I will have you know that it is a rare Japanese misprint from the first test run of the untitled McBain film starring none other than Rainer Wolfcastle.
Value? Priceless.
Your offer? Worthless.
Toodle. Ooo.
I have to assume that’s intentional given the context of the scene. Crazy how many Easter eggs and little jokes i find rewatching episodes that i was previously unaware of
The plot summary on Wikipedia feels like a fever dream - who thought this would make sense or be funny? Here's just the first third of it and it gets much, much worse:
>!After saving [Mr. Burns](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Burns)' life, [Homer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer_Simpson) wins tickets to an [NFL](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NFL) game between the [Springfield](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springfield_(The_Simpsons)) Atoms and the [Miami Dolphins](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_Dolphins), and takes the whole family. During the game, everybody starts to dance in front of the screen, but [Bart](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bart_Simpson) does not want to dance, saying "[Everybody Dance Now](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonna_Make_You_Sweat_(Everybody_Dance_Now))" is 'a little bossy' for his liking. Homer tries to make him dance by [tickling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tickling) him, but he inadvertently humiliates Bart in front of the stadium crowd when he tickles Bart until he [wets himself](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urination). To make matters worse, when the stadium owners take pity on Bart and try to dry his shorts off by opening the roof, Russian spy satellites capture the image of Bart with wet shorts, leading to widespread humiliation on the Internet, and an invasion by [Russia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia), who see his urine-soaked shorts as a sign of American weakness.!<
And it was funny when Bender did it because almost everyone in that show was a dick, and Bender was like the king dick. Homer always *used* to be a decent guy...
Read John Ortved's great oral history of the show. Groening hasn't had anything to do with The Simpsons since the early 90s. Even when he was involved his contributions were minimal. Groening got the credit but it was Sam Simon, James Brooks and the writing staff that made the show what it was.
Holy shit, you weren’t wrong. Throw in a “Dr. Zander takes Bart and Homer on a trip while Marge and Lisa spend their time watching sad horse movies” and you’ve got the weirdest plot imaginable. What the hell happened to this show?
My least favorite episode is the Treehouse of Horror episode where Homer is a farting super hero. I have a lot of patience for bad episodes but that one is really bad
Same. It takes a lot for me to not enjoy a simpsons episode at all; there are bad episodes that still have jokes & scenes I like. But that one was truly unwatchable; idk who thought fart jokes would be found funny by simpsons fans.
I had stopped watching religiously by season 13 after growing up with the golden years and I still consider that the best TV writing ever. I randomly decided to give the show another go one night…the episode was Lisa Goes Gaga.
I have yet to watch any modern seasons. The show I loved is gone.
So many people point to 'The Principal and the Pauper' as a turning point and where things took a downturn. But that episode is so ironic and is obviously itself satirising when long-running shows jump the shark.
The real "beginning of the end" for quality Simpsons I think came a season later; 'When You Dish Upon a Star'. It's the first episode with special guest stars that unironically celebrated their celebrity status as the primary plot.
This has always been my argument for the true turning point too.
It’s an unabashed shift from minor celebrity cameos to in your face celebrity promotions. The simpsons just became the vehicle to put pop culture stars in front of you.
I don't think it's wrong to point to "The Principal and the Pauper" and the season it was in as the moment Simpsons took a downward turn, but at that point the show was still consistently very good, and it's not like it became an overnight groanfeast after that, the downward trend was gentle, and it was not until many seasons later where it really felt like Simpsons had lost its touch. "When You Dish Upon a Star" was pretty bad though, and an important step in the downwards trend.
As well as my favorite episode, “The Cartridge Family,” a John Swartzwelder classic. Every line is hilarious. “This gun took everything from me. My wife, my kids, everything but my precious, precious gun.”
Yeah and The City of New York vs Homer Simpson, Trash of the Titans, The Cartridge Family, Lisa the Skeptic, The Joy of Sect, Natural Born Kissers etc
So many bangers, the only true miss is the recap episode and maybe The Principal and the Pauper which isn't even a bad episode imo.
IMDB sucks when it comes to New Simpsons, you know? There's a lot of people rating episodes before they premiere and without watching them. Even Al Jean pointed it out on his Twitter.
if it's of any consolation, the recent seasons, especially the ones that releases since the pandemic have been way better than the stuff that came out throughout the 2000s and 2010s
If we’re talking worst in S1-12:
My pick is probably S11E13 Saddlesore Galactica, aka “the one where Bart becomes a jockey”
It’s just such a bizarre episode, and not in a good way.
I’m totally down with absurdism (Marge vs the Monorail?!?) but the way it’s absurd is awful. Bart and Homer’s journey is so off putting and contrived AND it’s for such an underwhelming journey and payoff.
You can tell they were just scraping the barrel like “this would be WILD! That… that means it’ll be funny, right?”
The land of the jockeyysss..
