Are there any jokes or cultural references in the Simpsons that, by virtue of the show's age, are now obsolete?

Are there any jokes or cultural references in the Simpsons that, by virtue of the show's age, are now obsolete?

Other urls found in this thread:

youtube.com/watch?v=NCl-HXllGI0
youtube.com/watch?v=r-Y0dTNH7Ns
simplyhired.com/salaries-k-nuclear-power-plant-safety-inspector-jobs.html,
youtube.com/watch?v=eWIukTZ7jd4
youtube.com/watch?v=sxxhb34_iGg
youtube.com/watch?v=EQMEhZZZPNU
twitter.com/SFWRedditVideos

hundreds, I'm sure. Especially the later seasons that were more pop culture and current events driven.

Mr. Plow is definitely one of the most dated classic season episodes.

How so? It's been a while since I've seen it, but all I can think of is Adam West, and he's timeless.

How? Did I miss some cultural reference?

Explain how!

Michael Keaton Batman jokes, the Sea Captain songs on tape commercial (kids under 20 have never seen those ads, but they used to be on TV all the time), George HW Bush, jokes about the collapse of communism, etc.

>the Sea Captain songs on tape commercial
>Ordering a cassette or CD from a commercial for just $9.99 plus shipping and handling
>All the songs scrolling upwards in the middle of the screen as a music video keeps changing

Gooooood memories.

Don't forget the qt mexican country singer

youtube.com/watch?v=NCl-HXllGI0

There was that "Apple computers" "what computers?" joke in the Homerpalooza episode.

Bart did the Bart man and Ralph said it was so 1990s.

Does that count?

Various gags about Gen X slackers (eg. Lady Bouvier's Lover). They're a bunch of middle aged office drones now.

Oh christ almighty, I didn't even think about that.

>They're a bunch of middle aged office drones now
*40-something, balding, deadlifting, unironically-holds-strong-opinions-about-Marvel-movies IT workers

Depends on the episode. Stuff like is obvious, other episodes like Homer Badman are dated if you understand a bit about the cultural climate in the mid-90s, but the casual viewer probably won't.

Who also swear that there hasn't been a single piece of worthwhile music released since George HW Bush was president.

The joke about it having its own website may be dated, but the fact that only universities can get them still gets across how important the school is (perhaps even better).

>Marge: Can we get rid of this Ayatollah T-shirt? Khomeini died years ago.

>Homer: But, Marge! It works on any Ayatollah: Ayatollah Nakhbadeh, Ayatollah Zahedi...even as we speak, Ayatollah Razmada and his cadre of fanatics are consolidating their power.

>Marge: I don't care who's consolidating their power.

Still works pretty well, desu.

I understood Krusty as a reference to Bozo the Clown when I was a kid, but I don't know if local kids TV shows like that even exist anymore.

They didn't exist anymore in the 90s, it was just Groening having a nostalgia wank over his childhood.

the idea that a single blue-collar American worker can provide a comfortable middle-class standard of living for his wife, their three children and pets

Kids these days wouldn't get using the radio tuner to balance the plow truck

>Homer Badman
if anything that episode is even more relevant now than it was in the 90s.
youtube.com/watch?v=r-Y0dTNH7Ns

Homer Badman works better than ever.

Also I don't think this was exactly true in the 90s, again it had more to do with the writers wanking to their own childhoods in the 50s-60s-70s. They even said so on the DVD commentaries.

Homer Badman is as relevant today as ever

Question: Does "Remember Alf? He's back, in Pog form!" become less relevant as both of those things fade from collective memory, or more funny because that's the joke?

gentle reminder that Homer Bad Man is about media-fuelled moral panics

it gave us "Homer - this is God...frey Jones"

better, given all the 80s 90s pop culture revivals

The Corey Hotline.

WHO THE FUCK CALLS HOTLINES ON A LANDLINE PHONE IN THIS DAY AND AGE?

According to this simplyhired.com/salaries-k-nuclear-power-plant-safety-inspector-jobs.html, a safety inspector at a nuclear plant makes an average salary of $80,000, which is a pretty respectable salary and certainly enough to sustain a family in a lower-middle class neighborhood.

Those are not a thing anymore?
I haven't watched late-night TV for some time.

>that moment in the 90s when Apple was irrelevant
Well, with Apple the way is going, this joke might make sense again.

I have that feeling about a lot of the classic episodes. It all feels very much like early 90s.

They did show in one episode that the house was given to them by Grandpa. Stil maintaining even a crappy house costs a lot.

I just know that the Alf actor recently died.

that was the midget, not the puppeteer

So are puppeteers seen as actors or not?

Even funnier.

On the DVD commentary for Bart vs Australia the writers have to explain what some of the references in the slides Phil Hartman's character shows the family because no one remembered things like Jocko, and those were recorded in 2005.

I'm sure they haven't been a thing since about 1999.

God, those commercials.

>MONSTER BALLADS
>CLASSICAL THUNDER

We actually bought the Time-Life Christmas Collection from one of those commercials. I still listen to it every year.

They still do those for kidz bop.

Homer only makes 18k a year after deductions based on his cheque from Much Apu About Nothing.

moreso than the midgets used for walking shots. Puppeteers will still provide the voice and close up shots.

