Monroe joke in Diatribe of a Mad Housewife was).

[Reply #99 on:]

 

Originally posted by evan:
  surreal jokes weren't used very often in the Simpsons.  They were new and therefore funny.

In season four, I guess.  By season six.....not so much.

I agree entirely with the sentiment about side jokes vs. plot-driving surreality.  However, that's exactly why I hate much of the Scully era and have little to no problem with the surreality of today.  The Loch Ness Monster: That's a dumb plot twist.  Troll Jockeys: That's a dumb plot twist.  Diamond mining monkeys: That's a dumb plot twist.

Jean-era surreality: Mostly just side gags.(With some exceptions, just as in the classic era with episodes like Marge vs. the Monorail, Deep Space Homer, You Only Move Twice, etc)

[Reply #100 on:]

The thing is that with the classic episodes you mentioned, the plots are handled in a way that makes them all make sense, even if they're totally strange plots that the viewers couldn't possibly relate to. Homer actually had a reason to go into space, there was a reason to send him into space, and as completely unlikely as the plot was, at least it made sense. Hell, You Only Move Twice is one of my 5 favourite episodes.

In the Scully era, it seemed they just made stupid plot twists just to make the viewer say "Wow, I never thought this would happen on The Simpsons." Like in Saddlesore Galactica - instead of the jockeys being goblins or whatever the hell they were, they could've just been pissed off at Furious D taking the class out of horse racing, and threatened to kill Homer if Furious D won the championship. The plot still would've worked, and the episode wouldn't have been half as bad... the whole plot twist with the goblin creatures was just plain unnecessary.

[Reply #101 on:]

Well yeah, agreed.  Again, there I was mostly just pointing out the similarity of those episodes to the Jean era, and saying the Jean era isn't much different from them.  The Scully ones obviously were.  Even David Mirkin must have cried watching Simpsons Safari.

[Reply #102 on:]

I'm one of the few people who didn't mind Simpsons Safari that much. I mean, it's definately not brilliant - but I don't really consider the holiday episodes as regular episodes, so it's much easier to forgive the crappiness of that episode than it is to forgive Saddlesore Galactica or Monty Can't Buy Me Love... just like how it's easy to forgive the time continuity errors and crazy plot in Trilogy of Error - it's not a traditional Simpsons episode. Although the big difference between Simpsons Safari and Trilogy of Error is the fact that Trilogy of Error is actually good. 

[Reply #103 on:]

Although it did actually air on April Fools Day (if I recall correctly), I'm not sure what you mean by "holiday".  Do you mean vacation episodes?

[Reply #104 on:]

You know, I actually didn't thing that Monty Can't Buy Me Love was that horrible until they actually found the monster. It all goes back to the idea of the wackiness having something to do with the plot like Beamer mentioned. In examples like Marge v. the Monorail, and You Only Move Twice(personal favorite episode), a fairly realistic situation is played against a wacky backdrop (for example, Homer finding his dream job and having to choose between it and his families needs, is played against a bondesque backdrop). Episodes like Monty Can't Buy Me Love, and The Old Man and the C Student start out like this, but degenerate into wacky situations played against wacky backdrops. Now that's not to say that it's the only problem, the idea of the wackiness being logical in the Simpsons universe factors in too, not to mention that the humor itself was not up to snuff in the Scully and to a lesser extent the Jean era.

[Reply #105 on:]

   

Originally posted by DotheBartman:
 Its a THOH though!  How much explanation is even needed!

Also, just for fun, name me ten examples from season fifteen of wacky jokes without explanation (I'm sure there are some, but give me some).

I’m sure I could easily name ten if I’d seen them all, but as you know, I’ve only seen a handful.

First, in that robot(grunt) one, where Homer goes into those robot fights. It really bugged me when he went to bed, and got a magnet to pull out all the metal from his body, then he asks Marge to do his back. It is related to the plot, and it is logical he could get some metal stuck in him, but what ruins the logic is the fact he’d be in huge amounts of agony and pain if he had that amount of metal stuck in him, and being pulled out of him.

In ‘Tis The Fifteenth Season’, when Homer buys the dry Christmas tree, and then suddenly is just goes up in flames. It wasn’t at all hot, there was snow for gods sake, so there was no reason for it to just go up in flames all by itself almost as snoon as Homer picks it up.

In that overall good episode where Marge writes a book, one thing kind of lets it down a bit. That stupid wandering eye joke, where Bart and Homers wandering eyes just happen when they don’t want to lie. I can see what the writers are trying to get across, but this isn’t the way to do it, with stupid wacky one-eye moving.

