The defining event of our generation!

April 3, 2006 6:21 PM

The defining event of our generation!
posted by UbuRoivas (71 comments total)

Single link, whatever. This is momentous enough.... :D
posted by UbuRoivas at 6:22 PM on April 3, 2006

Old news.
posted by keswick at 6:24 PM on April 3, 2006

Which generation? Pre-X? X? Y? Z? Post-Z?

The first Simpsons fans are hitting 50.
posted by mischief at 6:26 PM on April 3, 2006

Here's the trailer at Apple.
posted by 235w103 at 6:27 PM on April 3, 2006

I thought this was going to be another Snakes on a Plane thread.
posted by barjo at 6:27 PM on April 3, 2006

Seems like it ought to include Tracy Ullman in some capacity, just to close the loop.

Still -- "Woo Hoo!"
posted by mosk at 6:28 PM on April 3, 2006

You know it will suck. The Simpsons can't sustain a decent narrative for 22 minutes anymore. What makes anyone think that 90 would be even tolerable?

If this was 1995 I would be extremely excited.
posted by Mayor Curley at 6:36 PM on April 3, 2006

Mmm... Snacks on a Plate
Previously - 1, 2.
posted by tellurian at 6:39 PM on April 3, 2006

July 2007? What are they drawing it with, MS Paint?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:39 PM on April 3, 2006

Holy crap, it's finally for real? Awesome.
posted by mathowie at 6:43 PM on April 3, 2006

So...not 'til next year then?

That's nice. I'm sure we won't here much about this film until then. ;)
posted by meh at 6:47 PM on April 3, 2006

"OUR generation"?

Speak for yourself, whippersnapper.
posted by HTuttle at 6:47 PM on April 3, 2006

Haven't cared for or watched it since the Tracey Ulman Show.
posted by HTuttle at 6:48 PM on April 3, 2006

The Simpsons are kinda like that little zombie girl that no one has the heart to shoot--we all know it's dead, but we can't stomach to see it die.
posted by Citizen Premier at 6:49 PM on April 3, 2006

I find it very, very depressing that the defining moment of my generation is a cartoon movie.

I predict about fifteen minutes of entertainment and an hour and a half of suck. And I might be overestimating the entertainment.
posted by fenriq at 6:50 PM on April 3, 2006

I predict about fifteen minutes of entertainment and an hour and a half of suck. And I might be overestimating the entertainment.

And that ratio will still be better than 99.9% of the product that Hollywood is vomiting onto movie screens these days.
posted by blucevalo at 6:56 PM on April 3, 2006

HTuttle never fails me. Turd.
posted by furtive at 6:56 PM on April 3, 2006

I find it very, very depressing that the defining moment of my generation is a cartoon movie.

Well, there's a war going on but no one's paying attention, so this is what you're left with.
posted by Space Coyote at 6:56 PM on April 3, 2006

Haven't cared for or watched it since the Tracey Ulman Show.

I liked the idea when Groening would talk about it after dangerous, messy sex with MG-42-wielding midgets in the mid-1980s, but I lost interest not long after I installed cameras in his house and listened in on pre-development meetings. The show jumped the shark in the second draft of the first cartoon, and it's been downhill ever since.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 6:56 PM on April 3, 2006

I think the title of this post is 100% accurate.
posted by travosaurus at 6:58 PM on April 3, 2006

HTuttle writes "Haven't cared for or watched it since the Tracey Ulman Show."

Well, I haven't even owned a TV since All in the Family went off the air!

Neanderthals.
posted by mr_roboto at 6:59 PM on April 3, 2006

"Speak for yourself, whippersnapper."

lol the defining event of HTuttle's generation was the death of Daniel Boone.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 7:01 PM on April 3, 2006

"defining event".... wow...someone needs a life!

Perhaps if we take up a collection and purchase a book for UbuRoivas he/she/it could see a glimmer of what exists beyond his/her/its shallow existence....
posted by HuronBob at 7:06 PM on April 3, 2006

Maybe he (default pronoun) should be introduced to Star Wars...
posted by Citizen Premier at 7:08 PM on April 3, 2006

fuck it, I'm stoked. I watched Elizabethtown last week, and it's gotta be better than that steaming celluloid turd.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 7:10 PM on April 3, 2006

Wasn't the plan that the movie would come out once the show ended? Will the show be over by then?
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 7:13 PM on April 3, 2006

The show has been mediocre to bad for a couple of years now, but I have some hope that the writers will get their mojo back for the movie.
posted by brain_drain at 7:14 PM on April 3, 2006

"defining event".... wow...someone needs a life!

I do believe that the post title is a reference to Lisa proclaiming that the Itchy and Scratchy Movie was the defining event of their generation in the...well, the Itchy and Scratchy movie episode, natch.
posted by Pontius Pilate at 7:22 PM on April 3, 2006

...a generation-defining event...
posted by muckster at 7:24 PM on April 3, 2006

Thanks, HuronBob. I'd like to request one of the harder-to-find novels by Antonio Lobo Antunes, but they tend to suggest that nothing of worth exists either within or beyond one's shallow existence... ;)
posted by UbuRoivas at 7:29 PM on April 3, 2006

The show jumped the shark in the second draft of the first cartoon, and it's been downhill ever since.

