When people say Simpsons is good again they usually refer to the two parter "A Serious Flanders" which I have to say I haven't seen yet.

A serious Flanders was good, that's all and that's about it.

I haven't watched the Simpson's since shortly after the Movie...

I’ve actually enjoyed it a lot more than the rest of modern simpsons

Simpsons has evolved over the years, meaning they are going to pull some fans back in (and further alienate others). But I would hardly say they have returned to their glory days. The recent episodes seem a bit more focused and plot-driven, and for some people that's going to seem "better". But all the great episodes from the latter half of the series have been entertaining for reasons other than being funny. The last episode of Simpsons that was good just for being funny was season 16's Don't Fear the Roofer, and that was a long time ago now.

I sure hope somebody got fired for that blunder!

I think that's hilarious no other show COULD do that

Imagine in 10 years when the flashbacks are set in the 2000’s

@@waynemiller5232 🤮🤮🤮

@@waynemiller5232 but…but.. the party posse

"But now they’ve become exactly what they used to satire" I've been saying this about the Simpsons for about the last 10 or 15 years or so. The show just continues to become its own worst enemy, thanks to the malignant narcissism of its writers.

Never forget, Bart in his Mickey Mouse voice in the movie: "I'm the mascot of an evil corporation!"

@@FernieCanto More like 20 years really, the show has been more "the satire it used to make fun of" than it was not.

In 2010 it was nonstop apple shilling. Now its Disney and Avengers shilling.

It’s “satirize.”

Technically bart would be an 80s kids, but born in 1979

​@@NateS917thats still an 80s kid

The episode with his birth depicted it as being 1980 based on the references to *Nine to Five* and *The Empire Strikes Back,* both of which were also from 20th Century-Fox.

I know it so stupid. Homer and Marge were boomers. A buddy of mine was watching that Y2K episode and saw that Homer is now a millennial. I immediately told him "turn off that garbage, put something else on"

Because they shifted with the audience, since when the show started, 90s kids were the same age as bart/Lisa, but now they're homer/marge's demographic, which's jarring to say the least

wtf

Wait what? Was that a flash forward episode?

as someone that smokes weed, seeing established fictional characters smoking weed is just as unfunny as it is to everyone else lol there is absolutely no demographic for weed humor anymore, i have no idea why theyd do that

Marge being cool with weed is so dumb

You're so thin skinned it's hilarious

Yes I think you nailed it. I was born late 70s, I'm in my forties now. The Simpsons is very much a product of its time.

That is the major reason why the Simpsons is the worst cartoon ever

@PestoMayo I think it was just the more rugged animation back then, but I don't think that made the show better, it was a coincidence that the writing was better. The show was still good when its animation was cleaner by the early 2000s, the problem is just the writing is very uninspired and the post movie HD animation being robotic despite the very high quality character models. It often always after a show's first movie that for some reason writing always declines but with the simpsons, the animation in HD does look incredibly flat, unexpressive and stiff.

The characters lacking *functional context* for their satire and characterization today is definitely what I feel. The characters don't really represent anything anymore about what the premise is. Its why in retrospect, I actually think Family Guy is better than modern Simpsons, only because the characters for the most part seem to exist primarily for their own satirical context and that often comes before the jokes they are used for are given. Like Meg in general to me is a better character than Lisa, because Meg feels like and will always feel like that satirical misadventure of a teenage girl trying to fit in, find her identity, but is always ignored by her family, has bad luck all the time and is treated as uncool or ugly yet still always good natured. Sure family guy goes a bit overboard at times but the joke of her character similar to Chris being the fat teenage son that masturbates is always there. Where as what exctly is Lisa suppoed to be to the premise of the show anymore? She seems to have the same issues Brian had, from not being a character with a context. (He barely acts like a dog anymore, like in old Family guy he was human like but still a dog. He was attracted to normal female dogs, not human women.) Lisa is 8 but has no interests of an actual 8 year old to satirize. She also doesn't seem to have that prior fictional character parallel to be parodying or trying to outdo, like how Bart was originally a legacy character after Denis the Menace, and at times they reference that. Lisa wasn't really based on anything before her, to my knowledge. Even for today if those things the Simpsons was formally praised for are outdated, the show doesn't really try to deconstruct itself anymore either, nor do the writers seem self-aware enough to try to get rid of this 1 dimensional ridgedness it currently has.

@@GeteMachine Hank Ketcham died and the story of his son Dennis is actually pretty sad.

God I feel old. 😱

Shut up shut up shut UP! This is giving me an anxiety attack!

Yeah, I hate that.

Homer was born in 1983.

D'ohkay, Boomer.

