Your favorite episode of The Simpsons...

This topic was created in the Miscellaneous forum by AnOdeToNoOne on Wednesday, June 22, 2016 and has 20 replies.

Profile picture of Scorpioluver
@Scorpioluver
10 Years

There are so many to choose from but stark raving dad and Mr Plow are 2 of my all time favorites. I always get that birthday song stuck in my head.

Profile picture of enfant_terrible
@enfant_terrible
17 Years10,000+ PostsLeo

Too many to pick from, but one that comes to mind specifically is that Christmas episode where Bart gets caught shoplifting and has to re-examine himself and everything he took for granted, including the love of his mother, who becomes more distant. It starts off on a happy note but as the episode progresses even the snow quickly melts away and we're left with a grey, distorted kind of Christmas, as Bart is left out of all the family activities because Marge figures he's old enough to make his own decisions. And ain't that a lonely place!

For me it's just all the right elements coming together, certainly some of my own childhood fears and anxieties from that early transitional period in life.

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Profile picture of enfant_terrible
@enfant_terrible
17 Years10,000+ PostsLeo

Another one that comes to mind - for the sheer laughs, this time - is the episode where Burns puts together his own softball team to represent the powerplant and goes to the lenght of hiring Major League players to work for him in order to ensure victory on the field. However, all except one of the stars suffer unrelated misfortunes the day before the game that prevents them from playing. It's one of the more absurd early storylines that worked nontheless bc you can tell the writers had fun.

"Look Mr Burns, I don't know what you think sideburns are..." 😆

Profile picture of hydorah
@hydorah
13 Years10,000+ PostsPisces

I think the majority of DXP wasn't born yet when the Simpsons stopped being funny
It was around 1995-ish.
I can't even remember a good episode because of all the dreg that kept piling up

Profile picture of AnOdeToNoOne
@AnOdeToNoOne
10 Years1,000+ Posts

Posted by hydorah
I think the majority of DXP wasn't born yet when the Simpsons stopped being funny
It was around 1995-ish.
I can't even remember a good episode because of all the dreg that kept piling up

The Simpsons really did have a golden age from Seasons 1-9.

My DVD collection stopped at Season 9 because, as you mentioned, the show simply stopped being funny.

I have beliefs about why the show crashed so hard in terms of humor.

1.) Matt Groening pretty much abandoned the show around Season 8 or 9 to put all of his energy into Futurama.

2.) Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien had to stop helping write jokes for the show because their careers really took off when they got shows of their own.

3.) Basically, it seems like the show was handed off to the janitor as each key comedic contributor departed at about the same time.

I hate that Phil Hartman was killed by his wife in that murder-suicide, because he brought so much to the program in terms of comedy for Lionel Hutz.