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The Simpsons |OT2| It's a pornography thread- We were posting pornography

T

timetokill

Banned
Just been skipping around episodes, and maybe it's just me but for all the people that complain that "jerkass" Homer appeared sometime around Season 8 or so must've missed "Homer Goes to College" in Season 5. I remember a lot of gags from the episode, and found the beginning to be pretty strong, but Homer really is aggressively stupid in this episode, and it begins to wear on you.

They kind of laugh it off in the end with a, "haha, nobody learned anything!" moral, but that doesn't really excuse it.
 
P

PeakPointMatrix

Member
timetokill said:
Just been skipping around episodes, and maybe it's just me but for all the people that complain that "jerkass" Homer appeared sometime around Season 8 or so must've missed "Homer Goes to College" in Season 5. I remember a lot of gags from the episode, and found the beginning to be pretty strong, but Homer really is aggressively stupid in this episode, and it begins to wear on you.

They kind of laugh it off in the end with a, "haha, nobody learned anything!" moral, but that doesn't really excuse it.
Click to expand...

Jerkass Homer has been around for ages before that. Hell, one of the meanest Homers shows up in Lisa's Substitute in season 2. It has one of the most touching endings in the series to be fair, but Jerkass Homer has been around forever.
 
A

Archaeopteryx

Member
I went on Amazon.ca the other day, looking at the prices for seasons of The Simpsons and found they had a sale on for the first five seasons - 10 dollars each. I snatched those up so fast, and they arrived the other day. On the second disk of the second season now and it's amazing how much I've forgotten, since I haven't seen so many of these episodes in years. They just never seem to be on TV anymore.

Now I have to get seasons 6-12 at some point and I'll be set for life.
 
R

RedShift

Member
timetokill said:
Just been skipping around episodes, and maybe it's just me but for all the people that complain that "jerkass" Homer appeared sometime around Season 8 or so must've missed "Homer Goes to College" in Season 5. I remember a lot of gags from the episode, and found the beginning to be pretty strong, but Homer really is aggressively stupid in this episode, and it begins to wear on you.

They kind of laugh it off in the end with a, "haha, nobody learned anything!" moral, but that doesn't really excuse it.
Click to expand...

Homer was a total bellend in that episode where Flanders starts the Leftorium, and I think that was season 3.
 
C

Cheerilee

Member
Homer was always something of a jerkass, which the writers played for laughs, but I think the difference is that Early Homer actually had some depth, and being a jerkass usually had some sort of reason which could be based on his character.

In Lisa's Substitute, Homer is a bad father because he's too stupid to know how to be a good one, but at least he recognizes his failings, and it's not as if he doesn't love his kids. A great father figure appears in Lisa's life, and then he's taken away again, and Homer comforts Lisa by saying that he doesn't know how to comfort her, because he never lost someone important... Lisa is still right there. He indirectly told Lisa that he loved her, and Lisa knew it was true, so she forgave him for his failings, instead of the usual trope of the father overcoming his failings.

In the Leftorium episode, Flanders represents everything that Homer is not. Flanders is a success where Homer is a failure. Flanders is better than Homer at everything. So Homer is jealous and wants to see Stupid Flanders fail. Homer goes out of his way to make it happen. But then when Flanders does fail, Homer finds his dark success bitter, and he has no taste for it, so he turns his efforts into helping his neighbor instead of trying to ruin him.

In Homer Goes to College, they ramped up his stupidity for the sake of comedy, and said that Homer believed that typical "college movies" were real. He was a menace to everyone around him, but there was no malice in it, he was just doing what TV had told him was the right thing to do.

In the later "Jerkass Homer" era, Homer has apparently lost most/all of his character depth. He's a jerkass all the time, for little-to-no reason. Just because the writers enjoyed playing it for laughs.
 
T

trab pu kcip

Member
Cheerilee said:
Homer was always something of a jerkass, which the writers played for laughs, but I think the difference is that Early Homer actually had some depth, and being a jerkass usually had some sort of reason which could be based on his character.

In Lisa's Substitute, Homer is a bad father because he's too stupid to know how to be a good one, but at least he recognizes his failings, and it's not as if he doesn't love his kids. A great father figure appears in Lisa's life, and then he's taken away again, and Homer comforts Lisa by saying that he doesn't know how to comfort her, because he never lost someone important... Lisa is still right there. He indirectly told Lisa that he loved her, and Lisa knew it was true, so she forgave him for his failings, instead of the usual trope of the father overcoming his failings.

