For a while when I was a kid I only had season 8 on DVD so watched it thoroughly even with the commentary eventually. As an adult I realised if it's the last hoorah of the golden age then it was a pretty weak hoorah, the earliest 3 seasons are probably my favourite with a few great episodes here and there like Homer Badman


Speaking as someone who has been dealing with dysfunctional coworkers getting away with being dysfunctional, this analysis hits me at a deep level.  TOO deep really.....

@Quantumplay Was just talking to some coworkers about it today in fact….


My son is 5-years-old and he loves the Simpsons. I only show him episodes more friendly to kids, a lot of earlier seasons and I avoid the ones with a lot of Itchy & Scratchy and the Halloween episodes. His favorite episodes are Dead Putting Society, Lisa the Vegetarian and the monorail one.

But then I showed him Homer's Enemy. While I was laughing at Grimey's plight, my son was horrified. He got sad and put his head down. I asked him what he thought. He didn't like it. I said, son, you're going to have to learn about the real world sometime. Might as well be now.

I think this episode broke his spirits and he's not even out of kindergarten yet.

@Claire Willow Here's another story. So he's been watching the Simpsons and I usually skip Itchy and Scratchy. He's been asking me not to skip them and I recently started relenting.  A few make him laugh but he saw one recently where Itchy shoots Scratchy in the knees and shoves his head into a boiler. He started crying and we had to stop the show. A few days later he asks for The Simpsons again and is back to asking for Itchy and Scratchy. It was the one that was "guest directed" by Oliver Stone. He said he didn't get it.

If this story is even true, why the hell would you censor episodes for your kid, show him this episode then wonder why he got sad?! <br>The episode didn't break his spirit, you did by coddling him then exposing him to something you didn't prepare him for.

If this story is even true, why the hell would you censor episodes for your kid, show him this episode then wonder why he got sad?!
The episode didn't break his spirit, you did by coddling him then exposing him to something you didn't prepare him for.

that's good, maybe you could edit the more adult episodes and cut out bad stuff? pretty sure that would work and i don't think it requires anything


Wow. If you had asked me I genuinely would have said this was my favorite episode of the Simpsons but I had no idea it was so renowned. It was the one non-treehouse of horror episode I remember saving and never taping over. I guess 7 year old me had good taste even if I may have not quite picked up on all the social meta-commentary going on at the time.


You broke down gen-x's lifestyle and living in such a time so well holy shit.


EmpLemon went from a YTP shitposter to one of the most talented social commentators on the site. Love the vids man, your insight on society is just so interesting. I know I sound like a 400 iq rick and morty fanboy but just man your vids are way too good lol

@Fattburger it honestly depends on how it's done imo

@Fattburger yeah I definitely miss it, but still like this better. Its like old idubbbz vs modern idubbz. Bolth still great, but in a way I miss the old times

@jsweeney7359 <br>True, it’s just that edginess can also be seen as immaturity (in my opinion it isnt though)

@jsweeney7359
True, it’s just that edginess can also be seen as immaturity (in my opinion it isnt though)

@Fattburger I agree you, though I don't think edgyness is even a bad thing and I actually like edgyness personally

It’s almost like learning a skill in the most popular way for a freelancer to make a living would benefit someone 🤪

@Malakai  I see what you mean, but I dunno. Today, Emperor lemon feels filtered, like he’s holding back from what he really wants to say. (and im not just speculating, he's admitted this in one of his vids last October.)
 I understand why he did it,  and Im not scolding him for doing it, and he's still my favorite content creator either way.
But part of me feels that his videos lost some of his charisma, even if they are "objectively" better.

@Fattburger Nah, there were some okay videos but some of those rants are rather immature and not well done. His new content is just objectively better.

@Fattburger nah new emp is so so much better

It’s a match made in entertainment heaven

@Fattburger I like both but I hope we get some videos that are more on the screed side every once in a while.

@Fattburger back when he was on his downward spiral

Strangely enough, I miss the era of his earlier commentaries from around 2016-2018. They were edgy, but very raw in meaning. Watch his rants about Youtube to see what I mean.


Watching this again over a year later, I can really see how this applies to my own life. Everyone is both a Homer Simpson and a Frank Grimes, it's about finding that perfect balance within yourself. This episode points out that Frank cannot cope with his own perceived failure compared to how he perceives Homer's success, even though they are both two very different people with different upbringings, ambitions, and perceptions of success. In my career, I've been at the bottom for as long as I've been in it and no amount of knowing everything about my job or doing the best work possible is going to get me off the floor. In the modern era, you're not rewarded for your success at your job so you have to find it elsewhere. Most often it's out of our control, so the only way we can control our perception of success is within ourselves and that our self worth is not reflected on our material or situational success. The only thing you can do in that situation is being both Homer Simpson and Frank Grimes. I remember watching The Simpsons for as long as I've been alive, even hearing it before I was born. My family would always watch it at 6pm during dinner and it was always good to watch. I will never get that back and thus, the nostalgia sets in.


EmpLemon you are an analytical and creative genius, well done.


Homer was a middle class dude with one job, two cars and a home of his own.

Fast forward to today, it would not be considered middle class at all.


After countless hrs of  Simpson’s video essay over the years, It might finally be time to actually sit down and watch the show


the life in hell series is super underrated

There should be, there will never ever be an F1 driver like Gilles Villeneuve.

Very much agreed. I had an anthology of the comic as a child and I would say that it's actually wittier and edgier than even the early Simpsons.

Okay why do you watch every Youtuber I also watch, first I saw your comment on an Omni video, then an iNabber video, and then an EmpLemon video. I'm seriously starting to think my entire life on YT revolves around what you watch. Istg next I'm going to see you on a Summoning Salt video or something.

@T teg Egg You sure you replied to the right person.

did not expect to see you here, as always.


I've been struggling in the same way that Frank Grimes has been.  I think I'm going to start being more like homer


I love the lengths you went to in justifying so elaborately, efficiently a lazy YTP joke and by virtue of The Simpsons having done everything, you found a suitable bookend to make it seem relevant or profound.


I swear the more I age the more i love the Frank Grimes character SO DAMN MUCH.. cause i feel like I'm living just like him.


15:00
I've got to say, I never rooted for Frank Grimes and I never started resenting Homer because of him. I never considered him a sympathetic villain either. Mostly because Frank was so extremely petty. It's not Homer's fault that life has been so easy for him and he bears no ill-will to most people. He isn't a mean person, whereas Frank appears does. Venting his frustrations on Homer instead of the system is what makes him not as compelling to me. Sure he berates the other people (and thus the system) in the end as well, but he's mostly focused on Homer.

Not to say I think Grimes is a badly designed character. The episode is one of my all-time favorites. It just doesn't evoke those specific emotions in me. ^^


Homer Simpson came from a dysfunctional family, his mother abandoned him, his father barely cared for him and yet he still sports a good job and supports a family with everything he has. without marge he would have gone nowhere and now he has surpassed what his father achieved and put him down for. Homer Simpson is by far the best character in modern television.

@Ebani It does when you're hired for that.

People don't seem to realize (Along with Grimes), that Burns barely pays Homer even when he's doing a decent job, as seen by the fact that the family is usually in poverty. Homer's lazyness comes back to Burns being a cheapskate. He sees that he gets paid crap anyways, so he uses the chance. We've seen Homer step up when he's on an actual dangerous situation numerous times. If Grimes realized this, he would have gone against Burns' bad practices and the system rather than Homer, who's just being opportunistic and even then is barely paid. But his bruised ego and his focus on what he can see rather than investigating Homer's backstory leads him to blindly bash someone who doesn't deserve it.

@Ebani Unless you've seen the early episodes on Homer's backstory, you wouldn't say that

@Coffin Tears to be fair, at least homer kicked back and became lazy AFTER he succeeded in life.

@Ebani Homer being in the right place at the right time is a good take, but the simple fact of life is that this is the case for many people.

Just because someone was fortunate doesn't discount all the hard work and trials behind them, and while he is a sitcom character and therefore not completely subject to life's rules (i.e. no risk of redundancy or long-term job loss unless specifically chosen for story purposes) - Homer's upbringing and early life as detailed in the Golden Age paints a picture of a simple man who nonetheless is a fairly hard-working yet envious individual who wanted a better life for himself and his family while also wanting to find a way to come to terms with his place in the world, and finding the balance between those two positions was a constant struggle until he finally achieved it, and even then there have been a large number of episodes showing that Homer still struggles to find that balance between the positions on a very regular basis.

Sure, his status quo depicts him as lazy and buffoonish, and that's totally fair, because according to the continuity he's already achieved the end goal of that experience and is now in the death spiral of its finale, and we've never really mined the depths of his growth into what he is on the whole without satirical comedy added to its story-telling.

@Random Guy on the Internet That's a superficially bad take but you do you.

@Ebani Grimes died because he overworked himself. His hard life drained all of his optimism and ability to find joy in something. Grimes never truly cares about the Simpsons but instead looks at Homer on face value and economic position compared to his. They are two sides of a coin and Grimes died for a reason.

@Ebani A few episodes explore an idea that end up with Homer in a better workplace. In Magge Makes Three we learned that Homer achieved his dream of working at a bowling alley and was good at his job and was respected in the community but he eventually had to leave because he wouldn't be making enough money to support a third child. Simpsons and Deliah explores the problem with how people with unattractive appearances are treated with disrespect in the workplace. And Homer ends up getting a much better position and starts to pay attention more in work when growing hair when using a product made to do so.

@Visible AIDS ok? I just don't want confrontation

@Ebani i honestly dont care about your perspective on the matter i truly dont.

@Coffin Tears Would be an extremely poor thing to argue, specially considering this episode, unless you think Grimey deserved what he got after all he had been through, unlike Homer which didn't really went through any real hardship.

@Ebani yeah could argue that but you could also argue that considering what homer went through he deserves at least some credit.

So correct!!! Homer is truly a special person! Maybe not the brightest, but has a heart as bright as the sun! Heaven will have a special spot for him! ✌☀☁

@Coffin Tears Being in the right place at the right time hardly counts as work.

Homer actually worked to get to where he is not in the academic sense but through hardship and trials. Sure he may be lazy and stupid but theres more to him than meets the eye.


