The Simpsons - what do you think of this?

[The Curmudgeon]

"That 90s Show"

I had heard of this episode before, but had never seen it. In fact, I've only now just seen it (on Youtube). If you've not seen it, its set in the 90s where Marge is in college and the kids aren't born yet.

Yup, you've went "huh?!" too.

So basically NOW the story is that Marge and Homer met in the 80s, not the 60s, and that Marge was 30 when she gave birth to Bart. So forget pretty much every episode that showed how things actually happened. Because, er, they didn't.

See for yourselves..

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BC8L2kIkaVc
and
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-vFB4OLr0o&feature=related


A decent episode by all accounts, but man.. are they playing with fire here. Pretty much retconning the entire show so much it makes your head hurt trying to make sense of it all. So what happens to all the episodes during the 70s? What happens to the episodes where Maggie was born? Or Bart? Or Lisa? Or when they got together? Or Homer being a hippie baby from the 60s at Woodstock?

In short - The Simpsons doesn't make sense anymore.

[Benjamin Haines]

The show is literally the same age as me (19), and the kids are virtually the same in today's new episodes as they were when the show debuted. That's just the way it tends to happen with long-running cartoons. With live-action shows, the young actors growing visibly older is inevitable, but the writers and animators of cartoons rarely consider taking that into account. Loose continuity is a given with shows like The Simpsons.

It's the same with South Park. There were episodes centered around the oncoming of Y2K, the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003, the 2004 US presidential election, most recently references to this 2008 election race, and a cavalcade of different Christmas-themed episodes over the years, and the boys have stayed the same throughout all of it.

[The Curmudgeon]

No, I mean, I get that - hell, how long has Scooby Doo been solving mysteries? But this is a CANON re-write of history, and it totally fucks the whole show up if you sit down and try and think about it.

I know, I know - its just a cartoon. But it still sucks.

[Benjamin Haines]

Yeah, that's true. I guess just try to look on these "blast to the past" episodes like the Treehouse of Horror specials in a way; could be kind of the continuity, but a little too loose to really keep in there solidly, so you can just pick and choose. Personally, the classic tale of Homer and Marge meeting is still the real deal in my book.

[trashcanman]

The Simpsons makes it their business to say screw continuity from time to time. Like the episode where Skinner's past is revealed and at the end somebody remarks that everybody should act as though the episode never happened from that point forward like in the continuity-free sitcoms that the show originally was a parody of (Lisa did break ranks with that once in one episode, though). My point is this: Homer was totally mocking Bush and that rocks! Continuity is one thing I just never expect or demand from a satirical series like The Simpsons.

[The Curmudgeon]

I did like the perfect takes on the Nirvana tracks though.