TheRealJims is an Analysis Channel primarily dedicated to covering and reviewing The Simpsons, along with the very occasional other piece of animation, like Disenchantment. Known for his no-frills style of editing, and his friendly, laid back approach to analysis.
He can be found on YouTube
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The various series TheRealJims has created include...
- 60 Second Simpsons and Extra Seconds - The former are short reviews of individual episodes in just 60 seconds, while the latter is more in-depth and usually expands upon the ideas touched upon in the 60 second review. A few standalone Extra Seconds reviews also exist.
- Simpsons Showdowns - In which he compares and contrasts two similar episodes of The Simpsons, before making the decision on which is the better episode.
- Simpsons Histories - A series spotlighting different characters from the show and how they evolved throughout the series' run.
- Simpsons Mysteries - Covering various unanswered questions and weird topics that the show presents. It has also crossed over with Simpsons Histories a couple times with the video on Herman and the Grandpa Timeline.
- This show includes the six part series Who REALLY Shot Mr. Burns?, which analyzes the classic two-parter "Who Shot Mr. Burns", while proposing alternate solutions as to who the culprit is, while staying true to all the evidence presented in the episode, including Mr. Burns outright telling people who shot him.
- Season Retrospectives - A season-by-season retrospective of The Simpsons, looking at the show's evolution and how the prevalence of different themes and characters shifted over time. Each retrospective is followed by a Top Ten List of the best episodes from that season.
- The Simpsons Did It??? - In which he compares and contrasts an episode of The Simpsons with an earlier episode of a different show that happens to have the same premise, rating them via the "Butters scale" based on the originality of the Simpsons episode.
- Pixar Perfect - Reviews of every Pixar film from what he considered worst to best. The series initially covered Toy Story to The Good Dinosaur, with additional reviews of Coco and Finding Dory being released later.
- Netflix Reviews - In which he takes a critical look at Netflix originals. So far, he has covered the first three seasons of Disenchantment.
- Random Reviews - Reviews of anything that don't fit any of the above. So far, he has reviewed The Simpsons Movie, How to Train Your Dragon, and the Springfield area of Universal Studios Hollywood, as well as providing a Top 10 list of episodes of Futurama.
Alright. With that out of the way, it's time to list some tropes:
- Alternative Joke Interpretation: In "The Simpsons Mysteries - Ralph the Viking," Jim dissects the (surprisingly intense) debate surrounding different interpretations of a memetic Ralph Wiggum line from "Lisa the Vegetarian": "Oh boy, sleep! That's where I'm a Viking!"
- Anvilicious: Discussed in his WALL•E review, when The Captain outright says "I don't want to survive, I want to live!", which Jims thought was a bit on the nose for him, but conceded that it was still an important aesop to say.
- Animation Bump: Discussed; he is always sure to mention the unusually smooth animation on the babysitter whenever he discusses "Some Enchanted Evening".
- April Fools' Day: He is known to celebrate the holiday by uploading serious videos with silly topics.
- His joke for 2019 was a new series called "Simpsons Shipteries", where he examined the (non-existent, but feasible) relationship between Selma and Moe. He also refers to Marge as "Midge" throughout the entire episode, much like Moe does.
- His 2023 video "The Simpsons Did It??? The Problem with Pinchy" seemed to be a late April Fool's Day joke, presented as "the first of a 47-part series" where he jokingly lays out a conspiracy theory that The Simpsons copied a plot from an episode of Garfield and Friends. However, he did actually return to this series for Halloween, covering two similar episodes about death from The Simpsons and Family Guy.
- In 2024, he uploaded a video titled "TOP 20 SIMPSONS BEARS", which despite its silly premise is indeed a ranking of the top 20 bears on The Simpsons.
- The Artifact: His channel's profile picture is a sleeping Yoshi taken from The Subspace Emissary. A quick glance at his channel's earliest videos show that it was mainly used to upload gameplay clips, including from Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and that profile picture is a relic from those simpler times. He joked in 2022 that he finally updated the picture... to a higher quality image of Yoshi without the black bars.
