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movies/tv Why isn't the Simpsons Funny?


Harmony Spark

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When the Simpsons entered Season 12, people started to hate the show and proclaim that it isn't funny anymore. I understand why but my question is how did the Simpsons turn to funny to unfunny? Was it the plots of the episodes boring or is it the characters? Matt Groening said in a interview that nothing has changed from show, but people still find the show unfunny. So why is the Simpsons unfunny now?

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Because it's all been done. Everything's been done. They've used up every single possibility they could find and now they're scraping the bottom of the barrel. Granted, I've never been a huge Simpson's fan, but the stuff they're doing now is boring and flat. If you stop listening to critics and people who mean well and want to see you improve, you'll keep doing the same tired old schtick and it'll be completely lame. Like the Simpsons currently.

 

Edit: I'd also change the topic title to say "Why aren't the Simpsons funny anymore?" because from what I understand, they used to be quite amusing.

Edited by Miss Earl Grey
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Personally I've never found the Simpsons funny. Even now, as an adult and therefore the show's demographic, I just don't really see the appeal in it. The jokes are just kind of... bleh. A bit stale in my opinion. And I haven't even seen the newer episodes, so yeah.

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The Simpsons have always been....meh, to me. Of course, I don't find most comedy shows to be funny...at all. Same opinion for Family Guy and Futurama as well...they're all dull and boring to me.

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Well, there's no jokes left to use. They tried to use every bottom of the barrel joke and cliche in the new episodes, but they are always a hit and miss. When you have a show on for too long, where the quality is declining especially in jokes then your writers are out of ideas. The Simpsons should die, or if it did die then it should have stayed dead. That's why we prefer the old episodes.

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Season 10 is the most unfunny thing ever, but everything else, even the stuff after, I really enjoy and I don't really see why people say the new episodes are bad. They are not always as good as the older ones, of course, but they are still entertaining even if the storylines are now taking second place and the jokes being the main focus. It's different, but not bad IMO.

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I grew up watching the Simpsons every single day, I loved the show, but the past couple of seasons have really dropped in terms of humour. 
The storylines have been getting stale and too far fetched because the simple fact is that they've done it all.

The old seasons were effortlessly funny, and now it really seems like they're trying too hard. They've sort of taken that horrible South Park route of finding something big in the media or in current events, somehow incorporating it into the episode, and then making a lame joke out of it. It's not funny. Stop it. 

Edited by Apocalyptic_Unicorn
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BECAUSE YOU DON'T GET THE JOKE AND YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND IT

I agree, I don't know how these shows lose their humor.

It could maybe the writers got old or they got new employees for the job.

Things change. For the better or for the worst

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Because they don't know what they're doing with the show anymore. They reuse ideas every other week(how many girlfriends has Bart had by now?) and they change essential parts of certain characters just for the sake of change(seriously Lisa and the Sax were inseperable!). They're just milking the show dry just to keep getting ratings(though to Fox's credit, it's not as bad as what Nick does with Spongebob)

 

But what frustrates me more though is that there are many times outside the TV show where the Simpsons proves that they can still be entertaining and funny. Simpsons Hit&Run and the Movie were made way after the TV show hit rock bottom and they were some of the greatest bits of Simpsons in a looooong time, hell, I also heard The Longest Daycare was really great as well.

 

I hope that they finally axe the show soon and just focus on making another good movie/game

Edited by Megas75
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It was season 5 where I think they jumped the shark, where Homer was an astronaut. I agree with what everyone here has said: the show has run out of ideas and has to do more extreme things. It's no longer about a typical disfunctional family just trying to get by. Instead, they travel all over the world and meet celebrities. Advertisements for new seasons talk about what celebrity guest stars there will be. I don't want to see celebrities playing themselves. Here is how a Simpsons script goes:

 

Celebrity: "Hi, I'm famous celebrity ______."

