When doing the Season 17 vid last year and seeing the Italian Milhouse B-plot, it made me realize I have never really talked about Milhouse. I've been doing long-form videos for like 5 years. I've made 2 different Nelson videos. But nothing about Bart's Friend. So I wanted to figure out why I haven't really connected with Milhouse as a character. (And then it accidentally turned into my longest video essay.) 🤣
@@bobkerr2755exactly, I also find it interesting that Mulhouse is white and they hate him, kinda consistent with the governments politics of the day isn't it ? You could even call him an incel, and yet, unlike Apu nobody is going to demand they change it to accommodate their feelings ... I wonder why ? Don't you think it interesting? I do ? Heck his voiced by a woman !!!! Why aren't people demanding a white male voice the character now ? Hmmmmm
It shows how "out of time" The Simpsons is in the 2020's when you remember Millhouse is a caricature of Paul Pfeiffer from _The Wonder Years_ and is named for Richard Milhous Nixon.
Like how the gang from Scooby Doo are plays on characters from The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, except nobody remembers The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis while Scooby Doo outlived it and still matters half a century later.
@nessesaryschoolthing Tho in the case of Scooby-Doo it helps its characters archetypes still exist, Coward, Smart, Leader, and Hot Girl, sure they have had more characterize over the years, but in their simplest form that is who they are
Willie's rant about brothers and sisters in the episode where bart's friend leaves lives free in my head, the italian dub sold it soo well "Fratelli e sorelle sono nemici per natura"
@@aidanpeterbio funny story, he has a sardinian accent. Most of the simpsons characters in the italian dub have a specific italian accent. Luigi speaks in naepolitan accent like wiggum
Milhouse is weird because he's directly impacted by Bart's extreme level of inconsistency at school. Sometimes Bart is extremely popular, sometimes he's unpopular. Sometimes he's scared of Nelson, sometimes he's best buds with Nelson. Sometimes Bart's only friend is Milhouse and they're twin loners, sometimes Bart's only friend is milhouse but it's clear Bart is using him and "wears the pants", sometimes all of the boys are mutual friends with specific dynamics. Bart's inconsistent characterization forces Milhouse to be maligned because who he is relative to Bart and the other boys changes drastically even when he himself hasn't changed.
Highest point was tricking me into thinking "Everything's coming up Milhouse!" was an actual expression for bad situations with some minor good in them, so all these last few years ive been exclaiming "Everything's coming up Milhouse!" only for no one to know what the hell I'm talking about.
Fun fact: In the Lego movie the video game when they show that scene from the movie they actually blur Milhouse out!(I assume they didn't bother to get the rights)And so the balance of the universe was restored.
@@FormalGibble Remember that time that I was in the lego movie, but you lied to me and said that I was never in the movie? Then why was there a blur in the video game Bart? Why was there a blur?
FUN FACT: Colin, the Irish boy that Lisa has a crush on in the movie, was originally going to be Milhouse, but test audiences for an early version of the film "didn't know who he was"
My favorite Milhouse bit, the one that I think sums up his entire character the best, is actually from that one cowboy episode that people hate for whatever reason. When Bart goes missing, Milhouse asks if anyone wants to be his new friend. Ralph then sits next to him and Milhouse says "Perfect! Now I'll finally be the one in charge!" Ralph then bluntly tells him to shut up and he sadly complies. That's Milhouse right there, the absolute bottom of the pecking order.
That and "Remember [insert character here]? He's back, in pog form!" are definitely two lines that I quote way too often. They're just downright iconic.
It's metaphoric to his life in general. His life is so lame that he is happy to have dry cuffs amidst the obvious setback of having completely soaked feet.
The slow realization by Homer, when Bart picks "The Dud" card, when Bart, Homer, Milhouse and Marge are playing the board game at the Flander's beach house, will always get me 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Guess who Likes You *Nelson looks around* *Milhouse raises eyebrows* *cut to a bloody Milhouse on stretcher being taken to Ambulance* “Milhouse I’m so sorry” “He can’t hear you now, we had to pack his ears with gauze”
Season 8 Episode 4 Burns: You food bag, do you have a son? Homer: Yes Sir I do. Burns: And is he a consent disappointment, does he bring home nitwits and make you talk with them. Homer: Oh all the time, have you ever heard of this kid Milhouse, he's this little wiener ....
I feel like the ideal happy ending for Milhouse is that he grows up and finds a girl dud who inexplicably has the exact same face as him and they go on to live an utterly unremarkable, boring life where he's the third best middle manager in the second best performing division at Generic Co. Because I think that's ultimately what defines Milhouse - He's just a very unremarkable guy who lacks the ambition or vision to do anything particularly remarkable, but that doesn't have to be a bad thing. Just don't have him hook up with Lisa. Absolutely no one wants that.
Like honestly, let Milhouse be kind of a loser who is acc pretty content with being kind of a loser. It’s not a glamorous life, but its a real one and that doesn’t have to suck. He makes his money, has a nice family, and just helps the world go round.
I always read Lisa’s thing with Milhouse as a sins of the father dynamic where as much as Bart and Lisa are their own people and have the potential to forge their own paths, they both also contain the self destructive elements of their parents. Like Homer, Bart is lazy and lacks impulse control and much like Marge, Lisa is very precocious and active but struggles with internal melancholy and her compulsion to fix things. I can see Lisa convincing herself to fall for Milhouse initially out of compassion and respect for his loyalty only to resign herself to a life as his caregiver and as someone who can’t challenge her emotionally because she’s already constantly doing it to herself (think of who that sounds like). At the same time, this is what I think is fascinating about paring her with Nelson. Like Homer, he’s lazy, lacks impulse control, and tends to not be the best with people, but he also has some of Homer’s best qualities you don’t see in Milhouse. He’s innately compassionate, shows genuine respect for those he feels have earned it (like Lisa), he’s ambitious and proactive when he properly sets his mind to something, and he’s able to bring out the more mischievous and carefree side of people who might need it.
I also think part of why Lisa chose Milhouse is because he makes her feel superior. We've seen countless times that Lisa cannot handle competition. She has a pathological need to be the best. Milhouse is never going to challenge her.
@@PlanetZoidstar This is actually one of my favourite negative traits in Lisa, and it also perfectly explains why every future with Milhouse has Lisa basically miserable. Competition and not being effectively the one in control is something Lisa can’t handle, but NEEDS. Her pairing with Nelson works perfectly and seems to yield happy endings because thats exactly what Nelson can do; he can challenge her and he can be proactive. It’s the part of her life that needs change, because she wouldn’t grow without facing it, and Milhouse would ultimately keep her stuck in a rut that she’d never escape, while Nelson can be the one to help her push forward in life, bc his character can give her an actual challenge in life.
I've always wondered why _The Milhouse Curse_ seems to spill over into the real world. His voice actor, Pamela Hayden, arguably has as much to do on the show as Hank Azaria. Milhouse is featured more frequently than either Moe or Wiggum. And Hayden is also Jimbo, Janey, and Lois Pennycandy. And yet, Hank somehow made it onto that plinth of tier-1 non-family feature players. While Pamela is trapped on tier 2, with the expendable Maggie Roswell, and the late lamented Minnie Mouse. (Not to mention Matt Groening's favourite, the under-appreciated, cat-loving Babs Bunny.) And I have one thing to say to that: _Boo-urns!_
The only characters people cared about are Homer and Bart. In the past decade, Lisa has gotten more popular but thats because of the tumblr crowd and she is socially awkward like them
I think what this video helped me realize is that I can not think of a moment where I didn't like Milhouse being in a scene. That dorky optimism is always fun to have around. Even my favorite secondary character, moe, has some scenes that I can't stand, but for Milhouse, I am always happy to see him.
I think Milhouse does work by just being a dork. If you made him any more sympathetic you'd start to feel sorry for him and sap out a lot of the humor that comes directly from his obliviousness and lack of impact. I know Simpsons has plenty of characters that started off as jokes that had more depth added to them, like Moe, but sometimes, I think it's fine to just have someone fit the role of a type of kid you know, that's kind of pathetic and not much else.
