Today I have spent a lot of time talking or thinking about The Simpsons.
Surprisingly, that is not as out of character for me as you might think.
I remember watching that first Christmas special so many years ago now. I was probably 14 or 15 at the time and I just remember laughing so hard, wanting to show my sister and my friends this bizarre, hilarious, “adult” cartoon. It was just so different, this family that seemed so dysfunctional and yet so like my own. With the exception of the frequent strangulations.
But when the series started, I wasn’t hooked right away. I was only an infrequent viewer. It wasn’t until college that I really became hooked and it became a regular Sunday night ritual watching. I watched Bart fall for the evil daughter of Rev. Lovejoy. I watched Lisa deal with the death of her beloved mentor Bleeding Gums Murphy. I watched Homer get fat (well fatter) just so he wouldn’t have to go to work. I watched Marge go on the lam with her new best friend because sticking together is what good friends (and waffles) do.
There was even a year where we had no TV in our house so we would trudge up the hill to visit with friends and watch the show every Sunday. We would all laugh and repeat lines. Good times.
Over the years, the Sunday routine hasn’t changed. I still plop down on the couch every Sunday and tune in. Strange how over 20 years, watching The Simpsons has been one of the few constants in an ever changing life.
Of course, people say the show just isn’t as funny as it was way back then. Maybe they are right, but I prefer to think they just have selective nostalgia. I remember even way back around season 8 that it wasn’t as funny as it was just a year or so earlier. But now I can watch those shows on reruns over and over and never stop laughing. The beauty of The Simpsons has always been in the jokes you miss the first time around, but on the second or third you find yourself repeating them over and over. So who knows how the last few years will look down the road?
There were years of my life when I could just recite lines and quotes from the show at the drop of the hat. It was never intentional, they just stuck there. For the life of me, I can’t remember state capitols, but for a long time I could whip out an “Excuse me, did something crawl down your throat and die? It didn’t die!” or “It’s just a little kick in the bum.” At one point I am pretty sure I could do the whole See My Vest song.
But those quotes have faded from my brain and my love for The Simpsons has turned into more of a long relationship. The passion has faded but the caring, the connection still remains. So I will keep watching as long as they keep making them. And every once in a while, I will still whip out the one line that has always stuck with me.
“I am evil Homer. I am evil Homer. I am evil Homer. I am evil Homer.”
Surprisingly, that is not as out of character for me as you might think.
I remember watching that first Christmas special so many years ago now. I was probably 14 or 15 at the time and I just remember laughing so hard, wanting to show my sister and my friends this bizarre, hilarious, “adult” cartoon. It was just so different, this family that seemed so dysfunctional and yet so like my own. With the exception of the frequent strangulations.
But when the series started, I wasn’t hooked right away. I was only an infrequent viewer. It wasn’t until college that I really became hooked and it became a regular Sunday night ritual watching. I watched Bart fall for the evil daughter of Rev. Lovejoy. I watched Lisa deal with the death of her beloved mentor Bleeding Gums Murphy. I watched Homer get fat (well fatter) just so he wouldn’t have to go to work. I watched Marge go on the lam with her new best friend because sticking together is what good friends (and waffles) do.
There was even a year where we had no TV in our house so we would trudge up the hill to visit with friends and watch the show every Sunday. We would all laugh and repeat lines. Good times.
Over the years, the Sunday routine hasn’t changed. I still plop down on the couch every Sunday and tune in. Strange how over 20 years, watching The Simpsons has been one of the few constants in an ever changing life.
Of course, people say the show just isn’t as funny as it was way back then. Maybe they are right, but I prefer to think they just have selective nostalgia. I remember even way back around season 8 that it wasn’t as funny as it was just a year or so earlier. But now I can watch those shows on reruns over and over and never stop laughing. The beauty of The Simpsons has always been in the jokes you miss the first time around, but on the second or third you find yourself repeating them over and over. So who knows how the last few years will look down the road?
There were years of my life when I could just recite lines and quotes from the show at the drop of the hat. It was never intentional, they just stuck there. For the life of me, I can’t remember state capitols, but for a long time I could whip out an “Excuse me, did something crawl down your throat and die? It didn’t die!” or “It’s just a little kick in the bum.” At one point I am pretty sure I could do the whole See My Vest song.
But those quotes have faded from my brain and my love for The Simpsons has turned into more of a long relationship. The passion has faded but the caring, the connection still remains. So I will keep watching as long as they keep making them. And every once in a while, I will still whip out the one line that has always stuck with me.
“I am evil Homer. I am evil Homer. I am evil Homer. I am evil Homer.”
Oh Lisa, trying is just the first step toward failure.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, this is Eileen. I started a blog called "Charlotte's Web" a couple years ago that I think I posted on twice before realizing that I had very little to say about my real life.
See my vest,
ReplyDeleteSee my vest,
Made of real gorilla chest.
Feel this sweater,
There's no better,
Than authentic Irish Setter.
See this hat?
Was my cat.
my evening wear,
a vampire bat
and that's where I forget the rest. . .
Something about
see my loafers
former gophers
it was that or skin my chauffers. . .