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Well, it's official. I'm through with the Simpsons, except for reruns of good episodes.

It was the visit to Canada in last night's episode that did it. I wasn't offended, just disappointed. The Simpsons spent a full episode in New York, an episode in Japan, an episode in Australia and an episode in Africa. They went to Toronto for five minutes.

My fellow Canadians understand what a big deal it is for an American series to even acknowledge that there is a country to the north. It doesn't happen very often. This episode was pretty heavily publicized in Canada, as "the Simpsons visit Toronto." They've been known to throw in a Canadian reference now and then, so a whole episode was bound to be good. I had to tune in, and see them do a proper job of poking fun at my country. What I see is a mediocre (at best) episode of recycled plot fragments and old gags, with a brief trip to Toronto tacked on at the end for no particular reason. I swear they must be just throwing a bunch of characters' names, plot points and cities in a hat and picking out a bunch. They couldn't even draw the CN Tower properly. p**sed me off.

About the only good thing I can say about this episode was that I liked the use of the old "Take Off" song, from the Bob & Doug McKenzie album. Otherwise, it was a complete waste of time. I wish somebody would cancel this piece of s**t, and put it out of its misery.

I live in canada And I was happy that they didn't spend the whole eposode there. The five min that they were in toronto they made a few cracks that were mildly amusing. Would you rather have them spend the whole episode and it be 20min (with commercials) of "Eh?" jokes? I'm happy they didn't spend so much time focusing on how different our climate is, and how we sometimes talk different. Overall it was a decent episode. The quality sure has gone down hill, but now that they canceled family guy YET AGAIN. there isn't much better on. Also they canceled Futurama, Which wasn't as good as simpsongs, but when I caught it on tv I enjoyed it. I say screw King of the hill, Cancel that crappy show. Its so unfunny its (no pun) not funny!

-dan

Bring back Beavis & Butthead!

Yeah, but Toronto is really, really boring, much like the rest of Canada. I loved Homer's line: "America Jr.".

Toronto is far from the world-class city that it pretends to be, but I'd never call it boring, or the rest of Canada (I've even had fun in Saskatchewan!). Homer's "America Jr." line was pretty funny, especially since it's a joke on his own ignorance that will be taken as a shot at Canada by the very people it pokes fun at, much like Peter Griffin's 'Canada sucks' bit on Family Guy. Unfortunately, it just reminds me of the wasted potential of the episode. They could have played up the ignorant American angle, and really had Homer and Bart put Canadian manners to the test. Just how tolerant can we be?

It saddens me that you have so much pride in a country whose national symbol is a leaf. If Canada where nuked tomorrow nobody would miss it. Face it, if vanilla was represented by a country, you people would be it.  Have some fun at:

http://ploodang.tripod.com/anticanadaactionleague/

I probably shouldn't dignify that with a response, but I just can't let this one go. You're asking me how I can be proud of the country I live in, as if we were talking about a favourite movie or a baseball team. This is a little more serious.

Don't think I can't see the flaws in my country. No country is perfect. I'll be the first one to admit that too many of our politicians are spineless, petty and corrupt, our military is neglected (our soldiers had to bum a ride to Afghanistan, for Christ's sake), and we have a whole bunch of people who seriously think it's some kind of proud national tradition to be the world's doormat. To them, letting people walk all over you is better than making them mad. That attitude is a source of endless irritation for me. Our own government has been using our own money to undermine our cultural identity for decades.

A string of bad leaders going back to the 60s have made a huge mess that is, if not being made worse, at least being maintained by the buffoon we have today. We're overtaxed, overgoverned, and in spite of regular elections, we have nothing I would call democracy. Frankly, I'm not proud of the image Canada presents to the world.

In spite of our government and a few other influential a***oles, the country itself is pretty good, can boast its share of achievements in various fields, offers a decent standard of living, and is full of very nice people. That's the real Canada, the country I'm proud of. I can honestly say that after spending five days in the states last month, it was almost a relief to be home. It's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.

Canada offers plenty of raw material for jokes, and we make a lot of them. However, there is a difference between having a good laugh at your own shortcomings, and being ridiculed without provocation by some complete stranger who doesn't know what he's talking about. Keep in mind that you are talking about my home. Would you tell your next door neighbour that nobody would miss him if somebody burned his house down, presumably with him in it? That's what you're telling me.