Simpsons family: "Oh my gosh, it's famous actor / singer / tv personality / etc _________. What are you doing in Springfield?"

Homer gets beaten up and chased by mob for 20 minutes. End.

Edited by BronyNumber42
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I wouldn't say The Simpsons is bad but it has lost much of its luster in the newer seasons, there was one episode a year or two ago that really had me laughing that made fun of the Twilight book series and other similar stories but other than that it has been hit and miss.

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Like everyone else has said, they've used up all the ammunition they had and are now left with nothing.

It should also be mentioned that Fox hasn't had a good team of writers (and this goes for most other shows, too) for a while. Most of what Fox airs anymore is boring and rehashed.

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When something becomes an institution and there's millions of dollars of profits to be made in keeping something going that likely should die out and brings nothing new to the table. The Simpsons is a lot like the Rolling Stones or U2, something that should have been stopped a long time ago as it's becoming embarassing to its former self. The sad thing is that people would likely lose their jobs and a steady gig if they called it a day and closed up shop and THAT's why the show is still on the air. Fox would have to put SOMETHING in its place and people are still tuning in for new episodes even if its not that good anymore.

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The writers just stopped caring. It wasn't any "jump the shark" moment and it's not that they've ran out of ideas. They have ideas, but they aren't executed to their full potential because they're tired. If you take most newer Simpsons episode you could say "If the talent from the shows glory days wrote this could be really funny." Episodes just sort of blur together now but the writers don't treat each episode as it's own special snowflake. Feels very assembly line at this point. Still better than a lot if crap on TV still I will admit.

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Because they've done everything they can. It's quite a challenge to write a whole new episode that isn't something they've done before and is still funny, after all these years of it being aired. That, and that they don't have to try anymore. People still watch the Simpsons. That's all they care about, viewers. The show isn't gong down any time soon because f its legacy, and that it still gets viewers.

Edited by Brosparkles
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I actually still find the Simpsons pretty darn funny. Not as funny as it used to be, but it is still hilarious. Some of these past episodes have been my favorite. I still love and think the Simpsons are funny and hope for 50 more years.

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I found the Simpsons funny in the first nine seasons but it started going downhill once season 10 began. I believe there are four big problems with the newer episodes.

 

1. The writers try too hard to be funny - In the episode "Papa don't leech," the couch gag was Homer having a dream where he kills Grandpa which I did not find funny at all.

 

2. Repetitive plots - It seems like whenever Marge has an episode, it always involves her relationship with Homer in trouble.

 

3. Nothing but pop culture references - most of the episodes that don't use old plots use pop culture references as the main focus. I preferred it in the older seasons when the references were more subtle and the writers didn't flat out tell us what they were referencing.

 

4. Too many pointless celebrity guest stars - I liked the guests in the earlier seasons because they were relevant to the plots but nowadays, it feels like they only have celebrity guests for the sake of having celebrity guests. Sometimes, they only appear for a few minutes or mere seconds and have very little lines. In the episode where Bart becomes a famous drummer, he bumps into White Stripes and they chase him until they fall in the river. They are not seen again for the remainder of the episode, making that scene entirely pointless.

Edited by shocker1991
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Because people have been watching the same jokes over and over again for more than eleven seasons. They have more celebrity cameos then I can shake my sunish yellow fist at, I mean seriously, they're running out of unique plots, but that's expected for a show that's been running for like fourteen years.

 

I'm going to draw a comparison here, you see, The Simpsons is a simple show where there can only be so many plots because of what we've come to expect of it. If they suddenly changed it and did something original fans would be upset about that in all likelihood because the show's premise would have to be completely different to include different plot points, that's where the show's premise is poorly conceptualized.

 

As opposed to, say, Doctor Who, which can run infinitely because it literally encompasses all of time and space as possible plot settings, that is a show that can run for as many years as it wants. The Simpsons is just not that type of show, there's only so much they can do with it.

Edited by Harmonic Revelations
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