- Artifact Title: The Extra Seconds series was originally created to provide longer and more detailed reviews of episodes after covering them in 60 Second Simpsons. The name became an artifact after some episodes received Extra Seconds videos without first getting the 60 Second treatment.
- Bait-and-Switch: In the "Homer and Apu vs. Much Apu About Nothing" episode of Simpsons Showdown, made after The Problem With Apu came out and the ensuing controversy, Jims begins by addressing the elephant in the room: both episodes feature large hats.
- Bat Deduction: In the first "Who REALLY Shot Mr. Burns" video, he cites this as the biggest flaw in the official solution: the evidence that directly implicates Maggie as the shooter is heavily reliant on symbolism.
- Big Brother Instinct: Brought up in the episode of "Who REALLY Shot Mr. Burns?" pinning Bart as the shooter. As Jims points out, Bart has shown a protective side towards his sisters before, and with him already angry enough at Mr. Burns to almost attack him on sight in city hall, seeing him trying to steal from his baby sister may have been enough to push him over the edge.
- Bizarro Episode: The first two-thirds of his review of The Simpsons' first episode, "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", is done from the perspective of an alternate universe where the first season of The Simpsons flopped and the series soon faded into obscurity, before the pilot was rediscovered years later as a curious piece of lost media that's gained a cult following.
- Bloodier and Gorier: Discussed in his Simpsons Histories on The Itchy & Scratchy Show, noting that the violence was relatively tame and bloodless in the beginning, but that things became more gruesome and crimson before long. He also speculates that this trope in regards to The Simpsons as a whole is why Itchy and Scratchy took a backseat during the Mike Scully era (Seasons 9-12); when the Simpsons themselves are prone to bleeding plenty, there's less of a need to cutaway to The Itchy and Scratchy Show to fulfil that itch.
- Broad Strokes: His solution for getting past the inconsistencies in the future episodes, despite the recurring elements, in the "Simpsons Mysteries" video on the subject, was to think of them more as "legends". The details change with each retelling, but the heart of the story remains the same.
- Broken Base: An In-Universe discussion of this happens in "20 Hidden Gems from Modern Simpsons", when TheRealJims includes "Looking For Mr. Goodbart" on the list and gets interrupted by NICKtendo for the choice. Both agree that the episode's A-plot is great, but disagree on whether the B-plot (a very overt and dated Pokémon GO parody) brings the overall episode down or not.
- Chaos Architecture: The main point of discussion in the Simpsons Mysteries episode on 742 Evergreen Terrace; documenting how weird the layout of the house is before analysing how the writers use that flexibility to make the show better.
- Character Focus: Discussed in his Histories episode on Dr. Hibbert, noting how odd it is that for such a prominent recurring character in a long-running show, the closest things he has to episodes dedicated to him are two Treehouse of Horror segmentsnote .
- Compassionate Critic: Though he had his caustic moments in earlier episodes, he generally avoids making a show of anger over the things he reviews, and will generally take the time to carefully discuss things he dislikes while pointing out the positives. TheRealJims is also known as one of the few online critics who is sympathetic as a whole to post-golden era episodes of The Simpsons, always covering modern Simpsons episodes fairly in his Histories videos and even producing positive reviews of standout episodes like "Trilogy of Error" and "The Book Job". He even opens the "Top 20 Worst Treehouse of Horror Segments" video jokingly wondering if he's been going too easy on the show lately.
- Crossover:
- He collaborated with PhantomStrider on the latter's video on the five best/worst Simpsons videogames and returned to help him with his Top Five Worst and Best Modern Simpsons Episodes list.
- He also turned up to help Lydia, of The Simpsons Theory on her Treehouse of Horror kill count.
- He directed a mini-Simpson's Histories in EmperorLemon's Never Ever on Homer's Enemy, fitting as Emp championed Jim's channel in his video on underexposed YouTubers.
- The Simpsons Showdown pitting the crossover episodes "A Star Is Burns" and "The Simpsons Files" against each other, appropriately brings in animation critic ToonrificTariq and Lydia of The Simpsons Theory, to make the case for the respective episode, before Jims takes over to make the final verdict.
