The Official Simpsons Griefing Thread

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RumblyTumbly said:
The more I think of it, yeah, Homer's Enemy would have been a strangely perfect series finale.

It is one of my personal favorite episodes, and I have to say that it was a smart move to use Hank Azaria as the voice of Frank Grimes rather than getting a celebrity guest star. Having Frank sound like a normal guy without a recognizable "celebrity" voice helps add to the outside perspective of this hard working, down on his luck guy that is put at odds with a cartoonish buffoon that stumbles onto great success. And in the end, it probably turned into Grimes' best performance in the series as he starts off normal and slowly descends into madness.

"But this was a contest with children!"
"Yeah, and Homer beat their brains out!"
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That along with how aggressively normal his design looks. When he finally snaps and starts moving around more like an exaggerated cartoon character, with his hands flailing around and walking funny, it's a hilarious contrast.
 
RumblyTumbly said:
It is one of my personal favorite episodes, and I have to say that it was a smart move to use Hank Azaria as the voice of Frank Grimes rather than getting a celebrity guest star. Having Frank sound like a normal guy without a recognizable "celebrity" voice helps add to the outside perspective of this hard working, down on his luck guy that is put at odds with a cartoonish buffoon that stumbles onto great success. And in the end, it probably turned into Grimes' best performance in the series as he starts off normal and slowly descends into madness.
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From what I hear, they were originally going to have William H. Macy play as Grimes, but they weren't able to get him. In fact, Hank Azaria's arguably doing a Macy impression to play Grimes. Not that it detracts from his performance; I especially like the scene where he blows up at Homer's house.
 
RumblyTumbly said:
The more I think of it, yeah, Homer's Enemy would have been a strangely perfect series finale.

It is one of my personal favorite episodes, and I have to say that it was a smart move to use Hank Azaria as the voice of Frank Grimes rather than getting a celebrity guest star. Having Frank sound like a normal guy without a recognizable "celebrity" voice helps add to the outside perspective of this hard working, down on his luck guy that is put at odds with a cartoonish buffoon that stumbles onto great success. And in the end, it probably turned into Grimes' best performance in the series as he starts off normal and slowly descends into madness.

"But this was a contest with children!"
"Yeah, and Homer beat their brains out!"
Click to expand...

I can't get enough of that scene where Grimes is like "You....you went into outer space" and then Homer's like "Sure. You've never been?" That was the moment of the episode where the insanity completely seethes into the depths of your skin. It's one of the few lines I've seen in a TV show that gave me the chills when I first watched it. It's way too good of a moment to pass up. There's something about Homer's delivery where he acts like the whole scenario is normal that fills me with a horror that no horror movie could ever fill me with because of the existential nature of the whole scenario of one man getting whatever he wants in his life and this one man looking at this guy, so out-of-touch with others, angry at that aspect.
 
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The Pink Panther said:
I can't get enough of that scene where Grimes is like "You....you went into outer space" and then Homer's like "Sure. You've never been?" That was the moment of the episode where the insanity completely seethes into the depths of your skin. It's the only line I've seen in a TV show that gave me the chills when I first watched it. It's way too good of a moment to pass up. There's something about Homer's delivery where he acts like the whole scenario is normal that fills me with a horror that no horror movie could ever fill me with because of the existential nature of the whole scenario of one man getting whatever he wants in his life and this one man looking at this guy, so out-of-touch with others, angry at that aspect.
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This is why I love Grimes' subsequent blow-up because it perfectly encapsulates Homer's insanely good life despite being characterized as lower-middle-class for much of the series. Grimes meanwhile is the average person and all he has is his briefcase and his haircut. Azaria really nailed Grimes' frustration in that bit.

There's also that wonderful bit where Grimes complains that he lives in a single-room apartment above a bowling alley and below another bowling alley and Homer says, "Wow," in amazement, as if that were a situation he wouldn't mind being in. For one thing it shows Homer's sheer disconnect from reality where he sees that as a good thing and for another it seems as though he wouldn't mind a living space like Grimes'. It's as if they want the other person's home but Grimes is more visibly angry that Homer does so much better than him while Homer is more naively good-natured about it.
 
Duncan Hills Coffee said:
This is why I love Grimes' subsequent blow-up because it perfectly encapsulates Homer's insanely good life despite being characterized as lower-middle-class for much of the series. Grimes meanwhile is the average person and all he has is his briefcase and his haircut. Azaria really nailed Grimes' frustration in that bit.

There's also that wonderful bit where Grimes complains that he lives in a single-room apartment above a bowling alley and below another bowling alley and Homer says, "Wow," in amazement, as if that were a situation he wouldn't mind being in. For one thing it shows Homer's sheer disconnect from reality where he sees that as a good thing and for another it seems as though he wouldn't mind a living space like Grimes'. It's as if they want the other person's home but Grimes is more visibly angry that Homer does so much better than him while Homer is more naively good-natured about it.
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Yeah, it's such a satirical, yet psychological episode. I can only think of one other Simpsons episode that is on the level of Homer's Enemy and has stayed timeless to this day. The one that predicted pretty much the modern movement of social media and whatnot.


