Simpsorama Review

To start I'll say I passingly enjoyed the Family Guy crossover. It was an episode of Family Guy. It had Family Guy writing. Half the time jokes hit, half the time they don't. When they don't, who cares? It's just Family Guy. Maybe the next line will be better. I mean, pretty much none of the Simpsons characters said anything funny, mostly because they all just reiterated their primary Flanderized schticks (Apu and Wiggum come to mind), but there were plenty of forgettable Family Guy laughs.
 Simpsorama, however, is Zombie Simpsons. With Zombie Simpsons writing. This is trouble. Seeing these two shows I love so much get unceremoniously dragging through the mud, I feel like the Grinch suddenly realising I care. So I've decided to walk through this episode in detail, partly for catharsis, and partly to definitively discuss what I dislike about Zombie Simpsons.

Rest assured that I was on the internet within minutes, registering my disgust throughout the world.

- The Futurama music kicking in with the "Simpsorama" title is cool in a cheap thrill, spectacle kind of way.

Tagline: A show out of ideas teams up with a show out of episodes.
Well, it certainly is apt [Apt!], but the wording feels a little clumsy to me. And I don't think merely pointing out these things is as clever as some comedy writers seem to.

- The couch gag has Homer and Hedonismbot moaning a lot. It's long and uncomfortable.
- Chalmers shoots Skinner with a spit wad for... some... reason. What?
- Nelson reiterates his father issues schtick (a symptom of a long running series).
- Next it's Milhouse's turn to say some things. The formula for this joke is that he makes a claim about himself and is immediately undermined by happenstance. It suffers from sloppy timing and being slapsticky in nature.

Skinner: Let me guess, you forgot to bring something.
Bart: I am shocked that you think I forgot.
Bart's response is oddly delivered and written, repeating Skinner's opinion back at him, as if we need reminding what it was. It's like there's just a huge lack of trying with this script writing. Hell, I'm pretty sure Bart has used that faux-innocent "Mrs K, I'm offended" attitude plenty in the past without regurgitating what we already know he's being accused of. Unnecessarily wordy dialogue is a shocking plague on this entire ordeal and Zombie Simpsons in general.

