“My theory is: Skinner likes dog food.” – Bart Simpson “Let’s bake him a cake.” – Marge Simpson “Ooh, a fresh batch of America balls!” – Homer Simpson
Tag: The Principal and the Pauper
Double Secret Makeup Quote of the Day
“And for the tribute, I need a volunteer to present an oral report on Principal Skinner’s life.” – Miss Hoover “Miss Hoover, which one is oral?” – Ralph Wiggum “Out of your mouth, Ralph.” – Miss Hoover
Quote of the Day
“Superintendent Chalmers, can I offer a cup of coffee flavored Beverine?” – Mrs. Krabappel “I take it grey, with creamium.” – Superintendent Chalmers
Quote of the Day
“My name is Armin! This is Armin’s apartment, Armin’s liquor, Armin’s copy of Swank, Armin’s frozen peas.” – Armin Tamzarian “Can I see your copy of Swank, Armin.” – Homer Simpson “Yes, you can.” – Armin Tamzarian
Quote of the Day
“Good evening, Edna, I know we were planning to see a film tonight, but instead I’m leaving town forever.” – Armin Tamzarian
Quote of the Day
“In honor of Seymour’s twentieth year as principal, we’ve decided to hold a surprise tribute Friday night.” – Superintendent Chalmers “It’s my twentieth year, too.” – Groundskeeper Willie “The teachers’ lounge is for teachers, Willie.” – Superintendent Chalmers
Saddlesore Galactica Makes Baby Jesus Cry
“Come on, get to the part where you steal his identity!” – Bart Simpson “I’m trying to explain how emotionally fragile I was.” – Armin Tamzarian “Oh, it’s one of those stories.” – Bart Simpson The collapse between Season 9 and Season 11 seemed long and painful while it was happening, but looking back over the (now very long) history of the show, it was almost the blink of an eye. Case in point is the commentary for this episode, which is stunning for how closely it tracks later Zombie Simpsons commentaries yet is totally unlike those from just a few seasons before. They know that this episode is reviled by fans, but instead of opting for the Oakley-Weinstein-Keeler approach and taking the criticism in stride while attempting to explain what they were doing, they just sit there and endure it, offering nervous laughter, empty self deprecation, and “well, I like it” type statements all the way through. Having listened to both commentaries, I can only think that it’s because while “The Principal and the Pauper” was really dumb and boring, it also had a great deal of thought put into it. Keeler and company state repeatedly that they had a lot of stuff that got cut for time, and Keeler clearly had some bigger ideas he was trying to get across. But “Saddlesore Galactica” is just dumb filler that happened to cross lines of audience tolerance that the writers weren’t even aware existed. Keeler was consciously challenging the audience and fell short; by contrast, they not only thought they were going to disappoint their audience and didn’t care, they couldn’t even correctly identify the audience’s main problem with it. This episode isn’t any more watchable than “The Principal and the Pauper”, but that episode at least had enough thought put into it that the commentary could be interesting and relevant. This commentary is just the standard Zombie Simpsons evasions, half-hearted defenses, and general boredom. Here’s another similarity with Zombie Simpsons commentaries, way too many guys. Eight, in this case: Tim Long, Tom Martin, Mike Scully, George Meyer, Matt Groening, Matt Selman, Ian Maxtone-Graham, and Lance Kramer. 1:00 – They’re giggling about the title, and this already feels far more like Season 13 or 14 than it does 8 or 9. 1:25 – Mentioning “fan reaction”, goes with “it seems to be divided” and Long goes on to joke that the third act was based on an experience of his. This is not getting off to a good start. 1:50 – That leads to them saying how funny they thought it was when they rewatched it for the commentary. 2:20 – Defending the Jockey Elves by saying it’s the kind of thing a lot of other shows do now. That is, uh, not an actual defense. 2:50 – Meyer breaks in and says that since the crazy twist happens so close to the end, “it’s kind of an odd place for it”. Indeed, it is. 3:00 – And Groening, the…
Armin Tamzarian, Ken Keeler, and The Simpsons Horde
“This is so weird, it’s like something out of Dickens, or Melrose Place.” – Lisa Simpson A little while back, Dave, Mad Jon, Bob Mackey and I chatted about that most infamous of Season 9 episodes, “The Principal and the Pauper”. Mackey had me stumped in several places because he, unlike the rest of us, had listened to the DVD commentary. The very short version of all that was that Ken Keeler, who wrote the episode and has since gone on to a long and gloriously funny career at Futurama, had defended it in ways Mackey more or less agreed with. I finally got around to listening to that commentary. Keeler’s defense of his episode breaks down into two related parts. First, he thinks his point was missed. He was trying to satirize the audience of the