- Damned by Faint Praise: His Simpsons Showdown episode pitting "Kill the Alligator and Run" against "Simpson Safari", two of his most hated episodes, is unsurprisingly full of this. All in all, his "praise" for the episodes respectively boil down to "The beginning was ok and there's some decent jokes sprinkled throughout the episode's nonsensical plot, if you can get into a certain brand of humor" and "It's boring and unfunny all the way through, but doesn't have the infuriating Ass Pull ending of "Kill The Alligator and Run", the story is comparably better written, and Homer isn't an insufferable Jerkass through most of it".
- Demoted to Extra: A frequent topic of the Simpsons Histories video, where Jim often seeks to discover why characters fall in and out of relevance on the show.
- He notes that Itchy and Scratchy were relegated to very rare appearances during the Mike Scully era of Seasons 9 to 12. He speculates that this is down to two factors: First, Season 8's "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show" pushed the satirical side of the characters far enough that a break was warranted to prevent overexposure. Second, he notes that the Mike Scully era of The Simpsons as a whole was Bloodier and Gorier, which meant that Cutaway Gags showing Itchy brutally murdering Scratchy in various creative ways were nowhere near as necessary as before.
- Otto, despite getting a fairly big push early on, quickly fell by the wayside. He sees this as an example of a character who the writers liked and tried to give a spotlight episode to with "The Otto Show", but when it became clear that he wasn't much of a Breakout Character the writers began using him much more sparingly. He also notes that The Simpsons tends to focus heavily on three age groups: elementary school children, middle-age adults, and the elderly. This leaves Otto, as a young adult, out of most of the show's natural social circles.
- The topic of his video on Herman, which is notably a Mysteries video rather than a Histories one. The explanation for his rapid decline in appearances can be chalked up to three main factors: Relevancynote , Tonal Issuesnote , and Competitionnote .
- Department of Redundancy Department: In his Season 10 retrospective, when describing the show's continued use of Bait-and-Switch gags:TheRealJims: At this point, it shouldn't be surprising to the audience at all that the show keeps surprising the audience with these surprising punch lines for the audience.
- Double Entendre: His description of that scene in "TOP 20 SIMPSONS BEARS":"Once the panda ice cream cones show up, you know who's about to come."
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- For TheRealJims himself, he was generally a lot more caustic in his early videos towards episodes he disliked or was indifferent to, something he would heavily tone down over the years. Before branching out, he was also mostly dedicated to creating 60 Second Simpsons videos without any accompanying Extra Seconds videos.
- As a Discussed Trope, his retrospective of Season 1 of The Simpsons is mostly dedicated to looking at how unusual it is compared to the rest of the show.
- Also discussed in his review of "No Disgrace Like Home" from the aforementioned season, in regards to the characters' actions and attitude.
- The season retrospectives have always dedicated a section to discussing the secondary characters and their usage, but it would take until Season 13 for the "Secondary Character Stockwatch!" to get a proper name and intro.
- Exact Words: In "20 Hidden Gems from Modern Simpsons", he declares that "Treehouse of Horror XX" will be the only Treehouse of Horror episode featured on the list. Which is 100% true, as "Halloween of Horror" and "Thanksgiving of Horror" aren't Treehouse episodes.
- Everyone Has Standards: During his "Simpsons Histories" spotlight on Sideshow Mel, Jims is clearly disgusted by Mel having repurposed Foxy Lady as a sexual pleasure robot.Okay, so I make it a point not to kink-shame the Simpsons characters in these videos, but Jesus Christ, Mel, a pizza robot? You have been in the kids' entertainment industry for way too long. I swear, I should rename this series "Simpsons Kinkstories" at this point.
- Formula-Breaking Episode:
- "TheRealJims vs Gamblor" is a crudely made and completely unscripted video of him playing the Simpsons slot machine.
- "Simpsons Roasting in Another Timeline" starts with TheRealJims reviewing "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" as if it were a failed pilot, before turning into a sincere tribute of the show for its 30th anniversary.
- "Random Review - The Simpsons @ Universal Studios Florida" is an in-person tour of the titular theme park area.
- "Visiting The Simpsons at Universal Studios Hollywood!" is a sequel to this video.
