One of the many great things about The Simpsons was its use of pretty much every form of comedy known to man. Want intelligent and thoughtful political satire? Check. How about some really nasty sexual humor that slipped past the censors? Oh yeah. Completely insane (and often monstrous) ideas that nevertheless connect with you the ordinary person? Indeed. How about some gross out humor? How about “yes”. The Simpsons was able to elevate to hitherto unknown levels ideas and images that in lesser hands would merely disgust. There’s explicitly drawn nastiness like the filth encrusted hot dog Apu sells to Homer (“Homer and Apu”) and the twelve foot hoagie that redefined rancid and nauseating (“Selma’s Choice”). But foul things can also be implied, like Krusty with the “urine” monkey (“I Love Lisa”) and Bart, to the shrieking horror of his classmates, reversing the video of the kittens being born (“Lisa’s Substitute”). Stuff like this was going all the way back in Season 1, where Wendell vomits on the bus (“Homer’s Odyssey”) and Homer eats a mouthful of bees (“The Call of the Simpsons”). Some of the above examples are in direct service to the story, others are just there because they’re funny. But all of them are quick and nothing is drawn out longer than it needs to be. Another spectacular instance of this can be seen below in images from Season 2’s “Old Money”: That is shudder worthy disgusting. The whole reason pills come in those dissolvable capsules is because the stuff inside them in blatantly unpalatable. (Of course, this particular scene isn’t only gross out humor, it also makes fun of old people for being rampantly pathetic.) Anyone who’s ever swallowed a pill can relate to how nasty the contents can be and how damned hard it’d be to maintain a straight face while tasting that, much less trying to be flirty. That is an excellent gross out gag. Compare that to two of the most notorious examples of failed gross out humor in Season 12. On the left we have Homer’s surgically repaired knee from “Children of a Lesser Clod”, on the right is one of the hobo sponge baths from “Simpsons Tall Tales”: These are examples of gross things that don’t have much humor in them other than just being gross. In and of itself that wouldn’t be too terrible, but each one drags on to kill screen time like you wouldn’t believe. The hobo bath isn’t only long, it also occurs twice. Homer’s knee is first gawked at by Milhouse and Ralph and then scabs over Ralph’s hand for no real reason. In each case there isn’t anything else going on. There’s no subtext or insight, both are just random and have nothing to do with anything. And, most damningly, they take a long time despite the fact that there’s no joke to either one. Like physical violence, gross out humor is a comedy form the show once handled with scalpel precision and now uses…
Tag: Children of a Lesser Clod
“Children of a Lesser Clod” Makes Baby Jesus Cry
“Do you like children?” – Santa Hiring Guy “What do you mean? All the time? Even when they’re nuts?” – Homer Simpson This one is another of the true monstrosities of Season 12 and the commentaries bear that out. In addition to spending long stretches more or less completely ignoring what’s happening, two or three times they’ll be talking about how this or that goofy twist came to be when someone will say something like, “That was Act 1, now in Act 2 we did this.” They don’t seem to care that the story didn’t just stop all of a sudden because they went to commercial. Sigh. On the plus side, my respect for the NBA went up a little bit because they were apparently unable to find anyone to do a guest voice for the basketball game at the beginning. All the NBA guys turned them down and while I have no idea why they said no, I’d still like to applaud them for it. Anyway, in case you don’t remember, this is the one where Homer feels lonely for some reason after hurting his knee. The Homer I know would’ve happily sat on the couch drinking beer, but this is Zombie/Jerkass Homer so he opens a daycare center. Then Bart and Lisa become jealous for some reason. The Bart and Lisa I know would be glad that Homer is taking little to no interest in everything they do, but this is Zombie Bart and Lisa so they feel bad and plot an elaborate, ABC-family-sitcom revenge plot. Eight guys on this one. 1:45 – Couldn’t get an NBA player to do a voice. Good for the NBA guys. 2:15 – Shitty trivia time: did you know they really did use baskets for basketball! 4:30 – Apparently you can’t show naked cartoon ass any more. I’ll chalk that up as another reason Zombie Simpsons sucks. 5:30 – Total silence as Homer begins freaking out the first time. 5:50 – More about how Hibbert is a terrible doctor now. 6:55 – They noticed that they aren’t talking about what’s going on in the episode. That’s more self awareness than I’ve come to expect. 7:05 – They can’t remember if the bear in the hospital was set up first. 7:45 – Long explanation about how hard it is to get kids into daycare in West LA. I don’t know about you, but I’m riveted. 9:10 – Wow. This needs to be transcribed in full. Flanders, Rod and Todd walk in the back door, then this happens: “Where did they come from? Since when does Flanders come in the back door?” “Since the script required it.” (But wait, it gets worse!) “That was a real, kind of a multi-camera sitcom entrance.” “Yeah it was”. Chuckles. That’s right, they just compared themselves to the formulaic sitcoms the show originally mocked. It’s come full circle. 10:00 – Discussing how they put doors and windows everywhere and how nobody cares. Apparently this was an issue for…