@@CleaveTheDragon Damn yall cold as fuck. I have never really laughed at millhouse being straight-up bullied like he often is. I can't really see such a role being necessary at all. Make him less one sided lmao
This one hit pretty damn hard for me, because I lived the Milhouse life. I was weak, sickly, picked on constantly, and even looked like him, but with a more reasonable nose. My dynamic with my best friend was the same as with Bart, and the love interest with Lisa was similar. I had a girl who loved me, only to have her taken away by family, just like Samantha Stanky. Hell, even my parents' separation was pretty bad. My friend started calling me The Dud and Poindexter, because we watched Simpsons constantly, back when it was on 4 times a weekday. It was pretty shitty, considering, just like Marge said, we were all we had. So, eventually, I became a moody loner, which actually got me some girlfriends. Things got better when I finally moved out of that shitty city. I made a life for myself with a good job and a woman who loves me---reunited with my personal Samantha Stanky again! Everything's coming up Thrillhouse!
I think you have actually managed to ruin the character for me. I don’t know if I will be able to look at him again without thinking about how bad you had it. I already had mixed feelings about how the character was treated but this may have sealed the deal. I am glad that things are better and that you managed to get away from all of that at least 🙂
I feel like Bart and Milhouse's relationship can be summed up with this line from "The Bart Wants What it Wants": "He's my best friend because...well...geographical convenience really."
Regular sized Rudy from's bob's burgers is the perfected Milhouse. He fills a lot of the same spaces: The naughty main characters best friend, divorced parents with a lot of jokes at the dad's expense, always tries and is a dork. But the story treats him so much better and gives him a lot more depth, I think everyone has loved Rudy since the beginning and his big spotlight episode that recently came out with his divorced parents was so beautiful.
What's interesting there is that Rudy wasn't even originally Louise's sidekick, but the writers switched to him after they realized her added far more to her than the Pesto Twins could. Meanwhile, I struggle to think of a moment in Classic where Milhouse actually, genuinely benefitted Bart in a meaningful way.
@@rainspectre3153 I will say there have been times that "benefitted" Bart in a meaningful way when you just consider friendship is meaningful. Boy Scoutz 'n the Hood show a real nice friendship and I just love the scenes where they are just playing around like kids in cut aways, like when they dress up in marges clothes and jump on the bed, just very silly fun. I think that friendship is valuable. I'd definitely mark Milhouse as benefiting Bart more then the twins ever benefited Louis unless she's exploiting them haha. Rudy really was the perfect addition though.
I think this sums it up: "Well, I can't defend everything he does... but let's face it. All Bart and Milhouse have is each other. They're too young for girls... and they're a popular target for bullies... and in the Christmas pageant, they're always sheep. Please, please, let them be friends." - Marge, S03E05 - Homer Defined
I think the main issue is that Bart is heavily defined by his relationship with others rather than his own belief in himself, and Bart heavily oscillates on how popular he is. How Bart treats Milhouse immediately defines where on the scale he is at the moment, whether they're two mutual misfits, whether Bart is a popular kid that Milhouse is his number one minion, and whether Bart has been entirely forsaken by all other kids. The writers jump around between Bart being an aspirational most popular kid and Bart being a normal everyman kid, and so Milhouse must jump around to set that up every episode. There's also a history of making jokes about childhood friendships by blatantly repurposing romance tropes, and Milhouse does that a lot
Lisa and Milhouse (especially as adults) are victims of the same problem that has plagued Homer and Marge, Skinner and Krabapple, and nearly every other romantic adult relationship on the show: the writers find a dysfunctional relationship funnier and more interesting than a happy one. It's an easy crutch to lean on for conflict and jokes.
After season 8 it feels like they can't write any new male characters that aren't loser alcoholics or deadbeats and they can't write women who have normal human flaws.
Yes he's going down the same road his dad went down although I do like that episode when he confronts Lisa and tells her you don't like me and you don't want nobody else to like me so how miserable do I have to be to make you happy.
the writers often pit lisa marrying milhouse as her bad end but honestly i think its both of their bad ends. like man, that kid needs to move on and find someone who actually loves him.
The whole Milhouse-Lisa thing just plain sucks no matter what side of it you're one. It's not even like a "Friend-zone" situation where Milhouse and Lisa have friendship but Milhouse happened to develop feelings based on that, its just Milhouse constant simping (ironic) for Liza for no real reason, and Liza only ever desiring when he's not himself, or when he's with another girl. If you like Milhouse, you have to watch him be constantly rejected, often in especially humiliating ways, as well as cope with the fact the he's uncomfortably close to a "nice guy". It almost comes across as the show retroactively trying to justify dumping on him so much. If you like Liza, you have to watch her be targeted by someone who she clearly wants nothing to do with, as well as cope with the fact that she's apparently the type of girl to string guys along to prop up her own fragile self worth since she seethes whenever Milhouse respects himself enough to stop chasing her. It's like the show wants to have its cake and eat it too, it so desperately insist they belong together but doing so would imply that Milhouse is anything other than the "dud" so they add this weird caveat where Liza is ends up marred to Milhouse but cant actually love or even value him, the worst of both worlds.
Millhouse has always been one of my favorite characters and honestly I think it's because he's pretty relatable to people who were kinda losers/nerds growing up. Fuck the future episodes, I think Millhouse is the kind of person that would end up being a genuinely cool person when they grow up. In my experience people who dealt with a lot of bullshit as kids tend to end up becoming very empathetic and resilient people because of it.
I think one of the big issues with the Lisa and Milhouse storyline is that we have moved on from the whole "dogged nice guy persuing the un-interested girl" thing as a storytelling method. It's not fun to watch someone constantly chasing someone who is in no way interested in them, not to mention that it sets a very bad standard for actual social interactions. If someone is not interested in you, stop chasing them.
Yeah, I don't get the writers need to have him pine over Lisa. I mean, he got a second girlfriend in one episode, and even that didn't last because they had Lisa insert herself in a ruined it, then give him a kiss, which just makes him like her again
I never thought about that Marge and Milhouse comparison before. That's pretty potent. It gives a peak into how Bart thinks the rest of Springfield thinks of him.
Bob’s Burgers of all shows recently did a really good episode about a child and their parents’ divorce. In a similar vein to Milhouse they really only used it for gags before so seeing it taken so seriously was kind of an emotional gut punch. And on top of that it was episode *two* of the latest season. But yeah, I think it was really effective at what it set out to do and sticks out to me as probably the best episode of the show.
Tbh bobs burgers is the ONLY show I’d trust to do an episode about divorce. Rudy is an amazing character and that episode was so cute and grounded. Not surprising at all imo bobs burgers is still going strong
27:40 Let's be fair a lot of characters would benefit from moving away from Springfield. I actually dislike the episode with Hank Scorpio not because I dislike Scorpio(Love him!) but because Marge, Lisa and Bart's complaints are all stupid and short term things(Homer called it right! And it's rare for Homer to be 100% right! Lisa's complaint can be dealt with allergy suppressants like Pirton, Marge's complaint can be dealt with her finding a hobby or volunteer work and Bart.....well he's the reason I bring this example up, Springfield Elementary failed him, simple as, I don't disagree that going to Learning support classes(I'm autistic I know how grading those classes were back then) can be trying but maybe he could have applied himself and gotten Lisa to help him. Springfield tells Lisa off for being an activist(Nearly got her killed in the movie because they couldn't tell that dumping rubbish in the lake was a bad idea and then when one person pushed the lake over the edge, they tried to murder her!), Springfield is a toxic and terrible place and many people in the show would be better a million miles away from it(Maybe a giant crater is what the town deserves!)
That's the thing with "status quo" shows. They have to hit the reset button at the end of the episode (there's no more show if the Simpsons just live happily ever after in a new town) even if their excuse for doing so is kinda bullshit.
He's actually one of the more realistic characters in the show. An only child who had come from an unhappy, broken home really would struggle with self esteem and confidence the way Milhouse does.
I think we have enough evidence that Lisa is attracted to bad boy jerks after Lisa's Date with Density or her crush on the surly teen who works at the library, so seeing her fall for abusive, aloof Milhouse actually makes sense. As does Milhouse being too nice to keep up the act, losing her in the process.
