Try this experiment: mention The Simpsons anywhere and see how long it takes for someone to say, "Oh, right, The Simpsons, yeah, they were good for the first ten seasons, but after that, they just got SO UNFUNNY! I don't know why people watch anymore!"Since Fox decided to release a Simpsons movie (apparently under the radar -- I mean if you're going to release a movie, you should at least market it! you know?), I've been hearing that sentiment approximately once every thirty-four seconds. It annoys me every time I hear it, but it wasn't until today that I realized exactly why this was so.
It's because the people expressing it are confusing their ignorant negativity for intelligent commentary.
The internet exists for two reasons: communication and porn.
I love both of these things, but since this is a family blog, I can really only talk about the former. To learn more about the latter, type in a random noun into Google and you'll be guaranteed that one of the first ten hits will be a fetish site built around that noun.
As to the idea of the internet increasing our communication, so far it's been a mixed bag. Sure we get to hear everybody's opinions about every conceivable thing without the editorial barriers built into the traditional media, but it only takes a few seconds of reading everybody's opinion that we discover that hey, wow, those editorial barriers were there for a reason!
Having spent the last eight months as a blogger on TV Squad (New Zealand's fourth most popular television blog), I've been able to conduct a field study of internet commentators in their natural habitat. I've broken them down into four distinct species:
1) The Genuinely Helpful Contributor (estimated 50% of the population) These are the normal every day people that express their opinions sanely and organically. If they disagree with something you say, they usually do so politely. Sites like TV Squad are built around these people.
2) The Internet Troll (estimated 20% of the population) Remember that kid that rode a moped to school, had a mullet, and used to torture squirrels? Well, he just bought a computer. And guess what? He realized that he can say and do things anonymously! Also, like my mother, he loves to use words like "idiot" and "loser". It's people like this that give any graduate student in psychology an easy paper on the effect anonymity has on social etiquette.
3) The Bat-Shit Crazy Lunatic (estimated 5% of the population) These are the people that respond to the American Idol threads with things like "Hey my sister can sing. You should have her on your show." The TV Squad tip line is filled with comments like this. They write to us as if we were TV. I don't mean that they think we're network executives or something, I mean that they kind of imagine "TV" as a Matrix-like web of shows and that TV Squad is the intelligent mouthpiece for the whole enterprise (like that thing that showed up at the end of Matrix Revolutions). It comforts me to no end that these people have a vote that counts just as much as mine during the next election.
4) The CRITIC (estimated 25% of the population) The inspiration for this column. They're the ones that take every opportunity to tell you why something you like is bad and why something you've never heard of is so much better. They seem to know more about pop culture than you do, but with no joy at all. They treat their addiction to television or movies or comic books like it was an affliction rather than a healthy diversion. They are, as my good friend Jay-Z might say, hate-ahs.
(Note: there is a fifth flavor of commenter that I left out of my breakdown -- the super creepy obsessed male commenter who thinks if he makes enough jokes or gives enough subtle compliments then the female that he's after will fall in love with him. I didn't discuss them because as a male myself, I very rarely receive any kind of creepy attention -- though I'm open for it ladies! For a fuller definition of this type of commenter, see Brigitte's TV Squad Daily comments section on any day of the week).
I've been searching for a reason why there is so much hate for beloved things floating around the internet. Why is it that whenever somebody brings up a particular pop-culture institution, there is a flood of response at the ready to tell you why that thing you love is really so awful?
Here's my theory: the CRITIC needs to justify his existence in this world by looking and acting intelligent. Since actually being intelligent is hard to do (seriously, try reading some Leonhard Euler -- even pronouncing his name is beyond me!) the easiest path is to just criticize everything and hope that nobody realizes that the angry internet emperor isn't wearing any clothes.
Negativity masquerades as intelligence because it implies that the speaker of that negativity sees something that the average person doesn't.
This is the CRITIC's equation: Everybody loves this show, and since most people are stupid, their love must mean that the show is stupid too... if I express my disdain for the show, I am distancing myself from the stupid masses and am therefore smarter than the average person. I can thus explain my lack of a date to the senior prom as not a commentary on my severely lacking personal hygiene but on the Philistine's inability to recognize genius in their midst. I will now go watch obscure BBC comedies and eat Fluff directly out of a jar.