- "The Simpsons Did It??? The Problem with Pinchy" is a (maybe ten day late April Fools episode) about the 'legendary Simpsons controversy' of "Lisa Gets an 'A'" being a rip off of the Garfield and Friends episode "Maine Course". This was turned into a recurring episode format with a Halloween Episode, comparing the Family Guy episode "Death is a Bitch" with the Treehouse of Horror segment "Reaper Madness".
- Franchise Original Sin:
- Discussed in his "Lisa Goes Gaga" review, which he considers So Okay, It's Average rather than irredeemably terrible. He points out that The Simpsons have been bringing in celebrity guest stars and doing cross promotions since the early days. It's just in the past, they've either found an interesting way to incorporate the guest spot into the story, had them play a character other than themselves, or just went further in lampooning them than they seemed willing to go in this episode. This is also discussed in his review of "Homer at the Bat" where he wonders if the episode, which relies so much on various celebrity guests, would've gone over nearly as well if it were in season 30, rather than season 3.
- This also gets talked about as the conclusion of the Season 10 retrospective, noting that while the season as a whole likely marks the definitive end of the show's "golden era", it is unfortunately Misblamed for many things that came later while many of its tonal shifts already existed in some form during the classic years. As he says in the video's comments:I don't personally vibe with this season that well, it's not the style I gravitate toward with comedies. But at the same time, I feel like Season 10 is criticized too much for some of the stuff that came later. There's a lot of foreshadowing in Season 10, but by and large, it's not that over the top about it.
- Growing the Beard: Discussed during his Season 2 Retrospective, as many things that Simpsons fans enjoy, like the "Treehouse of Horror" episodes to the debuts of characters such as Dr. Hibbert, Troy McClure, Groundskeeper Willie, and Mayor Quimby, all originated in season 2."The reason that season 2 doesn't feel as 'weird' as season 1 is the fact that almost all those experiments were successful. You don't get the kind of evolutionary dead-ends that were in the first season. They very quickly grasped what's working, what isn't, what they can change, like all good season 2's do on television. Yes, it is certainly more slowly-paced, relaxed, and traditional than the later iterations, but this is basically the show that we all know and love. Season 1's successes got them to season 2. Season 2's successes got them to season 6. Or something like that, I'm speaking more figuratively here.
- Harsher in Hindsight: When discussing "Manger Things", he notes that the heartwarming moment between Homer and Maude Flanders is tainted by the knowledge that he will still eventually be responsible for her death.
- Homage: "Simpsons Mysteries - Ralph the Viking" (about the long-standing fan debate over whether a joke in "Lisa the Vegetarian" is intended to imply that Ralph is a literal or metaphorical Viking in his sleep) is a sendup to Jon Bois' "THE DUMBEST BOY ALIVE".
- I Can't Believe I'm Saying This: Jims in "Jerkass Homer is Dead", when addressing complaints about Homer circa Season 33 having Took a Level in Kindness too many.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: At the end of his Season 10 Top 10 Episodes list, he declares that he is stockpiling whiskey before he takes on Season 11. This is the first time any of his "next season previews" have been even remotely negative. Though surprisingly, when his season 11 retrospective came out, it wasn't significantly more negative than the season 10 one.
- Informed Flaw: "The Friend Count" episode of Simpsons Mysteries takes a look at how many friends Bart and Lisa have acquired throughout the show, and discovers that even though Lisa is an Ineffectual Loner, she has acquired a lot more friends than Bart has. Jim believes this to be the result of a weird Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Lisa is a loner without many regular friends, which results in the writers creating lots of Loner-Turned-Friend stories where she confronts her loneliness and acquires new companions, which eventually adds up in a show where Status Quo Is God.
- Intra-Franchise Crossover: At one point in his Simpsons Mysteries episode "Who REALLY Shot Mr. Burns? (Part 1)", in order to summarize how the mystery behind "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" was structured, the video suddenly becomes a 60 Second Simpsons episode on "Who Shot Mr. Burns? (the Maggie Simpson solution)".
- Just Eat Gilligan: He believes that Milhouse was the worst in "Das Bus" and that the other kids should have eaten him.
- Just Here for Godzilla:
- In his Extra Seconds review of "22 Short Films About Springfield", he admits that most people are probably just watching to hear his opinion on Steamed Hams.
