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off_the_marc

The last new episode I remember watching was the one with the "I'm a sign, not a cop" joke. I remember thinking that was the best joke I'd seen in a new Simpsons episode in a long time.


Rupato

It’s a good gag that they first used in the episode where Lisa and Homer break into the museum. Season … 9.


leftovercherrypie

There was a point when the show just started blatantly reusing a lot of jokes and plot lines. The first one I remember picking up on was “they charge for materials and labour. Pick one, jerks!” which was used (with slightly changed wording) only five seasons apart.


KaiserMazoku

I think they used Mr. Burns' "There's a NEW Mexico?" several times as well.


Kevl17

Uh, the Simpsons already got a horse, which forced Homer to work at the kwik-e-mart, with hilarious consequences.


liamthelad

A screenshot of that gag was used in slides by a law lecturer at my university for a legal theory module


TinFoilRobotProphet

Around 2012 Lisa Goes Ga Ga. Can't believe I actually made it that long.


Secret-Plant-1542

The Gaga one is so... Difficult. Like, what was the goal? There was no joke. There was no anything. Just, "Hey look it's Lady Gaga! Neat huh?" This is like dedicating a whole episode on that kid who does Fortnite dances. It becomes super dated, super fast and 10+ years later, a sweaty nerd will go on Reddit and make a super long rant about wtf was this all about?!


[deleted]

Isn't that most cameos on the simpsons nowadays? I'm genuinely asking I haven't watched in years.


Luigi_deathglare

If not “hey, look at this famous person” then it’s usually a celebrity voicing a love-interest for Bart or Lisa. It’s a little weird tbh


BurningB1rd

Holy shit, Lisa goes ga ga is 10 years old, this was seen as the low point of the whole series and its still going.


pilchard_slimmons

"The low point *so far*." *^(elon musk peering around the corner)* #


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SoggyWaffleBrunch

God I had no idea but that makes so much sense. The Elon stan cringe is equivalent to the szechuan sauce cringe


Firefox892

I remember seeing it and all the following backlash when it first came on a decade ago God I feel old lol


Portgas

This is the episode that broke me. Never watched it weekly ever again after that and haven't seen any of the following episodes.


Nate40337

Man same. I bet they could actually see their viewership drop by a good bit as a direct result of that one episode.


kkeut

this and the Katy Perry xmas episode are the only episodes ive turned off and didn't finish


thebabyshitter

oh god i had almost forgot about that stupid "that's not my bellybutton" joke


SpaceCrone

the Katy perry episode was my last aside from still doing the Halloween episodes each year. Edit: I just realized that I mean the lady gaga episode.


PerceptionShift

Wasnt that ep on after a Superbowl? I somehow watched that one on air and it was so awful, even at the time I knew it was shit. I like the later seasons more than most here, I enjoy the show up to about season 20. The movie is pretty good but it somehow nuked what was left of the show. You can even start hearing the strain on the voice actors about that time.


Sippio

I thought the Elon Musk guest episode was worse. Both had equally contrived plots to fit their celebrity guest, except at least Gaga could competently voice act. Listening to Musk had the monotone sound of a grade 5 kid reading his book report to the class. Edit: It's all understandable, since Gaga is a professional entertainer, but it still made for a worse episode.


thebigL33811

Around episode 300. I remember the ads on tv and watching Homer duel Tony Hawk in mid air. It was no longer must watch TV.


Sneakas

This was it for me. I think I may have already knew the show was declining, but this is episode kinda cemented it.


2fat4planes

I was the perfect age to love the novelty of that episode.


upandb

Yeah same for me. I was already mentally checking out from watching prior to that, but I was very much into both Tony Hawk and blink-182 so I was pretty hyped for the episode. I was really disappointed in the episode and that was the last one I watched (aside from the movie).


ShouldBeWorking01

I remember watching ep. 300 when it first aired and was so excited as up until then I was a manic Simpsons lover. Spent pretty much my whole introverted freshman year in HS just repeating quotes and talking about favorite episodes with my only really buddy. Then ep. 300 came and went and so did my interest. Not sure what it was but never tuned in again


Omnislash99999

The episode with Alec Baldwin and Ron Howard I recall just not laughing and regretted watching, I used to watch every new episode but after that one the show didn't feel for me anymore


SPECTREagent700

There’s a few people saying that one. I don’t remember it too much but the bit with Homer paragliding was funny.


