The Official Simpsons Griefing Thread

[Exceptionally Exceptional]

Whether he was always gay or straight, what really matters is his character's Flanderization: funnily enough, it's a word coined in reference to the Simpsons. Essentially, Flanderization is when a character's personality is heavily amplified and exaggerated in later installments of a series. In Smithers' case, he was just an ass-kisser who had sexual fantasies about his boss. By the end of the Golden Era, he was just a hyper gay stereotype.

The term Flanderization specifically refers to Ned Flanders' character, and how he greatly changed for the worst in later seasons. Early Ned Flanders was never intended to be a negative stereotype of conservative Christians: he was actually intended to be a "Bizarro Homer", playing on the trope of the grass being greener on the other side. Homer was a fat, lazy idiot with annoying kids, whilst Ned was a happy, successful churchgoing family man whose kids loved and respected him. Ned's Christianity was never really played up for laughs in early episodes, rather it was just to contrast the Simpson family's irreverence. A good example of this is in the 1st season when the Simpson family goes to church and argues with one another like it's a chore, whereas the Flanders are there front-and-center and praying.

To see a really solid example of how his character changed negatively, look for the Season 2 episode "Dog of Death" when Flanders is seen jogging around the neighborhood in brand new sneakers, which Homer is envious of. Homer was fat and couldn't afford expensive toys, whereas Flanders was physically active and was always seen purchasing new things like an RV, a satellite dish, a rec room, and of course expensive shoes.

As the series progressed, Flanders just became a caricature of Christians. His physical fitness and financial success were just kind of dwarfed by his obsession with the Bible, to the point of it being his only defining personality trait. In modern Zombie Simpsons, he's just an annoying conservative who lives, eats, and sleeps religion. Contrast that to the first few seasons when his character was just to serve as the opposite of Homer, and his two sons to serve as polar opposites of Bart.

This is part of why watching this show is so hard these days. Originally the Simpsons and the various characters living Springfield felt like they were very much real people. They had depth.
Remember when we saw Ned Flanders smoking?
"Good pipe weather! Thought I'd fire up the briar!"
That was one of those little character traits that actually felt real. Originally Ned said was shown to occasionally smoke a pipe and outright had imported beer on tap im his rumpus room, as well as being a dab hand at mixing drinks that pack a helluva punch while being tasty.
Contrast that to later where we see Ned Flanders get drunk off a single white wine spritzer.

They actively started ignoring or outright destroying the depth their own characters had. What originally felt like real but exaggerated people soon became nothing but tropes and caricature.

Despite being a fictional place in an animated show Springfield used to feel real. It felt lived in. It felt like there could actually be such a place with such people.
Now it just feels like a cartoon.

 

[ditto]

it's funny looking at old usenet threads about the simpsons and there's people saying the show went to shit in season 2. and then 3.

Watching the first few seasons it really was just an exceptionally well-written animated sitcom with biting humor. Compare Burns running for governor in season 2 with Homer running for sanitation commissioner.

That was one of those little character traits that actually felt real. Originally Ned said was shown to occasionally smoke a pipe and outright had imported beer on tap im his rumpus room, as well as being a dab hand at mixing drinks that pack a helluva punch while being tasty.

Originally Ned wasn't even ultra-religious. He was the neighbor who better than Homer in every way.

 

[Sayon]

Just look up problem episodes and decide from there were to cut off.

On my front, examples of problem episodes are:

-The one where Lisa goes vegetarian since it's a key example of Simpsons writing episodes around celebrities and NOT subverting them. Lisa apparently was planned to start eating meat again except the Beetles member there threw a fit and demanded Lisa stick with her new diet. A more recent of this problem is the Lady Gaga one where Lisa yells at her for giving kids false hope but the writers wouldn't commit to the idea so they just dropped it and had her be friends with the family anyway.
-The one with the evil jockey elves. Since it's a key example of a non-Halloween episode not even trying to grounded in reality.
-Maude's death since it had Homer shows a solid example on how he degraded into his Jerkass self.

 

[Michael Jacks0n]

Just look up problem episodes and decide from there were to cut off.

On my front, examples of problem episodes are:

-The one where Lisa goes vegetarian since it's a key example of Simpsons writing episodes around celebrities and NOT subverting them. Lisa apparently was planned to start eating meat again except the Beetles member there threw a fit and demanded Lisa stick with her new diet. A more recent of this problem is the Lady Gaga one where Lisa yells at her for giving kids false hope but the writers wouldn't commit to the idea so they just dropped it and had her be friends with the family anyway.

