The jokes didn't refer at all to the things that make people use Apple. It took the fact that Apple was popular and actually makes good-looking products, and used that as the basis of insults. That's the laziest sort of humor: joking without actually providing criticism.
It starts with the fake names. Mapple and Steve Mobs. myPod and myPhone. These aren't funny. The Simpsons could absolutely just use Apple's name and get away with it, if it's obviously parody. That joke adds nothing, and therefore by the rules of comedy ought to be removed. Anything bad brings down the good things.
Lisa runs into the store and points out Apple products and a parody of the Genius bar, which has never been funny. Apple Geniuses don't let the title go to their head, really. I've dealt with them a lot. They're smart and fun and they know what they're talking about, and they're perfectly willing to admit that Genius is just a bit of silly marketing. So that's another bad joke. Then we see the requisite "Comic Book Guy is sloppy" joke: predictable and not funny. That's the first 20 seconds.
Now we see Homer begging to get a computer. How is that funny? The Brainiac tells him that it's powered by dreams and imagination. I guess that's supposed to be a joke about how Apple is all talk and no play? Because that's not something that Apple's ever done, and they keep getting made fun of for it, and it's a lazy joke. Sample page: http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/. Apple markets its products only by mentioning features. On the splash page alone it mentions four things. If you talk to a genius, they are entirely pragmatic: they tell you exactly why Apple computers are better than other ones. This is another lazy, unfunny joke that only works if you already dislike Apple, which is the easiest audience on the planet.
The joke about a glowing computer being turned off - what the hell does that mean? The Wii glows when it's turned off. My Mac doesn't do anything when it's off. In fact, Apple computers tend to have fewer blinking lights than other computers. So there's another lame joke, and we're 40 seconds done with this shitty set of jokes.
The iPhonies is clever, but it's false. People don't get headphones to pretend like they use Apple products. Nobody does that. Furthermore, a cheap iPod shuffle costs less than a hundred dollars. Apple isn't pretentious and rich. It's high-end, and very rarely makes low-end products, but it's usually got surprisingly reasonable prices. So there's a bad joke based on a false premise that nobody actually believes.
Now we have a lengthy Krusty sequence that's unfunny. Seriously, now The Simpsons is like Family Guy. It makes stupid, irrelevant cameos just to carry the joke along. The difference is that Simpsons cameos are all Simpsons characters, and none of them are funny.
Krusty's comment about small movies: I saw the first season of Lost on my iPod on an airplane, and the screen worked for me. Plus, when you put a movie in your iPod it means you also have it on iTunes, on your computer, so it's a win-win. Apple's been steadily increasing screen size: look at the iPhone and iPod touch. Oh. We also get a tasteless Jewish joke here.
Steve Mobs appears, and people say that he's a genius and knows what they want. I guess this is supposed to be a joke. But from my experience, Jobs comes up with pretty ingenious products and they tend to be ones that I want. How is this funny? I like my computer, my iPod, and the iTunes music store.
Steve Mobs calls himself "insanely great." Jobs, on the other hand, is rarely self-masturbatory like that. So it's another joke that plays to Apple haters with no context. Next comes Bart, who gets to insult people and call Mac user losers. He also says that Jobs is gay. That's not only poorly stereotyped, that's crude and offensive.
People don't get Mac products to look cool. They get them because the Mac is incredibly delightful to use. I love my Macbook. It's an amazing tool. I don't care what people think about it: I care what I think about it. And I love it. I also happen to be straight.
Comic Book Guy reenacts the 1984 commercial, which is nice, but Futurama did it much better. The Simpsons is stealing from its child shows.
Then there's a pointless joke about how Jobs was fired and brought back. Yeah, because Apple culture just hasn't changed since then, and because Apple had the same image in the 80s that it does now. Jobs began the current Apple feel when he returned, and he's introduced good product after good product. The firing joke is a slightly higher-scale stupid joke, but it's a stupid joke.
Earbud-flaying. Not funny. Bart trying to escape with a computer. Not sensible, not funny.
The twins make a "hate Lisa" cameo. Yawn. They don't like her music. Yawn. They like her for her myPod. Kids don't actually... do that. iPods are so incredibly commonplace nowadays. There's a joke to be made about that. It wasn't made.
