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300 Episodes of the Simpsons
circletimessquare writes "As we approach 300 Episodes of the Simpsons, Entertainment Weekly tries to pick the 25 best episodes of The Simpsons (and the one episode they consider the worst). They do a pretty good job. But since "best of" lists like this one are always rife with debate and contention, I can't think of a better place than Slashdot to send up EW (pun partially intended)."
Last Exit to Springfield, Marge v. Monorail, and Cape Feare all in the Top 5? I hate to say it, but EW actually seems to have gotten things right.
Homer: "OK, no more deer for a week"
Marge: " Homer, did you say deer or beer?"
Homer: "Deer."
"Want in one hand and spit in the other and see which one fills up first." - My Dad
Other Classics:
Two Bad Neighbors (s7)
Bart vs. Australia (s6)
Deep Space Homer (s5)
Homers Enemy (s8)
2 dozen and 1 greyhounds -- best song ever (see my vest)
Brother From another Series -- "..those years at clown college" "I appreciate you not refer to Princeton that way"
$pringfield "I think we'll keep those jars of urine"
Colonel Homer "The don't call me Colonel Homer because I'm some dumbass army guy"
Anyway, I could do this all day but I think you get my point. (Quotes courtesy of The Simpsons Archive).
As for eps that shouldn't have been included in the top 25: THOH, Spin-Off Special & Homer's Phobia. But this is purely subjective, so no flames please.
I do agree with they're pick for worst ep though
The sole purpose of the Internet is to get porn and bomb making plans into the hands of children.
I haven't looked at their picks yet, but I know the best episode ever.
The halloween special with the shinning. It's got 3 super hilarious quotes and is overall the best episode ever.
"no beer no tv make homer something something"
"shhhh, you wanna get suuuued?"
"that's willy's time!"
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
On a side note, I know that Conan O'Brian wrote several of them (like the monorail one, I think). Does anyone know/have a list of those? And did any other famous people (co)write them also?
And of course, it wouldn't be complete without the top 50 Simpsons quotes:
http://doheth.uzipp.com/opinion/50quotes.shtml
There is no reasonable defense against an idiot with an agenda
:wq
Me post first? That's unpossible...
"It's a tarp!" -- Dyslexic Admiral Ackbar
From the List of Inquiries and Substantive Answers, aka the alt.tv.simpsons FAQ:
How much does Maggie cost in the opening titles?
Maggie is listed as costing $847.63, a figure once given as the amount of money required to raise a baby for one month in the US.
CBG: "Immediately after reading the 25 best episodes I was on the Internet registering my disgust and complaints."
Bart: "But they provide you with free and quality content!"
CBG: "Worst. Top 25 list. ever."
is not on the list? Insanity!
to quote Nate Patrin:
This episode kicked hairy yellow butt, right from the In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida bit to the Uncle Moe's Family Feedbag bit...
-- Boycott Shell
The Simpsons was one of the deepest shows on American TV. Now it's a Saturday morning cartoon starring Captain Wacky (aka Homer). I use to watch it religiously, participate in forums, even did some work and article writing for a Simpsons website. Now the show seems so geared towards an age group far younger than mine, I hardly bother trying to catch it anymore.
IMHO, Entertainment Weekly did a fine job of picking episodes - much better than most publications do. Now if only the writers would pick up on that and say, "Maybe we should start doing that sort of thing again."
How, Marge? How?
Besides, there were some real stinkers in the first season while they were still trying to find their voice and before the show went Homer-centric (in a fair world, Homer-centric should be a word).
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
My favourite line:
(Mr Burns to Homer): "You're the fattest thing I've ever seen. And I've been on safari."
Apu: "Mister Simpson, please do not offer my GOD a peanut."
Stupud tipo.
Ñ'
It's interesting that out of the top 25 episodes picked in this article, only 2 episodes are from seasons after 1997. The vast majority of episodes listed in this article are from 1993-1994.
Have all of the creative juices stopped flowing into the Simpsons? Or have they just had a bad run of writers?
hmmm ... seen the list, and while I agree with some (Mr Plow, Monorail, Homer Badman) it misses out some of my all-time favourites
...