That was from Season 7 where a lot of Simpsons puritans point to as the beginning of the end, however in my opinion I'd say the next seasons (Seasons 8 and 9) were the true downfall. Nonetheless, you can see the seeds of destruction for the show's demise in Season 7, and the pointless Paul McCartney cameo is proof positive of that.

-The one with the evil jockey elves. Since it's a key example of a non-Halloween episode not even trying to grounded in reality.

That episode was actually considered to within the Zombie Simpsons timeline.

-Maude's death since it had Homer shows a solid example on how he degraded into his Jerkass self.

Same as above. Both episodes were from Season 11, in which the show had already been dead and was just rotting at that point.

 

[A Grey Cat]

That was from Season 7 where a lot of Simpsons puritans point to as the beginning of the end, however in my opinion I'd say the next seasons (Seasons 8 and 9) were the true downfall. Nonetheless, you can see the seeds of destruction for the show's demise in Season 7, and the pointless Paul McCartney cameo is proof positive of that.



That episode was actually considered to within the Zombie Simpsons timeline.



Same as above. Both episodes were from Season 11, in which the show had already been dead and was just rotting at that point.

They probably rolled over and caved in to Paul McCartney's demand for Lisa to stay a vegetarian because at the time one beatle was dead, George Harrison was two years away from the cancer diagnosis but already showing signs. Not mention the surviving members were pushing 50 at the time so they thought "Paul will be a dead man for reals soon so may as will give him what he wants. " ironically Paul is still alive and well even 20 years after forcing the writers to permanently alter a character on their show. I cant say for sure but they're probably still kicking themselves for that one.


Though it's hard to say given how they kept rehashing that episode and making Lisa worse as time went on. The episode she of little faith is literally a remake of that episode just replace veganism with religion and Paul McCartney with Richard geerre.

 

[that jerk over there]

I remember when The Simpsons had heartfelt scenes.
I miss that so much.

 

[Duncan Hills Coffee]

I remember when The Simpsons had heartfelt scenes.

Zombie Simpsons "tries" to be heartfelt, but it ends up coming off as sappy and overblown, and very often at the expense of humor. The older episodes knew how to balance the emotional moments with comedy, and they were much better written to boot.

 

[ditto]

The one where Lisa goes vegetarian since it's a key example of Simpsons writing episodes around celebrities and NOT subverting them.

The line where Lisa shills for Linda McCartney's frozen meals was the first time it was obvious the writer's were selling out for a celebrity cameo.

We weren't satisfied with the other vegetarian meals on the market. You'd be surprised how often you'd find a big hunk of pork in them.

 

[Michael Jacks0n]

Zombie Simpsons "tries" to be heartfelt, but it ends up coming off as sappy and overblown, and very often at the expense of humor. The older episodes knew how to balance the emotional moments with comedy, and they were much better written to boot.

The older episodes also know how to balance talking points so that not everything is black and white, unlike Zombie Simpsons where an agenda is pushed and presented as irrefutable fact.

Here's some examples of then vs. now:

Season 2, Marge goes on a crusade against Itchy & Scratchy. On the surface, this episode seems like a big counterculture middle finger towards the religious right, but after watching it again, the episode actually raises up multiple good counter points. Marge and her church friends are boycotting and protesting Itchy & Scratchy, but as a result of the show within a show's ratings declining, the children of Springfield give up watching TV and instead go outside to be active. Not to mention Krusty is furious that Itchy & Scratchy's declining ratings is bad for his show, which is meant to highlight that the censorship of the show is less about suppressing the arts and more about the greedy TV networks' focusing on higher ratings and more money. The episode ends with Marge's church friends protesting Michelangelo's David, which Marge herself objects to and considers to be artwork. Marge realizes the double standard of censoring TV violence whilst embracing a nude statue, and realizes not everything is cut and dry. The themes of this episode involve censorship vs. free expression, the negative impact of TV on American youths, and how creative art is meaningless to corporate executives in the entertainment industry.

Season 6, Sideshow Bob is released from prison and becomes a GOP mayoral candidate, and rigs an election. The episode also presents a comical caricature of Rush Limbaugh. Sure, on the surface, this episode seems like a big leftist circlejerk to bash RepubliKKKans -- and even some blowhard Redditards will argue that Bob rigging an election is "Simpsons pReDiCtInG tEh FuTuRe" -- but examining the show, you'll notice that Bob's opponent (Democratic Mayor Quimby) isn't a hero. He's constantly shown in that episode and in previous episodes that he's an incompetent, corrupt crook who accepts bribes, deals with organized crime, does drugs, and even has political opponents killed. The episode even takes jabs at the Democratic Party's incompetence as well.

