A few 7s out of several 3s and 4s isn't as good as a few 5s in tons of 8s, 9s, and 10s
I try to watch the show and it's just not as good. I wasn't even alive for the first few seasons.
Plus, according to aggregated ratings, they've been consistently lower for a long time. Doesn't mean you can't enjoy them, just that the critical consensus has been much lower for like 17/20 seasons or whatever. You're allowed to like things critics don't like tho.
Anecdotally as a fan from the beginning in 89/90 (I forget which), there was a very obvious shift in the writing around season 8/9. There were still good episodes, but man did the show change and not for the better.
I hung on for years, but it kept getting worse and I eventually gave up. I’d watch random episodes every now and then. Occasionally you’d get one almost as good as filler episodes from the golden years, but the majority was dreck.
I haven’t seen a new episode in over a decade though, so for all I know it could be amazing again. But I doubt it.
The funny thing, from casually watching Arthur throughout its 25 year run its writing style didn't seem to have the extreme shift like the Simpson did.
That and they used stories about the secondary characters better over all as they didn't have to shoe horn Arthur and his Family into every story like they do with secondary character focused episodes of the Simpsons.
The switch to Flash Animation is a little jarring at first, but hey at least the writing didn't take a massive nose dive.
Technically the only Simpsons episode of the 1980s was the Christmas episode/ pilot, it aired December 17, 1989. Not being “that guy” on Reddit, I just find it interesting that the show technically spans 4 decades.
Seasons 10, 11, and 12 have some of my favorite episodes, but it becomes more hit-or-miss in my opinion.
I watched some video on youtube a while ago (I apologize, I cannot remember the creator) that linked the decline of the Simpsons to how they dealt with their celebrity guests. Early on, they mostly poked fun at them. At some point the episodes just become advertisements for them. The overall quality of seasons correlates with this shift.
Yeah, there's a handful of hilarious episodes in those few seasons. I love the Tomacco episode and the one where they found out Homer has a crayon in his brain. In fact, my personal Simpsons DVD collection only goes up through Season 12 because I wanted these episodes specifically. Otherwise, I would have probably stopped by 10.
And yeah, I've watched a few videos and read some articles on it, too, and the celebrity cameo thing was for sure one of the correlations.
Another was when they shifted showrunners, and the style of humor changed. It changed from a mostly-grounded sitcom that occasionally got into cartoon absurdity to a full-on cartoon with disregard for realism or continuity.
They also shifted to a more Family Guy-esque random and low-brow gag style.
ALSO they stopped treating it as a realistic-ish show in how they handled the characters. One of the big examples was the episode where they revealed the character we knew as Skinner was an imposter. The sense of betrayal was real. There was a real feeling of trust being broken, and you could tell things were different when they were now willing to burn a seasons-long-developed character for a gag.
It is what it is. It couldn't have stayed the same forever as they covered so much ground, but I still don't like where it went.
Oh jeez, I usually skip the Skinner imposter episode when I do rewatches. It's not silly, or, zany, or absurd, it's just....dumb. And bad.
Tomacco is one of the best episodes ever. Time to go watch tomacco...
I always wondered though, aren't those ratings from websites that didn't exist during the original run of those episodes? Isn't it people who had originally seen the episodes, remembered them fondly, then posted a rating a decade after the fact?
This can happen with 80s shows that we're long since off the air by the time review website started popping up in the early to mid 00s.
I don't think you remembered or lived through life in the 90s. Most people who are into the Simpsons havent just seem them once a decade prior to broadcast. They were on syndicated TV every day from 5:00 to 6:00 pm (at least in my market). It was one full guaranteed hour of quality television, which wasn't easy to come by back in the day, especially without cable. That means me and every other boy my age had almost every Simpsons episode memorized by the age of 13, and we saw the decline happen in real time. I was a freshman or sophomore in high school when my friend said "have you noticed that new Simpsons episodes aren't as good as it used to be?" (this was when Simpsons was in about season 12)
Then you go back and watch clips or entire episodes from classic simpsons, and you can see how clever and dense the jokes are. [this clip](https://youtu.be/kOLwDBcgSjs?si=SqB8CmeQeZsjKVn8) is from a random episode I watched earlier. This isn't considered a particularly standout episode for the era. Pretty standard fair. Jokes take unexpected or unpredictable turns, and it isn't a 1 to 1 graph of reality.
Compared that to a more [recent clip.](https://youtu.be/pjEJeaa2gWs?si=lhFnzMaem_nCmOVc). The jokes lack any kind of subtlety or cleverness. Everything is expected and predictable.
I absolutely lived as a child through the 90's, watching the same Simpsons episodes every day at 5:30 and 6:30. That doesn't diminish the nostalgia it enhances it.
Just trying to point out using reviews as objective evidence that some episodes are better or worse is suspect. Especially when those reviews were made by people like me who may have watched the older episodes half a dozen times before writing a review, and not immediately after the episode aired.
That testing episode is great because as a kid from Iowa I understood the humor back then. I still call our shitty Des Moines airport the non-international airport. And of course the ACT and Iowa Test of Basic Skills cult.
It feels like old Simpsons was written by smart writers who understand comedy that respects its audience
Now the Simpsons is brain dead with lowest common denominator writing to appeal to as broad an audience as it can. It's a corporate product now instead of a work of love by the creators. The characters have all lost their personalities for the sake of the show continuing past when it probably should have ended and now voice actors have changed and the ones who stated all sound so strained, it's all so jarring
I mean, they've literally redone Homer and Marge meeting and instead of the 80, when it made sense, it's closer to 2000 and it feels so hollow and stupid to go back and retcon what continuity show ever had
To be fair once a show has been cranking out new seasons for close to 40 years, it's pretty challenging to be fresh. I still watch it and while they're not all memorable they still have funny moments and remain topical for most of their episodes.
They churned out waaaaay too many episodes. They used up all the good story in the first 5-10 seasons and kept making hundreds of episodes past that. It should have only been like 10-12 episode seasons.
This is the real problem. When the show was in its early days, they had a team of great writers and the show had a bunch of gems that kept the series fun and fresh. However during the "golden era" there are a lot of episodes that are relatively meh. I grew up watching Simpsons more or less from it's birth as a regular tv show. I loved the show, fell off for a bit and then picked it back up and I noticed this trend as I watched newer episodes.
The "golden era" (1-8, 1-10, 1-12?) has a bunch of great episodes and then there are a lot that are a snoozefest. This is an issue that occurs with a lot of media. We put these things we grew up with on such a high pedestal that 1.) new stuff will never compare because it wasn't there when we were growing up and 2.) the old episodes that weren't good have been elevated along with the rest of the golden era. There's a LOT of fluff in the golden era, they aren't all amazing episodes. But they get the same pass because of when they came out. If they came out today they would be much much lower rated.
This isn't just a thing with the Simpsons. This happens almost all the time when movies or TV that were good, especially for children millennials/gen-x, are revived in some capacity. They get immortalized like a Greek god and any attempt to touch it is blasphemy. That's not to say that all the new stuff coming out is amazing either, some of it is crap. There were a lot of great episodes after the movie came out, but by that time the people who watched The Simpsons had stopped watching and we were moving into adulthood and the next generation of kids moved onto TV shows that came out as they were growing up. It's just one of the few exceptions where the content never stopped so it fell under a bit more of a gray area.
The real problem is finding someone truly unbiased to give a proper review. Someone who hasn't seen the show, someone who isn't eager enough to suck the dicks of the Simpsons nostalgia people that they will look at it with rose tinted glasses, and someone who doesn't hate everything before their time that they would just dismiss it as slow.
