Keep your day job, Ted. On second thought... DON'T.
July 7, 2015 11:48 AM   Subscribe

Our long Springfield nightmare is over: Harry Shearer will indeed be coming back for the next season of the Simpsons (previously). Simpsons fans are understandably happy with the news, but others who had hoped to replace him may be a little bummed out.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI (99 comments total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
He actually gets to record on the phone and do the [table] reads on the phone

Really surprised the audio quality over the phone is good enough.
posted by smackfu at 11:51 AM on July 7, 2015 [2 favorites]


On the one hand, he's an integral part of what made the Simpsons great. On the other hand, retiring a bunch of characters and forcing the writers to find new jokes instead of an endless mining of nostalgia in the world's smallest city would be about the only thing that could return the Simpsons to being better than consistently meh.
posted by klangklangston at 11:52 AM on July 7, 2015 [10 favorites]


Does something seem off about the picture of Mr. Burns they use to anyone else?
posted by Sangermaine at 11:57 AM on July 7, 2015 [2 favorites]


Shearer sounded cynical and dismissive about the Simpsons in his recent interview with Marc Maron. I can understand the appeal of the dump truck full of money, but it's a shame he couldn't have just taken comfort in his already Scrooge McDuck-level wealth and let the show finally die. Obviously, nothing good is going to come of this, comedy-wise.
posted by ryanshepard at 12:01 PM on July 7, 2015 [2 favorites]


That's a relief: I can continue not watching Simpsons as I have been for the last 17 years.
posted by entropicamericana at 12:02 PM on July 7, 2015 [20 favorites]


Does something seem off about the picture of Mr. Burns they use to anyone else?

The color isn't quite right. You're used to seeing his hair blue-gray.
posted by phunniemee at 12:03 PM on July 7, 2015


I heard Shearer talk about this on Marc Maron's podcast a couple of months ago and have to say that he sounded kind of like a jerk. I don't doubt that he's "worth the money" from the point of view of the massive profits of the show over time - but he just sounded like an entitled guy who doesn't appreciate that he gets paid zillions of dollars to do something that frankly seems like light work.

And against the context of his program Le Show - where he rails against all the injustice and hypocrisy in the world, particularly vis-a-vis rich people being jerks - he just seems kind of phony.

On preview of ryanshepard: d'oh.
posted by Mid at 12:05 PM on July 7, 2015 [3 favorites]


He's going back to The Simpsons®? You're burying the lead here: Where did he get the time machine?
posted by anarch at 12:06 PM on July 7, 2015


Hello, everyone that doesn't like The Simpsons anymore. We know.
posted by adept256 at 12:06 PM on July 7, 2015 [60 favorites]


Obviously, nothing good is going to come of this, comedy-wise.

If nothing else, I have a feeling Fox will not offer another contract extension after the current one runs out, so the internet will finally get to have its long anticipated "Ding-Dong! The Witch is Dead" moment.
posted by Atom Eyes at 12:07 PM on July 7, 2015


I don't know. I'm not gonna dump haterade all over this, cynical and mercenary though the whole situation may be. I think I'm more irritated by the whole Homer separating from Marge storyline afoot than I am about Harry Shearer doing an about-face and realizing that buttloads of cash isn't something to be flippant about.
posted by blucevalo at 12:08 PM on July 7, 2015 [3 favorites]


There's a math equation in my head that I keep meaning to chart out for Simpsons skeptics, a sort of diagram in which I demonstrate that given how much better the Simpsons was in its prime that pretty much everything else on television, even the steep decline in its quality does not preclude it from being better than most things on tv today.

I mean, I get it: nowhere near as good. I don't think anyone would argue that point with a straight face. But still: a moderately funny way to spend 22 minutes on a Sunday.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 12:08 PM on July 7, 2015 [10 favorites]


the whole Homer separating from Marge storyline

My prediction is that this is something that occurs 4-6 minutes into one episode and is promptly undone and forgotten about around sixteen minutes later in the same episode, never to be mentioned again. I think you'd have to be a fantastically gullible person to suppose otherwise.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 12:10 PM on July 7, 2015 [13 favorites]


DirtyOldTown,

I don't know...It's like watching a once-amazing, beloved relative suffer years of dementia. It hurts to look at them and see what once was.
posted by Sangermaine at 12:17 PM on July 7, 2015 [5 favorites]


When my grandma started to fade, she was still entirely worth hanging out with, even at say, 70% of who she once was.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 12:19 PM on July 7, 2015 [6 favorites]


I remember in third grade my family had just moved out of the city into a suburban neighborhood, and I went over to a neighbor kid's house for the first time. I wanted to play hide and seek but he kept raving about this new TV character named Bart Simpson.