I love Itchy and Scratchy, but they're out of good ideas for them. And this one was extended way too far. See? Even the not-anti-Apple parts are bad.
The myBill is an outdated joke and it's been fixed. And what's the joke? That Apple charges 99 cents for a song? That's pretty cheap. 1200 dollars for 1212 songs is a good deal. But no: it's funny because Apple products are extremely expensive, right? 1200 dollars is so much! Never mind that buying the same amount of songs, say, as CDs from Wal-Mart would cost much more.
Also, buying songs from iTunes adds itself directly to your credit bill. You're charged instantly. No bill. That's the iPhone's thing.
The USB drive bit is clever. The underwater headquarters? Not so much. It's cliche and stupid. The big joke is that Apple has made the name Cupertino famous as where Apple comes from. There's a joke to be made there. This doesn't make it, because it's funnier to think that Steve Jobs is underwater like every other rich person on The Simpsons.
Steve Jobs is Googling himself! Never mind that Google loads fast and the page jobs is looking for has already loaded, so the delay is only there for the "requisite punch line set-up time" that makes jokes less funny. Or that Jobs has never been an attention-getter. He wears the same outfit every day! He's quietly married and his kids stay out of the news! Again! This is only a joke that's funny if you know nothing about Apple and already hate its products.
Steve Jobs knows all the Apple product users. Not sure why this is unfunny.
"Our real policy is no refunds." Only, Apple does offer refunds, for a long time after purchase. And Lisa bought 1200 songs! Why does she deserve a refund? This is blind Apple-hate without any reasoning.
The final joke enforces this. Lisa's in an iPod costume handing out flyers. Apple doesn't do this. Never has. Its entire thing is rational minimalism. It's why Geniuses aren't given specific tasks and are allowed to just wander the store. It keeps their morale high and helps customers. So this is just a bad joke based on a premise - Apple says think differently but doesn't actually think differently - that doesn't exist. Apple does think differently. So there's another bad joke.
This is terrible writing. It's the worst Simpsons clip I've ever seen. And I'd think that if they were bashing Windows in the same way.
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I love anti-Apple jokes if they're well done. The "Don't Get A Mac" video still cracks me up. I think that most anti-Apple jokes, however, are crude and poorly-done and just attempts to play up to people who hate Macs already. The Simpsons should be better than this.
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Also, this isn't at all relevant hacker news, and it's not that intellectually interesting.
Okay, I'll bite. Your supposed refutations don't work because you're missing the point of many of the jokes. I'll highlight a few:
The names: myPod just sounds dumb. So did iPod when we hadn't had it marketed to us a million times, so in the show we get that fresh stupid marketing name experience again. Steve Mobs is a joke about Jobs' charisma.
The Genius Bar: it's not parodying the attitudes of the actual Apple Geniuses, it's making fun of the ludicrous idea of calling your tech support guys geniuses.
Powered by dreams and imagination: it's mostly parodying the way Apple users talk about their Apple products (I know Mac users that gush about how beautiful they are). It's also mocking Apple's marketing, like the iPod dance commercials, which are all style and no substance.
Glowing computer being turned off: it's parodying the glowing/pulsing light on Apple notebooks when they're in sleep mode.
iPhonies: it's parodying the white headphones being associated with iPods, not only in all of the iPod marketing, but in the minds of the public as well. For a discussion of the significance of the white headphones, see "The Perfect Thing" by Steven Levy.
iPhonies are expensive: it's parodying the perception that you pay more for Apple products and all you get for the price premium is the status associated with having the products.
Steve Mobs calls himself "insanely great.": it's parodying the Steve Jobs is the Savior of the Computing World attitude some Apple Fanboys have, not how he sees himself.
People don't get Mac products to look cool: this directly contradicts my anecdotal experience with an Apple fan. But, it doesn't matter. The show isn't parodying individual people's attitudes, but rather a certain perception of Apple users, whether it's true or not.
Finally, just naming something and calling it "not funny" doesn't make it not funny, and isn't a critique of it.
I can't believe I just responded to all of that silliness.
Thank you. I thought the episode was pretty funny, but I couldn't think of how to explain that to someone so determined to dislike the episode that he had to explain joke-by-joke why he didn't think it was funny.