Counterpoints though, speaking on behalf of Mr Grimes. 1 life was unfair to the guy to a cruel and laughable degree, and while he does choose to make Homer a point of obsession for himself and to vent his frustrations against the man, he isn't wrong for holding some animosity towards Homer Simpson.

 In the short time Grimes knew Homer he had shown no respect for Grimes or his property, stealing the man's lunch and his pencils despite being explicitly told no. And what's more saving Homers life from drinking acid got the man chewed out and docked pay, an act that was required because of Homer's dangerous lack of observation and criminal levels of negligence. Homer almost died, and his response was not to thank the man or resolve to at least be more careful, it was to laugh and rat the man out without providing context for his own involvement. And what's more Homer's own laziness and incompetence as a safety technician for a nuclear power plant is a legitimate threat to the health and safety of everyone around him.

It's easy to write off a lot of Homer's aloofness as he is his only victim, but that's not the case. And not just with Grimes but with his own friends and family, time and again we see Homer's selfish adherence to ignorance to be a detriment to those around him. We like Homer Simpson behind the TV screen, but the hard truth is if we ever met the guy, if he existed in his job in the real world, he would have gotten a lot of people killed at some point and we would certainly not want nothing to do with him because of not only the ways he hurts those around him, but so often refuses to change the behaviors which lead to such hardship. Homer Simpson is a bad husband, bad father, bad friend, bad neighbor, and a bad coworker, and Frank Grimes is justified in disliking him.


Great video! Just a note: it is amazing how stupid the essence of the american discussion sound like from the outside. For me, as you said, being an american means being like Homer Simpson. I mean, as well as with every other nationalism in the world.


The 200IQ analysis of this episode is that Grimes is a real world character pointing out the absurdity of what's going on around him, like the creator intended. But film essays can be fun.

Not taking anything away from the episode, it was brilliant.


Great video, almost brought a tear to my eye how you described the beauty of the Simpsons


The amazing thing about The Simpsons is that even if it has 30 years of garbage, that 10 years of high quality will be what most remember for coming generations.


So thats why Homers enemy was so important!<br>Girl at bar: i think i hear my friends are calling me.

So thats why Homers enemy was so important!
Girl at bar: i think i hear my friends are calling me.


So I’ve watched this video several times and I love it. I just saw a pic of Grimes dressed up like he was in the movie Falling Down and I realized that he’s the sympathetic villain Grimes was probably modeled after. Never put 2 and 2 together before, and the theme of that movie is exactly what you explain here.


Homer's Enemy is the best episode, and it's no wonder why.


I think another example of Frank Grimes being a completely normal person in the Simpsons world would be his voice. In the series, everyone has completely different and weird voices, with either different accents, tones, or pitches. Frank Grimes’ voice in all honesty is just Hank Azaria’s normal voice. That to me shows how he both stands out and fades in with all the other characters


The whole video was amazing. You can really see the detail and effort you put into it, so much I didn't know about The Simpsons.


It's been over a year since he passed, and i have the feeling that...

there will Never Ever be another rapper like MF DOOM


i love every video i’ve watched on this channel. bro, you’re so well informed and have such interesting and nuanced takes. i’m genuinely and thoroughly engaged from start to finish like ???? the level of quality ????? please keep this up


My parents made sure me and my siblings were watching sitcoms and channels like Cartoon Network. But I also think they were also avoiding shows like the Simpsons at the time even though they also had strong opinions about America.


I never really appreciated how much they actually developed and explored their characters in early simpsons seasons, wow


This break down was amazing and was something I'd never discovered on my own.


I can still remember when the Simpsons first appeared as just a short skit on the Tracy Ullman Show and Bart was popping up on bootleg type merchandise everywhere. It was kinda strange it was becoming known before it was really officially even a show.


You absolutely nailed this entire video. Incredible. As a long time Simpsons fan I thought I knew everything about this episode. Turns out I knew maybe 20%.


God i remember watching this episode when I was like 11 and just feeling really...cold in the pit of my stomach. Its such a crushingly dark ending because the implications of it all are solely in your head, meanwhile the episode ends with everyone laughing at the funeral, giving no solace to anything that just happened. Frank not only killed himself, he also left no impact on any character in the show, any lasting memories of him are heavily slanted and short term.  It upsets me more than any horror movie because it's a level of....cosmic indifference that just feels crushingly lonely and real.

@Pedro Henrique nah he cared about hard work

@steel marr <br>I didn't know you had data on how every single human in the world reacted to this episode.

@steel marr
I didn't know you had data on how every single human in the world reacted to this episode.

Homer has an innocence about him that Grimes didn't.

@HagonIsTheMan <br>Half life is a shit franchise.

@HagonIsTheMan
Half life is a shit franchise.

@the  black circle  ---  ⚫💽 <br>Why would he lie about this?

@the  black circle  ---  ⚫💽
Why would he lie about this?

I'm probably more like Grimey. Even more so as I got older. But there are bits of Homer in me too. I am perfectly content to sit back and watch the world burn, and I most certainly lack ambition and have no desire to work over the 40 hours a week I'm currently working. But when I am at work, I am like Grimes and pretty serious about doing a good job. But outside of work I have no inclination for things like college courses or home improvement. I want to have fun.

It's scarier than a horror movie, because it's more real

@Jurassic Reptile <br>The answer to my previous question was "because you are one"

@Jurassic Reptile
The answer to my previous question was "because you are one"

@Dead one eye: the unkillable    YEAH but I didn't have a philosophical awakening at 11. I just laughed cause he died unlessly trying to prove something

I laughed cause he was dead and it was funny

@Pedro Henrique Spot on. Grimes was the ultimate resentful looser.

the idea that hard work has value in itself its long prove wrong. but that's just a small part of the deal. Grimes not only based his concept of justice and fairness on his own hard work and himself, but he forgot that to live in society is about how you can provide for it. Grimes never seemed like he ever wanted to be unique, or even develop his own personality... He cared only about materialistic success.

this is the greatest lesson. Grimes was nothing but materialistic, what else could happen to him? If he never gave anything else in his life meaning, how could people actually care or remember him? If you're materialistic, if you care about nothing but what you have, instead of who you and the people you love are, then how could you want people to remember or even like you?

@FYLM - Frankie Young Loves Movies nah Grimes saved Homer’s life and then Homer proceeded to tell Mr. Burns he destroyed the wall. Homer probably would’ve gotten a warning while Grimes actually faces serious consequences.

I did too when I was a kid! It felt so mean spirited for no reason. But now I understand it more. Grimes' spite towards Homer who only ever wanted to befriend him even if obnoxious, hits different for me now. Homer was envious of Grimes too, adorably so, but never malicious. Still feels mean spirited, but I kinda get what the writers were going for.


just watched this episode for the first time ever, and still can't get over how they killed him off in a cutaway gag.


I just watched Never Ever - HBox for the first time and i must say you are truly an outstanding cinematographer, and a huge inspiration. I felt like I was having chest palpitations watching HBox win Evo - you did such a good job with that section.

When I thought about other possibilities for never ever, the first and only thing came to mind was ‘there will never be another rock & roll band like Phish’ - not just my opinion, when you look at their resume, and some of the things they’ve done including riding a hotdog through their own audience on NYE, as well as playing a 13 night run at Madison Square Garden, without repeating any songs. Either way, I’ll continue to tune into your content. Well-Earned sub for you.


fantastic video, so well researched, informed and written. awesome stuff!


Okay, that intro was solid. You <i>nailed</i> the VSauce style of pacing and delivery.

Okay, that intro was solid. You _nailed_ the VSauce style of pacing and delivery.


Since Emplemon is green on this episode, it’s canonically proven that Emplemon is a Simpson character

I have to wait 90 days to change my name

What day are you on and how much more days to change your name do you have left?

I am the funniest YouTuber of all time I watched my latest video and laughed for 69 minutes straight I am extremely funny I am dangerously funny and I have two girlfriends who think I am extremely dangerously funny and they watch all of my videos thanks for listening dear ihabe


I haven’t seen the simpsons since I was a child and it never really caught my interest since but your explanation of it has made me wanna binge watch it so I can appreciate it


Good job man, you called animation a genre.


Interesting analysis, and well made video. I grew up with the Simpsons in the 90’s and it was definitely shortly after this episode/season.. it was still a few years before it became family guy.. anyways, my actual comment is to counter that “we” like Homer. I always felt like I was laughing at Homer. His character actually became more endearing over time, but in those early episodes it’s almost the train wreck effect.

Heart of gold?.. idk of its a gold standard to strangle children, and get your loved ones gifts for yourself, etc, etc, etc..

this video made me think about the characters in a show I haven’t watched in easily a decade, so thanks for the nostalgia trip.


I think there is a great lesson on office politics in this episode.  You can not fix problems that the rest of the social group does not care about, no matter how important to the company it may be in reality.


as a colorblind person i never noticed you turned the simpson’s green lmao

@Broccoli you found us out, purple isnt real. it's all just secretly reddish blue

@Loco Madman yeah i'm thankful traffic light positions are universal, or at least uniform in the U.S. and highlighter colors such as yellow, orange, green, etc. look largely the same (yellow); so if i don't read the label it could be any of those colors without my knowledge. in middle school art class i drew a human hand green thinking it was tan/skin color. my teacher commented it was "creative" when she handed it back, which is when my classmates noticed it. the project was a drawing for mlk day so i drew a black hand shaking a white/tan hand not knowing it was actually green. basically i'm the reason color labels exist hahahaha

@Broccoli at least that’s pretty well standardized nearly across the world (as far as I know).

....highlighters! Do they do anything for you at all?

@Loco Madman i’m glad that peaked your interest! yeah with my eyes i can’t join the air force or work in air traffic control. can drive fine but i need to memorize the position of traffic lights cause they all look green to me :p

@Asriel Dreemurr a bit tricky to articulate but the particular filter he used wasn’t  “green” enough for my eyes to not register as yellow still. the shade of green he used is too light for me to pick up as green. i’m unable the difference between the simpson’s actual tone & the green he used. i wasn’t aware he had been doing it til he pointed it out.

same thing some notice when a youtuber says “i have a cold sorry for my voice”. usually not able to tell unless they point it out.