- In the opening of the Simpsons Mysteries video on 742 Evergreen Terrace, he says his viewers are there for the rumpus room, paying off a comment he made in his years-earlier review of "Three Men and a Comic Book".
- Leitmotif: Often plays "Letting Go" whenever he's discussing a Lisa-centric episode.
- Madness Mantra: Jims completely derails the ending credits for his 60 Second Simpsons coverage on "Kill the Alligator and Run" to rant at length about the episode's twist ending, repeatedly exclaiming (and making bizarre variations of), "THE ALLIGATOR WAS ALIVE THE ENTIRE TIME!"
- Mama Bear: Marge's motivation for potentially shooting Mr. Burns in her episode of "Who REALLY Shot Mr. Burns", was that at that point, he had seriously harmed every member of her family in some way and was in the midst of literally stealing candy from her baby, and being the loving and protective mother she is, had had enough of seeing him hurt her loved ones.
- Medium-Shift Gag: TheRealJims near-exclusively sticks to showing screenshots of the show in his videos, using the occasional creative transition or caption to illustrate his narration. This has led to at least a few viewers admitting they were startled when "Simpsons Mysteries - Schrödinger's Alligator" interrupts the Call-Back to his Madness Mantra from his 60 Second Simpsons episode on "Kill the Alligator and Run" with an unedited clip of a deleted scene from the show.
- Misplaced Retribution: One of his issues with Manger Things is that Marge is angry at Homer for getting drunk at a power plant Christmas party even though he wasn't the one to spike the punch and the episode treats him as needing to atone for something that wasn't his fault.
- Morality Pet: Part of his video on Bart and Marge's relationship, discusses Marge's role as this to Bart. With Jims saying that Marge is not only the most stable figure in Bart's life, but also the only one he ever genuinely worries about disappointing. And despite occasionally making her life hell, she seems to be the only family member he actually respects and appreciates to a degree. Despite not going on the more wild adventure with her like he often does with Homer or Lisa, as much.
- Multiple-Choice Past: There are two Simpsons Mysteries videos focusing on Mr. Burns and Abe Simpson's personal timelines and trying to find inconsistencies due to both characters being subjected to Expansion Pack Pasts throughout the show's run.
- My Friends... and Zoidberg:
- In his season nine retrospective, he describes "The Last Temptation of Krust" as having "a bunch of funny comedians and Jay Leno".
- This gets inverted in the season fourteen retrospective, where he describes "How I Spent My Strummer Vacation" as featuring "Brian Setzer and a bunch of niche rock and rollers"note .
- Never Live It Down: Discussed in "Jerkass Homer is Dead", arguing that the fandom personification of Homer as somebody who was Flanderized into being an asshole hasn't really been true since around Season 15; noting how the idea still persists today even as Season 33 presents possibly the nicest version of Homer we have ever seen.
- Nostalgia Filter: Downplayed. Though he considers seasons 1-8 as the Simpsons "Golden Age", he isn't above criticizing it nor does he instinctively pan anything not part of that period. He's made the videos "20 Hidden Duds from Golden Age Simpsons", which covers some of his least-favorite episodes from seasons 3-8 (explicitly excluding the clip show episodes), as well as "20 Hidden Gems from Middle Simpsons".
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Usually, the "60 Second Simpsons" reviews have him offering humorous thoughts about the Simpsons episode being reviewed. However, with "Co-Dependent's Day", he was so disgusted with the episode that he simply said "There are no words to describe how terrible this episode is", and then sat in silence for 30 seconds before going to the closing credits. He would later post an "Extra Seconds" about the episode, which would elaborate why he hated it.
- Parental Substitute: Discussed in the "Nelson's Dads" episode of Simpsons Mysteries, presenting cases for and against Mr. Burns, Ned, Homer, and Moe being potential father figures for Nelson. Jims argues Moe had the strongest case for the role, with the only thing setting him back being his engagement to Maya.
- Parents as People:
- His view on Abe Simpson given at the end of The Grandpa Timeline. Where, while he admits that Grandpa was far from a perfect father to Homer, considering the circumstances, having to raise Homer by himself after Mona was forced to go on the run, and the sacrifices Abe made for his son and the times he showed he did care about him, he says that writing him off as just a terrible father all together would be unfair.
