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[Nerdkiller]

The "Bart vs. Thanksgiving" episode is a great example of this. Bart just happens to ruin the centrepiece that Lisa worked so many hours on, and just how personal it is to her as she explains it to Maggie, making the emotional brunt of it being destroyed all the more powerful. Bart is unsympathetic towards the situation (he even quips "Bitchin'" when he sees it go up in flames) and even after being sent to his room with no hope of dinner, he continues to lack empathy. Towards the end of the episode, Lisa tells him to look deep down inside himself and see how his actions from earlier were mean spirited towards others. Bart finds that spot and apologises to Lisa for his wrongdoings.

It's this sequence from "Homer' Odyssey."

Homer's attempt to commit suicide had made me uncomfortable, given similar circumstances had happened to me. (Depression and unable to find a new job.)

Compared to the suicide attempt that was shown earlier in the thread, this one at least had the decency to be taken seriously, only to realise that he could do better after his family was put in danger, almost getting knocked down by a car to be specific. And thanks to his continuous efforts towards safety in the public, was he rehired by the plant, only this time as a safety inspector.

"And let nobody ever speak of this again, by punishment of DEATH!"

Torture dude, it was torture.

there are follow up grimes episodes?? But he died at the end.

Well, there was an episode where we see Sideshow Bob placed under the Simpsons' custody, as he tries to solve a series of murder attempts towards Homer by an unknown suspect. That person would turn out to be...

Spoiler

Frank Grimes Jr.

His father happened to like hookers, okay?

 

[Aaron Strife]

i love this episode. homer is consistently a huge asshole on just about everything. the scene where he non-verbally threatens bart with violence still cracks me up.

Reminds me of how on the Beauty and the Beast DVD commentary they talk about how the threat of physical violence is usually far more tense in a cartoon than actually carrying it out. Although man, it would be weird to actually see Homer hit Bart instead of strangling him.

How about Mr. Burns almost killing Bart in Curse of the Flying Hellfish?

 

[jstripes]

I get all the meta implications. It just isn't funny or entertaining. I feel like people get so caught up on how self aware the episode is that they give it a pass on being a genuinely unfunny, obnoxious episode. I outright don't find it entertaining, nor do I find a deconstruction of an obnoxious character that boils down to "obnoxious Homer is obnoxious" to be all that deep.

There's an extra bit of context behind the Grimes episode, and that run of The Simpsons in general.

The show-runners at the time thought the show was on its way out (how wrong they were), so they intentionally turned things up to 11 and made it self-aware because "the show is ending anyway so let's have some fun with it".

The next episode was "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase", which should make that fact clear as day.

Unfortunately, after they left, the show kept going and the next show-runners used the episode as a blueprint.

 

[vypek]

That makes as much sense as his son

The episode explains it as his father liking hookers.

Still a very odd follow-up episode to have. A bit off topic but the follow-up I have always wanted is to Pie Man and Cupcake Kid

 

[Professor Beef]

The episode explains it as his father liking hookers.

Still a very odd follow-up episode to have. A bit off topic but the follow-up I have always wanted is to Pie Man and Cupcake Kid

I too want to know if they ever finished cleaning the rain gutters.

 

[Aaron Strife]

There's an extra bit of context behind the Grimes episode, and that run of The Simpsons in general.

The show-runners at the time thought the show was on its way out (how wrong they were), so they intentionally turned things up to 11 and made it self-aware because "the show is ending anyway so let's have some fun with it".

The next episode was "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase", which should make that fact clear as day.

Unfortunately, after they left, the show kept going and the next show-runners used the episode as a blueprint.

I wish the last episode was the Simpsons visiting a screen door factory.

I believe the Tall Tales episode makes reference to that line from Behind the Laughter (the family just went on a trip to Delaware).

 

[supermarioworldE]

Different animation studio. It was also the first episode they produced.

Yep. I would definitely recommend checking out the original Klasky Csupo footage for anyone interested in it.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2rl4xg

 

[Space Runaway]

The casual murder of Spinal Tap seems like it should be mean spirited and yet it still makes me laugh for whatever reason.

