I guess the more straightforward question is "Does The Simpsons Suck at Killing Off Its Characters?" but saying they "suck at death" is so awkward and somehow fitting for this immortal TV series, I went with that phrasing instead. We shall see if the UA-cam algorithm punishes me for this awkward phrasing
I suggested this a few times but now but when will you do a video on ranking the best segments in "non" treehouse of horror anthologies episodes like Simpsons Bible Stories or Simpsons Tall Tales?
it was at the 25 minute mark the writers realized they didn't know what else they could do with Grimes and decided the best way for him to go was to DIE
Larry Dalrymple only speaks verbally in two episodes in the entire TV series. In the episode "Bart Gets Hit by a Car," he says, "Who's the chick!? [wolf whistles] Woooo!" in reaction to Marge coming in. In the episode "El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer (The Mysterious Voyage of Homer)," he says one word, "Colleague."
I think Larry’s death should have been a fully Moe centric story. Show him realizing that he saw Larry every day without actually knowing him and how he can relate that to his own loneliness. Then he could have a whole adventure about trying not to end up being forgotten like Larry. That could spin into any number of lessons depending on how much the show expects you to care about Larry.
That's an awesome idea, I love this! I get the instinct to want to do a Moe's Bar crew story, about the feelings about Larry. But the road trip and jewels isn't a good way to explore those feelings 😕
You've reminded me that they brought back Maya, had her get engaged to Moe, and the show has proceeded to act like she doesn't exist in every episode since. Was that episode just a fever dream? I wonder what the plan there is.
@@stryke-jn3kv Better not have it be a "Oh moe is happy, this is his wedding day" *Maya reveals she is dying.. Then dies* "Moe never gets married, and ends up alone again"
@@tonts5329he’s showed up for a couple one off gags. Ironically one of them being a scene of Scratchy’s funeral in “The Tears of a Clone” (Season 11). Other scenes being in the segment “The Terror of Tiny Toon” in Treehouse of Horror IX (season 10, a personal favorite TOH segment actually), his Angel appearing in “The Bashin of the Christ” (season 28), and Matrix Poochie was in Krusty’s Kristmas Show On Ice (Season 18).
another one with Krusty would be his ventriloquist puppet "Alfons", it starts falling apart with each movement Krusty makes until in a fit of frustration he kicks it into the crowd of kids. funniest goddamn bit ever, had me rolling.
Their handling of Edna's death always gets me choked up. I think they handled it well BECAUSE they didn't control it. There was no joke and the writers couldn't hide behind comedy or hand waving it away. Instead, it was the writers and actors putting their honest emotions and feelings on full display. It was a death that effected them, and it shows in the episode
No one could ever replace Marcia Wallace and you know that the writers had huge plans for more episodes centered around her and Rod and Todd. She was the best thing to happen to them as the episodes where she was bonding with them helped flesh out their personalities and make them more than one note joke characters. And Ned began to be less uptight about everything and you can tell the entire Flanders family were starting to be happy again.
i remember before the airing of the episode when Krusty's father died, the commercial for that episode had this "guess which character is going to die and stay dead" thing in it and my dad immediately said it will be Krusty's father and my mom questioned why and he stated, "because they never use him" and i believe this statement very much illustrates your point in this video
It feels like such a dad thing to either get something obscure correct on the first try, or find out beforehand and not tell their family about it so that they can seem like they guessed it right 😂
I predicted it correctly, too, as did many others. And that print ad shown in this video made it REALLY obvious, as all the male characters are shown wearing yarmulkes.
This is how I feel. There was so much potential for Sam to be in it. Hell, even a throwaway joke of Sam also not really being close with Larry, despite being the other silent barfly always accompanying him would have been better than just ignoring his existence.
@@DoctorMinjinxthe irony that Sam and Larry don't really know each other in any capacity despite the fans treating them like a duo or pair really feels like a potentially profound take.
I found Larry's death especially poignant for people who live in a social bubble their entire lives. The image of him sitting and eating by his lonesome while the other four have their wacky adventures, not even thinking about him, is gonna stick with me for YEARS to come. Maude had several people to attend her funeral. Even Bleeding Gums had Lisa to speak to on his deathbed. Even GRIMES had a full funeral turnout and people to witness his death. Larry? Nobody. They only realized they ignored him when it was too late to build a relationship.
same here. It hits some people WAY too hard. Sure we have people we consider friends, but are we just background characters to them? Do we matter at all, or are we just props to someone else's lives? Doomed to fade into the background where nobody will notice if something were to happen. I mean, I thankfully snapped out of it, but it was still a situation that lives at the back of a lot of people's minds and resonates too close for comfort with certain people.
@@ChakraWarrior2012 How does someone snap out of it? It feels like something cyclical where you try to make yourself noticed just to find out you're not intimate enough to really connect with the others and go back to isolation
@@edgargaebolg9307it's horribly cynical to assume that you'll never connect with anybody, even if intimacy scares you. People are empathetic, most are probably more understanding than you'd expect, and if you're generally nice and considerate, you're bound to eventually meet some that you get along with. Problems mainly arise when you don't put in the effort to improve.
@@ChakraWarrior2012 actually this episode kinda irked me off with that whole song done to a beatles song which was pretty weird my best friend recently died so this episode was odd but strangely comforting too like they themselves have had a friend pass recent and all have differing ideas all culminating in the forgotten friend saving them in the end idk this was a odd episode all around but i did like how it came around at the end and larry got his resting place
I feel that if Agnes Skinner died on the show, it'd make a better splash since she's tied to a well-known secondary character. Plus it'd be fun to see how Skinner will be living his life after the death of his "mother".
I can imagine an episode where Agnes dies and Skinner realises how truly controlling his mother was over him and begins to start living his life without worrying what his mother would think
The Simpsons is entirely unconcerned with canon or anything so I would be surprised if they brought up Arman Tanzarian (or however you pronounce it) vs the "real" Seymour Skinner. That's something people don't think about with The Simpsons - *nothing* is canon... just choose the backstories and character arcs that you want.
@@Krusty_bot63Put in some times where Skinner just does things like his mom was there out of sheer habit and him being slightly creepy about it and you got a good episode since she was part of his life for so long.
I feel like the only direction they could take Skinner would be essentially just another Kirk, but when he and Lluanne were still divorced. When they took away the veteran and army stuff from Seymor all they had left were jokes about him being a momma's boy, being a suck up to Chalmers, and being a super boring, uninteresting person. So he'd be a lonely, boring, uptight guy who sucks at his job and gets yelled at by his boss. It would just be strings of "look how pathetic he is" jokes after the dust settled
Yeah, where was he? To be fair, maybe Sam only sat next to him because he had no other place to sit, and he didn’t really get to know Larry either. Unless there’s something I’m missing.
I guess if the episode had gotten in a different direction, it could've had Homer and co' realise they didn't know Sam that well either and try to make up for neglecting him. Only for them to have an epiphany that sometimes friendships don't last, and it isn't really anyone's fault.
It's the perfect example of neglect that justifies why us lapsed fans hear about ludicrous zombie Simpsons shenanigans and feel vindicated in quitting years ago!
of course edna's death felt more meaningful than a lot of the others. you've got characters being killed because they decided the best move was to kill them, and then you've got a messy situation where there's real emotions outside of the series and everyone is just trying to figure out where to go from there
It reminds me of hit animated series RWBY's production. Mostly a genuinely bad show but it gets really good around the time that the show's creator died, a lot of that is because of the raw emotion that the crew left behind put into the storylines and performances.
I actually like the concept behind the Larry episode, but it's impossible to take seriously because of how they need to completely ignore Sam in order for any of it to make sense. What's funny is, you could have just established that Sam moved away at the beginning of the episode. It would work as a sort of final straw for Larry, and the guys could realize that they never knew Sam either, and have no way of contacting him to let him know that Larry died. You could even have their journey be to find Sam and make sure he's not suffering the same fate as Larry.
I have rewatched every episode hundreds of times and I never noticed the "Marvin Monroe Memorial". I was totally surprised to learn he was dead later in the series and never understood why it was announced so matter a factly. Thank you for clarification
Same here, I've never caught that line either and always had no clue what they had been on about when they said he was dead in the special. Kind of mad how many times I've seen Who Shot Mr. Burns without that ever clicking.
Here's some food for thought: The death of Snowball II was handled so flagrantly, the two Simpsons wikis don't agree on whether or not it was even canon. Wikisimpsons marks Snowball II as still alive, but the fandom wiki marks her as canonically dead.
I think the catalyst for canonicity is the ending where the events of Principal and the Pauper are referenced, which both wikis insist is not canon. I don't recall where or when a production staff member said that the episode wasn't canon however so it could be bullshit.
@@ProbPeriPlum Boy Meets Curl (Season 21, episode 12) confirms Principal and the Pauper is non-canon by showing Agnes pregnant with Skinner in a flashback.
I feel like people who see Larry's death as "Oh come on, they killed off this rando?" are kind of missing the point It's not an episode that's sad because "Oh god not Larry!" it's sad because we never got to know who Larry was, that this guy we could just take for granted as being in the background of Moe's Tavern will no longer be there Larry's death is so impactful because we all have a Larry in our life, or we're a Larry in someone else's life
Alone-Again Natura-Daiddly will always be one of my most-hated because they squander an amazing idea in less than a minute. Ned's anger at god near the end of the episode SHOULD have been what this whole thing was about, one of the kindest souls losing his love and questioning his faith. Instead it's brushed away with his "Sorry sorry sorry" which feels very much like they knew what they could've done, but decided not to.
Honestly, I could seem them killing off Barney. He’s clearly become this obstacle they have to get around every time they write an episode about the Moe’s Tavern crew, because they don’t want to include him in the adventure but also being at Moe’s is his one thing so they have to think of a reason he wouldn’t be there
@@loudgoat5241Ever since they made him an alcoholic again, they pushed back his friendship with Homer in favor of Lenny and Carl. He doesnt matter anymore because being Homer's friend was his thing and he doesnt even have that anymore
I think Edna's death was probably handled about as well as it could have been. They kinda didn't have a choice but to kill her off offscreen since her voice actress obviously wouldn't be able to voice her for an on-screen death, and having Bart break the news on the show makes sense since Bart is easily the character she has the most history with. I also understand them not wanting to have a big spectacle about it, like having a dedicated episode to the fact that she died, because it just feels wrong to use the death of a real-life person as a jumping off point for an episode of a cartoon. Overall, I think they made the right call with how they handled it, and I'm not really sure how else they could have done it.
