Oznogrd wrote:I can understand since it was basically one giant potshot at Jersey Shore...I'm curious Andrew, what are some of your favorite eps of the show? Just trying to get an idea.
The potshot at Jersey Shore doesn't actually bother me that much in this case. I should clarify that while that's become one of my least favourite techniques in comedy, it's through overuse and poor execution. A well-crafted potshot that's a bit more clever than "That show sucks" is fine but therein lies the problem; most potshots you see in shows these days are aimed at other shows/things that don't suck, are entertaining enough or are no worse than the show that's taking a shot at them with the only joke being "You suck". Everything should be fair game but with that in mind, for me it's got to at least be clever and it's funnier when the show in question deserves it.
In the case of Jersey Shore, from what I've heard I'd agree that's the case but that's the thing: I've never seen the show, so I'm not at all familiar with it outside Kevin Smith and his friends who also have shows on his podcast network (and of course hail from New Jersey) express their distaste with it and what little else I've heard about the show, which is enough to know it's not something I want to watch. I have no doubt that it's awful and deserves to be ridiculed but having never watched it I don't really have dislike for it beyond "Well, I'm never going to watch that", so to base a whole episode around it didn't do much for me.
And on top of that, by this point I'm tired of Kyle vs Cartman. It's kind of like the marriage crisis plots The Simpsons were doing for a while there, there's no variation and we've seen it done before (and oftentimes better) in previous episodes. On the plus side it did give Sheila some of the funniest moments she's ever had in the series and even if I'm not that familiar with Jersey Shore, the Snooki stuff was so over the top and insulting to someone I'm guessing deserves it that I could appreciate that. As for the Al Qaeda stuff, it felt like that was crammed in there for the sake of being controversial, but the ending was good and the line about only caring about the families of victims of 9/11 reminded me a lot of the "AIDS is finally funny!" stuff, I liked that commentary.
As for my favourite episodes..."It Hits the Fan", "Proper Condom Use", "Here Comes the Neighborhood", "Jared Has Aides", "Raisins", "Good Times with Weapons", "The Jeffersons", "Douche and Turd", "Something Wall-Mart This Way Comes", "The Losing Edge", "Trapped in the Closet", "Cartoon Wars", "The List", "The Coon", "W.T.F." and "Butters' Bottom Bitch" would be some of them. To be honest, some of the episodes they've done this season including the most recent one are probably ones that I would've enjoyed in the past but I've just felt are a bit stale at this point.