- This is often discussed in his reviews of Pixar films, which often have more nuanced parent-child relationships. Like in his review of Ratatouille for example, where while Remy's father doesn't initially support his son's dream of becoming a chef, it's more because of his more cynical and pragmatic world view, which admittedly, isn't wrong per se, and even before he accepts his son's passion there's never any outright hostility between the two.
- Production Foreshadowing: TheRealJims likes to sneak in hints of his future videos in current ones.
- He released 60 Second and Extra Seconds videos on "Homie the Clown", before using Homer's variation of the Krusty makeup as a major clue in his next video, "Who REALLY Shot Mr. Burns? (Finale)".
- Later, while reviewing "Trilogy of Error" in its Extra Seconds video, he takes a moment to muse over Barney's coffee addiction, how he forgot that this episode takes place during this character arc. The following video is a Simpsons Histories entry for Barney, and TheRealJims expands on his thoughts regarding "Coffee-Drinker Barney," as he calls the arc.
- Rapid-Fire "No!": Breaks into a stream of "no" in his video on Kearney's Vague Age when he realizes that, in order for Kearney to be a teenager and father of a teenager, Kearney would've had to have conceived his son at age 5.
- Recycled Script: Discussed. In the video on his Top 10 Season 4 Episodes, he remarks that "Lisa's First Word" feels a lot like an episode of Rugrats, with its portrayals of the sibling rivalry between baby Bart and Lisa and Homer and Marge's struggles as young parents.
- The Reveal: "Simpsons Mysteries - Ralph the Viking" ends with a proper face reveal. Technically, he did appear on-camera in "Random Review - The Simpsons @ Universal Studios Florida" as he tries to mix a Flaming Moe and Butterbeer together, but without any context to the scene few people noticed.
- Ron the Death Eater: Played for Laughs at the end of "Top 10 Season 10 Episodes" when covering "Lisa Gets an 'A'", when he concludes a pretty standard overview of the epsiode with an abruptly vicious rant against "Jerkass Marge" for her treatment of poor, defenceless Pinchy, complete with the music suddenly changing to something creepier. This continues in his "The Simpsons Did It???" feature on the Garfield and Friends episode "Maine Course", noting that Jon Arbuckle at least treated Therm better than Marge did with Pinchy.
- Running Gag:
- Referring to Milhouse as "Bart's friend", due to the episode "Bart's Friend Falls In Love". A few variants of the gag include referring to the episode as "Milhouse Falls In Love", and during the Simpsons Histories about his dad, "Kirk's Son Falls in Love".
- When investigating something related to the show, Jims will often say he asked a bunch of experts in whatever field is relevant for their advice… only to be told some variation of "It's just a cartoon, leave me alone."
- Whenever reviewing an episode that suffers from Trapped by Mountain Lions, he will often spend the entire review completely ignoring it, before mentioning at the end:Also, [Character] has a subplot about [subject] or something.
- When around the 2021 holidays he found himself discussing "Skinners Sense of Snow" unusually frequently (In the Season 12 Retrospective, "20 Hidden Gems from Middle Simpsons" and "Ranking All The Simpsons Christmas Episodes!"), he is always sure to bring up the scene of Homer hallucinating Lisa as a camel, drawing out the punchline further and further each time. Honk!
- Rule of Three: In his analysis on how Milhouse was treated by the show, he describes three episodesnote where something substantial happens in Milhouse's life, and Jims expresses interest in how it would potentially affect Milhouse as a character going forward. Then the episode swerves to focus on the Simpsons, leaving Milhouse's situation as a mere footnote.TheRealJims: The End.
- So Bad, It's Good:
- Admits that he likes "The Frying Game" for this reason; despite having a very disjointed plot that goes off the rails for its final act, cumulating in one of the most brazen twists in Simpsons history, it is so committed to that twist that the episode circles around to almost being postmodern.
