Complete with John Walsh hosting a recap that poured over the details
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Wait... Is that one guy playing a loaf of bread?This might be my favourite Simpsons song. Its not particularly funny, it just slaps.
I always wondered how that contest turned out.In the months following the broadcast of Part One, there was widespread debate among fans of the series as to who shot Mr. Burns. Fox offered a contest to tie in with the mystery where callers who dialed 1-800-COLLECT were eligible and they then guessed who the culprit was. It ran from August 13 to September 10 and was one of the first contests to tie together elements of television and the Internet. Fox launched a new website, Springfield.com, devoted to the mystery which got over 500,000 hits during the summer of 1995. The winner would be animated on an episode of the show. Due to contest regulations, a winner had to be selected out of a random sample of entries, whether the entries contained correct responses or not. The sample did not contain any correct answers, and so a winner (who had the wrong answer) was chosen at random. However, the winner, Fayla Gibson of Washington D.C., did not watch the show and opted to accept a cash prize in lieu of being animated.
Aside from taking on the nature of fame, the episode is also a parody of Hollywood excess, with a production where everything seems to go wrong, thanks to the director and producer's wrongheadedness and the town gouging the Hell out of the company. There's a knowing wink in here because more likely the case is that while a town like Springfield would benefit financially from a big production, these things can have other costs. The best example of this is Homer proclaiming that they get $50 a day for the movie to be shot in their house and immediately the company begins tearing shit down. Seriously, this reflects the reality I've heard that while you might be well paid, companies might do shit without asking that can be compensated financially but also might ruin things.
Well, I don't know if there's a specific word for "fake out" jokes. I mean, its a pretty common trope and the verb used in describing them is misdirect. Though many of them are not "anti-comedy", they are in the same ballpark. Anti-comedy is a form of comedy based on subverting conventional comedy. This is subverting hoary old tropes rather than jokes. Anyway, for me its not the formula so much as the volume and execution. One of the many reasons that I don't like newer episodes is that a lot of it feels like it is one cruise control: certain jokes, fresh at the time, now are played out. I don't even mean conventional catchphrases, more a re-use joke that feels there to fill dead air. Like Homer responding indifferently "yeah, but what are ya gonna do" for the millionth time,One thing I wanted to talk about, this episode was the one that I remember being when The Simpsons began doing more fake-out jokes. If that's even the right term. Like when the movie director says "You're our new Fallout Boy!!!...is what I would say if you were one inch taller." A few jokes a season I can take, but later seasons would do so many of these jokes that I built up an immunity, which is just one reason I stopped enjoying them.
But maybe I just don't like those jokes as much as other people, I'd like to hear what others say.
Back on this subject...Yeah, I noticed. It looks like the black lines have kind of a shine to them with the digital paint job.I'm curious if you found this episode as weird looking as I did? I can totally see if either you didn't notice anything or it didn't bother you.
And the jokes build on each other brilliantly.The street sweeper is the perfect example of why The Simpsons wouldn't work in any other medium. It's got like four or five jokes crammed into maybe ten or fifteen seconds of screentime.