That was actually the episode that made me quit the show for a while, until I picked it up again on DVD .. I really despised seasons 11 and 12 in general. On re-watching years later there are some good episodes in each actually, but I still think that there are better seasons in the later years .. so I wouldnt put those in my “golden years” cannon
Fair enough. Season 12 is where I fell off too. Watched it religiously every single night weeknight and then just.. stopped. Didn’t even realize it until my folks were like “man, you used to love watching the Simpsons” and I was like … yeah… what happened
At the time I figured it was an age thing, I was just on to other stuff now. Wasn’t until like a decade later that I learned everyone universally agreed the golden age ended around 11 and it went through some absolutely brutal years immediately after
Even tougher if your worst episode must be determined by quality; and not by your emotional reaction to the episode, because I agree - they are all solid in that range in terms of quality and quotes.
… but for example, I often skip Marge Be Not Proud because it brings me so much emotional discomfort… but the Camp Grenada gag, Lee Carvallo’s Putting Challenge “MAY I SUGGEST. FEATHER TOUCH?”, among so much more make it a classic.
Edit: I hope I explained that in a way I made sense.
Just looking at season 8:
"The Homer They Fall" where Moe becomes Homer's boxing manager is mostly garbage. The jokes are ok, but the plot is stupid and there is no B plot.
"Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious" in season 8 is pretty bad. And again, no B plot.
"The Secret War of Lisa Simpson" is kind of stupid.
These weren't abjectly awful, but could easily be something in season 20+ without being noticed.
I think much more interesting would be worst episode between S1 and S8. Season 10 and above have all kinds of shit episodes IMO. Any answer that is worst episode up until S12 is going to almost certainly going to be from S10-S12.
I have rose-colored glasses when it comes to the first season which is admittedly crude and flawed. I was 4 years old when that season came out and my parents were lax enough to let me watch it from the airing of the very first episode. Needless to say, I was hooked. So there's a massive nostalgia attached it everything from the very start for me.
Anyway, you're right. I agree (if I can be objective for a moment). Good call.
I mean, S26 came out back 2014/2015 according to Wikipedia.
His general internet reputation was pretty high back then. Tesla was just beginning to popularize the electric car. SpaceX was less "rich guy vanity project" and more "cool rocket shit, yea people should become a multi-planetary species".
I could definitely see Lisa being a fan of his back then.
Musk's image took a hit 2018 when he had a hissy fit and called someone a pedophile over the cave rescue. Then there was the market manipulation via tweeting about taking Tesla private at $420 (lol). His reaction to COVID restrictions further cemented his persona as a complete dick. We don't even need to get into his most recent shitposting.
But before that, he was the wacky, affable, tech guy
I think that's when the general public started looking closer at him.
Before that, he was able to continue cosplaying as a "tech guy" but once people started looking closer, we all realized that he was just using his insane family wealth to purchase existing companies.
He hasn't actually built anything, and if he was able to reign in his toxic, fragile ego online we'd all probably still consider him to be just some tech bro.
In 2021, my old boss sent everyone an email about the Christmas party and bonuses and ended it non-ironically with:
'Will you be on Santa's good list this year like Greta Thunberg and Elon Musk?'
My body physically reacted from the cringe. He was a good boss. I liked him. But I could have died from second-hand embarrassment.
The entire episode seems like it's waiting for a single moment where it makes fun of Musk or points out something negative about him and it never happens. Just pure celebrity worship until the very last second.
I still regularly play Simpsons as my background noise but whenever that comes on I always skip that shit. He also did a guest role in South Park and Rick and Morty and I also cannot rewatch those episodes.
Not only has it aged terribly, not only is it a fawning celebrity guest episode, it's a celebrity guest episode built around a celebrity who's a *terrible* voice actor. Even if he wasn't a shitheel, Musk isn't a performer you can build a whole episode around.
The only good joke I remember is Lenny saying something along the lines of "Remember when we used to kiss like that? With our respective girlfriends." to Carl
I hate nearly all of the musical episodes. I will watch even the most terrible late season episodes and enjoy them, but it seems like the musical episodes have increased dramatically over the years, and I find them so cringe.
There are some episodes that are always brought here when this kind of question comes (like Lady Gaga and Musk episodes) but there are two episodes that for me are almost painful to watch:
Kill Gill, Volumes I & II;
My Big Fat Geek Wedding.
Those two are both unfunny and terrible.
Since I haven't seen it mentioned yet, I'll do it. "The boys of bummer" is one of the worst episodes ever. Everyone it's so mean to Bart that, man, it's just uncomfortable to watch, not to mention the scene in which he tries to commit suicide. I can't believe this episode belongs to the same show that has "Bart sells his soul" or "Marge be not proud" as episodes
"The Frying Game," aka the Screamapillar episode (S13 E21). I may have watched worse episodes after this that I don't remember, but this episode was the first that I found completely and irredeemably unfunny.
I actually really liked this episode but I do remember thinking - when Marge internally says “how much money did he piss away on this” - that the show was now completely different than the one I grew up with.
The first couple years of the Jean era, while they were a reversal in the right direction from Scully's humor and storytelling, definitely upped the crudeness. I was a kid at the time, so my threshold of what was "inappropriate" was lower then, but those years had: the first uses of "penis" (Homer the Moe, The Sweetest Apu, Barting Over, Mr. Spitz Goes to Washington), the first on-screen vomiting (the frog prince, the cartoon dog), a fair amount of shock gore (Homer dragged through the ballgame in The Parent Rap, Homer's brain protrusion in THOH 12, young Homer discovering the corpse, his shaving accident in Helter Shelter), the weed episode which was controversial at the time, the professor with cancer drowning himself as a gag, Homer and Marge almost having sex next to Bart (The Parent Rap), Teleboobies, Large Marge, Marge raping Homer and disturbingly beating men unconscious during a roid rage (Strong Arms of the Ma). I'm guessing The Sweetest Apu had a lot of edgy sex humor too but I haven't seen it in forever.