That’s actually crazy

it's not like she's forced to do it though, even if her voice sounds terrible she still willingly voices marge so i think she's okay with it

​@@CEO_of_SteidiYeah. You've got to give her credit for that. Dan Castella is getting pretty old now too. The Simpsons isn't gonna keep going forever, someday when Kavner and Castella pass on, that will end the series since they're the 2 voices of the 2 most center characters of the show. The Simpsons definitely won't work anymore with new voice-over actors/actresses speaking their characters

That's not technically impossible but just weird. If Abe was born in 1920 and Homer was born circa 1982 that makes his dad aged 62 when he was born. But this implies Abe is a dirty old man chasing after young girls. There's no way Homers mom was close in age to his dad at this point. I'm 100% certain the writers didn't want Abe to be a dirty old man in the original seasons but due to continuity issues he's become one by default.

@@florinivan6907 poor Abe

Just waiting for an episode where Abe is worried about the effects Zika or COVID could have on little Homer (maybe that's the reason he isn't very intelligent), putting their dates of birth roughly a century apart.

There's one episode where he says he also fought in WW1 but lied a bit about his age. He was then depicted as a child in the trenches which makes sense, considering Abe is at least 80 years old when the Simpsons once aired in 1989, so he was roughly 8 years old back then.

They joked about Y2K as it was going on!

Homer and Marge being Millennials who were in high-school at the same time I was is surreal. I wish so much this show ended decades ago

@@SonofTiamat Why does it matter when it ended?

@@johnmartinez7440 Because it turned to sh!t a long time ago

It's gonna give me whiplash when in 10 years homer is going to be the same age as me.

@@Drilbit Ugh, he's 39? I'm 39. I was 6 years old when this show came out...

Please don't have this be true.

oh please, i give it 5 years, tops

20 years because they’re in their 40s

That would be so funny

actual pain.

It should have bowed out right when *Family Guy* and *Futurama* began. Matt Groening obviously shifted his priorities to that.

I see no contradictions

well i honestly like 2000's simpsons they were fun as 90's so i'd say 2010 or 2014 could've ends it all.

as a gen z who grew up watching and loving seasons 15-23 i think you're being too restrictive there, but it should've definitely have ended around 2013 or so

That Lady Gaga episode genuinely made me cringe. There weren't any jokes, it's just Lady Gaga.

Reminds me of Will & Grace

​​@@bonedude1286They didn't need to write any, Lady Gaga IS the joke. She's just not a funny one.

When they get the crossword writers from a newspaper lol Lisa: its this and that guy Me: woooow, amazing!!! *forgets about them a minute later*

I couldn’t get through more than 10 minutes of a single episode of that show, and I am gay.

lol

That is so accurate that its really disappointing

@Professor Thinker yes.

Oh well, the pickings to replace them is very slim. Many new comedies make no sense, so they don't last. They're even coming out with a comedy that includes part of the past comedy Raising Hope. It looks to be a cross between that show and My Name is Earl.

I got 3 months free of Disney+ so I’ve rewatched the Simpsons and I heard one of them say in like season 5-6 “Krusty is a classic. All 512 episodes across a decade” So surreal.

I haven't seen a new episode since like season 14 maybe and my god it sounds terrible. Again, it's not to knock her and obviously people age but it's just another nail in the coffin of the show. A reminder of how much it's deteriorated.

im so glad people agree with me, she literally sounds like she's dying. its actually so fucked up

I'm another that hates the last 20 odd years of the show, but maybe she should stop signing on to more seasons lol. Pretty sure they're not holding a gun to her head

@@MightyHawx She probably just hurt her vocal chords in a boaking accident

I really worry about what's going to happen if one of the main actors decides to leave (which Kavner definitely needs to do) or dies. Usually when an actor dies they're just written out of the show, but so far that's only happened for minor characters. I wonder if Disney will sink so low as to replace them.

They already lost it, sadly.

And they'll get it back one day in retro cool dont worry

​@@nolesy34They did! The rest of season 33 and season 34 was amazing!

@@thegodofeggsdoubt

I hope this show ended a long time ago. It was never good, just overrated

Yeah; during the first decade of the show, it felt organic and spontaneous; now it just seems forced

he said it the other way round

@@Phreemunny yeah, the products they showed also took part in the narrative organically. Like the lunchbox, that videogame Bart stole, Flanders' sport footwear. Now it's LOOK, HERE'S A WII, HERE'S A DVD PLAYER, HERE'S A REFERENCE THAT WILL DATE THE EPISODE RIGHT AWAY. And those products end up not altering the plot at all.

I'm actually surprised with how much hearing her voice upset me

When the voice of one of your main cast has deteriorated to a point you can hear the voice actress in pain with each syllable, methinks it’s time to ax the show.

she sounds like how Marge's grandmother sounded.

Kavner needs to retire, for her own health. Like, it's time. Disney, please cut that woman a break. Give her a nice fat severance package and let her retire.

jeez it really is I'm glad I stayed the hell away

I love how they are the classic cartoon dumbbells all the way down to the moose-like voices.

By watchings bees no less.