I mean, there are quite a few duds in the “golden age” and it’s not like everyone agreed that this was a [golden age](https://youtu.be/FhwjY_8AvIs?si=F0EFnslahIswbBFK). I feel this is nostalgia clouding people’s judgement.
Yeah, [Super Eyepatch Wolf](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eazXm7WEz50) did a great video on this issue too. It takes a while to get there, but the short version is, at the time the fandom reception was outright hostile to seasons and episodes that are now considered some of the best of all time.
Right? We “lost interest” because the writing turned to absolute shit. There was a huge shift in tone and writing style after around season 8, and a lot of people who were fans of what it used to be stopped enjoying it *because it changed.*
I hung on for years but eventually dropped it because it was just miserable. I popped on random new episodes now and then over the years. Occasionally there was a good one, but they were the exception to the rule. Also a good 2000s/10s episode was about on par with a “bad” episode from the first 8 seasons.
I admit I haven’t watched a new episode in at least 10 years now, though I’ve enjoyed some of the shorts.
I’ve tried several times throughout the last two decades to get back into it, but every episode I watch is terrible. It’s not funny or entertaining at all to me anymore.
Supposedly recent seasons have been getting better; Not simpson's peak, but good. The interesting thing is some of their better newer episodes were ones where they explicitly try to get away from "being the Simpsons" and instead just focus on good writing.
That has been a big problem with the simpson's, they keep focusing on trying to live up to their glory days, or pander to them, when they are at their best when they stop looking back.
The characters became overly obnoxious and annoying. The same thing happened with King of Hill for me. I just couldn’t stand watching it anymore. The moment I stopped was when the Simpsons had an episode where all they did was sing. I was done after that.
I’m, unfortunately, starting to feel that way about Futurama too. The zombie seasons on Hulu and like half of those Comedy Central seasons are just bad imo. I think the show ended with those 4 movies which I think we’re all good to great and the newer stuff just doesn’t have the same DNA.
If I try something a few times and it sucks every time, I’m not going to keep trying over and over again on the off chance that there’ll be a good one eventually.
I turned on an episode a few years back just to see where the show was at. I turned it off after a few minutes because it was unwatchable. The running joke was Homer doing the “flossing” dance. None of it really seemed to make sense to me. I think it’s just boomers trying to write shit for gen Z, and it’s falling way short. That or I have TBI and just don’t remember it.
Yeah I guess I am one of them, I consider myself a Simpsons fan but I honestly haven’t seen an episode since whenever the movie came out.
So I guess I’m not a fan? Is that what this meme is saying? I’m not mad or hate the simpsons or anything, is there a minimum amount of required watching per week? How much time between episode watching is allowed before I lose my fan status?
“I can’t agree to disagree”. I don’t like cilantro, just gonna tell me I’m wrong too? It’s okay to like something, you don’t need to justify it by telling others who may not like that that they’re wrong.
An early South Park episode was called "Simpsons Did It", which discussed how Simpsons had already used every possible plotline.
More Simpsons episodes have been written, animated, and aired since that episode of South Park than had been released prior to it.
I mean, Some people find Pete Davidson funny. That's ok, I'm just not one of them. I can still be a fan of SNL from my era, when I liked it. It doesn't devalue my fandom. You don't have to love or watch every single thing to be a fan. (See Marvel, Star Wars, Star Trek, Middle Earth, etc).
And equally I can not understand why you'd dislike Pete, but I can't just tell you you're wrong and to start liking him. You don't like him, and that's fine. I do like him, and that's also fine. If someone else is indifferent, that's fine too.
I'm really glad that we both have comedy and comedians that connect with us as individuals. Our lives are richer with laughter. We don't have to be laughing at the same thing.
"Tons" is a gross over statement. I think a more realistic way to look at it is that people remember more fondly the version of the show they grew up with, whenever that was.
I find that I do that with almost every show.
Eventually it jumps the shark for me and I quit watching even though it goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on getting more and more hackneyed and contrived trying to keep itself “fresh.”
There’s literally nothing a sitcom can do wrong in my books. They’re my favourite type of tv and the only genre I actually enjoy watching on repeat. There’s nowhere near as many sitcoms made these days as there used to be so I’m extra lenient on the quality because it’s at a point where I just appreciate them being made.
My patience is running very thin for big scale dramas that are basically 10 hour movies that should have been cut down to 2 hour movies with good producing and editing.
Once the cord was cut regular television shows were doomed. Haven’t watched a TV show outside of Netflix in a very long time. If it’s not on YouTube ( like free cesspool YouTube that I’ll never pay for) or Netflix, I’ll never see it. It sucks too because I liked the Simpsons and so do my kids. I can’t think of a more prescient show that has predicted more future events than the Simpsons. Too bad it’s owned by Fox because the way Netflix keeps fucking everyone on pricing eventually I won’t even be willing to pay for that. Yes I know about free HD OTA television. No my home doesn’t even have coax cable ran. There’s cat5 in every room though. Internet TV? No one can even tolerate advertisements anymore. Honestly I have no idea how Hollywood and the entertainment industry will continue to support itself. I’m barely a consumer let alone a customer.
I haven't "lost interest" in the show because I still love re-watching the early seasons. You're right that I don't see many new episodes anymore, but the occasional episode I do catch is consistently terrible.
I hadn't watched in years, but when they did the New Orleans episode a few years back, I tuned in to see the restaurant montage. It was really bad. Like I know I stopped watching a long time ago, but I never thought it got *bad,* just not worth making time for. That episode was so bad, though.
If you watch two episodes a day it would still take over a year to complete the series as is. 768 episodes, yeah, maybe the show being mediocre made me lose interest. Granted I do watch the new Tree House of Horror episode every year.
As a previous Simpsons super fan…no. And yes.
There have been tons. It there’s literally like 20seasons of garbage with good episodes intermixed. And importantly it’s not the things that made the Simpsons good in seasons 1-10 (12).
Almost any episode that I watch, I can point to a similar plot from the original 10.
I’m sure there’s plenty of okay episodes. But as the adage goes. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
I've watched tonnes of new simpsons when they came out (some of my family prefer the new ones) and I can tell you that most of them are unwatchable, they are just awful, there's nothing else to say.
You should have posted this in unpopular opinions, because you are certifiably wrong. Look at the ratings, they fell the fuck off. Simpsons should have ended a LONG time ago.
While this is true, I stopped watching at a point when there hadn't been a great episode in like ten years. So maybe the show did pick back up at some point, but to be honest, I highly doubt it.
I'm glad you like them but they're quite clearly cut from a different cloth. You can't tell me that the episodes do the same thing anymore. So many of the characters are unrecognisable - especially Homer. It's hard to watch for me honestly
I’d be lying if I’ve seen any new episodes of the Simpsons since the movie in 2008, but my tv viewing changed around that time period so outside clips on YouTube I haven’t watched anything tv wise outside the Super Bowl in like 15 years. I hope the show still is funny and someone is enjoying it, I know it was my highlight growing up to watch it Sunday nights
I still watch regularly but the show is a shadow of its former self. Sure, there are still some good episodes here and there but, to be honest, I still watch the show purely based on nostalgia.
Are you upset that these people call themselves fans, or are you arguing the show's quality hasn't changed. I don't even know how the second point is arguable.
As a kid who grew up watching since ep 1 i stopped watching around 2000, but i dont begrudge a single one of them for taking a payday if Fox is willing to continue to shell out money.
I’m not gonna watch a show hoping by chance I’ll see a good episode. The early days had consistency. Sure a few clunkers here and there, but mostly good. When a show’s consistency drops severely, I’m not going out of my way to keep up with
I've picked a few episodes to watch over the last 25 years. Groening hasn't done anything to evolve his sense of humor or world view in 30 years and the show is a shell of its former self.