- He has a similar view of "Sunday, Cruddy Sunday", stating in his Season 10 retrospective that he couldn't decide if the episode was "totally stupid or utterly brilliant", before deciding to "embrace the stupidity" by giving it the number 3 spot on his Top 10 list. He argues that while the whole thing is structureless and nonsensical, he enjoys it for leaning into that and just being a dumb, fun Super Bowl party of an episode.
- Special Edition Title: For April Fools' Day, TheRealJims created a one-off feature called Simpsons Shipteries, which uses the Simpsons Mysteries intro except with every image replaced with the same image of Selma and Moe kissing each other◊.
- Special Guest:
- The Extra Seconds video on "Scenes From the Class Struggle in Springfield" features ToonrificTariq, with the video being dedicated to allowing him to explain why he considers it his favourite episode of the show.
- "20 Hidden Gems from Modern Simpsons" features both several picks contributed by Simpsons writer Matt Selman, as well as a cameo from NICKtento, who disagrees with Jim's choice of "Looking For Mr. Goodbart".
- "Simpsons Comics - The Secret Simpsons Universe" features voice actor and impressionist Jayden Libran to provide dramatic readings of select comics throughout the video.
- "Simpsons Mysteries - The Golden Age" features Henry Gilbert of Talking Simpsons, ToonrificTariq, and Lydia of The Simpsons Theory reading harsh Usenet reviews of "Homer Goes to College", an episode that is considered a classic nowadays.
- Squick: He notes that while he generally tries to avoid shaming the characters for their sexual habits, he draws the line at Sideshow Mel having turned an old pizzeria animatronic into a sex robot.
- Stealth Pun: In his Simpsons Histories on Miss Hoover, Jims questions why the later seasons included so many head-related jokes involving her and Bart, showing screencaps of Bart holding up her severed head from "Treehouse of Horror XX", Hoover giving Lisa an A and Bart's head, attached to Lisa's body, an F in "Treehouse of Horror XXIV"... and an older Bart lying in bed with her and remarking he can see why they call her "Miss Hoover" from "Days of Future Future".
- Stealth Sequel: In his "Who REALLY Shot Mr. Burns?" series, he proposes that accepting alternate solutions on who the culprit is allows you to watch other episodes of the show as direct prequels or sequels to "Who Shot Mr. Burns".
- For Marge, "Marge Gets a Job" establishes Burns' infatuation with her, giving him a motivation to cover up her role in the shooting. It is also one of the few episodes where Marge comes into direct conflict with Mr. Burns, which gives her a more personal motive for the shooting in addition to being protective of her family.
- For Grandpa, "Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in "The Curse of the Flying Hellfish"" gives Grandpa a motive for killing Burns: recovering the stolen paintings the two had acquired during the Second World War. The existence of the paintings also explains why Burns wouldn't finger Grampa as the culprit, as doing so could lead to the authorities finding out about the tontine surrounding the paintings. It also explains why he's even more villainous than usual in the later episode: Abe tried to kill him. It's not just about the paintings anymore, It's Personal.
- For Bart, "Burns' Heir" establishes that Burns admires Bart's rebellious and destructive personality, which like Marge allows him to avoid being accused.
- For Homer, "Krusty Gets Busted" features him witnessing someone impersonate Krusty to commit a crime, and "Homie the Clown" has him learn how to apply the Krusty makeup himself, giving him the means to disguise himself as Krusty for the shooting.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Invoked in the episode of "Who REALLY Shot Mr. Burns" that pegs Lisa as the shooter; Lisa took advantage of her strong resemblance to her baby sister, Maggie, combined with the fact that she was the Simpsons family member Burns was the least familiar with to frame her, knowing that if her planned failed, the authorities were unlikely to actually punish her.
- Surprisingly Improved Sequel: In its retrospective, he calls Season 12 this to Season 11 in that it does a much better job of fusing the Denser and Wackier tone of the Scully-era with the grounded façade of the classic era.
- Technician Versus Performer:
- A negative version of this debate is featured in the Simpsons Showdowns episode "Kill the Alligator and Run vs. Simpson Safari", two episodes he considered the show's worst in a list he made in 2011. He believes that "Kill the Alligator" (the performer) is the more offensively dumb episode, while "Simpson Safari" (the technician) is the more boring one. Ultimately, he decides that "Kill the Alligator" wins out.