ROU_Xenophobe: I applaud your skewering pretentiousness, but I'm worried that you're also defending the show like it's still worth watching. Because it's now about as funny as leukemia. You know that, right? My 40-year-old neighbor who lives with his mom, walks his cat on a leash and has Star Trek posters in his room that are visible from the street told me that he used to love the show but it got too lame to watch over five years ago.
posted by Mayor Curley at 7:30 PM on April 3, 2006

Haven't cared for or watched it since the Tracey Ulman Show.

Pretty good hipster detachment there. Most people haven't seen or don't remember the Tracy Ullman shorts, so you've successfully shown how cool you are, you know, how you've seen things others haven't.

BTW, the last several seasons notwithstanding, after the T.U. Show, the Simpsons got better.
posted by zardoz at 7:31 PM on April 3, 2006

Well, I haven't even owned a TV since All in the Family went off the air!

Feh... all you trendsters and yer new-fangled 'papyrus'.

/resumes scraping buffalo hide with flint blade
posted by hangashore at 7:35 PM on April 3, 2006

Worst viral meme, ever.
posted by crunchland at 7:39 PM on April 3, 2006

Forget the defining event of *our* generation. This is the defining event of all generations - ever - since all of evolutionary and geological time.

When the first single-celled organism self-organized out of the primordial muck, *this* was the event that it was evolving towards, though it did not know it.

This is the ultimate. There is no more.
posted by theorique at 7:54 PM on April 3, 2006

I can't sit through an entire episode anymore -- I get fidgety and bored. So... a movie? 90+ minutes? Yikes.
posted by eustacescrubb at 7:55 PM on April 3, 2006

Meh.
posted by nathan_teske at 7:59 PM on April 3, 2006

HTuttle never fails me. Turd

SIR Turd to YOU , jackass.
posted by HTuttle at 8:03 PM on April 3, 2006

HTuttle writes "Haven't cared for or watched it since the Tracey Ulman Show."

Well, I haven't even owned a TV since All in the Family went off the air!

Good for you. BTW, How's that ozly acid holding up?
posted by HTuttle at 8:06 PM on April 3, 2006

lol the defining event of HTuttle's generation was the death of Daniel Boone.

Well, he was MAN...and a BIG man.
posted by HTuttle at 8:08 PM on April 3, 2006

Ya bunch o' young snotnosed bastards.
posted by HTuttle at 8:08 PM on April 3, 2006

BTW, it 100% TRUE that I haven't seen a whole Simpsons since then.

But then YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!
posted by HTuttle at 8:11 PM on April 3, 2006

blucevalo, good point. This movie will be hailed as the greatest ever.
posted by fenriq at 8:14 PM on April 3, 2006

Bah. People have been whinging that "the last couple" seasons were bad since nineteen-dickety two. We had to call it dickety 'cause the Kaiser stole our twenty.
posted by jewzilla at 10:10 PM on April 3, 2006

The article says Albert Brooks does voice work, so I'm there. Some of the best moments of the show's history involve Albert Brooks.
posted by Robot Johnny at 10:17 PM on April 3, 2006

HTuttle prefers the Edison cylinder version of "(Do) The Bartman" too, for what that's worth.
posted by joe lisboa at 10:41 PM on April 3, 2006

Most people haven't seen or don't remember the Tracy Ullman shorts

Umm, just about every single Simpsons fan I know has tracked down the Tracy Ullman shorts, if they didn't watch them on original airing. I remember watching them on the TU show, and thinking that they sucked donkey tit. For me, there seems to be a rerun-threshold for my enjoyment of the show. Anything from seasons 1 to 3 or 4 is basically completely unwatchable now. I still find seasons 5-10 or so enjoyable, but I won't hesitate to switch channels if there's something else on. Seasons 11-13 I will watch all the way through, although I think I stopped watching regularly at that point. Any of the remaining seasons, I tend to watch in reruns, and I find that after multiple viewings of some episodes, I find them more and more enjoyable. Some episodes are just completely unsalvageable though (ie: most Lisa episodes, most musical episodes)
posted by antifuse at 1:58 AM on April 4, 2006

Oh yeah, and the movie: I'm sure I'll watch it, but I'm not sure it will be in theatres that I see it.
posted by antifuse at 1:59 AM on April 4, 2006

The defining event of our generation!