Deep Space Homer
the one where Homer gets fat to work from home
the episode where Bart wins the elephant
any episode where Barney is sober
and now for some classic simpsons quotes (all atributed to Homer of course - who else!):
"I'm a white male, aged 18 to 49. *Everybody* cares what I think!"
"Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try."
"I know I'm not usually a praying man, but if you're up there, Please Superman help me!"
"Homer no function beer well without."
"Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what separates us from the animals... except the weasel."
"To alcohol - the cause of, and solution to all of life's problems."
and my all-time favourite
"Maybe for once, someone will call me 'sir' without adding 'You're making a scene'." - Homer J Simpson
"Because it's there." - George Mallory, when asked why he wanted to climb Mt Everest, March 18, 1923 (New York Times)
"Worst Episode Ever"
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
It says something about a show that the best episodes are almost exclusively from several years ago.
Before I'm modded down for heresy, I adore The Simpsons. Yet, I still believe that the show was far greated from seasons 3-7 than from 8-today. The show has lost its ability to be intellectual at the same degree, in losing writers such as Conan O'Brian.
Frankly, I'm not entirely sure they should keep making the series: Homer is now retarded (whereas he's merely simple in the beginning), Homer has no Job (or actually, he's had well over 70 jobs, as listed in a recent episode...which means roughly a quarter of the episodes have been "Homer becomes a "), they no longer make subtle erudite references...its falling apart.
"Stumble before you crawl"
There's a good reason for this: Seasons 7-9 was during the transition of the writing and production from one staff to another; the original staff had nearly all been there since the concept of the Simpson on the Trace Ullman show, while the new staff was much less versed with the humble beginnings of the show.
Most long-time Simpsons fans that were on the net prior to that change immediately saw the changes that the show had made, and over the course of a few seasons, the fans no longer cared for the show. (I know a few of these people well, including some long time alt.tv.simpsons posters that simply dropped the show like a hot potato). The show became more cartoon-y, and less of a animated family sit-com. (That is, these people saw OFF as a show that could have been done live action if they really tried, but worked better as a cartoon; nowadays, most episodes can't be done live action as they involve too many abuses of the cartoon laws of physics). Plus there were changes in the emotional tone of the stories; the early seasons (at least from 3-7) had a good mix of comedy and emotion, but nearly all of the last 5 or 6 seasons have been strictly out and out comedy. They also changed the characters somewhat, making Homer more of a doofus as opposed to a not-so-bright father trying to do his best for the family, and making Lisa a political busybody, and most recently, dumbing down Marge. Too much focus on the external characters as well, and giving Homer all these crazy antics to do. Sure, if that's the way the show started as, then maybe it would be funny, but it's not the same as what most of us long-time fans would consider to be the heart of the Simpsons.
What's amazing is that there's very few mainstream publications that mention how poor the Simpsons are *today* compared to a decade ago. They all praise the show, it constantly wins awards, etc. The problem is, the Simpsons is a cornerstone of FOX, and to remove it would cause significant problems for its ratings battle on Sunday nights.
I think this list is at least some nod to how the Simpsons had good quality shows to start, and that the last several season have been 'blah' since. There have been good episodes of the last few seasons, or ones that could have worked; I do think "Homer's Phobia" is a good one to be on the list though a bit too high, if nothing else for the classic steel mill scene, and "A Day In the Life" which showed the same events, but from Homer's, Bart's, and Lisa's POV, could have worked if the zany adventures were held back a bit. But really, just like TNG and DS9 and the rest of the Trek universe, the Simpsons need to be retired. To see even 2 more seasons come out of the current staff is going to pull down the overall quality of the show even more.
"Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
"I can see my house from here!" - ST:
Easily my favorite, if for just some of the lines:
"In this house we obey they laws of thermodynamics"
"I'll have no more of your Vasser bashing young lady."
"I guess I'll just have to go hide in the crawl space"
"I hate it when he does that."
"There's just something so unwholesome about flying a kite at night."
I demand a million helicopters and a DOLLAR!
From List of Inquiries and Substantive Answers:
How much does Maggie cost in the opening titles?
Maggie is listed as costing $847.63, a figure once given as the amount of money required to raise a baby for one month in the US.