- This also comes up in his Top 10 list for Season 11, with whether "Insane Clown Poppy" or "New Kids On The Blecch" is more deserving of the number 10 spot. He cites "Insane Clown Poppy" as the overall more consistent episode brought down by a weak opening and ending, but ultimately goes with "New Kids On The Blecch" for being more iconic overall despite completely Jumping the Shark with its final act.
- He discusses Season 13 as a "performer" season in its Top 10 list. He notes that it is the first time he doesn't have any honorable mentions for a season, and that the list is a fairly complete itinerary of the episodes he likes from it. With that said, he also believes that Season 13's Top 10 is a stronger lineup than both Season 12 and 11's despite those seasons having a wider range of solid episodes, overall describing Season 13 as a top-heavy season in terms of quality.
- Tempting Fate: A lighthearted example from the Season 12 Retrospective:
- Next up, we say goodbye to Mr. Mike Scully's tenure and welcome back Al Jean, who I'm sure's stopped by to run things for like one or two years...
- Tourist Bump: Discussed during his review of "Bart On The Road", which has Bart, Milhouse, Nelson, and Martin traveling to Knoxville, Tennessee to see the Sunsphere from the 1982 World's Fair, unaware that they were using a travel guide from 1982 (the episode originally aired in 1996). Jim expressed interested in traveling to Knoxville himself just to say it was something he'd done as a Simpsons fan.
- Trilogy Creep: His "Who REALLY Shot Mr. Burns?" videos started out as a trilogy, with the first video dedicated to poking holes in the official solution and the other two videos proposing Marge and Lisa as alternate answers. Three more videos in the series would be released in the years following, focusing on Grandpa, Bart and Homer as theoretical culprits.
- Unexplained Recovery: The Simpsons Histories episode on Dr. Nick notes that despite him seemingly dying at the end of The Simpsons Movie, he's continued to appear in post-movie episodes alive and no worse for wear. Jims posits that the Grim Reaper probably left him alone because he knew that killing him would have been bad for business.
- The Un Twist: His big-picture criticism of Cars 2 is the Captain Obvious Reveal of Sir Miles Axlerod being the Big Bad. He believes the twist doesn't work because the story attempts to be a Fair-Play Whodunnit, but the solution comes down to 'who is the only remotely plausible candidate?' instead of 'who has the most sensible motivation?'.
- Verbal Tic: Has a habit of starting videos or sections within videos with "Alright, so...".
- Villain Respect: Jims' reasoning for why Mr. Burns may have decided to not finger Bart as his shooter, if he was, is that as shown in "Burns' Heir", Montgomery admires the boy's destructive side, so maybe he'd be more impressed with Bart making an attempt on his life than angry.
- Visual Pun: Some of his comments are accompanied by screenshots that play on his words.
- In the Season 1 Retrospective, he comments on a specific scene◊ in "Homer's Odyssey" as being the worst visual moment in the entire show, specifically calling attention to a background figure with an oddly shaped head featuring a wide mouth and a tall cranium. This comes back as a Brick Joke when he describes Homer's personality as being "high minded", showing an image of this background figure again.
- In "Jerkass Homer is Dead", he describes the show's more positive portrayals of him as "Niceass Homer", which is always accompanied by an image that focuses on Homer's butt.
- In the Season 1 Retrospective, he comments on a specific scene
- Voodoo Shark: In "Simpsons Mysteries - Schrödinger's Alligator", Jims discusses a deleted scene from "Kill the Alligator and Run" in which a funeral service is held for Captain Jack inside the courthouse shortly before the Simpsons' trial, and questions whether including it in the final edit would have improved the episode. He ultimately concludes that no; while it does explain why Captain Jack shows up from inside the courthouse at the end of the episode, it also makes the idea that nobody noticed he wasn't actually dead even more absurd.
- Weird Aside: In "The Simpsons Did It??? The Problem with Pinchy", Jims comments on Garfield's disguise during airport scene in the Garfield and Friends episode "Maine Course".Jims: Also, this happens. Curiously, this rather unique and unknown shirt pattern also appears in two Simpsons episodes, further tying the Simpsons' and Garfield's universes further together.