What satisfaction does it give you to spew this ignorant, hateful s**t at me? What did I do to provoke it? What the hell is your problem? Either you just need to think before you speak, or you seriously want to hurt people. Which is it?

There's a country to the north?  The Arctic?  I didn't think that was considered a country....

Seriously though, J.R. - lighten up.   The U.S. could do far worse in a neighbor.

And to the Canadians - be happy the U.S. doesn't take much notice of you.  You probably wouldn't like the attention you'd get.  Ask just about any country we've directed our attention to.

Back on topic: The simpsons really should have gone off the air a couple of years ago and live happily ever after in syndication.  It could have left on a high note instead of dwindling into pure crap.

I wish fox would just let Family Guy go to cable and be done with it.  I love the show, but there's no way it'll last on TV.   I'm sure the censors had cardiac crash carts on standby every time that show was going to be aired.  I don't have cable, but at least it would be shown on a regular schedule and I'd be able to get the shows on DVD.

I was in Canada once.  *Once*.

You know, ignoring all the jokes and the putdowns, I have never heard anything bad about Canada or its people.  Perhaps having a maple leaf for a national symbol is a GOOD thing.

The Simpsons is still better than 96% of everything else on T.V. About the only other show I watch religiously is 24, but that's a one-season deal. When MST3K left (and the tenth season was one of the weakest) a few years ago, I lost a lot of hope in T.V. When The Simpsons signs off, South Park finally goes off like the creators wanted about three years ago and Conan O'Brien finally gets permanently pre-empted, my set will become a DVD monitor. Sigh...

I'm just joking around. Canadians speak funny so it's fun to laugh at them.

I'm just joking around. Man, you're like the angriest guy in all of Canada. Most other Canucks would say, "Oh, yer makin' fun a' me. Okey-dokey, I'll just stand here and take it, just to be neighborly, eh?" I'm just joking around. Canadians speak funny so I laugh at them. Simple as that.

Hey, no need for the Simpsons to make fun of Canada when Micheal Moore's classic Canadian Bacon does it best.

(Driving down a canadian road with a truck covered in anti-Canadian quotes, John Candy gets pulled over by Dan Ankroyd. John and Dan run through the whole inspection and registration blah blah blah)

Dan: Do you know why I pulled you over?
John: That writing,those dam kids must have done it
Dan: Well Canada is a 2 language nation, you have to write it in french too.
John: Oh, I see, any type of fine?
Dan: That'll be 100 Dollars
John: ...
Dan: Ten American
John: No problem

No problem. Just try to remember that when making fun of people you don't know, it's easy to tread on sensitive ground, and very easy to be misunderstood.

Personally I have nothing but respect for Canada. I think they've gotten a lot more right than America has. Even what little attempts they've made to reconcile with native indians is more forward thinking than the U.S. has ever been. I wish the U.S. could be more like Canada in a lot of respects. Still glad I live here in the U.S., but it seems un-necessarily bitter-sweet sometimes.

Canadian Bacon is a really good movie for a number of reasons. It pokes fun at Canadians and Americans alike, and a lot of Canadians are involved, so the jokes are on target. It went over very well in Canada.

America Jr.

Back to the topic, or at least the subject of the Simpsons-they should have stuck a fork in the series a long time ago. I lost interest over a year ago and each new episode I see just doesnt seem to be funny. The Simpsons was at its peek from about 1992 to 1997. Futurama wasnt as good, but it had more imagination. Family Guy was fantastic and Im surprised it hasnt gained The Simpsons' popularity in half the time.

I still like “The Simpsons,” but I have never watched it regularly.  Plus, my tastes are notoriously bad.  (For instance, I like "Casablanca" and the original "Psycho.”  I mean, how bad can you get?)

I like Canada. Never met any French-canucks, but the english were cool folks. Hey, ever hear a radio show on the CBC, "Dr Bondolos Pandimonium  medicin show", a comedy half hour out of the U, of B.C.? Caught it on the late nite "Skip" on the radio. Lets face it, gang, look at all the good comics that have come south....Dan Ackroid, Mike myers,Alex Trebeck(Just kidding!). And, lets admit, Shatner has made some funny, ewither he ment too or not.