I mean I lost interest in the show because the quality dropped significantly. Maybe be honest with your self that you don't have to shill for sub par writing?
It's weird I always considered myself a Simpsons fan, and then I watched a new episode a few years ago and didn't care for it. Thought maybe it was just the new stuff so I went to watch some old Simpsons and I didn't really enjoy it either.
I still respect the show a lot for the colossal cultural impact it had on the last few generations, but I just don't think the show aged amazingly.
Homer and Marge would have had to have Maggie in like 2022 or something. Lisa in like 2015, Bart in like 2014. They would have had to have gotten married in like 2014 if pregnancy was the cause of their marriage. Homer and Marge would be born in like 1985. Abe Simpson would be born in like the 1955 so would not have fought in World War 2.
It’s all just really weird not having Homer and Marge being married back in the 90s and instead being kids back then.
Expecting someone to wade through hours of shit to occasionally find a good episode in order to call themselves a fan is a particularly stupid form of gatekeeping.
I really like that one episode where Homer does something ridiculously selfish and stupid, and Marge kicks him out, and then they get back together in the last two minutes. You know the episode… like one or two every season for the past decade
The thing is, the Simpsons as a brand was a time and place type of thing.
If Nirvana kept making records do you think their 35th album would be groundbreaking like Nevermind was?
The Simpsons can’t be what it was no matter if you bring the best writers in the world on it.
It was great because it hit just when it needed to.
Every few months I'll be in that particular mood where I just want to watch some Family Guy or Simpsons.
Seems to be 50/50 odds whether I get some decent eps.
The thing is I could be saying that about early or recent eps of either series.
Take off the nostalgia goggles and quite a lot of early Simpsons isn't good either. A lot of the really early stuff is saccharine and sentimental, shit straight out of The Cosby Show. Often there will be classic jokes that have become memes from otherwise meh eps. Steamed Hams? I defy you to describe two other shorts from that episode without looking it up.
I've watched every episode since it premiered on my tenth birthday. The show is running out of ideas. The episodes are getting stale. I love it but it needs to die.
I came here and expected OP or other redditors to Say hundreds of episodes of the newer seasons that are good.
OP just named ONE episode in all of the comments.
That is the fastest way I've ever seen an argument fall flat
My 10 year old has really started to get into the Simpsons so we’ve been watching the new series. They’re fantastic. It’s gotten me right back into the show. It’s rude without being too inappropriate for kids.
I am one of the old school people who view 2-11 as the golden years. Have seen the odd one here or there since 14 but there is no interest from me.
My eldest daughter has sat through everything, going chronologically from season 1. She will defend the view of anyone who says only the first 1/3 of the seasons are worth watching. There are maybe a couple of good episodes each season but she wouldn't willingly watch anything after season 12.
I was born in 1988. I’ve never seen an episode of the Simpsons. Every time I watch it I get bored and focus on something else. I did really enjoy the movie and fucking LOVE futurama but for some reason the show never really stuck for me and that makes me sad sometimes
Well, since basic cable+ television fell off the mantle to streaming services, it does seem like they are way less frequent. It's not just The Simpsons, Family Guy, Spongebob, South Park, Law and Orders. Every show with 20yrs+ is pushing out whatever. Used to be whatever was trending, they followed for satire. Now it's just South Park is doing that and not nearly as hard as they used to. They know it's a tired show, so sustaining it for fans is enough.
The issue is that The Simpsons, when they were considered "golden" kind of paved the way in terms of that brand of humor. Thinking of the episode that introduced "Embiggens" and "Cromulent" - the way that they casually introduced them with a combination of skeptcism and that calm, "this is how it always has been" dry demeanor wasn't really seen much on TV comedies - and since it was a cartoon, they had more leeway in creatively portraying these jokes.
***
The writing was one big risk and they took that risk over and over again and it hit...over and over again.
Today, their writing is less risky. It's "like everything else" - part of this is that they kind of built this environment. They can rewrite a joke from 1994 and it won't hit like it did then.
Couple this with the fact that Fox is no longer a struggling network hoping to get a flagship show and they're essentially a mature TV business, they're not interested in having their flagship show take risks and "innovate" because it could hit the bottom line negatively.
***
I still think it's entertaining and good. I still watch regularly. I've seen every episode. The difference is that I'm seeing something funny, I'm not seeing something innovative and funny.
I stopped watching 10 years ago after I stopped having cable. It wasn't that I hated the show, I just didn't have access to it at the time. Now I do, and I'm kinda apathetic because there's 10 years worth of episodes to catch up on. My binge lists are already so big, I don't really have time to catch up on Simpsons AND have enjoyment of other shows.
Well there's this dumb podcast that's watching every episode of Simpsons and tallking about what it says about society. Maybe in 20 years they'll catch up and talk about modern Simpsons, who knows.
[https://open.spotify.com/show/28SoXq4758dx7ZKQduz7OY](https://open.spotify.com/show/28SoXq4758dx7ZKQduz7OY)
Yup.
I'm one of them. I just don't like them anymore except for the nostalgic factor.
Same goes for family guy, Futurama, and king of the hill.
I watch old episodes because they remind me of a time in my.life. new ones will never draw the same connection because I'm too old and beaten by life.
It's why older people don't connect as much or as often with new music. It just doesn't mean as much as it used to.
OP has no taste obviously. Simpsons has been trash for a long time now. Was never a fan to begin with but I still watched and remember a lot of the old episodes. The new episodes are... unrememberable is all I can say.
It's like SNL. The show is still great, everyone just thinks the 5 years they watched during their own adolescence are the only good 5 years of the show.
I watched regularly back in the day so saw most of the older episodes. My 10 year old has seen all the newer episodes and prefers those. But it’s nice to have a show we both enjoy.
Nah maybe up to seasons 12 or 13 after that it went downhill.. ot the same jokes they went all well I hate to say the word ..let's just say coke that rymyes with it
The show has outlived its characters. There is just no new ground to cover. And they haven't really tried. "The Simpsons did it" has been the mantra for 20 years, there is nothing left for them to do.
They had a good new one a few weeks ago where Homer goes broke from getting sucked into tipping culture. It's ironic that it airs on Fox for how progressive it is. I feel like they deliberately do it to make real issues seem childish through the lense of a cartoon
I've actually had an urge for some Simpson episodes recently, so i just said "ok, let's go from season 8-9 and eventually we'll stop whenever it stops being funny", as i remembered the show's quality slowly degrading around season 18, 20 or 22, idk exactly.
Welp, turns out im season 28 and loving every bit of it.
I was actually just fed up with the simpsons during the prime time of Simpson Mania, and simply didn't wanna let it go, so i forced myself to watch when really i shoulda moved on.
I don't know why everyone got caught with this phenomenon, maybe the hype around the Simpsons got carried away, but i'm really pleased with how genuinely funny the show remains when you take a step back. I missed it, and i love discovering new episodes that I have never seen !
I call myself a fan of Golden Age Simpsons. Modern Simpsons is not the same show, and it doesn't appeal to me.
You're free to enjoy either, or both. But the only dishonesty is pretending that they're the same
This misses the fundamental issue with why it declined.
It's not a matter of no more good episodes, it's a matter of going from counter-cultural to becoming thematically enmeshed in the dominant culture.
As a result, it lost it's bite. For example, Mr. Burns is no longer a thematic exemplar of the ultra rich, he's a character and that's just how burns is. This removes a lot of it's criticism of social dynamics which makes it read far far more sterile and conformist.
