“Do you have ‘Go, Dog, Go’?” – Ralph Wiggum
(scoffs) “That’s in juvenile. This is young adult.” – Boy in Library
“Well-read and just a little wild. Oh, if only someone could tame him.” – Lisa Simpson
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Quote of the Day
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Synergy Doesn’t Learn From Its Mistakes
Image used under Creative Commons license from Flickr user iotae.
“You gotta give her up.” – Lisa Simpson
“No, no, wait, hear my plan: put up with her for seven more years. Then we’ll get married, once the first baby comes along she’s bound to settle down and start treating me right. After all, I deserve it.” – Bart Simpson
This week’s edition of IGN’s “corporate fanboy” writing was a mixed bag of praise and criticism. (It still scored a 7.3, of course.) The most direct criticism is of Sacha Baron Cohen and the way this episode didn’t live up to IGN’s expectations. Apparently, every time a comedian of some recent popularity is announced as a guest voice, IGN pees itself in anticipation: Seth Rogen is a genius! This is going to be a GREAT episode! Ricky Gervais made The Office! His episode is gonna be hilarious! And yet every time this happens, Zombie Simpsons drops the ball and IGN is left disappointed. (And never mind that they gave Rogen’s episode an 8.6 when it came out, some time for reflection has apparently taken the shine off of it.) The natural response to repeated disappointment is to stop getting your hopes up, but when the one who’s constantly disappointing you is the same one who’s signing your paychecks that may not be an option.
As always, I’ve edited out the synergy.
March 29, 2010 – I think Sacha Baron Cohen is a pretty funny guy. When I heard he’d be doing a guest voice on The Simpsons Zombie Simpsons, I was excited indifferent. I thought that would be a fantastic match he’d be wasted just like every other celebrity on the show in the last decade or so. Of course, I thought the same thing when I heard Ricky Gervais was going to guest star. And Jack Black. And Seth Rogen. Unfortunately Exactly as I expected, none of those episodes lived up to what I thought the combination of guest actor and series would be were any good. None of those episodes were outright failures, but the The name recognition had raised my expectations nothing to do with the crappiness of the episode. The same goes for "Greatest Story Ever D’ohed." My preconceived notions were let down by what was still a fairly decent episode were confirmed, guest stars are irrelevant, this show just sucks.
The opening act was my favorite the least stupid segment of this half hour. Looking back, I think this was due to the fact that it didn’t involve exotic locales and swanky guest stars, though, it still sucked. It was just your standard (and funny) Jerkass Homer-annoys-Ned neighborly in stupid, unfunny ways affair. While Ned was trying to entertain his bible study group, Homer and the kids were within view enjoying a slip-and-slide in their backyard. It’s these bits that I continue to enjoy because they are were once at the heart of what The Simpsons is was: a family sitcom. Now, they’re just further proof that the show has run out of ideas, So the bits with Homer at home frustrating his do-good neighbor will always be enjoyable, so long as the even these jokes can’t remain funny. And the bits were quite enjoyable in "Greatest Story."
The best last moment in the opening came after Ned had decided to make an effort a plot conceit to save Homer and bring him some redemption in the eyes of his savior. Ned invited the suddenly grass-skirt-wearing Homer and his family to join him on a trip to The Holy Land for some reason. The exaggerated response was classic Homer could’ve been funny: "Hmm, let me think. Take my family to a war zone, on a bus filled with religious lame-o’s, in a country with no pork, in a desert with no casinos. Ooh, where do I sign up?!" Marge’s entry to the scene was also quite funny nearly pointless: "Homer, I can hear you sarcasm from inside the house. And the dishwasher is on." After committing to the trip despite it being expensive and a terrible idea, the act ended after pointlessly increased groaning from Jerkass Homer, with Lisa saying of her father my favorite line from the episode: "The man hates pants."
The middle of the episode didn’t entirely do it for me was where this descended from ordinary mediocrity. It’s become fairly standard to have at least one episode per season take the Simpson clan to some far off land, whether it is Australia, Brazil, London or Africa. [Ed Note: All of those episodes are at least six years old, even IGN can’t be bothered to remember much of Zombie Simpsons.] These episodes can be hit or miss, with installments from later seasons being more often on the miss side. "Greatest Story" had a few good gags while did its missing in Israel, but and nothing stunningly hilarious funny happened. For a time, Anything that could be called storytelling was forgotten to fit in as many funny and not-so-funny dull references to where they were as they could.
