- 4 months ago
Sometimes hindsight makes comedy uncomfortable... Join us as we explore Simpsons moments that have aged poorly due to real-world events! From Mel Gibson's fall from grace to scenes at the World Trade Center, these Springfield moments hit differently now. Which formerly funny scene do you find most disturbing when viewed through today's lens?
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00:00Why don't you take this complimentary copy of Fatherhood by Bill Cosby?
00:03If he's as smart as he is funny, I'm sold.
00:06Welcome to WatchMojo.
00:08And today, we're looking at moments from The Simpsons
00:11that have lost their lightheartedness due to dark events
00:14that came after the episode's initial airing.
00:18Here's the guy you want to see!
00:25It's Hell Being Mel.
00:27I'm looking for Homer Simpson.
00:31And I've been looking for you too, pal.
00:33In 1999, Mel Gibson's many fans thought his biggest worry
00:37was balancing commercial appeal with credibility as an actor-filmmaker.
00:41He plays into that myth by hiring Homer Simpson as a creative consultant
00:45after tiring of sycophants.
00:48When complaining about how people love him too much
00:50to offer constructive criticism, Gibson cleverly quips.
00:54It's Hell Being Mel.
00:55The irony of that was lost
00:58after recordings of bigoted rants went public in 2006 and 2010.
01:03Additional scandals surrounding Gibson's alcohol use disorder,
01:06mental health, and personal views
01:08effectively destroyed his mainstream career.
01:10He has since achieved some resurgence on sobriety and critically acclaimed performances.
01:24But as he's still such a controversial figure,
01:26it's not even funny to think he was once above criticism.
01:30I guess there's just no room in today's crazy, gentle America for violent dinosaurs like us.
01:35The New Orleans song,
01:37Oh Streetcar,
01:39a fictional musical adaptation of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire,
01:43opens with a number that skewers New Orleans as an immoral cesspool.
01:48Hear their hellish Rondolay!
01:54A streetcar named Marge may have won rave reviews in 1992,
01:59but headlines in 2005 read differently.
02:02The UK's Channel 4 thoughtlessly re-ran the episode less than a month after Hurricane Katrina.
02:08The public was in no mood to hear the devastated Nola cheekily described as...
02:14Crummy, lousy, resident, thank you, what it is!
02:17Channel 4 quickly issued an apology,
02:20then promised to update their censorship guidelines to better account for timing of broadcasts.
02:25Still, the incident permanently associates the mean-spirited musical number
02:29with a legitimate insult to a rich community.
02:32At least that's what I thought.
02:34I have a history of missing a point of stuff like this.
02:36Another Vietnam.
02:38Haven't all generations of Americans grown up with Schoolhouse Rock since its debut in the 70s?
02:44Well, when an incensed Bart and Lisa watched their own version in 96,
02:49the latter claims the show is only geared for Generation X.
02:53Bart declares...
02:54We need another Vietnam to thin out their ranks a little.
02:57Alas, thousands of Gen Xers and later American generations would be killed
03:01in the global war on terror following its declaration in 2001.
03:05I don't know how to explain the war to myself.
03:08And have yet to have any clear thought of like,
03:13yes, we actually made a difference there because we didn't at all.
03:15Controversy over the U.S. government's motivations and recruitment methods
03:19sadly echoed discourse surrounding the Vietnam War.
03:23Bart's shocking offhand remark may have never been meant to be very funny.
03:27But looking back through so much loss of life, the prediction is just horrifying.
03:32There's something unsettling about that.
03:35Homer gets cancelled.
03:36Hey, could you take the wheel for a second?
03:38I have to scratch myself in two places at once.
03:40Just drop me off here.
03:42The Simpsons went viral for anticipating the hashtag MeToo movement,
03:46but consider the tone and scenario of 1994's Homer Batman.
03:50It all begins when Homer drives babysitter Ashley home and plucks a gummy candy stuck to her jeans.
03:56Her accusations of sexual assault soon become a national story.