Milhouse is a borderline "nice guy" who thinks being really pushy will make someone love you, but Lisa is kinda toxic too. She often leads Milhouse on, because it feeds her ego, and having someone devoted to you is better than being alone and unwanted. My guess is that Milhouse kinda served as Lisa's "practice boyfriend" for a while until she found someone better, but that never happened (or those relationships didn't last) and eventually she just gave up and married him.
You know, I kinda....really dislike the idea that Lisa ultimately ends up in a toxic and emotionally abusive marriage. Wasn't she supposed to be someone "above" Springfield?
That feels like an overly negative interpretation of the character not really congruent with how she is in the classic era. (Which is what I mostly focus on)@@matti.8465
@@matti.8465I wonder, then, if Future Milhouse is all Future Lisa would have left after everyone else is tired of her superiority shtick. Like, I don’t recall Lisa having friends in those future stories, while Bart at least keeps Milhouse or Ralph, and aside from her becoming president, I don’t think she leaves Springfield in them. After so many years antagonizing or isolating every other child in Springfield, she’d have no other choice than Milhouse or an exchange student. Her future marriages are just resignation than any initial feeling of attraction she may have had. And suddenly, The Simpsons turns into Moral Orel…
Nelson is a jerk and a bully, but often reveals they have a softer side. Milhouse, meanwhile, is always friendly and helpful ... until they have the upper hand, whereupon they reveal their hidden jerk side. I think we, as viewers, are inclined to put more weight on a character's hidden side as being their "true" or most important self, which does no favors for Milhouse.
Fun fact: at the time of the pilot, Nixon had left office only 16 years prior. It would be the equivalent of today calling a character W. to mock Bush.
Oh my God, that scene where Milhouse is trying to do the magic trick and the cat in the box senses and freaks out about the cat in his hat is literally one of the best moments of comedy I've seen in my entire life. Even when you just show the still frame from it, I couldn't help but actually bust out laughing while thinking about it. If ANYTHING is pure comedy gold, it's that scene.
All the bits with Bart's casino are great. I really like how the audience for Milhouse's magic show claps when the cats start attacking him because let's be real, kids that age are going to be as excited to see a kid get scratched up in the middle of a couple cats fighting as they are for a magic show.
I loved that so much as a kid and would reenact when me and my sister would mess around with each other making up different dialogue since we didn't understand english that much lmfao
I think it's great how you go from highlighting the Milhouse/Lisa relationship, but then go on to reveal that _Bart_ is the one who truly loves him. The thing is, despite the lopsided dynamic, Bart and Milhouse are kindred spirits who have more in common than even they realize. My favorite is when Marge vouches on Bart's behalf to Luanne, who points out how they're both always picked last for sports or always end up playing sheep in the Christmas pageant. They're both loners who need each other.
I never minded the bart/millhouse dynamic as much as the Lisa/millhouse dynamic But I never had put into words why that was. Thanks for that. People who hate on Lisa will focus a lot on her know-it-all attitude, or her politics, etc.... But when I dislike the Lisa the most, it always has to do with her treatment of people she views as inferior. Millhouse being the primary example. I know a lot of people who mistreated their friends intermittently as kids or pre-teens, but I don't associate with anyone who would marry someone they felt was inferior and boss them around and have emotional affairs as an adult.
I would prefer if they somehow brought Samantha back as a background character, that way we'd have room for more stories while finally breaking that Lisa storyline.
I'm surprised that you didn't mention him in the Das Bus episode on discussing why he's not liked very much by the audience. His performance on that episode was pretty much a character assassination on him, he was utterly unlikable all the way through.
Das Bus (and Radioactive Man) got minimized a lot because they didn't easily fall into the 3 subtopics. Looking back, I wish I had referenced them more because they have something to add to the audience's connection with him (Basically the video was getting really long, lol)
@@TheRealJims man people watched a 4 and a half hour video about a pretty messed up niche game called cruelty squad, I think people would watch this same video with an extra 5-10 minutes added on.
I've always felt like the divorce was a screw the audience joke to mess with the expectation that everything would return to status quo by the end of that episode. Then the expectation that all future writing involving Milhouse would have to take it into account and they were like, "Oh. This is why everyone does episodic status quo"
I think people like Milhouse for the same reason people like Charlie Brown. They're both people who get absolutely dumped on by life, yet they refuse to let it break them. Milhouse will never give up, and because of that we as the audience know that he'll always have that slim chance of actually making it work. Also it's hilarious to watch him suffer.
I think they need to do a Milhouse episode where you follow him through a standard day in his life, with a very low-stakes story that might actually happen to a fourth grade kid, maybe introduce a rival for this ONE EPISODE. Maybe a Milhouse analog without glasses that has red hair instead of blue, and acts very confident and has friends. An anti-Milhouse, but he's actually still boring and pointless. While the episode plays out, you only ever catch glimpses of other more important characters going through more standard wacky Springfield Shenanigans where there is enough happening in the background that you can piece together that something WAY MORE INTERESTING is happening to the town and main cast. Then, the story actually becomes REALLY interesting in the last 4-5 minutes and the stakes go up, but then the entire situation deflates instantly as the main cast resolves their hidden plot and the anti-Milhouse gets thrown into a wood-chipper and nobody notices or cares except Milhouse. He goes to tell Bart what a wild day he has and Bart shuts him down immediately because his story is boring and he's bad at telling it. Then, next season, we see the actual episode the main cast was enacting in the background and you catch glimpses of Milhouse's much more mundane story from the previous season.
I've wanted a Simpsons Future episode that's focused on Milhouse for a long time. A proper exploration of how a kid like this could grow up to be someone who can stand on his own two feet with confidence would be the most heartwarming shit of all time. You could literally call it "Coming Up Milhouse".
You know if they absolutely must do the Lisa-Milhouse future pairing. An episode with them coming to terms with the fact that their incompatible and divorcing but ending on good terms and growing as people could actually work really well. They'd be progressing as characters rather than poisoning one another.
I swear to God that most times I think The Simpsons is a pro-bullying cartoon. Making seem like that a lot of abuse situations meant to be are funny or something. I don't want to be or sound like a drama queen or anything, but this video moved a lot of bullying and outcasting memories and I needed to get that out of my chest. Maybe I don't have to much of a sense of humour or maybe I'm not that smart to spot the satire, but there are some things about this show that I'm still not sure what's it's point, because sometimes it seem to be against some kind of behaviour and then, throw away all that in some next episode by making it seem something funny, and even encourage it. I don't know.
I always empathized with Milhouse as a kid. I always identified with his low charisma and self confidence but his inability to not be himself; I don't think I was usually the cool one as a boy. I'm a bit different now, but I'll always remember what it feels like to relate to Milhouse!
Same here. It's bad for Lisa (who is weighed down/held back from greatness) and Milhouse (who is just reduced to a clone of Kirk because the writers don't know what else to do with him).
I think there's humor in the idea of him being a late bloomer and actually turning out to be a good guy, but they just keep making him Kirk, which isn't funny at all. I get that Lisa love interests tend to be really one-note and uninteresting, so using Milhouse sort of makes sense to avoid that, but they don't *earn* the joke and just get lazy.
Milhouse is my wife's favorite character lol. Her favorite joke jnvolving him is the episode where Bart turns into a nerd and he looks into his glasses after Bart looks into his and he realizes he's a nerd too. I don't know why but it really hits for her haha.
This video made me realize how many of my favorite one-liners from the show are Milhouse-related… “You got the dud,” “She’s with the ‘house now,” “Everything’s comin’ up Milhouse,” “Nobody loves Milhouse” At least the writers give him *some* love by surrounding him with fantastic lines?