I know there’s more from the few others eps which I’ve seen from Season 15, but I can’t exactly remember them as I’ve only seen them once so far. If I had all of Season 15, and watched them back to back over one day with a notepad beside me, writing down wacky jokes without explanation, I’m sure I could get at least ten.

I think a few nails have been hit on the head in some of the recent posts of this thread. Namely, that a wacky joke with logic is quite acceptable, and even better if plot related.

In other news, I purchased The Simpsons Christmas 2 on DVD today, which gave me the chance to see the much hyped ‘Tis the 15th Season’, and overall I enjoyed this episode, and found it very funny. The flaming Christmas tree I mentioned above shouldn’t have been there, but aside from that t was very nice. Also, I watched the animatic and it’s amazing how many scenes were cut from the final version. I must have counted getting on for 10 just in the first half!...

[Reply #106 on:]

 

Originally posted by Otis P Jivefunk:
First, in that robot(grunt) one, where Homer goes into those robot fights. It really bugged me when he went to bed, and got a magnet to pull out all the metal from his body, then he asks Marge to do his back. It is related to the plot, and it is logical he could get some metal stuck in him, but what ruins the logic is the fact he’d be in huge amounts of agony and pain if he had that amount of metal stuck in him, and being pulled out of him.

True, but having him in screaming pain would just make it into a stupid Mike Scully "Homer gets hurt = Comedy" joke, and that would really be a shame considering that the other Homer injuries were so tastefully done. (Athough the spring-loaded First Aid kit was a little unneccesary). The magnet joke made me laugh because it was done to a surreal comedic effect, and not gross like that godawful joke with the badger in "A Tale Of Two Springfields".
 

In ‘Tis The Fifteenth Season’, when Homer buys the dry Christmas tree, and then suddenly is just goes up in flames. It wasn’t at all hot, there was snow for gods sake, so there was no reason for it to just go up in flames all by itself almost as snoon as Homer picks it up.

It was so dry that it combusted. It's not the most realistic joke, but more believable than it could have been. Also, it made me laugh, so the craziness didn't bother me.

[Reply #107 on:]

 

Originally posted by leelaholic:
 True, but having him in screaming pain would just make it into a stupid Mike Scully "Homer gets hurt = Comedy" joke, and that would really be a shame considering that the other Homer injuries were so tastefully done. (Athough the spring-loaded First Aid kit was a little unneccesary). The magnet joke made me laugh because it was done to a surreal comedic effect, and not gross like that godawful joke with the badger in "A Tale Of Two Springfields".

 
 Having him screaming in pain would have been worse, yes. It was just a terrible idea, full stop. The way they did it sucked, and if Homer was screaming in pain it would have sucked, it just full-out sucked and shouldn't have been done.

 

Originally posted by leelaholic:
 It was so dry that it combusted. It's not the most realistic joke, but more believable than it could have been. Also, it made me laugh, so the craziness didn't bother me.

I guess you could try to apply that logic into it, but the fact the air was cold enough for snow really didn't help make it seem believable to me. If it was a scorching hot day, then yes, but as it was, no. Also, even aside from the possibility of it combusting, the very fact it did it almost as snoon as Homer picked it up was very wacky, it's almost as if it was told to do go up in flames just then. And one more thing, it just wasn't funny, I didn't think so anyway...

[Reply #108 on:]

Homer getting hurt is stupid, no matter what season or producer. It's bad enough seeing that sort of stuff in anime.

[Reply #109 on:]

All this talk of which jokes are allowed and which aren't is stupid. If a joke is funny then it's a good joke.It doesn't matter if it's surreal or unrealistic or doesn't fit with the logic of the show or whatever. Quit overanalysing stuff 

[Reply #110 on:]

 

Originally posted by Otis P Jivefunk:

First, in that robot(grunt) one, where Homer goes into those robot fights. It really bugged me when he went to bed, and got a magnet to pull out all the metal from his body, then he asks Marge to do his back. It is related to the plot, and it is logical he could get some metal stuck in him, but what ruins the logic is the fact he’d be in huge amounts of agony and pain if he had that amount of metal stuck in him, and being pulled out of him.

I don't really count that in quite the same way.  Its more just in the usual sense that he's always been able to sustain much more pain then any other characters, including classic era.  The wrecking ball in "Sideshow Bob Roberts" for instance comes off as something where he should have been in much more pain.  Plus the point isn't so much that there's suspicious logic (which is true of any surreal joke, including the laser-eyed squirrel), I'm really looking more for jokes that are truly random and strange with seemingly no logic or explanation behind them at all.