04:00You grabbed me in the car!
04:02Oh, that!
04:03No, I was just grabbing a gummy Venus de Milo that got stuck to your pants!
04:07Yeah, right!
04:08That's the oldest excuse in the book!
04:10Some feel that this proto-representation of cancel culture overlooks a more common crisis
04:16than someone being destroyed by such false allegations.
04:19Certainly, that's too much of a tragedy to take lightly.
04:23But at no point does this empathize with Ashley or the countless women
04:28who found nothing silly in a seething man reaching where he shouldn't.
04:33The mainstream recognition of this age-old image now makes Homer Badman
04:37feel like an unsettling missed opportunity to explore victimhood more complexly.
04:42Homer, I thought you were an animal, but your daughter said you were a decent man.
04:46I guess she was right.
04:47You're both right.
04:49Cosby's First Rule
04:51Comedian and sitcom star Bill Cosby wrote the book on proper parenting,
04:55albeit through a ghostwriter, in 1991.
04:58It was considered amusingly shocking for Homer Simpson to open the real book,
05:03Fatherhood, to a fictional entry titled...
05:06Cosby's First Law of Intergenerational Perversity.
05:0927 years later, the man once known as America's Dad
05:13was convicted of sexual assault amid revelations that he was a serial predator.
05:18This massive scandal permanently blemished his career,
05:22to say nothing of the wacky recurring spoofs on The Simpsons.
05:25No, actually, it's more like Kodak film.
05:29No, actually, jazz is like the new Coke.
05:32It'll be around forever.
05:34Ha ha ha.
05:35As for the moral authority fans once sought in Cosby's book,
05:39they could never find the word perversity,
05:42but that cheeky liberty was sadly truer than anyone realized.
05:46Thank you, Bill Cosby.
05:48You saved The Simpsons.
05:49Going Postal.
05:51A series of violent sprees involving U.S. postal workers
05:54turned Going Postal into a popular term.
05:58All right, time to buy me an Uzi.
06:01The Simpsons was already rather glib for addressing this
06:05during a school trip to the post office,
06:07where the tour guide assures the children
06:09that the USPS is a safe workplace.
06:11That comfort no longer holds up when Principal Skinner remarks,
06:16I'm just glad I work at an elementary school.
06:18This episode aired not four months before the Columbine High School massacre.
06:23Since then, the U.S. has gradually seen an escalation in mass shooting incidents,
06:28even at elementary schools.
06:31Though these past seven months have been filled with good days and bad,
06:35Caitlin has a support system of survivors from other school shootings.
06:39The term Going Postal has indeed been retired,
06:43but for a terrible trend that Skinner eerily foreshadowed.
06:47John J. Smith.
06:49The training wheels come off your bike,
06:52you start to notice boys you like.
06:55We always figured the psychiatric patient who serenaded Lisa for her birthday,
07:00thinking he was Michael Jackson, was indeed voiced by Michael Jackson.
07:04The credits, alias John J. Smith, didn't fool anyone,
07:09but the fanfare in Matt Groening's formal confirmation in 2018
07:13was soon hushed by the HBO documentary Leaving Neverland.
07:17It was very much a secret,
07:19and he would tell me that if anybody found out,
07:26his life would be over and my life would be over.
07:29The Simpsons responded to revived debates
07:31about the late King of Pop's history of sex crimes
07:34by pulling his episodes from syndication and streaming.
07:37Showrunner Al Jean even suspected Jackson
07:40of using the beloved cartoon to groom victims.
07:43Since this decision, however,
07:45conclusive evidence of sexual improprieties remains elusive.
07:48If you are able to revisit the once wholesome, stark-raving dad,
07:52it's still hard not to see it
07:54as a reminder of horrible allegations.
07:57Happy birthday, Lisa!
08:03Yeah!
08:04Phil Hartman's Credit
08:05The Clip Show episode,
08:07All Singing, All Dancing,
08:09already overcorrects the wholesomeness of musicals
08:12with a frame story about Snake holding The Simpsons hostage.
