“Kids, Itchy & Scratchy can’t be here today, but instead we’ve got the next best thing! It’s the Stingy and Battery show!” – Krusty the Clown Simpsons Wikia has a great page where they list all of the Itchy & Scratchy episodes. Helpfully, there’s even a table that lists the title of the Itchy & Scratchy episode next to the title of the Simpsons episode in which it appears. Even more helpfully, the table lists which season each episode is from and you can sort by season. This means we can easily and quickly see when and where Itchy & Scratchy appear over the 20+ year history of the show. Because of the different ways Itchy & Scratchy are presented in the show some of the lists are a bit meatier than others. For example, the Wikipedia list of these episodes has an entry for “Nazi Supermen are our Superiors” even though we never see it. It also has an entry for an Itchy & Scratchy thing that appears on the Simpsons ride at Universal Studios. (The SNPP list seems to have stopped updating a few years ago, not that I blame them.) Both Wikia and Wikipedia also contain entries for a video game and a Butterfinger commercial. We’re not counting those. Near as I can tell the Wikipedia page has only one legitimate entry that the Wikia page does not, there was an Itchy & Scratchy bit in Season 20’s “Mypods and Boomsticks”. We are counting that one. There are 63 Itchy & Scratchy episodes on the table at the Wikia page. 48 of them occur in episodes from Seasons 1-10, 15 occur in episodes from Seasons 11+. The bottom of the page contains a listing of episodes that are not in the table (mostly because they don’t have a title), there are 9 of these, of which 7 come from Seasons 1-10 and 2 come from Seasons 11+. And we have to include the one from “Mypods & Boomsticks”. Add those all up and you get: Seasons 1-10 Seasons 11+ # of I&S episodes 55 18 % of total I&S episodes 75% 25% Avg. # of I&S per season (not including season 21) 5.5 1.8 Total # of Simpsons episodes (including Season 21) 226 227 Avg. # of episodes between I&S episodes 4.1 12.6 As you can see, the first ten seasons accounted for three times as many Itchy & Scratchy cartoons as the last ten and a half. But even those numbers don’t tell the full tale. I picked Season 10 as my dividing line because it’s a nice half-way break and it’s the same one I used when I was counting clips for the Spurlock special. But if we lower the cutoff to Season 8 (a popular line for demarcating the end of classic Simpsons) things get even more tilted: Seasons 1-8 Seasons 9+ # of I&S episodes 53 20 % of total I&S episodes 73% 27% Avg. # of I&S per season (not…
Tag: Sideshow Bob’s Last Gleaming
Quote of the Day
“There, that’s the last condom wrapper.” – Sideshow Bob “I renew my objection to this pointless endeavor, informally now and by affidavit later. Time permitting.” – Sideshow Bob
Quote of the Day
“Why jerk my neck around like a goon when Tyranno-Vision decides what I should look at?” – Homer Simpson
Synergy Fakes an Orgasm
“Hey everybody, I’m gonna haul ass to Lollapalooza!” – Abe “Grandpa” Simpson This week’s IGN Zombie Simpsons fellatio is an exercise in sloppily faked enthusiasm. Lisa’s teacher is Miss Hoover, not Mrs. Hoover (part of the fun of Ms. Hoover is that she very much wants to be Mrs. Somebody and isn’t). Then there’s “science water”, which very pointedly isn’t capitalized in the episode but is in the review. There are also a couple of basic editing errors. If you’re going to pretend to enjoy something you’ve got to pay attention to the details or else your paramour/meal ticket might become suspicious. Anyway, here’s the edited, synergy-less review. Enjoy: May 4, 2009 – “Waverly Hills, 9021-D’oh” was a fantastic episode example of just how far The Simpsons has fallen and was quite possibly my favorite of the season. It followed the family, with the exception of Maggie who was conveniently absent, as they tried to work the system to get Bart and Lisa enrolled at a more prestigious elementary school and it did so with hilarious references its usual lumbering, expositive style and smart storytelling half-baked nonsensical twists. And it was funny boring. Very, very funny boring. After Marge became over-hydrated sampling Science Water the opening conceit, she snuck into Springfield Elementary to use their lavatories. She discovered cartoonishly terrible conditions, overcrowded classrooms and teachers that just don’t care, all of which have existed for a long time but which must now be painstakingly spelled out for the audience. Marge watched as Mrs. Ms. Hoover reached tenure and proceeded to let Ralph teach the class have a small cameo: “Class, in what year was one plus one? The answer is, the Amazing Ralph.” She took her complaints to Principal Skinner, but was simply met with a stocked wet bar hackneyed gag that’s been done better in several earlier episodes. The idea of getting the kids into school in Waverly Hills Plot Necessary Suburb soon took hold. There was no a forced comparison between the two schools. Waverly Hills had an auditorium and a gym that are in separate rooms, which we’ve seen at Skinner’s school many times! Whereas Springfield Elementary combined math and gym to create “dodge book.” To beat the system, Marge suggested they rent a cheap apartment in Waverly Hills Plot Necessary Suburb to gain residency and then send the kids to school there. With this basic set up, the episode was free to cover what often results in the best episodes two tracks of tepid zaniness: the kids dealing with school, and Homer trying to pull off a scheme. Bart and Lisa have often been thrown into new school-related situations, though rarely do they have this little to actually do with school, whether it’s both being sent to the same grade (“Bart vs. Lisa vs. 3rd Grade“), adventurous field trips (multiple episodes) or Lisa posing as a college student (“Little Girl in the Big Ten“). The episode didn’t waste much time establishing the situation ramping up the wackiness. Bart sealed his reputation in a hilarious bit with Chief Wiggum “arresting him” in return for Bart going to Ralph’s birthday party. The fact the that Wiggum was…
Friday Link Dump – Canadian Underwear Edition
“Free and easy Lis, ahh. There’s nothing like an unfurnished basement for pure comfort.” – Bart Simpson Mentioning unmentionables – It’s meandering, it’s about underwear, and he flubs the quote slightly; still, that’s pretty good usage. The Simpsons Sundays 8PM – Mmmm, that’s some top notch synergy from Fox’s Toledo, OH affiliate. ER Ends Its 15-year Run on TV. Good Riddance – It’s always pleasing when shows that haven’t been relevant for a long time finally turn out the lights. Plus he mentions Zombie Simpsons. Humane Society of the United States presents 23rd Genesis Awards – Zombie Simpsons won for what must be that “cow” episode I said I was glad I’d never seen. Hey, isn’t the Humane Society good at putting things long past their prime out of their misery? Just saying. “Wedding For Disaster”/”Not All Dogs Go To Heaven”/”Wife Insurance” – Steve Heisler of A.V. Club has failed. In complaining that Zombie Simpsons had to spend too much time on backstory he writes: But because the show has to spend a bunch of time explaining why they are allowed to do what they are about to do—presumably to appease message board fans—they’ve wasted time they could be spending on the episode proper. Bzzzt. I’m sorry, that’s incorrect. A.V. Club may reward knowledge, but here at Dead Homer Society we punish ignorance and that is a profoundly ignorant statement. It has been amply demonstrated that Zombie Simpsons doesn’t give two shits about “message board fans”, they never have and never will. (Whether or not they should is a separate question.) And they certainly weren’t eating up all that clock to make internet fanboys happy (killing time is precisely what makes us unhappy). They eat clock because each episode only contains about three decent jokes and that just doesn’t cut it for a 22-minute show. Comic book writer Mark Millar is giving up ‘The Simpsons’ for Lent! – He’s doing it for a charity instead of some phony baloney deity, but it still strikes me as stupid. Though he seems an agreeable enough fellow: He said: I always try to give up beer for Lent and fail two weeks in. So the family and I are all doing something a little different this year and will give up The Simpsons, which is our favourite television programme. Im pleased about this because it means I can still go to the pub. To be fair, two (or three) whole weeks with only wine is enough to make anyone go crazy. April Fools’: Best of the Net – Homer Simpson’s voice was used on the PA system of Parisian train stations. It’s not Castellaneta’s voice, presumably it’s whoever does the French dubbed dialogue. I find the YouTube video oddly interesting, though of course it doesn’t hurt that it’s only twenty-eight seconds long: The good oil: BMW 7 series to stop ‘Homer Simpson syndrome’ – I don’t see what talking on a cellphone while driving really has to do with Homer, but I’m…
Simpsons vs. Zombie Simpsons
The above is a perfect example of the difference between Simpsons and Zombie Simpsons. That is a screen grab from Season 7’s “Sideshow Bob’s Last Gleaming”. Bart and Lisa are in the airbase and the gate is closed; Homer and Marge are trying to get inside. The shot pans down from the top of a razor wire fence and all we see is Marge bandaging Homer’s hands while he says, “Okay, so we can’t go over the fence.” That’s it. The whole thing takes four seconds, we know exactly what Homer did, and all we need to see is the aftermath. If this same gag were done in Zombie Simpsons (though for all I know it has been) it would take seven times as long, involve Homer shouting (first in defiance, then in pain) and end with “hilarious” amounts of blood. Instead, a funny idea (Homer trying to climb a razor wire fence with his bare hands) is inserted quickly and subtley into the episode. It doesn’t become an action sequence in and of itself and things keep right on moving. This is exactly what I’m talking about when I say that Zombie Simpsons is “thin”, the same way orange drink becomes thin if you water it down too much. Zombie Simpsons plays for time, The Simpsons overflows with jokes.
Quote of the Day
“Would it really be worth living in a world without television? I think the survivors would envy the dead.” – Krusty the Klown