I'm now 36.

WTF.
posted by selfnoise at 12:23 PM on July 7, 2015 [16 favorites]


For me, The Simpsons are like an old college buddy I don't see very often any more. Every now and again we get together and have an all right time, but they've changed and I've changed and it's not the same and never will be, and that's okay.
posted by The Card Cheat at 12:29 PM on July 7, 2015 [13 favorites]


Excellent.*





*How could we have gotten this far without someone posting this?
posted by tommasz at 12:30 PM on July 7, 2015 [2 favorites]


Ted Cruz's impersonations are the last shark jumped to finally cancel The Simpsons.
posted by T.D. Strange at 12:31 PM on July 7, 2015


I heard Shearer talk about this on Marc Maron's podcast a couple of months ago and have to say that he sounded kind of like a jerk. I don't doubt that he's "worth the money" from the point of view of the massive profits of the show over time - but he just sounded like an entitled guy who doesn't appreciate that he gets paid zillions of dollars to do something that frankly seems like light work.

Harry Shearer is in a strange position, financially. By most reasonable standards, yes, he's astoundingly wealthy and certainly doesn't need more money. But also, he inarguably is being totally screwed by Fox as regards how much money his work has made them. It is a land of contrasts.
posted by kafziel at 12:31 PM on July 7, 2015 [14 favorites]


Holy shit, he's *literally* phoning it in!
posted by el io at 12:31 PM on July 7, 2015 [47 favorites]


The only time I watch the show is to see work by the guest animators brought in to redo the couch gag. Other than that, I can only hope the show is one day granted a sweet, merciful death. /comic_book_guy
posted by a lungful of dragon at 12:33 PM on July 7, 2015


I was one of those "The Simpsons stopped being funny around Season 10" people and then my son started watching it and I started watching with him and I was surprised at how often I laugh, and laugh big, at the new episodes. Sure, it doesn't have that feeling of "Oh my god nothing like this has ever been on TV before" thing going on like it used to, but some of the jokes still land. So, feel free to not watch The Simpsons and instead play with those Legos you had that were just 2x4 bricks that were way better than today's Lego and let the rest of us who still enjoy things continue to enjoy things.

I expected Mr. Shearer would be back and I'm glad he is.
posted by bondcliff at 12:33 PM on July 7, 2015 [20 favorites]


Really surprised the audio quality over the phone is good enough.
posted by smackfu at 2:51 PM


Depends on your setup, but it's pretty typical for East Coast media companies to use ISDN or Skype to direct a session out of LA remotely (source: I have produced roughly 200,000 line reads for 15,000 shipped lines of dialogue this way).
posted by Ryvar at 12:33 PM on July 7, 2015 [15 favorites]


he just sounded like an entitled guy who doesn't appreciate that he gets paid zillions of dollars to do something that frankly seems like light work.

If Shearer, whose contribution to the Simpsons is integral to the success of the show, doesn't deserve to get paid, then who, exactly, does deserve to get paid?
posted by Nevin at 12:35 PM on July 7, 2015 [6 favorites]


If they can autotune pop singers into Grammy winners, they can probably clean up any digital noise artifacts from a Skype session.
posted by a lungful of dragon at 12:35 PM on July 7, 2015


i imagine he's got some studio-quality equipment to record and transmit, but a scratchy Mr Skinner with an intermittent "PLEASE DEPOSIT TWENTY-FIVE CENTS FOR THE NEXT THREE MINUTES" would please me greatly.
posted by dr_dank at 12:36 PM on July 7, 2015 [6 favorites]


It's been ages since I listened to it, but iirc he used to record his "Le Show" podcast from a home studio.
posted by nathan_teske at 12:40 PM on July 7, 2015


MoonOrb: "Remaining 83 fans of The Simpsons schedule celebratory BBBQ."

Due to cuts in funding, there will only be a BQ.
posted by boo_radley at 12:42 PM on July 7, 2015 [5 favorites]


You don't record over Skype - that would be insane and your audio team would justifiably quit on the spot. With good connection on both ends you can get sufficient quality for directing remotely, though you need to be careful about getting safety takes even when your talent nails a read, because there's a non-zero chance a background noise you couldn't hear over the connection ruined your perfect take.

The studio still records, they just send you the .wavs (resistance to FLAC is insurmountable for all practical purposes) for the various mics after the session.

