NEWS ROUNDUP

Professor Frink looks at a woman in a bikini and Bart's twin Hugo. Behind them is a word cloud, and the word simpon is the only non-Japanese word.

It seems like everything’s in a death spiral these days: linear television, Twitter, the internet in general, America. Oh, and a little show called The Simpsons.

  • Last Sunday’s episode, “Frinkenstein’s Monster,” suffered a huge drop in the ratings from the previous episode (which aired on Christmas Eve), netting only 0.72 million viewers, making it the least-watched episode of the series… so far. For comparison, the highest rated show in that timeslot was the season premiere of The Equalizer, with 6.32 million viewers. [TV Series Finale]
  • Conservative writer Nick Clairmont has watched every episode up to Season 35, but now he’s dropping the show due to a decline in quality, which is a very funny concept. After a couple years of “THE SIMPSONS IS GOOD AGAIN!!!” articles it feels refreshing to get a dissenting view, even if it’s mostly complaining about Wokeness. [The Critic Magazine]
  • There’s been a noticeable increase in spam bots on Twitter as of late, perfectly crystallized in this moment where a Simpsons meme referencing the phrase “░M░Y░P░ U░S░S░ Y░I░ N░B░I░O ░” used by spammers is replied to by another spammer with “the simpon:”A tweet by ErnieLies consisting of a Simpsons meme. There's a reply by user @Chloe019283244, who has a stock image of a woman in a black bikini as their avatar, that just says 'the simpon.''

    Over on Bluesky, “simpon” was briefly the only English word trending, which users then catapulted to #1. [@ErnieLies]

  • Here’s a nostalgic look at the official Simpsons website over the years. It used to be charming and chock full of information, and now I guess it… doesn’t even exist anymore? There’s a page for the show on FOX.com with some information on the cast, but otherwise it looks like it’s just social media for the franchise now. Grim. [Web Design Museum]
RDRR REPORT

The Simpsons meet the Bocellis in 'Feliz Navidad' Key Art

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following review of the latest Simpsons Disney+ short, The Simpsons meet the Bocellis in “Feliz Navidad,” was produced by the ChatGPT AI text generator using the prompt “write a blog post about a story where Homer Simpson meets Andrea Bocelli and assign a numerical rating from 1-10.”

Homer Simpson and Andrea Bocelli may seem like an unlikely pair, but in this fictional story, the two of them meet and form a unique bond.

The story begins with Homer walking home from work and stumbling upon a beautiful opera performance in the town square. As he listens to the singer on stage, he is mesmerized by the talent and approaches the singer to compliment him. The singer introduces himself as Andrea Bocelli, and Homer is in awe of the famous opera singer standing before him.

Homer and Andrea strike up a conversation, and Andrea invites the Simpson family to his upcoming concert in Springfield. The Simpson family attends the concert, and Homer is blown away by Andrea’s talent. After the concert, Andrea invites the Simpson family backstage for a private meet and greet, and the two families spend the evening chatting and getting to know each other.

This fictional story is heartwarming and inspiring, and it showcases the power of music to bring people together. The character development is strong, and the interactions between Homer and Andrea are well-written and engaging. The story also has a satisfying ending, with Homer grateful for the unexpected encounter and the memories it has created.

Overall, I would rate this story a 9 out of 10 and highly recommend it to fans of The Simpsons and Andrea Bocelli. It is a delightful and uplifting tale that reminds us that even the most unlikely people can form meaningful connections and relationships.

OAKLEY CORRAL

An image of Bill Oakley facing off against the Wendy's mascot

Watch out Wendy’s, because a certain showrunner is bringing the heat!

Former Simpsons producer Bill Oakley WENT OFF on the chain’s recently reintroduced Spicy Chicken Nuggets during a live Instagram review earlier this month. “I wanted to go try them, I’ve never had Wendy’s spicy nuggets,” he told his followers, explaining that although he dislikes Wendy’s chicken, he wanted to see what the hype was about and be prepared for the inevitable comparison to McDonald’s Spicy Chicken McNuggets.

Well, the writer of “Steamed Hams” must have felt pretty steamed himself when he ate a nugget and discovered it didn’t taste very good.
Continue Reading →

ANNOYED GRUNTS, WEB-WATCH

I have given upLike I said a couple posts ago, Dead Homer Society is the finest source of Simpsons criticism on the internet, but apparently even they have their breaking point. If you’re unfamiliar with their process, here’s how it goes: after a new episode airs, they parcel out a week’s worth of features including “Ratings FAIL” (which could really use a less-memeish name), where frontman Charlie Sweatpants talks about one particular aspect that bugged him; Crazy Noises, which is basically just a chatlog of the team and sometimes odds & ends; and my favorite feature, the incomparable Compare & Contrast, a comprehensive Glenn Greenwaldian takedown of the episode by simply comparing it to a good episode. It’s a good process that runs the gamut between formal and informal, snap judgments and prudent deliberation.