@@andykishoreI feel like they also must’ve known about Russi Taylor’s private cancer battle, because Martin’s Death scene in The Blob/Alien parody of “Thanksgiving of Horror” was just *_masterfully_* done! The way Martin just accepts and welcomes death at the hands of a “superior being” like the Giant Living Cranberry Gelatin felt like how Martin would accept his fate, if he had a terminal illness like the esteemed Mrs. Taylor did. There is no Earthly way it was just a huge coincidence.
I think they handled it in the way they felt would have been the most sincere. It's best to honor the dead and if they're watching us from up above, I think they would understand completely.
I mean, I feel like the way to handle it would be to just.... Iunno, replace the voice actor? Unless they would do the same and have one of the Simpsons die if their voice actor passed away, rather than replacing them, I don't know if it was necessary to kill off Edna because her voice actor died.
@@MalchiorDhar Because unlike Russi Taylor’s Martin, Edna Krabbapple was made specifically for Marcia Wallace’s voice in mind, it’s literally _her voice_ and it’s not an easy voice to replicate. Russi Taylor, in comparison, puts on many different voices across her career for Disney and other cartoons.
It’s kind of a meta commentary; sometimes, you don’t really notice or appreciate certain people in your life until they’re gone, and sometimes, those people are lonely and all they ever wanted was a friend.
@@andykishoreevery discussion I've seen is people talking about the meta commtary of it, nobody is pretending that they knew who Larry was, the point of the episode was to make people retrospectively reflect on the idea of never realising something is there until it's gone
To be honest Larry's episode helped me sort out some thoughts in my head about someone I used to know but never properly befriended. It hit a bit too close to home at times, but it released at a perfect time for me. So I can't really hate it or even dislike it.
16:58 Gee thanks for planting that seed on my head, Jim! now I'm paranoid they'll underwhelmingly kill off my favourite one-armed simpsons incidental :(
@foxtoons1999 it was a Snowball 2 death. I'm pretty sure that the Fat Tony we see in modern episodes is treated as the original (Marion). Except for maybe the Selma episode where he's married, since we know Fat Tony is a widower and Michael is nowhere to be seen.
I, for one, really enjoyed the episode where they killed off Bleeding Gums Murphy, I felt it was more tasteful in a way most of the "character killed off" episodes aren't. Maude Flanders in particular felt needlessly petty on the part of the writers, especially since Maggie Roswell eventually DID come back to the series, killing off Mona Simpson just felt like another way to yang Homer's chain some more when it came to her, Rabbi Krustofsky's death had a weird tone to it and felt oddly unceremonious, despite the episode being billed as the episode where a Simpsons character will die (seriously, Rabbi Krustofsky really sticks out among that line-up of Simpsons characters when they teased the episode), and now we have Larry... I actually think the idea of killing off a minor incidental character has some potential, but I'm not entirely sure if the episode really lived up to it... Also, I'm a little miffed that we focused on Homer, Moe, Lenny, and Carl, while Barney is conspicuously written out of the episode and Sam isn't even acknowledged. I get that they said they'd basically be creating a new character if they involved Sam in any way, but given how those two were always "those two extras in Moe's Tavern", I feel like it would have been appropriate to involve him in some way.
Actually it would have been semi-brilliant to have Sam always there, in the background, never saying anything or doing anything of note, and then at the end they could have a little "We'll never take anybody for granted ever again!" moment with Sam dead center ... but still in the background.
I still remember that Troy McClure joke where it's like 'Which Two Beloved Simpsons characters died?' And when the answer showed up as Dr Marvin Monroe and Bleeding Gums Murphy, he was like 'No they were never beloved characters'
i think the funniest explanation for none of the character aging is that it all happens in the same year. there's absolutely evidence that makes this super uncanon but it's still funny. imagine you live a somewhat normal life and then one year the craziest shit happens constantly and then the next year it's just normal again
Extra points if that episode hints that Skinner lost his authoritarian side because he feels so guilty he tortures himself imagining Agnes constantly nagging at him
@@edgargaebolg9307 Isn't there a Steamed Hams edit where this happens? Where Chalmers walks in seeing Skinner dressed like Agnes, forcing him to call the Calmwood Mental Hospital.
You know what I wanna see? An episode where Dr. Hibbert discovers he is the brother of "Bleeding Gums" Murphy. He never had any contact with his estranged brother, except for the brief interaction he had in "'Round Springfield" . That single moment they met, and he ditn't even realize they were related, sticks to Dr. Hibbert. He then goes out and tries to learn more about who his brother was, and what life was like for him. Maybe listening to stories of people who interacted with Murphy back when he was alive. His feelings, passions and doubts.
@@mintpalmer Dr. Hibbert can visit places like the Jazz hole, or even confront his own parents about why Murphy had been disowned by them. Maybe even learn about his own heritage in the process. Seeking to understand the brother he never had a chance to meet, Hibbert can even ask Lisa for help.
To this day, I still think about lisa singing on the bridge. The "noone liked these characters" bit is still funny to me, but Bleeding Gums still matters in my heart.
Apu’s last speaking role was in 2017. Since then he’s just been a background character. I imagine if they wanted to kill off a major character, they’d probably choose Apu
I don't think they have the cahones for that one, either. Yeah maybe it'd be well-received, but maybe it would result in a backlash of one of the few characters killed being a minority. I don't think they'll take that chance. They wouldn't even take the chance on the 'successful businessman' write-off idea.
I would just stop watching if they killed off Apu. He loves his job, he loves his family, and Springfield loves him. He’s a beloved character, so if they killed him off the whole fanbase would riot.
apu will eventually make his return. Think they will get an Indian voice actor. probably won't say please come again anymore. its a shame they dont use him any more. he is basically the second-best person on the show.
Maude's death has always been one of the most fascinating aspects of post-classic Simpsons to me. Like many others, I'm not a huge fan of how they killed her off, but I do enjoy how it impacted Ned's status quo and managed to give him a bit of depth even as he got further into his "Flanderization". I also absolutely think they handled Edna's death very well, and the restraint they showed out of respect for her voice actor actually made the grief more realistic. However, I can't be the only one who cringes when they do jokes about Flanders having multiple dead wives (like the end of Flanders Ladder)-It feels a bit awkward since those two deaths were the results of vastly different circumstances and only one of them can still appear as a voiced ghost/flashback any time they want. But the thing that really hooked me into being fixated on Maude's death was the episode where Todd began to question his religion because he couldn't remember what his mother looked like. The episode itself is fairly decent by modern standards (I really liked the first 2 acts, but act 3 is a bit disappointing) but it's made so weird in the full context of the show. If Todd is able to forget what Maude looked like, how long ago was her death to him now? Maude was killed off two decades ago, but the characters don't age. And in the bizarre case of Todd Flanders, he's actually been getting younger (in season 2 he's referred to as 10, later he's implied to be 8, and recently he's been put at around 6) this isn't me being nit-picky about continuity, it just creates such a visceral meta-narrative about grief. Maude was killed off over a decade before Todd would have been born, but he's somehow younger than when she died. Her death was long enough ago that he can forget what she looked like but time never seems to move for our characters so it may as well have been yesterday. I don't expect the Simpsons to ever focus on Todd's grief more than that one recent episode, but it is bizarre that for every Flanders grief story we're only briefly reminded that the kids lost a mother.
@@Boltscrapkinda similar to how Sideshow Bob's son was born quite a few years after Maggie yet appears to be at least a year or so older than her. This kind of thing is what headcanons are for I guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I think Maude’s death is what led to Ned and Todd becoming fully realized characters with emotional depth. Ned got to be shown grieving and then attempting to date again and eventually finding love and happiness again with Edna and how people who have lost their spouses through death can find happiness again and it doesn’t mean that they don’t love their first spouse any less. Todd shows the anger and frustration any child would feel over the death of a parent and how questioning religion as a result is natural but you aren’t a bad person for having these thoughts and the best thing to do is figure out what it is you truly believe in.
I don't really watch the series, but when I heard about the larry thing i misread it as lenny and thought "oh wow thats kind of a big deal isnt it?" before reading it again and going "who?"
They really should kill off Comic Book Guy one of these times, but then four different versions of him show up, all claiming to be the real one. Third act alien invasion, big fight, sky beam takes out a city, and finally reveal that it was all a dream. The episode ends with the universe rebooting, about to do it all again, but worse.
This may sound morbid, but I think it would be interesting to kill one of the kids. Just one of the background kids from Springfield Elementary, Wendell or that kid with the sunglasses. As you mentioned, just about every death has been a parent of a fully-grown adult. The two that affected the kids, Lisa and Bart, were both mentor figures (Tod also had an episode dealing with Maude's death, but that one had a really weird third act). I think it would be really interesting to have them deal with the death of a peer. Not someone that they personally have much of a connection with, but close enough to them that it makes them question their own mortality. Like, maybe Wendell rides his bike without a helmet and dies in an accident. From there, you could have Bart questioning all the dangerous stuff he does on a regular basis. Maybe Marge suddenly gets worried about what she lets him do. Maybe Bart sees how quickly the rest of the school moves on like Wendell was never even there, and it freaks him out.
I think an interesting death would be Mayor Quimby. Not only would it open the door to parodying another corrupt politician in his replacement (I feel that the JFK/Daley reference is a bit outdated in the 2020's), but it could be an interesting setup seeing how the town mourns and/or celebrates his death
The one big weird thing about Larry’s episode the complete lack of Sam. They could’ve easily just pasted him into Barney’s cutaway and that would’ve made more sense than him ceasing to exist for the episode.
@@edgargaebolg9307 idk why my reply apparently got deleted but matt selman explained on twitter they were gonna include some kinda throwaway explanation for where sam was but felt they couldn't bc they already did that w/ barney, and that they couldn't have sam on the road trip bc that'd totally change the story they were going for. but admits they could've done smth to include him. like op said, they could've just stuck him w/ barney, or they could've just had him in the funeral scene, or said "screw it" and told the different story w/ him joining the guys on their road trip
I mean, Larry and Sam don't actually really share any lines or interactions together, they just sit next to each other. Larry and Sam could have been strangers to each other who the viewers automatically assume are friends due to proximity.
