“But you endorse everything!  In fact, this endorsement contract comes from your line of legal forms.” – Canyonero Guy
“It’s a quality form.” – Krusty the Klown

There’s no new Zombie Simpsons until September at the earliest (October? fingers crossed!), so we’re going to spend the summer overthinking Season 9.  Why Season 9?  Because we did Season 8 last summer, and Season 9 was when the show started becoming more Zombie than Simpsons.  Since we’re too lazy to do audio and too ugly to do video, we’ve booked a “chatroom” (ours is right between the one with the sexy seventh graders and the one with the bored federal agents pretending to be sexy seventh graders).  So log on to your dial-up AOL and join us.  This text has been edited for clarity and spelling (especially on “Garofalo”).

Today’s episode is 915 “The Last Temptation of Krust”.  Yesterday’s was 920 “The Trouble With Trillions”.  In a special twist this week, Bob Mackey joined us.

 

Mad Jon: I have many strange mixed feelings about this episode.

Charlie Sweatpants: Strange and mixed feelings like being in the locker room as a twelve year old, or the other kind?

Mad Jon: Can’t it be both?

bobservo: Even at the time, it astounded me that an episode about stand-up comedy would feature such greats as Jay Leno, Bruce Baum, and Bobcat Goldthwait.

Mad Jon: And not have any of them tell a joke?

bobservo: I mean, The Simpsons still had a lot of pull in the 90s — couldn’t they have gotten anyone better?

But I at least give them credit for making Jay Leno more likable and funny than he is in reality.

Charlie Sweatpants: The quality of the stand up comedians is kind of lacking. But, with the exception of Leno, they’re just there as background.

Mad Jon: I get that. However, I did find Garofalo just as funny in this episode as I do in real life.

Dave: Which is to say not at all?

Charlie Sweatpants: Do you need a setup for your punchline about how that means she’s not funny?

  Oh, Dave did it.

bobservo: The problem with this episode is that it tries to create humor that both we and the characters accept as being funny. That’s an impossible feat in writing without coming off as being disgustingly self-congratulatory.

Mad Jon: I thought the punch line was implied.

Charlie Sweatpants: Bob, you kinda lost me on that point.

bobservo: It’s a hard point to get across.

In The Simpsons (and I guess in fictional comedies in general), most characters are not aware that we, the viewers, are finding their various situations and predicaments funny.

Charlie Sweatpants: I’m with you so far.

bobservo: Which is why Krusty’s new Carlin-y act is embarrassing. It’s supposed to be intentionally funny from the character’s point of view, but it’s not.

So it’s strange to see the fictional audience laughing at something that we are also supposed to find funny.

  Sorry, this is a baffling concept that I’m still trying to grapple with.

Charlie Sweatpants: Well, I think his press conference is better than his standup at Moe’s (which has standup now, dontchaknow).

bobservo: Oh yeah, definitely.

Mad Jon: Every night of the week apparently.

Charlie Sweatpants: The press conference is making fun of the mostly low quality of standup, where as the actual standup is just regular, low quality standup.

bobservo: I’ll stop going in this direction if I’m confusing everyone, but it seems like Krusty’s new, edgy persona was more of a tribute to Carlin than a send-up, which is why it failed in my eyes.

It was just a writer imitating Carlin, rather than satirizing his style.

Charlie Sweatpants: What bugs me, and Bob maybe this is my clumsy definition of what you’re grappling with, is that they’re imitating both audience and performer. Krusty’s bomb at the charity festival is supposed to be terrible, and it is, but why would I want to watch that? And his edgy performances at Moe’s basically have a laughtrack, which I hate.

bobservo: The writers did plenty of Dangerfield-style jokes in Burns Baby Burns, but they also satirized his jokes a bit.

Charlie Sweatpants: Either you’re the performer or the audience, you can’t be both.

Mad Jon: Well, this got pretty deep pretty fast.

Charlie Sweatpants: And I’m not even high.

Mad Jon: I should have taken more notes.

bobservo: I think Krusty bombing in front of The Simpsons was his funniest “act,” since we had the interplay of the family. It was also a good parody of observational humor.