Greg Daniels is probably one of my favorite writers of the show. He wrote this episode and he also wrote the pro-legal immigration episode, Much Apu About Nothing that the show loves to forget about for some reason.
 
Didn’t the give Grimes a son that tried to kill homer in a later season? Looked just like him and everything? Apparently his mom was a hooker?
 
SteelPlatedHeart said:
Didn’t the give Grimes a son that tried to kill homer in a later season? Looked just like him and everything? Apparently his mom was a hooker?
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Yeah, The Great Louse Detective from Season 14. That was a pretty lame episode.


It's like a shittier version of Brother From Another Series. In fact, Sideshow Bob episodes really started to slope starting with Day of the Jackanapes. Each subsequent one is worse than the next one.
 
More "TheRealJims" Simpson vids of note!
 
The Pink Panther said:
Yeah, The Great Louse Detective from Season 14. That was a pretty lame episode.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=uhUXc-Chj48:148
It's like a shittier version of Brother From Another Series. In fact, Sideshow Bob episodes really started to slope starting with Day of the Jackanapes. Each subsequent one is worse than the next one.
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They really should have stopped after Brother. There legitimately was nowhere else to go with the character. I always liked how he went from targeting Krusty, then Bart, then to all of Springfield before making an attempt to reform himself with that episode. Now it's just outlandish shit like him being mayor of an Italian city, luring the Simpsons (and only them, given how he shooed another family out of the vicinity) to a fake smokehouse, only to fake his death to kill Bart, literally stealing the skin of another man to kill Bart and finally mutating himself with animal DNA.

If none of that proves they don't know what to do with him, then I don't know what does.
 
Jewelsmakerguy said:
They really should have stopped after Brother. There legitimately was nowhere else to go with the character. I always liked how he went from targeting Krusty, then Bart, then to all of Springfield before making an attempt to reform himself with that episode. Now it's just outlandish shit like him being mayor of an Italian city, luring the Simpsons (and only them, given how he shooed another family out of the vicinity) to a fake smokehouse, only to fake his death to kill Bart, literally stealing the skin of another man to kill Bart and finally mutating himself with animal DNA.

If none of that proves they don't know what to do with him, then I don't know what does.
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I’m sorry, what was that last one?
 
Jewelsmakerguy said:
They really should have stopped after Brother. There legitimately was nowhere else to go with the character. I always liked how he went from targeting Krusty, then Bart, then to all of Springfield before making an attempt to reform himself with that episode. Now it's just outlandish shit like him being mayor of an Italian city, luring the Simpsons (and only them, given how he shooed another family out of the vicinity) to a fake smokehouse, only to fake his death to kill Bart, literally stealing the skin of another man to kill Bart and finally mutating himself with animal DNA.

If none of that proves they don't know what to do with him, then I don't know what does.
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The only reason Sideshow Bob episodes are really being made are because he's a very popular character and drives ratings for the show. Just like everything else for the Simpsons, it's also to recycle previous plots like how Homer goes on a diet, Bart is about to fail school, Lisa having competition, or the super classic Homer and Marge are totally going to get divorced this time.
 
XYZpdq said:
He was?
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Isn't he? Why else have a "TOTALLY NORMAL GUY tm" have a backstory so stupidly over the top in terms of "Bad things happen to him." and it really hurt the joke of "This is a totally normal real life guy in Simpsons world dealing with Homer." when they went so far over the top with what he went through that he seemed to me less "totally normal" than "Had a really hard shitty time in life and is really bitter to anyone who is sorta happy."
 
Honka Honka Burning Love said:
Isn't he? Why else have a "TOTALLY NORMAL GUY tm" have a backstory so stupidly over the top in terms of "Bad things happen to him." and it really hurt the joke of "This is a totally normal real life guy in Simpsons world dealing with Homer." when they went so far over the top with what he went through that he seemed to me less "totally normal" than "Had a really hard shitty time in life and is really bitter to anyone who is sorta happy."
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I thought it was supposed to be a joke that they set him up with such a ridiculous backstory.
 
Honka Honka Burning Love said:
Isn't he? Why else have a "TOTALLY NORMAL GUY tm" have a backstory so stupidly over the top in terms of "Bad things happen to him." and it really hurt the joke of "This is a totally normal real life guy in Simpsons world dealing with Homer." when they went so far over the top with what he went through that he seemed to me less "totally normal" than "Had a really hard shitty time in life and is really bitter to anyone who is sorta happy."
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I thought he was supposed to be this guy:

220px-Falling_Down_%281993_film%29_poster.jpg
 
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