>blues music played over thunderstorm sounds
>vaguely New Age music played over water sounds

i don't even know if those are a thing any more. like the weird Mr Plow commercial could have been a real thing in the era when late-night tv was weird like that, i would assume anything like that these days would be eaten up and spat out by meme culture

>over 20
Who buys them??

...

Hell, even Futurama has dated references. Bonds broke the home run record 5 years after this episode came out.

Mormons

I would say that Futurama almost aged more badly.

I feel lower than when Madonna realized she missed Tailhook

>vaguely New Age music played over water sounds

Shit, remember Chant? People were obsessed with monks for a while

Fundamental christians

>family sits on the couch to watch a TV show together

The Simpsons is outdated even before the episode starts.

Grandmothers looking for gifts for their young relatives that they don't know very well.

And Now That's What I Call Music.

Didn't they say it didn't count because steroids

What is this, Family Guy?

I am 21 year old and I know this exclusively from parodies.

Radioactive Man

because shit, the comic book market imploded under its own morbid hologram-bagged stupidity in what? 93? 94?

How to modernize Homerpalooza.

Homer thinks rock attained perfection in 1994 and that Hole and Smashing Pumpkins are still relevant. Guest starring Jerry Cantrell, Chvrches, Kanye, and Grimes.

96-97

I am 18 and I saw them all the time. They're still around, too.
Not a single parody is funny or clever, though.

The thing about stuff like that is, because comics are still around and popular today, their stories still work. They're just basic and not modern. Made today it would be about company wars and hollywood multimillion dollar movies and shit, but what they had still works because Springfield is a small basic town full of idiots. As long as the medium is still around, those episodes won't be so dated.

dad rock hasn't changed any

>Chvrches
>Grimes

I have absolutely no idea what those things are. Go ahead, post the Abe Simpson comic.

Complete trash that Sup Forums only likes because waifus.

Mmmmnonono. Rock is not jazz at all. Jazz actually requires knowledge of composition and music theory. It doesn't take any talent to play a couple of guitar chords over a 4/4 beat.

>Rock
>Chvrches and Grimes

Rock isn't relevant anymore. Everything is either hipsters recreating earlier genres, and some lingering indie.

Electronic music and rap/trap has completely supplanted it as the culturally relevant genre. Rock is the jazz of the 21st century

Hipster stereotypes are destroying the sanctity of rock music festivals!!!! ha ha look at the guy with the /styled beard/, look there's a /craft beer/ tent lol, and here's a shrill GENDER IS MEANINGLESS stereotype!! Caravan Palace, Zebrahead and Reel Big Fish guest-star.

B-plot: Marge's annoyed throat sound is sampled by Less than Jake and becomes famous on Not Soundcloud.

I think that the interpretation of Jon in Homer's Phobia is starting to lose credibility. A lot of gay men aren't that flamboyant these days (source: am gay, many gay friends who you wouldn't know unless they told you)
The message it delivers is on point however and the fact that nobody except Homer, Moe and Barney bring Jon's sexuality into everything is good representation on how gay people should be treated

>We work hard
>We play hard

>forgetting about Karl
i'm ashamed on your behalf, user

Depends on what kind of rock you're talking about. Pink Floyd is as good as any jazz. Ramones not so much...except that isn't the point of the Ramones...so it's apples and oranges at that point

;_;7

Oh yeah, that didn't spring to mind right away though. Karl was done excellently and subtly.

youtube.com/watch?v=eWIukTZ7jd4

Fucking nasty.

But that's the thing. Jazz did used to be simple 4/4 party music and eventually turned into overstuffed pseudo-intellectual crap. Rock was starting to go down that road with 70s prog but then punk saved it from that fate.

THATS why mr burns is so rich

i think we all need a Karl of our own every now and then

They make computers?

I haven't watched the show in a damn long while, what was this guys deal again?

The entire notion that TV matters and that families watch it together. That's been outdated for over 10 years.

>Always wanted to be Karl for someone else
>Always end up being Homer, because everyone I know is a psychotic workaholic.
Feels bad.

the Eye on Springfield intro looks straight out of 1994: dissolve cuts, the logo, the everything

youtube.com/watch?v=sxxhb34_iGg

Karl was Homer's mysterious guardian angel; also ambiguously, unobtrusively, possibly gay. One of the show's best one-shot characters, just before the 'Hooray!' guy.

And then Arcade Fire, Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear and other garbage 00s indie bands tried to kill rock again, only this time there was no one to save it.

Ah, I see.

Thanks.

>rap/trap
Maybe if you are urban for like three years now.

...

That's actually from Flaming Moe's which aired in 91, but yeah that was how everything looked in the late 80s-early 90s.

Hamilton won Best Musical, hip-hop is mainstream now

Gay steelworkers, man.

>A lot of gay men aren't that flamboyant these days
And John wasn't even that flamboyant. Freakin' George Takei is more flamboyant

So, remember:
Call my name
It's Mr. Plow
That name again is Mr. Plow

Now do the hip-hop remix.

what about the reverse?

what references date the SIMPSONS as a show that has been on the air since 1989?

smart phones and HD graphics that look terrible

youtube.com/watch?v=EQMEhZZZPNU

Meant as a response to

>steelworkers
>in the USA
Yeah, that's really dated.