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Last night’s 450th episode of The Simpsons was nothing special. It was a pretty tame and laffless story about Krusty the Klown, although I suppose one could draw some kind of topical meaning from the network forcing him to change his program to appeal to a broader audience. But not really. The Simpsons is not ripped from the headlines, it was written a year ago and took nine months and 40 Koreans to animate, or whatever. All in all, it was a reminder of why I don’t watch The Simpsons anymore: because the show is slowly treading lukewarm water, miles away from the funny shores of its past. (Good metaphors today!)
Far more interesting and enjoyable was the Morgan Spurlock-directed documentary The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special! In 3D! On Ice! There were interviews with Conan O’Brien, and Sting! Andrew WK opened the show? And just to show you how important The Simpsons is as a social and cultural phenomenon, Morgan Spurlock waited 30 WHOLE SECONDS before inserting himself into the documentary. (Seriously, what is wrong with that guy?)
Oh, Morgan Spurlock got a free trip around the world? Neat! (HUH?) Morgan Spurlock is insanely confused about how interested people are in what Morgan Spurlock thinks and does. Like, he is good at putting documentaries together: they tend to be well paced and have a good “energy” to them, but he basically ruins them by completely losing focus on what the documentary is even ABOUT in his attempts to insert himself into the situation. I was genuinely interested to hear interview clips with former and current writers of The Simpsons, and it’s fun to see Dan Rather talk about Kent Brockman, or whatever, but then HERE COMES MORGAN SPURLOCK shifting the focus back to MORGAN SPURLOCK. Because what is most important about The Simpsons‘ contribution to pop culture is MORGAN SPURLOCK. Yuck. Also, the dude had more outfit changes than Carrie Bradshaw in the Sex and the City movie! Relax, Fashionplate!
You know who else needs to relax? Moby. Him and Morgan Spurlock should get married and spend the rest of their lives patting themselves on the back. “I love me!” “I love me more!” It’s fine that Moby did seven remixes of the Mr. Plow theme song (Just one question: why?), but stop pretending like the Mr. Plow theme song is a governing Buddhist philosophy, you impossible clown.
Probably the funniest part of the entire documentary was during the end credits, when former Simpsons writer Conan O’Brien was asked how he would end the show:
Which sort of hints at the one thing that I took away from the whole night (besides that Morgan Spurlock is the worst and needs to have someone who loves and cares about him break the hard truth that he’s self-obsessed and obnoxious and needs to change for his family’s sake), which is that The Simpsons needs to end. They have done great things! But those days are behind them. At this point it just feels like the show is sapping all of its remaining goodwill with an out-of-breath suicide sprint towards some non-existent finish line that is going to put it in the hospital (I am telling you, GREAT METAPHORS TODAY). You can rest now, The Simpsons! You did it! You won! Go to sleep! Here, I got you a cake:
Don’t be upset. Everything dies. Phoebe (doesn’t) knows what I’m talking about.
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If a show as popular as the Simpsons were to end Bart would get a Joey-esque spin off, appealing to the happiness of no one
What I wouldn’t give for another season of Summer Heights High…
Or Pepper Ann.
Seriously, where is our One Saturday Morning 20th Anniversary Special?
IS it still popular though? I don’t know anybody who still watches any of those Sunday night shows. FOX Sunday night is the shark-jumpingest night on TV.
I used to go to my parents-in-law for Sunday dinner and we’d sit in front of the tv with the trays and watch Fox instead of talking to each other. THANK YOU ANIMATION DOMINATION!
&nsbp;
especially Family Guy (whoa controversy begin), because my Mother-in-law would be all “Oh that Stewie! he is terrible! terrible! what a bad baby!” It made it watchable…because OLD PEOPLE! lolamirite?
If they could get a whole “I wash myself with a rag on a stick” episode out, I would watch it. Other than that though,ehh.
It’s still funnier than Family Guy.
Say “It’s still funnier than 30 Rock” and that statement might actually have some weight. Otherwise, that’s like going to a Robin Williams stand-up show and saying “he’s still funnier than Jeff Dunham”.
I totally agree. I just wanted to make some fun of Family Guy.
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Comment police, on patrol! You sure put him in his place.
This 1.5-hr time slot (450th + Spurlockathon) had more Cringes in it than a New Jersey phone book.
Hey, kind of like SNL. Except it’s okay to still watch that? Confusedgum.
I think this show continues to push forward because the producers want to be able to achieve a VH1 quadrafecta and be a part of “I Love the 80′s”, “I love the 90′s”, “I love aughts” and “I love the 10′s”.
That would just open another half-hour for Seth MacFarlane’s crazy-zany animating antics.
I know that this show is just one level better then Family Guy, but I still watch it, it’s like that kid that you were friends with as a kid, but than as you got older he started acting different and awkward, but you still hung out with him, because of all the good times you had together before.
…Was that just me?
oh this is totally metaphorgum today isnt it
Well technically, if you use “like” or “as” before your comparison, then it’s actually a simile.
So, what Gabe called a metaphor the second time, is actually a simile, along with my sentence.
