The Simpsons Latest Parody Feels Like A New Low

Summary

The Simpsons' 35th season has been one of the more consistently successful modern outings.
But Planet of the Bass follows Taika Waititi as an example of the show's repeated poor decision making.
This joke was barely funny a year ago. The Monorail Song it ain't.

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:I'd call myself a Simpsons fan, but these days a more accurate term might be 'defender'. While I agree with the rest of the world that 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Golden Age was better than the𒐪 modern era (and possibly the greatest few seasons of television to ever exist), it's not so simple to say that 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Simpsons sucks these days. It was excellent (3-9), then it got steadily worse (10-17), then it improved (18-23), then it crash-landed (24-31), and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:now it is recovering (32-35). But it’s a wavering recovery, with the last three seasons being amongst the show's most inconsistent, culminating in last weekend's The Tipping Point, a contender for the worst episode the show has ever seen.

Many will tell you that 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Lisa Goes Gaga is the show's worst episode, but I think the hate for this is overblown - instead, it's The Musk Who Fell To Earth, a cloyingly sycophantic episode about how great Elon Musk is. It was bad at the time of airing, when Musk was just the cool memebro billionaire, and has aged extremely poorly when considering Musk's current public persona. I think I will continue to decry The Musk as the worst episode ever, but it shares a lot of similarities with The Tipping Point that highlight the lowest lows of The Simpsons.

The Simpsons Brings Back Planet Of The Bass

Bart singing Planet of the Bass in The Simpsons

The Tipping Point has a decent enough premise, one that fits with the general timelessness of the show that makes it great, but with some modern touches that have become its trademark past season 25 or so. Homer is sick of America's tipping culture, particularly the obnoxious iPads swivelled in your face at every store you go to, with ever increasing ‘suggested’ percentages. At a restaurant where a service charge is already added, Homer becomes enraged at a box for additional gratuity and writes '$1 ok', which is mistaken for '$10K'.

Ever the coward in these situations, and unwilling to walk back his new found reputation for generosity, Homer agrees to pay the ten grand and keeps tipping around town, eventually getting stranded in Little Europe where tipping is forbidden. Here, he encounters Kyle Gordon and Ms. Biljana Electronica, who you might remember from last year's viral hit Planet of the Bass. Or you might not, since the world moved on awfully quickly.

What a lot of people don't realise is Kyle Gordon is a comedian who regularly makes these songs as a variety of different characters. He has Irish drinking songs, '90s country-western feminist anthems, ballads of emo anguish, and parodies of the likes of Olivia Rodrigo. He's got a whole album out, he does stand-up, and he's a writer for The Tonight Show. Kyle Gordon cameoing on the show is a great idea. But rather than utilise his skills, there was a nonsensical parody of Planet of the Bass - already a parody song - about tipping, that neither rhymed nor was funny, and went on for roughly the same time as the legendary Planet of the Apes musical. Why did this happen?

The Simpsons Is Best When It's Timeless

Homer choking Bart on the roof in The Simpsons Movie

I generally prefer when The Simpsons stays truly timeless, but understand that 35 seasons in, and with a co꧙mpletely differe💎nt set of writers than the days of season eight, things will be different. When it includes things like Alexa or esports or TikTok, it's speaking to the modern American family the same way having two cars, one working parent, and going to church on Sundays reflected the early '90s. But this was an incredibly short-lived spoof record that was lucky it trended for a couple of weeks. Why was it added to an episode that would take a year to get ready when it was clear Planet of the Bass would not just be stale, but long forgotten about by then?

We've seen this many times with The Simpsons, especially as it now uses the Treehouse episodes for movie parodies almost exclusively. It tries to have its finger on the pulse, but it ends up months behind the curve, and months is being generous. It has gone from the cool older brother to the loser uncle who just thinks he's cool. South Park has much shorter production cycles and so can be way more reactive to the news, but The Simpsons has been doing it this way for 35 years. Surely it has learned by now what works.

I don't think The Tipping Point is the worst episode of The Simpsons ever, though it is the worst episode of what had been the most steady season of the 30s (168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Taika Waititi notwithstanding) era so far. But other recent bad episodes going back to season 34 are just poor concepts, not that funny, too slow, out of character, or any combination thereof. That's just regular television. The Tipping Point feels like an episode from the late 20s seasons, with bizarre cameos and attempts to latch on to trends long since dead that render the whole idea a waste of time. The season finale is next week, and one thing is clear - things can only get better.