To be honest, I think a really good concept would be Bart & Milhouse start off with a large schoolyard fight, and Milhouse starts hanging out with someone like Martin more to calm down after the fight. This way, there’s an evenness between how dorky they are. Milhouse is content and confident with Martin. Maybe a scene where Martin is playing with puppy Goo-Good, and Milhouse is playing with the seal toy Martin & Bart built. Being alone eats at Bart to where he starts acting out towards them, and then eventually turns into him being confronted by Milhouse and Martin demanding more respect after how often they help him. We’ve seen the jealous Milhouse plot for Lisa w/Kristen Schaal’s character, but I feel like this would be a more organic concept of that story. The Martin-respect plot pulls slightly from Boyz in the Highlands, but if kept at a schoolhouse level, could really capture that energy of Bart growing and maturing that we used to see between 2-9.
I gotta say while I don't care that much about millhouses as a character emotionally but he's so relatable I can't help think sometimes "come on why did you have to do that to him he's not Kirk"
9:45 can't blame Lisa for getting milhouse killed in the sacajaweathing. Milhouse was playing charboneau who was less her husband and more just the greasy Frenchman who owned her
I hate absolutely 100% of the Lisa Milhouse stuff. It's not in Lisa's character to like him at all. It's for that reason I refuse to think of anything in the future as canon. I want to pitch a Simpsons spin-off so bad that would do future Simpsons right.
I didn't mind the Milhouse having unrequited feelings for Lisa. But after so many seasons of having him pine for her and getting rejected has worn out its welcome. Thats why I enjoyed "Bart's Friend Gets A Girlfriend" because its one of the few times he likes a girl that isn't Lisa. (Though this was the early seasons when he didn't have that crush on her yet). Same with "Homer Scissorhands until Lisa ruined it. Kinda coincidence that both episodes featured him being in a relationship and having both the Simpson siblings ruined it out of Jealousy. It shows that there are girls like Samantha, Taffy ams Janey (If that "No One Likes Milhouse" gag is to be believed) out there that like him for him and that he doesn't need to go after Lisa. Maybe one day the writers will do for him what they did for Comicbook Guy, Moe and Willy, and give him a win, but that's doubtful
Milhouse is probably my favourite character in the series, aside from Lionel Hutz. He's such a wonderful combination of relatable, pathetic, resilient and endearing. If there's a scene with him and Bart, in almost every case I'll find Milhouse to have the funnier moments/lines.
When doing the Season 17 vid last year and seeing the Italian Milhouse B-plot, it made me realize I have never really talked about Milhouse. I've been doing long-form videos for like 5 years. I've made 2 different Nelson videos. But nothing about Bart's Friend. So I wanted to figure out why I haven't really connected with Milhouse as a character.
(And then it accidentally turned into my longest video essay.) 🤣
You should do a Simpsons History on Apu
@@giovanniorellana2200I agree
Or CB guy
@@giovanniorellana2200 At this point it might as well be an Apu memorial
@@bobkerr2755exactly, I also find it interesting that Mulhouse is white and they hate him, kinda consistent with the governments politics of the day isn't it ?
You could even call him an incel, and yet, unlike Apu nobody is going to demand they change it to accommodate their feelings ...
I wonder why ? Don't you think it interesting? I do ? Heck his voiced by a woman !!!! Why aren't people demanding a white male voice the character now ? Hmmmmm
Remember the time he ate my goldfish, and you lied to me and said I never had any goldfish?
Then why’d I have the bowl, Bart?
Why did I have the bowl?
Simpsons Mysteries: Why did he have the bowl?
“You we’re collecting small objects, and the bowl was convenient for that!”
my favorite part about that joke is that bart perceives that as a fond memory
@@NyQuilDonutconclusion: amnesia induced purchases
Favourite milhouse quote 😊
It shows how "out of time" The Simpsons is in the 2020's when you remember Millhouse is a caricature of Paul Pfeiffer from _The Wonder Years_ and is named for Richard Milhous Nixon.
I thought that the first time I saw Milhouse, having seen that Wonder Years kid before.
Like how the gang from Scooby Doo are plays on characters from The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, except nobody remembers The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis while Scooby Doo outlived it and still matters half a century later.
@@nessesaryschoolthing Pretty much.
@@nessesaryschoolthing
”JOB!?!?”
- Maynard G Krebs
@nessesaryschoolthing Tho in the case of Scooby-Doo it helps its characters archetypes still exist, Coward, Smart, Leader, and Hot Girl, sure they have had more characterize over the years, but in their simplest form that is who they are
Willie's rant about brothers and sisters in the episode where bart's friend leaves lives free in my head, the italian dub sold it soo well
"Fratelli e sorelle sono nemici per natura"
DAMN SCOTS, THEY RUINED SCOTLAND
does he speak Italian in a Scottish accent? what's the Luigi character like in Italian?
@@aidanpeterbio funny story, he has a sardinian accent. Most of the simpsons characters in the italian dub have a specific italian accent.
Luigi speaks in naepolitan accent like wiggum
@@aidanpeterbio Willie has a sardinian accent with a bit of Yoda speech sometimes lmfao
Like "Losing my job you made me, kill you I will!"
Imagine me, watching a RealJims video that isn't 4 years old. I'm here for it!
You got the dud
Hey, he looks like you, Poindexter!
@@ExecutiveSondaStand up for yourself, Poindexter!
😶😐🙂😀
Let’s be honest here we have all felt like Milhouse at some point in our lives
Milhouse is weird because he's directly impacted by Bart's extreme level of inconsistency at school. Sometimes Bart is extremely popular, sometimes he's unpopular. Sometimes he's scared of Nelson, sometimes he's best buds with Nelson. Sometimes Bart's only friend is Milhouse and they're twin loners, sometimes Bart's only friend is milhouse but it's clear Bart is using him and "wears the pants", sometimes all of the boys are mutual friends with specific dynamics. Bart's inconsistent characterization forces Milhouse to be maligned because who he is relative to Bart and the other boys changes drastically even when he himself hasn't changed.
That's kind of the life of a teenage boy.
Say what you will, main character syndrome is pretty common between 9-15.
Woah
@@travismcnasty4239Have you even been to high school? Most normal people don't have bipolar friendships.
Milhouse is crazy spineless. Even Martin has stood his ground against Bart in his stand out episodes. Milhouse does that too, but not all too often.
I guess a lot can happen when you go to the same elementary school for 35 years
Milhouse's highest point in Simpsons history will always be him entering his name into bonestorm, "Thrillhouse"
*Thrillho
Highest point was tricking me into thinking "Everything's coming up Milhouse!" was an actual expression for bad situations with some minor good in them, so all these last few years ive been exclaiming "Everything's coming up Milhouse!" only for no one to know what the hell I'm talking about.
Welcome Thrillho
“Mom barts swearing!”
If you can't handle him at his Milpool, you don't deserve him at his Thrillho.
Milhouse’s greatest W will always be that .25 seconds that acknowledged him as a Master Builder in the Lego Movie.
Fun fact: In the Lego movie the video game when they show that scene from the movie they actually blur Milhouse out!(I assume they didn't bother to get the rights)And so the balance of the universe was restored.
@@FormalGibble Remember that time that I was in the lego movie, but you lied to me and said that I was never in the movie? Then why was there a blur in the video game Bart? Why was there a blur?
*h u h ?*
FUN FACT: Colin, the Irish boy that Lisa has a crush on in the movie, was originally going to be Milhouse, but test audiences for an early version of the film "didn't know who he was"
Which is hilarious since he's a pretty big wheel in Bart episodes.
straight white male
and this is why test audiences suck.
Didn't know who he was...so they put someone that nobody would know instead???
Can't wait for the 45 minute Brain Dump episode defending Milhouse.
If you can't handle me at my Milpool you don't deserve me at my Thrillhouse
MilpooL_____
200th like
Thrillho*
Gold standard post
Favorite joke with Milhouse was when Bart got him on the most wanted list.... somehow.
Though Milhouse was somehow able to outrun the FBI more than once (“oh no, not again!” he replies when he’s at school).
Oh no, not again....
I'm telling you, I didn't do anything.
@@Killermike2178I don’t care
@@PeacefulZealot 'jumps into the depths' My glasses!!
Kirk is special from a writer's perspective, because Milhouse is already "The Loser", so to have a character who is A Loser TO the Loser is important.
so this is my life... at least I'm doing better than dad
I really like that they sometimes don't even say his name and just call him "Bart's friend".