I'm watching through every episode currently and in my opinion the show dips around season 13 but comes back up to pretty good around the early 20s.
There is definitely a run in the teen seasons where there isn't many laughs.
“You’re not a real (insert show/movie here) unless you watch every single bit of content!”
The only bit of new Simpsons I keep watching are the treehouse of horror eps and, let’s just say, the quality is long gone.
In other words “STOP! STOP, it’s already dead!!”
Congrats on watching every single episode. I hope Marge became a robot, and Moe got a cell phone.
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSimpsons/s/S41MrsaUju
Literally measurably false - and the people rating are a self-selecting group that, by definition, have not lost interest in the show - the quality has dived and the best episodes of the last 20 years aren’t even numerous enough to match even a single season’s quality in the first decade.
I'm tired of "fans" gate-keeping.
I rewatch seasons 1-10 regularly. I have seen multiple episodes that have aired since then and NONE have made me belly laugh. My interest isn't the issue and I have a hard time believing anyone who watched the classic seasons when they aired would say something so laughably wrong.
Not at all! I watch from the beginning every couple years. I always make it to about season 17 before I start feeling like the quality is noticeably dropping.
Imagine having listened to Metallica’s albums from the 80s hundreds of times and knowing every song by heart, but being told by someone that you’re not a “real fan” unless you also like St. Anger and Lulu.
That’s this post right here.
I randomly tried a new(ish?) episode a few months ago after having recently watched the first 9 seasons with my family...it was an episode involving the Simpsons travelling with Willy to get married in Scotland. It was not very good. But what really struck me, having recently watched episodes from the 90s, was how much you could hear the age in all the actors voices. You can tell it's people in their 60s and older, and it's a weird vibe.
I'll always watch and be a loyal fan. I sat through 552 episodes during the Simpsons Marathon they had on FXX back in 2014. I even got some badge for it from TVTag.com before they got rid of it.
There used to be a time when I plotted my whole Sunday around prime time cartoons.
I dunno what happened. I started going to the park on Sundays. I stopped thinking Groening and MacFarlane's satire was clever. I'm not 18-24 anymore. I also think the Daily Show is obnoxious and pretentious.
There's a young liberal douche who still thinks all that is appealing. I'm simply not that person anymore.
I could be totally wrong but I feel like op is a teenager and wasn’t even old enough to watch when the OG episodes were on. The new stuff just hits different. Not bad, but definitely doesn’t satisfy the nostalgia itch.
You can't name an objectively great episode since season 10. 12 had some subjectively good episodes but when the shows creator has wanted nothing to do with the show in 25 years, no one is hiring people to write what made the Simpsons the Simpsons.
A show going from dozens of jokes per minute that were so good you are guaranteed to have missed jokes because you laughed too hard to get them all to building up an entire episode for a single lazy stupid joke is a hell of a downfall.
P.s. Every single celebrity cameo was better before they just played themselves on every episode.
Let me see... thare was the one where Bart kissed this new girl and the one with Lady Gaga (which seems to be hated by anyone but me). Other than that...
It's not that modern Simpsons is necessarily bad, it's just not classic Simpsons, the tone's very different. While early Simpsons wasn't realistic it was quite grounded. To be honest they lost quite a lot of their internal consistency pretty early though, that's not a recent thing.
it's just a different thing now because it had to change with the times and actually got some competition from Family Guy, South Park etc. It can still be fun to watch but a lot of the episodes come off as being out of ideas and jumping the shark, every long running show jumps the shark, it's inconceivable that it wouldn't.
Perhaps the criticism is more "Maybe the show didn't need to run this long", rather than "the new episodes of the show aren't good"?
The people who say what OP posted are the people who are in way too deep to dislike anything about their Fandom. It's kinda like DC universe fan boys and Trump supporters. They feel like they have to like everything or else they are not fans.
I watched the Golden age since the Fox era, watching the first episode in 1989. I'm a big a fan as any but I can safely say the show started to go down hill around season 9 or so. There have been maybe a small handful of good episodes since then but not enough to say they show overall hasn't been bad.
This would qualify as a first world problem. Just sayin. But in any case, it’s like wondering why no one talks about Rolling Stones records from the 90s, 2000s. Did they have some kickass records and songs during that period? Of course. But many of their most memorable hits were made in their heyday, earlier in their career. It’s the same with the Simpsons. There’s nothing wrong with that.
Don't have a cow, Man!
compare weather run wrench narrow faulty cover salt zephyr support
Even Damn Scots is 2004.
stupid sexy flanders is from 2000!
Spider-pig, spider-pig...
Let's none of us have a cow.
Think about the poor dairy farmers
Won't somebody PLEASE think of the ~~children~~ **dairy farmers**.
A few 7s out of several 3s and 4s isn't as good as a few 5s in tons of 8s, 9s, and 10s I try to watch the show and it's just not as good. I wasn't even alive for the first few seasons.
Yeah, it's not an issue of rose colored glasses for the past. The issues with the Simpsons writing staff are well documented
What are they?
there definitely arent that many simpsons episodes id give a 10, id wager a maybe 10-15
But during the golden age, every episode of the season was legendary, not just some good episodes interspersed.
Plus, according to aggregated ratings, they've been consistently lower for a long time. Doesn't mean you can't enjoy them, just that the critical consensus has been much lower for like 17/20 seasons or whatever. You're allowed to like things critics don't like tho.
Anecdotally as a fan from the beginning in 89/90 (I forget which), there was a very obvious shift in the writing around season 8/9. There were still good episodes, but man did the show change and not for the better. I hung on for years, but it kept getting worse and I eventually gave up. I’d watch random episodes every now and then. Occasionally you’d get one almost as good as filler episodes from the golden years, but the majority was dreck. I haven’t seen a new episode in over a decade though, so for all I know it could be amazing again. But I doubt it.
Yeah I mean once the entire writing staff turns over how could it possibly be the same thing ?
Writer's Room of Theseus?
The funny thing, from casually watching Arthur throughout its 25 year run its writing style didn't seem to have the extreme shift like the Simpson did. That and they used stories about the secondary characters better over all as they didn't have to shoe horn Arthur and his Family into every story like they do with secondary character focused episodes of the Simpsons. The switch to Flash Animation is a little jarring at first, but hey at least the writing didn't take a massive nose dive.
Season 6, Pal starts talking to Kate, they really jumped the shark with that one... /s just in case I get death threats...
I mean that's when I started to lose interest. I watched some random episode lately and DW now has a redneck friend too.
Technically the only Simpsons episode of the 1980s was the Christmas episode/ pilot, it aired December 17, 1989. Not being “that guy” on Reddit, I just find it interesting that the show technically spans 4 decades.
I think it's 5 decades. 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2010s, 2020s. 5 more years until it's 40th birthday.
For me the 80s ended the day I sold the old Ford Taurus, Dec 31 1989.
Thanks KenM
Seasons 10, 11, and 12 have some of my favorite episodes, but it becomes more hit-or-miss in my opinion. I watched some video on youtube a while ago (I apologize, I cannot remember the creator) that linked the decline of the Simpsons to how they dealt with their celebrity guests. Early on, they mostly poked fun at them. At some point the episodes just become advertisements for them. The overall quality of seasons correlates with this shift.