08:16Because of you all, I got a tune in my head
08:19and the only way to stop it is to make you all dead.
08:23When the closing credits roll,
08:25the score is cut off by gunshots
08:27as the criminal is fed up with music.
08:32Yo, I told you to stop the music, dudes.
08:35I'm serious.
08:37The shocking gag stops being amusing
08:39when you notice that the shots coincide
08:41with Phil Hartman's guest star credits.
08:44The beloved comedian voiced Lionel Hutz,
08:46Troy McClure, and others
08:48before he was murdered by his wife in 1998.
08:51She shot him not six months after
08:54All Singing, All Dancing first aired.
08:57The circumstances of Hartman's death
08:59have since haunted his hilarious work on The Simpsons,
09:02but the unfortunate coincidence in that credits gag
09:06is enough to leave viewers in silence.
09:08What a terrible waste.
09:11Hi, I'm actor Troy McClure.
09:13Gunter and Ernst.
09:15A round of applause, please, for Anastasia.
09:18She loves show business.
09:19So much nicer to the savagery of the jungle, yeah?
09:22Siegfried, Fischbacher, and Roy Horn's
09:24Big Cat Magic Show
09:26was a staple of Las Vegas live entertainments.
09:29It was also controversial
09:30for endangering the performers,
09:33the audience, and the cats.
09:34There's definitely nothing ethical
09:37about how the fictional duo Gunter and Ernst
09:40capture a white tiger for their act
09:42at Monty Burns' casino.
09:44It was a cathartic riot in 93
09:46when the beast turned on her captors.
09:48But it was a scandal
09:55when 10 years later,
09:57Roy was nearly killed
09:58by the white tiger Manticore
10:00during a performance.
10:01He was disfigured by the attack,
10:03and Siegfried and Roy
10:04never performed again.
10:05This tragedy hangs
10:07over their classic shows,
10:09to say nothing of Gunter and Ernst's
10:11satirical tragedy.
10:12Before we continue,
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10:33One World Trade Plaza
10:38Your vehicle is illegally parked
10:42at One World Trade Plaza.
10:45Hmm.
10:46Woo!
10:47Homer begrudgingly visits New York City
10:50after Barney leaves his car there
10:51during a bender.
10:52He ends up spending most
10:54of this 1997 episode
10:55waiting for a parking officer
10:57at One World Trade Plaza,
10:59an alias for Austin J. Tobin Plaza.
11:02between the Twin Towers
11:03of the World Trade Center.
11:05Sorry about that, guy.
11:06They stick all the jerks
11:08in Tower One.
11:09That's it!
11:09I'm coming over there!
11:10Yeah, why don't you come over here?
11:12I've got something for you!
11:13Shut up!
11:14The Balthiers!
11:15Four years later,
11:16this entire site was destroyed
11:18in the most infamous terrorist attack
11:20of the 21st century.
11:21The brash antics and rivalries
11:23between the New Yorkers'
11:24Homer encounters
11:25are particularly uncomfortable
11:27for the tragedy
11:28that united a community
11:29through trauma.
11:30Well, that's it.
11:31I'm getting out
11:32of this town alive
11:33if it kills me!
11:34The City of New York
11:35versus Homer Simpson
11:36is still considered
11:37a favorite episode
11:38among Simpsons fans.
11:40Of course,
11:40you never know
11:41how real-world events
11:43can affect the classics.
11:45What are some other
11:46iconic TV scenes
11:47that were spoiled
11:48by harsh reality?
11:50Let us know
11:51in the comments.
11:52The sequence became
11:53an instant comedy classic,
11:55but what the audience
11:56didn't see
11:57was the unfunny aftermath.
11:58We'll see you on the map!
12:10We'll see you off.
12:11We'll see you on the next pub.
12:12We'll see you next time.
12:13Now...
12:14We'll see you next time.
12:14We'll see you next time.
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