Larger productions eschew home studio recordings - even with wealthy, established talent that have setups potentially outclassing the primary recording studio - in favor of component consistency (mic, pre-amp, etc.) across the board.
posted by Ryvar at 12:43 PM on July 7, 2015 [10 favorites]


I've not even seen the Simpsons for fifteen years and I still know it's terrible. Because it's that terrible. It must be.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 12:44 PM on July 7, 2015


I don't doubt that he's "worth the money" from the point of view of the massive profits of the show over time - but he just sounded like an entitled guy who doesn't appreciate that he gets paid zillions of dollars to do something that frankly seems like light work.

This "light work" you speak of could be right up there with "pocket full of posies" in regards to the longitivtiy of it's impact on culture.
posted by sideshow at 12:47 PM on July 7, 2015 [1 favorite]


(source: I have produced roughly 200,000 line reads for 15,000 shipped lines of dialogue this way).

That's a lot of fanfics.
posted by Sangermaine at 12:49 PM on July 7, 2015 [1 favorite]


"I was one of those "The Simpsons stopped being funny around Season 10" people and then my son started watching it and I started watching with him and I was surprised at how often I laugh, and laugh big, at the new episodes. Sure, it doesn't have that feeling of "Oh my god nothing like this has ever been on TV before" thing going on like it used to, but some of the jokes still land. So, feel free to not watch The Simpsons and instead play with those Legos you had that were just 2x8 bricks that were way better than today's Lego and let the rest of us who still enjoy things continue to enjoy things. "

No, it's not that the Simpsons stopped being funny overall. It's that they usually get a couple good jokes out in the beginning, then you realize that it's the same plot they've used a thousand times (e.g. Bart gets a girlfriend who's a current female celebrity), that their cultural references are tepid (they basically ceded that ground to Family Guy), and they've become increasingly conservative as they've aged. They can't help rewriting the same arcs again and again with any Springfield resident, but their vacation episodes (oh wait they won another contest to go to … uh, have we done France? Let's just do France again) show that they have no real relation to any American families, something that wasn't true for a long part of their run. The Simpsons have basically become bougie without being self-aware and while still trying to represent the working class — they might as well all work at Central Perk. That's what makes it so frustrating that they usually have one out of three storylines work for a given episode — if their A line clicks, the B and C will be maudlin and lazy; if the A sucks, they usually still have five good minutes in throwaways.

When they were a '50s family grafted onto '90s mores in the '90s (and even into the 2000s), they were consistently able to skewer themselves while maintaining an affection for the characters. Now that they're still a '50s family with early 2000s mores, they feel at least a decade out of date but unable to recognize it. That's why you get the embarrassing Elon Musk cameos and the abysmal semi-recent episode about hipsters. (Honestly, I think that a fair parallel can be drawn between them and Seinfeld, where he at least had the sense to end his sitcom but whose standup is mired in an inability to see new things about the world.)
posted by klangklangston at 12:52 PM on July 7, 2015 [17 favorites]


My favorite Simpsons joke ever was from only five years ago.

Moe: If it moves you can bet on it.
Bart: What about the Detroit Lions?
Moe: Now, now, now. Lay off Detroit. Them people is livin' in Mad Max times. (YT)
posted by DirtyOldTown at 12:53 PM on July 7, 2015 [5 favorites]


That was a great line. In a pretty turgid episode that includes a Danika Patrick cameo for no reason and a weak ostrich farm resolution, along with a terrible b-line about Marge's fear of possums.
posted by klangklangston at 1:02 PM on July 7, 2015


It's always amusing when some Comic Book Guy type is all "The Simpsons hasn't had one decent episode in 17 years! That is why I haven't deigned to watch a single episode since 1998."

It reminds me of that old chestnut "Nobody drives in New York City anymore. Too much traffic."
posted by Atom Eyes at 1:08 PM on July 7, 2015 [3 favorites]


It's always amusing when some Comic Book Guy type is all "The Simpsons hasn't had one decent episode in 17 years! That is why I haven't deigned to watch a single episode since 1998."

It reminds me of that old chestnut "Nobody drives in New York City anymore. Too much traffic."


Which means that America's Funniest Home Videos is also a sublimely hilarious tv show, right?
posted by Nevin at 1:14 PM on July 7, 2015 [5 favorites]


"It reminds me of that old chestnut "Nobody drives in New York City anymore. Too much traffic.""