 

In ‘Tis The Fifteenth Season’, when Homer buys the dry Christmas tree, and then suddenly is just goes up in flames. It wasn’t at all hot, there was snow for gods sake, so there was no reason for it to just go up in flames all by itself almost as snoon as Homer picks it up.

Leelaholic sorta covered this, but again its not like there's literally no logic behind it.  Its a really dry tree, so rubbing things against it sets it on fire.  Suspicious logic?  Yes, but again that's not what I'm really looking for.  This again falls more under those classic era jokes (again, like the plutonium squirrel) where's there's some juxtupasition but obviously not completely realistically so.  Not really anything new for The Simpsons.  It wasn't just a normal tree that set fire at some random point for no reason.

 

In that overall good episode where Marge writes a book, one thing kind of lets it down a bit. That stupid wandering eye joke, where Bart and Homers wandering eyes just happen when they don’t want to lie. I can see what the writers are trying to get across, but this isn’t the way to do it, with stupid wacky one-eye moving.

Sorta I guess.  Again I think there's a basic reasoning behind it, if somewhat surrealy so.  As for the actual quality of the joke (which in and of itself isn't what I was asking for) I'd say that I didn't find it funny the first time with Homer, but that when they did it was Bart later on it was somehow hilarious.

 

In other news, I purchased The Simpsons Christmas 2 on DVD today, which gave me the chance to see the much hyped ‘Tis the 15th Season’, and overall I enjoyed this episode, and found it very funny. The flaming Christmas tree I mentioned above shouldn’t have been there, but aside from that t was very nice. Also, I watched the animatic and it’s amazing how many scenes were cut from the final version. I must have counted getting on for 10 just in the first half!...

WOW.  Thanks.  I was hoping someone here or at NHC would report on that.  I may have to pick up that disc (if at a cheap price) sometime, so I can see those scenes.  Could you tell us about some of the ones that were cut?

[Reply #111 on:]

You know, I just didn't think those jokes were at all funny, but whatever...

As for the animatic, unfortunately it only covers the first half of the episode. However, there is plenty of cut stuff, some good, some bad. There is also stuff in the final version, which wasn't in the original animatic, such as that woman who looks like Mr Burns, she wasn't in the original animatic...

As for scenes that were cut, there's one where Homer puts out a plastic reindeer decoration in the front garden, and then suddenly it's lassoed away, which turns out to be Cletus on his van. Homer tells him it's plastic, and then Cletus replies (I can't remember exactly what he said) but it was something like "It doesn't matter, it'll still taste less gamey" (I'm pretty sure that's wrong, but it was something about it tasting better than what they usually have).

There's an extended scene of the Comic Book Guy in his shop, and we get to see Homer's journey to the shop in more detail. He's talking about the baseball card, and then he drives up to the Comic Book Shop, and it says on a sign in the window that they pay for baseball cards, so he goes in, and then we get to hear what Comic Book Guy is thinking (in much the same way Homer often thinks to himself). Comic Book Guy says in his head how he must stay calm, and how he mustn't let on how valuable the baseball card is). But then he just empties the cash register out for Homer, just like what was actually left in the episode. Also, it's interesting to note that the nacho cheese being stuck on the card was added in after the animatic.

I know there's loads more, but I can't quite remember them right now, oh yeah, when Homer gets the DVD player, there’s something different about that scene. There’s more background in the animatic, like a Merry Christmas banner hanging up which isn’t in the ep, and when Homer breaks the machine, I think he managed to get it out without breaking it in the animatic...

[Reply #112 on:]

Thanks.  I'll have to check this thing out for those scenes.  I wish there was a better selection of episdoes on that disc, but oh well.  I've also loosely considered picking up that Treehouse of Horror disc from a while back cheap as well, since I don't have THOH VI and VII uncut and there's some pretty great stuff cut....

Also, again goin back to the discussion of surreal jokes, my question wasn't so much of jokes that aren't funny (that's entirely subjective) but just of surreal, crazy jokes that have absolutely no logic behind them as was discussed earlier.  There's probably a few in season 15 (again that's not even entirely new: see the exploding woman in "Brother from the Same Planet" ) but I'm just trying to see if people can name any.  Having watched "Fraudcast News" again last night I could think of one right now (the bizarre ponies.  Not that they bugged me).