@@tinfoilslacks3750 apparently them being best friends comes from a video game? so idk if it was the writers' intention. but it'd be a bit odd if they were strangers considering they were p much always side by side
Perhaps the Edna death works so well because it feels the most real (for obvious reasons). One day she was fine and then suddenly she wasn’t around anymore. In later episodes they couldn’t have her appear in a flashback, it’s just how the people who knew her handled her death and learned to move on
It reminds me of when Will Lee died and Sesame Street did that amazing episode where the adults tell Big Bird that Mr. Hooper is dead, and Big Bird is coming to terms with the concept of death. It’s a great sign of respect for a core cast member and how much he meant to the characters and by extension the actors, and for children it’s a great way of showing how people in their lives die and that’s just what happens.
It’s one thing to have an actor who’s simply not around that much then they can do whatever they want with their characters, it’s another thing when an actual actor dies and it’s hard to imagine anyone else in that role. Marcia Wallace and Edna were just that, an actor who shaped so much of what made that character great that recasting wasn’t going to cut it.
I really liked how the death of Bleeding Gums Murphy was handled well in the episode where it began. However, I found the follow-up in later episodes was a big problem. Like, the next episode to really focus on Bleeding Gums Murphy after his death is an episode that only works if you completely forget about the episode where he died. It's as if it was written by someone who didn't see that episode. Only family was a supposedly long lost brother and pissed all his money away on faberge eggs? Well now he had a big family (that didn't bother to show up at his funeral) and he was screwed out of his money by the record company.
I'm curious what'll happen if and when any of the main cast members die and or retire during the shows run. They canonically killed off Edna Krabappel when Marcia Wallace died, but it's hard to imagine them doing the same for any of the main family. Like the idea of Marge canonically dying during the show's run is unthinkable.
Marge's original german voice actress died way back even before the movie had come out. Homer's voice actor died a few years ago too. They were both replaced and (even tho it's sad) I don't think the english voice cast would be an exception to that.
Lunchlady Doris was retired when Doris Grau died. Then she showed up later, but was called "Lunchlady Dora" on a school newspaper or something like that. Fans pointed out the error on Twitter, and one of the writers said, "No, that's Dora's sister." This was never explained in the show, though. If you didn't see that Twitter conversation, you would never know.
Love you Jim, having this on and hearing abit of Merlinas theme from Sonic and The Black Knight awakened something in my soul. The thematic implications of having that play as her goal was to create a never ending kingdom without death in a video about mortality in a never ending show was certainly a masterstroke! Am I reading too into this? Yes, yes I am!
An episode about Skinner dealing with guilt over feeling somewhat relieved at his mother's death would be too spicy for _classic_ Simpsons, let alone modern Simpsons.
Although not canon, I can remember that in a treehouse of horror comic, it was revealed that Marvin Monroe had been alive the whole time and chained up in Moe's basement.
Weirdly, the odd shot randomly selected deaths reminds me slightly of real life. That kinda thing just happens sometimes. Someone you vaguely knew dies and it kinda has an impact but you're just confused of how to think about it because you hardly knew them.
I've said it before and I'll say it again... The floating time is what hurts the show the most. If they just started aging up the characters around season 10 they would open the floodgates of story possibilities because our characters are now in different parts of their lives and that allows more situations to be told. In relation to deaths in the show, if the timeline becomes linear then that will force their hand to kill off even prominent characters! I love Abe, but he can't live forever. If they make him age and he is in this 70s to 80s, then you'll have to keep the show grounded by dedicating an episode to his death as well! Here's some ideas -Mr Burns dies and we see Smithers take charge of the power plant and how his leadership changes things. -Agnus and Grandpa and how they affect their middle age children -Grandpa's friends die at the retirement home and he's forced to grapple his own mortality
I genuinely wonder if the Simpsons will ever tackle a child death. There aren't many characters fleshed out enough in Springfield Elementary for it to matter without them being too important. The bullies, Ralph, Sherri/Terri are all in the safe "too recurring to die" category. There could be a story to be had in Lewis or Richard passing away and exploring Bart's grief, but since their parents aren't properly characterised it would be harder for the writers to explore a parents grief in the same way.
In my country, Argentina, they only ever aired Bleeding Gums' death episode, I never knew where the clearly-from-a-different-season clip came from, I guess Telefé really disliked how unprofessional Season 1 looked Killing Agnes Skinner sounds as a big a change to Seymour's character as making Barney sober
Wow that commercial is a powerful memory in my recollection of the middle Simpsons years. You made a very good point about how obvious it was that they weren’t going to kill off a main character and I really dig your overall analysis on the subject. It’s a very tense and dark topic but I like how you framed it in a clear and concise manner. I remember the Bleeding Gums episode and it’s one of my favorites from season 6. I like it because of the heart it has and how cool it is to see Lisa and Bart support each other in the climax of the episode. There’s good stories and bad stories on this list. I’m also motivated by this situation to once again make a case to do something honorable with Apu. I still love that guy and even with all the drama surrounding it I want him to have a future and a chance to one day shine again. If it worked for Maude Flanders, it might just work for him too. I suddenly see a new pathway for him that could be narratively interesting and even respectful. I truly hope in the long run that the Simpsons will learn how to use their platform to better handle this situation. Great video and analysis. RIP to Larry and my full respect to the tough opinions on this subject. Also definitely for sure the character that I will always miss the most is Edna Krabapple, but she would never be the same person without Marcia Wallace so I truly respect the decision to retire her from the series.
They should make an episode where they kill off a completely new character but everyone in Springfield acts like they’re the most important person in town and them dying is an absolutely earth shattering event
South Park also isn't above killing off minor characters. Pip was one of the recurring characters in S1 and 2, gradually showed up less and less through S3 and S4 as Butters took over his role, and after his S4 spotlight episode flopped he was effectively cut from the show. He showed up once in S6 alongside a bunch of other obscure characters like Luigi and Dirtmeat to audition to be Kenny's replacement, and then vanished again for a decade until being killed off in 201, an episode you can't legally watch anywhere. They did the same thing to the Bus Driver Ms. Crabtree, she was mostly used for one joke outside of one or two roles in S1 and 2, so in S7 they had her get offed by a serial killer. They've done the other types too though. Chef was a victim of Maude Flanders syndrome, being killed off due to the IRL VA quitting and then dying of a stroke. Miss Choksondik was introduced as the 4th Grade teacher when the kids moved up a grade in Season 4 and was killed off in S6 when they decided they didn't want to use her, and by that point Mr. Garrison was freed up again(He spent most of S4 with his own story-arc doing his own thing, writing books, Mr. Twig, first for the series, and then in S5 and S6 he was the Kindergarten teacher for a bit.) Something similar happened a decade later, Garrison ran off and became Trump, they introduced a new female teacher, and when Garrison was freed up they killed her off. Or Jason White. Introduced for one of the story arc seasons, no longer had a role once it ended, was eventually killed off.
tbf even tho they did kill chef bc of isaac hayes quitting (and likely would've done so anyway as he died a couple yrs later), they hardly used chef by the time of that ep. I didn't know abt isaac hayes when I watched it and assumed they were pulling a ms. crabtree, killing him bc they didn't care to feature him anymore. jason was often used as a background character before he died and funny enough, he has actually popped up in the background again at least once after his death. another u didn't mention was satan dying in s22, I hope we get some kinda follow-up/reference to that at some point (esp since they've already brought manbearpig back after that); I think it was just to have a heroic sacrifice. but thanks for making this comment, as I thought of these points during the vid. (btw when u said "dirtmeat", did u mean "dogpoo"? lol)
@@tiablue9106 I believe that if Issac's departure had been handled better, without involving Scientology and his eventual death in 2008, Chef would have simply been relegated to the background, like Dr. Mephesto.
@@spyroG3 yeah I can see that happening; he was basically background after season 7 or so and even if they'd wanted to use him after hayes died, I doubt they'd recast him. a bit sad to think abt but
And one time they killed Kenny and acted like it was a big deal (unlike all the previous times he'd been killed off), and then they stopped killing him.
@@KasumiKenshirou I see that mentioned a lot as a sort of inverse with what Family Guy did for Brian. Brian was dead for 6 weeks and the episode he came back in was already 90% completed by that point. It was pure emotional manipulation and ratings trap. Kenny stayed dead for just over a year(which given South Park's infamously fast production means a lot), his death and it's impact basically got a full in-depth season arc that was complete by that point, and they even had an in-universe reason for the logistics of it. When Kenny dies, he's reborn from his mother. We first saw this in S4 in Cartman Joins CENSORED and it was re-established later in the Cthulhu Triology. However, this only applies to un-natural death. One of Kenny's 'respawns' was defective and developed terminal muscular atrophy which eventually killed him. Kenny's soul then stayed in Limbo for a while(he's not allowed in Heck after the events of the movie and he's not allowed in Heaven because he's not Mormon...until a later episode where they make an exception for him, but I digress) until Cartman ate his ashes and started being haunted by Kenny. This lasted for a while until Chef's parents excorsiced him and put him in a roast. The roast was then eaten by Rob Schneider, who proceeded to do a bunch of crazy things while being haunted by Kenny until eventually going crazy and jumping out a window. Rob's death, and thereby Kenny's death as he was attached, was unnatural, so the respawn cycle resumed.
While not a true death, i think the poison fugu fish episode was worth mentioning, homer and family legitimately thought he was going to die, homer said his goodbyes and tried to give and get as much closure as he could in the short time he had left, and the moments leading to his "death" were legitimately emotional
I rather like "Alone Again." The eulogy is awkward but there's a certain dark humor to be found in the idea that Lovejoy is phoning it in like that even for the wife of his best customer. When I'm in the right mood I can appreciate the absurdity of the scene at the raceway instantly turning so serious, and Ned processing his grief for the rest of the episode while Homer ineptly tries to help is touching. I like that much better than the follow-up episode, which lays it on much too thick.
Shoutouts again to your awesome background music choices in your videos. OCR is a fantastic resource and I love going "Oh! I recognize that!" and checking the description
I just timestamped the entire video based generally upon which character(s) are being discussed for easier re-watching (In-case anyone might wanna do that, I guess?), and also because I was bored. The description already has timestamps in it, so I'm not sure if it'd be possible to even implement these there, but it'd make my day if they were put there anyway. Or if I could get confirmation that this actually helped somebody and wasn't a waste of about this video's length plus 15 minutes. Thanks 0:00 Introduction 1:12 Bleeding Gums Murphy 3:02 Marvin Monroe 4:03 Maude Flanders 5:21 Snowball II 6:30 Amber 6:46 Dr. Nick 7:03 Mona Simpson 8:30 Fat Tony 9:17 Alice Glick 10:06 Edna Krabappel 10:48 Rabbi Krustofsky 12:26 Finally, Larry 14:16 Conclusive thoughts 16:37 Who's next? 18:40 End
You end this on “killing Agnes Skinner”, when it was just last night I was watching the Treehouse of Horror when Homer’s ghost drops her to her death. My wife just got home, and I paused it to show her that scene because I find everything about it hilarious.