The CRITIC hates it when the average person loves something. You see it all the time when their favorite band releases a breakthrough album and they spend the next four years adjusting their ill-fitting girl-pants and muttering "sellout" with their hipster friends.
I think that's a lot of the reason why most Simpsons haters cite the downturn in Simpsons' quality to be somewhere around the 8th-10th season. It was at that point the show stopped being a subversive hit and started being comfort-food television. It didn't matter whether or not the show was still funny because once it became "beloved", it was no longer an option for the CRITIC to love it anymore.
Now, I can already see the comments flooding in about how, "No, Jay, you moronical dummy, I don't like the show anymore not because I'm one of these so-called internet CRITICS (real original label there by the way, Jay, where do you do your thinking? A Starbucks -- in 1998!?) but because I truly don't think the show is funny anymore!"
Okay, fine, I believe you. Just answer me this: why the virulent hate? Why do you feel the need to express yourself on every single site where the Simpsons are mentioned? Why do you use nineteen exclamation marks? Why do you write in all-caps that "THE SIMPSONS MUST DIE!!! THE SHOW SUCKS NOW!!!!!1111"?
What, exactly, are you adding to the conversation?
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying a show should be criticism-proof simply because it's popular. It's just that the CRITIC very rarely has any kind of real criticism to offer. Read what they say online and you'll find that more often than not, their criticisms are less an intelligent deconstruction of a show than a claws-out nerd-attack of it.
When it comes to The Simpsons, the CRITIC tends to simply recycle the same old tropes -- "The show doesn't have heart anymore"; "The show stopped being funny once they made Homer too stupid"; "The show became too self-reverential when writers who were raised on the show started writing for it"; and so on. These kinds of "criticisms" don't expand the knowledge base. As I used to tell my old soccer coach (while crying) good criticism should illuminate, not denigrate.
I'm a huge fan of The Simpsons and will probably continue to be until the show ends sometime in May of 2174. Those of you that disagree are entitled to your opinion. I just wish you thought I was entitled to mine.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
8-02-2007 @ 11:57AM
Claire said...
wow. i totally agree with you.
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8-02-2007 @ 1:17PM
upoh05 said...
Agreed. Add the "Family Guy is way funnier" crowd to that.
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8-02-2007 @ 12:06PM
BDUB said...
I hear the same complaints about SNL all the time. It almost immediately comes out of someone’s mouth when I ask if they saw SNL last night. Great article!
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8-02-2007 @ 12:08PM
matilda said...
Wow, if this does not garner you creepy attention, nothing will. The following in particular speaks to me:
"They seem to know more about pop culture than you do, but with no joy at all. They treat their addiction to television or movies or comic books like it was an affliction rather than a healthy diversion."
I once was on a board with someone who dismissed the Justice League and Justice League Unlimited cartoons because Batman's ears were taller than the Aristotelian ideal of Batman ear height.
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8-02-2007 @ 12:09PM
Ronan said...
criticism was fun back in 1995, but now that it's become mainstream I don't know why people do it anymore.
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8-02-2007 @ 12:10PM
Kirby said...
I agree that there exist people that like to dump on things just because they're popular. In most cases, I tend to really wonder why they bother - when I stop liking a show, I stop watching it, and don't feel a need to care that people still like, say, Smallville. I'm capable of giving my opinion on when the series tone changed, and why I didn't like the change, but who cares?
The Simpsons is an unusual case, though. It was absolutely brilliant for a while, then really good for a few more years, and then hit and miss for a decade. The problem is, the miss is still better than most of what's on TV. It's like eating one of those vending machine ice cream sandwiches - it's tasty, sure, but mostly it ends up reminding you of better ice cream you've had in the past. Modern Simpsons is still worth watching, but sometimes, you'll watch a rerun and can't help but yearn for the brilliance of the past.
Very few shows have this shape - maybe late-run MASH inspired similar feelings? (Slightly before my time.)
I think it's extremely useful to be a critical viewer in private - only so many TV watching hours in the day, and you don't want to use them watching According to Jim. It's not at all useful to be critical in public. But I think what's going on with the Simpsons isn't really the same dynamic as the people who post on Studio 60 reviews - it's a shared longing for the past, when Homer was an astronaut and Mr. Burns was blocking out the Sun, and not very much of 'You are an idiot if you still watch the Simpsons.' (Okay, some of that, but there's a lot of people who are doing something different than that.)
