Simpsons "The Bart Wants What It Wants" Talkback

[Killtacular]

...man.


Could this series get any sadder?

First of all, haven't we already explored the "Bart gets a girlfriend and then loses her" story? More importantly, is it so wrong to ESTABLISH a continuity by GIVING Bart a girlfriend? On the other hand, is it even right for Bart to have a girlfriend at his age? And maybe this is going off on a tangent, but why couldn't they have aged Bart and Lisa slightly, even if only by a couple of years? With only two seasons left, it might be able to pull out some more original storylines.

Worse still, they snuck in a "Simpsons go to Canada" storyline right at the end, which just seemed ridiculously silly and showed how weak and flawed the direction is.

As far as actual humor goes, a lot of it was very painful. Milhouse screaming "Wassaaaaaaaaaaaaaap!" caused me to bash things into my skull. You'd think damage to the head would make the episode funnier, but nope. They could've done so much more with the DVD Commentary gag. Or the Canada gags. Or the Seinfeld reference. A lot of this stuff fits in place but really goes nowhere. The writers don't even seem like they're trying anymore. They can certainly outline jokes and gags, but when it comes to writing them, they slack off, because they know they still have 2 more years ahead of them. And it's a shame.

[KingKoopa]

They had a couple good episodes in the season, but it looks like it was only a fluke.

[Psycho Fox]

Well the Ep started out ok but blew chunks at the end. When Bart shot his new girlfreind down she was crushed but later at the end when she seemd calm like she really didn't care about Bart or what he done, maybe it is just me but I find her a bit out of character there.

I find the ep a waste or a good plot. It could have been a good ep it really had the potential but weak writing ruined it most fans could have done a better ep.

[Nightflower]

Up here, they've been advertising it all week as the "Canada episode." "The Simpsons are going to Toronto!" They even had a couple of articles about it in the newspaper. My country is pretty sad, eh? :p

[Leaping Larry Jojo]

The Simpsons is less about plot than a series of gag sketches these days...

Anyway, it had a few mildly amusing gags. Nothing laugh-out-loud, but some to make me smirk.

The show is really running out of gas, though. This situation with Bart, as people said, is something that's been done before. (And done better)

Maybe some continuity would help. Consider The Simpsons like you consider a comic strip--only those strips that continually evolve last longer than a few years. You don't need to age the characters, but do something new with them...change the dynamic of the show slightly by keeping guest characters around for a longer (or permanent) period of time. Let, say, Bart relate to other, newer characters, therefore opening up new gags instead of the boring old Milhouse or Nelson rerans.

[Leaping Larry Jojo]

Originally posted by Nightflower
Up here, they've been advertising it all week as the "Canada episode." "The Simpsons are going to Toronto!" They even had a couple of articles about it in the newspaper. My country is pretty sad, eh? :p

We are. I don't understand the blind sucking up that Canadian TV critics do when talking about The Simpsons. And it was only the last 5 minutes that they went to Toronto. Ooooohhh...Toronto starred in the show for 5 minutes...

[Craig Marinaro]

Wow. People on this Board are really harsh!

Over on the WBC I'm infamous as one of the biggest bashers of the last few Simpsons seasons, and I thought tonight's ep was a lot of fun. Maybe I'm just getting too soft.

[Borg4of3]

I agree with PsychoFox when he said it started out ok but then started to stink up. They actually did have some great gags at the beginning; loved the puckmobile for some reason, lol when the preppy kiddies did kinda the same thing (to the hamptons, lalalal!), and just about rolled on the floor when they insulted USC! Note to all, I am a Gamecock! The Qtip was a cool jab at Ross perot, even tho the rest of the world seems to have forgotten him, and... I dunno, I liked the Seymoure sketches. If anything to me, it was one of the best of the season.

[Terminatah]

I laughed at all of McBain's lines. I also didn't get enough of Skinner doing standup. And my absolute favorite line in the whole episode was Moe's "Is it true that if I kill you, I become you?" That's the kinda line that makes you miss the rest of the scene.