Yogi wept.
posted by klangklangston at 1:18 PM on July 7, 2015 [13 favorites]


the whole Homer separating from Marge storyline

It's not like it hasn't happened before.
posted by Sophie1 at 1:18 PM on July 7, 2015


Hello, everyone that doesn't like The Simpsons anymore. We know.

Harry Shearer is one of us.

Know that.
posted by Sys Rq at 1:21 PM on July 7, 2015 [7 favorites]


I am a die-hard Simpsons fan and this pleases me.

On another note, I think it's worth pointing out that the Simpsons isn't just a TV show anymore. It's a theme park area and ride, a LEGO set, video games, clothes, toys, and tattoos. I would wager the TV show is less about revenue these days and more about helping to support these other sources of the all ighty ollar.
posted by AloneOssifer at 1:25 PM on July 7, 2015 [6 favorites]


Sangermaine: I believe that still is from the Grinch Who Stole Christmas parody, so you are right. Burns is more hyperbolic and reflective of the Grinch animation style.
posted by wyndham at 1:27 PM on July 7, 2015


Which means that America's Funniest Home Videos is also a sublimely hilarious tv show, right?

Well, not any MORE, now that Tom Bergeron is gone and Cousin Carlton has taken his place.
Yeah, you'd THINK that would be funny, but I think you're going to be wrong.
Bergeron was a gem.
posted by Major Matt Mason Dixon at 1:29 PM on July 7, 2015 [1 favorite]


Argh! My groin!
posted by box at 1:34 PM on July 7, 2015 [9 favorites]


In a Youtube world you would think that a show like AFV doesn't have a place, but it is still pretty entertaining. A well curated Youtube playlist could probably do the same, but someone would have to find the videos and there would be too much temptation to just show whatever was viral that week.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 1:38 PM on July 7, 2015 [2 favorites]


Does something seem off about the picture of Mr. Burns they use to anyone else?

He's smiling.
posted by Segundus at 1:46 PM on July 7, 2015


Those Ted Cruz imitations make you wonder if he's ever even seen The Simpstons.
posted by ga$money at 1:47 PM on July 7, 2015 [3 favorites]


The AFV analogy was nonsensical. Atom Eyes wasn't saying that things that were never good can be assumed to have become great if we have never seen them. It's such a wrongheaded analogy, honestly, it's hard to even engage with it.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 1:48 PM on July 7, 2015


I'm not really sure if dismissing the past 15 years or so of the Simpson's is actually culturally snobbery. It's more like recognizing turning one's nose up a an ersatz product, or a facsimile of the real thing.
posted by Nevin at 1:48 PM on July 7, 2015 [3 favorites]


Shearer sounded cynical and dismissive about the Simpsons in his recent interview with Marc Maron

I've been listening to Shearer outside the Simpsons on and off for decades now. "Cynical and dismissive" is Shearer, in a nutshell.

That said, he deserves a huge profit for The Simpsons, and if he gets to phone it in for another 20 years, more power to him.

And lastly, I've watched The Simpsons since the beginning, though not much as an every-Sunday-night-fan, and almost exclusively in reruns. As old as the show is, I can say it's still, even with the most recent years, about the only shows on TV that can consistently make me laugh out loud. Something that TV comedy rarely does. So congrats on Shearer and all the creatives that keep the corpse alive. Good work!
posted by 2N2222 at 1:55 PM on July 7, 2015 [2 favorites]


The AFV analogy was nonsensical. Atom Eyes wasn't saying that things that were never good can be assumed to have become great if we have never seen them. It's such a wrongheaded analogy, honestly, it's hard to even engage with it.

There are two shows called The Simpsons: One was very, very good; the other isn't at all. Comparing the latter to America's Funniest Home Videos is perfectly apt. If you watched it in 2002 and it was crap then, there's no reason to assume it's gotten any better since.
posted by Sys Rq at 1:55 PM on July 7, 2015 [2 favorites]


I just assumed Harry Shearer leaving the show was a "work" that they planned to keep the series in the news.

PROVE ME WRONG, KIDS. PROVE ME WRONG.
posted by jscalzi at 1:58 PM on July 7, 2015 [3 favorites]


If you watched it in 2002 and it was crap then, there's no reason to assume it's gotten any better since.

The Simpsons? Oh, you mean that crappily animated Married With Children rip-off about the wise-cracking kid who plays pranks on his grouchy dad—voiced by some guy doing a half-assed Walter Matthau impersonation? Yeah, I tried watching that once back in 1990. Didn't get what all the fuss was about.
posted by Atom Eyes at 2:17 PM on July 7, 2015 [7 favorites]


There are two shows called The Simpsons: One was very, very good; the other isn't at all. Comparing the latter to America's Funniest Home Videos is perfectly apt. If you watched it in 2002 and it was crap then, there's no reason to assume it's gotten any better since.