I have not seen the episode where Mona Simpson dies, but I felt sad at the end of her debut episode where she leaves again, Homer alone, staring at the stars. I bring this up because they evidently could handle sad endings, even if nobody died.
I dislike the death of Krusty's dad because of one reason - the funeral scene. Having a choir singing the Itchy & Scratchy theme on his funeral feels like spitting on his corpse to me.
Not knowing the production backstory to it when first seeing it, I've always enjoyed the Maud Flanders episode because of it really shaking up Ned's life and making him seem more like a full person rather than just the wholesome neighbor. The Bleeding Gums episode is one of my all-time favorite Simpsons episodes, and I 100% agree that is the best they've done with portraying the death of a character Also if they can bring back Mrs. Glick I wish they'd bring back Dr. Marvin Monroe, underrated character and one of the best parts of the early seasons
Is Homer's half brother still alive? I could see him getting killed off, as another "loose end" kinda death or as some inciting action with an inheritance type deal. But, I agree, The Simpson's issue with death comes down to it being such a staunchly episodic kind of show. Death is quite literally the antithesis of the show's nature.
Crazy how we remember Herb but the series doesn't. He doesn't appear in any of Homer or Abe's flashbacks and they didn't even bother having Homer call him when Mona died
Please do a 'Simpsons histories (or even mysteries) on specific businesses in springfield and how their usage in the show has changed over time! Androids dungeon would be a great pick (I always think of it being such a 'classic' period hangout spot), but Moes Tavern would be fun too! 🙏
Controversial but if there was a series regular to kill of that has some emotional weight, Barney is my gut pick. His presence as Homer's barfly friend has all but been reduced, already felt like they were grasping at straws after he became an alcoholic again and don't have much else going with him to do. But with controversy to Larry of all characters that ain't happening. Another would be Apu to try and "move past" the issue but end up making it x10 worse. Upon seeing this video show up the 2 asterixises that came to mind were Edna and Bleeding Gums Murphy where the deaths were handeled well and subseequent stories around their deaths were done the most tasteful. Maude Flanders will always be my least favourite in execution but legacy has been good, Mona I feel is kinda the opposite of Maude, good execution of Homer not getting that closure but once it hits even in that very episode the legacy hasn't been as good. Snowball II I found funny but Fat Tony wasn't good. Mrs Glick I didn't even know. I liked the Larry episode for what it was intially before derailing but not havng Sam at all was just dumb.
I used to shared your videos with one of my friends because she loved the Simpson's and it was something we could be nerds about. Like as soon as they were uploaded. The last one I sent her was your video for Millhouse. Not to be weird, but I know she would have loved this one too. Thanks, dude. Still here being a Simpson's nerd lol
When I saw the episode where they killed Larry, I really did think he was just some new character, and it was all some elaborate way to get a grieving story without actually killing anybody off.
Y'know, it's always fascinating to see how The Simpsons handles the deaths of certain characters, even if several of them aren't executed in the best way... ...and I just realized I made a pun there. D'oh! Ah, well, still, this is a pretty great watch!
My money's on Hans Moleman. It won't last until the end of the episode, and will basically be a cutaway gag, but he's going next. And possibly the time after that.
Edna's death was handled beautifully, and I rhink because right round the same time Family Guy pilled a scummy move of killing of Brian only to bring him back later. And I honestly think it shows how the writers could have tried to find a replacement, but instead allow her to rest and show they COULD do a potential good death. My vote next major death would be Agnes, Barney, One of Fat Tony's cronies, OR the 3rd police officer who's name I am blanking on. Lou's safe 100%
If they kill off Agnes, it'll probably be something where they start the episode off revisiting Steamed Hams but Skinner *actually* burns his house down.
This reminds me of an episode of Clone High where the character Ponce de Leon dies. Everyone loved him, and he was always in everybody’s lives. He was JFK’s best friend for life. But the punchline is that Ponce had never appeared in any prior episode. They introduced him just to kill him. So when everybody was talking about a MAJOR CHARACTER got killed off and it turned out to be Larry, I immediately thought of Ponce.
I'm very nervous about the Simpsons not having a series finale should one of the core actors pass, Dan, Julie, Yeardley or Nancy. I hope they have one that is already printed if the show must end. The movie is great, but it would be ultimate disservice to generations of the audience if they don't already have a solid series finale when it comes time. Those 4 and Hank Azaria are irreplacable.
9:08 Personally I chose to think that Fat Tony's death never happened and just ignore that particular episode. Still never understood why the writers think it was a good idea.
You say that you can't see them killing off anyone more major than Agnes, but wasn't Edna Krabappel way more major than that? I think they'd be willing to kill off more significant characters if it was caused by factors outside of their control.
The problem with deaths in some episodic cartoons like Simpsons is that: Death is indeed permanent but most of the time they move on, like few deaths really land and change the scenery of the show and impact characters, most of characters killed are either background, secondary characters that somehow we have to pretend we remembered or characters that basically were introduced in the same episode however Larry's episode is one that makes sense because they never pretend to be friends of him or even cared about it
I guess the more straightforward question is "Does The Simpsons Suck at Killing Off Its Characters?" but saying they "suck at death" is so awkward and somehow fitting for this immortal TV series, I went with that phrasing instead. We shall see if the UA-cam algorithm punishes me for this awkward phrasing
we'll see i guess
1 of the few things I feel Family Guy has always done better than The Simpsons is killing off characters (provided it's not in a cutaway gag).
I suggested this a few times but now but when will you do a video on ranking the best segments in "non" treehouse of horror anthologies episodes like Simpsons Bible Stories or Simpsons Tall Tales?
it was at the 25 minute mark the writers realized they didn't know what else they could do with Grimes and decided the best way for him to go was to DIE
I was gonna say, "No wonder it hasn't been cancelled yet."
I found a "best of larry" compilation that legit had no larry lines in it
Yeah I saw that one too. The closest to a line was him and a few other barflies grunting when Homer quits drinking for 30 days
Larry Dalrymple only speaks verbally in two episodes in the entire TV series. In the episode "Bart Gets Hit by a Car," he says, "Who's the chick!? [wolf whistles] Woooo!" in reaction to Marge coming in. In the episode "El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer (The Mysterious Voyage of Homer)," he says one word, "Colleague."
The most he's spoken is in The Simpsons Game from 2007
My favourite quote of course been "God, I hate daylight"
Wait... larry had lines?
@@My_Legs_Hurthe spoke in the game?
I think Larry’s death should have been a fully Moe centric story. Show him realizing that he saw Larry every day without actually knowing him and how he can relate that to his own loneliness. Then he could have a whole adventure about trying not to end up being forgotten like Larry. That could spin into any number of lessons depending on how much the show expects you to care about Larry.
That's an awesome idea, I love this!
I get the instinct to want to do a Moe's Bar crew story, about the feelings about Larry. But the road trip and jewels isn't a good way to explore those feelings 😕
You've reminded me that they brought back Maya, had her get engaged to Moe, and the show has proceeded to act like she doesn't exist in every episode since. Was that episode just a fever dream? I wonder what the plan there is.
@@SophisticatedGoat222 They've confirmed that she is coming back, next season I think?
That’s a great concept
@@stryke-jn3kv Better not have it be a
"Oh moe is happy, this is his wedding day"
*Maya reveals she is dying.. Then dies*
"Moe never gets married, and ends up alone again"
Note: Poochie died on his way back to his home planet.
Krusty: Poochie's dead! (Children cheering)
Best handled death in the series.
Doenst poochie show up later in spite of the contract
@@skibot9974 Wasn't that just in the Halloween Special?
@@tonts5329he’s showed up for a couple one off gags.
Ironically one of them being a scene of Scratchy’s funeral in “The Tears of a Clone” (Season 11).
Other scenes being in the segment “The Terror of Tiny Toon” in Treehouse of Horror IX (season 10, a personal favorite TOH segment actually), his Angel appearing in “The Bashin of the Christ” (season 28), and Matrix Poochie was in Krusty’s Kristmas Show On Ice (Season 18).
They are still in breach of contract.
another one with Krusty would be his ventriloquist puppet "Alfons", it starts falling apart with each movement Krusty makes until in a fit of frustration he kicks it into the crowd of kids. funniest goddamn bit ever, had me rolling.
The writers will never top Poochies death. Always a tear jerker. He just wanted to go back to his planet
He was half Joe Camel and a third Fonzarelli 😭😭😭
😢 the kung fu hippie from gangster city 😔
I'm a rapping surfer, you're the fool I pity 😢😢
His planet _needed_ him!
@@ToaArcan The thing is, our planet needed him too.
Their handling of Edna's death always gets me choked up. I think they handled it well BECAUSE they didn't control it. There was no joke and the writers couldn't hide behind comedy or hand waving it away. Instead, it was the writers and actors putting their honest emotions and feelings on full display. It was a death that effected them, and it shows in the episode
No one could ever replace Marcia Wallace and you know that the writers had huge plans for more episodes centered around her and Rod and Todd. She was the best thing to happen to them as the episodes where she was bonding with them helped flesh out their personalities and make them more than one note joke characters. And Ned began to be less uptight about everything and you can tell the entire Flanders family were starting to be happy again.
RES IT RSM SANWAY BUT I have caught it, WOWOSOOSEJDDIDJSJHAHYRFUOW
i remember before the airing of the episode when Krusty's father died, the commercial for that episode had this "guess which character is going to die and stay dead" thing in it and my dad immediately said it will be Krusty's father and my mom questioned why and he stated, "because they never use him" and i believe this statement very much illustrates your point in this video
It feels like such a dad thing to either get something obscure correct on the first try, or find out beforehand and not tell their family about it so that they can seem like they guessed it right 😂
I predicted it correctly, too, as did many others. And that print ad shown in this video made it REALLY obvious, as all the male characters are shown wearing yarmulkes.
I'm not mad that they killed Larry, I'm mad that they killed Larry and didn't have Sam in the episode at all.