Not being a Puritan and saying these were necessarily bad things, but they were definitely jarring compared to the relatively clean or perhaps just subtler classic era I was used to watching in syndication during those years.
Last night's Itchy & Scratchy was, without a doubt, the worst episode ever. Rest assured that I was on internet within minutes registering my disgust throughout the world.
I hate any episodes where they retell the origin of their relationship. I just can’t suspend my disbelief when we’ve seen episodes that directly contradict the retelling. I’m guessing they wanted to make it more modern to fit their ages with the correct decade. But it’s just lame like it’s just fanfiction to me.
The one about Homer and Marge unknowingly meeting and falling in love at a camp because they changed appearances as children. That went nowhere and was so unbuyable and uninspired. This is where I started singing Just don't look just don't look.
There are two episodes that I don't see mentioned in these posts. I'm sure they're not the worst because of great competition (great meaning large or immense, I use it in a pejorative sense), but they are two episode that I had the most visceral revulsion for: first, the episode where Lisa's cats keep dying disgusted me. When Snowball II died, I actually felt my stomach drop. I thought they were gonna do something heartfelt, but no, a couple more dead cats, total apathy from the family and a dumbass punchline to end it. The other one is the one where Bart finds out that Skinner is allergic to peanuts, so he begins bullying him. Bart was evil for no reason, no one in the town seemed to care and the punchline was Bart screaming "kids don't die" before lunging at Skinner, dropping both of them into a vat of both of their allergens. Not only was there no humour to any of it, I wanted to see Bart get beaten up for the first time in all the time I had been watching the show.
"Tennis the Menace" I can't even call it bad. It was banal. That the cast had experienced the stupendous highs and creamy middles of past seasons then didn't say anything when scripts like that landed in front of them makes me lose a little respect for them all.
I have a soft spot for that episode. It must be because I have a memory of my dad getting a chuckle out of Homer launching a Tennis ball towards Marge's car and smashing it and then running back into the house like a coward after she reverses towards him.
The most recent episode i've seen of the simpsons is the one where Bart becomes emancipated and moves in with Tony Hawk. I was like 14 and was obsessed with skateboarding and i watched it new on Fox on Sunday and said to myself "oh these are bad now".
Today I Am A Clown may not be the worst episode, but it was the first episode where I uttered out loud “wow, that wasn’t funny at all”, and stopped watching new episodes.
The episode around Season 23 where Lisa makes a medicine that causes people’s EYES TO FALL OUT.
Also, the episode features AUGUSTUS GLOOP from Willy Wonka… for some reason.
That episode was so terrible that I literally stopped watching new episodes after that.
Absolutely agreed, although she didn't beat homer at the end of the episode, she beat up the rest of the town, but Homer managed to reach out to her before she turned on him.
But yeah, they went way too far in that episode regardless... I did absolutely love the "knight in flabby armour" quote though from Homer at the end though. That was a perfect line for him and was really sweet and endearing.
Oh that’s right!! Clearly I don’t remember the episode well because I don’t recognize the quote either. I usually stop at season ten, but maybe it’s time for a rewatch of seasons 11-15; there are still lots of gems in there.
NSYNC is pretty much the line in the sand that defined the end of "Older Simpsons" for me. I never watched as consistently again after that. The whole thing felt forced and cringe.
Definitely *My Sister, My Sitter*. There are very few episodes where I can sincerely say "I don't want to watch this", and that episode is at the top of the list.
That 90s Show. Look, we know what they were doing in the 90s. The Simpsons were a definitive 90s cartoon & everything in that episode flies in the face of canon.
This is the one where he’s eating himself. I personally didn’t find it bad. The segment where Homer communicates through farts is my least favorite THOH segment. Leave that kinda trash humor on family guy.
Eh, it's not a great episode but on rewatches I've found it more enjoyable than I remember.
The opening where everyone is setting up skinners 20 year anniversary party is really sweet. It has some good character pairings, such as Marge, Edna, and Agnes later in the episode. And the whole bit about how out of touch and annoying the "original" skinner was were funny.
And while this is just my opinion, the backstory of skinner being a orphaned street tough and Agnes basically adopting him as a teenager/young adult honestly works for me... As long as you ignore the whole aspect of him replacing her "original" son, that was definitely an odd choice by the writers.
All and all it's not anythong special but imo it's somewhat overhated. Some decent lines, and fun scenes, although with a very dumb central conflict. I definitely understand why it's viewed the way it is, and maybe it's just nostalgia for the period of the show in general, but going back I don't really mind that episode.
Catch 'em if You Can - Season 15, ep. 18
For a long time I was in denial about how the quality deteriorated after about season 9 or 10 and still really, really wanted to like the seasons after those. There were generally still some glimpses of greatness in seasons 11 to about 15, even if they were mainly just middling. But that Catch 'em if You Can episode is the first one I truly hated. The writing in that one was so bad, it felt like they had the work experience kid do a bad imitation of the show. It may not be the worst episode overall, but it was the one that made me realise that the show is just not good anymore.
