Post unfunny jokes from The Simpsons

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Lumbering Dinosaur
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Jul 21, 2022
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Have there been any jokes on the show that you found unfunny?

I'm sure there's been some but I can't think of any off the top of my head.
 
Not only was the idea of Moe being a pedophile bad enough, they even had to over-explain the joke in case the audience was too stupid or not paying attention.

Also “So salty. Maybe if I add a little salt” from The Greatest Story Ever D’ohed. Too stupid even for Homer.
 
Essentially much of (don't want to call his name) era (late SD and early and further HD) can be included here.😄
Really bad, often mentioned, joke from LGG:
Homer offscreen climbing the tree (to Lisa), complaining how it's hard. And riching the top of wrong tree he did comment that "Oh, no! I'm on the wrong tree". "D'oh" would be enough.

…And that's not all: then Homer lifts down, again offscreen climbed and complains and after 15 wasted seconds… "Lisa! Can you get down?"

That jokes overexplaining was/is a big problem for show's comedy.
 
Not only was the idea of Moe being a pedophile bad enough, they even had to over-explain the joke in case the audience was too stupid or not paying attention.

Also “So salty. Maybe if I add a little salt” from The Greatest Story Ever D’ohed. Too stupid even for Homer.

That gag actually got me tbh.

Can't think of any real unfunny jokes aside from Homer gasping way too many times in 500 Keys which in of itself is actually a great episode imo.

Homer: *gasp*

Shut up!
 
"Oh course of you look like abe, homer. Just scrunch up your face"
Bart:true, but that also works with santas little helper's butt *scrunches it up to look like abe*
 
Lisa saying loser over and over again. Wasn't funny the first time, wasn't funny ever.
 
Moe being upset when the hillbillies didnt want to have their way with him.
 
Lisa saying loser over and over again. Wasn't funny the first time, wasn't funny ever.

I hated that one too. Got really obnoxious really quickly. It's kinda ironic how she used every moment to call Bart a loser in that episode when, in fact, she can be viewed as a loser as well (generally no friends, impopular, outcast, etc.) so she shouldn't be one to talk.

I think most gags that are drawn out for no reason are some of the worst. Sometimes it works but often it feels like an excuse for padding.
 
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Almost every time Al Jean is attempting a background joke during a dialogue, it's unfunny if not plain cringeworthy. The Stranger Things bit in Burger Kings made me want to slam my head against the nearest wall.

For an older moment, I can give a pass to a lot of things from A Tale of Two Springfields as I legitimately like this episode (even the organs joke make me chuckle, by how bizarre it is and probably because of Homer and Lisa more confused about how the badger did that without ripping out his shirt), but Homer with dynamite... It's not just a terrible Homer moment, it's downright a bad Peter Griffin moment.
 
Almost every time Al Jean is attempting a background joke during a dialogue, it's unfunny if not plain cringeworthy. The Stranger Things bit in Burger Kings made me want to slam my head against the nearest wall.

Oh yes, those are awful (one of my least favorite Jean-isms). We don't need a parade of wacky backgrund gags when characters are having a talk, especially not during plot-important discussions. The 'Stranger Things' biking gag is a perfect example of one of those horrid "jokes", but I also remember a similar parade of wackiness in 'Mother And Child Reunion' during Marge & Lisa having a talk (had Santa's Little Helper outfitted with robot spider legs among others). It takes focus away from the dialogue and is always a bad idea (and kinda makes it feel like Jean is not trusting the audience. If he did he wouldn't juxtapose dialogue with "Look at this silly thing!" gags happening at the same time).
 