I'll just add that I particularly enjoyed the 1984 parody. There is a fundamental difference between merely referencing the commercial (as Futurama did) and the irony of recasting Steve Jobs as the giant talking head.
No, I get the point. They're still not funny, and that's what I take issue with.
Steve Mobs is a joke about Jobs' charisma.
And it's a bad, unclever one.
The Genius Bar: it's not parodying the attitudes of the actual Apple Geniuses, it's making fun of the ludicrous idea of calling your tech support guys geniuses.
Again: that's not a funny joke.
Powered by dreams and imagination: it's mostly parodying the way Apple users talk about their Apple products (I know Mac users that gush about how beautiful they are). It's also mocking Apple's marketing, like the iPod dance commercials, which are all style and no substance.
I get that. But still: it's such a stupid no-brainer target, and they didn't do anything particularly clever about it.
Glowing computer being turned off: it's parodying the glowing/pulsing light on Apple notebooks when they're in sleep mode.
That's quite obscure. And that glowing light isn't exactly something mockable. It's a damn good design choice.
iPhonies: it's parodying the white headphones being associated with iPods, not only in all of the iPod marketing, but in the minds of the public as well. For a discussion of the significance of the white headphones, see "The Perfect Thing" by Steven Levy.
That I get. I just don't see why that's funny: I've never met somebody with the headphones who wasn't using a Mac. I don't think I know anybody who would think that was a good way to stand out and be cool.
I'll check out the book: thanks for the recommendation!
iPhonies are expensive: it's parodying the perception that you pay more for Apple products and all you get for the price premium is the status associated with having the products.
"Parodying perception" isn't anything unless you're actively mocking the fact that perception is wrong. Until then, you're just taking popular parody and taking it because people who already don't like something are an easy target. If this clip had also parodied anti-Mac sentiment, I could see this as a more legitimate point.
Steve Mobs calls himself "insanely great.": it's parodying the Steve Jobs is the Savior of the Computing World attitude some Apple Fanboys have, not how he sees himself.
See, I see that as a lazy and unfunny joke. I get it, but I think that The Simpsons could have done better by actually showing Jobs as he reportedly sees himself.
People don't get Mac products to look cool: this directly contradicts my anecdotal experience with an Apple fan. But, it doesn't matter. The show isn't parodying individual people's attitudes, but rather a certain perception of Apple users, whether it's true or not.
But that's lazy! I'm sorry, I know I keep saying the same thing. But it's true. Lazy humor is the easiest and worst, and I can't stand it, especially not when it's a show that used to be so good.
Finally, just naming something and calling it "not funny" doesn't make it not funny, and isn't a critique of it.
No, it doesn't. What makes it not funny is the fact that it isn't funny. It's the fact that it's lazy and takes the easy way out with every single joke.
You've got my attention. Now can you link to a Simpson's parody you like and explain how the joke is better because it takes informed digs where informed means you have to have used and experienced the product, which may only be a few % of the viewership, to understand the humor?
From what I remember, The Simpsons has parodied everything, even if it works and is sacred. The Simpsons also parodies mainstream culture too, and the Apple has only recently taken its place in the mainstream and not by corrupting what it stands for, but by supplanting cultural values. The Simpsons parodies this uptake of culture. Think of this not as an anti-Apple creed, but as a nod in their direction for having finally arrived on the stage, and not being off in some geeks only enclave.
Well, there's the famous Simpsons moment where Homer enters 3D, and one of the formulas flying past him seems to be a refutation of Fermat's last theorem. But a part of it is a matter of the craft of the joke. Listen to this: http://www.oldmansimpson.com/sounds/season04/lets/sound01.mp.... The joke is that old people tell long stories. But the story itself is funny and cleverly-written. It's not just a "let me talk and be boring," it's actually a long, boring story.
Like I said: they could have done something like made Cupertino akin to Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. They could pull a FSJ and make Steve a would-be Zen master. They could have had a scene with a bunch of "unique artists" all using Macs in Starbucks. It would still be a parody, anti-Mac people would still like it, but it would be accurate to what Apple really is. And that's what irritates me: not that they spent 6 minutes attacking Apple, which is a gratuitous amount of time for a paltry amount of jokes, but that they didn't make fun of what Apple ACTUALLY is: a company with a cult-like following and an obsession for perfectionism, even when said perfectionism borders on the insane. That's hilarious. The funny Apple parodies focus on that. This wasn't an Apple parody so much as it was an Apple insult.
