Shark Bytes

Too left wing...What now, since Obama is in office, heaven forbid TV insuslts him

The Simpsons has never jumped the shark. Evolution, sensitively undertaken - as it has been in The Simpsons - is no bad thing. To a luddite, the world always seems better 'back then'.

"The Simpsons" stands alone in television history. Never has a show so good become so bad over the course of time. Like many of you, I have trouble identifying exactly when it jumped the shark, but the show has been unwatchable for about a decade now.

The usual culprits mentioned here obviously contributed to the show's startling degeneration: too many self- serving and unnecessary guest stars; Homer morphing into a super annoying, Peter Griffin clone; the unbearable Democratic party dogma running through each script; the reliance upon Adam Sandler-Will Ferrell-style gross "humor" (farts, vomiting, blood, tons of male nudity, etc.); the failure to utilize great characters like Burns, Grandpa, Chief Wiggum and his son Ralph, etc., properly; the clear and obvious disregard that those who produce and write the show now have for their fans, exemlified by the character Comic Book Guy. I could go on and on.

The really sad part is that there are now far more horrible episodes than great ones. That gap will only widen, because this show isn't going to produce another even good episode, let alone a classic. Very few television shows remain great throughout the course of their run (maybe "Green Acres" and "Seinfeld"). However, no great show has ever fallen like "The Simpsons" has. At this point, the show has been terrible for so long that it almost ruins the good episodes for me. The characters are so unlikeable now that it's a lot more difficult to like them when watching those earlier shows.

Anyone who watched this show during its first 9-10 seasons, that doesn't think it has thoroughly jumped the shark, simply doesn't have a sense of humor.

The 2008-2009 season is, indeed, living proof that The Simpsons may have once Jumped The Shark, but then, leaped back over it. With the possible exception of this year's Treehouse of Horror, every episode has been great--nearly equal to the show's best years in the mid-1990s. Perhaps it's the beginning of a new Golden Age for this TV gem...it will be sorely missed if it ever does leave...

Last week, there was YET ANOTHER flashback episode which took a crap on continuity. Running out of ideas and having to resort to recycling plots? It's clear we fans mean nothing but $$$$$ to them.

I love The Simpsons, and can forgive a lot of ridiculousness (it is a cartoon after all), but the episode that finally did it for me was the one where Homer and Marge were young 20-somethings in the 90's, and Homer invented grunge. After several episodes which emphasized that they went to high school in the mid-seventies, this was a bit much for me. The only other real complaint I have is that a lot of the clever dialogue has been cast aside for lame "slapstick" humor. Yeah, I know it's cheaper to write, but it's not like the show's producers can't afford to hire some decent writers.

I think it got really bad when Conan left as a writer, and Phil Hartman died. Suddenly, we had a lot less quality characters (Troy McClure, Lionel Hutz) and a whole slew of subpar characters like Cookie Kwan, Lindsay Nagel, etc.

When it quit being a relistic show and just bacme an excuse for outragous schmes by Homer and the charecters lost most of there depth and just became one desonal versons of themselves.

Jumped when they started making fun of everything, and all the political jokes. Also too many pop culture references, like the Simpsons meet every famous person in the world.. It just gets boring... And they exaggerate everyones attitudes... (Homer is a raging moron, Lisa is a genius, nature lover, Bart is a troublemaker, Mr Burns is Hell-bent and crazy, Principal Skinner lives with his mother, god people, we get it..). Almost every channel stinks now... TV is nearly dead..

I hate how Homer is incredibly stupid (too stupid and predictable to be considered funny by anyone over age 5), except when it's time to make a political statement. Then he's an avid viewer of CNN.

I think The Simpsons jumped after season 16. Maybe I just grew up a bit, but I remember getting fewer and fewer laughs per episode as the seasons went on. Season 20, I don't think I have laughed once.

Oh, and if I have to sit through another "Homer & Marge love each other, here's the proof" flashback, I think I'm going to vomit.

Quite frankly, I've only ever watched the simpsons in syndication (my parents had this thing against me or my brother watching it growing up), but 19 years after it's inception, i still notice the same thing: it seems like, outside the 'Treehouse of Horror' eps, the show is like Cosmo magazine: 3-5 good plots that get repeated over and over, changing the writing a little bit each time. I mean, how many times have they cancelled the Krusty show? 30? 40?

Enough is enough, the only people who don't seem to notice the repetition ad nauseum are the diehard fans of the show, and there's enough of them that this pile of crap could (like Cosmo) repeat endlessly, because the fans refuse to accept that their once great show has long since turned into repetitive crap.

I agree with the guy who said season 10 was the jump. And also with the geezer the says the writers know they have an established audience and don't need to excite them any more.

However, my rule of thumb for a shark-jumping episode is if it's a mono plot, jokes are explained or characters make inane noises that only very young children have a right to be amused by. In short, season 10 onwards.

I'm liberal, but this show is almost too left-wing now. There are funnier things than insulting Fox and republicans.

Treehouse of Horrors was really good last night. I really liked the Peanuts parody. That was good. Other than that, I really like the older episodes. I remember watching this back during Tracy Ullman's run. The new ones have really lost it and it is almost like a different show nowadays.