Kirk is Bart's friend dad
You might have internalised a TheRealJims running joke there (based on a real episode title)
Homer once referred to him as “the little wiener, who always has his hands in his pockets”…or at least I think he was taking about Milhouse.
@@princessmarlena1359Milton
Or that weirdo or like in Lisa's sax abou who seems to act homsexul
But his mom says he's cool!
We know she doesn't mean that. It's just something she says to foist him off on Kirk.
@@mitchfletcher2386his dad is a big deal at the cracker factory tbf
Next!
Milhouse mom is cool. She parties
Well she’s wrong!
My favorite Milhouse bit, the one that I think sums up his entire character the best, is actually from that one cowboy episode that people hate for whatever reason.
When Bart goes missing, Milhouse asks if anyone wants to be his new friend. Ralph then sits next to him and Milhouse says "Perfect! Now I'll finally be the one in charge!" Ralph then bluntly tells him to shut up and he sadly complies.
That's Milhouse right there, the absolute bottom of the pecking order.
Damn, that's brutal.
Jesus I forgot about that
Milhouse: "Yes! Finally, I'll be the dominant one."
Ralph: "Be quiet."
Milhouse: "Yes, master..."
"Everything is coming up millhouse" is one of my favorite lines in all of Simpsons one of the top 10
"Hey, they're working! My feet are soaked, but my cuffs are bone-dry!"
My mom and I both say that whenever either of us is experiencing a streak of good luck.
That and "Remember [insert character here]? He's back, in pog form!" are definitely two lines that I quote way too often. They're just downright iconic.
It's metaphoric to his life in general. His life is so lame that he is happy to have dry cuffs amidst the obvious setback of having completely soaked feet.
@@FunnyLittleFella the character was Alf
The slow realization by Homer, when Bart picks "The Dud" card, when Bart, Homer, Milhouse and Marge are playing the board game at the Flander's beach house, will always get me 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
He looks like you, Poindexter...
@@bazblackadder Stand up for yourself Poindexter
Idk, that scene felt kinda mean-spirited.
The closest Milhouse gets to a spotlight episode is probablt when he becomes Fallout Boy
He does have to share the spot light with Bart, but he has his own arc regarding the pressures of fame.
Jimmy Jiliquers.
The goggles do nothing
Milhouse is arguably one of the most influential characters of the whole series because he’s the only one to have a successful band named after him
Milhouse already has his spotlight. Remember that time when he reincarnated into Butters?
Guess who Likes You
*Nelson looks around*
*Milhouse raises eyebrows*
*cut to a bloody Milhouse on stretcher being taken to Ambulance*
“Milhouse I’m so sorry”
“He can’t hear you now, we had to pack his ears with gauze”
I absolutely love the visual style of your editing. It feels so lively while only using screenshots
totally agree with this
I like it too but I sometimes wish he could put some short clips in to add more context
@@aidanpeterbioI think the content id system would pick up pretty quickly if he used clips and audio. either that or fox lawyers...
@@aidanpeterbio I'd rather not have the Fox Nauts storm his channel because of bs thank you very much
It is a nice way to sidestep youtube's copyright BS.
Milhouse might not have any cool moments, but Thrillhouse is like Max Power amplified by 1000.
or Chillhouse, or if he's barbecuing he could be Grillhouse
Thrillho? That's guy's just the dud.
Milhouse DESRVES 2 spaghetti meals
He's going to puke it out, it's as much for his sake as it is for ours.
Season 8 Episode 4
Burns: You food bag, do you have a son?
Homer: Yes Sir I do.
Burns: And is he a consent disappointment, does he bring home nitwits and make you talk with them.
Homer: Oh all the time, have you ever heard of this kid Milhouse, he's this little wiener ....
Homer constantly calling Milhouse a "wiener kid" always gets me laughing.
Milhouse says a lot of wacky things, but the 'How miserable do I have to be until you're happy' monologue is legitimately devastating
I feel like the ideal happy ending for Milhouse is that he grows up and finds a girl dud who inexplicably has the exact same face as him and they go on to live an utterly unremarkable, boring life where he's the third best middle manager in the second best performing division at Generic Co. Because I think that's ultimately what defines Milhouse - He's just a very unremarkable guy who lacks the ambition or vision to do anything particularly remarkable, but that doesn't have to be a bad thing.
Just don't have him hook up with Lisa. Absolutely no one wants that.
As a society, we need people like Milhouse
That sounds just like his parents (with a more unattractive mother)
@@waltergilman3998my friend, that's most people
Like honestly, let Milhouse be kind of a loser who is acc pretty content with being kind of a loser. It’s not a glamorous life, but its a real one and that doesn’t have to suck. He makes his money, has a nice family, and just helps the world go round.
I always read Lisa’s thing with Milhouse as a sins of the father dynamic where as much as Bart and Lisa are their own people and have the potential to forge their own paths, they both also contain the self destructive elements of their parents. Like Homer, Bart is lazy and lacks impulse control and much like Marge, Lisa is very precocious and active but struggles with internal melancholy and her compulsion to fix things. I can see Lisa convincing herself to fall for Milhouse initially out of compassion and respect for his loyalty only to resign herself to a life as his caregiver and as someone who can’t challenge her emotionally because she’s already constantly doing it to herself (think of who that sounds like). At the same time, this is what I think is fascinating about paring her with Nelson. Like Homer, he’s lazy, lacks impulse control, and tends to not be the best with people, but he also has some of Homer’s best qualities you don’t see in Milhouse. He’s innately compassionate, shows genuine respect for those he feels have earned it (like Lisa), he’s ambitious and proactive when he properly sets his mind to something, and he’s able to bring out the more mischievous and carefree side of people who might need it.
i never thought about it this way, this was so interesting to read !
I also think part of why Lisa chose Milhouse is because he makes her feel superior.
We've seen countless times that Lisa cannot handle competition. She has a pathological need to be the best. Milhouse is never going to challenge her.
Nah, Lisa only uses Millhouse as rebound.
@@PlanetZoidstarShe wants the cake and eat it too.
@@PlanetZoidstar This is actually one of my favourite negative traits in Lisa, and it also perfectly explains why every future with Milhouse has Lisa basically miserable. Competition and not being effectively the one in control is something Lisa can’t handle, but NEEDS. Her pairing with Nelson works perfectly and seems to yield happy endings because thats exactly what Nelson can do; he can challenge her and he can be proactive. It’s the part of her life that needs change, because she wouldn’t grow without facing it, and Milhouse would ultimately keep her stuck in a rut that she’d never escape, while Nelson can be the one to help her push forward in life, bc his character can give her an actual challenge in life.
I've always wondered why _The Milhouse Curse_ seems to spill over into the real world. His voice actor, Pamela Hayden, arguably has as much to do on the show as Hank Azaria. Milhouse is featured more frequently than either Moe or Wiggum. And Hayden is also Jimbo, Janey, and Lois Pennycandy.
And yet, Hank somehow made it onto that plinth of tier-1 non-family feature players. While Pamela is trapped on tier 2, with the expendable Maggie Roswell, and the late lamented Minnie Mouse. (Not to mention Matt Groening's favourite, the under-appreciated, cat-loving Babs Bunny.)
And I have one thing to say to that: _Boo-urns!_
Hey, on that note, have Martin or Sherri and Terri had any spoken lines since Taylor died? If so, who did them?
To be fair Moe is pretty top tier as far as side characters go
@@Marbles471Well, now they're voiced by Grey DeLisle Griffin. And yes, they've spoken plenty of times since then.
@@mitchfletcher2386Heck, Martin Prince got a spotlight episode a few years ago with Bart. I guess DeLisle made a good impression on everyone
The only characters people cared about are Homer and Bart. In the past decade, Lisa has gotten more popular but thats because of the tumblr crowd and she is socially awkward like them
I think what this video helped me realize is that I can not think of a moment where I didn't like Milhouse being in a scene. That dorky optimism is always fun to have around. Even my favorite secondary character, moe, has some scenes that I can't stand, but for Milhouse, I am always happy to see him.
im the opposite cause i cant remember a scene where ive liked seeing him
Put that way, he's kind of like Zoidberg. "Hooray, people are paying attention to me!"