But the trivia question in The 138th Episode Spectacular said that the cash register read "NRA4EVER". What's going on here?
The trivia questions in The 138th Episode Spectacular are gags made to troll the audience, just like the images of Matt Groening, James L. Brooks, and Sam Simon in the episode are not what those people really look like. The cash register question is a gag referring to the people who have labeled the show as "the most liberal on television" by portraying it as having an ultra-conservative slant.
R: That voice. Where have I heard that voice before? B: In about 365 other episodes. But I don't know who it is either.
Plotting the TOp 25 by year we see:
90 XXX
91 X
92 XXX
93 XXXXXXX
94 XXX
95 X
96 XX
97 XXXX
98
99
00
01
02 X
Looks like they peaked early in 93 and, despite a brief revival in 97, its been downhill ever since.
Or does anybody's best ever list contain items from 98 - 02 seasons?
----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
Save me Jeebus! Save me!
Karma: The shiznight, mostly because I am the Drizzle.
The fact that The Simpsons is getting hype from Entertainment Weekly further proves this show lost its satrical bite (and relevance) a LONG time ago.
Homer: Doh!
:-)
Lisa: A deer!
Marge: A female deer!
Perfect! Just perfect!
For those with BRAVO, Inside the Actor's Studio will be having the cast of the Simpsons on this Sunday, February 9th at 8 pm (7 central).
+1 Insightful, -1 Troll. What can I say, I'm an Insightful Troll.
Here's some other random quotes:
Homer: "Kids, kids. I'm not going to die. That only happens to bad people."
Bart: "What about Abraham Lincoln?"
Homer: "Uh, he sold poison milk to school children."
Homer: "No, no, no, Lisa. If adults don't like their jobs, they don't go on strike. They just go in every day and do it really half-assed."
The best one is from the episode where the kids are snowed in at the school.
Homer and Flanders are driving there to rescue them when they run over something in the road.
Flanders: "We just ran over something."
Homer: "Yeah, I hope it was Flanders."
I laughed my ass off for probably 5 straight minutes.
IMHO, the clown college was the better of the two
I'll thank you not to refer to Princeton that way.
I don't know about best episode ever, but the best scene ever was when Bart handed out the music for the opening hymn at church - In the Garden of Eden by I. Ron Butterfly. The poor organist had to play 28 minutes non-stop and then collapsed.
Lasers Controlled Games!
From SNPP.com:
"It should be noted that while Fox is promoting "Barting Over" as the official 300th episode, this is not exactly correct. In fact, the 300th episode to be aired will be "Strong Arms of the Ma," on February 2nd. "Barting Over" isn't the 300th produced episode either, as that title goes to "Strong Arms of the Ma" as well."
We passed the 300th episode Milestone last Sunday! Anyone else celebrate?
Highlights:
Aunt Gladys dies, they go to the funeral, and Selma wants a baby.
Lionel Hutz has a good, small part. (You'd be surprised how often that works, you really would)
Selma tries to find a man, including the pimply faced checkout boy.
Homer gets sick from eating a really old, 10-foot hoagie.
Because Homer is sick, the kids go to Duff Gardens with Selma. Classic stuff here, Lisa acid trips by drinking the water, Bart tries on Beer Goggles, the Seven Duffs, rapping Abe Lincoln, etc.
Homercles cares not for beans!
This episode kills me every single time I see it, and for some reason they don't run it very often in syndication. I literally watched for 2 years, 3 times a day trying to tape it. I finally downloaded it from the net. It is the 3rd season, so I am just waiting for the next DVD set to come out.
The thing is, there are sooooo many good episodes. Even recent ones have their "classic" moments that crack me up. Best Show Ever!
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Man, that *is* a great episode, but where I lost bladder control was during the song, which I really think is the very best one:
Babar
But I don't even believe in Jeebus!
I'd suggest you don't use Slashdot as your only news source, or you will suffer permanent brain damage.
There's nary an animal alive that can out run a greased scottsman. - Groundskeeper Willy
Phil died in 1998 and the show hasn't recoverted until very recently. Gronig pushing Futurama in '99 probably added to the slump.
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
JS: Mr. Hutz, do you have any actual evidence to present?