 

[Professor Beef]

The casual murder of Spinal Tap seems like it should be mean spirited and yet it still makes me laugh for whatever reason.

To be fair, they only played for 20 minutes And they claimed it was a good show? HA.

 

[DeaconKnowledge]

In my school, you were required to give Valentine's cards to everyone, and everyone gave them to you, so while this sort of thing was averted, it comes off as disingenuous.

You're young. They do the same at my daughter's kindergarten class. Where do you think they got the idea from? It didn't used to be that way at all.

Yeah it's disingenous, but trust me, the sting of getting 3 or 4 pity cards (if you're lucky) while other kids gets 10 times that number hurts far worse.

 

[vypek]

I too want to know if they ever finished cleaning the rain gutters.

Lol I forgot that thats what the last thing they were doing was. Just like in Futurama I really like the characters being heroes. Would like to see Bart and Homer taking on the citizens of Springfield as heroes. And more time for ridiculous puns in the episode

 

[Jackpot]

I thought of some more!

In some ep Snowball II dies, so Lisa buys another kitten that gets killed straight away. She goes through about 11 dead kittens until she finds one and names it Snowball II, so you see kids no kittens were maimed/crushed/burned/whatever at all!

In another episode Homer deliberately wastes the family's savings on an RV to spite Marge. He then goes out of his way to hurt her and its Marge that begs for him to come back (which he refuses). It also incorporates the worst of the new Simpsons by resurrecting an old character to ruin him with "ker-azy traits" (that RV salesman from lost in the woods S1 ep) and segueing into a rushed resolution with some offensive Turkish stereotypes.

 

[MasterMongoose]

The Homer hanging himself thing wasn't unusual for the show. I've been watching a lot of it lately (thanks Comcast) and they made a LOT of hanging jokes in the earlier episodes. There were at least 3 in the few seasons I watched (Moe, Apu?, Homer earlier?). Moe's done it more than once I think.

It's still not a great joke, but it's also par for the course :/

 

[Oberon]

I never liked Homer's enemy. There was too much dark and not enough comedy, and it's just kind of depressing imo

 

[Haunted]

The animation definitely adds to that tension. It's so creepily fluid in comparison to other episodes at the time.

That is really good.

 

[il Diavolo]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xy83ins6p-M

Simpsons in its prime had the best fakeout gags.

 

[Richie]

In another episode Homer deliberately wastes the family's savings on an RV to spite Marge. He then goes out of his way to hurt her and its Marge that begs for him to come back (which he refuses).

An alarming number of post-classic episodes present scenarios like this, where Homer will screw things up and yet it's Marge who has to try and save their marriage. It leaves a really sour taste seeing this once lovable oaf who knew he didn't really deserve the woman he married, act so callously toward her with little to no remorse about it. That moment in the movie with the videotape, where Marge can't bring herself to think of WHY she would like to stay with him was something else.

The Homer hanging himself thing wasn't unusual for the show. I've been watching a lot of it lately (thanks Comcast) and they made a LOT of hanging jokes in the earlier episodes. There were at least 3 in the few seasons I watched (Moe, Apu?, Homer earlier?). Moe's done it more than once I think.

It's still not a great joke, but it's also par for the course :/

How early? IIRC the "Moe attempting suicide" jokes didn't happen in the classic era. The only joke on that mold I recall from those years is the one at the end of the twenty five (six?) puppies episode, where you're lead to believe Homer has hung himself, but is actually just playing with the basement's lightbulb.

It's one of thos future episodes, only it starts in the present, with homer dying over something stupid...then getting cloned by Prof. Frink.
Then there is a long montage of homer dying over and over and over and OVER again until it's the future and Frink tells Marge they cannot clone more homers, so she has to settle with keeping his digitized mind/conciousness in an USB, to later get a robot body.

This is not a Halloween episode, all of this happens in a regular episode. Also i think in this very same episode they show Ralph and several clones of him dying too.