Charlie Sweatpants: That’s a good point, that really was parody.

bobservo: In that you could take a lot of Seinfeld-style jokes and kind of point out how they’re not so clever because the writer/performer is ignoring various things.

Charlie Sweatpants: If you ever did a word cloud of Carlin or Seinfeld’s standup, “notice” and it’s variations would be huge.

bobservo: Maybe we should move on to plot stuff?

Mad Jon: So would Fuck. But Krusty didn’t say that in this one.

Standup without vulgarity is like weekends without beer.

  Eat me Sinbad.

bobservo: I dunno, pre-sitcom Cosby was pretty good.

If you can believe that.

Charlie Sweatpants: It was, strangely enough.

Mad Jon: I’ll have to take your word for it, I barely remember the sitcom.

Charlie Sweatpants: But in terms of plot, this one doesn’t bother me as much.

Mad Jon: It’s more boring than bad.

Charlie Sweatpants: It puts a lot more care in solving the problem of getting a Simpson (in this case Bart) to interact with the rich and powerful (in this case Krusty) than the Trillions episode does with Homer and Burns.

Dave: Yeah, boring basically sums up my take.

Mad Jon: In the writer’s defense it was all plot driven behavior.

bobservo: This isn’t really plot-related, but I noted two good jokes that were kind of ruined by the writers revisiting them. As if we needed a reminder to understand why said jokes are funny.

Dave: What are those, Bob?

Charlie Sweatpants: The real conceit is that Krusty would pass out in the Flanders yard, but it’s done in one quick scene instead of the extended horror that is Burns tour of his mansion for Homer

bobservo: I enjoyed the Bart and Krusty stuff, as well as his undying love for the clown, despite Krusty continually treating him like dirt.

Charlie Sweatpants: Yes, what are they? I didn’t mean to step on your toes there.

bobservo: No prob.

Mad Jon: Ah the treachery of the chat room.

bobservo: “There’s that bird you like to argue with.” It’s funny on its own, and we don’t need to see Homer actually argue with the bird.

Mad Jon: That definitely was a self-inflicted gun wound.

bobservo: And that weird little follow-up to Lisa burying the money. Kind of sucked the darkness out of a great joke.

Mad Jon: two for two.

Charlie Sweatpants: I’m going to disagree with both of you on both jokes.

Mad Jon: Do as you wish.

Dave: I’m going to disagree with the second.

bobservo: I can entertain disagreements.

Charlie Sweatpants: I like that Homer’s disagreeing with a parrot wanting a cracker. That he doesn’t realize the parrot isn’t actually debating him makes it work.

Lisa’s little moment of thumbs up sweetness isn’t as good, but it passes very quickly. As a joke callback it’s quick enough that I don’t mind it.

bobservo: I guess I might be willing to waffle on the second joke, but I think the actual parrot argument is less funny that it could have been if it was only implied.

Dave: I like the cake-topper aspect of Lisa’s joke. Like Charlie said, it’s quick and painless.

Mad Jon: Meh.

Charlie Sweatpants: I think the fact that all the parrot is saying is that it wants a cracker adds something substantive to it.

Mad Jon: Yeah, I can see that.

I still like the reference to conflict jokes when Homer is involved.

bobservo: It’s clever, but I don’t think it’s necessary.

Charlie Sweatpants: Fair enough, honestly the only thing I don’t like about the very beginning is Gil.

Mad Jon: Agreed.

bobservo: Yeah, Gil’s actually crammed into both of these episodes.

Mad Jon: One of Gil’s less than stellar moments.

bobservo: They sure seemed to love Gil.

Dave: Gil’s a non-character that has had more screen time than is reasonable.

Mad Jon: Gil reminds me of Jimmy Fallon

Charlie Sweatpants: When did “Glengarry Glen Ross” come out on DVD? Were they binging on it while writing Season 9?

Mad Jon: Both were present after the death of Phil Hartman, but neither could ever hope to fill his shoes. And I have to watch.

bobservo: I think Realty Bites made them go Gil-crazy.

Mad Jon: He did have a couple of good lines in that one.

bobservo: Yeah, I liked him in that episode.

Charlie Sweatpants: That goes to the overall lack of creative depth in these declining seasons, they came up with a good idea, and instead of coming up with more they recycled it ad nauseum.