Since you seem to be an accomplished writer with a lot of ideas, perhaps you should write a parody of Apple done right by your estimation. With the well-connected folks who read this site, I bet it could be produced into a short online video. Who knows, maybe it could be the next Spirit of Christmas.
One of the original viral videos, passed around as a .mov file in the mid-90's, eventually got the attention of Hollywood and got turned into South Park.
Calling an Ipod MyPod pretty well points to the feeling of superiority you can get by buying a expensive fashionable product. This is just one example of a critical and relevant joke which was funny enough to make me laugh.
What you call inaccuracies seemed to me just like exaggerations, something every comedian uses. Apple's beautiful posters probably did make white headphones more fashionable, and someone with white headphones probably would be embarassed not to have the corresponding Ipod. Mapple selling MyPhonies sums this up very nicely and also made me laugh.
The whole thing made me laugh more than the simpsons movie. I think this is mainly because they chose a good target. I have mixed feelings about apple which makes excellent products but is also surrounded by a consumerist hype which makes me feel uneasy. The hype is not very much criticised, at least not around me. I see people generally critical of well-marketed brands suddenly buying Ipods and Iphones. So this simpsons episode feels like a breath of fresh air.
"Critical and relevant?" You can say that about pretty much any joke that states the obvious. I could call the I'm a Mac ad that has Hodgman not saying "Vista" critical and relevant, because it's got a grain of truth. But that commercial's a commercial, not a comedy show, and if The Simpsons had made a similar joke it would have been below their standards. (Also in its defense: the ad is far more polished.)
What you call inaccuracies seemed to me just like exaggerations, something every comedian uses.
The difference between good comedy and bad is how the exaggeration's used. The best exaggerations lie with the unexpected: I like using Monty Python's Spanish Inquisition bit as an example. Nobody does expect the Spanish Inquisition, which is what's so funny. Or take Carlin's Seven Words. The words are all so shocking and he goes by them so often that part of the humor's greatness is that by the end he's succeeded in making those words sound mundane, commonplace. But neither sketch stops there. The Spanish
Inquisition sketch goes on with the repeated mantra, Seven Words makes a set of brilliant jokes over the the top of the message: "These words are no different. This is all ludicrous."
This was more an instance of lazy humor. It was The Simpsons repeating the same general idea - "Apple is overpriced and people love it anyway" - without a hint of cleverness. They bludgeon people with the idea. Some of the soundbites they give are apt for people to take and mock Apple with, but that's not going to make them any more accurate. (There were a few hints of clever - "myPhonies" was a clever name pun even if the concept was poor - but I can't forgive The Simpsons if in 6 minutes they only had one or two clever moments. Not when the general quality of the humor is so poor.)
The whole thing made me laugh more than the simpsons movie.
That is an incredibly low bar. The Simpsons Movie was an example of The Simpsons at its worst, relying on cliche and repeated memes rather than ever creating genuinely funny humor.
I think this is mainly because they chose a good target. I have mixed feelings about apple which makes excellent products but is also surrounded by a consumerist hype which makes me feel uneasy. The hype is not very much criticised, at least not around me. I see people generally critical of well-marketed brands suddenly buying Ipods and Iphones.
The hype's incredibly criticized. Usually it's by anti-Apple people, and usually it's their only argument, which just makes the rift worse. When I argue why I use a Mac to a group of Linux-using coders, they respond by dismissing my ideas and saying, "You're only using it because of the commercials." Which in turn pisses me off and makes me less willing to listen to their arguments, now or in the future. The Simpsons is doing the same thing: they're not making good arguments. They're just blindly lobbing around parody with neither rhyme nor reason. It's beneath them. And I've already had people start quoting that at me - "myPhonies! See, Apple's for queeros who like shitty things!" - and I hate it. It's such a waste of time and it kills what might be a perfectly good argument.
I can see where you're coming from. I just think that The Simpsons could have skewered Apple much more effectively than they did. And that failure to craft a good series of jokes annoys me. I don't like that Family Guy is better-written than The Simpsons. That feels unnatural to me.
