# Simpsons pokes fun at Star Wars Prequels.



## Dark Jezter (Mar 22, 2004)

I don't know how many people here watched the Simpsons tonight, but if you did you will know that the Simpsons opened with a segment that poked fun of George Lucas and the Star Wars prequels.

When the episode began, Bart, Lisa, and Homer were in a line for the latest "Cosmic Wars" movie, and many of the fans were dressed in costumes similar to Star Wars characters (including Comic Book Guy, who was dressed in George Lucas-style flannel shirt and blue jeans).

When the movie started, the opening text crawl was basically a long, long essay on the political climate of the galaxy.  Then the movie starts with a scene in the Galactic Senate where the Speaker is taking roll of everyone in the chamber (which is made up of hundreds, if not thousands, of senators).  Soon, what appears to be an AT-AT walker bursts into the room and proposes a bill, but the speaker tells it to sit down and wait its turn. 

Later, the movie shows a scene where the Obi-Wan character asks the Jar-Jar character what happened to the landing gear on his space craft, and the Jar-Jar character explains that he sold it to buy pot. 

Finally, the movie wraps up with a purple Yoda making a speech to the senate, saying something like "Begun this cosmic war has, or has it?" and then he winks at the camera and the movie ends, drawing jeers of disappointment from the packed theater.

So, Bart and Lisa write a letter to the creator of the movie (who bears a very, very strong resemblence to George Lucas), but it fails to get through to him.  So the Simpsons take a trip to Cosmic Wars Ranch in Northern California so the kids can personally speak to him.  They manage to sneak into his office, and convince him that his original movies were timeless classics because they were more about characters and storylines than special effects.  So, the Lucas-esque movie producer agrees to rethink his moviemaking strategy, and rides off into the sunset on what appears to be a Tauntaun.

Now, even though I've enjoyed the Star Wars prequels so far, I have to admit that this was a pretty funny parody of George Lucas and the Star Wars Prequels.  Anybody else see it?


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## Psychotic Dreamer (Mar 22, 2004)

Yeah.  It was quite amusing.  Although perhaps they should have waited until closer to the opening of the next movie to do it.


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## Kai Lord (Mar 22, 2004)

Psychotic Dreamer said:
			
		

> Yeah.  It was quite amusing.  Although perhaps they should have waited until closer to the opening of the next movie to do it.



They probably wanted to give him time to reshoot it before its release.


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## stevelabny (Mar 22, 2004)

wait, was this a NEW simpsons?

poking fun at phantom menace?

right, and people wonder why i say its the most over-rated show on television.

how relevant and not at all dated.

south park and family guy eat the simpsons for lunch


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## Dark Jezter (Mar 22, 2004)

stevelabny said:
			
		

> wait, was this a NEW simpsons?
> 
> poking fun at phantom menace?
> 
> ...




South Park and Family Guy are constantly cracking jokes about things more dated than the Phantom Menace.  Hell, a lot of the jokes in Family Guy reference TV shows and movies from the 1970s and 1980s.

But, if you don't like the Simpsons, you don't have to watch it.  Better yet, you don't have to make posts in threads discussing the latest episode of the Simpsons just so you can tell everyone how much the show sucks.


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## stevelabny (Mar 22, 2004)

gah
making jokes about OLD stuff that most people dont even remember is FUNNY
beating the dead horse thats still to recently dead to be fresh again ISNT.
and i wont comment on your comment that i should only comment on things that i like, because i dont like it


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## TracerBullet42 (Mar 22, 2004)

I saw it too!  It was hilarious!  It presented the way I felt about attack of the clones in a very, very funny way...

Now I can't wait for Star Wars Episode III: Vader Files Some Paperwork.

I hear he doesn't follow all of the Empire's proper procedures and gets called to the Emperor's office...should be pretty exciting.


