The Official Simpsons Griefing Thread

[ZsaZsaBinks]

Why would The Simpsons ever end? I can see it ending up like one of those newspaper comic strips like Blondie or Gasoline Alley that have run for a century and still haven't stopped.

Part of the reason we have the zombie strip issue is because it used to be that the syndicate had full control over the comic strip, so that when the original creators died, the cartoonists would give it to a new artist so that the strip could still make the franchise money. If you think about it, a comic strip is easy to keep on life support because it only involves one person (or two) drawing cartoon characters doing things.

But an animated show, on the other hand, takes a team of animators and voice actors, who will eventually die off over time. I feel like the Simpsons will end when the franchise stops making enough money to be kept alive, and there isn’t enough viewership.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

But an animated show, on the other hand, takes a team of animators and voice actors, who will eventually die off over time.

That could change with AI-generated voices (and maybe even animation). Zombie Simpsons becomes Zombie Cyborg Simpsons?

 

[jimmybags]

That could change with AI-generated voices (and maybe even animation). Zombie Simpsons becomes Zombie Cyborg Simpsons?

Marge becomes a robot, have no fears we’ve got stories for years

 

[ToroidalBoat]

Marge becomes a robot, have no fears we’ve got stories for years

It's odd that the show is still going on now. Usually a '90s show stays just that: a '90s show.

 

[PS1gamenwatch]

It's odd that the show is still going on now. Usually a '90s show stays just that: a '90s show.

Maybe they'll make a season that goes Beavis and Butt-Head 2022/Do The Universe where The Simpsons of 1995 end up in 2025 due to space time bullshit and for some reason their voices change so they can justify recasting and most of the episodes is 90s Simpsons trying to figure out 2020s world vs their 90s sensibilities/views with a new cast.

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

Beavis and Butt-Head 2022/Do The Universe where The Simpsons of 1995 end up in 2025 due to space time bullshit

that worked a lot better than it should have

 

[Calandrino]

It's odd that the show is still going on now. Usually a '90s show stays just that: a '90s show.

Stuff runs longer nowadays, just another sign that we're living in a joke millennium with no new ideas. iirc, until The Simpsons caught up in the 2000s, Gunsmoke had held the record for longest-running prime time TV show since the 1970s, and it "only" ran for 20 seasons. I guess The Simpsons making prime time animation a thing made a difference. South Park and Futurama are still going.

 

[Quijibo69]

South Park and Futurama are still going.

South park has been going in and out quality wise. Futurama you just need to watch the Fox run and pretend the other shit doesn't exit.

 

[UnKillFill]

It's odd that the show is still going on now. Usually a '90s show stays just that: a '90s show.

Technically it was an 80's show first. XD

 

[Trilby]

Technically it was an 80's show first. XD

True, it was slated to begin in '89, though the original shorts started in '87.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

Technically it was an 80's show first. XD

True, it was slated to begin in '89, though the original shorts started in '87.

Either way, Simpsons is a 20th century (Fox) show. It feels out of place in the 21st century (or from Di$ney).

 

[ZsaZsaBinks]

Remember the Lady Gaga episode? Here’s a video about its production:

 

[Mayor Cody Travers]

I remember how absolutely modern Simpsons felt on debut (well, the full show) as a 90s thing, especially the early 90s. And it's weird to now be able to absolutely see it as "a period piece" now despite, y'know, actively living through that time period.

I do think a creative work, well, works best in the timeframe it debuted in, give or take a sliding time scale it rolls with. Simpsons to me will always truly belong in the early 90s, the "last gasp" of the 80s culturally with stuff like arcades and an American monoculture and the USA starting to rest on its laurels with the Cold War's end. Especially the first four seasons by "the original team", even though some of my most favorite episodes are from seasons 5-8.

That said, you all know the LAZ-E Rider couch gag that parodies 80s culture? It IS funny to see comments going "OMG Simpsons as 80s goes so hard!" with the inevitably reply being "they STARTED in the 80s..." Reminds me of a 4chan screencap asking for Iron Man stories set in an Atompunk universe, with someone pointing out it literally started in the Atomic Era and those initial comics literally Atompunk, then and there.

 

[Jace on ice]

Remember the Lady Gaga episode? Here’s a video about its production:

I still maintain that is the single worst episode which is a significant achievement given just how many shitty episodes there are.

 

[ZsaZsaBinks]

I still maintain that is the single worst episode which is a significant achievement given just how many shitty episodes there are.

The celebrity worship made it feel like a Gaga stan wrote a Simpsons episode.

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

Remember the Lady Gaga episode?

no

the "last gasp" of the 80s culturally with stuff like arcades and an American monoculture

one thing that stands out to me as an oddly dated little thing
the pamphlets

just informational pamphlets in general, websites and stuff seem to have mostly killed them

 

[King Metalia]

I still maintain that is the single worst episode which is a significant achievement given just how many shitty episodes there are.

I always prefer when the celebrity guests play original characters instead of themselves.

 

[BrunoMattei]

I'm looking at the ratings for the last season and it was kind of surprising to see the show finally drop below a million viewers on average.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Simpsons_episodes_(season_21%E2%80%93present)#Season_36_(2024%E2%80%9325)

I'm willing to bet the only reason why the Treehouse of Horror episode did well is that the lead in were previous Treehouse of Horror eps. Fun fact: Treehouse of Horror was my formal introduction to the show.

Even worse, they were averaging half a million. How much farther can it go is a question open to debate but unless the show is still making hundreds of millions in merch and somehow keeping it around and eating the cost of production turns a profit, I think it's finally on it's way out... After the next 4 seasons are out.

 

[BetterFuckChuck]

The celebrity worship made it feel like a Gaga stan wrote a Simpsons episode.

which is so weird to me is that i think a gaga stan would have a less surface level take on who she is as a performer. gaga parody was so weird because nothing was engaged with in terms of her music other than her public persona, which i dont think happened nearly as much with bowie or even marina and the diamonds, but for some reason the surface level weirdness was all people wanted to talk about. nowadays it seems ppl actually started to appreciate she was pretty interesting as a musician back then, but that's only because now she's shilled as a girlboss even tho her modern music and persona is way worse

 

[Pina Colada]

Marge becomes a robot

Well, they were right about that.

And here's an animator talking about the new sequence:

4. The super market-This whole scene was mine. I didn't like what they did where they cut pieces of body parts and moved them in the computer ie. Maggie's head etc. It looks like it was done in flash. About the Marge turn, I had originally done a version where she did a nice head turn but, again, they didn't want it. "Just have a simple head turn because we want the joke to be Maggie and the unibrow baby," they told me. I didn't know they were going to stiffen it up that much, I'm just defending myself because that seems to be the first thing people mention is Marge. They kept my Maggie scan and popping out of the bag though and in my defense they added the fist shaking later, I didn't do those 2 drawing cycle *eck*