Somebody Explain This To Me

[Squishy]

Sorry, but it's time for another 9-11-related controversy.

Immediately after the horrific attacks of the World Trade Center and Pentagon, a few people got bent out of shape on this board because an episode of The Simpsons--the one where the family goes to New York City and Homer spends over half the episode at the WTC--was going to be held out of syndicated reruns for a time.

Check out what made the cut instead.

Last night's syndicated rerun was a better-than-average entry from the sadly forgettable pile of waste that is the last couple of seasons of The Simpsons. The "Boy Band" episode, in which a crazed band promoter/Navy recuiter hijacks an aircraft carrier, pilots it into the waters off Manhattan Island (the WTC is briefly visible), and fires missiles at the "Mad Magazine Building" (which looks kind of like Rockerfeller Center with Alfred E. Neuman's head on top). The skyscraper collapses into smoking rubble. The occupants (seen momentarily just before the attack) stand up in the debris, unharmed.

Mad Magazine Personnel #1: "Is everyone okay??"
Mad Magazine Personnel #2: "Yeah, we're fine!"
Mad Magazine Personnel #3: "I actually feel better!"

Okay, I'm not arguing whether or not it's too early to show this kind of thing again--although the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as the building exploded and fell to the ground, and I doubt I'm the only one who felt that way, even if it's a cartoon--but I can't figure out how this one got an "okay-to-air" and the one where Homer races up and down both towers of the WTC, looking for a place to pee, didn't. Sure, the "Mad Magazine Building" seen in this episode is a fictional building, but when Homer finally escapes New York City, everything is still standing.

What is the criteria?
__________________

Oh, hey, look at that! Bruce Tinsley, ultraconservative, self-proclaimed superpatriot and artist of the comic strip "Mallard Fillmore," decided to p**s on New York City cops trying to find their fallen fellow officers lost at Ground Zero. Ha ha, Bruce sez they're all fat and weak. Bravo, Bruce, you're a true American hero. (Translation: If I though you were capable of it, I'd tell you to be ashamed of yourself, you filthy inhuman s***head. Go to hell.)

[AndyC]

You make two very good points, the first being that the last couple of seasons of the Simpsons have been disappointing. The jokes are spread too thin, the subtle humour is gone, the characters are inconsistent and the stories are ridiculous, even for the Simpsons. This year's season premiere was awful. It's gone from a show that was put together with care to one that is slapped together by people who seemingly have no idea what made it great in the past. I guess it happens to many long-running shows, but I was hoping the Simpsons would be immune. After all, they've escaped the trap of the kids growing up, they're not limited by what can be built or simulated through special effects, and they have a huge assortment of characters. There is certainly no shortage of material to parody. In spite of this, the end appears to be near. Unfortunately, the show still has momentum from its past greatness. Like so many big hits of the past (see Happy Days), it will be allowed to continue until it is a total piece of crap.

The other good point was about the boy band episode. I'd forgotten about that one, but now that you mention it, I'd say it would have been a better candidate for shelving (at least for a few months) than the one that simply featured the WTC prominently and somewhat affectionately. I can't speak for anyone else, but for me, seeing the towers, as in King Kong (1976) or Escape from New York, was comforting in a way. I sought out those movies and others. Perhaps they let me imagine, if just for a moment, that the towers were still there. I spent a lot of time learning everything I could about the WTC. I wish I'd done it while the building was still there.

Anyway, I don't think much thought went into decisions of what was, or was not, appropriate for broadcasting after Sept. 11, which is why it bothered me in the first place. In the case of the Simpsons, there was one knee-jerk reaction involving the first episode that popped into everyone's mind, and not a whole lot of mental energy expended after that. Of course, if networks were going to sit on everything that reminded people of the WTC disaster over the past couple of months, it would be a long list.

[Jay O\'Connor]

Unfortunately, the show still has momentum from its past greatness. Like so many big hits of the past (see Happy Days), it will be allowed to continue until it is a total piece of crap.

So when did the Simpsons Jump The Shark?

[Squishy]

Oh, thank God. A support group for disappointed TV-series fans. Okay, when I say it like that I sound completely pathetic, but... Thanks, Jay! Going back right now.

[Chris K.]

This is how I see it. If you see Homer running up and down both the World Trade Center towers in order to take a leak in the washroom, the people (i.e. the ones watching TV and the ones who suffered the September 11 incident) will find that seeing the World Trade Center towers will bring back the "bad memory". And it might ideed do so, but what's really offensive about that segment? Nothing! Some just want "to cause some controversy" even when it the particular subject that is presented is not controversial at all.

