this LJ post is also cursed.

[thehefner]

GOOD WILL HUNTING simulator. Best movie-to-game ever?

This is probably the best chance as any to finally use this gif:





In similar news, Nathan Rabin--the very best writer on The AV Club--has decided to review every SIMPSONS episode ever, starting with the Christmas pilot. I'd long ago written that pilot off with the first season as nearly unwatchable, a rough curiosity at best but more notable for who it offended than any quality itself. But Rabin makes an extremely compelling and eloquent analysis for "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire," an episode I haven't seen in about ten years but remember vividly:

"The Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" derives much of its pathos and humor from Homer’s thwarted attempts to be a good provider. Homer can’t afford a tree so he steals one from a lot. He’s humiliated by the indignity of life as an easily-agitated Santa impersonator, especially when he learns that after costume, training and Christmas fund charges he’s netted exactly thirteen dollars for his labors. There’s a heartbreaking moment when Homer looks at neighbor Ned Flanders’ elaborate Christmas display—a gaudy exercise in empty spectacle that seems to mock Homer's poverty—and simply hangs his head in shame.

Being a Christmas special, albeit of the warped variety, the first full-length episode of The Simpsons is unusually sentimental and nakedly emotional. At one point Homer tells Bart, “Sometimes your faith is all that keeps me going.” It’s a line at once jarring and deeply powerful, jarring because subsequent episodes suggest Bart has no faith, in his father or anything else, and deeply powerful because it’s so incongruously tender and vulnerable and sad.

Early on, Rabin recounts how he made Matt Groening deeply uncomfortable by admitting how THE SIMPSONS "had brought more joy and happiness into my life than anything else." What's weird is, pound for pound, when you consider just how much influence that show has had into pop culture as a whole, not to mention the years and years and years of quote-sharing and rousing renditions of "See My Vest"... I think that might hold true for me as well. THE SIMPSONS was one of the few constant joys for me during my darkest pre-teen, teenage, and college years.

When my old pal berkolounger--who I'm still waiting to see finally explode as a bold new talent in comics--did a web(tragi)comic about two brothers who can only communicate through SIMPSONS quotes, it definitely hit some personal notes, and I know I'm not the only one who feels that way.

It seems strange, perhaps even a little sad to consider this, but I literally cannot imagine the kind of person I'd be if that show hadn't shaped my outlook and sense of humor (along with LOONEY TUNES, Mel Brooks, the Zucker Bros, and FREAKAZOID).

...

Oh hell, one more SIMPSONS gif that I won't be able to use anywhere else!

Comments

[surrealname.livejournal.com]

And all of that sweet humanity has been dropped in favor of the unfunniest writing in cartoon history. 10 years that show has been tarnishing it's own good reputation. I sometimes think I hate the simpsons now.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

It actively hurts to hear younger folks say "I hate THE SIMPSONS," half because of how great the show was, and half because I can understand where they're coming from, since the crappy seasons now outnumber the great ones (which, upon revisiting, are STILL brilliant).

I get the feeling that Rabin's essays are going to help make up for the damage that subsequent seasons have wrought.

[pokeyburro.livejournal.com]

It actively hurts to hear younger folks say "I hate THE SIMPSONS,"

It stings a little to think you were barely sentient when the series STARTED.

Younger folks. Heh.

Well, say what you will, this show marks generations...

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Barely sentient my ass! I watched it on the TRACY ULLMAN show and used to see it played at Spike and Mike's Animation Festival back when the Biograph Theatre still existed in Georgetown! Of course, I was never able to see the real STAR WARS films in the theatre, but still! I've been with that show from the very beginning!

Well, I didn't want to say, "Damn dirty teenage plebeians." But I was certainly thinking it loudly!

[surrealname.livejournal.com]

John, have you actually watched the Show lately?

Its... John, it's the worst thing on television. Seriously.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

I've seen a couple episodes that ain't that bad. Actually, one or two were pretty darn good. And really, is it all worse than THE CLEVELAND SHOW? Or, say, THE JERSEY SHORE? Non-cable TV is extremely shitty, man. I'm sure there's worse out there.

Shit, I can't imagine that SNL isn't worse.

[surrealname.livejournal.com]

It's the worst for me, because I can remember when it was the best. The Cleaveland show and Jersey shore do not have reputations to tarnish and SNL, should have a reputation to tarnish, but we all know that SNL goes cast to cast on good or bad, and has technically only had 2 5-7 year periods of being GREAT.

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

What's funny is, the quality I find most jarring about those early episodes is how clearly the show had yet to outgrow being an animated Married ... With Children. It actually took it a little while before I stopped expecting Homer to hit Al Bundy's beats.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Thinking about that Rabin essay, he really does miss out that MARRIED... WITH CHILDREN beat THE SIMPSONS for the subversion of the sitcom family. The only difference is that the latter did so with a bit more genuine emotional depth. Man, I'll always have a soft spot for that old Sunday evening line-up... even if it did include HERMAN'S HEAD (I kid, I kid.)

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

I wonder occasionally if anyone, even Leavitt and Moye, really *got* Married ... With Children the whole way through. The entire cast became an exercise in Flanderization, and Marcy managed the neat trick of being both a Straw Feminist AND a Straw Conservative, back before Sarah Palin made such a combination possible, and as much as I enjoyed the London episodes, revealing that Al Bundy really was the subject of an ancient family curse marked the moment when the show disappeared completely up its own ass, beyond any ability to return. And yet ... goddamn, the social commentary was some of the sharpest you could hope to see in sitcoms back then, culminating in Al's legal victory against Randall "Tex" Cobb as the burglar who breaks into his house (the burglar successfully sued Al, but in the end, All pissed him off so much that the burglar punched him in the courthouse, thereby winning all of Al's money back in a countersuit).

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

At its best, it was one of the best kinds of social commentary: the kind disguised as disposable trash and sleaze.

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

It was the best British comedy ever produced by American television.

[surrealname.livejournal.com]

Don't forget Parker Lewis can't lose.

COOOOOOOOBBBBB!

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

I was trying to remember what played between SIMPSONS and MARRIED, and wanted to say it was PARKER, but I thought that was more of a Saturday Morning show.

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

First two seasons of Parker Lewis Can't Lose were awesome. Third season was shit.

[surrealname.livejournal.com]

There was a third season?

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

It was retitled Parker Lewis in its final season (minus the "Can't Lose").

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Yup. I even remember a moment where he looked at the camera during a particularly tough moment and asked, "Remember when I couldn't lose?"

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

Problem being that this killed the whole show. I was watching Parker Lewis to see Ferris Bueller in a world that ran on cartoon logic. I didn't give a shit about Brad Penny or the Coach's diner OR his crush on Ms. Musso. The entire point of the show was about the thrill of the con, as told in a high school world where Heathers seemed like a docudrama by comparison.

[pokeyburro.livejournal.com]

Ya forgot "Duet".

Younger folks. Heh.

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

Duet, like Werewolf and The Adventures of Beans Baxter, was part of Fox's startup "throw shit against a wall and see what sticks" phase. Remember Mr. President?

[superfan1.livejournal.com]

Lol, that awesome and you have great Simpson's gifts. :)

[night-train-fm.livejournal.com]

But do I get my choice of toppings?

BTW, both links go to the GWH simulator.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

The AV Club link should have worked, but the fact that no one mentioned the mixed-up other link means that no one checked out the comic. Sadness.

[night-train-fm.livejournal.com]

*Checks out fixed link*
...
Damn. I can't even think of a quote.

[surrealname.livejournal.com]

I checked and figured you knew.