As you’ve likely heard/seen, the most recent episode of The Simpsons rejected the classic opening segment in favor of a group lib dub of the sort popularized by the students of the University of Quebec and Shorewood High School. Here it is.
The above video is stupid for a million reasons, and here’s the main one: The point of a group lip dub is for a bunch of people in the three-dimensional world to execute a feat with the precision of, say, an animated cartoon. Clearly the Simpsons folks wanted to insert themselves into a hot 21st-century trend, but expecting anyone to be impressed by animated characters executing a group lip dub is stupid.
What’s next? A Simpsons flash mob, where everyone in Springfield shows up in the same place? Oh wait, that happens every episode because IT’S A FUCKING CARTOON.
This whole Simpsons/Ke$ha collab smacks of jumping the shark, raping the shark’s corpse, and feasting on the tattered remains. (Ke$ha’s “Tik Tok”, however, remains a classic for the ages.)
When I first watched this I didn’t see it as a “group lib dub” — just as a funny music video-type thing. I mean, I see your point now that that’s the style they were going for, but that still doesn’t change the fact that I laughed out loud at the “pedicure on our toes, trying on all our clothes, boys blowing up our phones” parts…
There were some funny/clever parts in it — why not just enjoy them instead of complaining about how it was trying to emulate a real-life trend?
@ 1, it’s because The Stranger, for all its strengths, at times succumbs to the temptation to try to shape culture by declaring some cultural thing to be “dead.” Lord knows, they’ve been trying to kill off cupcake shops for a couple of years now.
I swear I can feel the IQ points being drained from me every time I hear that god-awful, piece of shit song.
It’s a joke, Dave. (And plenty of people think The Simpsons jumped the shark just about the time the expression “jumped the shark” did.)
I see no problem with them animating the intro to go with a song. The problem is that it’s a retarded pop song with no reason to be on the radio. Would it be such an issue if they chose a classic rock song like Bohemian Rhapsody (which they might have already done) or some trendy ass hipster song?
Wait, aren’t you the guy who watches Showgirls on purpose?
How is this “jumping the shark” anymore than “Do the Bartman” was, back in the first or second season of the Simpsons?
I will admit I couldn’t identify what song they were lip-dubbing along with — I would have guessed some piece of shit by that Gagalady monstrosity
i thought they were poking fun at about 100 trends at once, and i thought they did it well. i was not put off by this in the least!
so you’d rather have more goddess kring and less simpsons? why ya gotta be a hater?
Okay, you’re all right, it’s adorable.
You just accused a 20 year old show of jumping the shark.
Thanks for the razor sharp cultural critique.
I think what’s funny is you got yourself all worked up and pissed off about it.
Besides, who with a brain still watches the Simpsons? Fuck, that show was dead nearly 10 years ago.
@11 I watch it with my kids — I started dating their Mom the year the Simpsons started, and now my daughter is only a year younger than my wife was when I asked her out, and the show is still going strong. Sunday night Simpsons is the closest my family gets to going to church — the phone goes off the hook and we all start shusshing each other — “It’s on!”…
Wait… they are still making new Simpsons episodes?
Not to just, y’know, knee-jerk defend the Simpsons, but seriously it takes a lot more work (by probably underpaid Korean animators) and man-hours than having real life people simply lip-sync to a song on a video.
Animation is hard, we just take it for granted nowadays.
This is not to say that the Simpsons Ke$ha intro wasn’t dumb. It was, but I think it was intentionally so. And thus was entirely in the spirit of those videos.
Though I totally see your point, as someone who was only vaguely aware of the “group lip dub” trend, I just found it amusing and a way to keep the opening credits gag somewhat fresh by trying something different, especially in the ways it sort of paralleled the familiar opening credits.
Also, for all you Simpsons haters, the episode that followed the credits was hilarious, and, at least by Simpsons-standards, rather topical. Especially if you live in Chicago.
When will Autotune be sent to rot in the grave? Not soon enough.
David,
It made me cringe immediately, like no time to process my brain said NO.
BUT, after like 15 seconds I just watched it, and liked it. The fact that it was the couch gag was great, most of my cringe was the thought of changing the flow of the show just for the popularity of that (awful) song, but it wasn’t exactly, it was just another couch gag.
I noticed something in the middle of the sketch though Dave, and its right at the point that youtube clipped the video (the image from the video you see before you hit play), Nelson having fun singing with the rest of the kids. It hit me that I was starting to like this because I like nelson, not just as a character but like a person. This show could rival many important things in my life for consistency, I mean Ive been watching my whole life.
I am no super-fan, but these characters are a part of me. I feel that with this I can get into the skit in the same way I would get into it if I was watching real live people. I mean I don’t know the teens in the video at all, but I can identify with them (due to my own youth) in the same way I can with the simpsons.
Not saying you were wrong, You don’t have to like every joke.
At least it wasn’t a parody of the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, amirite?
This complaint about something being not as clever as it thinks is running below a banner ad for Captain Smartypants. Just sayin’.
Yes, the Simpsons has been dead for a while.
That out of the way, I actually think this clip hearkens back to what previously made it good: something that can be enjoyed on multiple levels, in this case despite the terrible song.
The Simpsons helped train our visual sensibilities to the point that we look for all sorts of thrown-in visual gags. The Simpsons (or at least what they used to be) are in many ways the inspiration for the gags that lipdubs try to pull off.
whoa grandpa’s getting all riled up
What the fuck is Kesha Tik Tok? And no, I will not google it to find out.
Ok, so you slam the opening but you like the song?
I’ve never heard the song before and having watched this video decided that it belongs nowhere near the opening credits of the Simpsons.
I didn’t watch the whole thing because of that song. Holy shit that was terrible.
Isn’t the entire point of cartoons like The Simpsons, Family Guy and South Park is to take pop culture references and appropriate them? It was a groundbreaking video, but charming enough.
I like it better when you’re nice.
C’mon, Dave….it’s harmless and kinda cute. Just like you.
Not to pile on, but . . . piling on:
I don’t think they did this to be impressive and wow people with their technical finesse. I think they did it as a tribute/nod to the kids (like those at our own Shorewood and Shorecrest HSs) who do this in real life.
And that song is awful. Truly, truly terrible.
Criticizing a cartoon on a blog? Has the Stranger jumped the shark?
What about all the hidden images?
Guys, the Simpsons didn’t get bad, the audience got worse. YOU GREW UP.
Aw FOX pulled it…
I loved every second of it, and the production values on the Simpsons version were much better, and the whole bit more entertaining, than Ke$ha’s original music video. Our local auto-dealer in Denver, “Rocky’s Autos”, seems to pay more to produce their ads than Ke$ha’s label spent on her vid.