@Mason Jones Well, actually, I just got up.. but I have a sneaking suspicion this could very well end up being the most intelligent thing I read all day! Good push, man.

this will sound stupid, but that too is almost a "homerism", something specifically designed to mess with people has no effect on people who couldn't tell the difference in the first place

There should be, there will never ever be an F1 driver like Gilles Villeneuve.

@Milton Gam Nope, we understand each other perfectly; I take pictures (no filter) all the time so I can go back & find out how things really looked.

Unfortunately, the ‘Rona hasn’t helped my situation inside. Gotten so bad I can’t even open the sun blinds without risking crippling headaches.

But as you see, I developed work-arounds; glad you managed to do the same.

@Loco Madman <br>I think you might have misunderstood. I am not color blind in any way, changing filters just changes the strength of a certain perceived color. This, however, can make the world look more normal after I've gotten used to a certain shade, I'd imagine this would work the same for you. As in, fix being used to rose colored glasses by increasing your perception of rose so you start noticing that tint again.

@Loco Madman
I think you might have misunderstood. I am not color blind in any way, changing filters just changes the strength of a certain perceived color. This, however, can make the world look more normal after I've gotten used to a certain shade, I'd imagine this would work the same for you. As in, fix being used to rose colored glasses by increasing your perception of rose so you start noticing that tint again.

@Milton Gam okay, okay; gotcha. Let me ask you that same question another way.

When taking pictures, what does changing the filters do for you?

@Loco Madman<br>I've never heard of color correction software but I'd imagine it would just be tinting with the intended purpose being to make some color less evident.

@Loco Madman
I've never heard of color correction software but I'd imagine it would just be tinting with the intended purpose being to make some color less evident.

@Milton Gam Ahh, my mistake; I assumed you meant textured like felt cloth (not as in mouth feel). Is there software that can colour-correct things for you (on top of the colour-blind glasses)?

It’s hardly the same thing, but as a light-sensitive, I don’t think I’ve spent more than that the time it takes to have a shower not looking through literally rose coloured glasses in maybe a decade now (that is, if not straight up heavy sunglasses if I’m going out on a bright day). Just less migraines this way; not that I’m actually photophobia. Just hurts.

@Loco Madman<br>They would have because pears are freckled. Fresh pears are crispy in texture as in, when you bite into them they crunch.

@Loco Madman
They would have because pears are freckled. Fresh pears are crispy in texture as in, when you bite into them they crunch.

@Er ic bwahahaha...!!! Priceless comment, way to jump on the embarrassing over share for the lulz man; classic!

@Milton Gam “Crispy”, how curious. Would anyone else here have described a pear as “freckled” like I would have before reading this?

The legit the most fascinating thing I’ve read today. How different your world must be without being able to have perceived that for yourself all these years.

I mean, I didn’t notice a difference either, but that’s because I originally watched this episode on a really crappy CRT. Yet these days, talented creators can bang out 40 minute essays on the topic!

legit when im in middle school i thought when someone say they're colorblind they see the world in black and white. no wonder i dropout from high school

Men usually are colourblind to the colour green. Helped when hunting back in the day.

So does broccoli look yellow to you too?

So does broccoli look yellow to you too?

Same, good to know i'm not the only one haha

Same, good to know i'm not the only one haha

@Milton Gam RIP to all the people who bit into unripe fruit thinking it was nice and ripe 💀

@Unfinished CGI green and crispy (texture is vital, do not forget)

EmpLemon subscribers: WhY aRe ThE sImPsOnS gReEn???<br>GeorgeNotFound: I'm colorblind

EmpLemon subscribers: WhY aRe ThE sImPsOnS gReEn???
GeorgeNotFound: I'm colorblind

@Broccoli<br>You originally see the Simpsons as green, but if he makes them green you see them yellow?

@Broccoli
You originally see the Simpsons as green, but if he makes them green you see them yellow?

That is hilarious. I also forget there are color blind people who are not able to see yellow.. you give me a smile today from the response alone.

Yeah because they were always green to you

Yeah because they were always green to you

@Harrison Haine yessir! i can see red well when i wear my enchroma (colorblind) glasses. but without them most shades of red often appear “brighter” & closer to green. i’ll never forget how much more vivid & rich red looked when i tried them on for the first time.

@Broccoli You got the Emplemon life back lmao

lol that's great, I mean not the colorbindness but the results can be amusing

I have the same kind i was so confused lmao

I have the same kind i was so confused lmao

same here! I only noticed he did it when he mentioned it was called 'green simpsons'. Are you red-green colour-blind like me?

Funny how us others often forget about colorblindness, a friend of mine recently asked me what color a pear is.

@Awsomeness103  certain shades of green, like the one he used; i perceive as yellow. certain tones of green & yellow bleed into each other too much for me to see a difference.

i have also never been able to accurately distinguish the difference between blue and purple. always a 50/50 for me and i’m semi convinced purple is just a myth created by people with normal color vision just to mess with us ;)

So wait, is yellow green to you or green yellow?


Absolutely brilliant video, It felt more like a sociological/ anthropological monography than "just another youtube video"  and i loved every second of it!  Could I ask, what kind of education do you hold and how did you research for the making of this video?


I come back to this video every few months and it's just as magical with each watch. Quite possibly my favorite video on YouTube


I like to imagine that in an alternate ending after Frank Grimes gets Homer's job, he sees the billboard with all the Magie pictures.

Homer explains to Frank the story behind it and it puts Frank into a meltdown of guilt because he realizes that not only was Homer was once in the same position as he was in but he may have also taken away the very thing Homer needed to support his family.


This was freaking amazing, emplemon you always give us gold!


As we found out in "HOMR" when Homer did do his job as Safety Engineer, he got the plant shut down. I think Burns tolerates Homer because Homer turns a blind eye to all the safety violations and keeps the plant open.

@Phil Congratulations on your comprehension skills so far.

To bridge the remain gap, I will explain.

Yes it is something that I am assuming. But the basis for the assumption is so sound that the assumption may as well be fact. But it's not actually a fact.

I tried to make this clear in my comment.

@TonkarzOfSolSystem u say homer isn't the only safety inspector as if it's fact but say "surely" like you're assuming.

Maybe that's why he PRETENDS not to know Homer so when cops ask questions he can be like.... Who? I don't know him?

Kinda funny, because the first two Simpsons episodes I ever watched were HOMЯ and Homer's Enemy

Wasn't this explaine din the first season or 2? i remember they chose him for good reason

Mr Burns doesn't know who Homer is and that makes him the perfect "health inspector" for his company. As long as he remains invisible in his role.

@Amy Mason Well, Murdoch wanted Mickey's Money and signed and was laughing all the way to the Bank ala Ted DiBiase!

@Hulk2k6 Meta: The reason why the show is so mediocre under Disney is because Disney knows if the show is too good it'll hurt their bottom line due to the controversy it would create.

@NoahGMD I see what episode you referenced there 👍

Homer is only one of many safety inspectors at the plant. After all he's from sector 7-G, the other sectors surely have their own inspectors.

Remember that one episode where Homer is reading a Reader's Digest and Mr. Burns caught him on CCTV? Mr. Burns commented about the qualification of safety inspector in his plant is being an illiterate...

Homer has to work at a level just competent enough not to kill anybody

@NoahGMD can’t it be both? He doesn’t know who he is, but knows that he’ll get shut down if Homer/that guy actually does his job.

or because burns has no clue who homer is lmao


Also, the Office Space scene of Milton makes me seethe with anger like nothing else. I hate seeing people treated like that by others. I would have defended Milton to the death.


I realize now that I am like Homers Enemy in more ways than I would like to admit. I am also consumed by the ideal world where fairness beats out anything else. I base my performances on how well or how much I practice or how hard I work for what I earn. Subconsciously I think that I diminish what I do with how hard I work. I also get jealous and try to beat the system in the ways you explained Homers enemy tries to beat it also. I represent little value to others because I am only focused on winning. I actually think that I learned something about myself here. Maybe I can learn to change now.


I love how you returned to the original question after all the distraction, just like the old episodes of The Simpsons


Showing a still from the Armin Tamzarian episode to mark the beginning of the Simpsons decline was spot on haha. Your videos are so well done. Keep up the good work


The sign is a subtle joke. The shop is called "Sneed's Feed & Seed", where feed and seed both end in the sound "-eed", thus rhyming with the name of the owner, Sneed. The sign says that the shop was "Formerly Chuck's", implying that the two words beginning with "F" and "S" would have ended with "-uck", rhyming with "Chuck". So, when Chuck owned the shop, it would have been called "Chuck's Feeduck and Seeduck".

@nome I do. I talk like that. Sneed life matters.

You have to have a very high feed to seed and feed Sneed.

@nome imagine typing an entire paragraph to just say "lurk more" lmao

@Some Bonehead this, this i can get behind

@s >keyed<br>Reject modernity, return to 'epic'

@s >keyed
Reject modernity, return to 'epic'

@10 Outta 10 the difference is that all of that has a actual meaning unlike i cant sneed, feels like that pekple are just repeating over and over again to look cool, also its painful to read someone repeat all theese 4chan talk, its obvious you probbaly go there because the internet historian video, no one talks like that anymore

Saw this copypasta for the first time earlier today. Crazy coincidence

@Titanium Rain i know its a reference to floyd but is it just being le edgy for no reason or it has a meaning?

ok but what "i cant sneed" means? saw that being comment everywhere

@MiLLa i know that, that's why i say it lmao


I guess I could never buy into the idea of Homer’s Enemy as being brilliantly meta since it breaks Homer’s character in order to make its statement. Homer is not himself in this episode, he’s not an extreme version of himself, and the message of the episode is that inequity is the fault of lazy workers, that people like Frank are victims of people like Homer.


EmpLemon out here putting in all the work, to figure out the mysteries you never knew you needed answered...


The Simpsons is basically the blueprint to every great comedic show. The less polished beginning -> Getting into their groove -> finding their stride -> hitting their stride -> experimentation -> deconstruction -> self parody -> living death.


This video is amazing. Needs more likes. A true deep and thorough analysis of life and society.


The main thing I took from this video was that Matt Groening's parents are Marge and Homer. I never knew that.