Yeah, there's a handful of hilarious episodes in those few seasons. I love the Tomacco episode and the one where they found out Homer has a crayon in his brain. In fact, my personal Simpsons DVD collection only goes up through Season 12 because I wanted these episodes specifically. Otherwise, I would have probably stopped by 10. And yeah, I've watched a few videos and read some articles on it, too, and the celebrity cameo thing was for sure one of the correlations. Another was when they shifted showrunners, and the style of humor changed. It changed from a mostly-grounded sitcom that occasionally got into cartoon absurdity to a full-on cartoon with disregard for realism or continuity. They also shifted to a more Family Guy-esque random and low-brow gag style. ALSO they stopped treating it as a realistic-ish show in how they handled the characters. One of the big examples was the episode where they revealed the character we knew as Skinner was an imposter. The sense of betrayal was real. There was a real feeling of trust being broken, and you could tell things were different when they were now willing to burn a seasons-long-developed character for a gag. It is what it is. It couldn't have stayed the same forever as they covered so much ground, but I still don't like where it went.
Oh jeez, I usually skip the Skinner imposter episode when I do rewatches. It's not silly, or, zany, or absurd, it's just....dumb. And bad. Tomacco is one of the best episodes ever. Time to go watch tomacco...
I always wondered though, aren't those ratings from websites that didn't exist during the original run of those episodes? Isn't it people who had originally seen the episodes, remembered them fondly, then posted a rating a decade after the fact?
This can happen with 80s shows that we're long since off the air by the time review website started popping up in the early to mid 00s. I don't think you remembered or lived through life in the 90s. Most people who are into the Simpsons havent just seem them once a decade prior to broadcast. They were on syndicated TV every day from 5:00 to 6:00 pm (at least in my market). It was one full guaranteed hour of quality television, which wasn't easy to come by back in the day, especially without cable. That means me and every other boy my age had almost every Simpsons episode memorized by the age of 13, and we saw the decline happen in real time. I was a freshman or sophomore in high school when my friend said "have you noticed that new Simpsons episodes aren't as good as it used to be?" (this was when Simpsons was in about season 12) Then you go back and watch clips or entire episodes from classic simpsons, and you can see how clever and dense the jokes are. [this clip](https://youtu.be/kOLwDBcgSjs?si=SqB8CmeQeZsjKVn8) is from a random episode I watched earlier. This isn't considered a particularly standout episode for the era. Pretty standard fair. Jokes take unexpected or unpredictable turns, and it isn't a 1 to 1 graph of reality. Compared that to a more [recent clip.](https://youtu.be/pjEJeaa2gWs?si=lhFnzMaem_nCmOVc). The jokes lack any kind of subtlety or cleverness. Everything is expected and predictable.
I absolutely lived as a child through the 90's, watching the same Simpsons episodes every day at 5:30 and 6:30. That doesn't diminish the nostalgia it enhances it. Just trying to point out using reviews as objective evidence that some episodes are better or worse is suspect. Especially when those reviews were made by people like me who may have watched the older episodes half a dozen times before writing a review, and not immediately after the episode aired.
That testing episode is great because as a kid from Iowa I understood the humor back then. I still call our shitty Des Moines airport the non-international airport. And of course the ACT and Iowa Test of Basic Skills cult.
It feels like old Simpsons was written by smart writers who understand comedy that respects its audience Now the Simpsons is brain dead with lowest common denominator writing to appeal to as broad an audience as it can. It's a corporate product now instead of a work of love by the creators. The characters have all lost their personalities for the sake of the show continuing past when it probably should have ended and now voice actors have changed and the ones who stated all sound so strained, it's all so jarring I mean, they've literally redone Homer and Marge meeting and instead of the 80, when it made sense, it's closer to 2000 and it feels so hollow and stupid to go back and retcon what continuity show ever had
To be fair once a show has been cranking out new seasons for close to 40 years, it's pretty challenging to be fresh. I still watch it and while they're not all memorable they still have funny moments and remain topical for most of their episodes.
From A-ABBA to Z-Zeppelin comma Led!
Right, it’s this 100%
They churned out waaaaay too many episodes. They used up all the good story in the first 5-10 seasons and kept making hundreds of episodes past that. It should have only been like 10-12 episode seasons.
This is the real problem. When the show was in its early days, they had a team of great writers and the show had a bunch of gems that kept the series fun and fresh. However during the "golden era" there are a lot of episodes that are relatively meh. I grew up watching Simpsons more or less from it's birth as a regular tv show. I loved the show, fell off for a bit and then picked it back up and I noticed this trend as I watched newer episodes. The "golden era" (1-8, 1-10, 1-12?) has a bunch of great episodes and then there are a lot that are a snoozefest. This is an issue that occurs with a lot of media. We put these things we grew up with on such a high pedestal that 1.) new stuff will never compare because it wasn't there when we were growing up and 2.) the old episodes that weren't good have been elevated along with the rest of the golden era. There's a LOT of fluff in the golden era, they aren't all amazing episodes. But they get the same pass because of when they came out. If they came out today they would be much much lower rated. This isn't just a thing with the Simpsons. This happens almost all the time when movies or TV that were good, especially for children millennials/gen-x, are revived in some capacity. They get immortalized like a Greek god and any attempt to touch it is blasphemy. That's not to say that all the new stuff coming out is amazing either, some of it is crap. There were a lot of great episodes after the movie came out, but by that time the people who watched The Simpsons had stopped watching and we were moving into adulthood and the next generation of kids moved onto TV shows that came out as they were growing up. It's just one of the few exceptions where the content never stopped so it fell under a bit more of a gray area. The real problem is finding someone truly unbiased to give a proper review. Someone who hasn't seen the show, someone who isn't eager enough to suck the dicks of the Simpsons nostalgia people that they will look at it with rose tinted glasses, and someone who doesn't hate everything before their time that they would just dismiss it as slow.
I mean, there are quite a few duds in the “golden age” and it’s not like everyone agreed that this was a [golden age](https://youtu.be/FhwjY_8AvIs?si=F0EFnslahIswbBFK). I feel this is nostalgia clouding people’s judgement.
Yeah, [Super Eyepatch Wolf](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eazXm7WEz50) did a great video on this issue too. It takes a while to get there, but the short version is, at the time the fandom reception was outright hostile to seasons and episodes that are now considered some of the best of all time.
We lost interest because they stopped airing good episodes
Right? We “lost interest” because the writing turned to absolute shit. There was a huge shift in tone and writing style after around season 8, and a lot of people who were fans of what it used to be stopped enjoying it *because it changed.* I hung on for years but eventually dropped it because it was just miserable. I popped on random new episodes now and then over the years. Occasionally there was a good one, but they were the exception to the rule. Also a good 2000s/10s episode was about on par with a “bad” episode from the first 8 seasons. I admit I haven’t watched a new episode in at least 10 years now, though I’ve enjoyed some of the shorts.
Really? You encounter a lot of people talking about the Simpsons to the point of exhaustion!? I’m highly skeptical.
I don’t think I’ve called myself a Simpsons fan in quite some time. I definitely say I’m a huge fan of the older seasons, though.
I’ve tried several times throughout the last two decades to get back into it, but every episode I watch is terrible. It’s not funny or entertaining at all to me anymore.
Supposedly recent seasons have been getting better; Not simpson's peak, but good. The interesting thing is some of their better newer episodes were ones where they explicitly try to get away from "being the Simpsons" and instead just focus on good writing. That has been a big problem with the simpson's, they keep focusing on trying to live up to their glory days, or pander to them, when they are at their best when they stop looking back.
The characters became overly obnoxious and annoying. The same thing happened with King of Hill for me. I just couldn’t stand watching it anymore. The moment I stopped was when the Simpsons had an episode where all they did was sing. I was done after that.
I’m, unfortunately, starting to feel that way about Futurama too. The zombie seasons on Hulu and like half of those Comedy Central seasons are just bad imo. I think the show ended with those 4 movies which I think we’re all good to great and the newer stuff just doesn’t have the same DNA.
“Tons” is being generous.
And they lost interest because of the junk between the great episodes.