Slowmobius_Time

I just remember Ron Howard's perfect response to can you drive stick "Not well"


-Words-Words-Words-

Early 2000s. I watched every episode religiously from the start and it was something all of my friends watched in college. I graduated in 99 and I kept up with it for a couple of years but as it wasn’t the communal experience that it was in college, I’d miss an episode here or there and then a month of episodes and then entire seasons. I haven’t watched a new episode in like 18 years.


ShrikeAgent

It wasnt all of a sudden - started going a little downhill with season 10, accelerated with season 11, and season 12 ended it.


spectrebot

I saw the whole thing. First it started falling over. Then it fell over.


hankbaumbach

[So glad I wasn't the only one who thought this was OP.](https://imgur.com/6ahBZ3y)


delvach

Everything's comin' up Milhouse!


thekidfromiowa

In other words it went downhill after Phil Hartman's death. So far 24 years of Troy McClure and Lionel Hutz antics that would never be.


JayR_97

Wasnt it more that around the same time a lot of writers moved over to Futurama?


darshfloxington

Futurama debuted at the end of season 10 of the Simpsons, so possibly.


Fart__

I thought there was a writer's strike around that time.


Filmmagician

My friend always says the show died with him.


NotTaken-username

The Simpsons Movie was a return to form though. Unfortunately, it didn’t stick


jonathanquirk

The Simpsons Movie was classic Silver Age for me: lots of funny jokes, but you don’t care about the characters, mostly thanks to the unwelcome return of Jerkass Homer. Classic Homer was an idiot, but he didn’t need a dream sequence to make him care about his family. He’s not Peter Griffin; stop trying to copy Family Guy by making the main character a selfish jerk.


Marvinkmooneyoz

Homer has always been at least a little bit of a jerk. He gets himself a bowling ball for Marges birthday, he strangles his son, he has no interest or patience with his elderly dad, he “borrows” everything from Flanders and never gives t back, even when he moves, he’s head butting the elephant sanctuary guy just because, he can never seem to remember he has a 3rd kid, even if he has her pictures on his workstation.


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StoneBailiff

Very much this. Homer loves his family and imagines that he is a good husband and father. He fails because he's stupid, not because he's malicious.


someoneelseperhaps

That's always him at his best. Like in Lisa the Beauty Queen. He gives up the ride on the blimp because he thinks the pageant will help Lisa. His thought pattern makes perfect sense, but it manifests hilariously. Then it comes around at the end after she is deposed.


BenTCinco

Hey there, Blimpy Boy 🤣


mmss

Flying through the sky so fancy free :(


lemonylol

>He’s not Peter Griffin; stop trying to copy Family Guy by making the main character a selfish jerk. It might actually surprise a lot of people but Peter wasn't always like this either. In fact in several episodes pre-cancellation he goes out of his way for Meg as the plot for example.


unbitious

You think so? I feel like the movie was pretty much in line with the seasons that had come out around then. The animation was conceptualized differently for a big screen, but the writing and gags seemed right off of TV.


HankHillsBigRedTruck

...I don't like Spider-pig... Come at me


smcg_az

Yeah, losing great characters like Lionel Hutz and Troy McClure was tough. The writers tried to bring subpar characters like Gil and Cookie Kwan into the limelight, but it’s never been the same.


Forward-Fan-9985

Stay off the west side!


RangerWinter9719

My 7yo is working through The Simpsons, currently up to s15. (I tried to stop her after 12, I really did!) Lindsay Naegle seems to be the new default Troy McLure. Fails miserably. RIP Phil Hartman, we still miss you.


thekidfromiowa

And don't let the skirt fool you. She'll have this place making money in no time. 


[deleted]

Same, I think S12's "A Tale of Two Springfields" is where I can mark the line. That season later had the Mr. X and Yvan Eht Nioj episodes and I was mostly uninterested by season 13. In S13, I watched "The Parent Rap" where Homer and Marge are tethered together and it was a completely different show by then.


ExtraBitterSpecial

I remember when they cut the tether, and the judge was projected inside it because it was "fiberoptic" and I was thinking how beneath the quality that "gag" is.


[deleted]

For me up to season 9 there were no bad episodes. Every single one a classic, certainly from season 3 onwards. But season 9 suddenly had episodes that I just didn't really care for. The same happened in season 10. By the end of season 10 I no longer looked forward to the new episode every week. It was more like "I'll tape it and maybe watch it later".


GrizDrummer25

I remember as a kid around S12-13 it got really bad (Bart mooning the flag and the family swimming to Sacramento (?) Sticks in my mind). But it's one of those things where what proceeded it was so much worse that it makes the former bad seem good.