𝕶 𝕹 𝕺 𝕿 𝕿 𝖄 𝕭 𝖀 𝕯 𝕾

@Daniel Large At least we know how to close parentheses.

@NRF3703 bigheads had a son not a daughter

Oh. So maybe Rocko's Modern Life was inspired by that. Rachel Bighead made a cartoon based on her parents like Matt did here.

BUT YOU LET IN HOMER GLUPLIDGE!

IT SAYS "NO HOMERS"

and also his grandpa is Abraham Groening

In the video, he says "The true location of the Simpson's home may forever remain an enigma," but it's literally based off of Springfield, OR, a town just South of where Matt Groening was born and raised, and Matt said so himself during an interview with the Smithsonian back in '12

@Gerardo Salgado maybe he's such a die hard Simpsons fan (with selective memory) that he knows the rest?

@Gerardo Salgado Jeez. Its just something I never knew that interested me the most at the time of hearing it. No big deal.

𝕶 𝕹 𝕺 𝕿 𝕿 𝖄 𝕭 𝖀 𝕯 𝕾

So basically nothing. That thing you mentioned is in the first 3 minutes of this video

Margaret Groening’s maiden name before she was married was Wiggum, too. The show incorporated so many real life elements that you would sometimes forget it was even animated in the first place.

Also, never realized that the street the Simpsons live in, Evergreen Terrace, was named after his college.


You can’t binge The Simpsons without getting a thing for marge.


This is an excellent video. I used to love the Simpsons when I was a kid and this episode was somehow stuck in my mind. So when I saw the thumbnail I immediately remembered the plot and I had to watch it... now I know why


Excellent documentary, I do not know why I put it off for so long. I am looking forward to the hopeful continuation of the "There will never ever" series in the future.


Wasn’t expecting that philosophical sledgehammer but I’m glad I watched this.


“Strong moral role models” showing bill cosby. Man, that hits hard every time I’m reminded of it. How heroes fall

That's why you never - EVER - idolize anyone.

was he ever a hero if he was a rapist the whole time man? your are still subconciously supporting him with this statement

It shows you hollow all their claims to moral superiority were.

@MetaForth So... basically he's the new OJ Simpson? Got away with it because of a technical screwup, even though he admitted to it after he couldn't be punished anymore, almost as if to say "haha, I got away with it" to the victim's family and everyone else?

@MetaForth you really dont understand what happened.  you have a cursory surface level explanation through snarky click bait websites.  it was definitely not just a "technicality"

@Rakinjo2 He admitted to <b>giving</b> women drugs, in a video taken after the original prosecutor declined to pursue charges because the accusations weren't considered credible, meaning that Cosby's fifth amendment rights weren't protected at the time the video was taken & its admission into evidence was illegal.

@Rakinjo2 He admitted to *giving* women drugs, in a video taken after the original prosecutor declined to pursue charges because the accusations weren't considered credible, meaning that Cosby's fifth amendment rights weren't protected at the time the video was taken & its admission into evidence was illegal.

@Rakinjo2 Our justice system is built to chase convictions no matter what. A lot of the times people will confess to a crime they didn't do purely because they were either offered a lighter sentence or were forced into it under threat of a heavier one. Furthermore, if there is actual proof that a crime took place, you wouldn't wait 30+ years to go to the authorities as the supposed victims of Cosby did. You accuse me of a witch hunt when your side rushed into accusing a man of a very serious crime because you wanted a head. You wanted blood. Whether or not he was indeed guilty or not wasn't taken into consideration. If Cosby did do the crime then he should be locked up no matter the suspicious facts surrounding this case. He is innocent until proven guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt, and as long as there is only conjecture, base accusations, and a shaky confession... I'm not buying his guilt. So overall I'm glad he was freed. No innocent man should ever see the inside of a cell.

@Valinor My guy, admitted to drugging people. "Witch Hunt!" all you want.

@MetaForth Watch the Razorfist video, it wasn't just a "technicality".

He's out based on a technicality rooted in how his trial was handled. But what's important to note is the judge in the case explicitly stated he had not been exonerated of any crimes

@Fort Bill Cosby was released after his constitutional rights were acknowledged as having been roundly violated.  Cosby getting out isn't a case of rich people getting away with shit, but him benefitting from laws designed to protect us all from the state.

@incinium z rich people have always been able to get away with crimes like this, if Bill Cosby getting away with (YouTube no no word) signifies a crumbling society then we’ve been living in the rubble for decades

@Nick Name where did you find that opinion? Family Guy?

@Sam And Joe Productions this video is four months old, this comment is three months old, and literally everyone on the face of the planet earth already knows that, why are you here

@Sam And Joe Productions We live in a morally crumbing society

The best villains make everyone believe they’re the hero man

he didn't fall, so much as he got on the ground and started rolling in shit.

There will Never Ever Be Another Fallen Hero Like Bill Cosby....

@Peach Boi Productions huh? What does race have to do with this?

@P M when I was a kid he was considered the most wholesome and one of the greatest comedians of a decade, he helped pave the way for black people in the entertainment business, it’s less that he’s a fallen hero, and more that many people considered him a hero before this came out

Kinda weird to call a convicted sex offender a fallen hero imo.

And how his victims fell after being roofie’d

@Valinor for sure guilty. He admitted to investigators that he used queludes to drug women and take them home

Was he ever proven guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt or was he just raked over the coals by the media?

He was always fucking creepy dont kid yourself


24:31 If it was grimey, he would've lost that chance. Thinking that he can't give something so low for his very loved one. Not a wrong idea, but it would sink himself into a spiral and end up losing the woman,


Love the VSauce intro. Absolutely nailed the transitions


Counterpoint to your introduction: Married... with Children started airing 2 years prior to The Simpsons. It even started airing a couple of weeks before The Simpsons arrived to Tracey Ullman Show as a series of shorts. I think Married... with Children did more to portray a dysfunctional family on TV.

Yeah, the reason it created controversy wasn't simply for depicting a dysfunctional family, it was mostly because the show was animated and the star of the show was Bart (at first). In people's minds this meant that it was a show aimed at kids and a lot of parents freaked out, mine included. I wasn't allowed to watch it for years.


The moral of the story is :<br>“There are people destined to succeed where others are destined to fail and we can do nothing about it”

The moral of the story is :
“There are people destined to succeed where others are destined to fail and we can do nothing about it”


Frank Grimes, or Grimey as he liked to be called, taught us that a man can triumph over adversity.

@RWilson I hope your hand gets better soon.

@RWilson I hope your hand gets better soon.

@Mr. Michael Philips There's actually one other sane and normal person in the Simpson's universe. Superintendent Chalmers, just watch any scene with him and you'll see he's a regular guy interacting with and reacting to a bunch of maniacs.

@CeeStyleDj .. you make a great point. i agree, i think people take way too much of everything TOO SERIOUSLY? this was just a tv show written by professional writers for an intended commerical result. and they achieved that result very well. i think the simpsons is one of the best tv shows ever. but that doesn't mean take every word from the show and apply to my world view. (except LISA! she's a character i greatly appreciate.)<br>          your last sentence was funny. do you remember the episode that was about convincing all of springfield to "be more like the boy?" meaning bart of course. all of springfiel turn into chaos. this seems to be what many of these analyzers want. we can be entertained by the simpsons and even learn from it. but no, i don't think its a good idea we become more like them.

@CeeStyleDj .. you make a great point. i agree, i think people take way too much of everything TOO SERIOUSLY? this was just a tv show written by professional writers for an intended commerical result. and they achieved that result very well. i think the simpsons is one of the best tv shows ever. but that doesn't mean take every word from the show and apply to my world view. (except LISA! she's a character i greatly appreciate.)
          your last sentence was funny. do you remember the episode that was about convincing all of springfield to "be more like the boy?" meaning bart of course. all of springfiel turn into chaos. this seems to be what many of these analyzers want. we can be entertained by the simpsons and even learn from it. but no, i don't think its a good idea we become more like them.

@c. j. macq so many people in the comments - and even this analysis in general - are taking the Simpsons way too seriously. The creators made the show almost as a parody of certain things that are wrong with American culture or Americans in general - yet somehow the presenter in this video, and many people in the comments are coming to the conclusion of " we should be more like The Simpsons"... Lol, it blows my mind.

@CeeStyleDj ... thanks so much. that's very kind. you know i was on drugs when i wrote that? NAWW, just kidding. actually, i was under the influence of "reality!" i appreciate your perceptive comment.

@c. j. macq you're one of the few people in the comments that actually get it.

Man cannot triumph over large voltages of electricity though.

And even thought Frank's AGONIZING struggle through life was TRAGICALLY cut short, we can be assured that....CHANGE THE CHANNEL MARGE!!!

Yeah, but expecting to be rewarded leaves you angry

Yeah, but expecting to be rewarded leaves you angry

I read this exactly as it was spoken in the video

I read this exactly as it was spoken in the video

I totally remember him. I haven't watched Simpsons in 20 years but totally remember most of the early episodes. I grew up on it

@ECL28E ... are you doing a biography on me? you just described my life.

Overcome adversity and find nothing on the other side.

although it seems that nothing matters if you are not the protagonist.

@Lily Choi ... thank you for that. i needed a smile.

@Lily Choi ... thank you for that. i needed a smile.

@Lily Choi remarkably clever way of skirting YouTube censorship rules, good push! 😂👏🏽👍🏽👌🏽

Pmurt si os dab. Read backwords for mesage

Pmurt si os dab. Read backwords for mesage

@Loco Madman ... its not a bad video at all. very well written and produced. i know the whole point of this video was to analyze. i was just making a general criticism about over analysis and using this video as an example. but it was a damned good video and it made some very good points.

@c. j. macq I can’t disagree with any of that in general, except it’s still a detailed analysis. Not a 40 minute one, true, but he has more than a couple-few more examples to help prove his thesis statement.

It’s not a bad piece, that’s all I’m saying.

here's an example of over analyzation. "why do we like homer?" no need for all that - he represents us all - stuff. we like homer because he's written as a comedic character. HE'S FUNNY! his dialogue is a series of dimwitted and observationally perceptive one liners placed into different contexts, references and plots.

          he's also written as a sympathetic character. things ALWAYS go wrong for homer. but he usually ends up back on his feet anyway, right where he started all along. the "enemy" episode was more of an antithesis to this sympathetic driven character. so, no need to over analyze the simpsons. the show is liked because its funny, fast moving, creative and unpredictable.