I have mixed feelings about the Simpsons these days. I mostly wish it'd only lasted 10 years - I'd give up the smattering of great episodes past that to have an unadulterated love of the show. But I do love the early seasons, and still like the later ones, and it's still the first thing I search for on my TiVo if I'm caught up and have half an hour to kill. And I'll watch 'em until they stop making them, there's little doubt.
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8-02-2007 @ 12:13PM
Scott said...
So, nothing can be said about something popular except how wonderful it is? Huh? Not everyone who has identified the show's deteriorating quality since about Season 8 is a raving, all-caps maniac who hates, hates, hates The Simpsons. In fact, I'll bet most of them, like me, LOVE the Simpsons. We're just ticked off that watching an episode from recent seasons makes us so sad and doesn't make us even crack a smile.
As far as "ignorant negativity for intelligent commentary", whatever the heck that means, you list many of the reasons people give for the show's lack of quality and write them all off as "negative". How exactly do you give a positive criticism about something that has deteriorated in quality? "I enjoyed the straight face I kept throughout the show?" "I appreciated the shallowness of the characterizations?" "I loved the way the episodes rely on so many guest voices that they don't bother with a plot anymore?" Oops, the word "don't" made its way into that one, I guess it's not valid criticism in your book.
I loved the Simpsons. I still do--the first 8 seasons on DVD. It's not a matter of me being a certain age when they were first on--they're just as funny to me today. And I check out 2-3 "new" episodes a season, and am consistently saddened and disappointed.
As far as the movie goes, it was fantastic. I enjoyed the heck out of it. I'll see it again! There were real characters and actual emotional moments and a storyline that tracked (even blown up for a 90-minute movie). Now, was this because they brought back all the people who worked on the show in those first years when it was actually good? Hmmmmm...
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8-02-2007 @ 1:06PM
KMF said...
I try not to be a hater, and just fire off without reason or make personal attacks. I'd rather be one of those helpful contributors. Sometimes I need to get my opinion out too.
I have been watching the Simpsons since the get go, and I honestly do feel the quality isn't there as much as it used to be. Oh I snicker here and there but I haven't seen an episode in the last three seasons that has really made me laugh all the way through like it used to. Not even the Halloween episodes and I love the Treehouse of Horror. And who didn't love Stan Lee's mind no longer being in 'mint condition'?
I went into the movie with an open mind dragging my sister into the theatre. That said aside from a couple chuckles, I couldn't get into the movie and genuinely didn't like it. I was hoping just for that little extra oomph since it seemed all their energies were going into it. My sister on the otherhand laughed all the way through and loves it.
Do I hate the Simpsons? No. I still watch the repeats on a local station at 6 pm every weekday. And I tune into every new season hoping to get a laugh. I understand it is hard to keep a show going for so many years, and imagine trying to get a cartoon to last that long! It's hard to stay fresh after all these years.
I wish it weren't so. But that is the way I feel.
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8-02-2007 @ 12:14PM
shawn said...
everyone wants something that's good to fall and to fail.
Look for people to turn on the office this year. If not this year, definately begining in the spring followed by the next season.
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8-02-2007 @ 12:16PM
jillian.cooper said...
+1 for the flight of the conchords reference.
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8-02-2007 @ 12:18PM
khamel said...
i stopped watching the show because when i got to college i didnt have time anymore and when i would watch it, it was boring. i felt like they ran out of good ideas. i feel that way about alot of shows. theres a reason why most shows go out with a whimper and not a bang.
but i have heard only good things about the movie and at some point i'll go back to watching the simpsons but i understand the sentiment behind the column.
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8-02-2007 @ 12:19PM
shawn said...
not to mention be the first to be able to say something "sucked" or that it "ruled"
But then there is also that gang mentality. Follow the leader. If ____say Simpsons suck. Then everyone says they suck. Let's jump on the band waggon and not form our own opinion
Ever go to SNPP.com and read reviews to the old episodes from Season 5 and 6(they were written after the episode aired). They are saying the same damn thing they are saying now.
They say" This episode wasn't as funny as Season 3, blah blah blah!"
Fuck off wankers.