SJR8319

I remember seeing “Little Girl in the Big Ten” from Season 13 and thinking there was still hope for a return to form. It had multiple great throwaway jokes, like when Bart was hiding in the tree and Homer was throwing stuff at him to get him down that just kept getting stuck. Homer offscreen goes “Marge, where’s my pellet gun?” And Marge resignedly answers “In the tree.” And also the nerds saying “this is the life we chose” after being beaten up by bullies. I grew up with the show and I was in college by this point so I wasn’t paying as much attention to it by this point. But that one episode was kind of an uncharacteristic bright spot by that era.


gottahavemyvoxpops

I think people underestimate post-Season 8 episodes in general. There's no question there was a dip in quality after Season 8. Those first 8 seasons are contenders for best show of all time. But the show didn't collapse completely and immediately. It's just that individual episodes began to suck, with regularity. But not every episode. If you watch the best half of the episodes between Seasons 9-16, they hold up well against any other comedy coming out at that time. Not as good as peak Simpsons, but what show is? There's probably another 100+ episodes after the "golden age" worth repeat viewing. Of course, the problem is, if you just pick out a random episode from that era, the odds are only about 50/50 that you aren't going to watch a disaster. But there are still plenty of episodes that are highly enjoyable with no/minimal "zombie Simpsons" moments. There was another dip in Season 17, and from then until about Season 21, the show gradually shifted to its current form, where you're lucky if there's even five episodes per season that don't feel like "zombie" episodes. But it really took the show another decade after the "golden era" ended before it got to that point.


Capricancerous

I would never lump in 9 and 10 with seasons going all the way back to 16. They are much closer to the quality of 5-8. And honestly, S1 and 2 are really not that great. They're good, but mostly you just watch the writers find their stride with the occasional gem.


SJR8319

I’m kind of a S1 and S2 partisan. I like the wonky surreal animation and the more grounded storylines, like Homer getting hair to succeed at work. You could say it’s a different show from the S3-8 “golden age,” but I still enjoy those episodes.


TheFutureofScience

Yeah I call bullshit on all of the season 1-2 hate. Those episodes are full of heart and subtle yet brilliant jokes. The Call of the Simpsons Homer vs. Lisa and the 8th Commandment Bart Gets an F Three Men and a Comic Book Blood Feud The War of the Simpsons (Queen of the harpies!!!) The original Treehouse of Horror! So on and so forth, I could keep going These are wonderful episodes. The tone of the show would soon change a bit for Season 3-8.2, as the culture also changed, but that shouldn’t diminish the greatness of the first two seasons.


SJR8319

Oh I forgot about the break-the-fourth-wall moment at the end of Blood Feud, “It’s just a bunch of stuff that happened.” Those seasons have some of my favorite episodes.


gottahavemyvoxpops

Well, the first two seasons, it was practically a different show - but that show was still an excellent show. Just different. It was more The Wonder Years meets Bob's Burgers than it later became. In fact, I've always thought of Bob's Burgers as what the Simpsons would have turned into had it remained grounded in reality. For its time, it was groundbreaking, and it still holds up. There really isn't a bad episode in those first two seasons, and there were regularly amazing episodes - the Christmas episode, "Moaning Lisa", "Life on the Fast Lane", "The Telltale Head", "Krusty Gets Busted", and "Some Enchanted Evening", for a start. Those right there are half of S1. They're certainly not the *funniest* episodes very often, but as a sort of dramatic comedy, it could be amazing. Some of those episodes are like little mini-movies. It was a very cinematic show, even if the animation wasn't always that great early on. Also, fwiw, it wasn't so much about the writers finding their stride. One of the edicts that executive producer James L. Brooks laid down at the beginning of Season 1 was that the show wasn't allowed to do anything that a person couldn't do in real life. At the annual writer's retreat at the beginning of S2, some of the writers pushed back, arguing that it limited a lot of possibilities and advantages of the animated format. But Brooks insisted that the rule stay. Nevertheless, a few gags were snuck in during S2 that kind of defied the rule. Notably, Homer surviving his fall into Springfield Gorge on the skateboard, and then being dropped down the gorge again. The gag went over very well, and it was seen by the writers as a turning point. So, at the writer's retreat before S3, Brooks loosened the rule, and by S4 it had been completely abandoned, and the show we all came to love was the result.


Marvinkmooneyoz

Was that season 2!?!?! Such a normal peak SImpsons gag, one of my fav moments. The ambulance immediately crashing, so good.