          AND, thanks to the Lisa character, the show offers an intellectual side. its perceptively critical of society. and perhaps this is where people see themselves. personally, i relate to Lisa more than any other character. she's the smartest, most aware and perceptive, most underappreciated and most misunderstood member of the cast. i can relate to that.

         so the mystery of why people like the simpson's has been solved. just set back, enjoy the damned show and try to learn something from it. its as simple as that.

@NoobedNate What the heck dude; why’d you direct that at me in three different threads? Who even was talking about F1 racing?? Bizarre guy, just totally bizarre..!

There should be, there will never ever be an F1 driver like Gilles Villeneuve.

“Don’t click the link, don’t click the link, don’t..” click

Goddammit. I clicked the link. I knew I was going to regret it... well, at least you didn’t Rick-roll us.

“Don’t click the link, don’t click the link, don’t..” *click*

Goddammit. I clicked the link. I knew I was going to regret it... well, at least you didn’t Rick-roll us.

@Chase Janus I heard he’s on some kinda health kick; he’s no longer smoking now.

@Loco Madman Oh yeah I didn't think about that whoops.

@Loco Madman Oh yeah I didn't think about that whoops.

@Isaac No disrespect man, but your entitlement is showing (y might wanna do something about it, just saying).

@Mr. Michael Philips excellent Falling Down reference, very perceptive! They totally did come out roughly around the same time.

@Louie Beatty then why are you telling me elon musk's wife is Grimes!? You clearly didn't get the joke and youre now back pedaling. My joke was about his wife's name...

@Mr. Michael Philips I believe one of the writers said that Grimey is what would happen if you put a normal person into the Simpsons' world

I'm so proud of you that you got the attention and heart from EmpLemon

@Maruquiturus cus he likes the content as well?

@Maruquiturus cus he likes the content as well?

@Bilb Ono look at his wife's name

I understand the joke

@Louie Beatty.... and frank grimes is his father in law.... thats the joke...

And that envy and jealousy helps no one.

And that envy and jealousy helps no one.

@philly_sports Totally agreed. My favorite one-off is a tie between Frank Grimes or Hank Scorpio.

oh hey, it's Mr. JimJim's Wacky Escapade

oh hey, it's Mr. JimJim's Wacky Escapade

I started to scroll down and read the comments during this video and the very second this line was said was the exact moment I started reading this comment and I have to say that was pretty weird

Grimey was one of the best one time Simpsons characters ever.

Grimey actually felt like the only sane man in the simpson universe. Until he had his breaking point, reminds me of the main character from the movie Falling down. Also remember Frank grimes Jr?

Indeed. Frank Grimes is the best one-off Simpsons character.

Also known as Elon Musk's father-in-law.

Also known as Elon Musk's father-in-law.


Honestly it blows my mind that you STILL have less than 1 mil subscribers, you’re up there with some of the most impressive examples of quality on YouTube


24:53, fairness means everyone gets what they NEED. Fairness does not mean equality, and fairness does not mean everyone gets what they want. Frank Grimes fails because he fails to understand this.


well done, one of the best documentaries ever seen


When you notice Matt Groenings initials on the side of the lead characters head. It kind of changes things and that is the thread that takes you into the absolute intelligence that IS the Simpsons.


Comparison to others is the death of joy. Homer rarely compares himself to others.

Edit: except Flanders and see how miserable he gets lol.

That's right, we should all be just like Homer.

Well he occasionally does. And then gets sad. Proves your point though :)


To be fair some of the grievances be priviledge are a bit dated as most people are struggling anyway with how money and affordability has changed. So in a way we are all Frank Grimes at this point. Also most shows do this by default in creating a Frank Grimes anyway, always someone with struggles and envies someone else’s privledged life.


28:20 that's what i always thought about the episode, it's like putting someone from our world into some kind of childish/ comedical/ satirical universe


Just recently found your channel, and if nothing else, your choice of music constantly gives me a bit of whiplash when I have them playing mostly in the background.

Didn't really ever expect a guy presenting a documentary on a Simpsons episode to randomly chuck in tracks from Soft Machine.


Grimes: "It's not fair!"<br>Jareth: "How often you say that. Makes me wonder what your basis for comparison is."

Grimes: "It's not fair!"
Jareth: "How often you say that. Makes me wonder what your basis for comparison is."


fun fact: my mom owned a restaurant in LA that Matt Groening went to almost daily while he was a struggling cartoonist in the 80s

Michael Jackson came over to my house to use the bathroom once - Chunk

Everyone keeps saying if he was broke he wouldn't eat out every day? It's a shit ton cheaper to eat out then cook. If their mom owned a greasy spoon you could have lunch/dinner in la for the equivalent of 10$. Also I'm sure they ment struggling not broke. The time in my life when I considered myself broke I was young no large financial commitments. I also ate every meal out because I hadn't learned to cook yet.

@Zorbaz Also a struggling artist in LA can just mean they weren’t well off but it doesn’t mean they are piss poor to the point they cant grab a sandwich and coffee 5 days a week instead of running a car for instance

@Zorbaz only way to serve super cheap food is sell shitty food or be part of a huge chain like McDonalds

@That one dude •-• but restaurants are very broad range for al we know she's a small local eatery or the guy just got a muffin or a  small meal

@Zorbaz a burger from McDonald’s is actually cheaper than the average burger in the 70’s. Restaurants weren’t cheaper in the 70’s

@Zorbaz I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic or not. But based on your previous comments I’m gonna go with no.

The value of currency will generally go down with time, or in other words, prices will increase.

Meaning 7$ today was worth 1$ in the 70’s.

A pack of cigarettes in the 70’s costed a dollar. You may think, oh shit that’s cheap. But translated to today’s currency, it costed 7 modern day US dollars

@That one dude •-• no what is that explain please as I'm a dumb consoomer baby

@La Folia restaurants don't vento be expensive also this is in 70s

@Dead one eye: the unkillable my apologies! I misinterpreted

@Dead one eye: the unkillable just because your lives are boring af doesn't mean nothing happens

Yeah doubt it if he was broke and ate at a restaurant daily, more likely he would be at home eating instant noodles

@Eel Eye Entertainment That's some serious salt. 🤣

that's really only a fun fact if you are you

that's really only a fun fact if you are you

It’s really expensive to go a restaurant almost daily, especially as a struggling artist…..

Unless your mom inherited I think you lying<br>Cause something tells me your moon didn’t start a restaurant in 1926

Unless your mom inherited I think you lying
Cause something tells me your moon didn’t start a restaurant in 1926

I was hoping this thread would end with a surprise twist that it really was a lie. But for what it's worth, I believe ya.

@ooo ooo I once told a kid in my third grade class that stone cold was my uncle he believed me obviously that's not true but I never told him that

@La Folia You know that most struggling artists, still get like a cup of coffee everyday right?

Funny how the waiters in the simpsons are sassy xD

Funny how the waiters in the simpsons are sassy xD

>the dollar went farther in the 1980s
>by “eat there” sometimes he just went to get coffee and work on stuff
pick one

>struggling artist
>Ate at a restaurant every day
Pick one

@dead yami hahaha I asked that too actually, the dollar went a much longer way back then

Your Cordial Vermillion Chap With A Squeaky Mallet

@NingaShark you're fine! all of you are understandably skeptical

@Remy Clio sorry if I came off rude, now that you mention that it’s understandable, I thought maybe your mom had known him or maybe spoke to him about what he was making, have a good day/night :)

@NingaShark that's pretty much the whole story, they weren't friends or anything, just a fun fact that I almost regret sharing with you guys

Please tell some stories what the heck, you’re just gonna drop that and not mention anything else?

@ooo ooo only reason I could see not believing it would be “what starving artist can eat at a restaurant everyday”<br>but ig things could have been different back then

@ooo ooo only reason I could see not believing it would be “what starving artist can eat at a restaurant everyday”
but ig things could have been different back then

@ooo ooo it's a very pointless lie, which accomplishes nothing, "wow, matt greoning ate a few times at your mum's restaurant, that she hasn't owned for decades, and he probably doesn't remember". I'm more inclined to believe her, rather than think that she's lying about something so insignificant

@Mintymoes Because there is a spectrum going from "The internet/people are full of sh*t" and "People want to show off as the person who's not a fool".

that is awesome, dont know why people think your lying

@Pusfilth thank you for confirming your opinion

@Pusfilth thank you for confirming your opinion

@Immadeus it's called Millies, it's in Silverlake CA but my mom hasn't been the owner in decades. this was back before the Simpsons was created

@Pusfilth you don't have to believe it if you don't want to


Homers Enemy would be a good episode on its own. But the line that REALLY shined the episode was “You are what’s wrong with America, Simpson.”


Is nobody gonna talk about Marge’s heroic struggle to get her name on a plate (it’s at the start of the episode)


this is one of the best videos I have ever seen on youtube.really amazing content.


Only a YouTuber could make a video essay longer than the actual episode 😂


growing up, Homer's Enemy scared me much more then any of the Tree house of Terrors. Grimes' meltdown is honestly still terrifying today.

its extremely realistic. hence why it scares you and me.

@Randomfully Wonderful well that’s not very nice…

I showed my elementary school-aged son this episode and I regret it. I showed him a little bit of Itchy and Scratchy before and a couple of the more benign Halloween episodes, and he loved them. But this one made him hate the Simpsons. He was horrified.

@AlexL whats homer’s alien? I don’t think I’ve watched this episode

@F-22 Raptor landing zone That's a good point, even if you accept that Mr. Burns just buys his way out trouble, you'd think he'd eventually run out of money with such a poorly maintained power plant piling up lawsuits.

@Loopy Loon "why were those 2 wires so close together and not insulated" have you seen the power plant? There's beakers of acid lying around and toxic waste leaking from the ceiling practically everywhere.

@Dan King lol I haven't seen a Simpson's in years but I remember grimey reminded me of that guy in falling down, maybe the hair helped

Asking somebody named "dont ask me who i am" who he/she is? I like that

Perhaps the better question is what does he want

@Random Guy on the Internet But Grimes was also a spiteful sort who failed to realize that if his strategy wasn't working he ought to change it, but he instead chose to (try to) punish Homer because his existence didn't conform to his world view.