As for the blowing up of Mad Magazine segment, the question rises why THAT PARTICULAR EPISODE WAS ALLOWED TO AIR! However, some might say that you can't compare both the World Trade Center and the Mad building together. World Trade Center had innocent, hard working people killed while Mad has some sleezy people creating raunchy humor for a toliet infested magazine that nobody  cares about and would wish that Osama Bin Laden should have destroyed that building instead. I like Mad (I do have a sense of humor, unlike the ones out there who do take it too seriously), but the question still remains!

I really don't know and if my statement is way-off for you then you are not alone for I myself don't get it. I just write it anyway just to get the "shock value". But the bottom line is that I found nothing at all offensive on either Simpson episode. I really find the censorship of these to be a joke! On THE SIMPSONS, it's delived as humor not seriousness. And I take it as humor. But that does not mean I am laughing at the World Trade Center incident, I am laughing at the cartoon episode. And I understand the humor and find it not offensive.

[Chadzilla]

Great time to vent on disappointments when a show "Jumped the Shark!"  Great site, love it.

[FaerieOfDeath]

The "fictional building" part probably had a lot to do with it, plus it's been a few months and is seems the censors have relaxed a bit, there's no longer a controversy every time a rerun shows a glimpse of the wtc.  But I agree, it does seem unfair to have such a seemingly arbitrary decision (and the New York episode was definitely superior to the Boy Band one). And this is true, Mallard Fillmore needs to die, I can't believe my local newspaper actually runs it.  Even before insulting the NYC police, it was a piece of crap.

[Mofo Rising]

Well, I see it as humor and tragedy don't really mix.  At least so soon.

This is why they shelved BIG TROUBLE until next year.  In and of itself it is not offensive.  It's just that the plot points will bring up unpleasant associations with the events of September 11.  This isn't a good thing if you want people to laugh.  So it was shelved until people have a time to digest things.

It's the same with the Simpsons WTC episode.  There isn't anything offensive in the episode, it's just not appropiate to play it at this juncture.  The MAD building blowing up may be reminiscent of the tragedy, but it's far enough removed that nobody will really get "Mad".  (Get it?)

So, it's not a controversy.  It's just that it's a bitter pill to swallow while you're trying to be entertained.

Krusty:  "What's the difference between Pakisan and a pancake?  I don't know any pancakes that were nuked by India!  What?  Too soon?"

And just for the record, I still enjoy the Simpsons as much as I ever have.  In fact I thought the recent Moe/bar episode, while repetitive, was hilarious.  But that's my opinion.  (And my opinion is always right, but that's another matter.)

[Flangepart]

Well.....i useualy like "M. Fillmore". ,so send the flame my way if you like, Fare is fare. I have to say, for you and Squishy, it seems like you've found your  own ox gored, and now know how some on the other side feel, sometimes. Still, as i've not seen the strips in question, i'll reserve judgment. I might agree with ya', Squish. Hey, that does happen! BTW, Squishy,what do you think Of Liberty Medows going full time comic book? Frank Cho got tired of the Newspaper censors, and now he can do as he likes. This should be good for ol' "Monkey boy", creativly speaking.

[AndyC]

I agree there is still the occasional gem of an episode. My problem is that last year, The Simpsons had only a few gems in a mostly forgettable season. This season's opener would suggest the trend will continue. At the show's peak, nearly every episode was a good one. Then it got to be a few clunkers in an otherwise good season, and now the proportions seem to have reversed. There is certainly no reason why the show cannot continue as it always has, but from what I can see, there just isn't as much thought or effort going into it as there was in the past. It's not as complex or as clever as it once was.

[Jay O'Connor]

A got a laugh a few weeks back when they showed "Escape From New York", with Snake landing on the WTC

[Squishy]

The Simpsons needs a serious injection of fresh, enthusiastic talent. Right now, the writers are mostly smug, oh-so-bored-with-it-all Hollywood posers who never miss a chance to celebrate the show's decline in quality. Both plotlines and gags are ill-considered and cobbled together in a near-incoherent mishmash, and at the end, some character will point out that the episode made little or no sense, or wasn't very funny. When a show announces weekly, "we suck now, but we still get paid, ha ha," it's time to fire the writers or pull the plug. Unfortunately, since Simpsons is still touching the Top Thirty in the Nielsens, we can look forward to more of the same. Well, you can. I quit. Goodbye, Maggie, I hardly knew ye. Thank God the syndicated reruns will return to earlier seasons eventually...thank God for the DVD collections.