Oh yes, those are awful (one of my least favorite Jean-isms). We don't need a parade of wacky backgrund gags when characters are having a talk, especially not during plot-important discussions. The 'Stranger Things' biking gag is a perfect example of one of those horrid "jokes", but I also remember a similar parade of wackiness in 'Mother And Child Reunion' during Marge & Lisa having a talk (had Santa's Little Helper outfitted with robot spider legs among others). It takes focus away from the dialogue and is always a bad idea (and kinda makes it feel like Jean is not trusting the audience. If he did he wouldn't juxtapose dialogue with "Look at this silly thing!" gags happening at the same time).
This exactly. That's one of the things I hate most about the HD era, they cram in way too many random background gags, most of which aren't even that funny. Like you and others have said, it's like Jean isn't confident enough about the writing and believes viewers will get bored if there isn't something zany happening every other second. Another thing I noticed is they add way too many sound effects or music cues in modern episodes, as if they are just trying to keep people awake. It's the TV equivalent of jingling keys to get a child's attention.
 
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Ned "Flandish" whipping himself from The Wettest Stories Ever Told
 
That joke where the entire gag is Bart unplugging Homer's life support while he's in the hospital sticks out like a sore thumb. I can't remember the episode, but I remember how confused I was watching that play out. What's the punchline? "Haha Bart want Homer dead, please laugh"?
 
I don't so much mind the joke, but more that it went against character, but when Homer floods Springfield in "Mom and Pop Art" , Flanders thinks that God's sent another flood, but then sees Homer Simpson and says "Heaven must be easier to get into than Arizona State." I guess I always like Flanders still being Christian, but still kind of nice, even if he is a bit intense. Like he wouldn't be mean spirited. If anything he'd want Homer to get in there and I feel he'd be happy that God showed so much mercy.

Also, I don't remember the episode, but it was the one based on Henry VIII where Homer (as Henry VIII) told Lisa (I think she was supposed to be Elizabeth I?) to "Grow a Penis or get out." Just the line was enough, but having Lisa grunt and groan about that was a bit too much and I don't even want to even think about thinking about that.
 
“Genital Smurfs” (literally “Snurfs” to duck copyright, I’m being kind) in “The Serfsons” was a real low point.
 
In one of the later Treehouse of Horror episodes, Homer was grilling his own body parts on a barbeque grill, and he ate them.

I think that one went too far, even for Treehouse of Horror standards.
 
I thought 'Mmm... Homer' was a very funny piece of absurd dark humor (on top of being interesting & a bit scary). One of the better modern era segments. The way they did it all in such a bizarre way with everyone severly underreacting to Homer slowly eating himself & the fact that there was no blood or gore (which was surprising & made it funnier) really made it work, I felt. Wasn't being gross for the sake of being gross IMO (and props to them for daring to do an actual creepy & unsettling modern segement). Maybe I'm just one of few.
 
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Adding onto @Wile E. the Brain mentioning A Tale of Two Springfields (which I actually don't like and is probably my least favorite episode of Season 12), the same episode having one of it's last "Jokes" being Homer just chloroforming Marge out of nowhere. It's one of those instances where a whole episode is completely soured by a single moment, and it also feels like a rehash of the equally bad Homer tranquilizing Marge from the even worse It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Marge.

Honorable mention which is continuing on with what @Nitsy said about random gore would be Homer smashing his hand though the jukebox which is also a shameful one since it's directly stolen from FG.

Though an example I'll give that's my own and fairly recent, the whole Wiggum foot thing from Top Goon. Unfunny, and a continuation of what seems to have been happening lately where certain characters are given quirks that make them look sad and sympathetic for cheap laughs (Mel having sex with an animatronic fox and everything having to do with Milhouse in Lisa's Belly, mainly the diaper).
 
Bart: Hey Lis, you wanna touch Strangles [his boa constrictor]? He’s not slimy at all, he’s just scaly.
Lisa: (touches) Eww, he is slimy!
Bart: That’s because I soaked him in slime! (evil laugh)
See, the purpose of this exchange is not so much to be funny in itself as to serve as a Homer strangulation cue in order to set up a gag about the snake retaliating by strangling Homer. Literally any mildly obnoxious word or action by Bart could go here. But this one sort of feels like they put a placeholder line in and didn’t replace it with something that felt like a real line. There’s something bafflingly robotic about it. It’s not painfully bad or anything, but I would describe it as a distinctly “late entry in Season 18 while the movie was also in production” bit of dialogue.
 
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