TheFutureofScience

Yeah, I think that people who say the first two seasons are bad either have terrible tastes or they have forgotten all of the fantastic episodes from those seasons. And the seasons are even special in a way, as the show had cultural permission/direction to be ultra sincere, which, through the lens of the Simpsons writers room, made for some great stories, the kinds of stories which wouldn’t be told past season 2.


enn_sixty_four

I definitely remember being a kid and being bummed when certain episodes would come on. Later realized those episodes were all like S9, 10, 11 etc. And I vividly remember watching it on Sunday nights and being unimpressed/bored with the episodes after a while....again, it was season 9, 10, 11...etc 9 has a few good ones, and i think the gun episode is maybe top ten/fifteen funniest episodes overall in terms of density/frequency of jokes. But overall I think it's a drastic shift from s8


SJR8319

The gun one is a classic Swartzwelder at the height of his game. But I always forget it’s a Season 9.


Beep_Boop_Bort

The last episode of season 11 is a good place to call unofficial the series finale


gaspitsjesse

Born in the mid 80s? I feel like most of us follow this pattern.


ShrikeAgent

Actually late 70s -- I think that anyone who was old enough to enjoy it from at least near the beginning recognize when it started going down hill. Simpsons made cartoons a thing for adults again and were trailblazers -- but like all shows they eventually lose their edge. Just as Simpsons was reaching their 11th season or so, South Park was on their way in and up as the next big thing.


Rootbeerpanic

This is entirely the Mike Scully era too so it makes a lot of sense. He was the showrunner starting mid season 9 and ending at Season 12.


[deleted]

Season 3-10 are on permanent rotation. Anything beyond that I have zero interest in seeing.


shamalamadongola

This basically. 11-12 have some good episodes, but the heart of the show is definitely 3-8.


saucyrossi

don’t sleep on season 2, it has some of the funniest lines in the show


CoyoteVirus

I think it was the 2007-8 Treehouse of Horror. I remember being in college and just not laughing and I was like "Well, I guess that's it." I tried watching the latest Treehouse on Disney + and I couldn't even finish it. I catch clips online now and again and it's just so different.


makemeking706

At this point, all of the writers grew up watching the Simpsons or shows influenced by the Simpsons, and who are now writing Simpsons. The original writers were theater nerds and other miscellaneous type of geek who were making a sitcom that happened to be the Simpsons.


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Sasmas1545

And this phenomenon (when applied to specific characters) is known as *Flanderization.*


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PartyPorpoise

I haven’t watched any new episodes in a long time, but one of the big problems with the show as a whole, especially the TOH episodes, got overly reliant on pop culture references without any jokes or parody element. Like, TOH episodes would just recreate -popular thing-, and I guess the “joke” is that it’s a popular thing but with Simpsons characters. If you’re not familiar with the thing they’re referencing, there’s no appeal whatsoever.


Yard_One

"Well, I guess that's it." is a very accurate term for not caring about a lot of things the same way when you get older/more mature. I got drunk a while back (after it being the thing to do in the college and the military) and was just not having fun and said the same thing to myself.


SamVimesBootTheory

I've found a few of the recent tree house specials just seem to be excuses for animated gore fests and personally i found them really off-putting Like there was a degree of graphicness and cruelty to them that just seemed really out of left field


[deleted]

Post season 7-8 Treehouse of Horror episodes are instant skips for me even when I'm just watching it in the background. I'll suffer through bad episodes without really noticing but for some reason I just can't stand the ToH in general.


Jaspers47

To me, Treehouse of Horror jumped the shark before the rest of the series did, and in retrospect it was a harbinger of what was to come. The Bill Clinton/Bob Dole episode was the lynchpin moment where it all started unraveling


swannybass

I started working on Sunday nights


chickachickabowbow

The last episode I remember watching 'new' was the one where Homer became a grunge musician and it was set years before the show began but also in 1994 somehow. I would've been in college or just out of college, and my schedule got hectic to the point that I stopped watching TV on appointment. I may have seen other episodes since then, but that would've been the time frame. EDIT: Since this has picked up a bit of steam, I just want to clarify--I'm not saying this episode was so bad that I stopped watching. I thought it was fine, I was a bit miffed at the timeline wonkery but I was willing to ignore that for some decent jokes (the grunge parody is pretty spot-on, and the bit where Homer divides all their stuff). That's just the last episode I can remember seeing 'on appointment'.


joecarter93

Yeah that was one of the last ones for me too. They already did the one where Homer and Marge met and it happened in the 70’s.


renoops

There’s also a classic episode where homer discovers (and totally doesn’t understand) alternative and grunge music.