That episode was great; the jokes hit one after another. "The bee bit my bottom, now my bottoms big" Homer causes a meltdown in a testing truck, with no nuclear material. Mr.Burns useless ejection pod. Homer Hulk, overcome because it's lunch time. To Mr.Burns bribing the officials with a mystery box.

​@@Attmayand best of all, Homer was the smartest of the dumb guys. "That's why he made me head bee watching, Guy!"

​@@itbesilly4544Not to mention when they first tell Burns its an inspection. "There must be some mistake, we... we make cookies here. Mr Burns old fashioned, good time, extra chewy.. GET THE AXE" lmao.

Don’t forget that Bart had the Thriller album, too.

The succeeded!

@@captainmidnight It was a cruel April Fools joke

@@captainmidnight Please mr Midnight, I do not wish to bother, but you should consider making videos about underrated gems like Legion, Agents of Shield, Agent Carter, Legends of Tomorrow, Superman TAS, Smallville and Wolverine and the X-Men. Edit. The Simpsons has gone the route of losing quality because of time, just like How I met your mother, The X-Files and even Family Guy, ironically.

They might have been talking about the last few episodes that have dropped

The 2 part episode "A serious Flanders" is a good episode though. But it's not exactly what you would call "classic" Simpsons

I always tell people every simpson meme or comes from classic simpsons, never modern simpsons. It's not just millenials who are making them, but zoomers as well. 30 years of content and they shuffle through it and still find merit in those first 11 seasons.

@@dugonman8360 but it’s boomers that keep green lighting the series for new seasons.

@@mr.x2567 Youre insanely out of touch if you think boomers have control over any current cultural output. They may have SOME economic power and financial control within the entertainment sector, but the culture we're in is a result of "artistic" (and I use that term very liberally) output from the nihilistic, consumerist, empty X's and millenials.

I think the show had run out of steam by season 9. Arguably it’s been…average/poor for three times as long as it was good.

yep.... at it's height the show made me laugh, cry get a little upset then make me laugh more....it was a show that was alive and made you care....everything I've heard for awhile says the shjow is now terrible it really shoulda ended in 2000 on a bang....do the movie in 2005 or whenever it hit, a miniseries in 2009 then a new mmm 4 year run in the 2010's showing a more evolved family.... Bart & Lisa are in their 20's, Maggie is just hitting high school, Homer quit the plant and now works security for a tech giant [Booble or Viking...stand ins for Google and Amazon if it wasn't obvious] IDK what to do with Marge but grandpa passed away, many of the adults retired, changed jobs or moved away or passed away, Skinner's mom woulda passed away, Skinner would be superintendent now with Chalmers likely retired....and here's the fun bit....what do the kids all do? nelson: police chief Bart: school principle Lisa: actress in LA Millhouse: Bus driver Ralph: ditch digger other characters Otto: bartender [formerly Moe's tavern now The Steel Wheel, now turned into like a hard rock cafe like place] Moleman: still around as a joke [the joke would be something like aren;t you like 100? and he'd say yes in that shakey voice] the point of some of the kids, nelson as chief of police should be obvious, as a bully for so long seeing him grow up and mature and take that kind of responsibility?? Bart being principle? again it's the irony of going against what you once stood against and his boss being Skinner is icing on the cake cus then the old joke plays out again Skinner & Chalmers but now Skinner is chalmers?? lol I have no doubt Lisa coulda become an actress and moved away and it makes sense millhouse being the bus driver? it fits otto being a bartender kinda makes sense too and Ralph.....we can't just have him perpetually in school picking buggers right?? or really going real and making him a killer or something?? ditch digger or grave digger works too 4 years like that? it could work and having that time off would allow em to consider where everyone ends up, who to cut and not....and my idea is just my idea I'm not saying this is how it'd be but it makes sense to me...

they’re*, uncle ruckus

The did something similar years ago when the green agenda started infiltrating the show too much.

That fucking hurts me a lot... I hate that they're owned by Disney

they heard "I am a mascot of an evil corporation!" in the Simpsons movie and planned from then on to make sure they owned the simpsons too to show just how evil they are

@@TVindustries5000 that's also my theory too because I remember that joke.

She didn’t watch the metal vape monster ad 😞

She sounds like Marge's mother!

Geez… yeah it might be best to recast if they want to keep it going. I remember her voice sounded different but that was just a few years ago. It’s ripped her vocal chords even further now…

I’ve heard of actors damaging their voice box from relatively small changes in their voice. I can’t imagine it’s doing her va any good.

Honestly she sounds like she's in pain

It’s like those really old people who are on the verge of death, but won’t die.

@Daniel Rumbacher There are a lot of factors, such as being a product of its time, original writers leaving the show, the characters becoming derailed, the animation becoming less fluid, the stories becoming conceptual.

Wrong example. It's been proven that people with Alzheimer's are still themselves, and that memory loss doesn't make you less of a Person. However, Simpsons HAS become an empty shell. It's more like a shellshocked veteran from WW1

@@PolentaTaragnarock Wrong! Do you know what Alzheimers is???? People do lose themselves because they can't remember anything. Their brain is literally disintegrating. You tried though.