If the point was no more sophisticated than "I think the Simpsons sucks and so does AFV" than sure, fine. But the way the analogy was set up didn't work that way. It proceeded from a mischaracterization of what Atom Eyes had said then, somehow, got even clumsier. It missed the point, then extrapolated poorly from it to come up with straw man gibberish.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 2:20 PM on July 7, 2015 [1 favorite]


MetaFilter: It missed the point, then extrapolated poorly from it to come up with straw man gibberish.
posted by tonycpsu at 2:23 PM on July 7, 2015 [7 favorites]


My point about AFV was, just because something is massively popular doesn't mean that it is somehow sophisticated.

25 years ago, the Simpsons was very sophisticated and interesting. It's not the same show that it used to be. How can it be without Conan O'Brian and George Meyer?
posted by Nevin at 2:27 PM on July 7, 2015


Reading that Live From New York book, it becomes clear that as talented as Shearer may be, he is "difficult" as hell. He complains a lot in the book, and a lot of people complain about him. That he would be cranky about an easy and super lucrative gig like The Simpsons doesn't surprise me a bit.

I have a feeling the show may be around for a long time still, to the point where main cast members start dying. And I don't doubt that Fox would be quite ready to recast the role of Homer or Marge if need be.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 2:42 PM on July 7, 2015


The thing that changed most about the Simpsons is its comic timing. The show always mugs for the camera now, as if it has an implicit silent laugh track.

Jokes used to be rapid fire, and after one landed there'd be a quick cutaway to a new scene. Now you get Bart rolling his eyes or Marge making her grumble noise in response. And they lampshade this all the time. Celebrity cameos used to be almost entirely unacknowledged... remember when Michael Jackson did a voice but just played an inmate who thought he was Michael Jackson? Now there's a running joke that whenever a celebrity enters, someone announces their job and name, like "FAMOUS RECLUSIVE AUTHOR THOMAS PYNCHON"? In one new episode, Homer announced that he drew a treasure map, and he holds up to the screen so the viewer can see all the childish details. The shot lasts for way too long, and Homer eventually says, "Are you done reading yet? OK, good." It would have been much better if they had cut away more quickly. (That's a style that went from The Simpsons to Arrested Development.)

I'm not sure who was responsible... I've wondered whether The Office and its silent laugh track consisting of eye flicks to the camera was partly to blame. But I think it's a huge reason that the show feels weird and subpar to me now. All the jokes and new characters and even the plots are mostly fine... it's the delivery that's really different.
posted by painquale at 3:09 PM on July 7, 2015 [13 favorites]


Next person to impugn the good name of AFV gets a soccer ball to the groin.
posted by uncleozzy at 3:39 PM on July 7, 2015 [6 favorites]


This just in: TV show The Simpsons has been officially recognised by the Guinness Book of Records for "world's longest fart", at 28 years, 2 months, 20 days, 13 hours, 53 minutes, and 19 seconds. This eclipses the previous record set by Adam "Dent" Gunney of Manchester, UK, who farted for a full two minutes and fifteen seconds, under controlled post-pub-and-curry conditions, in November of 2012.

Said Guinness official Vlad Moniker: "A fart is a thing that starts off surprising, quickly becomes funny, but then, when it continues beyond a certain threshold, grows into a source of profound concern and upset."
posted by turbid dahlia at 3:46 PM on July 7, 2015 [7 favorites]


Hmm... painquale's comment had heart. But uncleozzy's comment had a soccer ball to the groin.
posted by Atom Eyes at 3:49 PM on July 7, 2015 [5 favorites]


The AV Club article mentions a German word to describe one's reaction to seeing Ted Cruz -- funny, I have an entirely different German word in mind when I see the man.
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 5:00 PM on July 7, 2015 [1 favorite]


Was just jumping in to say the same thing as Ryvar: The "phone" in question is almost definitely an ISDN codec, which are still extremely common in the radio/TV/corporate world when high-quality audio is desired. ISDN is even still relatively common for videoconferencing.