@Loopy Loon The character of Frank Grimes I feel like also represents the downfall of the american economy. The Simpsons can be considered part of the higher or higher middle class by today's standards. Frank Grimes gives Homer a scratching critique on his life and represents all of us now.

@Ruby Blue I think that was the point, Homer can survive falling down Springfield Gorge(though Behind the Laughter showed him becoming addicted to painkillers during his recovery), but Grimey couldn't handle high voltage for even a moment, though he did grab 2 different wires so the circuit would have formed through his heart, the real question is why those 2 wires were in such close proximity to each other without proper insulation, that's just asking for a short.

I’m glad it’s not just me lmao…it’s so unsettling in far too real a way, the fact that it happens mid-sentence, in a way that wouldn’t have killed any other character, it really got to me

What could be more terrifying than the unpredictability of apoplectic rage? Maybe the idea of being insane yourself, would you know if you saw the world differently from everyone else? Who am I?

@Dwinkleblumbs We're not supposed to ask about that.


Simpsons was once the head of there time. <br>I stopped watching around section 12, it was unrecognizable after section 9, but loyalty of the show kept me around until one day that loyalty faded

Simpsons was once the head of there time.
I stopped watching around section 12, it was unrecognizable after section 9, but loyalty of the show kept me around until one day that loyalty faded


The VSauce bit had me dying every time he did another transition 😂


I miss the glory days of the Simpsons.  I feel like in the late 1990s, the mantle of best cartoon passed to Futurama.  But the Simpsons were my fav from the first episode  in 1989 until 2000 or so.  I cannot believe that it is still going on, although I lost interest in it a decade ago when it was already years into a steep decline.  But it (and Futurama) have a permanent special place in my heart


I think this episode has a really important message that many people need to hear, it's that no matter how hard working or intelligent you are, you can't live a happy and fulfilling life if you're hate filled and resentful. Something horrible will eventually happen directly or indirectly as a result of this hatred, in Grimey's case, his death. Life is unfair and we can't spend our time being jealous and envious of others, we should just mind our own business sometimes. Great episode.

@iamhungey12345 Homer was like: a<br>Crimes: I HATE YOU

@iamhungey12345 Homer was like: a
Crimes: I HATE YOU

Plus Homer wasn't even trying to be antagonistic towards him, Grimes let his resentment get the best of him which killed him in the end.

@Dr. Fun I mean sure, but as Emp said. Blaming and getting mad at Homer is like getting mad at your dog. They can do stupid shit but they're not doing it to inconvenience you or piss you off.

@Hepi and what is your business with others making Shit Jobs? I would be annoyed but not in that Grimes level

@Monlyth Trying to destroy someone for any reason is stupid.

@Eric he wasn’t a criminal but he did half ass his job and is lazy as hell and he still gets paid

@Dr. Fun ignore, you cant do nothing about that bad person, otherwise what was Homer crime? Being happy and himself

@true romani What are u trying to imply? I mean you don't need to take over when you already hold most power, and also the increase of technology to minimse the need for wage labour (inside of a system that nessecitates that most people must sell their labour) is kind of a natural tendencey since at least for a certain amount of time it's more profitable.

Dr. Fun fantastic comment, I completely agree

@true romani I don’t think that’s unfair, but cruel is definitely the outcome. There’s enough dystopian stories where AI’s replace humans as workers. Maybe when I’m near death and senile everyone will be out of jobs and a communist revolution will occur, or everyone will die.

@Monlyth I agree, I think it's far more productive to try to change the system that allows a parasite like Homer to exist rather than to focus your attention on the parasite itself.

Also, I think emplemon's and a lot of people's assessment of what motivates Grimes is incorrect, I don't think it's really jealousy that motivates Frank but rather that Homer represents the antithesis of his worldview, and he wants to correct it by exposing Homer. Consider; if Frank was motivated by jealousy then it stands to reason that the writers would write Frank attempting to take what Homer has rather than destroy what he's got. Instead, Frank tries to show Homer's incompetence to the world, expecting that if he does so, Homer's lack of work/aptitude would be punished which fits with his worldview (hard work = success, no work = failure). Instead, the world embraces Homer's ineptitude ("first prize!"), shattering Frank's worldview completely and driving him mad.

@Monlyth I agree, I think it's far more productive to try to change the system that allows a parasite like Homer to exist rather than to focus your attention on the parasite itself.

Also, I think emplemon's and a lot of people's assessment of what motivates Grimes is incorrect, I don't think it's really jealousy that motivates Frank but rather that Homer represents the antithesis of his worldview, and he wants to correct it by exposing Homer. Consider; if Frank was motivated by jealousy then it stands to reason that the writers would write Frank attempting to _take_ what Homer has rather than destroy what he's got. Instead, Frank tries to show Homer's incompetence to the world, expecting that if he does so, Homer's lack of work/aptitude would be punished which fits with his worldview (hard work = success, no work = failure). Instead, the world embraces Homer's ineptitude ("first prize!"), shattering Frank's worldview completely and driving him mad.

@Dr. Fun Sure, but what does Frank accomplish with all his efforts to tear down Homer? It's okay to dislike someone, but trying to destroy them out of jealousy won't change anything.

bu-but... but... but the rich are taking over, taking money from us... and getting rid of the workforce and replacing them with machines. Gah, its so unfair!

@KOT EBANA ROT It kind of is. Homer sells Grimes out (not maliciously but stupidly) for being the one who destroyed a wall with acid, acid that Homer was about to drink by accident. This whole diatribe against Grimes is silly, Grimes doesn't start off as some bitter, hateful person, he <i>becomes</i> that person when confronted with Homer's obliviousness, sloth, ignorance and luck. I'd be pretty hateful of someone who; ate my lunch, chewed my pencils, ratted me out after saving their life, kept calling me a name I didn't want, etc. etc. It just stings twice as hard when you find that the idiot who did all this is also somehow more successful than you despite doing nothing.

@KOT EBANA ROT It kind of is. Homer sells Grimes out (not maliciously but stupidly) for being the one who destroyed a wall with acid, acid that Homer was about to drink by accident. This whole diatribe against Grimes is silly, Grimes doesn't start off as some bitter, hateful person, he _becomes_ that person when confronted with Homer's obliviousness, sloth, ignorance and luck. I'd be pretty hateful of someone who; ate my lunch, chewed my pencils, ratted me out after saving their life, kept calling me a name I didn't want, etc. etc. It just stings twice as hard when you find that the idiot who did all this is also somehow more successful than you despite doing nothing.

@KOT EBANA ROT the real villain of the episode is people like Burns


weird that it feels sadder to see the show I grew up with continues its run time rather than end


There have been surprisingly strong episodes since The Simpsons heyday. You dismiss twenty seasons pretty glibly.


I didn’t know emp was that patriotic. As a Canadian, I found the “what does it mean to be American” bit a little over exaggerated lol


when u said every other show copies it in some way i was reminded of my theory that the amazing world of gumball is one of those shows. a lazy dad who eats a lot. a mom whos always trying to keep things tidy both metaphorically and literally and also a smart child. plus 2 wacky children. plus they both take place in small towns with repeating characters. idk i thought that these similarities were interesting


Felt cheap just giving this video a like. This is possibly the greatest essay-style video I've ever seen. The editing, story-telling, and depth of analysis is just stunning. Take this anonymous internet user's thumbs up!

@lasarousi look at all of emplemons other videos

Check vsauce of you like this type of stringed ideas, this episode is basically everything they did there, don't know if it's straight up stealing the style or just a love letter to Michael.

You obvioisly haven't seen his wrestling video


There will Never Ever be another actress like Betty White would be great idea for a new episode to this series. RIP!


You can relate to Grimes, but you can't sympathy with him

Ps: the cake scene broke my heart... I wanna hug that man


I’ve never seen an episode of The Simpsons… literally.
And I’m 33 years old. But your video was so awesome, and kept me glued to the screen the entire time!!
Same goes with your NASCAR videos. I’ve never watched a single race… But those are some of my most favorite videos on YouTube.


"Above a bowling alley and below another bowling alley" is my favorite line in the simpsons.


The Simpsons take human skin and decrease the red and increase the green. He just doubled the process.

There should be, there will never ever be an F1 driver like Gilles Villeneuve.


The decline was real.  It’s hard to imagine when someone finds modern Simpsons episodes to be “pretty good”, that they ever appreciated the Simpsons at all.


Okay you convinced me Frank Grimes represents everything that's wrong with America


I still love the new episodes. 🤷♂ The show dipped in quality in the late teens. I think it's very intelligent and funny again.


When I was a kid the Simpsons Christmas special was on TV, there was also a commercial for Butterfingers with Bart so I naturally assumed that they made the Simpsons look like Butterfingers wrappers and that's why they were yellow.


"There will never ever be another Simpsons episode--"

Finally. It's over.

don't worry, its been renewed for a 33rd and a 34th season!

@Majin Vegeta over 20 EO within the first couple of months most regarding undermining  rights, the oil ransom debacle, antagonizing China and then becoming the face of a pacifist nation after AAPI sjw acts, his own pathetic bow to Putin meeting after calling the man a murderer thug in the election.<br>Yea kid,

@Majin Vegeta over 20 EO within the first couple of months most regarding undermining  rights, the oil ransom debacle, antagonizing China and then becoming the face of a pacifist nation after AAPI sjw acts, his own pathetic bow to Putin meeting after calling the man a murderer thug in the election.
Yea kid,

@外国人 symbiote you just described the last 4 years of comrade trumpski the russian puppet 😂

@Attmay the only difference between Family Guy and Simpsons in this current state is that the former's new episodes are funnier than the latter.

I still think American Dad is quality content even if it is flawed as hell, yet it's still running and still better than the either two.

@philly_sports I voted for Trump just to spite both them and Family Guy, which I quit watching after the Trump episode (whose only funny joke was a stealth reference to The One and Only Genuine Original Family Band ) and I'll vote for him again just to spite them both. AOC and Ilhan Omar's anti-Israel rhetoric is racist, antisemitic, and xenophobic, and all that "orange man bad" propaganda is stealth white supremacy.