@@PolentaTaragnarock I mean, if we're going to be sensitive about dehumanizing people, treating vets with PTSD as a better example of someone becoming "less of a person" isn't the nicest thing either. I get what both of you are trying to say though. I'd go with "seeing an old friend after they've undergone a botched frontal lobotomy... and then had several consecutive strokes, yet somehow still retain a tiny sliver of brain function."

Corporate Simpsons.

Just a better resolution and the 90s was a nasty dirty decade.

Infected by curable political correctness disease these days. The infection started when John Swartzelder gave up on them back in the early 00's

I don't like the look of the modern Simpsons its just so bright and 2D

@@industrialme “these days” lol as if political correctness hasn’t always been a thing. Do you not know about the Christian takeover of America from 1880-1970? Too this day they still have people thinking the US was founded as a Christian nation.

That was a Halloween episode, so not canon 😜

@TMVGemini24 (Pee) Is this referring to treehouse of horror V?

Boy, I sure hope someone got fired for THAT blunder!

Hard to believe it's even still running considering it was hard to believe it was still running almost two decades ago. It's just a zombie at this point - long, long dead.

I lasted a bit longer than you but I remember exactly which episode I gave up on, the one with Blink 182 and Tony Hawk. Just remember thinking “ahh well I’m not watching any new episodes of this crap”

They really lost a lot of charm when they went fully digital. I get why they did it, but it just looks so much colder compared to the cel animated episodes.

Absolutely! No new characters have the big circular eyes.

@@CinnamonGrrlErin1 I think some of that is because the fully digital animated style really doesn't look all that different from most of the animated shows currently out there. It might make it easier for the show to be made now but it lost part of its identity and charm in the process.

The new characters are also much less unique. The Simpsons extended cast from earlier episodes is so memorable, even one-off characters like Hank Scorpio and Frank Grimes. Now compare that to, say, that one Latino boyfriend Smithers had one time, or half of Lisa and Bart's school crushes.

This! Even their house looks out of place now cause it has wacky color palettes, a remnant of when everything had fun, bright color schemes. The fact that there was even a modern episode where some of the gossip ladies made fun of the house cause of the bizarre color scheme really shows modern showrunners don't understand the show. The backgrounds are so dull now. Modern Simpsons are just hard to even look at now cause of the thin lines, dull colors and hideous modern character designs. Even the old characters look horribly dull with this new thin art style.

The more the voice cast got paid, the less funny the show became.

Doesn't sound like you gave it a "dignified death" if you're still moaning about it 20 years ago. Curious how the people who proudly claim to have given up on it years ago still seem to have intricate knowledge of every character arc and storyline.

@@johnmartinez7440 No one watches the simpsons, fanboy.

@@johnmartinez7440 It's the classic "show sucks now, I haven't watched it in years", I don't know how people fail to see the irony. I don't enjoy the show much anymore either but it's not hurting me by being on the air. I just wish they took more risks. The best episodes in the recent years tend to be the ones were they follow a very different concept (Barthood comes to mind)

@@jonathanwilliams1451 agreed

Seinfeld, just like the simpsons, were the products of their time, the only reason the simpsons could go on like this is because its an animation

Seinfeld still is very rewatchable because it stayed grounded in it's time. They didn't continue on and wither it away to a husk.

with possibly the greatest finale in tv history.

seriously. why can't they just end it? what are they waiting for? the apocalypse?

@@thewopstop money

Well put… Simpsons should’ve ended at about 2000

The episode where Bart got into rap was atrocious I can't believe they did it again

@@mark6302 Now they're copying episodes that weren't any good the first time. They might as well use magic to stop an invasion by Shelbyville.

Homer is into Grand Funk Railroad damn it . The wild, shirtless lyrics of Mark Farner, the bong-rattling bass of Mel Schacher, the competent drum work of Don Brewer.

OG Homer was a boomer, and was into 60s Top 40.

@@mark6302 Bart was always into rap. But him worshipping 50 Cent was a turn-off.

He is also from Alabama and went to college in Texas where “Kegmeister Julius” was a classmate of Willie Nelson.

I thought she was sounding rough back when the Family Guy crossover came out (I stopped watching The Simpsons around season 17), now I just want her to retire and relax.

Doesn't help how they made fun of her voice in the episode

I think they should just find an impressionist to voice her

It's animation, so they can just replace her and no-one will be able to tell the diddly-ifference!

the simpsons cast are basically elderly, they're not gonna live forever. what happens when god forbid Julie Kavner pass away? she sounds like shes near death

The Simpsons started to deteriorate during Y2K.

Show died when Phil hartman died. Sad to say..

@@conorsmith8551 I have never understood how Phil Hartman’s death ended the Simpsons’s Golden Age. Didn’t Hartman only voice a few minor characters?