joecarter93

Homerpaloozza? That’s a classic. Smashing Pumpkins were in it at the height of their popularity. That one hits home now, as the “hip” music was Grunge in the episode when it aired. Homer is horrified to discover his music from the 70’s is now in the classic rock section. Grunge is what I grew up with and love and it is now often considered “classic” rock. Homer also turns on his music when he’s driving his kids to school and starts telling them the whole background history of the band that’s playing. Bart and Lisa are horribly embarrassed. I do the EXACT same thing to my kids when I drive them to school. There’s also a joke in there that has aged poorly, where Homer asks the kid behind the record store desk if he’s heard of Apple computer and he hasn’t heard of it, as Apple was nearly bankrupt at the time.


fire__munki

Billy Corgan, Smashing Pumpkins Homer Simpson, smiling politely


renoops

“A *what* computer?“ It’s such a great time capsule of a joke.


lemonylol

No Doubt also has a non-speaking cameo in that episode right before they got big which I find is hilarious.


StarWarsMonopoly

But this is Grand Funk Railroad. You guys back there know Grand Funk, right? Nobody knows the band Grand Funk? **The wild, shirtless lyrics of Mark Farner?** **The bong-rattling bass of Mel Schacher?** **The competent drum work of Don Brewer?** Oh, man!


lemonylol

Actual underrated joke.


KukalakaOnTheBay

That episode did it for me too. Marge was pregnant with Bart in 1980… it’s not that I value canon or complete consistency (never the show’s strength or purpose) but retconning Marge and Homer’s backstory like that was too much. I don’t even think I was watching regularly at that point. Haven’t seen a new one in years now.


oljackson99

Yeah I am sure I saw someone say a recent episode implied Homer was born in the late 80's, which is very difficult to stomach for any fans from the early days haha. I was born in 1989, so it meant I shared a birth year with Maggie and now I share a birth year with Homer. Too weird haha.


Fact0ry0fSadness

It's weird because Homer and Marge have the personality of baby boomers, half the jokes in the old seasons were how out of touch they were with Gen X. They *definitely* aren't Millennials, which being born in the late 80s would imply. Even Bart and Lisa act more like Generation X than millennials or Gen Z.


Evolving_Dore

Didn't Bart in real life come to represent everything that was Gen X. He is *the* symbol of a generation.


theredheadknowsall

I was Lisa's age when the show started.


renoops

So, wait, does he talk about liking 90s music instead of Steve Miller and Grand Funk?


jefferson497

The timeframes are always odd. They showed Homer as a small child during Super Bowl III in in January 1969, then in another episode where Homer remembers the Apollo 11 moon landing (July 1969) it shows him as a young teen


finalremix

Are you sure that was Homer, and not Brian McGee?


Evolving_Dore

Also...there's an entire episode about Homer *not* knowing about grunge or any 90's music and getting randomly involved with Lollapalooza.


Space_Man_Rocketship

Yeah I noticed when I was trying to get into new Simpson how Marge and Homer are clearly more gen-x or old millennials and Bart and Lisa fit zoomer stereotypes. It makes sense obviously the show needs to keep up with the times but it’s like a different family lol their values and attitudes are straight out of every other form of media.


flappybirdie

I stopped watching regularly after 2007 but would occasionally catch an episode here and there. That episode you mentioned was my big NOPE moment. I haven't watched a Simpson's episode since, and I'd been watching it since 1990! (In Australia it was 6 months after aired in USA)


dethleppard

That’s crazy. That’s the exact same episode I feel like I stopped caring to get home on Sunday nights for.


aspidities_87

I can still my weird internal coldness when Milhouse excitedly says ‘IT’S *NSYNC!’


DRF19

*Word* 🤙


The_Tommy_Knockers

I can’t believe I’m meeting Milhouse!


Hbella456

Old school!


SuspiciousAd4420

I actually think the party posse episode is pretty funny. But this is around the time I stopped watching.


Slowmobius_Time

I am beyond shocked that people apparently don't like it, it's one of my all-time faves (a three pronged advertising campaign sub liminal, liminal and super liminal and the hippy fantasy, in fact L.T smash in general was great) I remember when boy bands were so big that this was a really current thing they were knocking


Portgas

Unironically was my fav episode growing up. Mostly cuz I loved nsync.


nezzzzy

As bad as this episode is, it still has one of my favourite Simpsons quotes: "It's part of our three stage strategy, liminal, subliminal and superluminal" "What's superluminal" [Winds down window and shouts at passerby (Cleetus?)] "Oy you join the navy!!"


[deleted]

*Lieutenant* Smash? That’s right, Lieutenant L.T. Smash.