For me, the worst part of that absolute shit half hour was Marge deciding to kill her physical body so she can live inside a monitor with Homer forever and ever. Then, if memory serves, he eats her. It's like. What. They even have Moe pointing out how fucking weird that was but just. Goddamn. To think the episode is a sequel to one of the better received episodes outside of the classic era, too.

 

[UberTag]

For me, the worst part of that absolute shit half hour was Marge deciding to kill her physical body so she can live inside a monitor with Homer forever and ever. Then, if memory serves, he eats her. It's like. What. They even have Moe pointing out how fucking weird that was but just. Goddamn. To think the episode is a sequel to one of the better received episodes outside of the classic era, too.

You forgot the worst part... she committed suicide in front of her kids. And then they retconned the ending with something equally stupid.

Holidays of Future Passed is an HD-era classic that I will happily recommend to any estranged Simpsons fans.
Days of Future Future is unrepentant garbage that might well be the worst episode I've ever watched.
Both were written by the same man, oddly enough.

 

[PSqueak]

For me, the worst part of that absolute shit half hour was Marge deciding to kill her physical body so she can live inside a monitor with Homer forever and ever. Then, if memory serves, he eats her. It's like. What. They even have Moe pointing out how fucking weird that was but just. Goddamn. To think the episode is a sequel to one of the better received episodes outside of the classic era, too.

It gets meaner, but on the other side, turns out marge giving up her biological body was part of Bart's controlled dream (he was going though a proccess to move on from his ex that involved being put in a dream simulation, yes, that's something that happened...), when he wakes up in the real world turns out Marge instead installed homer into a more handsome looking robot body that was brain washing him into being a model husband.

Also Millhouse is still a zombie and that makes Lisa moist.

 

[Akuun]

How early? IIRC the "Moe attempting suicide" jokes didn't happen in the classic era. The only joke on that mold I recall from those years is the one at the end of the twenty five (six?) puppies episode, where you're lead to believe Homer has hung himself, but is actually just playing with the basement's lightbulb.

Yeah, I don't think Moe was ever suicidal in the classic era. He was just the weird guy that Homer talked to, and at most he usually had some weird shady shit he was doing behind the scenes at his bar, but he never came across as depressed or suicidal.

 

[Ithil]

There was a Treehouse of Horror episode probably in the last ten years, hell it's probably older given I stopped watching new episodes circa 2004/2005 when I could stands no more.

Anyway, it featured Homer becoming the Blob, and going on a rampage eating people in the town. The town's solution to sate his hunger and save themselves was to feed him homeless people tricked into walking into a soup kitchen where he was waiting.
If it was supposed to be social commentary, it wasn't very profound, and if it was meant to be black comedy, it wasn't very funny.

 

[Richie]

You forgot the worst part... she committed suicide in front of her kids. And then they retconned the ending with something equally stupid.

Holidays of Future Passed is an HD-era classic that I will happily recommend to any estranged Simpsons fans.
Days of Future Future is unrepentant garbage that might well be the worst episode I've ever watched.
Both were written by the same man, oddly enough.

It gets meaner, but on the other side, turns out marge giving up her biological body was part of Bart's controlled dream (he was going though a proccess to move on from his ex that involved being put in a dream simulation, yes, that's something that happened...), when he wakes up in the real world turns out Marge instead installed homer into a more handsome looking robot body that was brain washing him into being a model husband.

Also Millhouse is still a zombie and that makes Lisa moist.

Oooooh maaaan, you guys are right. Even worse than I recalled. Uber speaks truth, that one has my vote as the worst Simpsons I ever saw. Stewart Burns gave his all with the prequel and clearly didn't give a damn the second time around. Feels like they saw how successful Holidays of Future Passed was (it was even pitched as a potential series finale) and pressured Stewart into striking gold again. A chore, a dreaded assignment if you will.

There was a Treehouse of Horror episode probably in the last ten years, hell it's probably older given I stopped watching new episodes circa 2004/2005 when I could stands no more.