I was underwhelmed with Sacha Baron Cohen’s voice work as the groups tour guide. He was like a sped up Borat and was actually a bit difficult to understand at times. The few jokes that did get through were only okay hyperactive and less than clever, like the repetitive "Shut your face." Also standing out as ineffective was Bart’s fight with the tour guide’s daughter, played by singer Yael Naim. Instead of being humorous, it seemed to just be an excuse to include the Israeli combat style of Krav Maga mention things that aren’t funny and have no relevance. Things got a bit funnier even duller once Homer found himself lost in the desert for some reason and had a vision of VeggieTales characters telling him he was the chosen one. Homer’s final speech to try and unite all the faiths made no sense, though who’s going to listen to Homer Simpson? it did push the episode over the finish line.
It’s difficult easy to keep your expectations in check when you hear about an upcoming guest star, and that likely affected my perception of this episode they’re all the same. But that it is what it is – Zombie Simpsons. Perhaps subsequent viewings, if I felt like torturing myself, will would let me find me enjoying this more more specific ways this one sucked, but for now, "Greatest Story Ever D’ohed" was just this side of good par for the course for boring travel episodes with forgettable guest appearances.
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Quote of the Day
“Everyone turn around and look at this!” – Helen Lovejoy
“What is it? A Unitarian?” – Grampa Simpson
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Quote of the Day
“Jessica, I think this is too steep.” – Bart Simpson
“Bart, you can’t trust your perception at this altitude.” – Jessica Lovejoy
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Quote of the Day
“Have you noticed any change in Bart?” – Marge Simpson
“New glasses?” – Homer Simpson
“No. He looks like something might be disturbing him.” – Marge Simpson
“Probably misses his old glasses.” – Homer Simpson
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Quote of the Day
“I know most of you have already judged my brother guilty without any proof, but doesn’t the Bible teach us, ‘Judge not, lest ye be judged’, reverend?” – Lisa Simpson
“I think it may be somewhere towards the back.” – Reverend Lovejoy
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Quote of the Day
“Bart, Lisa, time for church!” – Marge Simpson
“Milhouse, time for church!” – Luann van Houten
“Shlomo, time for your violin lesson!” – Jewish Guy
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Quote of the Day
Image shamelessly yoinked from here.
“I didn’t know the rocket sled was an Olympic event.” – Helen Lovejoy
“Well, no offense lady, but what you don’t know could fill a warehouse.” – Bart Simpson
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Quote of the Day
“I was incredibly moved by your reading. I don’t think God’s words have ever sounded so plausible.” – Bart Simpson
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Quote of the Day
“I guess we could get more involved in Bart’s activities, but then I’d be afraid of smothering him.” – Marge Simpson
“Yeah, and then we’d get the chair.” – Homer Simpson
“That’s not what I meant.” – Marge Simpson
“It was, Marge, admit it.” – Homer Simpson
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Margical History Tour Makes Baby Jesus Cry
“Remember, Bart, I mean, Dances in Underwear, we take the white man alive.” – Lisa Simpson
“Alright, Thinks Too Much, it shall be so.” – Bart Simpson
As per usual with Zombie Simpsons commentaries, the actual episode is incidental to the conversation. In this case, it’s one of those three part story episodes, the first is about Henry VIII, the second is about Sacajawea, and the third about Mozart. They mostly discuss books and movies related to the actual historical figures rather than what’s going on here, but that’s to be expected since the actual episode is a parade of bad slapstick about which the less said the better.
Nine guys on this one: Jean, Mike Anderson, Stewart Burns, Matt Selman, Tim Long, Ian Maxtone-Graham, Tom Gammill, Max Pross, and Brian Kelley.
0:30 – Jean starts off defending the trilogy episodes, half joking that he knew it was the only way they’d make it to 500 episodes.
1:30 – They always have a hard time coming up with female stories that everybody knows, but this one was easy with Sacajawea.
2:30 – The animators like these episodes because they finally get to draw the characters a little differently.
3:40 – To get the backgrounds for the castle they had interns photocopy stuff from libraries because there was no internet.