I still like this episode though, there’s just too many good jokes, from “Maybe if he had better arch support they wouldn’t have caught him”, to “Don’t you hate pants”, to the Canyonero.

Dave: Take me here under the disco ball.

Charlie Sweatpants: That’s a great joke.

Mad Jon: I agree on all these points. Although the pants joke is another one that in my book didn’t need following up, i.e. the pants being thrown.

bobservo: I really love Marge’s reaction to the “Do you like to laugh?” guy. And how he moves on to Homer while she’s still talking.

Mad Jon: The survey guy is near classic throwaway Simpsons

Charlie Sweatpants: Agreed.

This one has enough solid actual humor shot through it that I don’t mind it’s relatively minor flaws, whereas Trillions is mostly flaws with a few jokes keeping things from being completely dead.

Mad Jon: I would most certainly rank this one significantly higher than Trillions

Dave: It’s higher than Trillions but not on my regular playlist.

bobservo: I enjoy the core story, though a lot of the surrounding material is meh.

Dave: The quality of jokes does not make up for what is, in my book, just a boring episode through and through.

Mad Jon: Not much from 9 goes on my regular list.

Charlie Sweatpants: Does this one?

bobservo: What does? I’m just curious.

Mad Jon: No.

Charlie Sweatpants: You’re harsher than me.

Mad Jon: From 9?

Less patient is probably more apt.

Charlie Sweatpants: I’ll agree with that.

Dave: For me, the episodes are Lisa’s Sax, The City of New York Vs. Homer Simpson, and a couple others that escape me now.

bobservo: I find myself a little more forgiving of seasons 9 and 10 than the general DHC consensus.

Charlie Sweatpants: I’m much harsher on 10 than I am on 9.

Mad Jon: From 9 you’d probably find “Lisa’s Sax” “Trash of the Titan” and “King of the Hill” although the last one is a bit of a guilty pleasure.

Dave: I think I’m the outlier here, Bob, in that I generally loath both.

Charlie Sweatpants: I think I said this last week, but for my money 9 to 10 was the biggest single season drop in quality.

bobservo: Agreed.

Mad Jon: 10 is almost completely entirely unwatchable.

  But I think we can wait until next summer to talk about why.

Charlie Sweatpants: There’s a pleasant thought.

bobservo: I’m scared.

Mad Jon: Sorry to ruin your night, or year, whatever you’re thinking.

Dave: Year. You bastard.

Mad Jon: But assuming we don’t get sued or most of us die between now and then, it’s probably going to happen.

Charlie Sweatpants: To put it in perspective, here the Canyonero is a nice gag to end the show and make fun of SUVs, the next season they built a whole episode around it.

Mad Jon: Oh yeah, that was only season 10?

  Goodness, they really do all blend together after nine.

  The Canyonero commercial is pretty funny.

bobservo: I think the Canyonero stuff validates this episode.

If only for the line “unexplained fires are a matter for the court.”

Dave: The song is eminently catchy and hummable.

Mad Jon: I like how it smells like steak.

Charlie Sweatpants: Sixty-five tons of American pride!

bobservo: Is this the episode where they bring up the Canyonero’s mileage?

Charlie Sweatpants: I don’t think it’s this episode.

Mad Jon: I don’t think so either.

Charlie Sweatpants: They’ve ruled it unsafe for highway or city driving, but I don’t think there’s a mention of the mileage.

bobservo: Just checking.

  I just remember “1 highway, 0 city.”

Or maybe I made that up.

Mad Jon: That may be from the devoted episode next season.

bobservo: Right, right.

Charlie Sweatpants: I think it is, I’m not willing to wade through it just now.

Okay, so the standup comedy leaves something to be desired and Gil didn’t need to be here, but there’s quite a few good jokes. How’s that by way of summary?

Mad Jon: Appropriate

bobservo: I’ll agree with that.

  And an unrealistically flattering portrayal of Leno.

Dave: That works.

Charlie Sweatpants: Okay then, I think we’re done.

  Bob, thanks for joining us.

Mad Jon: Thanks Bob.

  It was interesting to have a different person in on the breakdowns.

bobservo: Cool, hope this was productive.

Dave: It was fun, thanks Bob.

bobservo: Thanks for having me