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Worldly Distractions: The Simpsons 26.13 - Walking Big and Tall


crazyforkate

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Whatever could our favourite family be surprised about? No, seriously, it's been 26 seasons, nothing could shock them now. Maybe someone wrote a decent episode.

Ralph Wiggum is Cupid! Unfortunately, there are no other opening credits to speak of. The couch gag involves the Simpsons being made into Sushi, then eaten in a trendy restaurant.

For some reason, we go back to thirty years ago, where we hear a report on the disappearance of Springfield's Soviet sister city, Springograd. I would laugh if it wasn't entirely plausible. We meet Hans Moleman, then a four-time mayor and full of vitality. In fact, he seems to be the ideal man for rallying the town. Homer and Marge and their families are, of course, in the front row, and we watch them grow up/age as the town sings Springfield's anthem. It ends in the present-day, with mayor Quimby leading his citizens in the same song. However, Moe bursts in with bad news. On a recent trip to Tuscaloosa, he discovered that their song was suspiciously similar. In case you're wondering, that's what everyone's shocked at. Everyone assumes the Alabaman town plagiarized, and they go on the warpath. It also turns out that every city around the planet has been using it. Moleman reluctantly admits he stole the tune.

Everyone is horrified, especially Groundskeeper Willie, who has a tattoo of the song on his chest. Moleman is ridden out of town. Lisa, ever one to stand up for her town, suggests that she write the song. Pharrell Williams also appears for no reason to help out. Oh boy. Another celebrity guest star with no purpose. I'm thrilled.

The mayor turns him down, we get our requisite two lines of "Happy", and Pharrell is exiled to Shelbyville, complete with hat. Nice seeing you, buddy.

Back in Evergreen Terrace, Lisa struggles to write the songs, helped with obscene suggestions from Bart. "Lisa It's Your Birthday" is brought up and heavily discussed, because the writers like to torture us with memories of former greatness. Lisa invites Bart to help her, a joke is forced too far, and a musical team is born.

With a lot off effort, the new Springfield Anthem takes shape. A grand premiere is held, along with more Homer is fat jokes. The song is cynical in an 80's British pop way, mostly focusing on how Springfield is "meh". Some stuff is okay, and it's not a terrible place to leave, so - "Springfield, Why Not?"

The crowd is won over, and the kids involved are very pleased with themselves. Another Homer-is-fat joke, this one extended Family Guy style. He winds up wrecking the theatre and humiliating himself in front of the whole town. Marge despairs at this latest escapade and encourages him to lose weight. Her suggestion - Over-Eaters Anonymous. Gee, Homer does a twelve-step, never seen that one before.

At the community centre, Homer passes by various other twelve-step groups, all of which seem to curiously overlap. However, to his surprise, the group is not about losing weight and controlling food intake - it's about something called "Wide Pride". That's right - Homer has joined a Fat Acceptance group. He happily sits down with the group to eat the most disgusting snacks imaginable, and hey, it looks kind of fun.

One thing about this episode - they really have the tendency to drive every joke into the ground, sometimes simply repeating the punchline a couple of times. WE GOT IT THE FIRST TIME, PEOPLE.

Some character voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson, so pretty much Kevin Michael Richardson, tells Homer that they're all about beauty at any size. That night, Homer excitedly tells Marge that the group changed his life. Of course, she gets entirely the wrong impression. Homer crushes her dreams pretty handily. I think it's his greatest talent.

So Homer begins his new fat-and-happy life. He apologizes to the bathroom scale for throwing it. He polices everyone's language. Moe joins in on the proud-to-be-ugly bandwagon, and everyone gets a little more sensitive. Homer joins a protest with his new friends, at a store which prioritizes thin models. (It's run by Julio from "Three Gays of the Condo", by the way - one of the best episodes from the second half of the show's run.) Chief Wiggum even switches sides when Kevin Michael Richardson (okay, okay, the character is Albert) explains their principles. They all wind up arrested. Yes, even the Chief and the Judge.

