Bart, is he a pointless character now?

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louie642000

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Bart used to be my favorite character on the Simpsons back in the 90's, back when he was consistently portaryed as the most cynical Simpson family member, the true "black sheep" of the family. While Homer was almays the dumbest family member, he used to be different from Bart in that he rarely ever intended to be mean or cause trouble, he just sorta did it by accident because of his imense stupidity. Bart on the other hand very clearly WANTED to do things he knew were "bad". In short, they were two differeny characters and had different roles in the show: Homer was the standard "dumb" main character (think Fry from Futurama or Peter from family Guy) and Bart was the standard "cynical" or "bad" main character (think Bender from Futurama or Stewie from family guy).
But for the past nine years or so, its like Homer has sorta both remained in the role as the dumb guy, while also taking over Barts role as the cynical guy. Nowadays, Homer very often does things just to be mean, like play pranks on or insult people and then laugh about it. He behaves the way Bart used to behave, to put it short. Bart on the other hand, while still being mean to people from time to time, does so much less frequently than Homer. So Bart winds up coming of as merely a "lesser" version of Homer: cynical, but not as cynical as Homer; stupid, but as stupid as Homer; a troublemaker, but not as big a troublemaker as Homer.
It just seems like Bart lacks a purpuse on the show these days... It feels like any line said by Bart might as well have ben said by Homer... :/
 
If the crew actually cared about these characters this wouldn't be an issue. But they dont. King of the Hill hasn't been on as long as Simpsons but the characters have only grown throughout the last 12 years and it's obvious the writers care about Bobby, Hank, Peggy and the rest. No one working on the Simpsons seems to give a rat's patootie about anyone on that show.
 
As far as I'm concerned, The Simpsons ended sometime around 1998-1999. Everything The Simpsons has done this decade, including the movie, has been nothing but garbage. It's a shame too. They put together about a decade worth of episodes that, in my opinion, will never be equaled by another cartoon. It's a shame they didn't let it die with dignity.
 
That one ep. where they go to Africa basically lampshaded it.

"I think we should look at her research before we condemn her."

*everyone looks at Bart in shock*

"....I haven't said anything for a while."
 
Reality check.. (even if the classic fanboys disagree) Bart hasn't been really evil since Season 2. The rest of the seasons he's been another Dennis the Menace which was the biggest annoying kid on the block. Bart character itself is really outdated, along with much of the classic episodes.

I know this opinion is controversial and most probably get me flamed, but, when you actually see a show objectively taking off the nostalgia glasses, you can see that Bart hasn't been truly evil since Season 2.
 
Sorry for the Double post but truly wanted to comment on this post. You can't truly compare the Simpsons with King of the hill they appeal to different audiences and have different styles of comedy. King of the hill has always been a more real approach at the daily life, while the Simpsons have always been pure comedy with a lot of fantasy. The chracthers of King of the hill are much more realistic along with their situations.

If you notice.. the simpsons has always been a vehicule for the writers to talk about their politic views or religious views. A few example of their Political ideals:

"Two cars in Every Garage and Three eyes on every fish"

" MR Lisa goes to washington"

"Two Bad neighbors"

There's more around if you bother to look. But you got to understand that the Simpsons and King of the Hill are way too diferent shows.
 
Bart has always been the least interesting character in The Simpsons.

The show needs a major facelift.

  • Get Al Jean of the show for good (and bring in new writers) It needs fresh blood.
  • Take it off the air for about two seasons and really analyze the show top to bottom.
  • Perhaps bring in a few new characters
  • Give the voice actors something worthwhile to do ( they deserve it)
They need to do something, as they are just letting it rot away.
 
Actually I think they have to get rid of some of those characters. The Simpsons has too many gag characters that really are not funny that it needs to get rid of and focus on a smaller group of characters. It's too many pointless characters added with focusing only on like two or three characters (Mainly Homer and Lisa only.) that is hurting the show.

Really if the show had like ten or fifteen main characters all which got some focus things would be better. Too many pointless characters and too few focused characters is hurting the show.
 
Actually, yeah I agree. I just think that the whole show needs to be re-thought from the ground up.



I think the money is the only thing that's keeping them there now. Cause the stories wouldn't peek an actor's interest.