I think Milhouse does work by just being a dork. If you made him any more sympathetic you'd start to feel sorry for him and sap out a lot of the humor that comes directly from his obliviousness and lack of impact. I know Simpsons has plenty of characters that started off as jokes that had more depth added to them, like Moe, but sometimes, I think it's fine to just have someone fit the role of a type of kid you know, that's kind of pathetic and not much else.
@@CleaveTheDragon Damn yall cold as fuck. I have never really laughed at millhouse being straight-up bullied like he often is. I can't really see such a role being necessary at all. Make him less one sided lmao
@@olivercharles2930HOLY SHIT YES! I have finally found someone else with a similar opinion.
Lisa said Milhouse was like a big sister to her. That was nice.
I've been friend zoned before but never big sister zoned. Not sure how Milhouse survived hearing that from his crush
"Why does everyone keep saying that!?"
@@bobkerr2755the friends one isn't a thing tho. Someone not wanting to fuck you doesn't put you into any special zone, it's actually the default
“Sure thing! What are big sisters for?”
*10 seconds later*
“Oh I shouldn’t have said that”
@@DimT670 That's not what the friend zone is
This one hit pretty damn hard for me, because I lived the Milhouse life. I was weak, sickly, picked on constantly, and even looked like him, but with a more reasonable nose. My dynamic with my best friend was the same as with Bart, and the love interest with Lisa was similar. I had a girl who loved me, only to have her taken away by family, just like Samantha Stanky. Hell, even my parents' separation was pretty bad. My friend started calling me The Dud and Poindexter, because we watched Simpsons constantly, back when it was on 4 times a weekday. It was pretty shitty, considering, just like Marge said, we were all we had. So, eventually, I became a moody loner, which actually got me some girlfriends.
Things got better when I finally moved out of that shitty city. I made a life for myself with a good job and a woman who loves me---reunited with my personal Samantha Stanky again! Everything's coming up Thrillhouse!
I don't know whether to laugh or cry for you
@@something6833 Same
I think you have actually managed to ruin the character for me. I don’t know if I will be able to look at him again without thinking about how bad you had it.
I already had mixed feelings about how the character was treated but this may have sealed the deal.
I am glad that things are better and that you managed to get away from all of that at least 🙂
@@Shannon4710
(Maniacal Milhouse cackling)?
I feel like Bart and Milhouse's relationship can be summed up with this line from "The Bart Wants What it Wants": "He's my best friend because...well...geographical convenience really."
8:17 I did not need to know that there was a Milhouse wrist-cutting joke in the Simpsons but now... I know
To this day if something goes my way I say "Everything is coming up Milhouse!"
Regular sized Rudy from's bob's burgers is the perfected Milhouse.
He fills a lot of the same spaces: The naughty main characters best friend, divorced parents with a lot of jokes at the dad's expense, always tries and is a dork.
But the story treats him so much better and gives him a lot more depth, I think everyone has loved Rudy since the beginning and his big spotlight episode that recently came out with his divorced parents was so beautiful.
What's interesting there is that Rudy wasn't even originally Louise's sidekick, but the writers switched to him after they realized her added far more to her than the Pesto Twins could. Meanwhile, I struggle to think of a moment in Classic where Milhouse actually, genuinely benefitted Bart in a meaningful way.
@@rainspectre3153 I will say there have been times that "benefitted" Bart in a meaningful way when you just consider friendship is meaningful. Boy Scoutz 'n the Hood show a real nice friendship and I just love the scenes where they are just playing around like kids in cut aways, like when they dress up in marges clothes and jump on the bed, just very silly fun. I think that friendship is valuable. I'd definitely mark Milhouse as benefiting Bart more then the twins ever benefited Louis unless she's exploiting them haha. Rudy really was the perfect addition though.
I think this sums it up: "Well, I can't defend everything he does... but let's face it. All Bart and Milhouse have is each other. They're too young for girls... and they're a popular target for bullies... and in the Christmas pageant, they're always sheep. Please, please, let them be friends." - Marge, S03E05 - Homer Defined
I think the main issue is that Bart is heavily defined by his relationship with others rather than his own belief in himself, and Bart heavily oscillates on how popular he is. How Bart treats Milhouse immediately defines where on the scale he is at the moment, whether they're two mutual misfits, whether Bart is a popular kid that Milhouse is his number one minion, and whether Bart has been entirely forsaken by all other kids.
The writers jump around between Bart being an aspirational most popular kid and Bart being a normal everyman kid, and so Milhouse must jump around to set that up every episode.
There's also a history of making jokes about childhood friendships by blatantly repurposing romance tropes, and Milhouse does that a lot
The scene where Homer just straight up bullies a 10 year old is so insanely funny, I can't even...
22:57 Excuse me, aren't you forgetting a little incident with his flood pants? His shoes were soaked but his cuffs were bone dry
At that point, everything was coming up Milhouse
Lisa and Milhouse (especially as adults) are victims of the same problem that has plagued Homer and Marge, Skinner and Krabapple, and nearly every other romantic adult relationship on the show: the writers find a dysfunctional relationship funnier and more interesting than a happy one. It's an easy crutch to lean on for conflict and jokes.
After season 8 it feels like they can't write any new male characters that aren't loser alcoholics or deadbeats and they can't write women who have normal human flaws.
@@JimMilton-ej6zi I admit most of the times they DO try to make the girls more flawed following that era they do come off a bit eerily insane. :P
26:47 He was the night watchman, not the night keep the building from falling overman
Yes he's going down the same road his dad went down although I do like that episode when he confronts Lisa and tells her you don't like me and you don't want nobody else to like me so how miserable do I have to be to make you happy.
The thumbnail choice for this is incredible.
the writers often pit lisa marrying milhouse as her bad end but honestly i think its both of their bad ends. like man, that kid needs to move on and find someone who actually loves him.
The whole Milhouse-Lisa thing just plain sucks no matter what side of it you're one. It's not even like a "Friend-zone" situation where Milhouse and Lisa have friendship but Milhouse happened to develop feelings based on that, its just Milhouse constant simping (ironic) for Liza for no real reason, and Liza only ever desiring when he's not himself, or when he's with another girl.
If you like Milhouse, you have to watch him be constantly rejected, often in especially humiliating ways, as well as cope with the fact the he's uncomfortably close to a "nice guy". It almost comes across as the show retroactively trying to justify dumping on him so much.
If you like Liza, you have to watch her be targeted by someone who she clearly wants nothing to do with, as well as cope with the fact that she's apparently the type of girl to string guys along to prop up her own fragile self worth since she seethes whenever Milhouse respects himself enough to stop chasing her.
It's like the show wants to have its cake and eat it too, it so desperately insist they belong together but doing so would imply that Milhouse is anything other than the "dud" so they add this weird caveat where Liza is ends up marred to Milhouse but cant actually love or even value him, the worst of both worlds.
This guy said “simping (ironic)”
@@GolumTR fr
Man, these are a lot of feels for what's ultimately a goofy comedy show. Maybe the greatest goofy comedy show ever, but still a goofy comedy show.
Millhouse has always been one of my favorite characters and honestly I think it's because he's pretty relatable to people who were kinda losers/nerds growing up. Fuck the future episodes, I think Millhouse is the kind of person that would end up being a genuinely cool person when they grow up. In my experience people who dealt with a lot of bullshit as kids tend to end up becoming very empathetic and resilient people because of it.
I used to be a Milhouse, now I'm a Gil
I dunno man, all the bullshit gave me was a personality disorder
@@Tickerchicken Well yes that too
@@Tickerchicken I concur
I think one of the big issues with the Lisa and Milhouse storyline is that we have moved on from the whole "dogged nice guy persuing the un-interested girl" thing as a storytelling method. It's not fun to watch someone constantly chasing someone who is in no way interested in them, not to mention that it sets a very bad standard for actual social interactions. If someone is not interested in you, stop chasing them.