I'm just a little astonished that Escape was one of the first "questionable" movies to air after 9-11, since it features a jet, hijacked by terrorists, deliberately crashed into a building in Manhattan. The Sci-Fi Channel kept advertising Meteor (in which the WTC and several other buildings are destroyed by a single falling rock that must have had a very wild trajectory), but then kept pulling it at the last second. I don't know if it ever aired...

I don't care that Bruce Tinsley ("Mallard Fillmore") is conservative, or that he criticizes liberals. We agree on more than a few basic issues. What "gores my ox" are his smug, self-righteous attacks on people who are suffering, and his baiting of people for its own sake. He lashes out at NYC police, who lost so many comrades on 9-11; he presents his own Jesse-Helms-level bigotry cached as "defending the country against 'Tolerance'" and "Political Correctness"--because you just know LEGAL immigrants/minorities/homosexuals simply aren't getting ENOUGH crap these days. Bruce really, really, really  wants to do a "kill-a-towelhead-for-Christ" strip, but like most conservative "commentators," he's a cowardly bully who knows where the line is drawn. He'll say crap in his strip he'd never say in public. He will stomp and snort and bluff and bluster, but he's about as likely to cross that line as he is to actually do military service in wartime. He's Dan Quayle with more venom.

[Squishy]

Whoops, I was on my high horse and forgot about this...

I don't think it was so terrible that newspaper editors wanted Cho to change "b***h" to "wench" and cover Brandy's cameltoes, Dean's defecation, or whatever. Cho sets out to deliberately provoke the "censors," and when they react as expected, he gives himself a big boost playing the "Wounded Christ-Like Defender of the First Amendment." I like Liberty Meadows and Frank Cho is a fine artist, but that's bulls***, and we all know it. Including Frank.

I certainly hope that Frank (the character, not the artist) will be gone when Meadows goes "book"--or at least grows a pair of testicles. I am so very, very tired of this spineless wimp doing his "spineless wimp" bit. Fortunately, the strip is at the point now where Cho's University wrapped up--with Duck-Frank and Brandy's breakup--and it looks like Brandy's sticking around.

Wanna see another great strip--even funnier than Meadows--by another artist who plays the "Wounded Christ-Like Defender of the First Amendment," but not so blatantly and all-consuming?  "Sinfest" has everything, from full-blown obscenities and sex-starved doofuses for Beavis, to religious and policital hijinks and funny-animal stuff for the rest of us.     http://sinfest.net/

[Flangepart]

Squishy, i can always count on you to speak your mind. I respect people like that, even if i disagree with them. At least ya know where ya' stand with 'im. Hope you take me the same way. I found the Tinsley Toon you mentioned. I....would not have done that one. The NYPD lost fewer brothers then the FDNY, but they did suffer. He seemed to be standing up for the Firemen, but i just don't see why he did this gag. I still like the strip, but i have to put this one down to bad judgment. Its a chance anyone takes doing creative stuff. Trust me, i know! I don't doubt that you've had to bull your way througn some harsh criticisim of your own stuff. If you don't have faith in your abilites, no one else will. Thats why Andrew, Abby, Apostic, Nathan, Dr. Freex, and the rest of the gang do so well. What ya' see, is what ya" get!"Sinfest.Net" sounds  like it may be a bit outside my tastes, but i'll give it a look.  I agree about Frank...."Casper milktoast" can only go so far, then it gets repetitive. When you let your characters grow, then you can do more with them. "Keep the audience" guessing risks offending some readers, and pleasing others. Its a chance ya' take. Ah,well. Later!

[AndyC]

Squishy wrote:
> plotlines and gags are ill-considered and cobbled together in
> a near-incoherent mishmash, and at the end, some character
> will point out that the episode made little or no sense, or
> wasn't very funny. When a show announces weekly, "we suck
> now, but we still get paid, ha ha," it's time to fire the
> writers or pull the plug.

I agree, that the writers are getting lazy. I think they've also done what writers on too many other popular shows have done. A little self awareness and self mocking is funny in a show. In the past, the Simpsons have also done an occasional gimmick episode that worked well. Initially, making Homer more of a doofus made him funnier. They've done plenty of things that worked well in moderation, as part of a well-balanced show. I think what we have here is another case of writers and TV executives who think that if viewers enjoy a little of something, then give them a lot of it. Doesn't work.

That's what p**ses me off the most about the Simpsons' slide down the slippery slope - the writers are now making the same stupid mistakes they once ridiculed in other shows.