Homer receiving a Dreamcast for his 10th birthday

In 30 years, Homer and Marge's highschool flashbacks will depict them using Tiktok lmao

THAT is just maddening. It was pathetic when they did it in Final Fantasy 8 ages ago ("what do you know, we all came from the same orphanage!!") but this just screams 'closed set'. There's no way all those people went to the same high school or whatever. Just ugh.

And, also, whenever a celebrity guest star is introduced now, everybody in town has to be a complete super fan that knows everything about them, even if it makes no sense for that character to be interested in that sort of thing, because they need "somebody" to come out of the crowd and gush over the celeb, and they only pick from the same standard roster of recurring characters to do everything

Which brings us to the fathers serving together in the Flying Hellfish during WW2. It worked because this was well dosed, but also quite plausible and doesn't redefine the age of the characters or the relationship between them. Before and after The Flying Hellfish episode, Homer and Barney are still of the same age while Skinner is older than them since he's a Vietnam veteran. "The Blunder Years" in the season 13 really pissed me off back then: Moe, Fat Tony and his crew are of the same age than Homer, Lenny and Karl. They all knew each other back then. Smithers is significantly younger than them and his relation with Mr Burns is now really awkward.

Feels really odd, Springfield doesn’t feel like an actual town anymore populated by thousands of citizens, it feels like a giant Truman show set populated by the same 50 people

Maybe that explains the yellow skin everyone has. Severe limitations in the gene pool

Maybe then people would be happy to see it back after years of it being away. Or maybe we wouldn't get all these reboots if they had packed it in 20 years ago.

The reboot would've been bad, but at least we could look back at the original series and enjoy what we had. We don't get that luxury here. We can't look back at the original series; this _is_ (unfortunately) the original series.

I would argue that a reboot where the characters aged up would be better. At least they could stop erasing established lore with one.

Dr. Monroe is still alive, he was just very, very sick.

Moe's voice changed?

I doubt she's contractually bound at this point. She would just have to say "enough" to all the money she's offered.

Not shocking considering what happens do to age just a shame she's had to strain herself this long and for what?

@@GrosvnerMcaffrey regular employment?

yeah that wasnt subtle either, that was like night and day

Is not like the woman can stop aging...

She could have some self respect and retire.

On an unrelated note, that's how I feel about One piece. It's way too long.

@@dtay8913 I thought so too and now i am 500 episodes in and I'm starting to think it's too short...

That's one reason why fans are upset about these later episodes. Some kid tuning in to a random Simpsons rerun is now much more likely to see a bad episode than a good one.

You should perhaps clarify to your friends, that the simpsons isn't a series with an overarching story that requires them to watch literally every episode to understand the story, in comparison to say, Avatar: The Last Airbender. You can watch any episode you want from the simpsons and more or less have the same set of characters with the same set of personalities, with most of the events happening around these characters either being forgotten or reset, so as not to bog down the episode with too much information. While there ARE changes, they are incredibly minor or are mostly in the background. So watching seasons 1-10 feels like the best thing you can recommend to them, perhaps with the movie included given it's cultural value and it's value as a proper ending to the show as a whole. (And also because I genuinely do like the movie.) I consider the first 10 seasons of the simpsons to be "must watch" material for anybody who enjoys witty, sketch-based humor and loveable characters. They are a classic show for a reason, and anybody who ignores these first seasons because of the mistakes of the newer ones, is giving both themselves and the original writers a huge disservice. (And while you're at it: recommend Futurama to them as well.)

There's a reason these seasons are called zombie Simpsons.

@@NillaVille It would be interesting a "future episode" but instead of being a futuristic episode it's a modern day 2023 episode with the characters having the age that they're supposed to have, Bart having 44, Lisa 42 and so, and respenting the original cronology, talking about the 90s and stuff like that

@@diegomujica4910 Imagine a Simpsons where Homer and Marge aged into Grampa and Grandma Simpson, and Bart and Lisa had their own families and became the new "parent" roles. Like what kind of Dad would Bart be, what kind of mom would Lisa be

Make the simpsons 2 with all characters aged up and being chronocally correct with modern actual stories. Changing their past every season is a dick move

Yeah, they spoofed Y2K in a 'Treehouse of Horror' episode.

I don't see why it's so against protocol to just have these shows transition to period pieces. It should still be like 1989 in the Simpson's universe. That would be no LESS relateable to modern young people than the nonsense they're doing now is. Period pieces kick ass!

Entertainment is ultimately a business and has to live in the moment.

Wish the same could be said for a Beavis and Butthead but everyone is eating up that terrible new trailer.

Or age up the characters very slightly higher about each season so they grow and develop with the changing times.

@@MikeSandersonVideos I think beavis and butthead actually adapted to the modern era well, especially compared to the other reboot in 2008 or whenever. Instead of unrealistically having beavis and butthead just know everything by default they have them react to modern pop culture and tech in a way that fits their character

I think it started in the 80s.

