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…
Tag: Simpsons Tall Tales
“Simpsons Tall Tales” Makes Baby Jesus Cry
“Ughhh, this goes on for twelve more minutes.” – Krusty the Klown “Trilogy” or “storytelling” episodes like this one, where they have three independent segments, have always been maligned, even by people who think Zombie Simpsons doesn’t suck (check out the ratings, poll, and comments here if you don’t believe me). I’ve always thought the reason for this is that there are no genuinely good trilogy-type episodes. They didn’t do the first one until Season 10 (“Simpsons Bible Stories”) long after the show had begun transforming into Zombie Simpsons and so there’s no well of built up good will from…
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One of the consistently puzzling aspects of Zombie Simpsons, for me anyway, is trying to imagine how anyone, in a writers room, at a table read, really at any point in the creation of the show, could’ve found some of this stuff funny. Was it really a laugh riot in the studio when they were discussing different things for Marge to spell out with the rhythmic gymnastics ribbon? Did somebody mention old Rodney Dangerfield movies and everyone just started cutting up? It’s pretty hard to picture. The examples above are from Season 21, but this interview with George Meyer (which…