What if by killing one manatee, you could save two manatees?

[vovat]

So, let's see. First of all, tonight's Simpsons episode wasn't one of the better ones in recent memory. The plot was basically just another "Homer does something bad, and Marge leaves him, only to come back when Homer makes a half-assed reconciliation gesture" thing, an idea that's gotten a bit old by this point. There were some funny parts, though. Probably my favorite bit was Marge challenging the biologist to moral puzzles. I also liked some of the jet-skiers' lines, and Lenny and Carl trying to be in the porno film. On the other hand, Fat Tony wasn't as funny as usual, and they didn't really do much with Homer's country cousin. And the joke about Homer mistaking something else for an outhouse had already been done years ago (although that time it was Grampa who made the mistake, not Homer). So, yeah. It was okay, but could have been better.

I did like the new Family Guy quite a bit. I usually like Brian-heavy episodes, and his awkwardness around a black woman was great. Peter hanging out with James Woods was really funny, too. A few of the jokes fell a little flat (come on, a Helen Keller joke?), and I thought they were going to actually go somewhere with Stewie reading The Da Vinci Code, but overall it was a great episode.

By the way, is viewer discretion now advised on every single Fox show?

While on the subject of watching things, I saw the video for the New Pornographers' "Use It" today. David Cross is in it, which is cool. You can see it here, along with some earlier videos of theirs. Unfortunately, they're all in streaming video (I hate streaming video even with a high-speed connection, and it's pretty much impossible to watch with dial-up), but I guess that's to be expected.

Garfield! You scored 40 Aggression and 75 Silliness!

Cynical, bitter, hilarious and sometimes violent, you are Garfield! You love hedonism and schadenfreude. You have a great sense of humor and a little mean streak. People either love you or hate you, but I would wager that the majority love you.

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 39% on Aggression You scored higher than 87% on Silliness

Link: The 80s Cartoon Personality Test written by TheLadyEve on Ok Cupid

You are a protector.
Yes, you don't like to kill people. That goes
against everything you belive in. It's not that
you are a coward, but your ideals and morals
wouldn't allow it. You are the typical hero, do
the righteous things, get the bad guys and do
it all legally. But just because you don't kill
doesn't mean you can't kick ass. And that is
what you do. You use your brain and your
strenght to do honourable deeds and protect
people you know and love. If an evil guy is
going to take over the world soon, it's you who
will get involved. You hate watching innocents
suffer, and love seeing bad people getting what
they deserve. You are probably also happy and
optimistic and work pretty good in groups. And
the friends you usually make are true ones.

Main weapon: Anything at all
Quote: "You only live once, but if
you do it right, once is enough" -Joe
Lewis
Facial expression: Smile


What Type of Killer Are You? [cool pictures]
brought to you by Quizilla


Original Glazed


What Kind of Krispy Kreme Doughnut Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Actually, I think that's the only kind of Krispy Kreme doughnut I've ever had. Krispy Kreme DOES make the best glazed doughnuts, though. AND they're the only doughnut place I know of that spells "doughnut" the way I learned it in sixth grade English class. Which reminds me that I think a good (if by "good," you mean "so cheesy and stupid you can't help but love it") slogan would be "We take the 'ugh' out of 'doughnut.'"

Hardcore Gamer You got 83 Score.

Alright, you scored very, very well. You missed a couple, but I bet it was because you thought they were trick questions, right? Anyway you know your stuff, so congradulations. We should fight sometime on battle.net (no not really), or challenge someone to some Yugi-Oh. I could definetly talk Video Games with you. If you happen to be a girl, write me, because you are a very special and rare kind of woman :)

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 51% on Knowledge

Link: The Video Game Trivia Test written by DarkNation09 on Ok Cupid

Comments

[3x1minus1.livejournal.com]

ahh, cool, i'll have to watch the vid on my other computer.

in a cbc radio 3 podcast, they had a 90 second interview with david cross and he said he's been listening to the new new pornographers cd.

[kristenjarrod.livejournal.com]

I love Brian heavy eps of Family Guy. This ep was a little low key though.

Simpsons was back to the drivel they'd been doing for the past few years (the repeats I saw this summer were good, though--what happened?)

[vovat.livejournal.com]

The last Simpsons season was good overall, but it had its weak episodes. The one where Homer became a prison snitch was really about on par with last night's, and possibly a little weaker. I'm still holding out hope for the rest of this season. The quality of the season premiere doesn't always reflect the quality of the season as a whole.

[kristenjarrod.livejournal.com]

God, remember good season premeres like "Kamp Krusty", and "Homer's Barbershop Quartet", The Who Shot Mr. Burns part 2 episode and so on. I'm looking at snpp.com and it seems that the season premeres started to get weak around season 9.

[revme.livejournal.com]

(coughcoughthat'sbecausetheshowstartedtogetweakaroundseason9coughcough)

8)

[vovat.livejournal.com]

True, although I would say "Beyond Blunderdome" and "The Parent Rap" were particularly bad even for their respective seasons. "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson," "A Tale of Two Springfields," and "How I Spent My Strummer Vacation" weren't anywhere near as bad as those other two, but they weren't great either. On the other hand, I remember "The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace" as being one of the better Season 10 episodes. It seems like, for a while there, they were going for episodes with really wacky plots and/or big-name guest stars for season premieres. They seem to have gotten away from this as of late, though, with "All's Fair in Oven War" and last night's episode both being much more low-key.

[revme.livejournal.com]

That's true. I'm indifferent-at-best towards "Beyond Blunderdome" (had to look up which it was, for a minute, I thought it was the Battlebots one, which I actually kinda like), and "The Parent Rap" is awful. I'm floored that they keep bringing Judge Harm BACK. Urgh. But then, in the two roles I know her from, I loathe Jane Karamcamddfkasdfaek -- the horrible bitch mother from Malcom in the Middle (which I can't stand) and the horrible bitch Judge Harm. Does she do ANY other character?