LH: Well, I have lots of hearsay and conjecture, those are *kinds* of evidence.
LH: I lost the case, so your pizza's free.
MS: But we won the case.
LH: That's ok, the box is empty.
And of course the "No(,) money down" gag...
Have all of the creative juices stopped flowing into the Simpsons? Or have they just had a bad run of writers?
I'm not sure what the difference between these two choices is. But there has definitely been not only a change in writing talent but also in attitude. I couldn't believe my eyes that someone voted "Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie" as one of the best 25. As a long time Simpsons fan, I was actually offended by that. The episode seemed designed to be a big "fuck you" to all the fans who were complaining about how the newer episodes were nowhere near as good as the past ones. I think the writers and producers would have been wise to listen to the feedback they were getting from fans. In fact, I just made this comment the other day about Star Trek. In the Poochie episode, Lisa finally goes off on a siloquoy (I know I spelled that wrong) about how Itchy and Scratchy is just as good as it's always been and that the falling ratings are just a result of being too successful for too long. This speech is obviously directed at unhappy fans of the Simpsons and telling them to shut the hell up and that their opinions are wrong (that the Simpsons is as good as it was in Conan's day). I couldn't believe the audacity of the writers!
Also, I don't understand what the hell they were thinking about the episode anyhow. The whole plot is that Poochie is a terrible character and makes I&S even more unwatchable. So then the writers of the Simpsons force us to watch these lame I&S clips and this is supposed to be funny? This is kind of like those awful "annoying man" skits on Saturday Night Live. I guess writers seem to think that shoving annoying stuff at us is going to make us laugh out of nervousness or something. As I see it, the entire I&S&P episode was designed as a "fuck you" to the fans and nothing else. It wasn't even designed to be funny. Why it got voted in the top 25 is beyond me.
GMD
watch this
I think the chili cookoff episode (El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Homer) is pretty darn good and was sadly overlooked for the list. Johnny Cash. Guatamalean Insanity Peppers. Space Coyote. Hot pants. Marge smokes. Homer dances and whines. Homer trips out. "I hope I didn't brain my damage"
Its Different. Cool. Funny. How could they overlook it?
-Sean
Oh Come ON! Already with the revisionist history? Should we take every show with a picture of the twin towers, and edit them out? Good Lord, tragedies happen...we are sad, we mourn, hopefully, we learn...then move on. But, it is no reason to wipe out any references to them from the past before they were gone....If it was funny in the past...leave it that way!! Best way to remember them.....
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Homer:
"Welcome to the Internet, my friend.
How can I help you ? "
customer:
" I am interested in upgrading my 28.8 KBaud
Internet connection to a 1.5 MBit fiber optic T1 line.
Will you be able to provide an IP router, that's
compatible with my TokenRing Ethernet LAN
configuration ? "
(pause)
Homer: Can i have some money now?
Open Source Java Web Forum with LDAP authentication
I can't agree with the reviewer here. The show was MORE satiric at the start - it satirised everything about television and popular culture, which necessarily meant it was mocking itself and its viewers. At the beginning it was clear that Marge and Homer were bad parents, and Homer in particular was a bad person. As the series became popular (and a cash cow) they lost the ability to do that. No satire can survive its own success.
How many Simpsons fans really are the embodiment of Comic Book Guy? Think about it - if they weren't, would all those geeky in-jokes and references succeed? When the show was at its sharpest early on, every time you laughed you were laughing at yourself. Nowadays they just don't do that, mostly because they're too afraid to kill the golden goose. In this respect it's become just like any other show, helmed by fearful TV execs.
I also disagree that the show got "zanier". Zaniness works when it's imposed on a crazy kind of order - sorting that out is where the humour lies. After a while the attempt to be any was simply producing nonsensical scenes with no rhyme nor reason. Not funny, and most of all not satirical - just pointless slapstick and a lot of WTF.
The other way in which the show devolved was to become much outwardly meanspirited, and this is another reason the satire isn't self-directed at the show and its viewers any more. It requires a careful balance to coax people into laughing at themselves, and you can't be too mean. A lot of the stunts in the past five years or so have been basically Itchy and Scratchy for "real". It's like some sort of sick circular progression - now the show really is a dark parody of what it used to be.