We didn’t get a preview up yesterday, so I shudder think what kind of volcanic build up there is about last night’s almost certainly forgettable “Labor Pains”. I haven’t watched it yet, but it certainly sounds dull:
While trapped in an elevator Homer helps a woman deliver her baby who she gratefully names Homer Jr. Homer then gets emotionally attached to the little guy. Meanwhile Lisa is recruited to be a cheerleader.
As I am on the road in Chicago today without access to my usual array of electronics, “Behind Us Forever” will have to wait until tomorrow or possibly Wednesday. (Any of you in Chicago, I’ll be at Classic Simpsons Trivia tonight. I expect to lose badly but have a great time doing it.) Consider this an open thread and vent accordingly.
Dead Homer Society 
26 responses to “Open Complaint Thread: Labor Pains”
The kids will call him HoJu.
LOL
meh, i turned it off half way
wasn’t there a post months ago about how the writing style is such that the timing is perfect for the addition of laugh tracks?
i think they should add laugh tracks.not for any reason.
but only because at this point, this show deserves to be grouped with all those other terrible sitcoms that have laugh tracks in them.
She gave birth with no screaming, blood or umbilical cord.
Lisa was not recruited to BE a cheerleader. She helped them get fair treatment.
Good points!
Seriously, this hardly seemed like a Simpsons episode; just the description on cable sounds completely foreign to the Simpson universe.
Hmmm, I’d rather watch an episode featuring a cheerleader giving birth to the coach’s baby, both wearing Homer and Lisa faces for t-shirts.
also, there’s something about that image I don’t like. is it because Homer is wearing a jacket? is it the fine detail in the elevator? it just looks wrong…
something about the imperfections in the original episodes that made it endearing.
Are those two subs in his grocery bag? Way to carry them.
I wonder what a sandwich with human placenta will taste like…
Probably like mushrooms…
I was visiting my wife’s family in her ancestral nation, and one of the first things they gave me was pig placenta – so not to offend my hosts, I dove right into it. it had the texture and taste of a hard mushroom – nothing terrible, nothing spectacular. But obviously I told them how good it was, and it pleased them thoroughly – so much so that they kept on making it for me, day after day after day – they were probably like, that crazy dude just loves his placenta, and I was like, why are they torturing me like this?
Ah, the things we do in the name of family and good manners.
If every word you just wrote was true… excuse me, I have to reverse hit the john.
sadly it was. obviously it wasn’t called “pig placenta” – it had some romantic-sounding name, that made it sound delicious, but it was 100% placenta. That being said, there are other foods that sound cool, but are really from weird parts of the animal, like sweetbread, tripe, and hot-dogs
I know what you mean.
Everything is crisp, dull, and robotic.
Whenever I look at a still of ZS, it just looks so saccharinely sterile. They’ve traded in any and all emotion contained inside the animation and traded it for geometric perfection.
“Labor Pains” was ok, at best. The cheerleader segment was useless, had me lost, horrible…
Anyway, I live near Chicago, in Alsio/Mt. Greenwood, awesome that your in Chi-Town, Charlie! :)
Alsip I meant, D’oh!
All the cutesy shit killed my ability to find good parts in this episode. There was so much filler: Maggie choosing a pacifier; the long birth; Homer explaining everything to Marge; and the thought balloons. I guess the doctor who ignored the woman’s pain was kind of funny, and I laughed at Homer realizing that he missed the cheerleaders, but nothing else was memorable. Also, why was Homer so infatuated with the other baby? He hates being stuck with a family, his entire life ruined by one mistake, and the only reason he does not get a divorce is that he loves Marge and wants the kids to have the good life he lost.
Way to phone in a convenient happy ending: This man has just returned from risking his ass in an incredibly stressful job, and instead of wanting peace and quiet, he agrees to marry the bitch who lied and manipulated him. This is made even even worse by the fact that he is forced to a child he did not want or know existed, and the woman openly admits that she did all for selfish reasons,
O.K, I just remembered two other things that made me laugh: the baseball player with a vendetta against Milhouse, and the crazy Texan’s heartless attitude. Four good jokes covered by rancid, stupid shit: What a waste of half an hour.
When did Zombie Simpsons start the thought balloon gag? They’ve more or less turned Zombie Simpsons into a Family Guy clone.
Actually, “Whacking Day” is the first one I can think of, or maybe “Homer at the Bat.”
I’ve always thought that a lot of crap in Zombie Simpsons evolved from moments in Classic Simpsons. Look at Marge vs. the Monorail; it has a lot of random moments, a lot of impossible events, Homer getting a new job, and a random guest star playing himself, but it’s also one of the funniest episodes in the series, because it flowed so well and packed itself with jokes. Likewise, “I am Evil Homer” is still a classic. Cutaway gags are tools in comedy; it’s just that ZS wields these tools like a child with a power drill.
Actually, “Whacking Day” is the first one I can think of, or maybe “Homer at the Bat.”
I’ve always thought that a lot of crap in Zombie Simpsons evolved from moments in Classic Simpsons. Look at Marge vs. the Monorail; it has a lot of random moments, a lot of impossible events, Homer getting a new job, and a random guest star playing himself, but it’s also one of the funniest episodes in the series, because it flowed so well and packed itself with jokes. Likewise, “I am Evil Homer” is still a classic. Cutaway gags are tools in comedy; it’s just that ZS wields these tools like a child with a power drill.
Evil Homer is one of my favorite Simpsons scenes ever!
IMO cutaway gags are funny in shows like this only if they’re part of some musical montage, like the Land of Chocolate. In Family Guy they pass for funny only because the public is accustomed to random shit happening here and there in that show.
But the REAL isn’t even that. It lies in the fact that The Simpsons is completely out of ideas for a musical montage (either it’s been done, or it’s just not IT), so that them doing a random cutaway gag a la FG is even more random, batshit weird, and unfunny as hell at best.
To tell the truth, I’m at the point where I would just punch Homer in the face, so sick of any scene he now appears in. Just sick of Homer Simpson, period. Kill him off already.
Almost Human premiered before the episode, looked potentially interesting if the idea is going to be a contrast between the horrors of violence and human and the wonders of future technology. I wish there were fewer tonal shifts, though.
Also, a reference to make Comics Curmudgeon fans disgusted: I think the guy who just died in episode 2 forgot to turn off the work switch and press the love button.
I’m about 2,000 miles from Chicago, but a Classic Simpsons Trivia night might be worth the drive.
This did feel like it was a Family Guy episode but with the Simpsons cast. There was some good jokes, but the story itself is just an excuse to lead you to a joke they want to make and nothing more. A being an almost different character every episode is okay for Peter Griffin (he is always stupid, but does it differently), but it doesn’t work the same for Homer.
It’s okay though. After you push a retard down the stairs they will always want to do the same to their household pet.