My favourite episode that I admit is bizarre and definitely dumb is Bart vs. Australia, a Season 6 episode which is ends up being a string of dumb jokes about a superficial perception of Australian culture through the vaseline smeared looking glass of American pop culture, but all that is absolutely made quite an overall treat by being laundered through the convoluted setup.
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It’s a pornography store. I was buying pornography.
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I’m going outside….to….stalk….lenny and Carl….
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I’m tired of these jokes about my giant hand. The first such incident…
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The way Homer says “I….don’t know” so confidently when the guy asks him (pretending to be Burns) his first name
Is maybe the best all time line delivery in a show of al time line reads
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Mmmm… 64 slices of American cheese… 64… *eating sounds*… 63… *eating sounds*
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I wish I had the clip for it but one of my favorite moments / line reads is in Mountain of Madness when Homer and Mr. Burns are riding down the mountain on a rocket propelled cabin. They’re all waving at them to show them where they are and as the thing comes barreling in Lenny goes “there’s something wrong with the brakes!”
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I use this one irl all the time, in addition to Moe’s “garage/car hole” line.
I laughed remembering this
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Hard to even recall a time period when lowly serialized television shows would ever be given even a tiny fraction of the resources necessary to be able to do something like this, but one of the most remarkable and now totally lost qualities of the show is that they had a 35 piece orchestra and big band, with Alf Clausen bandleader, composer, and arranger scoring every goddamned episode.
Like, it might not even be 30 seconds of music, and was an arrangement of an existing tune, but hearing this again, this was a clearly fucking red hot band. I just know the killers who played this probably had those charts for less than an hour before they hit this final take, and it was probably arranged that very same day.
Playing and arranging and composing music in this way is kind of a mix of easy and hard. You need to be a super strong musician to be able to see something for the first time, even if it’s simple or even something recognizable, and put out a strong performance, as if you had practiced as much as a less strong musician. Same with regards to the composition and arrangement. It was all pastiche and referential and often just straight arrangement. But even that takes serious musical chops to do well.
Like, yeah, it’s an arrangement of The Entertainer, but again, I guarantee you this was damn near a sight read and Alf Clausen could have arranged this on the bus he probably took to get to the recording studio. It was probably the only way a cartoon could have had its own orchestral soundtrack.
And let’s not even get into all the stings and cues and transitions and whatnot. So much varied cultural reference and stylistic knowledge on display here.
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Ok then, Mr. Burns what’s your first name?
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I will say that S7’s Treehouse of Horror is an all-timer. Forgot about that one.
It’s like he knows retroactively that he was being an idiot but couldn’t help himself. It’s such a bizarre reaction to his own shenanigans and it makes me laugh every time.
omg ok I tried to but it just ended up a list of hilarious quotes or scenes plucked from individual episodes, because it has definitely been long enough that I can’t analyse entire episodes right now, but this is what Simpsons enjoyers crave so
- the Godfather reference in Lisa’s Pony, love the film and boomer culture references that I’ve picked up on more and more growing up.
- Flaming Moe’s “I want you to meet my friends Armando and Raffi,” and Homer just walks out of the bathroom grumbling
- “Sending our Love Down the Well” (ALL THE WAY DOWN) in Radio Bart
- Homer at the Bat, probably another top five episode. So many great one-liners delivered by guest stars who are not actors. “It’s like there’s a party in my mouth and everyone’s invited.” Also love the ending credits song.
- in Separate Vocations, the entire exchange between Bart and Lou about his baton
- Streetcar Named Marge, perfect exemplar of the show knowing Homer is a bad husband and forcing him to face that fact. Terrific Marge episode.
- Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie, the way Nancy Cartwright sings jingle bells in time with Bart smashing condiment packets with a hammer.
- Mr. Plow omg, ok another fave. “Cutting my nails? Brushing my teeth?”
- Homer’s Triple Bypass, the heart attack in Mr. Burns’ office wonderfully animated by David Silverman
- Marge vs. The Monorail, love a Phil Hartman one-off.
- I Love Lisa, “it’s recess everywhere but in his heart.”
- Last Exit to Springfield “wait a minute, is he coming on to me?”
- Krusty Gets Kancelled, that ought to hold those S.O.B.s
- Marge on the Lam, it’s a GHOST CAR
- Boy-Scoutz 'n the Hood, you’ve attained the rank of PUSSY willow!
- Homer the Vigilante is a good one too from Homer’s posse conscripting Jimbo “it makes me feel like a big man!” to the extended It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World reference toward the end.
- Lisa vs Malibu Stacy, you made us march in that gay pride parade, Smithers’ computer boot screen, that girl’s Stacy doll with the Spider-Man voice box, Harry Shearer going “I want it I want it me me me”
- Burns’ Heir, I’ve gotta stop fantasizing about Lee Majors… one more. Too many insane moments in this episode to mention besides.
- Sweet Seymour Skinner’s Baadasssss Song: Tide. Cheer. Bold. Biz. Fab. All. Gain. Wisk.
- The Boy Who Knew Too Much, he’s like some non-giving up school guy. “I’m a small man in some ways, Bart. A small, petty man.”
- BART OF DARKNESS, we want Krunchy!!
- Lisa’s Rival. I have a ball. Perhaps you’d like to bounce it.
- Treehouse of Horror V, I don’t think this show gets enough credit for its animation sometimes and it really shines in this one when Homer goes crazy.
- Homer Badman, an oxygen tent that gives him sexual powers
- Fear of Flying:
Anyway yeah, I can’t do this with the later episodes. They just don’t get me excited to put the show on right now like these older ones do.
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god’s work.
i’ll add one:
mattingly, shave those sideburns!
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t w o … o o o n n n n e e e e …
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Daaaaaaarryl. Daaaaaaarryl.
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how about this one:
i don’t want any damn vegetables
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Where are the Burns O’s?
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