Talking Simpsons - Tennis The Menace With Chris Cabin

This episode itself has some good jokes, but the barrage of 'fuck you for wanting an ending" episodes this season really bummed me out back in the day. For some reason I usually get this episode confused with the one with the screaming caterpillar.

John Harrison

Cabin’s outright hate for the Simpsons Movie still confounds me. Also, this is a poorly plotted episode that is full of fun jokes.

Homer is the WOOOOOORST in this episode and never really gets punished or called out for it.

SilkiePJ

Oh, that's right. I saw that too.

littleterr0r

Always fun to hear from Crabin, who had some good zingers, but Tennis the Menace is just a tough watch. At least other bad Season 12 episodes have good lines, this episode has almost nothing to recommend it. The plot is intentionally awful, the jokes are bad, and the 3rd act guest stars are wooden even by sports star standards. I did appreciate some discussion about the animator drain that had happened by Season 12, as almost all the best directors had been scooped up by Pixar or someone else by this point, and the show is just sinking into the digital style that makes the last 15 years of the show look so bad.

Chris Dobson

what made me mad was JT (mostly) left it unscathed, and went on to have a pretty solid acclaimed career post incident. JJ really got the short end...and it fucked up her career (granted she was already uber successful, but what happened left a bad taste in networks' mouths). And JT only now within the last few years gives a half-assed apology, and only cause of the Brit Doc.. What an asshole

Frank Grimes

A few years ago, the NBA started calling the people who buy the teams the "governors," because in the aftermath of Donald Sterling, they figured out that referring to the mostly white men who buy teams of mostly black men as the "owner" doesn't sound great.

Tyler

And the way he comes off in Woodstock 99

Tyler

The joke about Fred Durst is funny because he's really blown up in the last two weeks with his new look.

littleterr0r

Chris's comments about cemeteries reminds me of Lone Fir Cemetery here in Portland which was used as a pioneer cemetery but is now mostly used as a park.

littleterr0r

You'd think "Cominayeaha!" would have caught on, but a nation struck with Austin Powers fever had no time for new catchphrases

Dylan

When "Nipplegate" occurred, I was as into sports as I probably ever would be or will be so I frequented many sports messageboards at the time and was exposed to the Janet Jackson nipple pic quite frequently. It actually was not a pastie, but an elaborate nipple piercing that was shaped like a sun or flames or something (I could look it up for confirmation, but I'm all set with that) that did indeed leave the center of the nipple exposed - the most offensive part of the nipple! I don't know how our nation endured. This is a hated episode that I did not hate at the time it originally aired. It was one I was wholly indifferent to. This was definitely me on cruise control with The Simpsons as I was tuning in weekly despite not being all that entertained. I could have been playing video games, but I was still sticking to my routine. In repeat viewings, the digital coloring really stands out and I'm glad they still had time to work on it before the series was forced to permanently adopt the process. Not that it looks great when they do, but I feel it's better than this. Watching this now, there are some okay jokes, but it's still a very "meh" episode of the show that's probably not quite worthy of being referred to as cromulent.

Joe Hodgson

I like the coffin cam bit, but the "How come they never call traveling anymore?" line while the player takes like six steps is some real Old Man Yells at Cloud sports commentary.

Echo Cimarron

Cabin rules

Frank Grimes

Notes on Disney's restoration process: Their whole philosophy seems to be trying to replicate what the cels and backgrounds look like when you see them in real life. The problem there, of course, is that was never the artists or animator's intention, and has led to infamous errors like the lines and details in Cinderella's dress getting removed, or colours in Pinocchio not looking right. I think it was either Frank Thomas or Ollie Johnston who saw one of these "restorations" and said (paraphrasing) "that looks nice, but it's not what we were going for originally".

Harry Thornton

I think the coffin cam is the modern equivalent of a Victorian safety coffin where the coffin would have a string attached to a bell so the person in it could ring the bell if they were accidentally buried alive.

Alex Forsyth