Yeah, I don't get the writers need to have him pine over Lisa. I mean, he got a second girlfriend in one episode, and even that didn't last because they had Lisa insert herself in a ruined it, then give him a kiss, which just makes him like her again
14:16
I don't think the writers ever intended for Milhouse to be a positive role model. Fictional characters are allowed to be arseholes.
I never thought about that Marge and Milhouse comparison before. That's pretty potent. It gives a peak into how Bart thinks the rest of Springfield thinks of him.
Bob’s Burgers of all shows recently did a really good episode about a child and their parents’ divorce. In a similar vein to Milhouse they really only used it for gags before so seeing it taken so seriously was kind of an emotional gut punch. And on top of that it was episode *two* of the latest season. But yeah, I think it was really effective at what it set out to do and sticks out to me as probably the best episode of the show.
Tbh bobs burgers is the ONLY show I’d trust to do an episode about divorce. Rudy is an amazing character and that episode was so cute and grounded. Not surprising at all imo bobs burgers is still going strong
Honesty, it wouldn't surprise me if Millhouse was an inspiration for the writers to make Rudy
27:40 Let's be fair a lot of characters would benefit from moving away from Springfield. I actually dislike the episode with Hank Scorpio not because I dislike Scorpio(Love him!) but because Marge, Lisa and Bart's complaints are all stupid and short term things(Homer called it right! And it's rare for Homer to be 100% right! Lisa's complaint can be dealt with allergy suppressants like Pirton, Marge's complaint can be dealt with her finding a hobby or volunteer work and Bart.....well he's the reason I bring this example up, Springfield Elementary failed him, simple as, I don't disagree that going to Learning support classes(I'm autistic I know how grading those classes were back then) can be trying but maybe he could have applied himself and gotten Lisa to help him. Springfield tells Lisa off for being an activist(Nearly got her killed in the movie because they couldn't tell that dumping rubbish in the lake was a bad idea and then when one person pushed the lake over the edge, they tried to murder her!), Springfield is a toxic and terrible place and many people in the show would be better a million miles away from it(Maybe a giant crater is what the town deserves!)
That's the thing with "status quo" shows. They have to hit the reset button at the end of the episode (there's no more show if the Simpsons just live happily ever after in a new town) even if their excuse for doing so is kinda bullshit.
He's actually one of the more realistic characters in the show. An only child who had come from an unhappy, broken home really would struggle with self esteem and confidence the way Milhouse does.
Aren't his parents cousins?
I think I heard that before, and also, come on, they got the exact same hair color and glasses, which still, messed up
21:35 toxic yaoi moment
“Unlike the breakup, this is not your fault” is such a raw line
In an alternate universe:
"Nobody's gay for Milhouse."
"Nobody likes Hans!"
Omg, I want Hey Arnold content!
13:02 not true she has a blue streak in her hair!
I think we have enough evidence that Lisa is attracted to bad boy jerks after Lisa's Date with Density or her crush on the surly teen who works at the library, so seeing her fall for abusive, aloof Milhouse actually makes sense. As does Milhouse being too nice to keep up the act, losing her in the process.
Milhouse is a borderline "nice guy" who thinks being really pushy will make someone love you, but Lisa is kinda toxic too. She often leads Milhouse on, because it feeds her ego, and having someone devoted to you is better than being alone and unwanted.
My guess is that Milhouse kinda served as Lisa's "practice boyfriend" for a while until she found someone better, but that never happened (or those relationships didn't last) and eventually she just gave up and married him.
You know, I kinda....really dislike the idea that Lisa ultimately ends up in a toxic and emotionally abusive marriage.
Wasn't she supposed to be someone "above" Springfield?
@@rainspectre3153 I mean, Lisa considers herself above everyone, but she also enjoys feeling superior. She likes being the big fish in a small pond
That feels like an overly negative interpretation of the character not really congruent with how she is in the classic era. (Which is what I mostly focus on)@@matti.8465
@@matti.8465I wonder, then, if Future Milhouse is all Future Lisa would have left after everyone else is tired of her superiority shtick. Like, I don’t recall Lisa having friends in those future stories, while Bart at least keeps Milhouse or Ralph, and aside from her becoming president, I don’t think she leaves Springfield in them. After so many years antagonizing or isolating every other child in Springfield, she’d have no other choice than Milhouse or an exchange student. Her future marriages are just resignation than any initial feeling of attraction she may have had.
And suddenly, The Simpsons turns into Moral Orel…
her brain talks too much;
stupid people are always happy
Nelson is a jerk and a bully, but often reveals they have a softer side. Milhouse, meanwhile, is always friendly and helpful ... until they have the upper hand, whereupon they reveal their hidden jerk side. I think we, as viewers, are inclined to put more weight on a character's hidden side as being their "true" or most important self, which does no favors for Milhouse.
This is so true!
This is always why I’ve disliked him! Whenever something turns and Milhouse gets popular he ends up being a jerk to pretty much everyone.
Milhouse is the Meatwad
I mean, as someone who's been bullied and beaten up as much as Milhouse, wouldn't you expect he go overboard with power and popularity if he had it?
Milhouse and Lisa getting together in the future episodes always came across as fanfiction to me.
Yeah, it could be because he was meant to be a one-off character for a Butterfinger's commercial.
Milhouse really is the greatest name for this character. I love the Richard Milhous Nixon name origin.
Fun fact: at the time of the pilot, Nixon had left office only 16 years prior. It would be the equivalent of today calling a character W. to mock Bush.
@@thibaud1832Honesty I can kinda see it, both have that voice and look that is just funny
''Bart's friend's friend Bart'' is brilliant wordsmithery
Nice doggy!
(pets horseshoe crab)
Oh my God, that scene where Milhouse is trying to do the magic trick and the cat in the box senses and freaks out about the cat in his hat is literally one of the best moments of comedy I've seen in my entire life. Even when you just show the still frame from it, I couldn't help but actually bust out laughing while thinking about it. If ANYTHING is pure comedy gold, it's that scene.
All the bits with Bart's casino are great. I really like how the audience for Milhouse's magic show claps when the cats start attacking him because let's be real, kids that age are going to be as excited to see a kid get scratched up in the middle of a couple cats fighting as they are for a magic show.
I loved that so much as a kid and would reenact when me and my sister would mess around with each other making up different dialogue since we didn't understand english that much lmfao
Bart’s casino is a really good b plot that works surprisingly well with a rather serious a plot.
A good summation of Milhouse reminds me of one of the classic 2006 4chan memes "Milhouse is not a meme"
Oh boy that is dated
14:24 that milhouse quote always hit different
I think it's great how you go from highlighting the Milhouse/Lisa relationship, but then go on to reveal that _Bart_ is the one who truly loves him.
The thing is, despite the lopsided dynamic, Bart and Milhouse are kindred spirits who have more in common than even they realize. My favorite is when Marge vouches on Bart's behalf to Luanne, who points out how they're both always picked last for sports or always end up playing sheep in the Christmas pageant. They're both loners who need each other.
If there’s any Simpson who should be with Milhouse, it’s Bart.
Look, at least for a short while he became a buff short-king.
That's something good for him I guess...?
And it didn't even last.
'Emotionally crippled mini-Hulk' is the description of him in the episode
@@taylorehlmao😂
I never minded the bart/millhouse dynamic as much as the Lisa/millhouse dynamic
But I never had put into words why that was.
Thanks for that.
People who hate on Lisa will focus a lot on her know-it-all attitude, or her politics, etc....
But when I dislike the Lisa the most, it always has to do with her treatment of people she views as inferior.
Millhouse being the primary example.
I know a lot of people who mistreated their friends intermittently as kids or pre-teens, but I don't associate with anyone who would marry someone they felt was inferior and boss them around and have emotional affairs as an adult.
I would prefer if they somehow brought Samantha back as a background character, that way we'd have room for more stories while finally breaking that Lisa storyline.
They kinda already have. Selman has expressed his personal dislike for Lisa romance plots on twitter.
Bart/Milhouse >>>> Lisa/Milhouse, canonize it already writers
I'm surprised that you didn't mention him in the Das Bus episode on discussing why he's not liked very much by the audience. His performance on that episode was pretty much a character assassination on him, he was utterly unlikable all the way through.