@Nol See well I think we know the show won't last another 33 seasons LOL... then again?🤔🤷🤦‍♂🙆

It’s more depressing than funny tbh

At least until September when Season 34 premieres on FOX

​@@mr.x2567It's a tragic comedy.

Nah 1997

@@southernmillionaire but then we lose the Mel Gibson episode and the dog with the shifty eyes...

The movie is the finale.

We call everything post season 8 "Zombie Simpsons"~

Yes, early 2000! The angry dad episode and Halloween special where Homer clones himself are too damn funny to not exist.

I really like that about Barney's character. Get him off the bottle and he's sharp as a tack.

See also the barbershop quartet episode. The theme of wasted potential is… or *was* always central to his character.

He was an alcoholic and that's how it works

makes you think if the people writing it today actually watched it in the past. You just can't undo a trait of a character known for 30 years to make a cheap joke. It was easier to not include him in the flashback.

The Principal and the Pauper set the standard of retcons for no reason.

Yeah. Season 8-10 was where it began to go wrong. By 12 or so it was just poor.

Exactly. About a year ago I started re watching those earlier seasons but now instead of sort of around Barts age, I’m now slightly older than Homer and with 2 kids. Having been facing a few months of forced OT watching and maggie makes 3 absolutely wrecked me. Up to this review I was unaware Marge and Homer where now highschoolers around my era and not in the 70s. I appreciate the attempt to relate but…no, just put the show out of it’s misery. Please. It’s now long time that the great simpsons seasons seem like an accident in the way of whatever the current show is.

​@@BryanAJParry And by now, the series has been in a decline over twice as long as it was in its golden age. I have a lot of positive feelings about 2000's Simpson's, because that's when I got into the series. Even a few seasons past the Simpson's Movie, it still had some dignity. I know this my nostalgia talking, but at least I have nostalgia for it. I just can't see some tuning in to season 33 of the Simpsons and remembering it over ten years later.

Same, 13 is the last watchable season for me. I was in middle school at that time and remember it clearly because all my friends also loved the show and we all started to become disappointed with it at that time.

@@BryanAJParry not really, season 12-20 were all pretty damn good

The Simpsons even inspired the modern term for it: Flanderization - Turning characters into a caricature of their most easily-written trait.

“dumb” homer is not deaf or mute. do research before you use a word.

​@@originaluseernameNot a single soul but yours use the word dumb to refer as someone deaf or mute, and if YOU did research on the word you would see the first result always say the same, that dumb refer as idiot.

In the case of Ned Flanders, he became a vehicle for their hatred of Christianity while handling Islam with kid gloves. They went from that to Krusty the Klown turning his back on Judaism altogether after becoming a bar mitzvah late in life!

Moe, from somewhat cynical to constantly trying to kill himself

In a few seasons teenage Homer will be prestiging on Cod4 in the late 2000s.

Yeah, should have been cancelled like 10 years ago.

I think season 4 gave his exact birth date as May 12, 1956, which fits with season 2 showing Marge and Homer graduating high school in 1974 (well, Homer didn't actually graduate at the time, and he also ate all the fancy soaps Marge bought for the bathroom)

It was going to end in 2011 with the episode holidays of future passed. I wondered why FOX didn't end it there. Oh wait.. money.

@@11sfr Did he choke from the soaps?

It's difficult to respond to, because it's true that it's not always necessary for a show to have much continuity. (e.g. Bugs Bunny) But, that generally only works if that is clearly and specifically what you're going for from the very beginning, because you're doing some kind of absurdist humour. And even in "normal" cartoons, where the audience is willing to accept some lack of continuity (most cartoons, and even a lot of live-action shows, already ignore continuity at least a little bit), there's only so far you can take it. And you need to be fairly consistent about how much you do. It seems like a lot of people don't understand that. They think that if the audience is willing to accept _some_ lack of continuity, they must accept _any and all_ lack of continuity.

They were always political with a big liberal bias. Lisa the vegetarian, Burns the evil energy sector CEO, Ned the conservative Christian guy, there was a big feud with George HW Bush trying to cancelculture them for being too edgy for families, etc. They're just more ham fisted than ever, and expect you to take their word for it instead of earning your sympathy.

They've always been "political", the problem is that the humor is a lot more watered down from the satirical tone those jokes had back then...

@@Slayerandsprite It's a watering down of a watering down. Even when re-purposed into Dark Simpsons clips, the new episodes stand out from the old ones by how stiff and sterile they feel.

They were always political but threw punches to democrats and Republicans alike. Now they are DNC activists

@@Slayerandsprite they sort of have nothing politics, just milk toast liberal or slightly reactionary politics that do nothing to challenge the status quo

Why blame the writers? The bean counters who hired them are to blame.