IMO, the continued existence of ISDN is a relatively damning indictment of internet's failure to accommodate simple peer-to-peer communications. ISDN is simple, ubiquitous, reliable, low-latency, and has extremely straightforward global routing.
posted by schmod at 5:24 PM on July 7, 2015 [2 favorites]


It's true Harry is a prickly personality, but the clause in his contract that forbade him to do other work -- if true -- would be a dealbreaker.
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 5:28 PM on July 7, 2015


I kind of almost want to leave that spam comment up, just for the novelty of seeing it here (and the schadenfreude of knowing that some schmuck just paid $5 to post an inane scam).
posted by schmod at 5:28 PM on July 7, 2015 [1 favorite]


I kept scrolling and scrolling down that spam comment, waiting for the punchline. I'm only somewhat disappointed.
posted by Fig at 5:32 PM on July 7, 2015 [2 favorites]


"I'd be happier with the dollar."
posted by Lorin at 5:33 PM on July 7, 2015 [2 favorites]


It's true Harry is a prickly personality, but the clause in his contract that forbade him to do other work -- if true -- would be a dealbreaker.

The thing that annoys me most about this entire hullabaloo is that every story is just Shearer saying "Yuh-huh!" and Al Jean saying "Nuh-uh!", and then the reporter just moves on to something else. Has anyone seen an actual exploration of the ground truth on this?
posted by Etrigan at 5:33 PM on July 7, 2015 [1 favorite]


I kind of almost want to leave that spam comment up, just for the novelty of seeing it here (and the schadenfreude of knowing that some schmuck just paid $5 to post an inane scam).

Sorry to disappoint you!
posted by restless_nomad at 5:34 PM on July 7, 2015 [2 favorites]


Spam comment for posterity, because it feels weirdly appropriate for a thread about the Simpsons. Addresses have been removed, so nobody accidentally mails these idiots a dollar.
posted by schmod at 5:46 PM on July 7, 2015 [8 favorites]


I like Shearer's independent work, so I am in favor of him making vast sums that support his indie work. Yay great big piles of filthy lucre for him. Make another thoughtful documentary, please.
posted by EinAtlanta at 6:40 PM on July 7, 2015 [1 favorite]


Aw, I'm kind of sad the comment apparently was actually spam. I thought someone was cleverly being all early-90s meta or something.
posted by xedrik at 8:36 PM on July 7, 2015 [3 favorites]


"I'm not sure who was responsible... I've wondered whether The Office and its silent laugh track consisting of eye flicks to the camera was partly to blame. But I think it's a huge reason that the show feels weird and subpar to me now. All the jokes and new characters and even the plots are mostly fine... it's the delivery that's really different."

That's an astute comment too. It's weird, because so many shows (even the Simpsons!) used to assume that you'd tape it and watch it again, so they didn't have to highlight that stuff. Now when more people than ever have DVRs that can pause without the tracking marks of VHS, they labor over this shit because I dunno grandpa has trouble reading it.
posted by klangklangston at 8:48 PM on July 7, 2015 [1 favorite]


"...all you have to do is write ONE JOKE. Put the joke on five separate pieces of paper, fold the papers in half (so you can't see the joke from the outside), and put the papers into envelopes. Now you have ONE JOKE in FIVE ENVELOPES. This is PERFECTLY LEGAL according to Sections 13 and 14 of US Jokes Legislation 1955 and the supporting Federal Jokes Act 2002. Next you want to address the five envelopes to the following people:

1.) Matt Groening

2.) Matt Selman

3.) James L Brooks

4.) Al Jean

5.) John Frink

You must then send the jokes in the mail to their respective addresses. Remember, this is a LEGAL JOKES MAILOUT. Once you have sent the jokes in the mail, remove the FIRST name from the list, add your OWN name to the bottom, and repost this to 50,000 newsgroups.

Pretty soon you will not only receive DOZENS of FRESH JOKES in the mail, but your OWN joke will be seen on television programme THE SIMPSONS. Then you must keep sending the new jokes you receive from others to the five names listed above. Before you know it you will have HUNDREDS AND THOUSANDS OF JOKES. Keep sending them to the people above and they will all appear on THE SIMPSONS. It is how THE SIMPSONS is written!"
posted by turbid dahlia at 9:00 PM on July 7, 2015 [10 favorites]


The Simpsons also released Trumptastic Voyage today.
posted by Gary at 12:56 AM on July 8, 2015


The steady decline of the Simpsons.
posted by Pendragon at 2:33 AM on July 8, 2015


The steady decline of the Simpsons.

It has really plummeted from 8 to 6.5 over almost 30 years.
posted by chavenet at 3:07 AM on July 8, 2015 [3 favorites]


It's still a decline.
posted by Pendragon at 5:40 AM on July 8, 2015


entropicamericana: "That's a relief: I can continue not watching Simpsons as I have been for the last 17 years."

