Upon learning that their father really died of lung cancer, Selma and Patty agree to quit smoking. When Selma relapses, an angry Patty moves in with Marge and Homer
Yo-Yo Ma will guest star as himself tonight, which is probably because it is conceivable that his guest appearance would be even more meaningless if he played a random character. Apparently the sub-plot involves an adventure for Maggie in the animation style of “The Longest Daycare”, so prepare for that to be ruined. Also of note is that even though I am getting considerably lazier about doing these previews, as impossible as that would seem, I am not the only one. The above image was the only usable one I could find during a 15 minute search. I couldn’t find a promo image of the A plot at all. Again I searched lazily, so there is probably something out there, but I have exhausted my effort looking for something that is usually readily available. End of rant.
Dead Homer Society 
30 responses to “Sunday Preview: Puffless”
First we had “Bart Gets a Z”, then “Flaming Moe”, then “Homer Goes to Prep School”, and now this – another episode whose title is a lazy riff on an iconic classic era episode title. And we have “Lisa the Veterinarian” coming up later this season.
At least it’s sort of like the writers acknowledge the glory days are over when they do stuff like this. Like they’re saying “Hey, remember these good episodes?”
Uhhh no, it’s like saying “we’re going to take something from 20 years ago and modernize it. Moderniiiize, man”.
At first, I was surprised that they were doing such a low key kind of plot which could have easily being done in the classic era. But then they had to Zombify things up by putting in pointless guest star cameos and Maggie having adventures with squirrels. I mean honestly, Patty and Selma quitting smoking could have been a nice, realistic character based plot that really would have worked back when the writers gave a shit.
My, that promo image is ugly. Simpsified human-squirrel smile with the usual ZS dead eyes.
Somehow, Seth MacFarlane is a douche again.
True, but American Dad and some Family Guy episodes are funnier and more coherent than anything this show has done since season 10. Hell, even Futurama’s worst episodes are better than Zombie Simpsons’ best (if such a thing exists).
Can’t say that. Season 10 Simpsons was maybe surpassed by Seasons 3-5 Family Guy and the first five seasons of American Dad!, but then FG went downhill so fast and so hard that by Season 8 it pretty much met ZS standards. Both have been lowering the ante since.
AD is another story. Strangely enough, it didn’t get boring or old. It just stopped making sense (to me, at least). I’ve watched the last season of The Cleveland Show lately, and seriously – stop canceling good material, fucking FOX! WTF?!
If you say so. And how does Family Guy deteriorate to Zombie Simpsons standards when FG was pretty much mocking/showing how outlandish The Simpsons was becoming? If anything, FG became like a less smart, very preachy take on The Simpsons (back when it was good) from season six to around season 10. From season 11 to now, it’s fluctuating between trying to improve itself and just giving up, which can be pretty jarring, considering the whole “Brian got hit by a car and died for two whole episodes” stunt.
Meh, that was before their first cancellation. I’d give them the very decently carved 1st season, though (The Simpsons took 1 and a half season to get polished, and the real gold started appearing around Season 3). My theory is that in between the cancellations FG was lobotomized for making too much fun at politics and racism/religious context slurs. As a result, when that show came back, it ended up with random = funny idiom and filler (celebrity jabs, weird cutaway gags, Brian and Stewie traveling somewhere somehow becoming a cult, etc.). In a nutshell, it was “zombified” much faster than ZS by natural deterioration of the writing quality.
When they got to producing episodes like the one with the retard horse and Surfin’ bird meme, it was curtains for me. Because you know you’re wasting your Sunday night in front of the TV when you need pot to make you laugh. Instead, you could be building a birdhouse with your son or something. Or fucking your wife to have a son to build a birdhouse with in the first place.
Peace.
Not sure how that follows what I said (haven’t watched Family Guy in years and hardly seen any American Dad), but the picture looks crap.
Also: I’m trying to bring “crap” back.
Charlie, you put more thought into this one post then the Simpsons writers did for seasons 20 through now.
a) This post wasn’t written by Charlie (dunno why he doesn’t do these, thou)
b) It’s than, goddammit!
Really? Well, better job, still, then ZS writers. Also Stan I keep thinking you might be my friend from facebook, Jesse E. from Alaska.
Absolutely. Ever since Alaska was occupied by Canada last Tuesday.
Lol, like your pic btw.
Just saw Duffless again. What a rich, funny episode.
I’m going to guess the newer ep isn’t anything like that.
What do you think? Does Puffless have Hans Moleman at an AA meeting moaning that he’s actually 31 years old, or Homer imagining himself drinking from a gas pump filled with alcohol after seeing Ralph Wiggum’s “How to Turn Alcohol into Car Fuel” project, or Milhouse’s “Behold gravity, in all its glory!” or a bunch of other hilarious moments that are too numerous to mention? No! So why should you care that this episode (Puffless, not Duffless) exists?
So man that Kristen Schaal is hilarious on both Bob’s Burgers and The Last Man on Earth, hell she’s been funny on nearly everything she has been involved with save for her guest star appearance on The Simpsons.
Remember how The Simpsons spelled her name wrong in the credits? I don’t really remember her episode but I bet it sucked like this one did which I didn’t see. I ended up doing dishes and cleaning my cats’ litter boxes which was a much better use of my time.
The episode she appeared in was one of the last ZS episodes I saw. I remember thinking how stupid it was that she broke up with Milhouse after catching Lisa stalking them, telling Milhouse that he’s not over Lisa. Made no sense. How does Lisa following them prove that Milhouse still loves her? And how does that kind of writing make it on TV? It’s like they’re not even trying.
In case we’re all here fapping to the classic era (just wanna make sure), I should probably mention that Selma quit smoking as far back as Season 2, when Bob tried to murder her. A very reminiscent episode with the A-plot sticking together like good glue.
And now we have Family Guy squirrels (sans the nut joke, I imagine) roaming along on the promo pic.
Selma quit smoking to just after meals and watching an episode of Macgyver in the season 3 episode “Black Widower”
Yeah, that. Still, she quit.
I’m actually surprised they didn’t hammer us over and over with the fact that the posum is Bitey from the Monorail episode.
“A flash-forward shows that they do, in fact, get cancer (throat cancer, by the look of their matching tracheotomies), and are buried side-by-side, smoke coming from their graves. “Is this a happy ending?,” asks one. “It’s edgy,” returns the other, while Rick Astley’s “Together Forever” plays them out”
Okay.
From the same website, Homer’s quotes from the episode:
– “Ohhh—have you ever turned on a TV?”
– “Ohh—but that’s where we do all our couch gags!”
So long, jerkass Homer. Say hello to whiny-bitchy Homer breaking the fourth wall like it’s fucking Sunday newspaper comic strip.
Wasn’t Life in Hell a Sunday comic strip?
No.
Is that scene a ripoff of “Rosebud” or the Monty Python sketch with the athlete?
But it was and still is a comic strip, right?