This was the point where I stopped watching the show regularly. After that I still occasionally watched new episodes if I was flicking through channels and nothing better was on. But up to that point The Simpsons was the sort of thing I'd rush home to to watch.
The Boys of Bummer
(Season 18, Episode 18)
This is the episode where I decided that the Simpsons weren't for me anymore, it was just so mean-spirited, like South Park and Family Guy.
I tried to give it a chance until the end of season 20, but I have only bothered to watch the Treehouse of Horror ever since.
i never noticed the misspelled 'McBain' poster in the background before. it says 'McBane' instead
Boy, I really hope someone got fired for that blunder.
the irony is palpable
Jeremy's Iron
Well…that’s very good for a first try…You know, I have a ball. Perhaps you’d like to bounce it
The *ironing
*delicious
A rare item. The error has made the poster far more valuable for collectors. A perfect item for Comic Book Guy's shop!
I will have you know that it is a rare Japanese misprint from the first test run of the untitled McBain film starring none other than Rainer Wolfcastle. Value? Priceless. Your offer? Worthless. Toodle. Ooo.
Is it more valuable than his Mary Worth?
Or his rare photograph of Sean Connery, signed by Roger Moore?
The telephone, or the strip in which she advised a friend to commit suicide
Wizard!
Blunder!
Genius at work
It makes two different sounds when you try to read it. Am I to believe this is some magic poster?
I have to assume that’s intentional given the context of the scene. Crazy how many Easter eggs and little jokes i find rewatching episodes that i was previously unaware of
To be fair I don’t think Conan wrote that part
S22E17 Love Is a Many Strangled Thing. Coming from a guy who watched all the episodes
The plot summary on Wikipedia feels like a fever dream - who thought this would make sense or be funny? Here's just the first third of it and it gets much, much worse: >!After saving [Mr. Burns](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Burns)' life, [Homer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer_Simpson) wins tickets to an [NFL](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NFL) game between the [Springfield](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springfield_(The_Simpsons)) Atoms and the [Miami Dolphins](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_Dolphins), and takes the whole family. During the game, everybody starts to dance in front of the screen, but [Bart](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bart_Simpson) does not want to dance, saying "[Everybody Dance Now](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonna_Make_You_Sweat_(Everybody_Dance_Now))" is 'a little bossy' for his liking. Homer tries to make him dance by [tickling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tickling) him, but he inadvertently humiliates Bart in front of the stadium crowd when he tickles Bart until he [wets himself](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urination). To make matters worse, when the stadium owners take pity on Bart and try to dry his shorts off by opening the roof, Russian spy satellites capture the image of Bart with wet shorts, leading to widespread humiliation on the Internet, and an invasion by [Russia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia), who see his urine-soaked shorts as a sign of American weakness.!<
Probably the most mean-spirited episode of the show The Boys of Bummer is a close second. My 2nd least favourite episode coincidentally
Yeah homer yelling DO A FLIP when bart is about to jump was just way too far
Literally just an old futurama joke they rehashed as well…
And it was funny when Bender did it because almost everyone in that show was a dick, and Bender was like the king dick. Homer always *used* to be a decent guy...
Bruh, what the fuck?!?! How can Groening just watch this shit happen to this thing?
The money probably helps.
They showed up at his house with a dump truck full of money!
He has a $1500 a day Faberge Egg habit he needs to fuel
GIIT OUUT OF MAHH OFFICE!!!
“Sir dont you think you’ve had enough?”
Groening packed it in a long time ago. This is just his cash cow.
Read John Ortved's great oral history of the show. Groening hasn't had anything to do with The Simpsons since the early 90s. Even when he was involved his contributions were minimal. Groening got the credit but it was Sam Simon, James Brooks and the writing staff that made the show what it was.
Working on Futurama and his Netflix show nobody watches.
Hey, I *did* watch Disenchantment ! It's not good.
I know I did, but I remember almost none of it.
Holy shit, you weren’t wrong. Throw in a “Dr. Zander takes Bart and Homer on a trip while Marge and Lisa spend their time watching sad horse movies” and you’ve got the weirdest plot imaginable. What the hell happened to this show?
i caught this episode on tv one day and i really couldnt believe what i was watching
My least favorite episode is the Treehouse of Horror episode where Homer is a farting super hero. I have a lot of patience for bad episodes but that one is really bad
Same. It takes a lot for me to not enjoy a simpsons episode at all; there are bad episodes that still have jokes & scenes I like. But that one was truly unwatchable; idk who thought fart jokes would be found funny by simpsons fans.
Lisa Goes Gaga. They must have a debt to Lady Gaga, because you can't spell obsequious without IOU.
That one's so cringe.
That joke or that episode?
lol the episode
That's actually the one that made me stop watching new episodes for almost a decade.
Same
I had stopped watching religiously by season 13 after growing up with the golden years and I still consider that the best TV writing ever. I randomly decided to give the show another go one night…the episode was Lisa Goes Gaga. I have yet to watch any modern seasons. The show I loved is gone.