Das Bus (and Radioactive Man) got minimized a lot because they didn't easily fall into the 3 subtopics. Looking back, I wish I had referenced them more because they have something to add to the audience's connection with him
(Basically the video was getting really long, lol)
@@TheRealJimsI can listen to you discuss the simpsons for hours don’t be afraid to make a long video
@@TheRealJims man people watched a 4 and a half hour video about a pretty messed up niche game called cruelty squad, I think people would watch this same video with an extra 5-10 minutes added on.
I've always felt like the divorce was a screw the audience joke to mess with the expectation that everything would return to status quo by the end of that episode. Then the expectation that all future writing involving Milhouse would have to take it into account and they were like, "Oh. This is why everyone does episodic status quo"
Do remember Oakley/Weinstein thought the show was ending soon at that point anyway.
I think people like Milhouse for the same reason people like Charlie Brown. They're both people who get absolutely dumped on by life, yet they refuse to let it break them. Milhouse will never give up, and because of that we as the audience know that he'll always have that slim chance of actually making it work.
Also it's hilarious to watch him suffer.
Schulz army, represent
nobody likes milhouse, he's not even a meme
I was sort of neutral on Milhouse until they pushed him at Lisa. Then I started despising him. He’s just a pathetic jellyfish.
I think they need to do a Milhouse episode where you follow him through a standard day in his life, with a very low-stakes story that might actually happen to a fourth grade kid, maybe introduce a rival for this ONE EPISODE. Maybe a Milhouse analog without glasses that has red hair instead of blue, and acts very confident and has friends. An anti-Milhouse, but he's actually still boring and pointless.
While the episode plays out, you only ever catch glimpses of other more important characters going through more standard wacky Springfield Shenanigans where there is enough happening in the background that you can piece together that something WAY MORE INTERESTING is happening to the town and main cast.
Then, the story actually becomes REALLY interesting in the last 4-5 minutes and the stakes go up, but then the entire situation deflates instantly as the main cast resolves their hidden plot and the anti-Milhouse gets thrown into a wood-chipper and nobody notices or cares except Milhouse.
He goes to tell Bart what a wild day he has and Bart shuts him down immediately because his story is boring and he's bad at telling it.
Then, next season, we see the actual episode the main cast was enacting in the background and you catch glimpses of Milhouse's much more mundane story from the previous season.
When Lisa breaks up with Nelson, the episode ends with Thrillho jumping for joy (and strangling his dog)
0:30 Yes. His dog. It kissed him... Multiple times.
what dog?
I've wanted a Simpsons Future episode that's focused on Milhouse for a long time. A proper exploration of how a kid like this could grow up to be someone who can stand on his own two feet with confidence would be the most heartwarming shit of all time. You could literally call it "Coming Up Milhouse".
You know if they absolutely must do the Lisa-Milhouse future pairing. An episode with them coming to terms with the fact that their incompatible and divorcing but ending on good terms and growing as people could actually work really well. They'd be progressing as characters rather than poisoning one another.
Not enough Puppy Goo-Goo was talked about, Milhouses famous dog-toy dog
Fetch me a dream Puppy Goo Goo
I swear to God that most times I think The Simpsons is a pro-bullying cartoon. Making seem like that a lot of abuse situations meant to be are funny or something. I don't want to be or sound like a drama queen or anything, but this video moved a lot of bullying and outcasting memories and I needed to get that out of my chest. Maybe I don't have to much of a sense of humour or maybe I'm not that smart to spot the satire, but there are some things about this show that I'm still not sure what's it's point, because sometimes it seem to be against some kind of behaviour and then, throw away all that in some next episode by making it seem something funny, and even encourage it. I don't know.
I always empathized with Milhouse as a kid. I always identified with his low charisma and self confidence but his inability to not be himself; I don't think I was usually the cool one as a boy. I'm a bit different now, but I'll always remember what it feels like to relate to Milhouse!
Today's my 31st birthday. Seeing a new video made my day.
Happy birthday! 🎉
Happy birthday!
Happy Birthday!
Thank you guys
Happy Birthday!
Glad to see you finally giving an in-depth look to Bart's Friend.
Hey. Milhouse is a underdog champ.
"Looks like everythings turning up Milhouse!"
“This is where I come to cry” - Milhouse
I absolutely hate seeing Milhouse and Lisa married in the flash forward episodes. I wish the writers would stop doing that.
Same here. It's bad for Lisa (who is weighed down/held back from greatness) and Milhouse (who is just reduced to a clone of Kirk because the writers don't know what else to do with him).
I think there's humor in the idea of him being a late bloomer and actually turning out to be a good guy, but they just keep making him Kirk, which isn't funny at all. I get that Lisa love interests tend to be really one-note and uninteresting, so using Milhouse sort of makes sense to avoid that, but they don't *earn* the joke and just get lazy.
Milhouse is my wife's favorite character lol. Her favorite joke jnvolving him is the episode where Bart turns into a nerd and he looks into his glasses after Bart looks into his and he realizes he's a nerd too. I don't know why but it really hits for her haha.
This video made me realize how many of my favorite one-liners from the show are Milhouse-related… “You got the dud,” “She’s with the ‘house now,” “Everything’s comin’ up Milhouse,” “Nobody loves Milhouse”
At least the writers give him *some* love by surrounding him with fantastic lines?
To be honest, I think a really good concept would be Bart & Milhouse start off with a large schoolyard fight, and Milhouse starts hanging out with someone like Martin more to calm down after the fight. This way, there’s an evenness between how dorky they are. Milhouse is content and confident with Martin. Maybe a scene where Martin is playing with puppy Goo-Good, and Milhouse is playing with the seal toy Martin & Bart built. Being alone eats at Bart to where he starts acting out towards them, and then eventually turns into him being confronted by Milhouse and Martin demanding more respect after how often they help him.
We’ve seen the jealous Milhouse plot for Lisa w/Kristen Schaal’s character, but I feel like this would be a more organic concept of that story. The Martin-respect plot pulls slightly from Boyz in the Highlands, but if kept at a schoolhouse level, could really capture that energy of Bart growing and maturing that we used to see between 2-9.
I gotta say while I don't care that much about millhouses as a character emotionally but he's so relatable I can't help think sometimes "come on why did you have to do that to him he's not Kirk"
I am imagining a gag where God accidentally smites Milhouse and he's like "Dang it, I was gonna hit Kirk!"
You have reached companion level 0 with Milhouse:
🎉Congratulations!🎉
9:45 can't blame Lisa for getting milhouse killed in the sacajaweathing. Milhouse was playing charboneau who was less her husband and more just the greasy Frenchman who owned her
I hate absolutely 100% of the Lisa Milhouse stuff. It's not in Lisa's character to like him at all. It's for that reason I refuse to think of anything in the future as canon.
I want to pitch a Simpsons spin-off so bad that would do future Simpsons right.
I didn't mind the Milhouse having unrequited feelings for Lisa. But after so many seasons of having him pine for her and getting rejected has worn out its welcome.
Thats why I enjoyed "Bart's Friend Gets A Girlfriend" because its one of the few times he likes a girl that isn't Lisa. (Though this was the early seasons when he didn't have that crush on her yet). Same with "Homer Scissorhands until Lisa ruined it. Kinda coincidence that both episodes featured him being in a relationship and having both the Simpson siblings ruined it out of Jealousy.
It shows that there are girls like Samantha, Taffy ams Janey (If that "No One Likes Milhouse" gag is to be believed) out there that like him for him and that he doesn't need to go after Lisa. Maybe one day the writers will do for him what they did for Comicbook Guy, Moe and Willy, and give him a win, but that's doubtful
The flowers Bart gave to millhouse were stolen from Lenny at the Kwik-e-mart, flowers that were meant for his grandma's grave
To be fair, his grandma is dead so she wasn't going to be able to enjoy the flowers anyway.
Milhouse is probably my favourite character in the series, aside from Lionel Hutz. He's such a wonderful combination of relatable, pathetic, resilient and endearing. If there's a scene with him and Bart, in almost every case I'll find Milhouse to have the funnier moments/lines.