Anyway, it featured Homer becoming the Blob, and going on a rampage eating people in the town. The town's solution to sate his hunger and save themselves was to feed him homeless people tricked into walking into a soup kitchen where he was waiting.
If it was supposed to be social commentary, it wasn't very profound, and if it was meant to be black comedy, it wasn't very funny.

Boy, you made me recall that "joke" actually happened in an earlier Treehouse of Horror. The one where Homer is the Grim Reaper. If memory serves, he's telling the kids at Bart's class all about his job, and asks them if they want to see him offing someone. Cue a homeless man entering the classroom, claiming he was told there'd be warm soup in here. Camera zooms out of the school, you hear all of the kids cheering.

Pretty messed up attempt at a gag. I was watching that with my younger bro, he was a kid and got upset that Homer would do something so cruel. I made up a story about how this one-shot homeless guy had actually terrorized Homer during a previous episode, that finished with him getting away with it and yelling "You'll never kill me, Homer Simpson! Never!". Thus, this gag. That calmed him down. I felt like such a Marge lololol

 

[Ishida]

There's also "Love is a Many Strangled Thing". To get Homer to stop choking Bart, a therapist hires Kareem Abdul-Jabaar to constantly strangle Homer. It's not as funny as it sounds.

This is one of my main choices for stuff that didn't work. That episode was TERRIBLE and showed Bart as an extreme sociopath who realized he could finally get away with every evil deed he wanted.

I'm aware that pretty much every person in this thread already knows this, but hell, I'll post it just because:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Flanderization

That article above explains the beginning of the end for The Simpsons.

Homer goes from loveable, dim-witted father who has a short temper but actually loves his family to obnoxious, sinister and just plain evil.

Bart goes from problem child who eventually learns that his actions have consequences, to evil sociopath whose only satisfaction is to put Homer in (sometimes mortal) danger, torment Lisa and just being evil for the sake of being evil.

Lisa goes from prodigy child that also indulges in mischief along with her brother, to annoying "holier than thou", pretentious asshole that makes it extremely hard to root for her.

And of course, trope-namer Flanders, who goes from friendly neighbor to bitchy Christian that criticizes everything he considers a sin. He goes from that perfect neighbor that quite honestly we would all love to have, to a character that you actually hate.

 

[Akuun]

This is one of my main choices for stuff that didn't work. That episode was TERRIBLE and showed Bart as an extreme sociopath who realized he could finally get away with every evil deed he wanted.

I'm aware that pretty much every person in this thread already knows this, but hell, I'll post it just because:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Flanderization

That article above explains the beginning of the end for The Simpsons.

Homer goes from loveable, dim-witted father who has a short temper but actually loves his family to obnoxious, sinister and just plain evil.

Bart goes from problem child who eventually learns that his actions have consequences, to evil sociopath whose only satisfaction is to put Homer in (sometimes mortal) danger, torment Lisa and just being evil for the sake of being evil.

Lisa goes from prodigy child that also indulges in mischief along with her brother, to annoying "holier than thou", pretentious asshole that makes it extremely hard to root for her.

And of course, trope-namer Flanders, who goes from friendly neighbor to bitchy Christian that criticizes everything he considers a sin. He goes from that perfect neighbor that quite honestly we would all love to have, to a character that you actually hate.

It's so sad to see. Flanders was a nice guy and a great neighbor, but a bit of a goody two shoes. Nothing more than that. The whole joke was that Homer hated this guy who's nothing but nice to him in return because Homer is that asshole neighbor who hates you for no reason.

Fast forward a few seasons and suddenly Flanders is a psychotic asshole and there's no longer any reason to like him.

 

[dave is ok]

 

[Morrigan Stark]

That was an awful episode all around. Even classic Simpsons wasn't immune from the occasional stinker.

Hey now, let's not call anything after S8 "classic", shall we?

To me "Classic Simpsons" is like S3-S6, which has zero bad episodes. S7-10 are still good but started to have some stinkers (increasingly so). And after that, well, not worth bothering with.