Marge bails him out, then lectures the group on their somewhat debateable ideas. She tearfully asks Homer to choose between her and the group. Surprisingly, he chooses the group. Marge is pretty depressed about it, so Bart and Lisa write another god-awful song for her. The Big is Beautiful group starts a revolution. Marge decides to use the song to defeat them. The trouble is, Bart and Lisa haven't actually finished the song - they've been too busy fighting. Yeah, I had trouble following this, too. Marge apologizes to Homer for controlling him, Homer tells her that her care for him has saved him - though he still supports Albert and his principles. Albert stands up off his scooter to tell Marge where to stick it, whereupon he promptly dies of a heart attack.

Everyone attends the funeral, which is full of fat jokes. Homer flips out when he realizes that Albert was only twenty-three, and swears off the group. On the walk home, he and Marge reaffirm their love for each other. He also decides to keep yo-yo dieting for the rest of his life. We see the results of this over the years, finally finishing with an elderly - and SUPER fit - Homer.

The tag scene consists of Moleman riding through the desert backwards on a mule.

Yeah, this was putrid. Not very funny or insightful, with the same stereotypes thrown around and the same jokes repeated over and over. (The only one I liked was the endless list of names you could no longer use - a nice jab at Internet social justice taken a little too far.) The writers don't let jokes land anymore - they have to hammer them in. It's annoying and a mere shadow of what The Simpsons once was. You guys, I can hardly stand this show anymore. It's tired. Can't we give it a chance to sleep? Perchance to dream...

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  • Posts

    • JDuggs

      Posted

      On 12/22/2023 at 11:51 PM, JDuggs said:

      It looks like Micah is in a relationship, or very good friends, with this Florida realtor Veronica Peters. I’ve seen photos of them together on Micah’s IG, but I always thought she kind of looked too old for him. Maybe not.

      This was on Moriah’s IG:

        Hide contents

      image.thumb.jpeg.e5583f82734714ccb023fc889e4f0f90.jpeg

      And this was on Veronica’s personal IG and professional IG:

        Hide contents

      image.thumb.jpeg.e637a588be2f14fc379935962e743f47.jpeg

        Hide contentsimage.thumb.png.bfaa9a4a2ac77388067acef5c5afb81c.png

       

      Quoting myself from six months ago. I think this really is Micah’s girlfriend. She doesn’t seem quite as public about their relationship as she did back then.

    • JermajestyDuggar

      Posted

      There was a post on social media talking about this recent interview with Ballerina Farm and asking what people think about some of the things in it. So many commenters were like, “it’s her business! It’s not your life so why do you care?” This is the type of thing that bugs me to no end. Ballerina Farm posts their lives willingly! They post their children’s lives! Of course people will speculate and care! If they didn’t put their lives all over social media none of us would know anything about them. 

      • Upvote 1
    • LongTimeLurkerOG

      Posted

      On 7/25/2024 at 6:47 PM, LilMissMetaphor said:

      Just FYI in case someone missed it the first time round, this is what Art wrote on Reddit a year ago addressing some of the concerns that were brought up.  It's very telling if you read between some of the lines.

      "I don’t lie or make fraudulent claims to get money. That’s what a grifter is. I’ve closed all previous fundraisers and not all of them were successfully funded – for instance my legal name change and wedding fund did not get funded, so I still haven’t had a chance to do those things.

      I’m unable to work for a variety of medically supported reasons. It’s not okay to ask disabled people for proof of their disability simply because it’s medical information. To entertain the question is to concede that it’s okay to go ask other disabled people for their private medical history. It’s a common misconception that people pretend to be disabled for benefits or monetary gain, but it’s rare and doesn’t really make sense to do because benefits and fundraising add up to so little.

      I have been going to Seattle to look at possible places to live because it’s literally unavoidable, and I’ve been in severe pain because of it. That doesn’t mean I could do manual labor on a consistent basis. I don’t even drive, so I’ve had to cover gas and ask friends for help with rides.