Well, Mr. Sweatpants has announced next season will get a much less comprehensive treatment, because (shocker) the show is really bad:

For all its manic bumbling and endless stream of pointless cameos, the only enduring characteristic about Zombie Simpsons is how blandly repetitive it is. Episodes consistently have no coherent story, few jokes, fewer funny jokes, wasted guest voices, hacktacular pop culture references, and all manner of things poorly lifted from old episodes. […] I’ve begun to get the sense that we’re often doing little more than citing examples of the same kinds of things each week: it sucked when they made Homer do this, that joke went on too long, that’s not even a joke, this voice sounds terrible, that was done better years ago, this made no sense, etcetera etcetera. […] In short, it seems very unlikely that most of the episodes in Season 24 (or Season 25, or Season 26, or Season Whatever) are going to be worth a close examination and serious criticism.

The rationale is pretty meta – we’re talking about the repetitiveness and general quality of reviews – but it’s true. You could go to any Simpsons forum, click on an episode review from ten years ago, and the complaints would still be applicable to the current season. My guess is there’ll still be Crazy Noises, because it seems easy to do, but no (or a heavily reduced amount of) Compare & Contrasts, which is a shame but understandable for the sake of Charlie’s mental sanity.

[Dead Homer Society]

ANNOYED GRUNTS

rag timeAfter failing to come up with any new ideas for Simpsons episodes, the writers decided to call it quits and throw in the towel… then, as they gazed upon the towel they threw, suddenly became struck with inspiration and wrote a whole episode around it. At least, that’s how I imagine this rag episode came about.

I didn’t see it, but I read the Wikisimpsons article about it, which is chock full of insane plot details like “Moe is part yeti,” “Moe has a magical talking bar rag from the Middle Ages voiced by Jeremy Irons,” “Milhouse’s mom chokes on a rock and refuses the Heimlich maneuver,” and “Moe is part yeti.”

Judging from the feedback on the internet, “the rag episode” represents yet another low point for the series, like jockey gnomes, “the Israel episode,” and whatever that Ke$ha thing was.

Continue Reading →

BONGO BEAT

JASON HONOTE: This manga review is courtesy of our news partner, AnimeJihad.

バートシンプソンシリーズはMatsumoto Groeningにボンゴコミックスから発行され、通常のシンプソンズのコミックスよりも見た目若い読者のために意図。それはやや時代遅れのリトルルルのような過去の無害な少年漫画です。私は間違いなく、カバー、特に影響を見ることができます。この問題は、漫画の他の領域、それぞれ特定の描画スタイルシンプソンズの世界に適応し、それを様々な多くのことから多くのアーティストが含まれます。

SERGIO ARAGONES最初の話は、”サウンドとフラリー、”Carol Layに待ち伏せるサロンの漫画を行うために使用さによって行われた。その中で、バートはコミック擬音語のすべての種類 – ドンマーティン敬意を表し、おそらく書き留めばなりませんか?物語は継続ボンゴコミックス商標です私の趣味のための少し余りにメタ漫画でした。

GILBERT HERNANDEZ2番目の物語は、”マギーのベビーベッドは、”Sergio Aragonesのバートは、ステートフェアで楽しむことができるので、マギーは彼女のおむつをうんちが含まれます。それが面白い漫画だったし、マギーはショーがあるのを忘れ、実際の赤ん坊のように扱わ見ていいですね。

“ホーマーシンプソンは:チックマグネット”Gilbert Hernandezラブ&ロケッツによるホーマーは雛をたくさん集めについて奇妙な話でした。私はGilbert適応をoverbites彼のおなじみのスタイルを楽しんだ。プロットは少し(奇妙な関係漫画はまだありません再び)ですが、Gilbert’sにの対話タスクに上昇、私は特にビキニの女性とのシーンが好きです。

“おびえたTentlessは”かなり忘れChris YamberにとMike Kazalehのバックアップの話です。私はKazalehのインクのスキルが好きです。

[MONTHLY MANGA REVIEW: BART SIMPSON #52]

TREEHOUSE OF ERROR

In a quick review of “The Simpsons Handbook,” a how-to-draw Simpsons book that came out earlier this year, The Courier-Journal identifies the authors as voice actresses “Doris Grau and Marcia Mitzman Gaven.” One problem: Grau, voice of Lunchlady Doris, died in 1995.

To be fair, Amazon lists them as the authors as well. [courier-journal.com]

ANNOYED GRUNTS, WEB-WATCH

Some conservative bloggers were outraged at a recent episode that supposedly made fun of the US military! Could the show that gave them their beloved war chant “cheese-eating surrender monkeys” actually hate America??

The Corner:

Yesterday’s episode wasn’t just unfunny, it was very poorly animated – a 1970s Hanna-Barbera-level of crudeness. The sequence in which Lenny’s car was crushed looked like it had been drawn by a 10 year-old trying to draw The Simpsons. I can only assume they’re devoting all their time and effort to the movie.

As for BSG, I agree with Jonah’s long-trusted reader and had exactly the same argument, err, discussion with my wife during the episode. Far more fun was Doctor Who in the hour beforehand, which involved Rose berating a pompous psuedo-patriot for not knowing how to fly the Union Flag and also included an interesting nod to the realization that families need fathers at the end…

Michelle Malkin:

I got tons of e-mail about the military-bashing Simpsons episode last night. Here’s a bit of the video if you haven’t seen it and want to get in a bad mood. The mockery of Army recruiters and enlistees is absolutely disgusting. This comes on the heels of last week’s election-timed episode mocking the Iraq war.

The show is getting long in the tooth and low on funny. Don’t bother with it.

Keep on fighting the good fight [alicublog]