“Smithers, do you think maybe my power plant killed those ducks?” – C.M. Burns
“There’s no ‘maybe’ about it, sir.” – Mr. Smithers
“Excellent.” – C.M. Burns
Dead Homer Society
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10 responses to “Quote of the Day”
Fantastic joke, but the fact that they’re in beanbag chairs always rubbed me the wrong way. Like, I guess it’s just supposed to be random, like “Hey, the wealthiest man in Springfield watches TV in a beanbag chair, isn’t that crazy?”, but random isn’t necessarily funny, and it seems so unlike Burns to own such a cheap and common piece of furniture. Another Season 9 harbinger of the character assassination yet to come.
You’re overanalyzing this a bit, don’t you think? His character change was that he became a wuss, not that he started buying cheap furniture…
Well, I can definitely see what jbwarner86 is saying. That whole “oh-so-random” undercurrent runs throughout Season 9. It shows up more adversely in some places than others (e.g. Ned’s out-of-character behavior in “Bart Star” and Moe’s wild “think of the children!” thing in “Natural Born Kissers”), but it’s definitely there, and more evident in places than in previous seasons.
Still, this episode gave us “tugs at the heart and fogs the mind”, so I don’t hate it, and do like to watch it from time to time (in fact I just finished watching it a half-hour ago!).
He could have just thought bean bag chairs were comfortable. Mr. Burns puts his pleasure above all. This isn’t something we can over analyze.
Yeah. And didn’t Mr. Burns have a cheaply furnished basement in the episode with “Dental Plan/Lisa Needs Braces” (the one that had the ping-pong table and the leak on the part where Homer was whining about how he had to go to the bathroom)? So, I think Mr. Burns — the richest man in town — having cheap beanbag chairs that anyone can buy is just a continuation of that. Plus, you have to remember Mr. Burns recouped his lost fortune on “The Old Man and the Lisa” and probably doesn’t have much now as he did before he lost it all.
Or, another interpretation: the beanbag chairs are Smithers’ and he bought two because…well, he loves Mr. Burns enough to buy him things (or Mr. Burns took it out of pity/contempt).
That joke’s not funny, here’s a funny one:
– How’d you call an animal who is always stoned?
– A high-yena!
Ehh, adverse changes that affect character qualities bother me more than background tidbits than this (excepting laziness like random insertion of unrelated recognizable background characters), though I can see what you’re saying with the “oh so random!” part. I got that same feeling earlier in the episode (both yours and mine) when Lisa expected all those tasks from Principal Skinner to be handed out to her.
Also, if I remember correctly, doesn’t this episode have the only Itchy & Scratchy short for Season 9? Even if it’s not, it’s a remarkably alarming decrease from the previous season and others. I consider that kind of thing and others a “canary in the coalmine” sort of thing…
“Guys, do you think maybe my directing killed that show?” – Al Jean
“There’s no ‘maybe’ about it, Al.” – The Team
“Excellent.” – Al Jean