[dilbert80]

The Simpsons usually does a good job of making fun of everyone so it will be interesting to see how this turns out.

[mnehring]

Smithers and Burns?

[BigTex5]

[atomicpossum]

Gee. It couldn't be....Smithers, could it? (Didn't they pretty much do that years ago, anyway?)

Finally, Simpsons looks like it might be dying. They stink on ice when they get on a soapbox.

[Mr. Mojo]

The safe money is on one of Marge's sisters.

Longshot: Ned Flanders.

[mike182d]

The Simpsons is still on the air?

[SlowBoat407]

Could the Simpsons be jumping the shark?

Note: Jumping the Shark refers to the "Happy Days" episode where blah blah blah blah blah.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

Lenny and Carl. Together, officially, at last!!!!

[loborojo]

The Simpsons are jumping the shark.

[Zeppelin]

I'm guessing Moe.

[Zeppelin]

***"The Simpsons could make a strong political point that the networks would never dare in a sitcom," says Larry *Gross*, a communications professor at the University of Southern California and author of Up from Invisibility: Lesbians, Gay Men and the Media in America.***

So, the name of the author of a book about gays is "Gross?" That's hilarious!

[Incandesia]

The really big surprise is that some journalist still considers 'The Simpsons' cutting edge, or even relevant.
They should have retired gracefully ages ago, sometime around the 'munchkin racing jockey' episode.

[Incandesia]

BTW, welcome to FreeRepublic.

[TheCrusader]

What other segment of people that comprise about 1 - 2 % of the population does the entertainment media cater to besides the homosexual perverts? None, that I can think of. What does that tell you about who is running things in Hollywood, network TV and the media in general? The madness will stop ONLY when we stop viewing the assorted garbage they bring into our living rooms, and without compromise.

My own tv takes up space in my living room to bring me Fox News and the Boston Red Sox and nothing else. (And even with that I wrote to the sponsors of Levitra who saturated the World Series with intrusively descriptive ads). I don't really know who the Simpsons are and I never watched Seinfeld or the Sopranos, and I aint' missed a damn thing.

[dangus]

Umm, some mystery: We already know that Smithers is gay and has erotic fantasies about Mr. Burns. One episode even showed him learing at a nude images of Mr. Burns. The question is who ELSE on the Simpsons is gay. I'm pretty sure they've suggested Sideshow Bob is gay, haven't they?

Patty Bouvier is not gay; we have seen her lust after men before; given the number of occasions, saying she "rarely" dates men is odd.

Comic book dude gets excited about female comic-book characters, but that could just be because they're so cool. Ya know, the way drama queen queens get worked up over Barbara Streisand. So he could be gay.

I've never been to sure about Mel... could be bi. But he's in ads going after Marge. Barney could also be bi for all we know. Neither seem gay, but both could be used for that, "you never know who" sorta twist.

I also wouldn't be surprised if the Kennedy-esque mayor was used to satirize Governor McGreavey.

[Antoninus]

Every season there's a gay episode. Every single season. It's beyond tiresome.

I think they've finally jumped the shark over there...

[funkywbr]

My guess, Moe!

[APFel]

The Simpsons lost its heart in 1999, it lost its soul in 2000. The comedy used to be all nuance, reference jokes, and other "heady" comedy. Now the comedy is mostly physical (which Tom and Jerry and most other cartoons did much better in the '50s). I haven't laughed at The Simpsons after the "Simpsons go to New York" episode.

Bart used to act like a 7 year old boy (The "Lemon Tree" episode, the "shoplifting the videogame" episode) now he just hangs around to zing some foul-mouthed one liners.

Homer, while always a buffoon, used to want to "do right" by his family and earn their respect. Now he just trips over things and acts angry all of the time.

Marge used to be the conscience of the family, but now she is starting to behave more like the modern incarnation of Homer... For example, this season she poisoned her competitor's food entries with baby ear medicine (not to mention her boob job and her road rage issues). While she has never been perfect (the Burn's Casino episode where she is revealed to have a gambling addiction) this was done with some degree of taste and tact.

Lisa hasn't been the same since she became the voice of the radical left. While I understand this was done in order to distinguish her character better (it was also done earlier in the series, pre- 1999) I find her boorish now.

The supporting characters used to represent some archetypes of "Joe American", but the writers have taken so many liberties with them of late that they are all just ugly.

Just my opinion. I have watched the first few episodes of the last few seasons to see if they get any better, but they never do. It joins the legions of other shows in the annals of stupid television garbage.

APf

[wallcrawlr]

My bet is on Lenny and Carl

[Dan from Michigan]

It better not be Groundskeeper Willie

[longtermmemmory]

I find they had too much of a leftist spin to bother watching.

This is a reason why shows like this should be encoded with an "H" rating for V-Chip purposes. Let them air it BUT allow mothers and fathers to decide if shows with "H" content into the home.