I kinda like the idea that he was just out of town that week and no one thought to contact him
Uh h h
This is how I feel. There was so much potential for Sam to be in it. Hell, even a throwaway joke of Sam also not really being close with Larry, despite being the other silent barfly always accompanying him would have been better than just ignoring his existence.
Oh my God! They killed Larry! You b45t4rd5!
@@DoctorMinjinxthe irony that Sam and Larry don't really know each other in any capacity despite the fans treating them like a duo or pair really feels like a potentially profound take.
I found Larry's death especially poignant for people who live in a social bubble their entire lives. The image of him sitting and eating by his lonesome while the other four have their wacky adventures, not even thinking about him, is gonna stick with me for YEARS to come.
Maude had several people to attend her funeral. Even Bleeding Gums had Lisa to speak to on his deathbed. Even GRIMES had a full funeral turnout and people to witness his death. Larry? Nobody. They only realized they ignored him when it was too late to build a relationship.
I didnt think about it but you're right! Even Grimey
same here. It hits some people WAY too hard. Sure we have people we consider friends, but are we just background characters to them? Do we matter at all, or are we just props to someone else's lives? Doomed to fade into the background where nobody will notice if something were to happen.
I mean, I thankfully snapped out of it, but it was still a situation that lives at the back of a lot of people's minds and resonates too close for comfort with certain people.
@@ChakraWarrior2012 How does someone snap out of it? It feels like something cyclical where you try to make yourself noticed just to find out you're not intimate enough to really connect with the others and go back to isolation
@@edgargaebolg9307it's horribly cynical to assume that you'll never connect with anybody, even if intimacy scares you. People are empathetic, most are probably more understanding than you'd expect, and if you're generally nice and considerate, you're bound to eventually meet some that you get along with. Problems mainly arise when you don't put in the effort to improve.
@@ChakraWarrior2012 actually this episode kinda irked me off with that whole song done to a beatles song which was pretty weird my best friend recently died so this episode was odd but strangely comforting too like they themselves have had a friend pass recent and all have differing ideas all culminating in the forgotten friend saving them in the end
idk this was a odd episode all around but i did like how it came around at the end and larry got his resting place
I feel that if Agnes Skinner died on the show, it'd make a better splash since she's tied to a well-known secondary character. Plus it'd be fun to see how Skinner will be living his life after the death of his "mother".
I can imagine an episode where Agnes dies and Skinner realises how truly controlling his mother was over him and begins to start living his life without worrying what his mother would think
The Simpsons is entirely unconcerned with canon or anything so I would be surprised if they brought up Arman Tanzarian (or however you pronounce it) vs the "real" Seymour Skinner. That's something people don't think about with The Simpsons - *nothing* is canon... just choose the backstories and character arcs that you want.
@@Krusty_bot63Put in some times where Skinner just does things like his mom was there out of sheer habit and him being slightly creepy about it and you got a good episode since she was part of his life for so long.
I feel like the only direction they could take Skinner would be essentially just another Kirk, but when he and Lluanne were still divorced.
When they took away the veteran and army stuff from Seymor all they had left were jokes about him being a momma's boy, being a suck up to Chalmers, and being a super boring, uninteresting person. So he'd be a lonely, boring, uptight guy who sucks at his job and gets yelled at by his boss. It would just be strings of "look how pathetic he is" jokes after the dust settled
@@bluecanine3374 there could be a chance of Skinner getting some better writing since we don't really see much of wartime past Skinner nowadays.
Having a Larry episode WITHOUT Sam was so fucking dumb.
Yeah, where was he? To be fair, maybe Sam only sat next to him because he had no other place to sit, and he didn’t really get to know Larry either. Unless there’s something I’m missing.
Yes, the episode that makes the most sense to have Sam barfly in it doesn't have him in it at all.
@@foxtoons1999 2 birds one stone with doing an episode dedicated to the barflies and their relationship
I guess if the episode had gotten in a different direction, it could've had Homer and co' realise they didn't know Sam that well either and try to make up for neglecting him. Only for them to have an epiphany that sometimes friendships don't last, and it isn't really anyone's fault.
It's the perfect example of neglect that justifies why us lapsed fans hear about ludicrous zombie Simpsons shenanigans and feel vindicated in quitting years ago!
of course edna's death felt more meaningful than a lot of the others. you've got characters being killed because they decided the best move was to kill them, and then you've got a messy situation where there's real emotions outside of the series and everyone is just trying to figure out where to go from there
It reminds me of hit animated series RWBY's production. Mostly a genuinely bad show but it gets really good around the time that the show's creator died, a lot of that is because of the raw emotion that the crew left behind put into the storylines and performances.
Either helps or harms that she was, debatably, the best female character in the series.
@@SuperSnowsharkIt’s not a genuinely bad show.
The "We'll miss you Ms K" chalk board hit me hard when I saw it exactly because of this
I actually like the concept behind the Larry episode, but it's impossible to take seriously because of how they need to completely ignore Sam in order for any of it to make sense.
What's funny is, you could have just established that Sam moved away at the beginning of the episode. It would work as a sort of final straw for Larry, and the guys could realize that they never knew Sam either, and have no way of contacting him to let him know that Larry died. You could even have their journey be to find Sam and make sure he's not suffering the same fate as Larry.
I have rewatched every episode hundreds of times and I never noticed the "Marvin Monroe Memorial". I was totally surprised to learn he was dead later in the series and never understood why it was announced so matter a factly. Thank you for clarification
Same here, I've never caught that line either and always had no clue what they had been on about when they said he was dead in the special. Kind of mad how many times I've seen Who Shot Mr. Burns without that ever clicking.
He made a reappearance alive in a later episode. Marge says she hasn’t seen him in years and he claims he’s been very sick.
Because everything on the simpsons used to be a gag
Here's some food for thought: The death of Snowball II was handled so flagrantly, the two Simpsons wikis don't agree on whether or not it was even canon. Wikisimpsons marks Snowball II as still alive, but the fandom wiki marks her as canonically dead.
I think the catalyst for canonicity is the ending where the events of Principal and the Pauper are referenced, which both wikis insist is not canon. I don't recall where or when a production staff member said that the episode wasn't canon however so it could be bullshit.
You could say Snowball II is Shroedinger's cat.
Lisa’s poem will always send me into a laughing frenzy.
“SHE LIED, SHE LIED!!l
@@ProbPeriPlum A wiki that does not consider the iconic line "Up yours, children" canon is not worth reading
@@ProbPeriPlum Boy Meets Curl (Season 21, episode 12) confirms Principal and the Pauper is non-canon by showing Agnes pregnant with Skinner in a flashback.
I feel like people who see Larry's death as "Oh come on, they killed off this rando?" are kind of missing the point
It's not an episode that's sad because "Oh god not Larry!" it's sad because we never got to know who Larry was, that this guy we could just take for granted as being in the background of Moe's Tavern will no longer be there
Larry's death is so impactful because we all have a Larry in our life, or we're a Larry in someone else's life
the episode still sucked tho
Ok, assuming that was the current writers' intentions, why wasn't Sam in the episode then?
I'm Larry.
Alone-Again Natura-Daiddly will always be one of my most-hated because they squander an amazing idea in less than a minute.
Ned's anger at god near the end of the episode SHOULD have been what this whole thing was about, one of the kindest souls losing his love and questioning his faith.
Instead it's brushed away with his "Sorry sorry sorry" which feels very much like they knew what they could've done, but decided not to.
And they introduced a character that appeared one more time and then NEVER AGAIN EVER
I totally agree! There was the real “meat” of the subject, but they dodged it…and for what?
Honestly, I could seem them killing off Barney. He’s clearly become this obstacle they have to get around every time they write an episode about the Moe’s Tavern crew, because they don’t want to include him in the adventure but also being at Moe’s is his one thing so they have to think of a reason he wouldn’t be there
As someone who hasn't watched Simpsons in a couple of decades, why is Barney no longer included in storylines with the Moe's Tavern crew?
@@loudgoat5241Ever since they made him an alcoholic again, they pushed back his friendship with Homer in favor of Lenny and Carl. He doesnt matter anymore because being Homer's friend was his thing and he doesnt even have that anymore
They should have kept Barney sober.
@@pezyg Well that’s just dumb, can’t Homer have three friends?
@@cosmicspacething3474have you seen Harry Potter? You can only have 2 friend so Barney and Neville need to shove off
"Remember Alice? She's back... in corpse form!"
I didn't need a reminder of why I love this channel, but here it is. 😂
that got a big laugh out of me to
I think Edna's death was probably handled about as well as it could have been. They kinda didn't have a choice but to kill her off offscreen since her voice actress obviously wouldn't be able to voice her for an on-screen death, and having Bart break the news on the show makes sense since Bart is easily the character she has the most history with. I also understand them not wanting to have a big spectacle about it, like having a dedicated episode to the fact that she died, because it just feels wrong to use the death of a real-life person as a jumping off point for an episode of a cartoon. Overall, I think they made the right call with how they handled it, and I'm not really sure how else they could have done it.
Staff on The Simpsons had reportedly been aware of Marcia Wallace's ill health, even shortly before her death.
@@andykishoreI feel like they also must’ve known about Russi Taylor’s private cancer battle, because Martin’s Death scene in The Blob/Alien parody of “Thanksgiving of Horror” was just *_masterfully_* done!
The way Martin just accepts and welcomes death at the hands of a “superior being” like the Giant Living Cranberry Gelatin felt like how Martin would accept his fate, if he had a terminal illness like the esteemed Mrs. Taylor did. There is no Earthly way it was just a huge coincidence.
I think they handled it in the way they felt would have been the most sincere. It's best to honor the dead and if they're watching us from up above, I think they would understand completely.
I mean, I feel like the way to handle it would be to just.... Iunno, replace the voice actor? Unless they would do the same and have one of the Simpsons die if their voice actor passed away, rather than replacing them, I don't know if it was necessary to kill off Edna because her voice actor died.
@@MalchiorDhar Because unlike Russi Taylor’s Martin, Edna Krabbapple was made specifically for Marcia Wallace’s voice in mind, it’s literally _her voice_ and it’s not an easy voice to replicate. Russi Taylor, in comparison, puts on many different voices across her career for Disney and other cartoons.
If they could get to Larry, no one at the Retirement Castle is truly safe.
Except Jasper.
And Moleman, who got straight up got the chair, then showed up later like nothing happened.
@@punkysnarks if they kill moleman permanently i'll riot in the streets
@@punkysnarks implicitly dying off-screen in a casual manner is sort of Moleman's thing. He's the one I'm least worried about
Killing off Jasper? That's a paddlin'
The reaper coming for Jasper? Oh you'd better believe that's a paddlin!
