Robert Skic | Published
when The Simpsons It premiered in 1989 and has been around since the series saw its golden age, and it changed the sitcom forever in a unique joke format that seems to have now been lost in time. Directly opposes healthy family comedy Family ties and Waltonamong countless other series using the setup/punchline format, the canned laughter that is still used to today, came across. The Simpsons With their willingness to deliver jokes at such an incredible speed through a combination of dialogue and visual gags, there was no room for them to tell the audience when they thought they should find something interesting.
In fact, the episode The Simpsons The Golden Era is a unique joke format that has elevated the series to legendary status, with dozens of revisions to ensure that a second of execution time is not wasted, as all episodes of this era can be re-watched indefinitely without ageing, making it so dense and unprecedented.
The Simpsons joke format from the Golden Era
YouTube Creator Super Eye Patch Wolf beautifully breaks down the created joke format The Simpsons A very special thing from last year, very special in his video, “The Fall of the Simpsons: How It Happened,” is a must-see for stubborn fans of the Simpsons family.
Using “Bart sells his soul”, we testify to why as a major example of this joke-format execution. The Simpsons It would be ruined by the canned laughter that was so common in live action comedies of the time.
When Bert Simpson realizes he is experiencing an existential crisis after selling his soul to Milhouse for $5, he takes matters into his own hands by riding a bike and regaining his own.
Within 15 seconds, five jokes are made and it’s very obsessively paced, so you need to see it to believe it.
In this time slot, Burt’s bike was run around by the street sweeper, leading viewers to believe his bike had been destroyed (Joker 1). Bart is relieved to learn that Streetsweeper simply lit up the bike and didn’t cause any damage (two jokes). Before the bike falls apart because it was actually destroyed (joking 3). After hearing the maniac bag of a man driving Streetsweeper, Bart learns that the man is aiming to destroy this bike for his own entertainment (Jokes 4).
This exercise on escalation The Simpsons With so much going on, it shows a joke format that is too complicated to run in a single draft of each episode.
competition Comedy couldn’t stand the chance
In a unique form of joke that changes comedy forever and litters throughout its golden age, The Simpsons We burned new trails that compare all other competing sitcoms to make them look overwhelming.
My personal favorite instance showing how common this joke structure was The Simpsons The Golden Era can be found in Season 7, “Bart on the Road.” Lisa went to Homer, where Burt procures a fake ID, rented a car and headed to the world fair in Knoxville, Tennessee.
In another stunning 15-second sequence of events, Homer’s face overcomes the darkness, makes excuses, throws a helmet of dangerous goods, screams until the mist is clogged, calms down, tells Lisa to go back to where it belongs, and spends money to get Bert. The “punchline” in this example laments that if her father murdered her brother, her brother knows that she pissed him off. Again, this joke format packs an unthinkable amount of humor into a very short time, leaving no room for canned laughs due to the enthusiastic pacing.
So when I see it next time The Simpsonsput this form of joke in front of your heart. Because it not only separates the series’ golden age from more modern (reading: mediocre) iterations, it also blows away contemporaries absolutely, as other mainstream shows didn’t deliver such jokes at the time.
