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Jake

Idle Thumbs Progresscast #14

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

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

Thank you for literally being the first person to ever actually give me a good reason for why New Simpsons isn't as good as Old Simpsons! As someone who has watched little of either, I've always wondered, but none of the blindly raging fanboys ever explain it to me. ):

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Thank you for literally being the first person to ever actually give me a good reason for why New Simpsons isn't as good as Old Simpsons! As someone who has watched little of either, I've always wondered, but none of the blindly raging fanboys ever explain it to me. ):

It may help that, as I just mentioned, I don't really hate newer episodes as much as just find them not very compelling, so there isn't that blind rage getting in the way of my critical faculties- just, maybe, glaucomic disappointment.

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Yeah, I can jive that kinda feelin'.

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I just listened to the Progresscast and Jake is right. The Simpsons is ancient history for most people.

Not only for the young, either. During selection process for a federal jury last year, the judge asked me what television shows I watched. I said "The Simpsons," because it really is the only show I regularly watch.

The elderly judge was confused, "The Simpsons? That show's still on?" He remembered it from 20 years ago, but apparently didn't give it much thought since.

Saying you watch The Simpsons is like saying you watch 60 Minutes or CBS Sunday Morning.

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Hearing Remo describe his Civ experience made me really hanker for a sandbox mode like SimCity, where the biggest threats are your own unintended consequences and not crazy-ass warlike AI or underhanded players.

It would require a crazy pivot to build new gameplay systems, etc. to fill out the hole left by conflict with other Civs, but you could do some really cool stuff pulling in macro-versions of SimCity problems. You could have a five-year plan like Stalin! (Thomas Friedman could finally reach climax!)

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