43 replies to this topic

[Jake]

Progress.

Idle Thumbs Progresscast THE F14RTEENTH ONE

Chris is playing a bunch of the Civ V expansion. He's also playing FTL. Idle Thumbs responds to these and other events in this short, fourteenth Progresscast.

Sid Meier's Civilization V: Gods & Kings, FTL

Read the full Kickstarter update.

Direct episode download.

Keep the RSS fed!

[Chris]

id Meier

[Jake]

Pretty sure't it's actually spelled iD.

[Henroid]

iD Meier's Wolfenstein 3D.

[Scipio]

Is there a thread for Gods and Kings anywhere? It seems odd that there isn't one already.

[Codicier]

Note to other readers: don't listen to thumbs progresscast's when you are trying to sleep.
My dreams were haunted by the image of a Womble with a blueprint. This morning i woke determined to find out whether such a thing actually exists, or if the the guys ramblings has somehow actually overwritten part of my brain's file on childhood television shows.

[Problem Machine]

Jake's Simpsons rant made me sad.

Just makes you think, all of these shows that got cancelled 'before their time'... maybe we dodged a bullet there.

[elmuerte]

I guess Simpsons is simply too old to be axed because it didn't meet the expected viewer amount.

On the plus side, they did mention a great Simpsons game: Hit & Run.
I should replay that some time.

[Chris]

It must still do well or it wouldn't still be on the air.

[Twig]

AFAIK it still does well. New Simpsons has its own set of fans. I'm 25 and I've only ever seen like maybe twenty or so episodes of The Simpsons. I've never been a big fan. Not to say I don't like it, but it's nothing special to me. Sorry for ruining your life, Jake! My parents wouldn't let me watch it when I was younger, and by the time they would, Futurama was always more my schtick. U:

I could've sworn I heard it was going to be finished soon, though. But that probably happens every two years, so what do I know.

This season, or the next one, is the last, though right?

[elmuerte]

There will at least be a 24th and 25th season of The Simpsons.

[Raff]

It was effectively axed in the UK some years ago.

In 2009 I was quite surprised to learn that Southpark was still being made, having not heard of it since about 1999 when I was still in primary school and it was on terrestrial TV late at night.

[Henroid]

Oh right, relevant:

[Chris]

AFAIK it still does well. New Simpsons has its own set of fans. I'm 25 and I've only ever seen like maybe twenty or so episodes of The Simpsons. I've never been a big fan. Not to say I don't like it, but it's nothing special to me. Sorry for ruining your life, Jake! My parents wouldn't let me watch it when I was younger, and by the time they would, Futurama was always more my schtick. U:

I could've sworn I heard it was going to be finished soon, though. But that probably happens every two years, so what do I know.

I've seen a fair amount of The Simpsons but I definitely don't fall into the category of person Jake described. My affection for the show is primarily of the era he calls out, but my knowledge of it isn't nearly as comprehensive or ingrained as he describes.

[Laxan]

It was effectively axed in the UK some years ago.

Doesn't Sky still show new episodes? That's where I grew up watching it.

[Forbin]

Some co-workers were talking about doing Simpsons Trivia at a bar. Apparently the place is packed every week, and the trivia questions are restricted to the first 8 seasons or something like that. It's strange to think that that's still a thing that people do. In the 90s it made sense, people were Simpsons super fans. But there are still people who have memorized the number on Skinners PoW mask, and will fight over who can buzz in the fastest with the answer.

[Problem Machine]

I think part of that is because it was really a show that rewarded you paying attention. Something I've noticed on the rare occasion that I see a more recent Simpsons episode is that they make sure whenever they tell a joke to slow down and make sure that you get it, but in the older episodes there were tons of little background gags and throwaway one-liners which, if you caught them, were sometimes the funniest thing in the episode.

I think a lot of it comes down to how confident you are in your ability to make jokes. If you hoarde them and are miserly with them it ends up creating a kind of joke 'schedule', and if there's one thing that kills humor it's predictability.

Arrested Development was also notable for how densely packed with easily missable jokes it was. For whatever reason, it didn't work out as well for that show as it did for The Simpsons, but it does share that aspect of being highly quotable and a lot of fans have that kind of encyclopedic knowledge of it. It comes from having a show worth paying close attention to.

[mikemariano]

I'm kind of dreading listening to this podcast now; I am the only man on Earth who genuinely enjoys current Simpsons episodes.

[Problem Machine]

For what it's worth, from what I've seen, I don't think think the show is bad, it's just not very good any more. And the rant isn't about ripping into the newer episodes either- in fact, I may have mischaracterized it by calling it a rant. Don't worry about it.