Sigh. He's at it again. I mean who the bloody hell is interested in which of the hundreds of Simpsons episodes is your favourite? Well Him, of course, and these people (can you digg it?), and even Google (have they got nothing better to do with their billions than to list pages and pages of websites all professing to have ten best Simpson episodes? Tch).
Anyway, I'm just moaning. Well, it is Friday, after all...
Boring John
PS Out of His list below I'd have to vote for Homer's Enemy (Season 8, 1997) - I know just how Grimey feels, especially when it comes to thinking about Him.
Over to Him...
"My ten 'best' Simpsons episodes (with reasons why)"
"Thank you kindly Boring John. Well, and assuming you are familiar enough with The Simpsons that you can fill in the gaps, and in no particular order...
"1. The one called Lisa's Substitute
"Sigh. This features The Jewish cowboy cum substitute teacher played by Dustin Hoffman and the famous Lisa rant aimed at Homer: 'You sir, are a baboon! A BABOON!' and the note at the end of things from Mr. Bergstrom (Lisa's Substitute) to a crestfallen Lisa as she waves goodbye to him forever (it simply says: 'You are Lisa Simpson').
"Oh, oh! This episode also featured Bart Simpson's attempt to become class president challenging the soon-to-be utterly phased-by-it-all Martin Prince (except Bart forgets to vote).
"Oh and then there's the moment where Homer - the usually inept parent - gets 3 from 3 by helping Bart get over his problem (losing to Martin), Lisa's problem (Homer comforts Lisa with his love and makes her laugh) and Maggie's problem (her dummy - pacifier (eek!) - falls out). When Marge asks how things are with Lisa he simply replies, "Marge, let's go to bed. I'm on the best run of my life" (Or something like that.)
"2. The one when Millhouse plays Fallout Boy
"This episode is included as it includes some of the best lines/dialogues in The Simpsons ever (in my humble opinion) including: "My eyes! The goggles do nothing!" and this exchange between McBain (who plays RadioActive Man) struggling with his lines:
"'Up and atom' (Director)
'Up and at them' (McBain)
'Up and atom!' (Director)
'Up and at them!' (McBain)
etc.
"Hilarious.
"3. The one where Marge gets Itchy and Scratchy banned
"Aside: thankfully I watched enough early Simpsons episodes so that I was unaffected by the plethora of later (poorer) episodes called The One Where They Start To Be Generic Rubbish And No Better Than A Good Episode of Bloody Friends!)
"This is a fabulous for the sequence in the middle of the episode where all the kids - forced to switch off TV as there are no more Itchy and Scratcy shows - have to go out and, shock horror, play! A minute or so of 'childhood bliss' follows with Beethoven's Pastoral playing in the background. We segue from skateboarding to kite flying to skipping to... It's TV perfection!
"(Oh I couldn't resist...)
"4. The one where 'nothings happens' in Springfield
This features 22 stories that intertwine. It also has great lines aping Pulp Fiction about the little differences between a Krusty Burger and a McDonalds Quarter Pounder with Cheese.
"This is one where the sum of its parts is greater than the whole. :-)
"5. The one where Homer travels in time using a toaster
"This is one of those dreaded Halloween episodes but this one's a good un. Basically, Homer gets to travel back in time using a toaster (of all things - reminds me of Red Dwarf's hilarious talking toaster, actually). And when he travels back in time he starts to alter his environment with disastrous consequences when he returns from his time travels. So then he starts to try not to alter his environment, but is unable to.
"I think it loses something in translation actually. Lol.
"Or maybe it's because I am a bit of a time travel geek! :o (Hence the Red Dwarf devotion.)
"6. . The one where Bart raises two lizards
"This episode has some great slapstick and a classic interchange between Bart and Marge. Basically, Bart ends up raising some birds eggs (the birds turn out to be lizards). He rigs up electricity to shine light onto the eggs to help them rear. Unfortunately (for Homer) he borrows the lights from the cellar so that everytime Homer goes down into the cellar, he falls down the stairs as there are no lights. He keeps doing this. And it keeps on being hilarious (the off camera screeches of Homer tumbling down the stairs - eye-wateringly funny and slapstick heaven)
"And there's the line from Bart about the lizards (he's trying to protect) to his Mum, Marge
"Bart - 'Everyone thinks they're monsters, but I raised them, and I love them! I know that's hard to understand.'
Marge - 'Mmm...... Not as hard as you think.'
"7. The one where Homer (nearly) skateboards across the canyon"
This is great for this sequence alone: Homer slowly slides down the side of the hill, whilst talking (on Bart's skateboard), and heads towards the canyon (Springfield Gorge) - he was trying to stop Bart doing the same and threatened to do it instead until Bart backed down and said he'd give up his daredevil ways. Anyway, he ends up taking the canyon jump on and, for a few heroic moments actually believes he's going to get across and he says (something like)
" - ' I'm going to make it . This is going to be the greatest moment of my life!'
"But then he crashes into the side of gorge and proceeds to grunt and groan like only Homer can as he falls to the bottom. Simple. But brilliant. More slapstick heaven.
"8. . The two where they spoof 'Who Shot JR?'
Classic.
"9. The one where Homer is exposed as a 'slacker' by Grimey
Homer gets a co-worker called Mr Grimes. It's not long before Mr Grimes realises that Homer is a lazy good-for-nothing but what really riles him is the fact that no-one else can see Homer for what he is.
This is a dark episode for sure as Grimey cops it in the end trying out some of Homer's comedy slapstick that never seems to affect Homer (but Mr Grimes gets electrocuted, alas).
Homer's final insult is referring to Mr Grimes (who he admired throughout) as ol' Grimey at Grime's funeral. Hard one to watch, actually as it's a bit near the knuckle (for an animated cartoon lol).
"10. The one where Homer corrupts Ned Flanders and they head off to Vegas
Homer thinks that Ned hasn't lived. (And, strangely, Ned agrees.) And so he persuades Ned to go to Vegas with him where they promptly get married to two strangers whilst drunk.
There's a daft (but funny) almost Benny Hill-esque sequence where Homer and Ned run around the casino away from their pursuers to the tune of Viva Las Vegas.
Anyway, they get booted out of town - reprobates not welcome, apparently. And, as they dust themselves down on the edge of the state border they're spotted by two bald eagles (or something like that). The birds look to themselves knowingly and then fly into the air. The credits roll and you hear Homer say 'Ah, nice birdies' then he shrieks like a girl as the birds proceed to attack him.
More 'off camera' slapstick magic.
END
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"Note to Simpsons geeks here: if I have misquoted somewhere above or there's a line out of place or... Well if there's anything that you don't agree with here... Well, erm, you can [insert suitable Simpsons-geeek (eek!) putdown here (as voiced by Comic Book Guy)]!
"Yes, Boring John insisted I add this note here, and used that tone of voice. Well it is his blog, after all!
"This is all off the top of my head (more or less) and I've tried to do as little 'research' as possible. Maybe you don't agree with my top 10? In that case leave me comment why don't ya!!
"Oh and here's a big list of Simpsons' episodes
"PS Yes, this is (probably) the funniest Simpsons' dialogue ever but the episode don't win an award here :-( "
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