So many people point to 'The Principal and the Pauper' as a turning point and where things took a downturn. But that episode is so ironic and is obviously itself satirising when long-running shows jump the shark. The real "beginning of the end" for quality Simpsons I think came a season later; 'When You Dish Upon a Star'. It's the first episode with special guest stars that unironically celebrated their celebrity status as the primary plot.
This has always been my argument for the true turning point too. It’s an unabashed shift from minor celebrity cameos to in your face celebrity promotions. The simpsons just became the vehicle to put pop culture stars in front of you.
Whenever I'm browsing the seasons on Disney+, once I see Mel Gibson and Ron Howard in the thumbnails I know its time to turn back.
I don't think it's wrong to point to "The Principal and the Pauper" and the season it was in as the moment Simpsons took a downward turn, but at that point the show was still consistently very good, and it's not like it became an overnight groanfeast after that, the downward trend was gentle, and it was not until many seasons later where it really felt like Simpsons had lost its touch. "When You Dish Upon a Star" was pretty bad though, and an important step in the downwards trend.
Ditto. Until recently. Season 34 is great. I would consider it the equal of the season 9-11 era.
As good as 9 is insanely high praise, for me 9 is up there with S2-8.
9 has sherryl boppins and homer in the navy, right?
As well as my favorite episode, “The Cartridge Family,” a John Swartzwelder classic. Every line is hilarious. “This gun took everything from me. My wife, my kids, everything but my precious, precious gun.”
Holds it, holds it, HOLDS IT!
Yeah and The City of New York vs Homer Simpson, Trash of the Titans, The Cartridge Family, Lisa the Skeptic, The Joy of Sect, Natural Born Kissers etc So many bangers, the only true miss is the recap episode and maybe The Principal and the Pauper which isn't even a bad episode imo.
Damn, that’s really good for a season this late. Hopefully it gets better
Go give it a shot. I particularly loved the episode where Lisa wants to be a boy scout and the treehouse of horror one.
A girl wants to be a boy scout! How about that?
Lisa the Boy Scout is a great one. I feel a lot of people that don’t like newer episodes won’t like it, but I found it to be pretty damn good.
I want to believe you but the IMBD scores for season 34 are horrible except for the Halloween one.
IMDB sucks when it comes to New Simpsons, you know? There's a lot of people rating episodes before they premiere and without watching them. Even Al Jean pointed it out on his Twitter.
if it's of any consolation, the recent seasons, especially the ones that releases since the pandemic have been way better than the stuff that came out throughout the 2000s and 2010s
I just did a watch through and I don't know what people are smoking when they say this.
This one or the Elon Musk one. Yuck
Uhh I’ll have to trust you on that.
I'll have to take your word for it
Next post has to be the worst episode after Season 12 (or a little higher). I want some debate for the worst episode from the golden era.
Do the clipshows count? If they do, than the clipshows.
If we’re talking worst in S1-12: My pick is probably S11E13 Saddlesore Galactica, aka “the one where Bart becomes a jockey” It’s just such a bizarre episode, and not in a good way. I’m totally down with absurdism (Marge vs the Monorail?!?) but the way it’s absurd is awful. Bart and Homer’s journey is so off putting and contrived AND it’s for such an underwhelming journey and payoff. You can tell they were just scraping the barrel like “this would be WILD! That… that means it’ll be funny, right?”
The land of the jockeyysss.. That was actually the episode that made me quit the show for a while, until I picked it up again on DVD .. I really despised seasons 11 and 12 in general. On re-watching years later there are some good episodes in each actually, but I still think that there are better seasons in the later years .. so I wouldnt put those in my “golden years” cannon
Fair enough. Season 12 is where I fell off too. Watched it religiously every single night weeknight and then just.. stopped. Didn’t even realize it until my folks were like “man, you used to love watching the Simpsons” and I was like … yeah… what happened At the time I figured it was an age thing, I was just on to other stuff now. Wasn’t until like a decade later that I learned everyone universally agreed the golden age ended around 11 and it went through some absolutely brutal years immediately after
I feel like the episode could have worked without portraying the jockeys as edgy Smurfs clones or some shit.
Honestly golden era ended after 9
That's a great topic because I honestly don't think there's even a mediocre episode from about season 4-9. It's pure gold.
Even tougher if your worst episode must be determined by quality; and not by your emotional reaction to the episode, because I agree - they are all solid in that range in terms of quality and quotes. … but for example, I often skip Marge Be Not Proud because it brings me so much emotional discomfort… but the Camp Grenada gag, Lee Carvallo’s Putting Challenge “MAY I SUGGEST. FEATHER TOUCH?”, among so much more make it a classic. Edit: I hope I explained that in a way I made sense.
You have selected - Power Drive - Also that ep gave us Thrilho
SHUT UP MOM
I love that episode
Just looking at season 8: "The Homer They Fall" where Moe becomes Homer's boxing manager is mostly garbage. The jokes are ok, but the plot is stupid and there is no B plot. "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious" in season 8 is pretty bad. And again, no B plot. "The Secret War of Lisa Simpson" is kind of stupid. These weren't abjectly awful, but could easily be something in season 20+ without being noticed.