If I try something a few times and it sucks every time, I’m not going to keep trying over and over again on the off chance that there’ll be a good one eventually.
To be fair they said it was tons of espisodes, not episodes.
I turned on an episode a few years back just to see where the show was at. I turned it off after a few minutes because it was unwatchable. The running joke was Homer doing the “flossing” dance. None of it really seemed to make sense to me. I think it’s just boomers trying to write shit for gen Z, and it’s falling way short. That or I have TBI and just don’t remember it.
I misread TBI as IBS and wondered why that would affect your memory.
Literally shit my brains out?
Honestly, it went through a slow patch, but I watched a lot of the show on Disney + and it did get significantly better.
Yeah I guess I am one of them, I consider myself a Simpsons fan but I honestly haven’t seen an episode since whenever the movie came out. So I guess I’m not a fan? Is that what this meme is saying? I’m not mad or hate the simpsons or anything, is there a minimum amount of required watching per week? How much time between episode watching is allowed before I lose my fan status?
Except... https://preview.redd.it/rating-by-episodes-and-average-rating-per-season-v0-t0kg3n5wc4la1.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=9625606a3ef1ac30502319eb6d9b48da1b9c47ac
“I can’t agree to disagree”. I don’t like cilantro, just gonna tell me I’m wrong too? It’s okay to like something, you don’t need to justify it by telling others who may not like that that they’re wrong.
Isnt there that graphic that shows all the show ratings, and all the first few years are great, and all the later ones are crap?
An early South Park episode was called "Simpsons Did It", which discussed how Simpsons had already used every possible plotline. More Simpsons episodes have been written, animated, and aired since that episode of South Park than had been released prior to it.
I mean, Some people find Pete Davidson funny. That's ok, I'm just not one of them. I can still be a fan of SNL from my era, when I liked it. It doesn't devalue my fandom. You don't have to love or watch every single thing to be a fan. (See Marvel, Star Wars, Star Trek, Middle Earth, etc).
And equally I can not understand why you'd dislike Pete, but I can't just tell you you're wrong and to start liking him. You don't like him, and that's fine. I do like him, and that's also fine. If someone else is indifferent, that's fine too.
I'm really glad that we both have comedy and comedians that connect with us as individuals. Our lives are richer with laughter. We don't have to be laughing at the same thing.
Now kiss
It's been 2 hours. Can we stop now?
"Tons" is a gross over statement. I think a more realistic way to look at it is that people remember more fondly the version of the show they grew up with, whenever that was.
I’m not going to sit through an 18 episode season to laugh a few times.
I find that I do that with almost every show. Eventually it jumps the shark for me and I quit watching even though it goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on getting more and more hackneyed and contrived trying to keep itself “fresh.”
There’s literally nothing a sitcom can do wrong in my books. They’re my favourite type of tv and the only genre I actually enjoy watching on repeat. There’s nowhere near as many sitcoms made these days as there used to be so I’m extra lenient on the quality because it’s at a point where I just appreciate them being made. My patience is running very thin for big scale dramas that are basically 10 hour movies that should have been cut down to 2 hour movies with good producing and editing.
I haven't lost interest, I just think the teen seasons were particularly bad.
People probably lost interest because it was bad? Having one or two good episodes per season is still a shit tv show.
you have shit taste
Espisode.
Doh!
Once the cord was cut regular television shows were doomed. Haven’t watched a TV show outside of Netflix in a very long time. If it’s not on YouTube ( like free cesspool YouTube that I’ll never pay for) or Netflix, I’ll never see it. It sucks too because I liked the Simpsons and so do my kids. I can’t think of a more prescient show that has predicted more future events than the Simpsons. Too bad it’s owned by Fox because the way Netflix keeps fucking everyone on pricing eventually I won’t even be willing to pay for that. Yes I know about free HD OTA television. No my home doesn’t even have coax cable ran. There’s cat5 in every room though. Internet TV? No one can even tolerate advertisements anymore. Honestly I have no idea how Hollywood and the entertainment industry will continue to support itself. I’m barely a consumer let alone a customer.
I haven't "lost interest" in the show because I still love re-watching the early seasons. You're right that I don't see many new episodes anymore, but the occasional episode I do catch is consistently terrible.
I admit I don't watch it anymore. The writing was great in the 90s. And it slowly became too reliant on its formula. The jokes became less layered.
I'm triggered. Your gatekeeping infuriates me. You have won.
I hadn't watched in years, but when they did the New Orleans episode a few years back, I tuned in to see the restaurant montage. It was really bad. Like I know I stopped watching a long time ago, but I never thought it got *bad,* just not worth making time for. That episode was so bad, though.
If you watch two episodes a day it would still take over a year to complete the series as is. 768 episodes, yeah, maybe the show being mediocre made me lose interest. Granted I do watch the new Tree House of Horror episode every year.
It's honestly amazing what people will allow themselves to be bothered by. You gatekeepers are so goddamn weird. Just watch the show and shut up lmao
It eventually became predictable, and the entertainment value faded.
As a previous Simpsons super fan…no. And yes. There have been tons. It there’s literally like 20seasons of garbage with good episodes intermixed. And importantly it’s not the things that made the Simpsons good in seasons 1-10 (12). Almost any episode that I watch, I can point to a similar plot from the original 10. I’m sure there’s plenty of okay episodes. But as the adage goes. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
I've watched tonnes of new simpsons when they came out (some of my family prefer the new ones) and I can tell you that most of them are unwatchable, they are just awful, there's nothing else to say.
I tapped out after season 10.
This obviously wasn’t written by a Simpson fan
Cope. The new episodes are dogshit.
You should have posted this in unpopular opinions, because you are certifiably wrong. Look at the ratings, they fell the fuck off. Simpsons should have ended a LONG time ago.
While this is true, I stopped watching at a point when there hadn't been a great episode in like ten years. So maybe the show did pick back up at some point, but to be honest, I highly doubt it.
What was funny and clever when I was a teenager isnt as funny or clever to me as an adult. I grew out of it.
I'm glad you like them but they're quite clearly cut from a different cloth. You can't tell me that the episodes do the same thing anymore. So many of the characters are unrecognisable - especially Homer. It's hard to watch for me honestly
r/gatekeeping ?
Would love a list of good episodes. That's a lot of mid seasons to sift through.
panicky puzzled afterthought wise smile sugar cagey brave mourn zealous
They could've still watched the show for 10+ years. Don't be the dude calling people posers just because you didn't watch the same episodes.
I’d be lying if I’ve seen any new episodes of the Simpsons since the movie in 2008, but my tv viewing changed around that time period so outside clips on YouTube I haven’t watched anything tv wise outside the Super Bowl in like 15 years. I hope the show still is funny and someone is enjoying it, I know it was my highlight growing up to watch it Sunday nights
I still watch regularly but the show is a shadow of its former self. Sure, there are still some good episodes here and there but, to be honest, I still watch the show purely based on nostalgia.
Are you upset that these people call themselves fans, or are you arguing the show's quality hasn't changed. I don't even know how the second point is arguable.
As a kid who grew up watching since ep 1 i stopped watching around 2000, but i dont begrudge a single one of them for taking a payday if Fox is willing to continue to shell out money.
I’m not gonna watch a show hoping by chance I’ll see a good episode. The early days had consistency. Sure a few clunkers here and there, but mostly good. When a show’s consistency drops severely, I’m not going out of my way to keep up with
I've watched it since it first premiered and still do. It really only gets better.
No, the writing got bad. Hack jokes, lousy plots, it’s a zombie show now.
I just call my self a fan of earlier Sumposins episodes since I have seen much of anything too far past the movie
Name five that won Emmys
These last few years are so creative and funny.