It’s amazing how many people have reacted to Larry’s death when so many talking about Larry didn’t seem to know he existed in the first place.
its like a picture frame breaking like yeah it sucks but at most we’re dealing with a bare background here
It’s kind of a meta commentary; sometimes, you don’t really notice or appreciate certain people in your life until they’re gone, and sometimes, those people are lonely and all they ever wanted was a friend.
People suddenly caring about Larry Dalrymple, but only because of the character being killed off.
Simpsonsgate
@@andykishoreevery discussion I've seen is people talking about the meta commtary of it, nobody is pretending that they knew who Larry was, the point of the episode was to make people retrospectively reflect on the idea of never realising something is there until it's gone
To be honest Larry's episode helped me sort out some thoughts in my head about someone I used to know but never properly befriended. It hit a bit too close to home at times, but it released at a perfect time for me.
So I can't really hate it or even dislike it.
Clearly the death of Zombie Flanders was the most pivotal moment in the series
"He was a zombie?" Homer Simpson
He was a zombie?
He was a zombie?
He was a zombie?
16:58 Gee thanks for planting that seed on my head, Jim! now I'm paranoid they'll underwhelmingly kill off my favourite one-armed simpsons incidental :(
fat tonys death pissed me off so bad bro simpsons writers u will NOT get away with goldfishing my goat 😭🙏
AND the fact that “Fit Tony” basically became Fat Tony 2.0, which made his death completely pointless!
Yeah Fat Tony was killed off, but his cousin pretty much became another Fat Tony, so it doesn't even matter.
We'll always have those early 90s episodes, where Tony and the crew were the Simpsons' retort to people who misinterpret Goodfellas. XD
@foxtoons1999 it was a Snowball 2 death. I'm pretty sure that the Fat Tony we see in modern episodes is treated as the original (Marion). Except for maybe the Selma episode where he's married, since we know Fat Tony is a widower and Michael is nowhere to be seen.
they then did the equivalent of replacing your childs dead hamster with an identical one before they get home with fit tony lol
I, for one, really enjoyed the episode where they killed off Bleeding Gums Murphy, I felt it was more tasteful in a way most of the "character killed off" episodes aren't. Maude Flanders in particular felt needlessly petty on the part of the writers, especially since Maggie Roswell eventually DID come back to the series, killing off Mona Simpson just felt like another way to yang Homer's chain some more when it came to her, Rabbi Krustofsky's death had a weird tone to it and felt oddly unceremonious, despite the episode being billed as the episode where a Simpsons character will die (seriously, Rabbi Krustofsky really sticks out among that line-up of Simpsons characters when they teased the episode), and now we have Larry... I actually think the idea of killing off a minor incidental character has some potential, but I'm not entirely sure if the episode really lived up to it... Also, I'm a little miffed that we focused on Homer, Moe, Lenny, and Carl, while Barney is conspicuously written out of the episode and Sam isn't even acknowledged. I get that they said they'd basically be creating a new character if they involved Sam in any way, but given how those two were always "those two extras in Moe's Tavern", I feel like it would have been appropriate to involve him in some way.
Actually it would have been semi-brilliant to have Sam always there, in the background, never saying anything or doing anything of note, and then at the end they could have a little "We'll never take anybody for granted ever again!" moment with Sam dead center ... but still in the background.
I still remember that Troy McClure joke where it's like 'Which Two Beloved Simpsons characters died?' And when the answer showed up as Dr Marvin Monroe and Bleeding Gums Murphy, he was like 'No they were never beloved characters'
It's almost like this show is supposed to be funny or something.
@@n3onkn1ghtWe know that
@@TheComedicProsthesecondone But has anybody told that to post-2000 Simpsons writers, though?
@@n3onkn1ght Idk maybe. What are you trying to get at here?
@@TheComedicProsthesecondone It's a sarcastic reference to the fact that the Simpsons hasn't had a funny joke since 1999.
The fact that none of the characters age implies that all of these deaths happened in the same year
that is one intense year
That would be an interesting video. “The time dilation of The Simpsons.”
i think the funniest explanation for none of the character aging is that it all happens in the same year. there's absolutely evidence that makes this super uncanon but it's still funny. imagine you live a somewhat normal life and then one year the craziest shit happens constantly and then the next year it's just normal again
Damn, Flanders lost two wives in one year
@@idlegameplayer3756 i can’t wait for them to explain how they had 30+ halloweens on one year
"In other news the president dyeeees, his hair."
...says Garry Trudeau in his new musical comedy revue.
No, I'm fairly certain Biden's hair is white all by lonesome.
"Mr President, you said you were dead!"
"That's right. Dead tired. But I'm quite refreshed now."
Note: Mr President died on the way back to his home planet
Holy shit, I misremembered that line as being about Santa Claus. Thanks for correcting that.
DR. NICK IS STILL ALIVE?!?! This is the best news I've ever received
Hi everybody!
"She's back! In *corpse* form!" ... I have to admit I laughed at that far harder than I'm proud of.
Imagine if they did the stemmed hams bit again but actually killed of Agnes due to the fact that Skinner caused the fire.
Extra points if that episode hints that Skinner lost his authoritarian side because he feels so guilty he tortures himself imagining Agnes constantly nagging at him
@@edgargaebolg9307 Isn't there a Steamed Hams edit where this happens? Where Chalmers walks in seeing Skinner dressed like Agnes, forcing him to call the Calmwood Mental Hospital.
You know what I wanna see? An episode where Dr. Hibbert discovers he is the brother of "Bleeding Gums" Murphy.
He never had any contact with his estranged brother, except for the brief interaction he had in "'Round Springfield" .
That single moment they met, and he ditn't even realize they were related, sticks to Dr. Hibbert. He then goes out and tries to learn more about who his brother was, and what life was like for him. Maybe listening to stories of people who interacted with Murphy back when he was alive.
His feelings, passions and doubts.
This is a solid idea. Turns a throwaway joke into an interesting story for a character that we rarely see outside one-liners and hospital settings.
@@mintpalmer Dr. Hibbert can visit places like the Jazz hole, or even confront his own parents about why Murphy had been disowned by them. Maybe even learn about his own heritage in the process. Seeking to understand the brother he never had a chance to meet, Hibbert can even ask Lisa for help.
@@herusolares5320 genuinely sounds like an excellent episode.
He may even meet his other long lost brother
@@herusolares5320 Yet he also has an estranged twin in Shelbyville. Do we acknowledge that in the episode?
To this day, I still think about lisa singing on the bridge. The "noone liked these characters" bit is still funny to me, but Bleeding Gums still matters in my heart.
Homers Moms death was pretty damn sad and effective also Smithers Father sacrificing himself was pretty well done too.
Si pero arruinaron la muerte al final con la cosa de los espias
What about Poochie? Him bravely dying on his way back to his home planet was very emotional
He came back later, though. I guess his home planet didn't need him and he didn't really die on his way back there.
I personally love round Springfield and honestly I like bleeding gums Murphys send off, it’s honestly my favorite episode of season 6
Apu’s last speaking role was in 2017. Since then he’s just been a background character. I imagine if they wanted to kill off a major character, they’d probably choose Apu
I don't think they have the cahones for that one, either. Yeah maybe it'd be well-received, but maybe it would result in a backlash of one of the few characters killed being a minority. I don't think they'll take that chance. They wouldn't even take the chance on the 'successful businessman' write-off idea.
Nah, they are terrified of touching him. He was in a recent episode voiceless, but killing him would be insulting at this point.
I would just stop watching if they killed off Apu. He loves his job, he loves his family, and Springfield loves him. He’s a beloved character, so if they killed him off the whole fanbase would riot.
@@joshslater2426 Does he love his kids? It's been years but as soon as the corporate help dried up he seemed not to like the octuplets.
apu will eventually make his return. Think they will get an Indian voice actor. probably won't say please come again anymore. its a shame they dont use him any more. he is basically the second-best person on the show.
Maude's death has always been one of the most fascinating aspects of post-classic Simpsons to me. Like many others, I'm not a huge fan of how they killed her off, but I do enjoy how it impacted Ned's status quo and managed to give him a bit of depth even as he got further into his "Flanderization". I also absolutely think they handled Edna's death very well, and the restraint they showed out of respect for her voice actor actually made the grief more realistic. However, I can't be the only one who cringes when they do jokes about Flanders having multiple dead wives (like the end of Flanders Ladder)-It feels a bit awkward since those two deaths were the results of vastly different circumstances and only one of them can still appear as a voiced ghost/flashback any time they want.
But the thing that really hooked me into being fixated on Maude's death was the episode where Todd began to question his religion because he couldn't remember what his mother looked like. The episode itself is fairly decent by modern standards (I really liked the first 2 acts, but act 3 is a bit disappointing) but it's made so weird in the full context of the show. If Todd is able to forget what Maude looked like, how long ago was her death to him now? Maude was killed off two decades ago, but the characters don't age. And in the bizarre case of Todd Flanders, he's actually been getting younger (in season 2 he's referred to as 10, later he's implied to be 8, and recently he's been put at around 6) this isn't me being nit-picky about continuity, it just creates such a visceral meta-narrative about grief. Maude was killed off over a decade before Todd would have been born, but he's somehow younger than when she died. Her death was long enough ago that he can forget what she looked like but time never seems to move for our characters so it may as well have been yesterday. I don't expect the Simpsons to ever focus on Todd's grief more than that one recent episode, but it is bizarre that for every Flanders grief story we're only briefly reminded that the kids lost a mother.
It's the same weirdness we have with baby characters in a show like this. Apu's kids have grown a lot more than Maggie has, despite her being older.
@@Boltscrapkinda similar to how Sideshow Bob's son was born quite a few years after Maggie yet appears to be at least a year or so older than her. This kind of thing is what headcanons are for I guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I think Maude’s death is what led to Ned and Todd becoming fully realized characters with emotional depth. Ned got to be shown grieving and then attempting to date again and eventually finding love and happiness again with Edna and how people who have lost their spouses through death can find happiness again and it doesn’t mean that they don’t love their first spouse any less. Todd shows the anger and frustration any child would feel over the death of a parent and how questioning religion as a result is natural but you aren’t a bad person for having these thoughts and the best thing to do is figure out what it is you truly believe in.
I was excitingly waiting for you to give a take on Larry’s departure, but this extension to the take is perfect
Me too.