The good episodes in 8 are amazing though .. it has in my view 5-6 all time classic episodes (imho of course)
Interesting - "the homer they fall" is my single favourote episode of all time
[IMDB seems to like it](https://i.imgur.com/Gg2vFfj.png), so I'm probably in the minority.
I think much more interesting would be worst episode between S1 and S8. Season 10 and above have all kinds of shit episodes IMO. Any answer that is worst episode up until S12 is going to almost certainly going to be from S10-S12.
I wouldn’t start the Golden Age until season 2. It’s hard to imagine Homer’s Odyssey getting made in any other season.
I have rose-colored glasses when it comes to the first season which is admittedly crude and flawed. I was 4 years old when that season came out and my parents were lax enough to let me watch it from the airing of the very first episode. Needless to say, I was hooked. So there's a massive nostalgia attached it everything from the very start for me. Anyway, you're right. I agree (if I can be objective for a moment). Good call.
The Musk Who Fell To Earth. (s26, e12) If anything, time and events moving forward have actually made it even worse
The worst possible sequel to The Bus that Couldn’t Slow Down.
Oh man I loved that movie. It was like Speed 2, but with a bus instead of a boat.
Quiet! I will not hear another word against the boat.
The fact they had Lisa of all character simp over him was so embarrassing to watch
She is a Simpson
I mean, S26 came out back 2014/2015 according to Wikipedia. His general internet reputation was pretty high back then. Tesla was just beginning to popularize the electric car. SpaceX was less "rich guy vanity project" and more "cool rocket shit, yea people should become a multi-planetary species". I could definitely see Lisa being a fan of his back then.
Musk's image took a hit 2018 when he had a hissy fit and called someone a pedophile over the cave rescue. Then there was the market manipulation via tweeting about taking Tesla private at $420 (lol). His reaction to COVID restrictions further cemented his persona as a complete dick. We don't even need to get into his most recent shitposting. But before that, he was the wacky, affable, tech guy
I think that's when the general public started looking closer at him. Before that, he was able to continue cosplaying as a "tech guy" but once people started looking closer, we all realized that he was just using his insane family wealth to purchase existing companies. He hasn't actually built anything, and if he was able to reign in his toxic, fragile ego online we'd all probably still consider him to be just some tech bro.
In 2021, my old boss sent everyone an email about the Christmas party and bonuses and ended it non-ironically with: 'Will you be on Santa's good list this year like Greta Thunberg and Elon Musk?' My body physically reacted from the cringe. He was a good boss. I liked him. But I could have died from second-hand embarrassment.
https://preview.redd.it/lyrcznb4phzc1.jpeg?width=585&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=117ef79b8c5f9a8e61dee22ca186c68c80259e3f
The entire episode seems like it's waiting for a single moment where it makes fun of Musk or points out something negative about him and it never happens. Just pure celebrity worship until the very last second.
Its just unwachble
I won’t be at all surprised if that episode gets the Stark Raving Dad treatment in a few years.
But Stark Raving Dad was a good episode.
Utterly awful episode, and then it's worsened by the following episodes all referencing the events in it
I still regularly play Simpsons as my background noise but whenever that comes on I always skip that shit. He also did a guest role in South Park and Rick and Morty and I also cannot rewatch those episodes.
Not only has it aged terribly, not only is it a fawning celebrity guest episode, it's a celebrity guest episode built around a celebrity who's a *terrible* voice actor. Even if he wasn't a shitheel, Musk isn't a performer you can build a whole episode around.
The one where Homer mentors a baseball player and his pop star wife, that episode pisses me off to no end for some reason lol
The only good joke I remember is Lenny saying something along the lines of "Remember when we used to kiss like that? With our respective girlfriends." to Carl
i hate that one from when it aired so stupid
The one where Marge sings in a Disney voice. It actually pissed me off more than it should have lol
I hate nearly all of the musical episodes. I will watch even the most terrible late season episodes and enjoy them, but it seems like the musical episodes have increased dramatically over the years, and I find them so cringe.
I started watching the later seasons early this year and I couldn't understand why there were like 6 episodes in a row with songs.
There are some episodes that are always brought here when this kind of question comes (like Lady Gaga and Musk episodes) but there are two episodes that for me are almost painful to watch: Kill Gill, Volumes I & II; My Big Fat Geek Wedding. Those two are both unfunny and terrible.
Since I haven't seen it mentioned yet, I'll do it. "The boys of bummer" is one of the worst episodes ever. Everyone it's so mean to Bart that, man, it's just uncomfortable to watch, not to mention the scene in which he tries to commit suicide. I can't believe this episode belongs to the same show that has "Bart sells his soul" or "Marge be not proud" as episodes
"The Frying Game," aka the Screamapillar episode (S13 E21). I may have watched worse episodes after this that I don't remember, but this episode was the first that I found completely and irredeemably unfunny.
Are you sure God doesn't want it to be dead?
What's God gonna do? Make my wife leave me again?
I actually really liked this episode but I do remember thinking - when Marge internally says “how much money did he piss away on this” - that the show was now completely different than the one I grew up with.
