Oh Homer, where art Thou?

What happened to The Simpsons? I remember a time when an episode was all about Springfield elementary, or Krusty the Clown, or Homer's misadventures at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant. This Sunday's episode was all about gay marriage. Boy, was it ever. It's like an episode of latter-day Ellen was pushing gay rights down our throats all over again. I don't so much like the new Homer Simpson. He has become much smarter and infinitely more crass. It used to be about Homer's stupidity, yet extreme likeability that we felt for him. Now he is an opinionated jerk. This episode he becomes an ordained Minister so he can marry all the new gay couples in town and make some serious dough. The episode is just as bad as the one where Ned Flanders loses his wife forever, and Homer secretly videotapes him doing every day stuff, including a censored full frontal shot of Ned in the shower, for a dating service. It pushed the boundaries of good taste so far I didn't feel I was watching an episode of my beloved Simpsons. I love the fact that this show has been on the air for so long, and has been consistently funny and endearing to me, but these new directions just hurt the underlying emotional attachment we all have to the Simpson family we grew to love. Since when is it all-encompassing and important for the Simpsons to be the show that pushes the limit all the time? Before all this envelope-pushing, I would laugh almost to tears at the Simpsons in each and every show. Nowadays, I laugh with a guilty conscience. This type of humor and boundary jumping is usually reserved for the late-night shows you watch when your parents have gone to bed. It's now front and center, prime time. The key to the Simpsons' longevity is its likeable characters and top-notch humor. The producers/writers/etc. are throwing it out the window in favor of pushing the limit. I am seeing an ever-fading light at the end of the Springfield tunnel. The end is coming quickly, unfortunately.


Sunday's episode news here(scroll down a little)