"Being a parent on this show is not great for your long-term health." No wonder Disney was so attracted to this series.
I don’t get it.
I can’t tell if this is a joke or not.
@@benmalsky9834 Yes, it's a joke about how most Disney film protagonists have at least one dead parent.
@@CthulhuianBunny Oh okay.
@@CthulhuianBunny Sorry I didn’t get the joke at first.
They do seem to have an "Oh no! Anyway" mentality every so often, now that you mention it.
I don't really watch the series, but when I heard about the larry thing i misread it as lenny and thought "oh wow thats kind of a big deal isnt it?" before reading it again and going "who?"
not lenny!
NOT LENNY! (Look, you walked into that)
NOT LENNY!
Not Lenny
Not Lenny!
They really should kill off Comic Book Guy one of these times, but then four different versions of him show up, all claiming to be the real one. Third act alien invasion, big fight, sky beam takes out a city, and finally reveal that it was all a dream. The episode ends with the universe rebooting, about to do it all again, but worse.
Then it gets two animated adaptations within just a few years.
treehouse o' horror type thingy
I don’t get it.
What exactly is the point here?
@@benmalsky9834 I think it's meant to be a parody of big comic book crossover events that reboot the universe like Crisis on Infinite Earths
This may sound morbid, but I think it would be interesting to kill one of the kids. Just one of the background kids from Springfield Elementary, Wendell or that kid with the sunglasses. As you mentioned, just about every death has been a parent of a fully-grown adult. The two that affected the kids, Lisa and Bart, were both mentor figures (Tod also had an episode dealing with Maude's death, but that one had a really weird third act). I think it would be really interesting to have them deal with the death of a peer. Not someone that they personally have much of a connection with, but close enough to them that it makes them question their own mortality. Like, maybe Wendell rides his bike without a helmet and dies in an accident. From there, you could have Bart questioning all the dangerous stuff he does on a regular basis. Maybe Marge suddenly gets worried about what she lets him do. Maybe Bart sees how quickly the rest of the school moves on like Wendell was never even there, and it freaks him out.
RIP Smormu
Larry and Sam remind me of that time Family Guy acknowledged 10 seasons in that most of the characters in the pilot never appeared again.
"TV's not even plugged in."
I think an interesting death would be Mayor Quimby. Not only would it open the door to parodying another corrupt politician in his replacement (I feel that the JFK/Daley reference is a bit outdated in the 2020's), but it could be an interesting setup seeing how the town mourns and/or celebrates his death
I am so worried it'll be another worn out trump parody
If his nephew is his replacement I’m in.
The one big weird thing about Larry’s episode the complete lack of Sam. They could’ve easily just pasted him into Barney’s cutaway and that would’ve made more sense than him ceasing to exist for the episode.
He doesn't appear at all? Not even at Moe's? Maybe he offed himself but people were too focused on Larry
@@edgargaebolg9307 idk why my reply apparently got deleted but matt selman explained on twitter they were gonna include some kinda throwaway explanation for where sam was but felt they couldn't bc they already did that w/ barney, and that they couldn't have sam on the road trip bc that'd totally change the story they were going for. but admits they could've done smth to include him.
like op said, they could've just stuck him w/ barney, or they could've just had him in the funeral scene, or said "screw it" and told the different story w/ him joining the guys on their road trip
I mean, Larry and Sam don't actually really share any lines or interactions together, they just sit next to each other. Larry and Sam could have been strangers to each other who the viewers automatically assume are friends due to proximity.
@@tinfoilslacks3750 apparently them being best friends comes from a video game? so idk if it was the writers' intention. but it'd be a bit odd if they were strangers considering they were p much always side by side
Perhaps the Edna death works so well because it feels the most real (for obvious reasons). One day she was fine and then suddenly she wasn’t around anymore. In later episodes they couldn’t have her appear in a flashback, it’s just how the people who knew her handled her death and learned to move on
It reminds me of when Will Lee died and Sesame Street did that amazing episode where the adults tell Big Bird that Mr. Hooper is dead, and Big Bird is coming to terms with the concept of death. It’s a great sign of respect for a core cast member and how much he meant to the characters and by extension the actors, and for children it’s a great way of showing how people in their lives die and that’s just what happens.
It’s one thing to have an actor who’s simply not around that much then they can do whatever they want with their characters, it’s another thing when an actual actor dies and it’s hard to imagine anyone else in that role. Marcia Wallace and Edna were just that, an actor who shaped so much of what made that character great that recasting wasn’t going to cut it.
@@benmalsky9834 absolutely!
For me personally Larry was a "Hey look it's Larry" type of character
Simpsons equivalent of Glup Shitto
The only counterargument:
We’ll miss you, Mrs. K.
I really liked how the death of Bleeding Gums Murphy was handled well in the episode where it began.
However, I found the follow-up in later episodes was a big problem.
Like, the next episode to really focus on Bleeding Gums Murphy after his death is an episode that only works if you completely forget about the episode where he died. It's as if it was written by someone who didn't see that episode. Only family was a supposedly long lost brother and pissed all his money away on faberge eggs? Well now he had a big family (that didn't bother to show up at his funeral) and he was screwed out of his money by the record company.
I'm curious what'll happen if and when any of the main cast members die and or retire during the shows run. They canonically killed off Edna Krabappel when Marcia Wallace died, but it's hard to imagine them doing the same for any of the main family. Like the idea of Marge canonically dying during the show's run is unthinkable.
They will just replace her, hypocrisy.... Maybe not now, but for sure in the 90's
Marge's original german voice actress died way back even before the movie had come out. Homer's voice actor died a few years ago too. They were both replaced and (even tho it's sad) I don't think the english voice cast would be an exception to that.
Lunchlady Doris was retired when Doris Grau died. Then she showed up later, but was called "Lunchlady Dora" on a school newspaper or something like that. Fans pointed out the error on Twitter, and one of the writers said, "No, that's Dora's sister." This was never explained in the show, though. If you didn't see that Twitter conversation, you would never know.
Yeah, but the English VAs are the original voices for the characters, while dubs are just that, dubs, and don’t impact the show as much.
Love you Jim, having this on and hearing abit of Merlinas theme from Sonic and The Black Knight awakened something in my soul. The thematic implications of having that play as her goal was to create a never ending kingdom without death in a video about mortality in a never ending show was certainly a masterstroke! Am I reading too into this? Yes, yes I am!
An episode about Skinner dealing with guilt over feeling somewhat relieved at his mother's death would be too spicy for _classic_ Simpsons, let alone modern Simpsons.
Although not canon, I can remember that in a treehouse of horror comic, it was revealed that Marvin Monroe had been alive the whole time and chained up in Moe's basement.
Weirdly, the odd shot randomly selected deaths reminds me slightly of real life. That kinda thing just happens sometimes. Someone you vaguely knew dies and it kinda has an impact but you're just confused of how to think about it because you hardly knew them.
I've said it before and I'll say it again... The floating time is what hurts the show the most.
If they just started aging up the characters around season 10 they would open the floodgates of story possibilities because our characters are now in different parts of their lives and that allows more situations to be told.
In relation to deaths in the show, if the timeline becomes linear then that will force their hand to kill off even prominent characters!
I love Abe, but he can't live forever. If they make him age and he is in this 70s to 80s, then you'll have to keep the show grounded by dedicating an episode to his death as well!
Here's some ideas
-Mr Burns dies and we see Smithers take charge of the power plant and how his leadership changes things.
-Agnus and Grandpa and how they affect their middle age children
-Grandpa's friends die at the retirement home and he's forced to grapple his own mortality
I genuinely wonder if the Simpsons will ever tackle a child death. There aren't many characters fleshed out enough in Springfield Elementary for it to matter without them being too important. The bullies, Ralph, Sherri/Terri are all in the safe "too recurring to die" category.
There could be a story to be had in Lewis or Richard passing away and exploring Bart's grief, but since their parents aren't properly characterised it would be harder for the writers to explore a parents grief in the same way.
They did a fake out version of that with Martin.
Martin Prince would have been a good pick considering the death of his voice actor, but they replaced the voice instead.
0:02Larry is at left bottom corner up to the green alien.
Utter was listed as dead/missing on the wiki for awhile because he was last seen stuck in a spiderweb in a vent...
Gotta point out that if you watch the end of "Duffless", they've already got Larry's version of Snowball V or Fit Tony waiting in the wings.
In my country, Argentina, they only ever aired Bleeding Gums' death episode, I never knew where the clearly-from-a-different-season clip came from, I guess Telefé really disliked how unprofessional Season 1 looked
Killing Agnes Skinner sounds as a big a change to Seymour's character as making Barney sober
Wow that commercial is a powerful memory in my recollection of the middle Simpsons years. You made a very good point about how obvious it was that they weren’t going to kill off a main character and I really dig your overall analysis on the subject. It’s a very tense and dark topic but I like how you framed it in a clear and concise manner. I remember the Bleeding Gums episode and it’s one of my favorites from season 6. I like it because of the heart it has and how cool it is to see Lisa and Bart support each other in the climax of the episode. There’s good stories and bad stories on this list. I’m also motivated by this situation to once again make a case to do something honorable with Apu. I still love that guy and even with all the drama surrounding it I want him to have a future and a chance to one day shine again. If it worked for Maude Flanders, it might just work for him too. I suddenly see a new pathway for him that could be narratively interesting and even respectful. I truly hope in the long run that the Simpsons will learn how to use their platform to better handle this situation. Great video and analysis. RIP to Larry and my full respect to the tough opinions on this subject. Also definitely for sure the character that I will always miss the most is Edna Krabapple, but she would never be the same person without Marcia Wallace so I truly respect the decision to retire her from the series.
“Just Stamp the Ticket Guy” is next on the chopping block.
They should make an episode where they kill off a completely new character but everyone in Springfield acts like they’re the most important person in town and them dying is an absolutely earth shattering event
Thats already a episode, four regrets and a funeral.
@@Nickolasthegamer492 I guess it’s true what they say, “Simpsons did it”
"Oh Ponce, you are a REGULAR character!"
South Park also isn't above killing off minor characters.
Pip was one of the recurring characters in S1 and 2, gradually showed up less and less through S3 and S4 as Butters took over his role, and after his S4 spotlight episode flopped he was effectively cut from the show. He showed up once in S6 alongside a bunch of other obscure characters like Luigi and Dirtmeat to audition to be Kenny's replacement, and then vanished again for a decade until being killed off in 201, an episode you can't legally watch anywhere.