This is true -- and it's one of the reasons I hate my generation so very much.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go shower and shave, getting myself ready for a job I despise, to make money for things I don't want or need.
posted by neek at 4:34 AM on April 4, 2006

6, 7, 8, 9 years ago this would have been good. Standards have slipped too far and it will suck.
posted by fire&wings at 5:00 AM on April 4, 2006

Will there be any breakdancing robots?
posted by elr at 6:05 AM on April 4, 2006

I want a Futurama trilogy, dammit !!!!
posted by Pendragon at 6:07 AM on April 4, 2006

Yawn.
posted by AspectRatio at 7:08 AM on April 4, 2006

The defining event of my generation was the live-action stage version of the Brady Bunch.

The second most important event was that day the aliens showed up and removed the sarcasm detector from the brains of two-thirds of the world's Internet users.

/sarcasm
posted by PlusDistance at 7:34 AM on April 4, 2006

At least they got most of the good writers!

Pendragon: there is supposedly going to be at least one direct to DVD Futurama movie.
posted by sonofsamiam at 7:47 AM on April 4, 2006

HTuttle is so old his C-14 levels have reached their Cambridge half-life.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 8:08 AM on April 4, 2006

Snark (n./v.) - when you come on a thread about a topic people love and tell us why what we love sucks.

HTuttle, I'm looking at you.

I've said it before, to all you out there that think The Simpsons sucks, go make your own thread why The Simpsons sucks and leave those of us excited about the movie alone please. Your opinions do not change ours and only turn this thread into something shitty. Stop it. Just stop.

And to those who think the show has "jumped the shark", when 372 episodes you reach, look as good you will not. Try sustaining a weekly sitcom that long and see how well you fare oh genius scriptwriter.

Seems slamming The Simpsons is a geek pastime. Sad really.
posted by Dantien at 8:14 AM on April 4, 2006

(The Yoda-speak was really a very nice touch there, fanboy.)
posted by crunchland at 8:41 AM on April 4, 2006

Don't get too excited. I had to look it up to make sure I got the grammar right.
posted by Dantien at 8:43 AM on April 4, 2006

Maybe they want to go out in a blaze of glory.
posted by Smedleyman at 9:44 AM on April 4, 2006

The movie will star many of the same voices that drive the famed animated characters of the show that is now in its 16th year, making it the longest-running animated television series in history.

Doraemon, motherfuckers. First run in 73, current run started in 1979.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 9:56 AM on April 4, 2006

Anime only counts if you're a shut-in.
posted by keswick at 10:43 AM on April 4, 2006

"Also with me tonight are the dynamic duo, William Milo and Robin Hannah, who green-lighted all of Shaquille O'Neal's movies, including 'Kazaam!'"
posted by ninjew at 10:58 AM on April 4, 2006

Maybe The Simpsons stink so badly lately because all the good writers have been too busy working on the movie screenplay, which will, therefore, rock?

\\\that's not too much to ask...right?
posted by Lord Kinbote at 11:13 AM on April 4, 2006

Eh, give me a call when the Family Guy movie comes out.
posted by davejay at 11:21 AM on April 4, 2006

Oh, actually, gotta throw this out there -- the Simpsons may suck as a show these days, but a few years ago I had the rare pleasure of sitting in at a table read (where the actors first sit down to read through a proposed script) and I have to tell you, I just about soiled myself laughing, as did the rest of the "audience" (special invited guests sitting in chairs around the perimeter of the room, in which the writers and actors are sitting around a big conference table.)

I mean, it's one thing to hear the lines delivered once it's been cleaned up and animated, but hearing 'em delivered live, the first time the actors have seen them -- holy crap, it's hilarious.
posted by davejay at 11:23 AM on April 4, 2006

I almost certainly have college students in my classes who can't remember a time before the Simpsons. And not just because they've been stoned for 12 years.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:56 AM on April 4, 2006

The inability that journalists in this country have to write a single article without stumbling grammatically leads to some interesting Freudian slips...

"Plans for a big-screen feature version of the globally syndicated show have been talked about in Hollywood for more than a decade, but Groening and his team were very careful about over-exploiting the successful franchise."

I'm sure Matt's called every day just to remind everybody that "we need to over-exploit this thing just enough."
posted by Viomeda at 12:18 PM on April 4, 2006

The Family Guy movie did come out. It went straight to dvd. For good reason; they seemed to have forgotten to write in any more jokes than they would have for a regular episode. Anyone...?
posted by jrengreen at 2:28 PM on April 4, 2006

The Simpsons Rule. Seriously.

Best. Show. Ever.
posted by cell divide at 3:27 PM on April 4, 2006

I knew MeFites were a tough audience, but geez. I don't walk a cat on a leash or live in a basement with tinfoil on the wall. But I think The Simpsons still is funny, at moments, and I watch the syndicated re-runs a lot. Yes, it's often groaningly lame (the last couple of years, I'll concede, maybe mostly lame) and the moments of sheer brilliance are, alas, few and far between, but when they happen, they're awesome. Then again, I've been a fan for years, so I'm not what you would call unbiased.

Now as far as a 90-minute movie release goes, though -- I'm very skeptical. I don't think that South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut kept its traction for 80 minutes.
posted by blucevalo at 1:25 PM on April 5, 2006