General Simpsons Thread

this is probably one the weirdest gags they've done,pretty close to the funnest too

I know this an old discussion but Lisa has at one point enabled Sideshow Bob by saying "He only wants to kill Bart" which 1- Is untrue and 2- Is a shitty thing to say. So she's not "Sideshow Bob's Unknown Nemesis."

I think what the writers intend with Lisa's portrayal most of the time in the newer episodes is that to show she's "Not a goody two shoes" but fail to realize that keep portraying her as heartless and more of a dick than Bart. I dont think that was at play here though. The writers see Bart as a-ok for Lisa to abuse.

She does have awesome and kind hearted moments. As rotten and shitty as Boys Of Bummer was Lisa and even Marge were nice and kind to Bart. THAT was when they truly lived up to the name of the series Only Sane Man...eeeeeeeerrrrrrrrr women.

Edited by AegisP on Mar 2nd 2023 at 12:35:37 PM

Capital City is like a neighboring town too right, rather than another state of sorts? Also I find funny that despite Lemon of Troy the characters are often visiting Shelbyville.

She kinda was early on, they made a recurrent gag of Bob just kinda not being interested in a vendetta with Lisa or the other Simpsons even when it was provoked, and always turning his attention back to Bart.

Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming kinda lampshades it, he admits he's apathetic to Lisa, and even when she exposes him, he takes out a knife and glares at her.....and takes Bart and only Bart.

I feel like the main issue with their likeability is just the general Flanderization of humour. Much like Jerkass Homer where they made Homer's flaws so cartoony and obnoxious that he just became an unlikeable ass, Marge and Lisa became more shrewish and vindictive during what were meant to be just their humanizing Not So Above It All moments.

Edited by Psi001 on Mar 2nd 2023 at 10:06:01 AM

For some reason, this classic scene popped back into my mind. XD

That's one way to use old appliances.

I just remembered this one. Now that I think about, the episode "Cape Feare" has one of my favorite Accidental Hero moments. Homer beat up Sideshow Bob without even knowing it. Especially with this part. XD

Homer: Hey kids, who wants to drive around in that cactus patch?
Bart: Yeah!
Lisa: Yeah!
Sideshow Bob: NO!
Homer: Well, two against one. (drives around in the cactus patch, causing a lot of rapid-fire "OW!"s from Sideshow Bob)

Homer: “This coffee is too hot!” *pours it out of the car onto Bob*

We all know the true hero of that episode are the rakes.

Edited by Psi001 on Mar 6th 2023 at 9:36:17 AM

I love that part. XD

"Cape Feare" is an interesting episode, since it was made during a time when a good chunk of the original writers for the show were leaving to do other projects. So, they basically decided to put together the craziest episode they could think of before they left.

The rake scene is iconic for good reason, but I also really love the part with the elephants:

How did they do that? In that episode, they made Sideshow Bob a Knight of Cerebus and a Butt-Monkey at the same time.

Simply because at the time, full-on villains were not really a thing in The Simpsons, we just got thieves, bullies or petty jerks. I think Snake trying to mow down Bart in "Separate Vocations" was as extreme as it got at that point (which backfired immediately on him) besides the usual Bad Boss antics from Mr Burns.

They could have Sideshow Bob act as big a goofball as possible and he'd still stand out for being a calculating murderer in an animated sitcom, especially since Bart's reaction to someone trying to kill him is still depicted pretty heavily.

I admit this is why I think super serious Knight of Cerebus types that kill the tone are overrated.

Edited by Psi001 on Mar 6th 2023 at 1:05:45 PM

I just remembered some funny Early-Installment Weirdness.

In that one part of "Lisa's First Word," Ned and Todd Flanders welcomed the Simpsons (well, Homer and Bart, at least) by singing the song the Munchkins sang in The Wizard of Oz. Nowadays, Ned won't even look at something that has magic of any kind in it, saying it's Against My Religion.

Unless his new wives mellowed him out a bit. I'm a bit out of the loop in that regard. ^_^;;

I don't think it's intentional but it really does seem like Ned's super religious nature came about because of Maude's death, all things considered.

Good point.

Poor guy's a widower twice over now. No wonder he's cracked.

Edited by badtothebaritone on Mar 10th 2023 at 10:53:27 AM

He still had a few tender episodes post-Maude death, he just got flanderized even farther. He was already doing worse with stuff like forced baptism and that was when Maude was alive.

Ned lost all sympathy to me when Todd was upset over his mother's death and questioned why a loving God would let that happen and Ned's response was to throw him out of the house and not reconcile with him until Todd started praying again.

Yikes,that's so wildly out of character even for someone like Ned,like straight up bad

The sad thing is, despite being the Trope Namer, Ned isn't even the worst case of Flanderization, especially in this show.

When did that happen?

Also not helping the interpretation that Ned's flanderization into Christian fundamentalist is due to his wife's death.

Todd, Todd, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?

Long story short, Todd starts being disgusted with being a Christian because he started to forget what Maude looked like. Despite that, Ned was horrifyingly insensitive to Todd's despair.

Edited by HallowHawk on Mar 11th 2023 at 7:22:12 AM

Did that also happen during the season where Marge kicked Bart of the house just because he sympathetically agreed with Homer?

Maybe Marge and Ned should hook up.

I swear there's an episode where Marge is attracted to Ned and contemplates an affair. And in one of the future glimpses, she does marry Ned and they both live to old age though Marge predeceases him. (In a terrible, disgusting gag Ned puts Marge's photo on a display of dead wives which includes a bunch of secondary characters like Lu Ann, Dr. Hibbert's wife, Mrs. Quimby, Mrs. Muntz, Sarah Wiggum, Sherri and Terri's mom etc. It makes Ned look like a serial killer, as there's no way all those characters passed naturally within a 40 year frame or so.)