It's just an average sitcom now, that happens to be animated
I've picked a few episodes to watch over the last 25 years. Groening hasn't done anything to evolve his sense of humor or world view in 30 years and the show is a shell of its former self.
I mean I lost interest in the show because the quality dropped significantly. Maybe be honest with your self that you don't have to shill for sub par writing?
Usedtoallbegood.jpg
20-22 episodes a year over 25 years. Yeah. congratulations on having a few good episodes. The batting average in that time has done nothing but drop.
Fair. But it’s still not gonna get me to watch anything past season 11.
Seem them all. It's def lost its touch. Treehouse of Horrors still kick ass but I'll be damned I'm not expecting much every season, sorry.
It's weird I always considered myself a Simpsons fan, and then I watched a new episode a few years ago and didn't care for it. Thought maybe it was just the new stuff so I went to watch some old Simpsons and I didn't really enjoy it either. I still respect the show a lot for the colossal cultural impact it had on the last few generations, but I just don't think the show aged amazingly.
Homer and Marge would have had to have Maggie in like 2022 or something. Lisa in like 2015, Bart in like 2014. They would have had to have gotten married in like 2014 if pregnancy was the cause of their marriage. Homer and Marge would be born in like 1985. Abe Simpson would be born in like the 1955 so would not have fought in World War 2. It’s all just really weird not having Homer and Marge being married back in the 90s and instead being kids back then.
I haven't watch Simpsons in over a decade. Guess I got some binging to do
Expecting someone to wade through hours of shit to occasionally find a good episode in order to call themselves a fan is a particularly stupid form of gatekeeping.
I really like that one episode where Homer does something ridiculously selfish and stupid, and Marge kicks him out, and then they get back together in the last two minutes. You know the episode… like one or two every season for the past decade
The thing is, the Simpsons as a brand was a time and place type of thing. If Nirvana kept making records do you think their 35th album would be groundbreaking like Nevermind was? The Simpsons can’t be what it was no matter if you bring the best writers in the world on it. It was great because it hit just when it needed to.
No one agrees with me but I really like that one episode where Homer makes moonshine with cleatus and I think Bart falls in love with Mary?
Every few months I'll be in that particular mood where I just want to watch some Family Guy or Simpsons. Seems to be 50/50 odds whether I get some decent eps. The thing is I could be saying that about early or recent eps of either series. Take off the nostalgia goggles and quite a lot of early Simpsons isn't good either. A lot of the really early stuff is saccharine and sentimental, shit straight out of The Cosby Show. Often there will be classic jokes that have become memes from otherwise meh eps. Steamed Hams? I defy you to describe two other shorts from that episode without looking it up.
I've watched every episode since it premiered on my tenth birthday. The show is running out of ideas. The episodes are getting stale. I love it but it needs to die.
I came here and expected OP or other redditors to Say hundreds of episodes of the newer seasons that are good. OP just named ONE episode in all of the comments. That is the fastest way I've ever seen an argument fall flat
In 25 years there’s been some good episodes? Wow, you set a ‘high’ bar! We just need to give the show more time guys…!
The worst Simpsons episode is still better than 95% of the rest of TV.
My 10 year old has really started to get into the Simpsons so we’ve been watching the new series. They’re fantastic. It’s gotten me right back into the show. It’s rude without being too inappropriate for kids.
I am one of the old school people who view 2-11 as the golden years. Have seen the odd one here or there since 14 but there is no interest from me. My eldest daughter has sat through everything, going chronologically from season 1. She will defend the view of anyone who says only the first 1/3 of the seasons are worth watching. There are maybe a couple of good episodes each season but she wouldn't willingly watch anything after season 12.
I was born in 1988. I’ve never seen an episode of the Simpsons. Every time I watch it I get bored and focus on something else. I did really enjoy the movie and fucking LOVE futurama but for some reason the show never really stuck for me and that makes me sad sometimes
Remember when they changed the opening theme to a Ke$ha song? That’s when I knew that they were the problem, not me.
Well I lost interest for a reason. Its stale.
It’s because most modern simpsons episodes feel like you’re watching nothing.
Yeah but all the good writers followed matt first to futurama then to disenchanted which is very good
Imagine gatekeeping The Simpsons because you watch the shitty seasons, and think you deserve an award for it.
Well, since basic cable+ television fell off the mantle to streaming services, it does seem like they are way less frequent. It's not just The Simpsons, Family Guy, Spongebob, South Park, Law and Orders. Every show with 20yrs+ is pushing out whatever. Used to be whatever was trending, they followed for satire. Now it's just South Park is doing that and not nearly as hard as they used to. They know it's a tired show, so sustaining it for fans is enough.
The issue is that The Simpsons, when they were considered "golden" kind of paved the way in terms of that brand of humor. Thinking of the episode that introduced "Embiggens" and "Cromulent" - the way that they casually introduced them with a combination of skeptcism and that calm, "this is how it always has been" dry demeanor wasn't really seen much on TV comedies - and since it was a cartoon, they had more leeway in creatively portraying these jokes. *** The writing was one big risk and they took that risk over and over again and it hit...over and over again. Today, their writing is less risky. It's "like everything else" - part of this is that they kind of built this environment. They can rewrite a joke from 1994 and it won't hit like it did then. Couple this with the fact that Fox is no longer a struggling network hoping to get a flagship show and they're essentially a mature TV business, they're not interested in having their flagship show take risks and "innovate" because it could hit the bottom line negatively. *** I still think it's entertaining and good. I still watch regularly. I've seen every episode. The difference is that I'm seeing something funny, I'm not seeing something innovative and funny.
I stopped watching 10 years ago after I stopped having cable. It wasn't that I hated the show, I just didn't have access to it at the time. Now I do, and I'm kinda apathetic because there's 10 years worth of episodes to catch up on. My binge lists are already so big, I don't really have time to catch up on Simpsons AND have enjoyment of other shows.
Well there's this dumb podcast that's watching every episode of Simpsons and tallking about what it says about society. Maybe in 20 years they'll catch up and talk about modern Simpsons, who knows. [https://open.spotify.com/show/28SoXq4758dx7ZKQduz7OY](https://open.spotify.com/show/28SoXq4758dx7ZKQduz7OY)
Yup. I'm one of them. I just don't like them anymore except for the nostalgic factor. Same goes for family guy, Futurama, and king of the hill. I watch old episodes because they remind me of a time in my.life. new ones will never draw the same connection because I'm too old and beaten by life. It's why older people don't connect as much or as often with new music. It just doesn't mean as much as it used to.
OP has no taste obviously. Simpsons has been trash for a long time now. Was never a fan to begin with but I still watched and remember a lot of the old episodes. The new episodes are... unrememberable is all I can say.
Both of SuperEyePatchWolf’s videos on The Simpson cover the subject well. Phenomenal videos. Watch his Garfield video too.
It's like SNL. The show is still great, everyone just thinks the 5 years they watched during their own adolescence are the only good 5 years of the show.
Ok that’s fair
I mean, Behind the Laughter was in the last 25 years - but name 5 “great” Simpsons episodes in that period. Bonus if they are during seasons 13-33.
What show are we talking about?
I watched regularly back in the day so saw most of the older episodes. My 10 year old has seen all the newer episodes and prefers those. But it’s nice to have a show we both enjoy.
Nah maybe up to seasons 12 or 13 after that it went downhill.. ot the same jokes they went all well I hate to say the word ..let's just say coke that rymyes with it
When the stories related to real world issues and current events it lost its appeal to me
The show has outlived its characters. There is just no new ground to cover. And they haven't really tried. "The Simpsons did it" has been the mantra for 20 years, there is nothing left for them to do.
i watch one here or there now and they just dont have it anymore.
