
The Simpsons mocks (m)Apple - raghus
http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/01/the-simpsons-mocks-m-apple/
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unalone
Yech.

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.

\---

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.

\---

Also, this isn't at all relevant hacker news, and it's not that intellectually
interesting.

~~~
decode
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.

~~~
jcl
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.

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pistoriusp
"This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Twentieth
Century Fox." :(

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mynameishere
Pointless comment. Just go to hulu.

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pistoriusp
Hulu is not available in my country... I'm not in North America.

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mynameishere
8 upmods for that? #1 how the hell do I know what country you're in? #2 Use a
proxy.

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dejb
Turns out that there are lots of people not from America. Who would have
thought?

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gibsonf1
It's available on Hulu: [http://www.hulu.com/watch/46689/the-simpsons-mypods-
and-boom...](http://www.hulu.com/watch/46689/the-simpsons-mypods-and-
boomsticks#x-0,vepisode,1)

[http://www.hulu.com/watch/46718/the-simpsons-think-
different...](http://www.hulu.com/watch/46718/the-simpsons-think-differently)

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dc2k08
not for non-US residents unfortunately. enjoy the free show!

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tspiteri
Try [http://gizmodo.com/5100217/the-simpsons-gets-20-years-of-
app...](http://gizmodo.com/5100217/the-simpsons-gets-20-years-of-apple-jokes-
out-of-the-way-at-once)