And "Bart to the Future" got plenty wrong in that scene and in general. It assumes "President Trump" (the name Donald is never spoken) will be followed by a woman (Kamala Harris, are you watching?), and they failed to predict Chastity Bono, Lisa's opponent in the election, renouncing her homosexuality by renouncing her womanhood altogether (see also: the Cher-crow). In addition to being a cheap knockoff of "Lisa's Wedding," they also ripped off a season 1 Family Guy episode (the "Canada sucks" one) by setting up the framing device in an Indian casino.

@philly_sports I voted for Trump just to spite both them and *Family Guy,* which I quit watching after the Trump episode (whose only funny joke was a stealth reference to *The One and Only Genuine Original Family Band* ) and I'll vote for him again just to spite them both. AOC and Ilhan Omar's anti-Israel rhetoric is racist, antisemitic, and xenophobic, and all that "orange man bad" propaganda is stealth white supremacy.

And "Bart to the Future" got plenty wrong in that scene and in general. It assumes "President Trump" (the name Donald is never spoken) will be followed by a woman (Kamala Harris, are you watching?), and they failed to predict Chastity Bono, Lisa's opponent in the election, renouncing her homosexuality by renouncing her womanhood altogether (see also: the Cher-crow). In addition to being a cheap knockoff of "Lisa's Wedding," they also ripped off a season 1 *Family Guy* episode (the "Canada sucks" one) by setting up the framing device in an Indian casino.

@David Linehat I think he means the show after season 8. Spongebob is the same way. The show effectively ended a long time ago, but it is still worthy of analysis like other TV shows that have ended like The Sopranos or The Wire. GOT died around season 4-5, before that it was a decent show worth watching and analyzing.

@philly_sports so dead to you that you won't watch youtube video essays about them?

@TVB by the time the movie came out or earlier

@philly_sports the simpsons died long before that. they stopped being funny by the late-2000s.

@philly_sports i didn't even know about it till now and yet it didn't surprise me at all. Fortunately we don't have Fox where i live so they dont show recent episodes on tv anyway

@philly_sports comparison wise Biden is doing much worse and taking credit for things not his...the show is only precedent in events.

The Simpsons were dead to me the second they made that Trump West Side Story video. I hadn’t watched them for years but that killed any interest I had in watching them ever again. And I absolutely HATED Trump as president. That video was just so unbelievably cringe-inducing that it ruined the show for me.


You make some fair points but it could have been a great episode but based on the end and the call backs to the episode it is most meanspirited story in retrospect:
1. The Grimey nickname
2. Having his son come back and try and kill Homer
3. Ever Homer joke about Grimes
4. The whole laugh scene at the funeral


Grimes is a person with common sense in world of cartoon logic. And Homer Simpson is the one we see most to use and abuse this cartoon logic. While at the same time, this cartoon logic does not work for Grimes at all.

Considering how often he saw Homer to be extremely irresponsible and outright danger to society. How he encountered multiple times Homer to be danger to people around, Grimes included, and then see Homer get away with everything by lying or by cartoon logic, yeah that would piss me off too.

This conflict between Grimes and Homer is about universe that placed arbitrary double standards on them, where Homer gets away with everything without lasting consequences while Grimes never gets a break no matter what either of them do.
Homer represents to Grimes everything wrong with this cartoon universe. And Grimes is perfectly aware of that. So of course he dislikes him. Because he is forced to be in universe that decided that he shall be the butt of every joke while Homer has infinite divine intervention at his call at any moment.


I have the opposite theory about The Simpsons future prediction powers. It’s not that he was saying things that were going to come true they were intentionally saying things so stupid that the audience of that time would laugh at the absurdity of it… ironically enough though the real world is so bizarre that all these intentionally bad predictions turned out right.


I do hate to be that guy, and let me just say, your videos are amazing and I love all of them and hope you continue to produce them, but 588 nanometers is distinctly orange light. Yellow light exists between 550 and 580 nm. Or at least according to my quantum homework it does.


As a long time fan of the show, I have to defend the later seasons. The issue with the structure of the series after the 9th season was that it changed it's identity, but that doesn't mean that the show has gotten worse. It's just not the same direction and that's what made it feel lesser. But over the years, the series has produced several episodes that have been solid and again, with time, aged well and made them feel like better episodes. The issue with a series this long, is that it's hard to create engaging stories that don't share similarities to other animated shows or that repeats an older plot. For instance, Pokemon has basically made the same episodes for most of the generations until Pokemon Best Wishes where they tried to make the show darker, then more serious in nature in the XYZ arc and goofier in Sun and Moon and now fast paced in Journeys. But for several earlier seasons they had the same formula and it became stale. The Simpsons have been in competition with several other shows since the '90s but have often found strong themes, like the 'The Squirt and the Whale' episode where there was a beached whale and Springfield had to resolve the issue, which had contrasting opinions on how it should have been handled. Since then several other episodes have been great, but the issue with the seasons have been that not every episode is strongly written or as interesting in the 21st century. With that said, I thought this was an amazing synopsis of why the show is special and how it reflects to the American Dream. I found a lot of good in this video and thought it was well-made.


you need your own tv show dude, the production value is crazy


Emp has the greatest song choices in his videos by far! Soft Machine? What an awesome & fitting choice!


I think the simpsons decline goes more like this:
s1-8 (Classical): the golden age
s9-11 (Old): the okay age, ended with Maude's death
s11-20 (Middle): the decline of the simpsons, no more canon changes
s20-30 (Modern): Fox does daring changes to the show to try and revive it
s30 onwards (Today): Everyone has given up, show will decline forever and no major canon changes will be made


Born in the 21st century (and in another country), I grew mostly watching post season 8 Simpsons episodes, so I didn't understand the criticism.<br>Now this video blew my mind

Born in the 21st century (and in another country), I grew mostly watching post season 8 Simpsons episodes, so I didn't understand the criticism.
Now this video blew my mind


I'm not especially familiar with this series beyond a few episodes occasionally, but would people likely consider Frank and Homer to be analogous to Sideshow Bob and Bart?


It’s amazing how I still don’t know what happens in homers enemy after watching this


Fun little piece of information: in the “7 deadly sins” part, for lust he shows homer reaching for a woman’s ass, or at least it would appear that way. Actually, in the episode Homer is show to be reaching for a piece of candy that get stuck there, leading to her accusing him of being a womanizer in the episode Homer Badman, S6 E9 on D+. Because of this specific clip being used, emp technically falls under the trap everyone in Springfield does. Thank you for coming to my over-analyzation of a simple frame from an amazing YouTube video.

Yeah homer does not exactly sin every sin but does it inw says we don't normally think, in ways that are more homer like, like the candy

Technically lust as a sin isn't purely sexual. It's simply intense desire for a single thing as opposed to gluttony (the desire which leads to wasteful overconsumption), greed (desire to simply possess things), or envy (the desire to have something owned by another).

Do you not get the joke that this is the easiest way to represent that in a quick span? Or are you just incredibly talented at being pretentious?

I really hope somebody got fired for that blunder.

I didn't wanna cause a fuss, but now that you mention it...<br>Perhaps the bit where he asks Maude to get him the peanuts at the bottom of the bowl would be better suited?

I didn't wanna cause a fuss, but now that you mention it...
Perhaps the bit where he asks Maude to get him the peanuts at the bottom of the bowl would be better suited?

Or he purposefully chose the clip as a cheeky reference


"The episode is about inequity." No, it isn't. There's a difference between equity and merit. The episode is about merit.

And it seemingly revels in Grimes, and by extension all people still fighting upwards, getting destroyed. Responsibility is turned into a joke, and now, somehow, people are surprised when people in positions that matter turn out to be irresponsible, that they no longer really care about anything but damage control. It's as if they just accepted it as a fact of life that people who try would be there. They used to be here, imperfect as they were, but look around now. Counterculture makes for a shitty establishment when it wins.

This was really the writers having an attack of conscience. Living in a society that takes the side of selfish idiot slackers because they're more relatable reveals something dark about people and their judgment of character that sarcastic writers in the late 80's didn't want to think about. They were just trying to poke holes in Reagan's America, which turned out to be the easiest thing in the world, but after the deconstruction, what's left?

Nihilism. No one has answers on how to create their ideal society, because ideal and equal aren't the same thing, and there's nowhere to go after you figure that out. Reagan's America sucked, but so does every other version of it you can imagine grounding in reality. Good video, though: this is why the Simpsons is a great show: it's the postmodern condition compressed into about 6 seasons of glorious animated narrative. They will be talking about this show in classes on corporate art appreciation a couple centuries from now, in their imperfect future.


I LOVE REAL JIMS! Best Simpsons content on Youtube


Great video but I have to say a couple of things.

1) Homer (and everyone around him) was turned into an insufferable idiot in this episode for the sake of making a point. Homes has always been stupid, but the message ended up being ungenuine as Homer never really was a moron of THIS caliber.

2) When it comes to his relationship with Flanders in the older episodes, Homer didn't do anything do improve his status unlike Grimes. He envied Flanders for what he had, but he never did anything to deserve it in the first place. Grimes worked hard all his life and got nothing. Saying they're the same is just false.

@pointPi Where does John Swartzwelder is revealed to be a far-right libertarian? I' m not surprised if he is a liberterian but I only known him to be a recluse and the Simpsons' best writer. The Simpsons overall theme is anti-authority. George Meyer and Swartzelder are the main drivers of the theme of the show. On how Simpsons writers worked, Swartzelder' s episode had the least rewrite which is 50%. The Simpsons is a team effort.

@pointPi Do you have any sources to back up that intention, because it sounds really theoretical, especially seeing as they drove Grimes to a manic fuelled death and portrayed Homer as not just the better man in regards to social respect and humility, but also at peace of mind like Emp described. As the commentary said, he is 'zen'.

I'd highly doubt a writer would give such political adversity and symbolism of 'wrongness' to be the one most willing to compromise and change to accommodate Grimes, the rigid and breaking. That doesn't sound to me like someone who is portraying the wrongness of America themselves, but the portrayal of Right Lib bitterness.

Still, whether you have proof of this intent or not, it is a very interesting point to make, so thanks for including.