@@edgarwalk5637 List of show runners: Season 1-2: Matt Groening, James L. Brooks, & Sam Simon. Season 3-4: Al Jean & Mike Reiss. Season 5-6: David Mirkin. Season 7-8: Bill Oakley & Josh Weinstein. Season 9-12: Mike Scully. Season 13-31: Al Jean. Season 32-present: Al Jean & Matt Selman I think Al Jean is 95% to blame. The Mike Scully years were pretty bad themselves (Lost Our Lisa literally made me stop watching it. The "Homer gets hurt in a cherrypicker scene" was the straw that made me walk out of the room and never come back, like a superfluous kid from an 80's sitcom. But from interviews and commentaries, Jean is obviously in charge and made the show into something new and bad.

@@BMoser-bv6kn At least the Scully years had some funny jokes out of context, even if his era has my most hated episode (Maude's Flanders death). But the Al Jean era is just a flatline of nothingness with occassional frustrating moments.

I agree with that assessment. Even if Al Jean ever does step aside and let Matt Selman run the show by himself, he will likely be the last showrunner. Even if he manages to make something palatable out of this mess, it will have been too late to undo the damage done by two decades of Al Jean and Dana Gould letting this show degenerate into unfunny, cringeworthy, pandering soyboy schlock unworthy of calling itself *The Simpsons.* Mike Reiss must have been carrying Al throughout all the years they wrote together for this show, *ALF,* and *The Critic.*

@@BMoser-bv6kn Ah that explains why I haven't watched since season 12 (and season 1-8 being my favorites of the series). Anything newer than that I just stopped watching a long, long time ago. 20 years now? That seems about right.

He'd be alive today if not for Andy Dick yet Joe Rogan gets all the hate.

Do you believe in the curse of atuk?

Especially with how detailed the smartphone drawing is compared to how simple the designs of the Simpsons are.

90s and early, middle 2000s

the problem is they arent the same characters and the story makes no sense now. nothing to do with technology.

@@PeterParker-ff7ub thus why it’s called Zombie Simpsons because none of the characters acts like they used to back in the day.

It would have made the show pretty unique today.

It's good to remember that Homer is a boomer. He got his job at the power plant when Marge was pregnant with Bart, which should be in the late 70s to early 80s. By now, Homer shifted into a millenial. In the movie, his wedding's VHS tape was a plot point. By now, their marriage would have happened in the 2010s, later than even Lisa's 2010 wedding from season 6. Bart grew up with VHS and arcade games in the 80s. Nowadays, Bart is should be younger than Netflix and Minecraft. Even though they put a few more years on Homer over time, Homer's current birth date is a 3-4 years after Bart's.

She can retire if she wants, but keeps doing it for the money.

"Homer is a non-college educated man in his late 30s who owns a house and supports a family of 5 on a single salary. In the 90s, this was common, but it's almost unheard of today." They did a whole episode on this recently. I found it interesting that they'd even acknowledge it.

@@ETBowser Which episode?

@@inversion9651 Blanking on the name but it was the finale of this most recent season. It was a musical.

Adding to that "what's funny" is Beavis and Butthead were parodies of dumb teenagers in the 90s. Now they look at dumb zoomer shit and just flat out call it stupid. (Even for them!)

That day is here. To be really generous, there are 12 good seasons of the show, and now there are 34. That's almost twice the amount of bad seasons as good ones

It happened about a decade ago

9 amazing seasons, 20 plus average to terrible ones

They managed to replace Martin Prince and Dr. Hibbert... why not everybody?

Dont forget it has always been her choice to continue resigning for more seasons.

I'm sure age has contributed more to her voice changing than maybe an hour of voice acting a week. Keep in mind she was in her mid 30ies when she started as Marge and is 71 now. Your general point stands though, the Simpsons need to end.

@@macsmith2013 yeah, but a lot of people will lose their jobs. Keep that in mind.

I am pretty sure Producers would be more then happy if Kavner retired and they could hire a cheaper soundalike, don't think she would ever be fired though as the optics of firing any original voice actors would cost them in bad PR.

I'm so sick of the entire "it's just a movie, show, etc" line. If the people making something don't care, why should I?

@@daviddechamplain5718 Fr. Why the fuck should we pay you if what you make is akin to paint drying by your own conviction?

I mean not every cartoon has a strong sense of continuity. Something like teen titans go was fine with a very loose sense of continuity. Something like Simpsons would annoy me though.

same kind of jaggoff writing every big IP now.

@@shawnjavery Teen Titans Go, or even the original Teen Titans doesn't need to work it's continuity as hard because it already has one. The comic characters made an easy base for a serialized cartoon, which then made an insanely easy base for an episodic cartoon. Continuity is the world built behind them, Teen Titans already had one.

That's a tough one. It probably would've been better to stop the show and do a spin-off like you suggested with Bart and Lisa as adults set in a modern world. But if I'm honest, I just think the current writers are just not capable of doing what they did back then. But very interesting thought.