In the Leftorium episode, Flanders represents everything that Homer is not. Flanders is a success where Homer is a failure. Flanders is better than Homer at everything. So Homer is jealous and wants to see Stupid Flanders fail. Homer goes out of his way to make it happen. But then when Flanders does fail, Homer finds his dark success bitter, and he has no taste for it, so he turns his efforts into helping his neighbor instead of trying to ruin him.

In Homer Goes to College, they ramped up his stupidity for the sake of comedy, and said that Homer believed that typical "college movies" were real. He was a menace to everyone around him, but there was no malice in it, he was just doing what TV had told him was the right thing to do.

In the later "Jerkass Homer" era, Homer has apparently lost most/all of his character depth. He's a jerkass all the time, for little-to-no reason. Just because the writers enjoyed playing it for laughs.
Click to expand...
yep. pretty much. same with other characters though
 
C

ClassyPenguin

Banned
bdm73.png
 
T

timetokill

Banned
RedShift said:
Homer was a total bellend in that episode where Flanders starts the Leftorium, and I think that was season 3.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but the difference (and point) is that he has a change of heart or some sort of character evolution by the end of the episode. When Flanders fails and he feels remorseful, he steps it up and saves his business. In Homer Goes To College they even make a point of showing how nobody learned anything, and that in the end Homer got what he wanted through being a jerkass.

Cheerilee said:
Homer was always something of a jerkass, which the writers played for laughs, but I think the difference is that Early Homer actually had some depth, and being a jerkass usually had some sort of reason which could be based on his character.

In Lisa's Substitute, Homer is a bad father because he's too stupid to know how to be a good one, but at least he recognizes his failings, and it's not as if he doesn't love his kids. A great father figure appears in Lisa's life, and then he's taken away again, and Homer comforts Lisa by saying that he doesn't know how to comfort her, because he never lost someone important... Lisa is still right there. He indirectly told Lisa that he loved her, and Lisa knew it was true, so she forgave him for his failings, instead of the usual trope of the father overcoming his failings.

In the Leftorium episode, Flanders represents everything that Homer is not. Flanders is a success where Homer is a failure. Flanders is better than Homer at everything. So Homer is jealous and wants to see Stupid Flanders fail. Homer goes out of his way to make it happen. But then when Flanders does fail, Homer finds his dark success bitter, and he has no taste for it, so he turns his efforts into helping his neighbor instead of trying to ruin him.

In Homer Goes to College, they ramped up his stupidity for the sake of comedy, and said that Homer believed that typical "college movies" were real. He was a menace to everyone around him, but there was no malice in it, he was just doing what TV had told him was the right thing to do.

In the later "Jerkass Homer" era, Homer has apparently lost most/all of his character depth. He's a jerkass all the time, for little-to-no reason. Just because the writers enjoyed playing it for laughs.
Click to expand...

This is a good post, but I think your explanation for HGTC shows my point. Sure there was "no malice" but there's not really any good intentions or a crisis of character either. At least in the earlier episodes you mention, Homer either has a change of heart or realizes his shortcomings. In HGTC it's just aggressive stupidity with nothing to counteract it. Basically, there's no conflict, and since he's the primary character of the episode that's a real problem. The only moment where there's even a moment of concern is done during the goddamn montage, as though they wanted to get past that ugly business of "worrying about character" as quickly as possible.

I think the main point for me is I was shocked, going back to it, how much a 5th season episode felt like a 8th/9th season episode.
 
H

Henchmen21

Banned
timetokill said:
Yeah, but the difference (and point) is that he has a change of heart or some sort of character evolution by the end of the episode. When Flanders fails and he feels remorseful, he steps it up and saves his business. In Homer Goes To College they even make a point of showing how nobody learned anything, and that in the end Homer got what he wanted through being a jerkass.



This is a good post, but I think your explanation for HGTC shows my point. Sure there was "no malice" but there's not really any good intentions or a crisis of character either. At least in the earlier episodes you mention, Homer either has a change of heart or realizes his shortcomings. In HGTC it's just aggressive stupidity with nothing to counteract it. Basically, there's no conflict, and since he's the primary character of the episode that's a real problem. The only moment where there's even a moment of concern is done during the goddamn montage, as though they wanted to get past that ugly business of "worrying about character" as quickly as possible.

I think the main point for me is I was shocked, going back to it, how much a 5th season episode felt like a 8th/9th season episode.
Click to expand...

Not true. In Homer Goes To College, he causes the nerds to get kicked out of school and tries to set things right. Okay his plan is stupid but his heart was in the right place.
 
W

Wool

Member
All right, first item: I lost our life savings in the stock market. Now let's move on to the real issue: Lisa's hogging of the maple syrup.
 
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