Well, bless your heart.
posted by Splunge at 5:43 AM on July 8, 2015


Man, people really didn't like that musical clip show.
posted by box at 5:48 AM on July 8, 2015


The AV Club article mentions a German word to describe one's reaction to seeing Ted Cruz -- funny, I have an entirely different German word in mind when I see the man.

Oh, he's quite beyond Backpfeifengesicht - Turnschuhgesicht: reintreten und wohlfühlen (sneaker face: step in and feel good) would be applicable here.

Although I liked his Burns, but I guess that character comes easy to him.
posted by ojemine at 7:12 AM on July 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


I'm just glad Harry's out there as a political voice. His place on the Simpsons probably makes his pulpit bullier, so good.
posted by Trochanter at 7:39 AM on July 8, 2015


I dunno - what's his voice, exactly? That everyone in politics is craven and hypocritical? That LA is funny because all of the celebrities are rich and clueless jerks? That New Orleans is really important but nobody really appreciates it like he does? It's a pretty smug voice.
posted by Mid at 8:28 AM on July 8, 2015


He's been right on the finance stuff, which to me is the head of the snake.
posted by Trochanter at 8:33 AM on July 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


It's still a decline.
posted by Pendragon at 5:40 AM on July 8 [+] [!]


Indeed. But what is amazing is that it has declined so very little over a period when the whole business of TV has exploded into a million tiny pieces, it's a brave new world compared with 1989 and yet even still, the Simpsons has declined only a bit. It used to have 8 of a relatively closed world, now it has 6.5 of a huge open one, with all kinds of alternative attention-stealers, not to mention all those shows it inspired. This is not an argument about quality, but about share; the Simpsons have heroically maintained significant share for longer than anything else ever has on TV.
posted by chavenet at 8:58 AM on July 8, 2015


That graph is quality of each episode per IMDB voters, not ratings. The ratings decline (in absolute numbers and share) is far more precipitous.
posted by Etrigan at 9:06 AM on July 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


Ah well there you go. That makes sense. What doesn't make sense is why the votes on quality don't drop off more precipitously.
posted by chavenet at 9:10 AM on July 8, 2015


Hey, apologies for misreading that "decline" chart as share. My bad. Looking at it again, I'm really surprised to see that IMDB ratings show remarkable steadiness over the whole run, despite a slight, gradual, steady, gently sloping decline. There's no accounting for taste.
posted by chavenet at 9:16 AM on July 8, 2015


What doesn't make sense is why the votes on quality don't drop off more precipitously.

I think it's because the people who really dislike the more recent stuff just don't bother watching anymore, or tune in every now and then to check whether it's gotten better for them. When it hasn't, they don't bother clicking over to IMDB and rating Yet Another Crappy Episode.
posted by Etrigan at 9:21 AM on July 8, 2015


The ratings decline (in absolute numbers and share) is far more precipitous.

And before anyone comes in with "but the ratings for everything have gone way down because cable, video games, internet; nothing gets those huge ratings anymore" here are the 2013-14 season averages of the top 50 shows (source):

1. The Big Bang Theory (CBS) 23.1 million
2. NCIS (CBS) 22.4 million
3. Sunday Night Football (NBC) 21.7 million
4. The Walking Dead (AMC) 18.3 million
5. NCIS: Los Angeles (CBS) 17.9 million
6. The Blacklist (NBC) 16.9 million
7. Person of Interest (CBS) 16.2 million
8. Dancing With the Stars (ABC) 15.5 million
9. Blue Bloods (CBS) 15.2 million
10. The Voice (Monday) (NBC) 14.7 million
11. Criminal Minds (CBS) 14.4 million
12. Castle (ABC) 14.3 million
13. Modern Family (ABC) 14.1 million
14. The Voice (Tuesday) (NBC) 14.0 million
15. Monday Night Football (ESPN) 13.7 million
16. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CBS) 13.4 million
16. Elementary (CBS) 13.4 million
18. Downton Abbey (PBS) 13.2 million
19. Scandal (ABC) 13.0 million
19. Resurrection (ABC) 13.0 million
21. Hawaii Five-0 (CBS) 12.9 million
22. Grey's Anatomy (ABC) 12.4 million
23. The Mentalist (CBS) 12.3 million
24. The Millers (CBS) 12.2 million
24. 60 Minutes (CBS) 12.2 million
26. American Idol (Wednesday) (Fox) 12.1 million
27. The Good Wife (CBS) 11.9 million
28. American Idol (Thursday) (Fox) 11.5 million
28. Sleepy Hollow (Fox) 11.5 million
30. Survivor (CBS) 11.4 million
30. Two and a Half Men (CBS) 11.4 million
32. How I Met Your Mother (CBS) 11.3 million
33. Duck Dynasty (A&E) 11.1 million
34. Chicago Fire (NBC) 10.7 million
35. The Crazy Ones (CBS) 10.5 million
36. Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (ABC) 10.4 million
37. Mike & Molly (CBS) 10.2 million
37. Intelligence (CBS) 10.2 million
39. 2 Broke Girls (CBS) 10.0 million
40. Once Upon a Time (ABC) 9.6 million
40. The Bachelor (ABC) 9.6 million
40. The Amazing Race (CBS) 9.6 million
40. 24: Live Another Day (Fox) 9.6 million
44. Unforgettable (CBS) 9.3 million
44. Bones (Friday) (Fox) 9.3 million
46. Mom (CBS) 9.2 million
46. Chicago PD (NBC) 9.2 million
46. The Middle (ABC) 9.2 million
49. Law & Order: SVU (NBC) 9.1 million
49. Undercover Boss (CBS) 9.1 million