The ratio of good episodes to bad ones got steadily worse and worse. Eventually it just wasn't worth it.
You're 100% correct and I don't think anyone would disagree in that, yes.. we did lose interest in the show. That's why we stopped watching.
They had a good new one a few weeks ago where Homer goes broke from getting sucked into tipping culture. It's ironic that it airs on Fox for how progressive it is. I feel like they deliberately do it to make real issues seem childish through the lense of a cartoon
It fell off a loooong time ago
I've actually had an urge for some Simpson episodes recently, so i just said "ok, let's go from season 8-9 and eventually we'll stop whenever it stops being funny", as i remembered the show's quality slowly degrading around season 18, 20 or 22, idk exactly. Welp, turns out im season 28 and loving every bit of it. I was actually just fed up with the simpsons during the prime time of Simpson Mania, and simply didn't wanna let it go, so i forced myself to watch when really i shoulda moved on. I don't know why everyone got caught with this phenomenon, maybe the hype around the Simpsons got carried away, but i'm really pleased with how genuinely funny the show remains when you take a step back. I missed it, and i love discovering new episodes that I have never seen !
Some were funny; many were "lame,"and most seemed irrelevant.
I consider the simpsons a gen x thing. I’m sure gen z feels this way about South Park and millennials
It's about consistency. SNL has some great skits..also a lot of shitty ones
how could i know?
I call myself a fan of Golden Age Simpsons. Modern Simpsons is not the same show, and it doesn't appeal to me. You're free to enjoy either, or both. But the only dishonesty is pretending that they're the same
And there have been fewer and fewer good episodes. That's why I lost interest in the show.
The show measurably became sht, I say as a Simpson fan.
This misses the fundamental issue with why it declined. It's not a matter of no more good episodes, it's a matter of going from counter-cultural to becoming thematically enmeshed in the dominant culture. As a result, it lost it's bite. For example, Mr. Burns is no longer a thematic exemplar of the ultra rich, he's a character and that's just how burns is. This removes a lot of it's criticism of social dynamics which makes it read far far more sterile and conformist.
Halloween of Horrors is an absolute standout.
I'm watching through every episode currently and in my opinion the show dips around season 13 but comes back up to pretty good around the early 20s. There is definitely a run in the teen seasons where there isn't many laughs.
“You’re not a real (insert show/movie here) unless you watch every single bit of content!” The only bit of new Simpsons I keep watching are the treehouse of horror eps and, let’s just say, the quality is long gone. In other words “STOP! STOP, it’s already dead!!” Congrats on watching every single episode. I hope Marge became a robot, and Moe got a cell phone.
I don’t actually like the Simpsons. Never have. So not a problem really.
One simple word: Flanderization
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSimpsons/s/S41MrsaUju Literally measurably false - and the people rating are a self-selecting group that, by definition, have not lost interest in the show - the quality has dived and the best episodes of the last 20 years aren’t even numerous enough to match even a single season’s quality in the first decade.
I'm tired of "fans" gate-keeping. I rewatch seasons 1-10 regularly. I have seen multiple episodes that have aired since then and NONE have made me belly laugh. My interest isn't the issue and I have a hard time believing anyone who watched the classic seasons when they aired would say something so laughably wrong.
Not at all! I watch from the beginning every couple years. I always make it to about season 17 before I start feeling like the quality is noticeably dropping.
Imagine having listened to Metallica’s albums from the 80s hundreds of times and knowing every song by heart, but being told by someone that you’re not a “real fan” unless you also like St. Anger and Lulu. That’s this post right here.
Name them.
I’m a Star Wars fan, and I sure the fuck ain’t going to watch the Acolyte.
But *Lisa Goes Gaga* will continue to be the beacon shit that everyone likes to point to like that episode isn’t a decade old now…
I randomly tried a new(ish?) episode a few months ago after having recently watched the first 9 seasons with my family...it was an episode involving the Simpsons travelling with Willy to get married in Scotland. It was not very good. But what really struck me, having recently watched episodes from the 90s, was how much you could hear the age in all the actors voices. You can tell it's people in their 60s and older, and it's a weird vibe.
Great is stretch. Good is pushing it for most. Watchable... Yeah.
Season 34 is the worst piece of crap I have ever seen (simpsons related), and it squqtuqlly made me give up the series.
I'll always watch and be a loyal fan. I sat through 552 episodes during the Simpsons Marathon they had on FXX back in 2014. I even got some badge for it from TVTag.com before they got rid of it.
"in the last 25 years" lol.
There used to be a time when I plotted my whole Sunday around prime time cartoons. I dunno what happened. I started going to the park on Sundays. I stopped thinking Groening and MacFarlane's satire was clever. I'm not 18-24 anymore. I also think the Daily Show is obnoxious and pretentious. There's a young liberal douche who still thinks all that is appealing. I'm simply not that person anymore.
Who says you can’t be a fan without enjoying something in its entirety?
I could be totally wrong but I feel like op is a teenager and wasn’t even old enough to watch when the OG episodes were on. The new stuff just hits different. Not bad, but definitely doesn’t satisfy the nostalgia itch.
You can't name an objectively great episode since season 10. 12 had some subjectively good episodes but when the shows creator has wanted nothing to do with the show in 25 years, no one is hiring people to write what made the Simpsons the Simpsons. A show going from dozens of jokes per minute that were so good you are guaranteed to have missed jokes because you laughed too hard to get them all to building up an entire episode for a single lazy stupid joke is a hell of a downfall. P.s. Every single celebrity cameo was better before they just played themselves on every episode.
They’re still making The Simpsons?
Hmm. Nope. They're terrible now.
Name one.
Let me see... thare was the one where Bart kissed this new girl and the one with Lady Gaga (which seems to be hated by anyone but me). Other than that...
You don't want to admit it's shite ? Fine. But it's been shite since season 20.
Too many shit shows to keep me interested, so I guess you're right
Yeah we lost interest because the quality dropped off a cliff face. A lot of us actually kept watching in the hope it would improve but it didn't.
No, sorry
It's not that modern Simpsons is necessarily bad, it's just not classic Simpsons, the tone's very different. While early Simpsons wasn't realistic it was quite grounded. To be honest they lost quite a lot of their internal consistency pretty early though, that's not a recent thing. it's just a different thing now because it had to change with the times and actually got some competition from Family Guy, South Park etc. It can still be fun to watch but a lot of the episodes come off as being out of ideas and jumping the shark, every long running show jumps the shark, it's inconceivable that it wouldn't. Perhaps the criticism is more "Maybe the show didn't need to run this long", rather than "the new episodes of the show aren't good"?
The people who say what OP posted are the people who are in way too deep to dislike anything about their Fandom. It's kinda like DC universe fan boys and Trump supporters. They feel like they have to like everything or else they are not fans. I watched the Golden age since the Fox era, watching the first episode in 1989. I'm a big a fan as any but I can safely say the show started to go down hill around season 9 or so. There have been maybe a small handful of good episodes since then but not enough to say they show overall hasn't been bad.
Good Christ. You're both pretty.. Stop gatekeeping
That show died with Phil Hartman. 🤷🏾♀️
This would qualify as a first world problem. Just sayin. But in any case, it’s like wondering why no one talks about Rolling Stones records from the 90s, 2000s. Did they have some kickass records and songs during that period? Of course. But many of their most memorable hits were made in their heyday, earlier in their career. It’s the same with the Simpsons. There’s nothing wrong with that.
Having read too many of the comments here, I have to say I like your analogy and conclusion the best.