4:00 – Jean’s continuing to praise the internet as a television writing tool, noting that it used to be a real pain to look stuff up.
5:10 – And just like that, they’ve gotten bored with the episode and are now discussing the novel Wolf Hall.
6:00 – Laughing at serial beheadings.
7:00 – Interesting animation note: before digital color they had like 19 colors that they had to use for the whole show.
8:00 – Couple of desultory Sacajawea jokes.
9:30 – The Lisa/Sacajawea thing is going on, but they’re discussing a Sacajawea book and the actual Lewis & Clark trip. Meanwhile, a log cabin just fell on Moe.
10:30 – With little to note of interest besides the animation, a small puddle reminds Jean of his favorite joke from The Flintstones, “They went to the Grand Canyon which was just this tiny little stream and Fred goes, ‘Well, it’s supposed to be big someday.’”.
10:45 – And we move right from that into, “Another thing in that book about Lewis & Clark . . .”
11:45 – Tip for all you animators out there, if you’ve got something expansive and flat like a field of grass, put some patches of visible blades in it or some rocks or something. Makes it look less flat.
13:00 – And after talking about those Sacajawea coins nobody uses for awhile, now they’re talking about all those state quarters.
13:30 – Once the quarter discussion dies down, it’s time for Jean to note that the third segment involves Mozart which means they didn’t have to pay for the music.
14:00 – While Bart picks up the piano and plays it with his teeth, Jean notes that the movie Amadeus wasn’t very historically accurate. Discussion wise this is more interesting than most of these commentaries, but it has very little to do with what’s actually happening in the episode.
14:30 – There’s a new Mozart book coming out!
15:40 – “The other thing that was not true about Amadeus . . .”
17:10 – Jean with the helpful note that the melody is Eine kleine Nachtmusik.
17:45 – When you have crowd shots with people moving independently, that’s a real pain to animate.
18:45 – They’re very bored now. Dr. Nick just showed up to put leeches on Bart, and Jean starts talking about how that really did kill people if they let out too much blood.
19:10 – To get the candles to glow you animated the centers independently and do a pass over it two or three times.
20:10 – Jean jokes that they go through “four, maybe five ideas” before getting the three they do. Heh.
21:20 – And now, because Mozart was in Animal House and this episode did a brief “here’s what happened” thing, we’re talking about how brilliant Animal House was and how endings like that got overused for a while.
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Quote of the Day
“I don’t want you playing with something that has such bizarre hair. Awful, awful hair.” – Marge Simpson
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Quote of the Day
“Told the Rev I was going to my room to say my prayers.” – Jessica Lovejoy
“Smart, beautiful, and a liar. So much better than that Sarah plain and tall.” – Bart Simpson
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Quote of the Day
“With the way you’re treating me, why should I protect you?” – Bart Simpson
“Because, if you tell, no one will believe you. Remember, I’m the sweet, perfect minster’s daughter, and you’re just yellow trash.” – Jessica Lovejoy
Happy birthday Gabor Csupo!
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Quote of the Day
“Son, if you can look me in the eye and say you didn’t take the collection money, that’s all I need.” – Homer Simpson
“I didn’t take it.” – Bart Simpson
Why you little! . . . How could you look me in the eye and lie like that?” – Homer Simpson
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Quote of the Day
“I just think you and Jessica are too different from each other to get along. She’s a sweet, kind reverend’s daughter, and you’re the Devil’s cabana boy.” – Lisa Simpson
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“You know, I was considering staying after school and helping teacher clean up.” – Bart Simpson
“Do you ever think anything you don’t say?” – Jessica Lovejoy
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Quote of the Day
Image shamelessly yoinked from here.
“I didn’t know the rocket sled was an Olympic event.” – Helen Lovejoy
“Well, no offense lady, but what you don’t know could fill a warehouse.” – Bart Simpson
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Quote of the Day
“I was incredibly moved by your reading. I don’t think God’s words have ever sounded so plausible.” – Bart Simpson
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Quote of the Day
“I guess we could get more involved in Bart’s activities, but then I’d be afraid of smothering him.” – Marge Simpson
“Yeah, and then we’d get the chair.” – Homer Simpson
“That’s not what I meant.” – Marge Simpson
“It was, Marge, admit it.” – Homer Simpson
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