Hey, apologies for misreading that "decline" chart as share. My bad. Looking at it again, I'm really surprised to see that IMDB ratings show remarkable steadiness over the whole run, despite a slight, gradual, steady, gently sloping decline. There's no accounting for taste.

Well, keep in mind that the people rating the newer seasons are the people still watching the newer seasons. Those people still like the show. Most of us jumped ship years and years ago; I'm sure if we were all A Clockwork Oranged into watching everything after the first decade, you'd see a much sharper drop.

But also note that even then, the best-rated episodes of the later seasons -- the ones people tout when they say the show is still as good as ever -- barely measure up to the average episodes of the earlier seasons.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:58 AM on July 8, 2015


Don't see Family Guy on there either. It's like Fox has settled. Prob'ly cause of Sunday Night Football?

But, speaking of sports, why keep paying expensive veterans like MacFarlane? Go with younger, cheaper contracts if you're not going to win anyway?
posted by Trochanter at 10:08 AM on July 8, 2015


What doesn't make sense is why the votes on quality don't drop off more precipitously.

The IMDb ratings of individual Simpsons episodes make zero sense. They would have you believe that the worst 3 episodes of the first 7 seasons are a clip show, Homer at the Bat, and Marge vs. the Monorail. They would also have you believe that the best episode of those seasons is Homer the Smithers. I don't think they can be relied on for much of anything because they've been completely warped by any number of confounding factors.
posted by Copronymus at 11:13 AM on July 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


Marge vs. the Monorail

2061 total votes. 435 votes for 1 star. Few enough that if you piss off the wrong forum / subreddit they can destroy your average.
posted by Gary at 11:24 AM on July 8, 2015


Yeah, those guys at r/monorail just can't take a joke.
posted by box at 11:32 AM on July 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


A lot of people really don't like the musical episodes, and Monorail is one of them. These people are crazy, but they are legion. (Notice the Sherry Bobbins episode is also way down there, and the All-Singing All-Dancing clip show is the lowest-rated of all time.)
posted by Sys Rq at 12:07 PM on July 8, 2015


A lot of people really don't like the musical episodes, and Monorail is one of them. These people are crazy, but they are legion.

You may be right. The only written one-star review is a combination of not liking Conan O'Brien's writing and hating the monorail song. Both stances I find completely baffling.

Although I'm not ruling out an /r/possums vote brigade.
posted by Gary at 1:09 PM on July 8, 2015


To bring our tangent back to Shearer, Mr. Snrub's entry on the Simpsons Wiki is pretty great.
posted by Gary at 1:14 PM on July 8, 2015


I'm more than a little surprised about the Trump-centric Short that just got released only three weeks after his campaign announcement, that directly referenced the "paid audience" disclosure that followed a few days later and even tossed in a visual about Macy's dumping Trump which was just a week ago. I had heard for many years about the long long lead times for production on that and other 'major' toon shows due to outsourcing the animation to South Korea (South Park always being the extreme exception), so that kind of almost-SNL-quick topical response was impressive. (And yes, it was semi-obviously NOT Shearer doing Trump's voice, probably Hank Azaria) Still, I have to wonder a little if the existence of something like that helped lure Shearer back into the fold... the possibility to get 'more topical' on the show (or its 'related content').
posted by oneswellfoop at 1:41 PM on July 8, 2015


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