Now as for Zombie Simpsons...

There was a fairly recent episode where AOC and two other feminist Democratic politicians form a dream team to have Donald Trump deported. The entire episode is just one big Tumblr-esque fan fiction with a plot that seems like a Mad Lib ripped from the pages of some Millennial influencer's feminist blog.

There was a recent 2019 episode in which an all-female reboot of Itchy & Scratchy, and Bart decides he likes it, so he joins forces with a radical feminist gang (voiced by real life feminist comedians), and decides to wage a war against a parody of Men's Rights activists. Bart even goes as far as committing acts of vandalism in the hopes of raising awareness for women's rights. As absurd and inane as this episode sounds, it was in fact a real canon episode, but the silver lining is that is has some of the lowest ratings and views in Simpsons history.

 

[ditto]

Season 2, Marge goes on a crusade against Itchy & Scratchy. On the surface, this episode seems like a big counterculture middle finger towards the religious right, but after watching it again, the episode actually raises up multiple good counter points. Marge and her church friends are boycotting and protesting Itchy & Scratchy, but as a result of the show within a show's ratings declining, the children of Springfield give up watching TV and instead go outside to be active.

Always love Marge's expression during the pro-David segment

Season 6, Sideshow Bob is released from prison and becomes a GOP mayoral candidate, and rigs an election.

Except for the electoral fraud Bob was actually a pretty good Mayor. Look how fast he built that Matlock Expressway.

Now as for Zombie Simpsons...

Sounds too horrifying to even hatewatch.

 

[Trilby]

Originally Ned wasn't even ultra-religious. He was the neighbor who better than Homer in every way.

I kinda miss the Flanders that used to be here. I used to think of my dad whenever I thought of Homer and thought we were in that situation as well where someone in the neighborhood was always better than us.

View attachment 1284955
I remember when The Simpsons had heartfelt scenes.
I miss that so much.

I do too, and this scene was one of those I used to watch over and over thinking of how much it meant to be in that situation.

 

[Jub-Jub]

The line where Lisa shills for Linda McCartney's frozen meals was the first time it was obvious the writer's were selling out for a celebrity cameo.

I never knew about their frozen meals, I just hated that scene as it comes out of nowhere.

There's a reason why archer had to kill off Wodehouse other than for drama. It became too unbelievable for the show that he'd be alive as time went on

Woodhouse was written out of Archer as the actor who voiced him died.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

It felt like there could actually be such a place with such people.

It was more livable than East Saint Louis.

(I heard the producers got a lot of flack for that one.)

 

[Jeff Heaney]

It was more livable than East Saint Louis.

(I heard the producers got a lot of flack for that one.)

Lmao, why? (Not a yank, maybe you know something I don't?)

Also, it always made me laugh that the ridiculous alterations made to Springfield made it technically more inhabitable than East St. Louis

 

[Ruin]

"Geez how many gazebos do you shemales need?"

 

[Travoltron]

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

This was the crux of the Homer-Flanders relationship in the early seasons. Homer's envy is what made the comedy work.

When they killed off Maude, they destroyed that dynamic. That left the kids without a mother and Ned a sadsack widower. After that, it was really Homer that had it better than Flanders and there was no motivation for their rivalry anymore. All because the producers were mad at the voice actress for daring to ask for a living wage.

There was a somewhat recent episode where they wanted to recapture the old rivalry with Flanders and they had to set the story in the past when Maude was still alive to make it work.

 

[ditto]

You've been rubbing it in my nose since I got here! Your family is better than my family, your beer comes from farther away than my beer, you and your son like each other, your wife's butt is higher than my wife's butt! You make me sick!

 

[Jozef]

As someone who was watching the Simpsons when it was still good, It started going a little downhill before season 10, but after that, it's like someone flipped a switch and it got so ridiculous and stupid. I never watch any episodes after around season 12.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

Lmao, why?

It's mentioned in the DVD commentary of the episode where Lisa joins Mensa that some viewers weren't pleased. In the episode, Mensa takes over running Springfield. Then Comic Book Guy notes that Springfield is now #199 out of 200 cities for livability.

"Take that, East Saint Louis!" - Comic Book Guy

 

[Michael Jacks0n]

Lmao, why? (Not a yank, maybe you know something I don't?)

Also, it always made me laugh that the ridiculous alterations made to Springfield made it technically more inhabitable than East St. Louis

Also, I'd like to add: East St. Louis is a nightmarish ghetto hellhole, and predominantly black.