show for being irrationally committed to what they already knew and too resistant to change. Second, he thinks fans take too much to heart in general, and that as a result they were overly harsh to an episode that had a lot going on besides its unorthodox plot. Before we get to that though, it’s worth remembering that Keeler is one of the good guys and deserves a very big benefit of the doubt. In addition to being on The Simpsons for its last really good years, he wrote for The Critic, and he’s done a lot of Futurama. The man can write, and I enjoy a lot of his work. It’s also worth pointing out that this commentary, unlike so many of a more recent vintage, doesn’t shy away from talking about the episode itself. Keeler is joined by Josh Weinstein and Bill Oakley, and while the latter two are far less defensive, all three are willing to acknowledge that things don’t always turn out quite right. (Steven Dean Moore is there too, but he mostly stays out of it.) Many Zombie Simpsons commentaries are just a bunch of people hanging out with the television on in the background, this is actually substantive. From a fan point of view, having pertinent commentary, even if I don’t agree with it, is far more informative and entertaining. So, have we all been unjustly maligning “The Principal and the Pauper” all these years? Does either or both of Keeler’s defenses hold up? Ken Keeler surveys fans of “The Simpsons” in an undated photograph. Point the First: The Audience Missed the Point – On the commentary track, Keeler himself acknowledges that his attempt to satirize the audience itself was harder to understand than it should’ve been because two speeches that explained what was happening ended up being cut for time. He dismisses this, and says that even without those we still should’ve been able to see what he was doing. I don’t know what was in those two cut speeches, but sending up the audience isn’t something I see in this episode. Even watching it after I heard the commentary and knew what to look for,…
Crazy Noises: The Principal and the Pauper
“Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Capital City’s nakedest ladies. They’re not even wearing a smile. Nod suggestively. Yes, six, count ’em, six gorgeous ladies just dying for your leers and catcalls. Yowza. Yowza.” – Whatever the Hell His Name Is In This Episode There’s new Zombie Simpsons Sunday, so this is the last of our summer series overthinking Season 9. Why Season 9? Because we did Season 8 last summer, and Season 9 was when the show started becoming more Zombie than Simpsons. Since we’re too lazy to do audio and too ugly to do video, we’ve booked a “chatroom” (ours is right between the one with the sexy seventh graders and the one with the bored federal agents pretending to be sexy seventh graders). So log on to your dial-up AOL and join us. This text has been edited for clarity and spelling (especially on “bludgeoning”). Today’s episode is 902 “The Principal and the Pauper”. Yesterday was 918 “This Little Wiggy”. In a return visit, Bob Mackey joined us this week. Charlie Sweatpants: I had not seen this one in many years, maybe a decade or more, and I was hoping that there was some redeeming value to it. But there isn’t. The terrible plot is 95% of the screen time. bobservo: Well, this might get me kicked out the The Simpsons Cool Kids Club, but I love Principal Skinner and I didn’t hate this episode. Charlie Sweatpants: There’s your shocking revelation, kids. Dave: Uh oh. bobservo: I’ll admit that it has some problems, but I never viewed it as some sort of awful turning point or notorious or anything like that. Charlie Sweatpants: Let him explain, then we’ll kick him out of the Simpsons Cool Kids Club. bobservo: But I can fully understand why people don’t like it. Mad Jon: In fairness to Bob, Skinner is the brightest star in this particular sky. Even though the plot is completely from a different ball game, changes many, MANY things I know and love about him, and is impossible not to think about when he does/says anything from now on that references his past, Skinner pulls it off as Skinner, not a shell of him, like most Zombie characters become. bobservo: My take on this episode is that it doesn’t change who Skinner is one bit; sure, they build a little onto his history, but it helps to better explain his character and possibly his relationship with his mother. I’ll admit that this story wasn’t at all necessary, but I enjoyed it. Charlie Sweatpants: Disagree. If Skinner were himself, why did he go back to Capital City? Why did he abandon Krabappel? The "changing Skinner" thing isn’t the main problem. The main problem is that this one devotes such an enormous amount of time to revelations and awkward scenes that are not the show’s strong suit. bobservo: Also, much like Homer’s Enemy, this is secretly a show about television. If you listen to the commentary, Ken Keeler wrote it fully intending…