Jumping the shark definitely began with Saddlesore Galactica halfway through Season 11.

Oh yes I really hated this episode and it's about the time I stopped watching. The seasons had been getting worse for a while but this one just took the cake.

I know that didn't work at all. In Homer vs. Dignity, Mr. Burns hires a cash-strapped Homer to be his "prank monkey" while Smithers is away. Essentially this means paying him to troll society and humiliate himself in public.

In one scene Homer puts on a Panda costume, and they pretend he's a new donated panda to Springfield Zoo. He does some zany antics until the Zoo announces that they also have a male panda in the same enclosure. This panda then proceeds to rape Homer, still in his suit. Before this horrible scene ends, Moe cuts in to make a quick remark how this supposed female panda can't escape the assault.

Here's the transcript of the whole ordeal:
I stopped watching Simpsons for years after that episode.

For me, the worst part of that absolute shit half hour was Marge deciding to kill her physical body so she can live inside a monitor with Homer forever and ever. Then, if memory serves, he eats her. It's like. What.

You forgot the worst part... she committed suicide in front of her kids. And then they retconned the ending with something equally stupid.

YIKES
What the fuck... so glad I stopped watching after S11 or so.

Edit: holy shit, S27 now... the ratio of bad seasons vs good seasons is depressingly skewed now.

 

[ASTROID2]

The episode where Springfield Elementary killed students and served them to the teachers and students. It doesn't sound at all like something you would put in a cartoon but it is hilarious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2at0ufFNIM

 

[Daingurse]

Listen to your mother, kids. Aim low. Aim so low no one will even care if you succeed. Dinner's in the oven. If you want some butter it's under my face.

This always depressed the fuck outta me.

 

[ZeroX03]

This thread is full of hilarious moments. Embrace the hilarity of darkness and death folks.

 

[MCN]

Man, i quote this all the time. Love tha scene to bits.

 

[br0ken_shad0w]

Any of the Lisa vs Bart episodes. Even Lisa on Ice I wasn't a fan of. I don't like sibling conflicts and I feel they work better as a tandem.

 

[jstripes]

Yeah, I don't think Moe was ever suicidal in the classic era. He was just the weird guy that Homer talked to, and at most he usually had some weird shady shit he was doing behind the scenes at his bar, but he never came across as depressed or suicidal.

They "flanderized" him.

It's so sad to see. Flanders was a nice guy and a great neighbor, but a bit of a goody two shoes. Nothing more than that. The whole joke was that Homer hated this guy who's nothing but nice to him in return because Homer is that asshole neighbor who hates you for no reason.

Fast forward a few seasons and suddenly Flanders is a psychotic asshole and there's no longer any reason to like him.

Which is where the term flanderization comes from.

This thread is full of hilarious moments. Embrace the hilarity of darkness and death folks.

Ya, part of the original intent of the show was to bring a healthy amount of darkness into a sitcom world. Sitcoms at the time tended to avoid anything dark or cynical.

 

[Mariah Carey]

You can always spot a jealous tightwad by their reaction to the Homer's Enemy episode - specifically if they identify too much with the Frank Grimes character. Of course it's easy to empathize with someone who always gets the short end of the stick, but Homer's not responsible for any of it and only wants to be his friend. Frank should be happy that others are spared the difficulties he's faced, but instead he actively works to try to ruin a completely innocent person for the crime of being unintelligent and having luck and friends.

Frank Grimes is absolutely the villain of that episode and is a despicable character. And lord help you if you ever run into a Frank Grimes in real life.

 

[Richie]

This thread is full of hilarious moments. Embrace the hilarity of darkness and death folks.

Well, the thread's intention -is- to highlight moments that worked alongside those that did not. I'm a sucker for well executed dark humor so most of the dark jokes in the classic era hit a homerun with me (I grin like an idiot just -recalling- that angel of death one for instance). I just think it's inevitable that, given the series' downfall, there'll be several moments listed here that didn't hit the spot.