I just wish they were able to string together a serious episode and still maintain the great gags, which is what the show used to be like. These days, almost every episode belongs in the Treehouse of Horror.

-Terminatah

[Failure]

I must be in the tiny minority, but I thought this ep was hilarious for the most part. The Canada parts seemed rushed, but otherwise I thought it was the funniest ep of the year so far. Everyone of McBain's lines were golden. My favorite line was when McBain looks at the pie and says "Remember when I said that I was going to eat you last? I lied." I also loved when Moe said "A lot of people tell me I look like Macauley Culkin. What do you think?" (paraphrase) and then gapes his mouth for the big toothy grin.

Was this plot done before? I remember the Bart's heart getting torn out by an older girl ep, but except for the love interest part I don't think those two eps were really similar.

[Scythemantis]

Futurama, on the other hand, was wonderful.

I`m really hoping they do order more episodes after the completed ones are done.... they did for family guy, and that isnt at all as popular as futurama!

[Terminatah]

Oh yah, I meant to comment on this.

The "Whasup" gag is one of the downsides of animation. When they wrote this episode, that gag was probably not as played as it is today. So while I thought it was dumb, I kinda understood.

-Terminatah

[Terminatah]

Originally posted by Failure
Was this plot done before? I remember the Bart's heart getting torn out by an older girl ep, but except for the love interest part I don't think those two eps were really similar. There was an episode where Bart fell in love with the older girl next door (written by Conan O'Brien, I might add) and there was one where Milhouse falls in love with the new girl in school and Bart is mad because it cuts into their hanging out time, so he conspires to break them up. I think this was a little more like the second one. Except this episode had no SOUL.

-Terminatah

[Borg4of3]

There was also an episode in which Bart falls for the Rev's succubus daughter, who could make him do anything just by singing, speaking, or touching him. She turns out to be worse than Bart :eek:, and frames Bart for stealing from the church collection plate, causing the entire town to shun him even more. In the endshe is caught, revealed in front of a mob populace; but Bart is still under her trance.

Another great ep from way back!

EDITED: just fixed a sentence

[Failure]

Originally posted by Terminatah
There was an episode where Bart fell in love with the older girl next door (written by Conan O'Brien, I might add) and there was one where Milhouse falls in love with the new girl in school and Bart is mad because it cuts into their hanging out time, so he conspires to break them up. I think this was a little more like the second one. Except this episode had no SOUL.

-Terminatah

The Milhouse falling in love one was the one I couldn't think of. I knew there was something else. Hmm... so I guess this was a bit of a retread.

[CadaverousEyes]

I liked it. Especially enjoyed when they recycled the music from when Bart and Milhouse first fought and a girl was involved. I also thought that the wasap thing was intentionally annoying, you know, as a crack against anyone who ever thought that was funny.

[Scythemantis]

The "whasap" was supposed to show that millhouse is LAME... the point of the joke was that HE still finds it funny, because he`s just that nerdy :)

I don`t think the ep was in production when whasap was still around... it`s been gone for quite some time now.

[DR. BELCH]

There were a couple of funny lines--the headmaster slaps Homer's hands and tells him, "Monkeys point." "Monkeys also cry," he says. However, Homer comes off as very insensitive towards Lisa when she learns of a prep school in Springfield and complains that he'd told her there were none...then later doesn't defend Wulfcastle's insulting of her vegetarianism.
Actually, if they'd focused the ep more on the socioeconomic differences between Bart and young Miss Wulfcastle getting in the way of love--rich-witch girl slums it and uses a boy from a few rungs lower on the ladder to selfishly fulfill her own needs--it might have been interesting. But she genuinely loved him...and he first grew bored of her, then jealous and borderline stalking when she glommed on to Milhouse. Which proves he IS his father's son....
Then they poked fun at Canada in the third act--I'm waiting for some backlash from our neighbors to the north.
The other funny bit was the Seinfeldish music during Skinner's poor standup act. Actually he was the most amusing part of the ep, which concerns me.

