A pregnant virgin? This is every man's worst nightmare!

[vovat]

Tonight, we had the Simpsons' annual non-canonical, non-Halloween trilogy of stories. And I think it was possibly the best episode of the season so far. I was a fan of the "Simpsons Bible Stories" episode from several years ago, and I enjoyed the new segment that was along much the same lines. There was something to keep me laughing pretty much every minute. And young Jesus/Bart using his powers to play pranks reminded me of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. With the second segment, the premise was amusing enough on its own, and the World War II jokes were the icing on the cake. The final segment, however, was apparently thrown together at the last minute. It was as if they decided they needed a third story, but had no idea what to do with it, so the writers just pitched every Christmas-related idea they could think of (Nutcracker parody, Moe's holiday suicide attempts, Homer forgetting to buy a present, and a lot of other random jokes), and hastily made a segment out of it. I laughed at a few things, like Groundskeeper Willie's double dream; and I liked Marge's solution to Homer's perpetual forgetting. But they could easily have used these same jokes in a more unified plot. Is it really THAT hard to come up with three Christmas stories? Sheesh, if they were hurting that much for ideas, they could have just done a parody of one of those annual TV specials or something. For that matter, they could have lengthened the other two stories; I know it's traditional for there to be three, but I don't think anyone would be too offended if they deviated from that pattern for once.

When the President's speech came on at 9, I didn't know how long it was going to be, so I went back to do stuff on the computer, intending to check the TV listings. I forgot to do so, however, and lost track of time, hence missing the rest of the Fox Sunday night lineup. So...yeah.

Universal Trendsetter now has the video for the Young Fresh Fellows' "Barky's Spiritual Store" up for download. It's a cheaply made video, but very fun nonetheless. You gotta love the lion suit. I have to say that Scott McCaughey looked better before growing the beard, though. He looks like he's trying to be the next Frank Zappa or something.

Handholder

You go out of your way to build bridges with people of different views and beliefs and have quite a few religious friends. You believe in the essential goodness of people , which means you're always looking for common ground even if that entails compromises. You would defend Salman Rushdie's right to criticise Islam but you're sorry he attacked it so viciously, just as you feel uncomfortable with some of the more outspoken and unkind views of religion in the pages of this magazine.


You prefer the inclusive approach of writers like Zadie Smith or the radical Christian values of Edward Said. Don't fall into the same trap as super–naïve Lib Dem MP Jenny Tonge who declared it was okay for clerics like Yusuf al–Qaradawi to justify their monstrous prejudices as a legitimate interpretation of the Koran: a perfect example of how the will to understand can mean the sacrifice of fundamental principles. Sometimes, you just have to hold out for what you know is right even if it hurts someone's feelings.

What kind of humanist are you? Click here to find out.

Zadie Smith? Like, "The Girl with Bangs"? That Zadie Smith? As much as I love to read, I'm really pretty unfamiliar with the world of authors.


I should be sending out my mix CD's soon. Let's see...revme, obsessical, slfcllednowhere, and countblastula all wanted copies, right? If there's anyone I'm forgetting, or anyone who wants to be added to list, let me know.

Comments

[revme.livejournal.com]

Weird -- I actually like the way Scott looks with the beard as opposed to Clean Shaven Scott. I missed all but the last segment of the Simpsons (which, yeah, was sorta eh, but I really liked the "Nobody Gets My Organs" sign), but Family Guy was really good and actually new. I went to bed before American Dad, because I've got to go to work early now, and, well, I don't really care much about American Dad. If I get to watch it, cool, but, meh.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I didn't think the last Simpsons segment was bad so much as poorly organized. bethje said that she would have liked it if they had done just the last segment, but done it as a series of vignettes (as with "22 Short Films About Springfield"). I think this might have worked. And I agree that Moe's sign was funny. As morbid as it sounds, I like how Moe's suicide attempts have become a tradition for Christmas episodes; it's good sorta-dark humor.

Everyone who saw last night's FG seems to have loved it, so I'm sorry I missed it. Hopefully they'll rerun it soon, although if it was holiday-related, it might mean they won't. There was another episode from earlier this season that I also missed, and I'm pretty sure hasn't been rerun since.