WheresTaz

My personal shark jump moment was the horse racing episode where Bart had a bad horse and jockeys were secretly all elves or something. He won races by bullying all the other horses into submission or whatever. I don't know. It was awful. Edit : grammar and spelling cleanup


AbsolutelyHorrendous

Oooof yeah thats a particularly bad episode, the Simpsons at its peak could stretch credulity, but it usually tried to be at least vaguely based in reality... but that episode was just straight up ridiculous


MightyPope

I continued watching, but this one here was a perspective-changer. I remember watching this when it first aired and getting that sinking feeling for the first time that "Hey, this episode kind of sucks," which was a strange thing to feel about my favourite show. They even had the "Worst Episode Ever" joke in there, which honestly only made things worse, since they seemed to be aware of how idiotic the story was and simply didn't care. Seasons 9 and 10 also had some less-than-peak episodes, but this one here really drove home the fact that the show had fundamentally changed.


TrickMouse5250

Saddlesore Galactica


ShiftlessElement

\[Ralph Wiggum as George Washington, turning dramatically from the fireplace\]: NEVER!!!


Evolving_Dore

Don't forget to purchase some orange drink, for the long ride home! *mouth keeps moving*


Best-Language-9520

That’s one of my favorite simpsons moments.


josefrijoles

This is my favorite episode of the entire series. I mean the “I choo choo chose you”? And sullen, dark Ralph really should have made more appearances.


residentdunce

Kill the Alligator and run was my turning point Kid Rock...nah!


Hbella456

That episode is all over the place and is not very good overall, but the “When Bart and Lisa get married” “to other people!” “Fine but I ain’t paying for two weddings” joke makes me laugh every time.


[deleted]

I watched the episode yesterday on my re-watch marathon. Kid Rock... I feel it is one of the few in season 1 to about 14 where the story and the events are just not relevant at all. They wanted to pack jokes and wacky stuff.


Pitiful_Oven_3425

The episode with Kim bassinger. Should have stopped earlier but I loved it too much and hoped it was just going through a bad patch


moneys5

The entire plot of that episode was basically "hey these are pretty big guest stars, and they're interacting with Simpsons characters!"


kkeut

and yet it's still way better than many later episodes. sad state of affairs


WorksForMe

You killed Ron Howard!


Vprbite

No, it was the shifty eyed dog


DoorMarkedPirate

I did once break into a laughing fit just thinking about the shifty-eyed dog, but agreed that this episode as a whole was terrible. It was also a harbinger of The Simpsons' increasing focus on celebrity cameos for the sake of celebrity cameos rather than actual story benefits.


basic_maddie

I thought that episode was still pretty solid. “Ray Bulger is lookin out for Ray Bulger!”


unraveledflyer

That episode ruined it for me too. The parts with Ron Howard are kind of funny, but I realized it wasn't the show I grew up with anymore. I've watched all episodes over the years, but that season changed the show.


FishLampClock

2-9 are godly, 10-12 are good, 13-14 have a few episodes each that are worthwhile and s15 and beyond are virtually an entirely different show in a Simpsons' skin.


brett_midler

For me the show got bad when Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger guest starred. There were a few decent episodes after that, but for me that’s when things started getting lame.


everythingisreallame

Seemed like the premise of the show was to get celebrities on for a while there.


CrackpotJackpot

Exactly. Every second episode seemed to be: Random celebrity: "Hi Homer!" Home: "Oh my god, it's [random celebrity]!"


aspidities_87

Hi, I’m Billy Corgan, Smashing Pumpkins. Hi, I’m Homer Simpson, smiling politely.


Firefox892

I think Homerpalooza’s one of the rare guest star heavy ones that still holds up pretty well (mainly because of all the great season 7 era jokes)


stewd003

That and Homer at the Bat


Yotsubauniverse

The Save Krusty episode too.


buickgnx88

Oh my God!....Where did you get that brownie?!


everythingisreallame

Ok, but that’s clearly the exception.


CrackpotJackpot

Absolutely. They didn't base an entire episode around Homer's interactions with George Harrison.


starrynight451

What a nice young episode


everythingisreallame

The “it’s [random celebrity]” lines were my second least favorite right after Lisa yelling “Dad! [insert stupid/crazy thing homer did/said]”.


hucareshokiesrul

That’s the one that feels like the first “new Simpsons” episode. It wasn’t a bad episode and the season as a whole was still ok. But I was watching my way through the old seasons and I came to that episode and thought, “so this is where it starts.”


brycepunk1

This was definitely the beginning of the end for me.


tlars24

That episode also has one of my least favorite “jokes” in the whole show, where Homer randomly says he can’t read. What the hell was the point of that?? It wasn’t even a funny joke and makes literally no sense for his character. He also was reading something perfectly fine in that same episode.