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## Tom Cashel (Mar 22, 2004)

Dark Jezter said:
			
		

> Finally, the movie wraps up with a purple Yoda making a speech to the senate, saying something like "Begun this cosmic war has, or has it?" and then he winks at the camera and the movie ends, drawing jeers of disappointment from the packed theater.




Great episode of the Simpsons.

I didn't see him wink...It looked like he just moved his head in a way that was half-nod and half head-shake a few times...you know, that little twist that will have fans arguing about "what Yoda meant" for the three years until the next flick comes out. I thought that whole segment was making fun of the fans as much as it was making fun of Lucas. I mean, Lucas might be a has-been, but the fans are angry at him for not being great. "Who is the greater fool...the fool or the fool who follows him?"

(And stevelabny, when Family Guy or South Park manage to make a joke that can be taken in more than one way, or a single joke that makes fun of several things at once--in short, when they work on more than one level: the obvious one--they'll come close to almost being as good as the Simpsons. Newest episode of South Park makes fun of, what, anime? That's timely.)


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## Altalazar (Mar 22, 2004)

Now this makes me sad I don't ever watch TV shows these days when they are actually on TV, instead of DVD.  

I watched Simpsons season three, disk one this weekend.  

Alias season one and two and Firefly are on the way...


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## Lazybones (Mar 22, 2004)

Actually, IIRC Yoda said, "Tabled, this motion is... or is it?"

Even more apropos of the films, or so I thought.


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## Vocenoctum (Mar 23, 2004)

stevelabny said:
			
		

> wait, was this a NEW simpsons?
> 
> poking fun at phantom menace?
> 
> ...




They commented on a VH1 show, how South Park can be more on time, since it's all done on computers. It takes them a week at most to do an ep. Simpsons takes longer to make. That said, there's no way to know how long the script was sitting around for this ep. It was funny regardless.

What I hate with SP is, if it's so easy to make an ep, I wish they'd have more new eps than the 3-5 they usually seem to do at a time.


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## mojo1701 (Mar 23, 2004)

Vocenoctum said:
			
		

> What I hate with SP is, if it's so easy to make an ep, I wish they'd have more new eps than the 3-5 they usually seem to do at a time.




You said it. But hey, do you expect any less from Comedy Central and the same guys who did Baseketball and That's my Bush (great show, despite the fact that it only lasted 8 eps, I believe)?


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## Alzrius (Mar 23, 2004)

TracerBullet42 said:
			
		

> I saw it too!  It was hilarious!  It presented the way I felt about attack of the clones in a very, very funny way...
> 
> Now I can't wait for Star Wars Episode III: Vader Files Some Paperwork.
> 
> I hear he doesn't follow all of the Empire's proper procedures and gets called to the Emperor's office...should be pretty exciting.




The saddest thing is that, sometime after Episode III comes out, Lucas is going to be going back over Episodes I-III, and realize what the rest of the world already knows...that they suck.

At this point, he'll try and pull together a last-ditch effort to save the Star Wars franchise, and he'll redo the last film, and release it as.....EPISODE 3.5!


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## BrooklynKnight (Mar 23, 2004)

Alzrius said:
			
		

> The saddest thing is that, sometime after Episode III comes out, Lucas is going to be going back over Episodes I-III, and realize what the rest of the world already knows...that they suck.
> 
> At this point, he'll try and pull together a last-ditch effort to save the Star Wars franchise, and he'll redo the last film, and release it as.....EPISODE 3.5!



Nice try....but that one falls short. :-D

To say nothing of RK Rowling planning to re-write all 7 of the books after she's done to "revise" them.


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## Ashwyn (Mar 23, 2004)

ArthurQ said:
			
		

> To say nothing of RK Rowling planning to re-write all 7 of the books after she's done to "revise" them.



Who? Which books?


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## Ashwyn (Mar 23, 2004)

Vocenoctum said:
			
		

> What I hate with SP is, if it's so easy to make an ep, I wish they'd have more new eps than the 3-5 they usually seem to do at a time.



