An Oral History of 'Marge vs. the Monorail' | Hacker News Reader

An Oral History of 'Marge vs. the Monorail'

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36 pointsnappy-doo21 comments

> "If a gun was put to my head, and they said, ‘Tell me the best episode of television ever,’ it’s this."

Better than "Homer's Enemy" (the Frank Grimes episode)? No way. While the Monorail episode is extremely good, I still have entire dialogues of "Homer's Enemy" memorized, and I haven't watched the Simpsons for over 10 years now. It's perfect in every way until the very last second ("Change the channel, Marge!"), has an extremely economic and concise narration (just think of all the sub and side plots: the factory, the school contest, the quest of Homer to get Grimes to like him) and just delivers one memorable line after another, non-stop.

"This is my son Bart. He owns a factory downtown."

"Simpson, you've got a 5-13!!!"

"You went into outer space? You?" - "Sure. You've never been there? Would you like to see my Grammy award?"

Also, the overall best TV show episode surely is Breaking Bad's Ozymandias, although I admit that you can enjoy "The Monorail" and "Homer's Enemy" as standalone episodes, whereas to fully appriciate "Ozymandias", you need to have watched the entire series up to that point.

Yeah I was gonna say the Frank Grimes episode is way above monorail and my personal pick for best Simpsons episode, the factory subplot alone was funnier than some whole episodes.

Did it all without resorting to a real-world celebrity guest cameo too which I always considered a bit lame when they stopped writing simpsons characters for the cameos and instead just had the actual person.

> the factory subplot alone was funnier than some whole episodes

"So this is my life now. At least I've done better than dad."

Also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGv6RASFsY4

'Homer's Enemy' is definitely one of my favorites but I feel like it is to depend on having watched all of the previous episodes of the Simpsons to qualify as the best of all time. 'Homer's Enemy' works because it plays off the fact that the original premise of the series had slowly dissolved over the years. Also as much as I love Monorail I think the best episode might be 'The PTA Disbands'.

When I first saw the banks out of money scene I thought it was funny but weird (I was an elementary school student so that happened a lot with the Simpsons), I didn’t seen It’s a Wonderful Life until many years later, and it took me a couple years after that to connect it to PTA Disbands

"Homer's Enemy" is funny but I felt the tone was off a little. It was just a bit too cruel to Grimey (as he liked to be called) in the end for me to consider it one of their best.

"Cape Feare" takes my pick for best Simpsons episode, with "Last Exit to Springfield" being a close second. But "Marge vs the Monorail" is definitely among my favorites.

Conan O'Brien as Simpsons writer rarely gets the credit he deserves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaXigSu72A4

> Conan O'Brien as Simpsons writer rarely gets the credit he deserves.

Indeed. Him and John Swartzwelder are largely responsible for the increasingly surreal and silly comedy for which the Golden Years of the Simpsons are now famous. This style was quickly adopted by other shows. The later Seinfeld episodes where also getting more and more surreal ("The Dealership", "The Blood", "The Chicken Roaster", "The Butter Shave"), positively silly ("The Marine Biologist", "The Puffy Shirt") and "Simpsons-like".

> The later Seinfeld episodes where also getting more and more surreal

IIRC that correlated with the departure of Larry David as showrunner, did it not?

The transition started earlier, just think of "The Bottle Deposit" in Season 7 (the last season Larry David was showrunner), which could be entirely a Simpsons episode with Homer and Barney instead of Kramer and Newman.

IMHO, the combination of silliness and darkness in "The Invitations" (also Season 7) is also very much comparable to "Homer's Enemy", although the Seinfeld episode is much darker.

I remember the reason the episodes of the last season are so crazy was that they knew it was the last season and the tv network executives gave them a free pass to do whatever they wanted. Seinfeld is one of those weird shows that get better each season and left on a high note.

Not entirely, the only TV show I know of that managed to completely leave on a high note is Breaking Bad. The final Seinfeld episode is one of the weakest of the entire series.

As someone who worked at MSFT, Cape Feare felt right on. They really poured the sugar on, and are probably sorry it's not in the packets.

I do love the monorail episode though, mostly because of the great song! I can hear it now... monorail - monorail - monorail

I think you're confusing "Cape Feare" with "You Only Move Twice," the Hank Scorpio episode. The former is a Sideshow Bob episode.

Yes you are so right! How could I disappoint Mr. Scorpion like that! ;)

To this day, no matter where/when/how, if I see a monorail I start getting the song in my head "monorail...monorail....monorail"

I love that episode, but I’ve never really comes to terms with Nemoy teleporting out.

While I’m mostly on Groening team with regards to not breaking the supernatural barrier, I am completely okay with how Homer completely defies the laws of physics and stops the monorail with the giant M.

But maybe I just don’t get the joke of Spock teleporting out. Why was that “... just such a funny joke that we had to do it”?

There was an episode of Night Court in which a group of attendees from a Star Trek convention end up in court due to fighting over Kirk vs Picard. While Night Court had its share of zany characters, including one whose actor would go on to play the part of Commander Data, it rarely, if ever, broke the supernatural barrier. That is until that episode when a few of the Trekkies appearing before the court beamed out before they could be held in contempt. While good for a chuckle, it seemed out of character for the show. Guess when writers are dealing with Star Trek, the transporter is simply too irresistible to use.

Felt like it worked because it was Barney, a character known to hallucinate, that witnessed it. Also it gives the earlier joke about Nemoy claiming credit while doing nothing a bit of extra zing.

Impossible to pick a single best Simpsons episode. Seasons 6-8 are just so ridiculously good. I could barely even make a top 10. That said, here's my list in no particular order:

* Homer goes to college

* Homer the great

* The day the violence died

* A fish called Selma

* Bart on the road

* 22 short films about Springfield

* You only move twice

* Mountain of madness

* El viaje misterioso de nuestro Jomer

Honorable mentions:

* The way we was

* Marge vs the monorail

* A star is burns

* King size Homer

* Hurricane Neddy

The Simpsons jumped-the-shark in that episode where they made Nelson Muntz go nice.

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