Another thing to consider, is that the episode's writer, John Swartzwelder, is a far-right libertarian who mainly saw Grimes as a self-insert. Homer was deliberately moulded to essentially become "everything that's wrong with America", a lazy, selfish gluttons who feeds of the labour of honest hard-working Americans like Grimes.

Now, unfortunately for Swartzwelder, that wasn't how most viewers ended up viewing the episode. Or Grimes for that matter, who ended up being portrayed as a delusional crank, rather than the unironic PoV character as he was intended. Grimes' failing wasn't just trying to apply "real world logic" onto the world of Springfield, but blaming his shortcomings on his peers, rather than any systemic injustices

@Necrotic_Farron when I first watched this episode, I wondered what would Lisa, usually a voice of the reason character, think about Grimes and his take on Homer. I guess considering how the entire family turned away from Homer after Grimes' rant, they all probably thought he had a point

I think it's fair to say the character's personalities were a bit off/exaggerated in this episode for the sake of making the point. Maybe it was somewhat intentional. Like, it's one thing to have Mr. Burns not fire Homer for his shenanigans but for him to reward him for them is a little much. Anything to drive Grimes crazy, I guess. Because he was supposed to be a "real person" placed in springfield I think the writers were trying to emphasize how much crap homer gets away with scott-free that would deeply unnerve a real person. But again, I think even if that was the intent, that's still a fair criticism

Fair statements to make, but Imma try to counter them with my own thoughts:

1) I consider the actions of Homer, and everyone else, to be as genuine as they can be. Grimes is the paramount factor of the episode, and imagining the story without it, as hard as it is, there are no anomalies to typical Simpson behaviour which I can detect. Everyone else appears extra moronic because they are portrayed next to Grimes, a real, logic driven person. It may have been entirely intentional that Lisa says 11 words in the whole episode, her shortest role yet (Those words being "Hi." "Okay." and "Can I go downstairs and see what Dad's doing?" The latter one literally answering her absence from a plot by being uninvolved.) The de-facto 'SMARTEST' main character of this sitcom is almost completely absent to put all attention on Grimes and his contrary life to the whimsical bullshit of Springfield. They aren't on another layer of stupidity, rather the divide between stupidity and reason grew even further apart in this episode than any other.

2) You're comparing Grimes' tenacity and ambition to Homer's envy and malice. That is not the point being made here. The point being made is that Grimes, throughout the course of the episode, has a response towards the unfairness of this life when presented a slob like Homer: he becomes more like him. A man who attempts to improve his status and believe themselves worthy of reward for their ambitions DOES NOT equal a vindication to prove those less worthy than them are undeserving. In fact, Grimes' shifts throughout the episode from a character having just worked themselves up from nothingness, focusing their whole efforts into improvement and betterment, and slowly becomes less focused on improvement and more focused on envy. Whilst Homer never had a stage of 'self improvement', one could argue that his shift is the introduction of Flanders. However, instead of appreciation and recognition which Grimes' strived for, Homer's was content and ego. There is rarely, if ever a scene of Homer plotting Flanders' demise past the one episode Emp touched on, he only hates him in the moment he appears. THAT is the distinction between Homer and Grimes. The former has something worth his time, even if unearned, to occupy him from his hostilities of envy. The latter has nothing, even if deserved, to prevent him from seeking a vendetta.

You could say that Homer's hunger was satiated through his most iconic prop: food and beer. A full belly for the round protagonist. Grimes' hunger could never be satisfied.


Just gotta imagine that these episodes aired during a time when our version of a streaming service was a VCR on a timer.


"Often times the greatest art dosent give us all the right answers, it makes us ask the right questions"

Never before has one line perfectly described why i love media that makes me think a little harder about what i was looking at


Oh my God thank you dude for reminding me of mission hill! I always loved that show. I remember this weird kinda crudely drawn show just shows up on adult swim. Well I fell in love and wish it was successful.


"All good things end at some point" "every story has to have an ending" well HOW would the Simpsons end exactly?! Would it end at season 8 with Matt saying "Simpsons are done lol bye" or how could have the Simpsons ended when most of america wanted more?


By and far my favorite episode. Sadly I tend to be as uptight as Grimey. But I also get to be like Homer too.


I kept seeing this video in my recommended as I started watching the simpsons from the start. I always wondered what it was about the episode that could possibly make it so noteworthy. I understood as soon as I saw it.


I've somehow never heard of this episode before, what a fascinatingly good introduction to it. Also that vsauce-"eye... mdb" was perfect.

@Chris Ramsey “The age of majority is the threshold of adulthood as recognized or declared in law.” Source, Wikipedia. Nothing like having to explain something someone less knowledgeable could have discovered for themselves with 5 seconds on Google search. It translates to, “Is it legal for you to vote, buy booze, and serve in the military of your country? If yes, you are past the Age of Majority.”

I was an legal adult before the millennium, ergo, I’m not a millennial. Does not get easier than that. Any further ways you need education? I’ll be happy to provide it.

@Loco Madman age of majority? Dude i dont even know what you are trying to say. Age of what majority? At least my explanation had some context

@Chris Ramsey Age of majority prior to the new millennium or after. Makes it even simpler because it actually uses the millennium as a benchmark, but you do you man.

@Loco Madman I think a good rule of thumb for generational divide is if you went through your entire high school career when the world wide web was a thing, that makes you a millennial at least.  Im a late Gen Xer; the WWW did not come around until my senior year in high school

Wow!  If you have not, you def need to check out the first  (I would say 10) seasons of the show.  After that, Futurama took the mantle of the superior cartoon (and is still my favorite ever to this day).  It is sad that much of the millennial and Z generations look to Family Guy as a good show.  That show is literally 22 minutes of witless toilet humor with threadbare storylines punctuated by flashback jokes.  The South Park episode where they critique Family Guy is actually a perfect encapsulation on everything wrong with that $hitty show

@T Z Atleast we still have it on YouTube TV, with better cropping in some areas.

@GoFidoGo I don't disagree but I will say there is a real strong taste of irony in the idea of subscribing to a Disney service to watch The Simpsons...

@The Illegitimate President I’m sure many, many vision impaired individuals might disagree! 😂😅😉

here's an example of over analyzation. "why do we like homer?" no need for all that - he represents us all - stuff. we like homer because he's written as a comedic character. HE'S FUNNY! his dialogue is a series of dimwitted and observationally perceptive one liners placed into different contexts, references and plots.

          he's also written as a sympathetic character. things ALWAYS go wrong for homer. but he usually ends up back on his feet anyway, right where he started all along. the "enemy" episode was more of an antithesis to this sympathetic driven character. so, no need to over analyze the simpsons. the show is liked because its funny, fast moving, creative and unpredictable.

          AND, thanks to the Lisa character, the show offers an intellectual side. its perceptively critical of society. and perhaps this is where people see themselves. personally, i relate to Lisa more than any other character. she's the smartest, most aware and perceptive, most underappreciated and most misunderstood member of the cast. i can relate to that.

         so the mystery of why people like the simpson's has been solved. just set back, enjoy the damned show and try to learn something from it. its as simple as that.

@Amos Hard Didn’t you read the signs? Feeding the trolls is prohibited by law! 😆

@Kaiser Soymilk There’s actually a small amount of debate about when & where the generational divide occurs. The simplest definition I’ve come across is not actually when you were born, but then you reached the legal age of majority in your country (which is why the generational divide can vary). As I reach that age before the year 2000, I therefore count not as a millennial but Gen X.

@Loco Madman Some say 1981 is the first year of birth of the millennials, so you could be one, while I'm a late Gen X ('77).

There should be, there will never ever be an F1 driver like Gilles Villeneuve.

@Kaiser Soymilk Right? Right. Gen X is roughly 40-50 now, we (at least I) squeaked in under the Gen X label.

@Loco Madman So you're a Gen Xer. How come I seem the only one to have noticed how he got the Gen X dates so spectacularly wrong? Grew up in the Nixon era? During the Vietnam war? If that were true, Gen Xers would be 60 now, yet we are around 40.

Of course we weren't born during the Nixon era, and we weren't adults in the 80s, those are the boomers.

@Synthetic Humanoid Hey-Oh! Shots fired!! 😂

Let’s see... “Synthetic Humanoid”, okay. Lemme guess, you’re more a “Treehouse of Horror” fan, aren’t you? I just have to know, what’s an under-rated episode of Simpsons look like to you?

OVER RATED<br>Best way to describe this episode.

OVER RATED
Best way to describe this episode.

@Loco Madman i was actually talking about the OP but...ok i guess 😅

сяaиky вiтсн

@сяaиky вiтсн bwahahaha...! Man, that just tickles me. Busted; my body might be 4 decades old, but I’m very immature for my age (I mean, I keep getting older, but no one is every going force me to grow up); and I’m definitely outta this world! Or maybe I’m just a space-case, feel free to make that particular judgment for yourself.

Regardless, I totally still nerd out on comics & movies like a teenaged fanboi; this is my geek-fu, and it is strong! Bwahahaha.... 😅😂🤣

сяaиky вiтсн

@Epsilonsama let’s see (math isn’t my strong suit); ‘81, so.., forty? (Oh dear sweet jeebus, I really am the old man in the room).

It’s actual slightly worse than you figure here too. In my little neck of the woods (Canada) we didn’t get “new episodes” of the Simpsons until the Mid-90’s until I had already seen the Grimes episode in syndication like maybe a 100 times (no fooling). But it’s gotta be at least two decades since I’ve seen it last, I will admit.

How old are you?  I'm asking cause if you grew up in the 90s during the hayday of the Simpsons you would have watched this episode sooner or later.

The whole vsauce riff was spot on honestly

@Ryan Boscoe Good push, nicely; you’ll live a long & happy life with that outlook.

@Loco Madman 26 ...I think? I've stopped keeping track in all honesty

Jeebus, I’m the creepy old guy in the room, ain’t I? How old are you kids??! 😉😁😅

same I have never heard of this episode but now I'm interested to watch it

I’m sorry to hear that you haven’t heard of this episode


I've worked hard every day of my life...
What do I have to show for it...
I feel that man


This isn’t my first time seeing this video but I just needed to say this is a gem


This is honestly one of the greatest YouTube videos I have ever seen


What a masterpiece of a video. Really interesting. Thanks.