- Marge sixth senses her sandwich being desecrated. It's reminiscent of "Why'd you shudder just now?" which both plays a lot better and makes much more sense.
- That joke formula pops up again as Mr Burns says a thing and is immediately undermined by happenstance. This is a tired sitcom convention.
- And the very next scene opens with Kent doing it as well. He states a thing and immediately undermines himself.
- Bender makes some Bender noises as he falls out of the storm. I like Bender.
- Bart uses his Cartoon Facial Expression 101 half-down-eyelids-of-unimpressedness to make a snarky comment about America. Delivery is uninspired even for deadpan.
- Homer's reading a book with a funny-in-an-obvious-way title. The explanation he comes up with for the noise downstairs is far too stupid, but at least he doesn't seem to be a jerkass anymore. Y'know, for the most part.
- Homer mistakes a mirror (on his stairwell wall that he uses constantly) for a painting watching him, and Bart spends words to flatly (complete with eyelids) explain Homer's point of confusion. None of this is worth Homer's nonsensical punchline.
- Homer and Bart waste a bunch of time being afraid and not getting to Bender.
- Bart-does-the-same-thing-the-dog-just-did gag.
- Lengthy shot as the camera follows a rope across the basement ceiling to reveal Bart ridiculously hanging upside down as bait. [Think harder, Homer!]
- Bender emerges in shadow and Homer whacks him. Bender wastes no time in spouting his catchphrase, which Homer acknowledges. Unfortunately, being "meta" in very obvious and unsubtle ways isn't a free pass to clever writing.
- For some reason Bart's face fails to emote as he gives another weird delivery, this time antagonising Homer.
- Homer and Bender then literally take turns batting Bart around for way too long.
- Homer does a slow, tiresome "Oh. My. God." In my experience, this rarely plays well in what is meant to be a quick, snappy comedy setting.
- Bender belches fire at Moe's. Fanservice doesn't count as a joke.
- John DiMaggio makes some "dingity-dings" that clearly should have been "bippity-boops", but it's still worth a smile.
- Moe calls Bender "Blade Rummy". Now, I'm sure someone in the writers' room came up with that on the spot and was super proud of themselves, and good on you for it, but puns just don't play well in a scripted format. Save it for some form of social gathering.
- Bender is upset that he has no emotions. Futurama did it!
- Pin Pals shirts for no reason. Are people really suckered in by that "OMG I KNOW THAT THING" mentality? This is the Epic Movie brand of humour.
- Bender says "D'oh!" Meh, it was alright.
- Hah! Bromance. Current and hip, right? What a humourous and charming why does everything have to have a stupid name this isn't a romantic comedy. Ahem. It's just a lame variant on the old robo/romo joke.
- Next up, No-Fun Lisa with unimpressed eyelids out in full force is here to deliver the most egregious sequence of "meta" humour ever committed to film. She and Bart suggest that whoever designed Bender just lazily stuck an antenna on a drawing of Homer. Hey, guys, the kind of crap you jibe and joke about in audio commentaries doesn't cut it in an actual script. This isn't funny. It doesn't even make sense. This isn't like the Homer and Krusty situation. They just have the lightbulb head in common. That's literally it. Bender has no muzzle, no stomach, thin limbs, three fingers, footcups, etc. Lisa concludes by remarking "A little lazy, if you ask me" and Bart gives a smug knowing nod. Oh, you little rapscallions!
- Bender's impressive futuristic feat and "the Gs look like sixes" are perfectly fine gags.
- Getting very tired of characters expressing distainful attitudes with those half-down eyelids.
- John DiMaggio makes a wacky noise!
- Professor Frink rehashes some fifteen-year-old Futurama humour. [Try turning him off and on!]
- Lisa's question about the three laws is clunky at best.
- Homer now says multiple lines in his always hilarious loud-whisper-discreetly-filling-you-in-about-something voice. This never once becomes grating or tiresome, nor does it ever make me aware that I'm sitting here conciously waiting for a piece of dialogue to get done being said.
- Don't really care to wonder if Leela making a video call to the past makes any sense.
- So, the Family Guy crossover was largely about the two shows exploring each other, and the plot conflict was centered around their two mainstay beers. In contrast, this crossover is about ...rampant mutant rabbits. 'Cos that's a huge part of Futurama.
- Farnsworth explains some plot.
- Bender expresses outrage at the idea of stealing and is immediately undermined by himself. Jokes!
- We get a wordier version of Zoidberg's joke from the Futurama game. [I'm making a cameo!]
- Fry, Leela, and Farnsworth are sucked into the past, Bender gets shot in the head, and then his wound inexplicably and bafflingly heals on screen, Wolverine style. What? What were they even going for with that? Does being kind of easy to miss automatically qualify as funny now, regardless of how out of nowhere or inconsistent it is?
- Krusty calls Bender and co. freaks, and is immediately undermined by the freakish company he keeps.
- Oh, look who it is, Seymour Asses haplessly chucked in in some kind of forceful attempt to appeal to fans with something beloved, without any regard for why it is so. Seymour is special because of the story that encompasses him. Throwing a drawing of him up any old place with soppy music is a cheap grab for aduration by recognition. It has no meaning.
- Marge and Leela have an introduction scene because the female characters always have to interact in crossovers since they naturally have so much in common. All those, what, vaginas and whatever? Eitherway, they share a completely banal back and forth, Marge making a lame faux pas about Leela's eye [What's with the eye?] and Leela, instead of taking the joke in literally any other direction, disappointingly and predictably takes her turn to also misspeak in an even more laboured way about Marge's hair. [Awful, awful hair.] I again get that feeling of sitting around waiting for a piece of dialogue to be over so something else can please happen. But it keeps going with awkward uncomfortableness (which I don't think works in animation) and a shoehorned missuse of Leela's "Oh, Lord" catchphrase.
- The next exchange between Lisa and Farnsworth has a nice Futurama feel. [The hard part was getting the brain out!]