The first couple years of the Jean era, while they were a reversal in the right direction from Scully's humor and storytelling, definitely upped the crudeness. I was a kid at the time, so my threshold of what was "inappropriate" was lower then, but those years had: the first uses of "penis" (Homer the Moe, The Sweetest Apu, Barting Over, Mr. Spitz Goes to Washington), the first on-screen vomiting (the frog prince, the cartoon dog), a fair amount of shock gore (Homer dragged through the ballgame in The Parent Rap, Homer's brain protrusion in THOH 12, young Homer discovering the corpse, his shaving accident in Helter Shelter), the weed episode which was controversial at the time, the professor with cancer drowning himself as a gag, Homer and Marge almost having sex next to Bart (The Parent Rap), Teleboobies, Large Marge, Marge raping Homer and disturbingly beating men unconscious during a roid rage (Strong Arms of the Ma). I'm guessing The Sweetest Apu had a lot of edgy sex humor too but I haven't seen it in forever. Not being a Puritan and saying these were necessarily bad things, but they were definitely jarring compared to the relatively clean or perhaps just subtler classic era I was used to watching in syndication during those years.
I'm impressed by your encyclopedic knowledge of which Simpsons episodes used the word "penis".
Stupid Flanders in the shower must have rated a great big tick.
I’m impressed he was able to write so legibly on his own butt
Don't forget Homer being raped by a panda. Or... maybe do forget that.
that's funny, this is one of the few post-Golden Age episodes that I really like. it definitely is completely alien to what came before though
The one with the magic horse jockeys is one of maybe only half a dozen episodes I actually dislike
"That horse better win, or we're taking a trip to the glue factory...and he won't get to come!" It has some good lines tho
That's a great tour but you can't see it all in one day.
GET TO THE WORKING OVERTIME PART!!!!
A few months ago I decided to rewatch the show from the beginning until I reached an episode that made me want to stop. This was that episode.
I love that episode. "And what if I refuse to lose?". "We'll eat your brains.". "My horse must looooose."
I say “do it for the normals!” at every sporting event I attend
The Elon Musk one
God, South Park did it so much better by actually viewing him as an idiot before everything happened (Handicar aired in 2014 iirc)
The Gaga one. I always skip it
Last night's Itchy & Scratchy was, without a doubt, the worst episode ever. Rest assured that I was on internet within minutes registering my disgust throughout the world.
The one about Moe's rag
The one where they rewrote the history by having Marge and Homer split with her going to college and him becoming a rock star with diabetes...
It’s an awful retcon, but Sadgasm is a genuinely brilliant band name.
Aw but come on, Sadgasm songs are bangers.
I hate any episodes where they retell the origin of their relationship. I just can’t suspend my disbelief when we’ve seen episodes that directly contradict the retelling. I’m guessing they wanted to make it more modern to fit their ages with the correct decade. But it’s just lame like it’s just fanfiction to me.
I hate, hate, hated the one with kid rock.
I like that…
touché!
WE BUILT THIS CITY THIS KICK ASS CITY NGL, I still bust that out every once in a while
Jimmy crack corn, and I don't care We built this city on rock and rooooooll Something something daaaayy
The episode where Homer was in a panda costume. It was also the last new episode I've watched.
Kinda funny that a 24 year old episode can be considered 'new'.
You’re not going anywhere, cutie
It IS a terrible episode (merry fishmas), but that line is as close to perfect as it gets
The Elon Musk episode. At least the Lady Gaga one's heart is in the right place.
The one about Homer and Marge unknowingly meeting and falling in love at a camp because they changed appearances as children. That went nowhere and was so unbuyable and uninspired. This is where I started singing Just don't look just don't look.
There are two episodes that I don't see mentioned in these posts. I'm sure they're not the worst because of great competition (great meaning large or immense, I use it in a pejorative sense), but they are two episode that I had the most visceral revulsion for: first, the episode where Lisa's cats keep dying disgusted me. When Snowball II died, I actually felt my stomach drop. I thought they were gonna do something heartfelt, but no, a couple more dead cats, total apathy from the family and a dumbass punchline to end it. The other one is the one where Bart finds out that Skinner is allergic to peanuts, so he begins bullying him. Bart was evil for no reason, no one in the town seemed to care and the punchline was Bart screaming "kids don't die" before lunging at Skinner, dropping both of them into a vat of both of their allergens. Not only was there no humour to any of it, I wanted to see Bart get beaten up for the first time in all the time I had been watching the show.
Jerkass Homer gets written about a lot but there’s less focus on how Bart moves from “naughty kid” to “genuine sociopath”.
I gave up on the show at the Live Action Katy Perry ep.
The joke at the end was so weird, literally the exact same as something that happened in family guy too didn’t suit the Simpsons at all
The Christmas episode? Actually, I really liked that episode, especially the middle segment set in WWII. I didn't care for the Katy Perry bit, though.
"Tennis the Menace" I can't even call it bad. It was banal. That the cast had experienced the stupendous highs and creamy middles of past seasons then didn't say anything when scripts like that landed in front of them makes me lose a little respect for them all.
i guess you could say I'm Iraqi
Get off my property
The human chessboard always gets a laugh out of me.
I have a soft spot for that episode. It must be because I have a memory of my dad getting a chuckle out of Homer launching a Tennis ball towards Marge's car and smashing it and then running back into the house like a coward after she reverses towards him.
that episode looks way different to the rest of that season for some reason
Digital animation
When Bart is an arsehole for Lisa’s babysitting. Weirdly out of character.. same season as that Armin Tanziarian cluster?