….This is probably why i don’t have more friends.
love it.
A simile is a type of metaphor, so technically Gabe is right. ENGLISH MAJOR
No no, you’re not alone in that boat.
The Simpsons now feels like an after-party that’s gone on a little to long. The grand climax of the event, what everyone came for and what they will talk about forever, has ended and now it’s a smaller affair with everyone just relaxing and enjoying the company. But at some point, you have to look down at your watch and think “Damn, it’s getting late”, you know? I’ll watch it every now and again. It’s not bad by any stretch of the word. I guess I’m just… ready to move on?
I would totally ditch my friend to get a chance to sit at the cool, funny table at lunch. Ha! Try and figure how that metaphor would work out!
It emotionally drains me to watch the Simpsons, knowing the heights from which they have fallen. Me watching the Simpsons is like Seth Meyers watching the Sarah McLachlan ASPCA ad.
Supersize MY SHORTS, MAN.
I think Morgan Spurlock is Handsome. Handlebar Mustache = GUH-rowl.
While I don’t watch The Simpsons as much as I did a few years ago (at least during the Sunday night slot; I still watch basically every day after work in syndication), I did like the bit with all the producers and writers rebutting the naysayers:
“The Simpsons isn’t as good as it was 10 years ago? Yeah, well, neither are you.”
“The message boards online just haven’t been as funny in the last few years. I don’t even go on there anymore.”
Did the writers really mention that? Too close to home, I guess. Because it?s true, the simpsons actually died 10 years ago and there will be no saving it no matter how many more decades it?s on the air.
The Simpsons is still one of the best shows on television, my wife and I watch it and laugh every week as appointment viewing, and it’s such a bummer that people who just don’t like it anymore feel they have to justify it by saying it’s because the show is bad.
I agree with this as well. I think a lot of people just grow out of it, which is understandable. There are a lot of things I laughed at when I was 16 that I don’t laugh at anymore. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t a whole new crop of 16-year-olds (or an established crop of full-grown adults that still watch and enjoy) that deserves to have new Simpsons episodes. As far as I’m concerned, The Simpsons has earned the right to be on the air for as long as it damn well pleases. And while there are shows all over TV that should be put out of their (and our) misery, The Simpsons is certainly not on the top of the list. It’s not intellectually offensive like Family Guy or morally offensive like The Jeff Dunham Show.
I don’t feel as if I outgrew it–I stopped watching it (10 years ago! Holy shit!) because I felt like it had transformed into a different show with none of the emotional anchoring that made it appealing to me during the first 10 year. That and every single character just became an unbearably obnoxious self-parody. But it’s fine that people like it for what it has become–I don’t begrudge them anything. It’s been off the air for years as far as I’m concerned–I don’t watch it. I don’t need it to be canceled in reality to feel better about my tastes.
I was just creeped out that the documentary periodically became an episode of hoarders — international edition. Maybe when Conan goes to Fox he can head up the writing staff at Simpsons again.
The Simpsons is still better than 85% of the garbage on the teevee, so I feel kind of bad when it gets this “it’s not as funny as it used to be treatment” (I also loved the bit Superglue mentions above). I would rather sit through a thousand of Sunday’s new Princess Penelope episode than watch one episode of Two and a Half Men.
Also, I did not think Morgan Spurlock was bad! I think he made it more interesting than the tons of Simpsons retrospectives I’ve seen over the last 450 episodes – changed it up a bit.
If you replace “Morgan Spurlock” with “Michael Moore,” you’re still right.
/wishes Moore weren’t so annoying because we have *somewhat* similar views
See, The Simpsons is mediocre and mostly unfunny now, and nobody watches it because why?, and it’s tough to watch something that we all love So Much waste away like this, etc etc, but…
If The Simpsons ends, Seth MacFarlane will get another show. You know he will. If The Simpsons ends, Seth McFarlane will replace it, and then Seth McFarlane will have TWO FULL HOURS of TV time every week. TWO. FULL. HOURS.
So let’s all rally around The Simpsons, bracing our shoulders against it and holding it up with our feeble prayers as the last bulwark against Seth McFarlane Ugh-Campaign of Worstness. Hang in there, The Simpsons!
I can’t decide if the path you are suggesting is more Sisyphean or Pyrrhic.
Actually if you consider Adult Swim, TBS and syndication, Seth McFarlane has probably close to like 4-5 hours EVERY DAY and 5.5 to 6.5 hours every Sunday. Scary right?
Apparently last night’s episode originally ended with “Thanks for 20 wonderful years. Now stay tuned for three Seth MacFarlane shows.” but they changed it last minute. It was probably deemed too depressing.
The Simpsons movie was good. Did anyone see that? You guys should rent it.
Yeah, old and familiar things are boring. The Simpsons just gives me an attention span headache. Please give me something more ephemeral to fill the endless void. I hate that it takes up one half hour on one channel out of the 12 gazillion I have to choose from on digital HD satellite cable television on demand.
Futurama > The Simpsons. Too bad FOX couldn’t see that.