Bender: Kill all humans. Kill all humans.
Homer: Start with Flanders. Start with Flanders.
Drop the repitition and you may have had some impact. Even then, it's another uninspired mash-up joke. Did you guys know Homer doesn't care for Ned all that much? (endlessly reiterating tired concepts, symptom of a long (long) running series)

- Next, Fry gets one of his three lines and it's a pretty alright moment. Unfortunately, this is probably the only time he speaks to Bart (and I don't think he ever interacts with Homer) and that is so depressing I think I'm gonna cry.
- Now Professor Frink gets to do an immediately-undermining-myself joke and we hit unimpressed-eyelids critical mass with a stupid static shot of everyone staring disparagingly at Frink's hypocrisy. This has got to be one of the most overused and uncreative comedy beats of our time. Someone should have left a note in the writers' room that the novelty of Simpsons and Futurama characters being in the same frame isn't actually a good enough supplement for an interesting script.
- So Farnsworth says some plot, Marge and Homer eat up some very unamusing seconds exclaiming literally the very previous thing that was just revealed. I have to stress what afwul writing this is for a fast paced comedy.

Lisa: What a surprise, it's Bart.
And now Lisa (with eyelids) does the exact same thing! Why did she need to stick "it's Bart" on the end of that sentence? The line might be better if it was something like "What a surprise, Bart is the [some humourously worded description of Bart being ancestor to the creatures]." But no, she just says "It's Bart." I know it's Bart! I can plainly see! Tell me a funny!

- Bart makes a lame I'm-very-obviously-being-meta remark about doing the same jokes a thousand years later.
- The stupid split-second Scruffy suicide does not play at all. There's a lot of odd comedic timing throughout this episode and Zombie Simpsons at large.
- The Simpsons are sucked into the future and Marge needs to do a headcount and actually point and say numbers out loud before she can notice Maggie is missing. This serves to use up time because they evidently have nothing better to fill it with.
- Extended repeat animation sequence of Homer twisting the necks off the Bart mutants. It's funny because he's treating it like a mundane task. You can tell by his eyelids. And, ohp! What's this? He picked up the real Bart next! What hijinx!
- The atheist prayer gag is all fine and good I suppose, but a niggling part of me just wants to scream out that atheism has no rituals or dogma.
- Hedonismbot shows up and [sigh] isn't very funny. He even makes a pun. The problem, I think, with things like Hedonismbot or Randy is that all the magic they have evaporates as soon as the writers become aware of their popularity and use them intentionally. Randy's appearances in the Comedy Central era always had an air of "Hey guys, look, it's Randy! That funny character John does that you all like!" to them.
- Leela seems oddly off model. I think her top may have shrunk in the wash. Also her face.
- Lisa (eyelids) says she can manipulate Bart, Bart says she cannot, and is immediately undermined by ...things completely unrelated to Lisa. Odd. Classic misdirect?
- Chief Wiggum spits an extra "Happy?!" at Lou, because padding.
- LISAISSNIDETOBARTWITHEYELIDS!
- Sure toss in a holophonor.
- Madison Cube Garden is flung into space and everyone is happy. [This man wants to hit the ball too, and he does.] The Simpson children don't seem phased that they are in space.

Homer: I'll treasure it forever.
Bender: Lie detected.
This moment feels so laboured and uninspired and like it's a completely uncreative idea (long running series, etc.). [Now would you unhook me already? I don't deserve this kind of shabby treatment.]

- Bender is tossed in the basement and we get a Zombie Simpsons clawing-desperately-at-your-heartstrings ending.
- "My name is Kang, and this is my sister, Kodos." "Hello!"
- Closing has some nice sight gags, but Peter over the Gracie Films song was better.

Also he got a racecar. Is any of this getting through to you?