[ButteredToast]

I'm probably just nitpicking here, but they could have at least tried to get the original version of that song, "Take Off"... I just couldn't stand hearing it blasted out like it was some glam rock song....

"Take off, to the Great White North
Take off, it's a beauty way to go..."

Dangit, that sound just doesn't WORK without Geddy Lee singing it...

[Karkull]

I liked this episode for all the things mentioned. I thought it was a step up. I liked the one that played at 9 pm too.

Futurama was way better, however.

[Memphis Bleek]

This episode was good to me. Milhouse's waaasup was funny. I really like the joke about the Canada basketball team. This had to be the best episode of the season. That just my opinion.

[Nightflower]

Originally posted by DR. BELCH
Then they poked fun at Canada in the third act--I'm waiting for some backlash from our neighbors to the north.


No backlash here. Like I said before, they've been hyping it all week as the "Canada episode" (More emphasis on that, less emphasis on the main plot). People expected the slew of jokes, the critics were praising it in the papers. The only criticisms you'll hear are, "that was it?" Thirty seconds of Canada, with the skydome and the CN tower hastily thrown in.... if that is the "Canada episode", they're not going to do another one- at least until they run out of ideas :D

[James Harvey]

No backlash here, either. Sadly - the Canadian part was the best par tof the rathar poor episode (that and Wolfcastle's car driving voer his front gate - I don't know why - but it was funny). It just seemd pretty hastily thrown togethor as Nightflower said. Throw in some Toronto landmark's and that's. They still gave us the exaggerated accent...which sounded weird. I did laugh when the three Canadian stereotypes got off the bus before the Simpsons...

[atf487]

I have one word. Meh. It was alright, probably the best ep of the season, but thats not saying much. I noticed some similarities to the beginnings between KOTH, the simps, and malcom in the middle. In KOTH, hank messes up with his olympic torch thingy. In the simps, the beginning has the plane people crash, and also messesing up the olympic thing, and later bart attempts to get a gf. THEN in malcom in the middle, reese tried to "take advantage" of cynthia's..er....growth.

[Blue Priestess]

That was just a retread episode; the only things I enjoyed were Lisa's tantrum at the boarding school & the snippets of Rush in the Toronto scenes (Rush makes everything better, even if it's a cover band). I would've paid money to hear Lisa give a vehement refusal to go to my school, though; serves their image baiting right. I also liked Moe's, "If I kill you, do I become you?"

In closing, mediocre episode with a couple funny bits and some semi-Rush. Oh, and Rosemont College blows.

This was also the first I saw the nine-o-clock ep, and honestly, the only thing I found funny was the massive Monopoly fight at the beginning. My family's had a few of those. They're... not pretty. Watching both, I realized that Simpsons now has selective continuity. They didn't remember all of Bart's experiences with girls, but they DID remember the one-shot wives from Vegas. :rolleyes:

Before I go, just lemme say--one more time--ROSEMONT COLLEGE BLOWS. Being a Rosemonster (ugh) is ten times worse than a Gamecock anyday (what school is that, anyway?)

Mela

[Borg4of3]

Originally posted by MTDiva
Before I go, just lemme say--one more time--ROSEMONT COLLEGE BLOWS. Being a Rosemonster (ugh) is ten times worse than a Gamecock anyday (what school is that, anyway?)

Mela

Rose...Monster?! Lol! And I thought being 'cocky' or a 'cock were easy insults. The Game***** are of the University of South Carolina, which isn't as bad as Lisa might have insinuated ;) , but I loved the flame!

Oh, and I completely forgot about the Torch beginning. I loved it! I don't know if it was on purpose, but it seemed to parody the Simpsons use of a completely offtopic beginning to completely surprisingly transition to the real storyline.