Actually, they make most episodes only 4 days before they air. I don't know how long it takes them to write a script, but the scripts go through a hell of a lot of re-writes before they even start to make the episodes. The creators also have a lot of side projects going on right now, too. And it's not exactly easy to come up with on average 17 episodes a year. I prefer quality over quantity.   


P.S. I will suckerpunch the first person to say something like "With South Park you get neither". Not because it would offend me, but because it's a lame, clichéd thing to say.


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## Ashwyn (Mar 23, 2004)

Tom Cashel said:
			
		

> (And stevelabny, when Family Guy or South Park manage to make a joke that can be taken in more than one way, or a single joke that makes fun of several things at once--in short, when they work on more than one level: the obvious one--they'll come close to almost being as good as the Simpsons. Newest episode of South Park makes fun of, what, anime? That's timely.)



South Park has done that several times. Just because these 3 shows are animated, that doesn't mean they are competing with each other. I like all three, personally. They all have their merits and drawbacks. Besides, it's not like any of us actually have anything to do with these shows on more than a fan level anyway, right? Let's all get along.


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## RangerWickett (Mar 23, 2004)

Dark Jezter said:
			
		

> I don't know how many people here watched the Simpsons tonight, but if you did you will know that the Simpsons opened with a segment that poked fun of George Lucas and the Star Wars prequels.
> 
> When the episode began, Bart, Lisa, and Homer were in a line for the latest "Cosmic Wars" movie, and many of the fans were dressed in costumes similar to Star Wars characters (including Comic Book Guy, who was dressed in George Lucas-style flannel shirt and blue jeans).
> 
> ...




*SOUTH PARK DID IT!!*

Seriously, we already had this tirade against Lu Kuss a year ago, when South Park bitched about the re-release of E.T.


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## Ashrem Bayle (Mar 23, 2004)

I liked South Park until recently. The newer episodes seems more like they are just trying to be controversial and offensive and forgot that they need to be funny.

Family Guy is gold. Love that show. And of course, the Simpsons is classic.


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## Vocenoctum (Mar 24, 2004)

RangerWickett said:
			
		

> *SOUTH PARK DID IT!!*
> 
> Seriously, we already had this tirade against Lu Kuss a year ago, when South Park bitched about the re-release of E.T.




Really though, that was different complaint. More towards ranting about them redoing old movies, rather than them making total crap from the start.

The Simpsons also had it more of a lead in to the ep, rather than devoting the whole ep.

I like most SP, though sometimes I lose interest when they take the approach that they don't have to be funny, just disgusting.

Family Guy's later eps were good, but I didn't like the early one's much.

I also think Futurama is a great cartoon. Futurama and FG have cycled so many times on CN though, I've seen the eps too much. Simpsons has more rewatch value, if for no other reason than there's billions of eps.


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## jasamcarl (Mar 24, 2004)

I actually like the recent direction of both South Park and the Simpsons; they seem to be moving away from the overblown absurdity and towards more 'intimate' character and story drivin satire. The last few seasons for both shows have been little more than strung together, glib gags. I think they are both returning to their roots. Futurama thankfully always kept to this tradition. King of the Hill has also been pretty consistent, though I don't think I 'get' a lot of it.

Now that Family Guy can go to heck. All the laughs are completly cheap, either relying on nerdy references to past shows layered with gross out humor and/or a 'realistic', 'gritty' portrayal of fictional characters. It's all the same, very predictable, and ultra shallow. None of the main characters are interesting, the secondary characters are totally embarrassing, and even if I laugh a few times, I always just feel empty after watching an episode. Very irrelevant.

Does anyone else think that Home Movies is truly da bomb?


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## The_lurkeR (Mar 24, 2004)

jasamcarl said:
			
		

> ...Does anyone else think that Home Movies is truly da bomb?




Home Movies was hilarious!  

(Its predecessor Dr. Katz was pretty funny too.)


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