Hey that doesn't actually sound too bad. With that premise they'd only have to fire every writer, producer and director to make it a fresh start. I'd cautious-optimistically watch that.

It would have made sense to age up all of the characters 10 years. This would make Maggie about 11, Lisa 18 and Bart 20 as well as Homer and Marge be in their mid to late 50s.

Yeah, imagine what if the characters actually aged in real time, for instance Bart was originally born in 1980, meaning he should be 42 now.

i really don't like the modern seasons, but the time skip episodes I can at the least tolerate, and at the most actually really enjoy. I think a spin off would be perfect and really interesting, capturing the original magic with a modern twist but without trying to just take outdated references and make them make sense for a newer audience. although if this was ever to be a real show, it would have to be only a few seasons long, because it would face the same problem, growing stale but yeah that's a great idea I love it

Yeah the classic Simpsons episodes are just so good. Can't compare the new at all 👍

That's wonderful.

Have you watched any of it? Maybe try it and see it's pretty good currently!

@@thegodofeggsNo, it really isn't. I saw a recent episode where Bart and Homer became influencers and at one point they started flossing. I turned the TV off at that point. It was so cringe. But, if you like it then keep on watching it.

@@dyldo_c13 Not all episodes are great... But most are!

@@thegodofeggs true 😀

@@thegodofeggs its hard for anyone that grew up in the 90s or early 2000s to enjoy; the characters are shells of their original selves , all the nostalgia, character development and history of the original characters has been rewritten and that is too depressing for most original fans to endure. It is just a different show now with rewritten characters and timelines, it feels like the original characters died and are only kept alive in a zombified state to be a cash cow. It is nice people still find joy out of the new show but for a lot of older fans it is painful and depressing.

fr, didnt they have a y2k episode back in the day ?

@@deanjustdean7818 this is why shows like this and Pokemon are trash fires now. They're so afraid to change up a winning formula that they look stupid for keeping these characters in a state of immortality. I wouldn't be surprised to be in my 40's and all of a sudden Homer is 25 again.

@@dinolover Pokemon purposely caters to a new crop of children every season, unlike Simpsons which is trying to relive its glory days in its 40s.

70s, even!

@@deanjustdean7818 This is also what happens when you revive a franchise after everyone collectively declared it dead, and even if everyone wants it back, it's *STILL* weird to see it (like the Hey Arnold finale movie: as good as it is wrapping up the cliffhanger the last episode brought, it's still freaky to see the kids of PS 118 carrying around smartphones when they're canonically still designed like they're from 1996) because of the dumb floating timeline rule.

The opposite is true, many of the writers are past 60 now. That's including the #1 person who matters, Al Jean. Which is why it seems so out of touch with the times. These rich people are so far removed from the struggle of having to raise a family or the stress of growing up in a society that wants you to fit in a little box, there's no humanity left in them. It's depressing seeing one of the writers worked on Space Ghost: Coast to Coast. Hah. An old part of the process in writing a Simpsons episode was that if anything ever stopped being funny, they're rewrite it. That's why everything they wrote is so goddamn timeless: it had to survive MONTHS of read-throughs. These days they do one pass, Al Jean gives a fake "ha ha" laugh, and they move on.

Millenial writers couldn't been more obvious considering they turned Lisa from a braniac, vegetarian child into a total marxist. There's this one episode in season 32 where they just beat you over the head with progressive talking points and it's really annoying. I know the Simpsons has made "politically charged" comments in the past, but they usually had a joke tied to them and it was funny regardless of your views. Now, it's just "this, this, and that are bad" and that's it. There's no joke. Her character has just devolved into "I'm better than everyone else and here's why" and it's very shallow.

They kinda have to since it doesn’t make sense for homer and marge to be kids in the 70s bc then the family would have to be 20 years older

@@TheGrimStride There's really no reason that each new episode has to be set during the time it was produced/released. Most of the time it doesn't make any difference to an episode's plot or jokes what years it is meant to be in Springfield; and, when they do need a date, keeping it around 1989-ish would usually have worked just as well. And that's just the option that's seems best to me off the top of my head. The writers/producers of the modern Simpsons certainly didn't HAVE TO make it like this, they had plenty of choices.

@@TheGrimStride it would be kinda funny to have made them permanently the same age no matter what year it is and make Bart question why their memories from the 1970s are more than 30 years ago.

The writers want us to not care about continuity and simply forget about the pasts of the characters, but it *CONSTANTLY* makes those "nudge nudge wink wink" callbacks to older episodes. That is, when the writers want to pull stupid plot ideas out of their ass, we're told to "forget the past"; but when they want to pat themselves on the back for their past glories, then we have to remember it? The fucking NARCISSISM, man.

@PestoMayo Problem is, people would complain about the show if they were obvious about being stuck in the 90s. Bit when shows get updated they overcompensate by emphasizing the new technology way too uch, like what the Simpsons does.