      Have you ever tried working at a call center? I have. They’re severely strict and demanding, and incredibly demoralizing without paying much. They’re not an accessible alternative for people who can’t do more demanding manual labor. “Get a job like the rest of us” is ableist and is a fundamental misunderstanding of how accessible jobs are. It’s no better than yelling it at someone panhandling on the street. The supposedly “easy” or “low-skill” jobs are still difficult to do.

      I do use what resources I can, but it’s a total myth that there’s a robust social welfare system anywhere in the United States. If there was, we wouldn’t have so many hundreds of thousands of homeless people here, with millions more just a few missed paychecks away from joining them.

      The toxic mold was confirmed. My partner is literally terminally ill from it. If you read the actual updates, the name of the illness and the research surrounding it have been detailed. We have a letter from the pulmonologist that we sent to the landlord explaining that the environment my partner was in was causing the illness. Again, you’re demanding medical proof that you have no reason to ask about. Some things can’t just be washed out.

      I am as clear as I can possibly be about specific needs so that people know what they’re helping to support. I have said again and again that people shouldn’t give unless they can spare it and want to help. I even said that in the post linked to in this comment thread. My patreon is explicitly to support my writing.

      So why am I still fundraising and making money off telling my story? Because I literally have no other real options. I’ve been formally diagnosed with PTSD, it’s not “alleged trauma.” If it was working all that well, I wouldn’t have to keep detailing my needs.

      The real grifters in our society are billionaires, not poor disabled people. You sound like you just hate us for trying to exist."

      I remember reading this before. Well, they can take all their reasons and Stop. Grifting. Plenty of people with disabilities work and /or receive assistance (as I mentioned previously, my exPOS, who has disabilities so I'm familiar with a number of options and money). Some family, have / had disabilities. I've been an advocate for services and staff training (and provided training) for Years with previous positions - because it matters to me. So, yea, Artemis get. a. job. 

      57 minutes ago, Ozlsn said:

      Art lists manual labour and call centres. And that's it. Not any jobs they could look at involving writing, from editing to writing student essays for money (yes it's dodgy but people do it). Not even playing video games for money (get character to a level where they have cool stuff for someone.)  Nothing about remote work, which there is more of now, and not even entry level white collar work.

      On the one hand I agree with them that the social support is inadequate, and that detailing your medical needs shouldn't have to happen - but they just grifted nearly $5000 to move and for a holiday, and with the amount of effort that took they probably could have held down employment of some description and to be honest would probably be better off.

      So many WFH/remote legit jobs now. Hell, you can play games on your phone and earn gift cards; donate blood and get gift cards. I knew a homeless couple that donated plasma for higher amount g.c.

      Absolutely! The amount of money; it's disgusting. And that amount of effort... At some point, even we don't want to or circumstances we don't want to deal with and adult, because... We're adults! Plenty of things I want to ignore or not deal with, just have go away but persevere because the alternative... not an option.

      2 hours ago, Bookworm1564 said:

      My all-time favourite Art post is the one where they say “Just for today, you can double the impact of your support with this opportunity” as if this was the moment we were all waiting for.

      Like a sale for limited-time-only 🤣

    • justpassingthru

      Posted (edited)

      So another page shared the Lott's story and this is a comment on that post. People believe "Fundy Snark" is a person. There are at least a couple other comments that refer to the sub as a person

      Screenshot_20240726_191210_Instagram.jpg

       

      Screenshot_20240726_191619_Instagram.jpg

      Edited by justpassingthru
    • Ozlsn

      Posted

      6 hours ago, AverageGiraffe said:

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      3 hours ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

      Oh I’m sure she has access to credit cards. But I would be she can only buy stuff that he thinks fits their “homestead” life.

      It wouldn't surprise me if they're set up so he has to approve any transaction to be honest. 

      • Upvote 3


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