But they also gave us Alanis Morissette, Alan Thicke and 4 of the 5 Kids In The Hall.

I completely forgot the comic potential of Homer encountering Canadian beer. Man, that could have been a good episode.

Anyway, Flange makes another good point. There are quite a few big names in music and entertainment who have made it big south of the border. One thing I noticed on my trip to Chicago was the display at the Sears Tower highlighting the city's achievements. There was a life-sized picture of comedians from the Second City, which seemed to have a substantial Canadian component.

Let's see what kind of a list I can come up with off the top of my head: John Candy, Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas, Rick Moranis, Mike Myers, Dan Aykroyd, Roddy Piper, William Shatner, Christopher Plummer, Lorne Greene, Lorne Michaels, Guy Lombardo, Paul Anka, Bryan Adams, Will Sasso, Rich Little....

I could probably think of more, with a little time. There are a few musical groups and singers I could name, but I'm not completely sure how big they were outside of Canada.

Then again, JR makes a good point about the crappy entertainers we've produced. Let me add Celine Dion and K.D. Lang to his list.

HA!   That made me remember the scene from the South Park movie( I think it was in the movie..) - with the song 'Blame Canada'  and, of course, a Canadian official having to point out that Canada had ALREADY apologized for Bryan Adams some time ago.

Cullen - I can understand people who haven't watched the Simpsons religiously since the beginning not noticing the gradual decline.  For a Simpsons nut like me it's fun to watch a series of episodes that span the first several seasons and listen to the voice actors gradually perfecting their characters. And you can also see how the quality of the animations and the quality of the scripts improved over the years.  

And then as the years progressed you can start to feel the writers running out of ideas and the plots start to get more and more fragmented.

True. They also seem to have fewer things happening in an episode. At the show's peak, an episode would have a lot of things going on in half an hour, but it would all fit together. The jokes would be laid on in generous layers of varying subtlety. Now, we get episodes that feel stripped of all but the most blatant layer of humour. There just aren't as many laughs packed into a half-hour as there used to be. The characters, having been made more complex over the years, are now being reduced to oversimplified caricatures of themselves. As for the stories, there is either a lack of subplots, or they don't fit together.

It definitely feels like the writers are sitting around asking "what haven't we done yet?" When that happens, it't time to pull the plug.

Heehee....In the words of Sideshow Bob, "Well, that was a well written piece of non-claptrap that never made me want to retch...."    Ironic?

Ever seen "Quads"? Another plus for Canada (With a bit of help from some Aussies, of course)....

For giving us "Rush", Canada is forgiven of any and all social disgraces

It's amazing to see that our great comedians come from Canada, and I like Canada alot. But the only bad thing that Canada let loose on the entire world was Tom Green. If Green was the ONLY COMEDIAN to come from Canada then I would have closed the borders! Thank God that he has now disappeared from sight and we can all now focus the good things that came from Canada.

No, no, no! Canada gave us Neil Pert, and for that I am grateful, but that guy that plays bass and sings with the voice of a retarded cow is also in Rush, and that is unforgiveable.

Geddy Lee is a great bassist and a 'peculiar' singer; you either like his style or not.

Him and Alex together though are more creative as song writers then probably  99% of Nashville or LA

I believe it was Geddy Lee who sang the "Take Off" song that was used in the Simpsons episode. I was surprised to hear it, considering it was a novelty song from about 20 years ago.

In my list, I completely forgot another Canadian who would be particularly well known to a crowd who enjoy weird and disturbing films: David Cronenberg.

I believe it was Geddy Lee who sang the "Take Off"


Yes, he did

Rush is a very peridoxical band in that they are blessed with one of the most creative and gifted drummers in the world, yet they still suck. Hard and unmercifully.

Rush is a very peridoxical band in that they are blessed with one of the most creative and gifted drummers in the world, yet they still suck. Hard and unmercifully.

How many Canadians does it take to change a lightbulb?
Who Cares?

Sorry.  I mean no offense.  Just that between this post and Vice I've got Canadian propaganda coming out of my yankee ears