You do sound like a mac user who has heard too much criticism. That's why I wrote I didn't hear a lot of criticism around me. If everybody was in your place, that simpson episode would indeed make no sense. I am in an opposite situation, and for me the general direction of the humor hit a nerve. This makes some jokes funny even if they are not clever, but as you say, there were also some clever ones.
It's not a good idea to compare the funny things you come across with Monty Python. You may never laugh again.
Nah. There's a lot of ridiculously funny stuff out there. (I mention "Achewood" at every turn I get, because it's criminally unread.)
Your point of view makes a lot of sense. I guess that when I wrote long like I did, people assumed I was making a definitive statement. But mine's just a point of view like any other.
His comment is relevant to the topic. Yours is an attempt at public shaming. If your desire is to see the level of discussion here not sink to the level of Reddit, I suggest you think very seriously about which of them is the greater foul, and act accordingly.
Yes. There's nothing wrong with posting the same point on two sites, if you use two sites. And while this comment is excessively long, it's not nonsense.
On Reddit, it was after somebody said something like "You don't understand the jokes." I wanted to make a comment similar to the one I did there on HN, but I had a longer version quickly on hand, so I looked over it, rewrote a bit of it, and posted it as a comment. I didn't expect controversy.
Hey, there's no reason to downmod him. He's just looking for clarification as to why cross-posting is bad. And I personally feel that it's not; just because a comment was posted on Reddit doesn't mean the comment is bad.
... and a comment such as "you cross-posted from Reddit! go away! we don't serve your kind here!" isn't worth +12 karma.
I remember last year sometime I was at a friend's place and he had DVDs for some of the early seasons, including the one where Conan O' Brien was one of the writers. Watching those, I was amazed at just how much better they were than the latest few (several?) seasons.
Although it's perhaps admirable that the Simpsons have survived so long, I'm of the opinion that good series should be killed before they get bad. Too many shows' reputations have been destroyed because they let them drag on too long, way past the point where the show's writers run out of ideas.
Some of the best Simpsons episodes succeed at being critical and funny at the same time. Putting a well deserved criticism inside a joke actually makes it funnier.
I don't find entertainment very entertaining when it's totally disconnected from reality.
The Simpsons isn't what it used to be, that's for sure. I'd bet the old team of writers could have done a better sendup.
But the fact that this parody is immensely popular makes you and your screed look humorless, inflexible, and not exactly open to alternate points of view. The Simpsons writers have accurately identified that Apple, with it's funny product names, sterile stores, new-agey-ness, nice packaging and so on, make people feel good. And they're profiting greatly because of it. From that perspective, I find that the parody was fairly well done.
I'm very closed to points of view. I try to be open-minded, and I welcome debate at all time, but if I think I'm right, I won't change my mind unless I see a good argument as so why I'm wrong.
I think it would be "fairly well-done" if it had been an Internet video. But The Simpsons! I still have the old DVD sets and it used to be a beast. The writers were untouchable: they'd let out a stream of jokes at a pace that just blew everything else out of the water. This was beyond mediocre in comparison.
I think that it's popular because there are so many people who will laugh at anything mocking Apple. I'd also think that if it had been smarter-written and more critical of both sides - at first I'd hoped Comic Book Guy's appearance would be the arrival of the cliched ANTI-Mac person - it might not have been as popular. Blindly attacking something is always more digestible in its way.
The Simpsons has not been funny for a while. I think the last funny episode I saw was the one where Homer and Bart become Catholic. Why pick on this episode?
By the way, did you stop to think that maybe Steve Jobs internet connection sucks because he lives under the sea?
> Also, this isn't at all relevant hacker news, and it's not that intellectually interesting.
It is actually. It shows the effects of Apple maturing into more than just a niche player and the different pressures that can bring. It comes at the same time as an article about Apple starting to recommend virus software for OSX. IMHO The dynamics of being a small player are different to those of being a mainstream company and it will be interesting to see what effects this has.
"Effects?" Do you mean the effects of Apple being parodied? I mean, if anything this clip will sell more Macs. But I still think that this post inspired more one-way other-way dispute than it did enlightened conversation.