Julie Kavner sounds so bored in her performances now, yet when they actually gave her a great scene in the movie (dumping Homer on the TV) she hit it out of the park.

They simply aren't being challenged anymore.
 
I know that Bart stoped being a complete sociopath by season 3, and im glad he did. During those first two seasons he was way too one-dimensional. But from about season 3 to 8, he was a great, interesting, very three-dimensional character. He was still bad, but he also showed some redeeming qualities. And he was a different kind of "bad" than the season 1-2 Bart. The Bart of the first two seasons was pretty much just an annoying, immature, childish brat who played pranks on people and said "hell" alot. But around season 3, this immaturity was replaced by a kinda, how should i put it... over-maturity. By that i mean that instead of acting and talking like a regular out-of-controll ten year old, he became much wittier and his jokes, both verbal and practical, became much more sophisticated. Despite being canonically ten years old, he could easily pwn any adult in a conversation. I personaly like to call Bart the way he was portaryed in season 1-2 his "brat" stage, and his season 3-8 incarnation his "comedian" stage. And its the comedian-stage Bart that i love.

But since around season 8, Bart has gradually both become much nicer more well-behaved than he ever was before, and his wittyness has pretty much disaperared. Nowadays the meanest thing he will usually do in an episode is just saying that someone "sucks" or making some childish pun with the word "butt" in it. Its almost like his jokes are'nt even suposed to be genuenly smart anymore, but that we are instead suposed to laugh at them for being so childish. But i guess the writers have to play him that way, since they probably cant write dialoge witty enough for a character like the season 3-8 Bart...
 
Disco Stu is the biggest example of this problem. He was a great throwaway visual punchline in "Two Bad Neighbors" ("Disco Stu doesn't advertise!"), but they just keep bringing him back, like the show's new writers can't come up with their own classic jokes, so they keep incessantly referencing the 90's Simpsons gags and minor, throwaway characters. The X-Files was the same way in it's last few seasons, throwing in "Hey, remember this...?" inside jokes for long time series fans instead of just getting down to business and creating new moments that would become classics in time. Springfield desperately needs to prune out the dead wood in it's voluminous supporting cast.
 
Well, even in seasons 1 and 2, Bart wasn't a soulless monster. He was definitely a troublemaker, sure, but how else could you explain his remorse and guilt when he cut off the head of Jebediah Springfield, or eventually felt sorry for destroying Lisa's centerpiece at Thanksgiving, or wasn't interested in hating Todd Flanders for the sake of winning in the mini-golf episode?

That said, I agree that Bart has lost his impact in recent years. It's like they don't know how to write for a ten year old boy anymore. Instead, we often get sitcom-y plots like "Bart trades places with his exact double!" or "Bart gets a driver's license and hooks up with a girl in another town who happens to be pregnant" or "Bart is held hostage by a chimp".
 
It really sounds like you're blinded by nostalgia. Bart was never all that witty. Now, back when I was a kid I thought Bart was witty, but then I grew up. I guess that's the essential problem with characters that don't age. The audience outgrows their childish antics, but the character never does.
 
:^: You know, I was thinking along these lines, but I didn't know to properly articulate it. ;)

This is the problem with Bart, nail-on-the-head. It's not so much that Bart has lost his edge (though he has, to an extent), it's that he's lost everything that makes him Bart. the writers are now treating him like a generic cartoon kid and are placing the character into geenric cartoon kid situations. Plots like "Bart Has Two Moms" or "Double, Double, Boy in Trouble" could've been used on any Saturday morning cartoon and been applied to any character. You could easily put Johnny Test or T.J. from Recess in either of those situations and it wouldn't have changed a darn thing.
 
No, i am not blinded by nostalgia. There were plenty of characters i considered cool or witty back when i was i child (like Sonic in his Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog incarnation or Raphael from TMNT), but whose every line makes me role my eyes nowadays. But most of Bart's lines truely were comedy gold, and so thought countless adults who watched the show as well back then. Of course, amazingly smart and funny dialoge was something that almost every single character on the show had back then (including idiot characters like Homer or Ralph, whose stupidity were brilliantly written), but i personaly think Bart stood among the top.
 
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