It pisses me off.
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8-02-2007 @ 12:25PM
seamus said...
so you're criticizing people for criticizing people. isn't that hypocritical?
i don't find recent seasons of the simpsons funny. however, i respect other people's "choice" to enjoy the show and i've never posted my opinion about the simpsons online before. but this "Bat-Shit Crazy Lunatic" rant of yours has moved me to post my opinion, as i actually think people have a right to have and express that opinion without getting your approval.
perhaps people are commenting on the simpsons every 34 seconds because every 34 seconds they're seeing yet another simpsons promotion or product tie-in. saturate the market and there will be a counter-response.
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8-02-2007 @ 12:44PM
ugtv.org said...
You're wrong. Nuff said. Movin' on.
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8-02-2007 @ 12:42PM
fred said...
You're absolutely right, but those CRITICS also exists as another "species" that don't criticize directly what most people like/use, but try to convince that what they do/use is better.
Ever heard a Firefox fan ramble on how FF is better? Just as irritating....
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8-02-2007 @ 12:39PM
YouFaceTheTick said...
I read something about the social aspect of The Simpsons and maybe the writer was on to something. In college we watched the show daily. For 4 years we flipped on Carl, Benny and Ned. We'd get home from work/class, 11 pm rolls around and on comes the Simpsons.
After leaving college, I essentially left the Simpsons. It could be just as funny now or it could be lame. I don't know why but I have no interest in it anymore. My fiancee asked about seeing the movie and I couldn't fathom why we'd go. I told her I would if she really wanted it, but it's gonna be a tit-for-tat exchange then.
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8-02-2007 @ 12:41PM
YouFaceTheTick said...
Shawn, I've already seen people turning on The Office and honestly, if they don't stop with the Pam and Jim plot, I'm gone too. I really don't care about that after 3 years. 4 years is too long to dwell on that subplot.
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8-02-2007 @ 12:42PM
Drex said...
How dare you cut down my favorite cartoon The Critic, IMO it was WAY better than your beloved Simpsons.. :)
Really though, I liked your article and agree with BDUB, this same thing can be applied to SNL.. I love SNL, but the SNL snobs drive me crazy just like the Simpson one do you..
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8-02-2007 @ 12:46PM
mrbooze said...
I think much of this can be attributed to a psychological effect I've read about, where in our memories good things are much better than they really were. People talk about how great the early seasons of The Simpsons were, but do they actually go back and watch those first seasons? I've always loved the show, and at the time I thought it was the funniest thing on television, but now I watch a first season episode and maybe chuckle a little but mainly think "Jeez, was the show always this preachy? Did it always follow such a standard sitcom formula?"
Sometimes it's like catching an episode of Thundarr on Boomerang and thinking "Man, I used to love this show...what was wrong with me?" Heck, I often feel that way about TNG reruns these days too. And I worshipped that show when it originally aired. Sometimes we just get older and our tastes change.
The Simpsons has been on a long time, it's basically an ensemble show like SNL from the writing side. And like SNL, some of its years have been better than others. And like SNL, many people just assume that every single episode from the first seasons is 1000 times better than any episode recently, when in fact even the glorious original SNL occassionally had some clunkers. As does The Simpsons.
Do I personally find The Simpsons latest episodes to be the funniest ever? No, not at all. Personally I'm a little tired of the "Let's do a whole episode parody of a famous musical most of our audience has never seen" thing they seem to be keen on lately. But I still find episodes that make me laugh, and so I keep watching. If the time comes I just find the show unwatchable, then I will stop watching it and bless the people who still enjoy it.
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8-02-2007 @ 12:46PM
Renaldo said...
Typically I defend the writers over here at TVS because the comments can be pretty mean and disrespectful at times. However, this time, I have to say that this entry is overly defensive and immature. I like the Simpsons a lot, and unlike some people, I think it's only improved over the years. That being said, I can understand why people would bitch and moan about it lacking quality over the years although I don't agree. But one thing I won't defend is when professional bloggers address "haters". If you're doing it in jest, that's fine, but there's no apparent subtext here. Look, there are going to be obnoxious idiots that TYPE IN ALL CAPS and use too many exclamation points!!!!!!!! Choose to be above it. Or address "haters" on your personal blog, where it's better suited.
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