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Comment by nattaylor | Hacker News Reader

I was just shy of 4 when "Bart Get's an F" aired and I'm a little jealous of all the folks who were the right age to experience that Simpsons era as the episodes aired. It's still fun to go back and watch them, but I remember seeing adults in stitches with laughter as they told Simpsons jokes.

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I also think that humor doesn't age well, it's largely generational. The Simpsons is better than most humor, because their jokes are generally stronger. They rarely go for the obvious joke (throw away the first 2-3 jokes you come up with, because they are too easy), and there is basically no sarcasm on the show (ever notice how all sitcoms are just sarcastic barbs for 22 minutes, and have been for decades?).

That said, it can be hard to appreciate just how excellent it was for its time, since it changed the way a lot of series to follow write their humor.

>and there is basically no sarcasm on the show

My sarcasm detector is exploding. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNGXoHQ0mps

A sarcasm detector.. That's useful. (An actual invention on the show)

https://frinkiac.com/caption/S10E22/1040572

The trick IMO is to have high density of lots of different kinds of jokes.

Which is interesting because what originally turned me off Futurama when it first aired (and I was the right age to watch it at that time) was that it seemed like they went for the easy jokes a little too quickly, and not only that, they shoved them in your face by referencing the fact that they made a joke right then and there.

It took a few viewings before I understood there were also jokes at a deeper level, but at first blush it's the anti-Simpsons.

It's also rough if you're a time traveler from the early eighties, hanging out with other time travelers.

"Near as I can tell, all of popular culture and most of the English language gets taken over sometime in the early nineties by something called The Simpsons. I know this because nobody from that time or later seems to be able to put a sentence together without quoting them, then everybody giggles like idiots, and if I ask them to explain, all anybody ever does is laugh and ask me a condescending question about Bananarama!" -- Scott Meyer, Off to Be the Wizard

Indeed. Their presence on the Tracy Ullman show was a main draw to the show for some people.

"Oh go home! Go home!"

I was about 8-9, but now I can appreciate watching the old episodes again because while I found them funny as a kid, there are so many more "adult" jokes I now notice as an adult that make me laugh at how naive I was as a kid :-D

This is the beauty of the show...I would watch the shows over and over again on tape as a child without getting 80% of the jokes. Now I watch the old ones with my fiancé and I laugh louder and more frequently in my late 20s.

Yep I'm indeedly the right age and the show broke the humor barrier to get a pop culture mind framework that provided quotes forever while chatting with friends.

I was Bart's age when the show started. I'll be Homer's age in two years.

I had seen some of the shorts on the Tracey Ullman Show and the Butterfinger ads. I knew enough to make sure to watch "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" when it first aired.

It really was perfect timing.

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