[Reply #113 on:]

 

Originally posted by Mr Fuzzywuvems:
All this talk of which jokes are allowed and which aren't is stupid. If a joke is funny then it's a good joke.It doesn't matter if it's surreal or unrealistic or doesn't fit with the logic of the show or whatever. Quit overanalysing stuff 

Love to. But it seems that I can't call a joke dumb (or say that a joke makes me sad) without everone clamouring to tell them why. That's it. From now on, I'm never explaining why a joke bugs me again.

[Reply #114 on:]

Yeah you shouldn't...

I actually find some of the weird surreal hijinx stuff extremely funny, if only for the WTF value.

And you know what I hate to hear?  You probably don't care, but here it is: It's people who say they hate how outlandish Simpsons has become and then they start talking about how funny last night's Family Guy episode was.  Family Guy just totally ripped off the Simpsons, including that in the surreal gags that make no sense department.  In fact Family Guy is really just the Simpsons with rabies on speed and thrown out the window. 

[Reply #115 on:]

Well, The Simpsons and Family Guy are pretty different shows. Family Guy was meant to be a completely ridiculous show, with tons of cheap laughs. I find it amusing, but I enjoy The Simpsons a LOT more. Good point, though.

And thanks for the information, Otis. I'll definitely get that DVD now.   
 

Originally posted by Otis P Jivefunk:
when Homer gets the DVD player, there’s something different about that scene. There’s more background in the animatic, like a Merry Christmas banner hanging up which isn’t in the ep

Interesting. They probably just didn't want to clutter the scene up with a bunch of distracting details. After all, this is a cartoon, so space and postion can be expressed with very few lines. Still, it's just as bad to have too few details, like they sometimes did in season one...

AUUUGGGGHHH! Where the hell is the wall??

[Reply #116 on:]

 

Originally posted by DotheBartman:
Although it did actually air on April Fools Day (if I recall correctly), I'm not sure what you mean by "holiday".  Do you mean vacation episodes?

Yeah, I did mean vacation episodes. Sorry 'bout the confusion there - we don't use the term "vacation" in Australia, we just use the word "holiday" to describe both vacations and public holidays (or any day off work/school really, for that matter).

[Reply #117 on:]

Ah, okay.  That makes sense.

As to "Family Guy"....while I enjoyed it (got sick of it overtime though), and I don't think its a rip off per se, I do think that those who consider it this great beacon of originality are overrating it quite a bit.  I don't think of it as a rip off, but I can't really think of any area where it broke new ground either.  Everything it did, other shows (like Simpsons) had already done.  It just made the cut away/flashback jokes more prominent then other shows (Simpsons, Critic, etc) had already done.

Oh, and to be fair to that season one background, remember that Some Enchanted Evening was the episode that had to be mostly redone (in fact, watch it closely and you can tell which shots are new and which are from the first cut).  Any other season one episode you can pick would have better backgrounds.

[Reply #118 on:]

I've watched some of the animatic again, and one thing I got a bit wrong; Cletus shot the plastic reindeer, not lassoed him. And then he carried the reindeer onto his van, otherwise it’s the same as what I said earlier. Also, a couple of other things... In the animatic; Marge puts up some Mistletoe, and then Grandpa Simpson almost immediately kisses her before she has time to walk away from under it. Also, people think it's snowing in one scene, but it turns out to be white power falling from pollution clouds caused by the Nuclear Power Plant...

[Reply #119 on:]

 

From SNPP:
November 7 • Treehouse of Horror XV (FABF23)

• In "The Ned Zone", Ned can see into the future - and sees himself killing Homer
• When Maggie ends up "In the Belly of the Boss" (Mr. Burns) after being shrunken inside a medicine capsule, the other Simpsons take a "fantastic voyage" inside of Mr. Burns's body in order to rescue her
• Victorian-era London detective Eliza Simpson is on the case of "Four Beheadings and a Funeral"

November 14 • All's Fair in Oven War (FABF20)
Thomas Pynchon and James Caan guest voice as themselves as Marge won't let a little thing like "not cheating" prevent her from winning a baking contest; Bart takes up a "swinging bachelor" lifestyle after finding Homer's discarded "Playdude" magazines;

November 21 • Sleeping With the Enemy (FABF19)
Bart has a new roommate - Nelson, who is taken in by Marge when she feels her own kids are ignoring her; Lisa lets schoolyard teasing get to her physically

I'm a little surprised that "All's Fair In Oven War" is the season premiere. I mean, these things aren't usually Marge episodes.

The THOH sounds awesome, though. And "Sleeping With the Enemy" sounds good.