The Simpsons - "American History X-cellent" - Talkback [4/11]

I have'nt watched the episode yet, but the shere fact that there is a sideplot focusing on Bart and Lisa sounds good enough to me. I find their love-hate relationship to be among the most interesting ones in the show. And since Bart is otherwise a pretty tame character these days, i like how the jerkass side of him still often gets to shine through when he is talking about his feeling towards Lisa, going on about how lame she is and how much she "sucks" and such. :p
 
This episode had it's fair share of problems. Bart and Lisa's subplot was very badly paced. It had them fighting one second to tending to the remaining ant (without any idea of why Bart even cares about it) to being annoyed at each other at the end. There was a good scene where SLH made Bart forgive him by licking his cheek, and Bart did the same thing to Lisa to annoy her, but that was the only solid moment of that plot (I agree with TnAdct1 about Marge's annoying Flanderization: It would of been a lot funnier if Bart just ran off and hit burns while Marge and Homer were arguing then to just see the full argument). The basic episode plot was better. There were a lot of very odd twists but the fact they had Burns narrate start it and then go and end it at least meant it wasn't nearly as fragmented as a lot of other episodes. Plus there were some good jokes with Burns in prision (mainly them hosing him, and him not falling for Kevin Michael Richardson's preacher man act until he sucked the evil out of him. Which was uh... disturbingly unrealistic even for this show. Isn't that the kind of thing you see in a TOH special, not in the actual show's canon). They really should of focused more on Smithers being in charge but I did like him wanting to encourge produactitivy by being nice, and Moe trying to talk Homer and Co out of they're plan. But really besides a more though out plot and a few decent moments, this episode was pretty standard for the recent simspons, as in not really that good. I don't see how it's a "Homer The Smithers" though, considering that episode dealt with how Smithers was fired. This is more like "Old Man And The Lisa" with Burns not being in charge of the plant and being very out of his element and seemingly giving up his evil nature for awhile.
 
Oh man, I really don't want to be the guy who sticks up for The Simpsons, but how did any of you reach the conclusion that they were mocking Jesus? They were mocking the illiterate. Unless Jesus was illiterate and that's what has your panties all twisted, but I don't recall ever hearing that.

Anyways, sweet Jesus was this episode terrible. (Nice segue, am I right?) That entire scene with Burns being arrested was atrocious. Homer kept warping across Springfield as needed to set up whatever terrible joke they wanted to tell, and he wasn't the only one.

First Burns get arrested, except keep in mind that the police weren't there to arrest Burns initially, and as they lead him out the front door there is already a throng of people assembled to mock him. There is also an old-fashioned horse-drawn prison cart waiting for Burns, when the police originally pulled up in ordinary squad cars. Homer was literally inside Burns Manor seconds ago, drunk off his ass and then all of a sudden he's outdoors, protesting with a sign that says BURNS IN HELL and appears to be quite sober. How the hell did that happen?

Moe is walking the streets selling rotten fruit. Why? Does he do that all the time just in case this precise situation ever comes up? Does he even have rotting fruit sitting around? Shouldn't he be running his bar? Taking a small detour here, but they set up a drawn out gag with Milhouse getting a rotten tomato of his very own, and his dad complaining that he'll never hit anything, and then... no payoff. We never see Milhouse throw the tomato. I guess Milhouse getting the tomato was supposed to be the payoff. Ha ha, Milhouse is poor. I suppose Nelson would have found that funny, but not the sensitive Nelson we've seen far too much of lately. That sissy would probably sympathize with Nelson.

Oh, but back to the crappy plot. Now the prison cart is passing in front of the Simpsons' house, and Homer is there too. So now he's in three places at once. Because it will be important later, I'm going to mention here that Lisa Simpson is NOT in the front yard, and there is an excellent aerial shot of the residence which confirms this.

Homer and Marge have a discussion and then Marge walks off.

Bart says, "Where are you going?"
Marge says, "Shopping. Every time this town riots the malls are deserted. You stay here."

As Bart groans in response, we get to see the front porch again, which is conspicuously missing one Homer Simpson. There is literally only 4.5 seconds during which we can't see what's going on, and he disappears. Homer isn't known for his speed or his stealth abilities, and the possibility that he snuck away while the camera wasn't pointed at him is slim to none.

Bart and Marge continue arguing, Marge pulls out of the driveway and then all of a sudden, there's Lisa standing there. How did she get there? Then she pulls her ant farm out of hammerspace to top it all off.

And that pretty much sums up The Simpsons nowadays. All the plots and jokes are pulled out of hammerspace, and whatever the writers finds, they keeps.
 
You are looking WAY too far into this. This is a comedic cartoon, FYI. The Simpsons have always been illogical and inconsistent (Yes, I have seen mostly every season, including the first ones)
 
This is a discussion board for cartoons, new and old. Looking WAY into a cartoon is what this forum is for, or am I missing something? (rhetorical question) When someone takes a show more seriously than yourself, don't imediately chalk it up to misguided, offputting idealism, okay?

Anyway, while it's true the show is episodic in nature, that rationale is not a valid excuse. In the "First Ones" that you condecendingly dismiss, the episodes made sense as a whole but contained surreal bits and pieces to keep things lively. Using the "It's a cartoon, so anything goes!" excuse not only is a disservice to the early years of the Simpsons, but it demeans all the hard work others put into the field of animation. You wouldn't disrespect someone who likes NASCAR and tell them they have stupid obsession with overpriced, commercial covered cars driving around in circles, right?
 
I'm just saying he shouldn't be watching the Simpsons if he has that much trouble dealing with inconsistencies...

Second, I didn't use the excuse "it's a cartoon". I said it's a comedic cartoon, used for entertainment. They aren't produced or meant to be analyzed on a deep level. I don't like the it's a cartoon excuse either, because if it's a logical plot-centric show, then I get annoyed when it's inconsistent. But the Simpsons aren't that. Sure, they contain many literary allusions, but other than that, it's a show for entertainment. Please stop twisting my words.

And yes, analyzing cartoons and discussing them is what this forum is for, but that poster took it to a ridiculous level, IMO. At first I thought he was joking.
 
If the inconsistencies are in the same episode, that's worth a good ragging on.



From a non-sarcastic Sam Simon, circa 1991:
"I'm glad the show attracts sufficient interest for people to want
to analyse it. For all I know, they may be more correct about their
conclusions than the people who write and direct it!"



It's always "some other show" that's meant for something more, but why do Simpsons fans try to demean the show by saying it's something that's not even thought provoking on a baser level? Honestly, if the show was that stupid, juvenile, and / or lacking-depth, would it have even made it beyond the standard 7 season sitcom?



If he just said "Worst episode Ever!" would that be better? :sad:
 
I never said it lacked depth. I'm fine with analyzing the episodes, I just think that the poster was thinking too hard about the show. And another thing, the show isn't realistic, and he was basically pointing out continuity errors.

And no, that wouldn't be better. I never said one-word responses are what this forum should contain, all I said that I think he was pointing out things that are kinda pointless to argue about, because this is a comedic show that was never meant to be realistic, but can be analyzed for depth.
 
The Simpsons was never meant to be astetically realistic, but the characters were more real in their dialog the first few seven or eight seasons. It's the Simpsons has been on for so long, everyone who claims the show was never meant to be realistic either weren't born yet, or just forgot about the time it was a more realistic show.
 
I agree that the first 8/9 seasons had 'more real characters' but they still had instances of inconsistency. And this episode has some inconsistencies as well, but they shouldn't diminish your enjoyment of the episode.
 
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