"New York" is one that I didn't really care for when it ran, but it's grown on me. Ithink less because it's gotten better, but more because I saw how bad the Simpsons could get. Tale and Strummer are... OK. They're pretty much resoundingly mediocre. I did kind of like Wizard a bit, and Oven War was actually pretty good. (Although I was really disappointed that the entire episode was applying drastic changes to Status Quo, but everything was forgotten by the next episode. If they're gonna do stuff like that, why couldn't they have Un-Storylined Manjula/The Octuplets, huh?)

But yeah... it does seem that Fox, at least, are fans of the Big Star Power Episodes, which is kind of funny, as those are almost always the worst ones. I would love to be put in charge of the Simpsons, because I'd basically end up doing one Massive Episode to go through the complete list of Celebrites Who Requested To Be On, and then pretty much never have a guest star again. At least, not one who appears either As Themselves or As Themselves Only With A False Name. There are some guest appearances that really worked, though -- particularly the ones where they're actually PLAYING A CHARACTER (i.e. Al Brooks' various ones; Dustin Hoffman; Michael Jackson; Steve Martin; Meryl Streep; etc.) instead of "HEY I'M FAMOUS!!!" or "HEY I CAN'T ACT!" (i.e. Helen Hunt, where, as usual, her character was just Helen Hunt with a different name -- how does she keep getting roles?!)

[vovat.livejournal.com]

"Beyond Blunderdome" seemed to me to be another episode centered around a guest star, and one whom I didn't care for even in his pre-Passion of the Christ days, so it had that going against it. I also remember it as having a lot of jokes that were supposed to be funny simply because they made no sense (like, say, Homer driving an electric car underwater and electrocuting mermaids). I haven't seen it in a while, though, so maybe I'd like it better now. I don't know.

My main problem with the BattleBots one was that I thought the subplot with all the cats dying was kind of morbid. I also thought it was kind of weird that no one but Lisa seemed to care much about this. I know the family generally doesn't think much of the cat, but you'd think they'd have more of a reaction to her death. It's kind of like the much-maligned (and with good reason) "Saddlesore Galactica"; Lisa loves horses, but she's too busy complaining about the result of a band competition to even interact with her brother's horse. It's kind of ridiculous when family members totally ignore something going on right under their noses, unless that's the joke. Anyway, "I, D'oh-bot" was okay otherwise, but not great.

The thing is, the Big Star Power Episodes don't HAVE to be bad. I mean, I loved "Krusty Gets Kancelled," and I didn't even particularly like the guest stars. (Well, getting Johnny Carson was cool on general principles, even though I never watched his show. I don't like the Red Hot Chili Peppers at all, though, yet their role in the episode was funny.) I think with some of the more recent ones, it's more a case of "Hey, we have a bunch of big-name celebrities and some jokes about their respective careers! Wait, we need a plot, don't we?"

i.e. Helen Hunt, where, as usual, her character was just Helen Hunt with a different name -- how does she keep getting roles?!

Wasn't she dating Hank Azaria at the time? That might have had something to do with it.

[revme.livejournal.com]

Yeah; pre-Passion, I was just bored by Mel Gibson. Now, I'm hell of skeeved out. But... yeah. I did find the bastardization of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington sort of amusing, and I liked the Dog With Shifty Eyes, but for the most part, it was just "hey, here's some crap! Now, a famous guy!"

Oddly enough, the cats dying didn't really bother me, although it did seem a little odd that no one but Lisa (and sorta Marge) cared in retrospect. It didn't really seem like the plots were too distant time-wise, so you'd think there'd be... some... reaction from Bart (or I guess Homer, but IIRC, that era of Homer was just sort of coming out of Complete Self-Centerdness, so...). At least a "Jeez, I'm sorry, Lise". (I think part of the problem, though, is that they've lost at least a minute to Fox wanting to cram in more commercials, so they don't have TIME to do anything like that, which is lame. It's too bad they can't go "Look, we BUILT this network, give us the full 22 minutes.")

And, yeah -- 'Krusty Gets Kancelled' WAS good -- I think it's because, as you say, that one was about plot, and the guest stars were organic. Sure, it was a famous guy clearing house episode, but they had reason to be there, it wasn't just "HEY! Look who's touring in Springfield! Or making a movie in springfield! Even though it's been established that Springfield is a terrible place to film!", it worked with the plot. And I think, too, it might have been early enough to get people who Got The Show, rather than Just Random Famous Folks To Be Famous.

Wasn't she dating Hank Azaria at the time? That might have had something to do with it.
....that's true, but how does that explain Twister or Mad About You (though, well, that one was pretty much written off anyway, having Paul Reiser...)>?

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I liked those same parts of "Beyond Blunderdome," although I might have liked the movie scene better if I'd ever actually watched Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

[revme.livejournal.com]

It's actually really good - I recommend checking it out. But then, I like Jimmy Stewart AND Frank Capra, so...

[kristenjarrod.livejournal.com]

(coughcoughexactlycoughcough)

[revme.livejournal.com]

I think we pretty much agreed on the Simpsons and Family Guy episodes. Also, I was going to try to watch the New Pornographers' video, but it wouldn't work for me (it'd just be ultra blocky and pause all the time and everything), but they did have mp3s, so, hey, that works!

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I was having problems like that with the "All For Swinging You Around" video when I tried watching it on Windows Media Player, but it was fine when I watched it on RealPlayer. Which is kind of a shame, since I try to use Real as rarely as possible. (I hate the fact that you can't watch something on there without a bunch of extra windows popping up.)

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

"We take the 'ugh' out of 'doughnut.'"

Excellent!