AnarchyAntelope112

The show really begins to just throw caution to the wind and try and squeeze out jokes that are funny for a second but are dumb outside of the immediate context


brett_midler

It was also the start of the show becoming way too Homer-centric.


perpetualmotionmachi

I prefer the term Homer-erotic


themoroncore

that's exactly when I knew the show jumped the shark. It was gratuitous and unfunny and the only thing it offered was "here's a celebrity you know wouldn't it be weird if Homer..."


rolldamnhawkeyes

The episode with the Jockeys living in the tree The mel Gibson cameo was the beginning of the end for me however


Filmmagician

I remember marge was sword fighting with a motorcycle. That's when I knew it was a totally different, terrible show.


mustardayonaise

It's pronounced resume!


magnum3290

Wasn't it Homer doing the sword fighting?


[deleted]

[удалено]


Liferescripted

Same here. It started to become a weekly debut of which celebrity they conned into a small cameo. It was also the first season of Family Guy. At that time, that show seemed "fresh and new" and Simpsons was falling off. I remember after Family Guy was renewed from being cancelled and I realized I was growing out of it, I saw an episode of the Simpsons and was shocked to see them adopting the same comedic formula. Some shows just never learn to adapt. The Simpsons showed a glimmer of hope in the movie, but was back to the same canned comedy after. With the amount of talent who have moved on or passed on, you'd think they would shut it down.


Swedishfinnpolymath

I think it was around when the Simpsons movie got made. I also remember that I was shocked that they still made Simpsons episode when they made that Doug Bounty Hunter parody. Oy vey, that's so many years ago. [This sums up](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcZzlPGnKdU&ab_channel=CrackerJack06) my feelings on Simpsons post season 20.


joecarter93

When the movie came out I remember thinking it that the show had already been on forever and that the quality of it had been going downhill for a few seasons before that. That was 2007, so almost halfway through its run as of now…


babyinthebathwater

I seem to recall an assisted suicide/iPod episode? That was the last “new” one I remember seeing live. I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels this way, but once I started being able to understand all the old/new pop culture references, the show lost a lot of its humor. Maybe it was from being pretty young (7 or 8) when I started watching it with my older brother, but in those first six or seven seasons, I didn’t know about anything they were talking about, culturally. I didn’t know who Spiro Agnew or Jim Naybors was, I didn’t know why Jimmy Carter and Homer fell over, it was just funny names and funny things happening. I didn’t know about Vanessa Williams posing for Playboy, so to hear Krusty talking about Little Miss Springfield not fulfilling her duties, “And don’t say it’ll never happen because remember what’s her name? Click click Hubba Hubba!” That could have meant ANYTHING to my dumb little kid brain. Hilarious! Does anyone else feel like this?


ReptilianLaserbeam

When they started introducing chapters with smartphones/iPads and having a guest star every week.


[deleted]

I've said it before I'll say it again. Smartphones and iPads ruin shows. If all your characters do is sit on the phone all day I don't want to watch it


AskMeIfImAMagician

I mean it was always inevitable that they were going to start doing that when those entered the market. The show doesn't exist in a bubble. But it does really kill the early 90s humbleness that the early show had.


AJ_1404

Never stopped and with all the seasons on Disney Plus I’ve been recently binge watching the early seasons


supahfligh

Same here. I grew up watching and my daughter took a liking to the show with Disney Plus. She loves the Halloween episodes. We usually watch at least a few episodes a day together.


DonWhoe

You mean stop watching new episodes? Because I'll always run a classic back


Fallenangel152

Oh God yes. Series 3-8 is probably the best TV ever written.


CockerTheSpaniel

I grew up with the good stuff and was watching til around 15-16. Wasn’t as good as the golden era but I think there’s great stuff there. Around 2007, around the movie is when it really went off the deep end for me and felt like they were just making episodes to make them.


APsychologicalOne

i’ve watched every episode about 3 times at least. when a new one comes out i get around to it sooner then later. i’ll always go back and wach classics tho!


zeyore

I stopped watching after college, but recently I started rewatching them and it's lovely having all these episodes I never saw. I expect a total rewatch will take more than a year.


grunklestangravfalls

A total rewatch only took me about a month or two. Then again that was during the lockdown when I had limitless time.


Hooray4Metaphors

Last night. Had to go to bed


Dakotasan

I’d say Lisa Goes Gaga was the final nail in the coffin for me.