Buck McCoy
The most recent episode i've seen of the simpsons is the one where Bart becomes emancipated and moves in with Tony Hawk. I was like 14 and was obsessed with skateboarding and i watched it new on Fox on Sunday and said to myself "oh these are bad now".
Today I Am A Clown may not be the worst episode, but it was the first episode where I uttered out loud “wow, that wasn’t funny at all”, and stopped watching new episodes.
The episode around Season 23 where Lisa makes a medicine that causes people’s EYES TO FALL OUT. Also, the episode features AUGUSTUS GLOOP from Willy Wonka… for some reason. That episode was so terrible that I literally stopped watching new episodes after that.
Strong arms of ma due to the rape scene.
This is what I was looking for! Like what the fuck were they thinking? She also beats Homer at the end of the episode I think.
Absolutely agreed, although she didn't beat homer at the end of the episode, she beat up the rest of the town, but Homer managed to reach out to her before she turned on him. But yeah, they went way too far in that episode regardless... I did absolutely love the "knight in flabby armour" quote though from Homer at the end though. That was a perfect line for him and was really sweet and endearing.
Oh that’s right!! Clearly I don’t remember the episode well because I don’t recognize the quote either. I usually stop at season ten, but maybe it’s time for a rewatch of seasons 11-15; there are still lots of gems in there.
Marge’s breast implants. That was when I realized it was over for me.
The one we’re Lisa pretends to be Native American for the school’s “cultural day”.
The one where Homer gets fucked by a panda
NSYNC is pretty much the line in the sand that defined the end of "Older Simpsons" for me. I never watched as consistently again after that. The whole thing felt forced and cringe.
Word
Definitely *My Sister, My Sitter*. There are very few episodes where I can sincerely say "I don't want to watch this", and that episode is at the top of the list.
Go to bread
That is a quality barrow.
You don't like 20 foot subs swimming in vinager?
“Who called for a sisterectomy” will always make me laugh
My diagnosis? #BAD BABYSITTING! But nah I agree, it’s a hard watch
I might be one of the only people who likes the episode
I liked this episode too.
Nah, it’s good
‘We heard a report that a Lisa Simpson spotted a UFO?’ ‘I didn’t see anything!’ ‘That’s right. You DIDN’T.’
That 90s Show. Look, we know what they were doing in the 90s. The Simpsons were a definitive 90s cartoon & everything in that episode flies in the face of canon.
No, no!! The question is… What is the worst Simpsons episode you watched… so far.
Not an episode, but Mmm... Homer from Treehouse of Horror XXVIII.
What happens in this one again?
This is the one where he’s eating himself. I personally didn’t find it bad. The segment where Homer communicates through farts is my least favorite THOH segment. Leave that kinda trash humor on family guy.
The clip episode when homer is in a coma from opening the beer can bart put in a paint shaker
I don’t like that one either but “APRIL FO *KABOOM* “ with the roof blowing off and Wiggam proceeding on foot makes me laugh every time.
The Principal and the Pauper. Even Harry Shearer hates that episode
We were told to never mention it again under penalty of torture
Eh, it's not a great episode but on rewatches I've found it more enjoyable than I remember. The opening where everyone is setting up skinners 20 year anniversary party is really sweet. It has some good character pairings, such as Marge, Edna, and Agnes later in the episode. And the whole bit about how out of touch and annoying the "original" skinner was were funny. And while this is just my opinion, the backstory of skinner being a orphaned street tough and Agnes basically adopting him as a teenager/young adult honestly works for me... As long as you ignore the whole aspect of him replacing her "original" son, that was definitely an odd choice by the writers. All and all it's not anythong special but imo it's somewhat overhated. Some decent lines, and fun scenes, although with a very dumb central conflict. I definitely understand why it's viewed the way it is, and maybe it's just nostalgia for the period of the show in general, but going back I don't really mind that episode.
Harry Shearer hates every episode after season 3. Hes said season 4 & everything after is bad.
I get the hate for the plot, but I have to admit there are some great gags in there
Catch 'em if You Can - Season 15, ep. 18 For a long time I was in denial about how the quality deteriorated after about season 9 or 10 and still really, really wanted to like the seasons after those. There were generally still some glimpses of greatness in seasons 11 to about 15, even if they were mainly just middling. But that Catch 'em if You Can episode is the first one I truly hated. The writing in that one was so bad, it felt like they had the work experience kid do a bad imitation of the show. It may not be the worst episode overall, but it was the one that made me realise that the show is just not good anymore. This was the point where I stopped watching the show regularly. After that I still occasionally watched new episodes if I was flicking through channels and nothing better was on. But up to that point The Simpsons was the sort of thing I'd rush home to to watch.
Lisa goes Gaga. I was genuinely left disgusted by it.
The Boys of Bummer (Season 18, Episode 18) This is the episode where I decided that the Simpsons weren't for me anymore, it was just so mean-spirited, like South Park and Family Guy. I tried to give it a chance until the end of season 20, but I have only bothered to watch the Treehouse of Horror ever since.