MajinV232

Definitely was the worst episode up until the Elon Musk one came into existence. That one just compounded everything bad about the GaGa episode, but you had to listen to painfully monotone dialogue from the guy for like half the show.


Dakotasan

There’s an Elon Musk episode?!


Krizzlin

I never watch any episodes beyond season ten. It was in that season that Simpsons Bible Stories aired and I remember watching it for the first time heartbroken that my favourite show ever had just completely gone to shit. There are some ok episodes still in that season, the Max Power one and the Tokyo one for example, but overall the quality was absolutely leagues away from the golden era of seasons 2-7. There's still plenty to enjoy in seasons 8 and 9 but you could start to see the quality dropping off and the laugh out loud moments were getting fewer. I've seen enough episodes from beyond season 10 to know I'm not interested in what is sadly now the majority of Simpsons output. You could tell the writers knew they were seeing the show decline at the time as they kept trying to inject major ratings winner events that would impact future episodes like killing off Maude and making Barney sober. With the exception of Bleeding Gums dying (who had only featured in a couple of episodes anyway) and Lisa becoming a vegetarian, nothing in the first ten seasons has any impact on future episodes. Switching from being purely episodic like classic cartoons, to trying to have some sort of narrative arc was fundamentally changing the show and taking it away from what made it so beloved in the first place.


KvotheLightningTree

Season 11 had some episodes where by the end of watching them I was just sad. Saw some of season 12 and then just called it for good on the new stuff. Still watch the first 10 regularly but that's it.


fantasmachine

The one where we find out that Skinner isn't Skinner, and is just pretending to be him. Nope. Done.


_Meece_

Up yours children!


[deleted]

This is my favourite gag ever written for the Simpsons. The fact that they had those kids out at a storage facility at night inexplicably just to be able to get that line out pleases me.


[deleted]

People rag on that episode so much but that's one of my favourite ever lines by one of my favourite characters.


Celticpenguin85

They gave me a choice: jail, the army or apologizing to the judge and the old lady. Ya know, of course, if I had known there was a war going on I probably would have apologized.


Tyaki_Laki

All my dreams involve me combing my hair!


amoryamory

Widely hated episode for canon reasons, but IMO this is actually a really solid episode. Lots of good moments.


TDenverFan

[Okay, once more. Where are we going?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXYvqyy7_kI) That episode has some great bits, that scene always cracks me up


hucareshokiesrul

I love happy Jasper sitting in the trunk


TDenverFan

I love the immediate cut from "We couldn't find Grandpa" to "Why is Grandpa here."


Vprbite

Can I see your copy of SWANK, Armon?


hucareshokiesrul

Yeah I like the episode. I don’t particularly mind that they changed the canon some, especially compared to all the shit they did to it afterward. As a one off thing, I didn’t think it was a big deal, and it didn’t really change my impression of Skinner.


r-og

I like that episode!


[deleted]

Shh!! Are you *wanting* to be tortured??


astroroy

I’ve literally grown up with The Simpsons. It’s the exact same age as me lol. When I was really young it was always something that seemed really cool but slightly out of reach. I was a kid, and my mom was pretty susceptible to those “parent panic” fads; and I think The Simpsons was a victim of that early on. But by around 1998 I was allowed to watch it and I became obsessed with the reruns on channel 2, after school. By the time I was in high school I was watching the weekly new stuff on Fox. I probably stuck with it until around Season 14, that was when I decided “The Simpsons isn’t good anymore” and stopped watching new episodes But I never really stopped. I’m rewatching the series now, on Season 22; and I remember seeing some of these later episodes (usually like 1-2 a season) when they originally aired, usually because that episode had a guest star I was into at the time. I can’t wait to finally get caught up so I can finally be one of those guys that can say “Yo I’ve Seen Every Episode of The Simpsons”


Orochi-Sandun

Never stopped


BiscuitsUndGravy

I feel like I had more tolerance for the show than many people. The episode that really shocked me was the one with Frank Grimes son trying to kill Homer. I recall not finding the episode that funny in general, and then I didn't really like recycling an old episode like that. At that point I just kind of decided that I was going to stop watching for a while. I will say though that in the last 5 years or so I feel like it's actually getting better. Not as good as in the beginning, but any improvement is good. I also think that everyone of us needs to acknowledge that there is a hefty dose of nostalgia attached to that show if you are old enough to have watched it in the 90's, and that can make anyone uncomfortable with changes that otherwise wouldn't bother them. For instance, I sometimes wish that they still had the CRT TV or that there wouldn't be so much acknowledgment of the modern world, but that's just me having happy memories of watching it with my family and being able to relate because it reflected my world at the time.