They did the same thing to the Bus Driver Ms. Crabtree, she was mostly used for one joke outside of one or two roles in S1 and 2, so in S7 they had her get offed by a serial killer.
They've done the other types too though. Chef was a victim of Maude Flanders syndrome, being killed off due to the IRL VA quitting and then dying of a stroke.
Miss Choksondik was introduced as the 4th Grade teacher when the kids moved up a grade in Season 4 and was killed off in S6 when they decided they didn't want to use her, and by that point Mr. Garrison was freed up again(He spent most of S4 with his own story-arc doing his own thing, writing books, Mr. Twig, first for the series, and then in S5 and S6 he was the Kindergarten teacher for a bit.) Something similar happened a decade later, Garrison ran off and became Trump, they introduced a new female teacher, and when Garrison was freed up they killed her off. Or Jason White. Introduced for one of the story arc seasons, no longer had a role once it ended, was eventually killed off.
tbf even tho they did kill chef bc of isaac hayes quitting (and likely would've done so anyway as he died a couple yrs later), they hardly used chef by the time of that ep. I didn't know abt isaac hayes when I watched it and assumed they were pulling a ms. crabtree, killing him bc they didn't care to feature him anymore.
jason was often used as a background character before he died and funny enough, he has actually popped up in the background again at least once after his death.
another u didn't mention was satan dying in s22, I hope we get some kinda follow-up/reference to that at some point (esp since they've already brought manbearpig back after that); I think it was just to have a heroic sacrifice. but thanks for making this comment, as I thought of these points during the vid.
(btw when u said "dirtmeat", did u mean "dogpoo"? lol)
@@tiablue9106 I believe that if Issac's departure had been handled better, without involving Scientology and his eventual death in 2008, Chef would have simply been relegated to the background, like Dr. Mephesto.
@@spyroG3 yeah I can see that happening; he was basically background after season 7 or so and even if they'd wanted to use him after hayes died, I doubt they'd recast him. a bit sad to think abt but
And one time they killed Kenny and acted like it was a big deal (unlike all the previous times he'd been killed off), and then they stopped killing him.
@@KasumiKenshirou I see that mentioned a lot as a sort of inverse with what Family Guy did for Brian.
Brian was dead for 6 weeks and the episode he came back in was already 90% completed by that point. It was pure emotional manipulation and ratings trap.
Kenny stayed dead for just over a year(which given South Park's infamously fast production means a lot), his death and it's impact basically got a full in-depth season arc that was complete by that point, and they even had an in-universe reason for the logistics of it.
When Kenny dies, he's reborn from his mother. We first saw this in S4 in Cartman Joins CENSORED and it was re-established later in the Cthulhu Triology. However, this only applies to un-natural death. One of Kenny's 'respawns' was defective and developed terminal muscular atrophy which eventually killed him. Kenny's soul then stayed in Limbo for a while(he's not allowed in Heck after the events of the movie and he's not allowed in Heaven because he's not Mormon...until a later episode where they make an exception for him, but I digress) until Cartman ate his ashes and started being haunted by Kenny. This lasted for a while until Chef's parents excorsiced him and put him in a roast. The roast was then eaten by Rob Schneider, who proceeded to do a bunch of crazy things while being haunted by Kenny until eventually going crazy and jumping out a window. Rob's death, and thereby Kenny's death as he was attached, was unnatural, so the respawn cycle resumed.
While not a true death, i think the poison fugu fish episode was worth mentioning, homer and family legitimately thought he was going to die, homer said his goodbyes and tried to give and get as much closure as he could in the short time he had left, and the moments leading to his "death" were legitimately emotional
i get this terrible feeling that if they ever do something notable with apu again it'll be killing him off
Graggle's death could make for a very humorous, no consequence episode.
but the writers are too scared to dare mess w a character as important and reoccurring as graggle🙄
I will never stop feeling sad for Edna Krabappel
I rather like "Alone Again." The eulogy is awkward but there's a certain dark humor to be found in the idea that Lovejoy is phoning it in like that even for the wife of his best customer. When I'm in the right mood I can appreciate the absurdity of the scene at the raceway instantly turning so serious, and Ned processing his grief for the rest of the episode while Homer ineptly tries to help is touching. I like that much better than the follow-up episode, which lays it on much too thick.
Shoutouts again to your awesome background music choices in your videos. OCR is a fantastic resource and I love going "Oh! I recognize that!" and checking the description
I just timestamped the entire video based generally upon which character(s) are being discussed for easier re-watching (In-case anyone might wanna do that, I guess?), and also because I was bored. The description already has timestamps in it, so I'm not sure if it'd be possible to even implement these there, but it'd make my day if they were put there anyway. Or if I could get confirmation that this actually helped somebody and wasn't a waste of about this video's length plus 15 minutes. Thanks
0:00 Introduction
1:12 Bleeding Gums Murphy
3:02 Marvin Monroe
4:03 Maude Flanders
5:21 Snowball II
6:30 Amber
6:46 Dr. Nick
7:03 Mona Simpson
8:30 Fat Tony
9:17 Alice Glick
10:06 Edna Krabappel
10:48 Rabbi Krustofsky
12:26 Finally, Larry
14:16 Conclusive thoughts
16:37 Who's next?
18:40 End
You end this on “killing Agnes Skinner”, when it was just last night I was watching the Treehouse of Horror when Homer’s ghost drops her to her death.
My wife just got home, and I paused it to show her that scene because I find everything about it hilarious.
"I'm pretty sure she was going to be the next Hitler..."
"Least beloved side character must die...their hair pink."
I have not seen the episode where Mona Simpson dies, but I felt sad at the end of her debut episode where she leaves again, Homer alone, staring at the stars.
I bring this up because they evidently could handle sad endings, even if nobody died.
I dislike the death of Krusty's dad because of one reason - the funeral scene. Having a choir singing the Itchy & Scratchy theme on his funeral feels like spitting on his corpse to me.
I can't wait for the future episode where they reveal that Sam is a retired russian spy with a rich backstory and acess to time travel
And you'll be able to win things by watching.
Unsurprisingly, the "most replayed" section is Ned's MASSIVE blurred out member.
Not knowing the production backstory to it when first seeing it, I've always enjoyed the Maud Flanders episode because of it really shaking up Ned's life and making him seem more like a full person rather than just the wholesome neighbor.
The Bleeding Gums episode is one of my all-time favorite Simpsons episodes, and I 100% agree that is the best they've done with portraying the death of a character
Also if they can bring back Mrs. Glick I wish they'd bring back Dr. Marvin Monroe, underrated character and one of the best parts of the early seasons
Although he didn't die, the whole Seymour Skinner/Arman Tanzerian thing is eerily similar to this.
Wtf
@@PMitchell1011Realwhy?
Is Homer's half brother still alive? I could see him getting killed off, as another "loose end" kinda death or as some inciting action with an inheritance type deal. But, I agree, The Simpson's issue with death comes down to it being such a staunchly episodic kind of show. Death is quite literally the antithesis of the show's nature.
Crazy how we remember Herb but the series doesn't. He doesn't appear in any of Homer or Abe's flashbacks and they didn't even bother having Homer call him when Mona died
@@edgargaebolg9307 Mona isn't his mother and Homer didn't learn about him until he was an adult
Hell, not so long i learned that he has a second episode dedicated to him. All my life i thought he was a one off character
Please do a 'Simpsons histories (or even mysteries) on specific businesses in springfield and how their usage in the show has changed over time! Androids dungeon would be a great pick (I always think of it being such a 'classic' period hangout spot), but Moes Tavern would be fun too! 🙏
Controversial but if there was a series regular to kill of that has some emotional weight, Barney is my gut pick. His presence as Homer's barfly friend has all but been reduced, already felt like they were grasping at straws after he became an alcoholic again and don't have much else going with him to do. But with controversy to Larry of all characters that ain't happening. Another would be Apu to try and "move past" the issue but end up making it x10 worse.
Upon seeing this video show up the 2 asterixises that came to mind were Edna and Bleeding Gums Murphy where the deaths were handeled well and subseequent stories around their deaths were done the most tasteful. Maude Flanders will always be my least favourite in execution but legacy has been good, Mona I feel is kinda the opposite of Maude, good execution of Homer not getting that closure but once it hits even in that very episode the legacy hasn't been as good. Snowball II I found funny but Fat Tony wasn't good. Mrs Glick I didn't even know. I liked the Larry episode for what it was intially before derailing but not havng Sam at all was just dumb.
I used to shared your videos with one of my friends because she loved the Simpson's and it was something we could be nerds about. Like as soon as they were uploaded. The last one I sent her was your video for Millhouse. Not to be weird, but I know she would have loved this one too. Thanks, dude. Still here being a Simpson's nerd lol
When I saw the episode where they killed Larry, I really did think he was just some new character, and it was all some elaborate way to get a grieving story without actually killing anybody off.
Lmao that reminds me of one of Mona's episodes where she mentions an old friend of Homer's and Carl says "poor guy, they never found his head"
Y'know, it's always fascinating to see how The Simpsons handles the deaths of certain characters, even if several of them aren't executed in the best way...
...and I just realized I made a pun there. D'oh! Ah, well, still, this is a pretty great watch!
I've always took a lot of this deaths just as non canon jokes (just like the case of Nick Rivera)
But seen it happens so much make me think a lot
My money's on Hans Moleman. It won't last until the end of the episode, and will basically be a cutaway gag, but he's going next. And possibly the time after that.
I see where you're going, but much like Agnes, without Hans they wouldn't be able to do the "Hans Moleman gets brutally tortured" joke #179.
Didn't he already get killed off when Homer exploded those fast food joints
Edna's death was handled beautifully, and I rhink because right round the same time Family Guy pilled a scummy move of killing of Brian only to bring him back later. And I honestly think it shows how the writers could have tried to find a replacement, but instead allow her to rest and show they COULD do a potential good death.
My vote next major death would be Agnes, Barney, One of Fat Tony's cronies, OR the 3rd police officer who's name I am blanking on. Lou's safe 100%
If they kill off Agnes, it'll probably be something where they start the episode off revisiting Steamed Hams but Skinner *actually* burns his house down.
This reminds me of an episode of Clone High where the character Ponce de Leon dies. Everyone loved him, and he was always in everybody’s lives. He was JFK’s best friend for life. But the punchline is that Ponce had never appeared in any prior episode. They introduced him just to kill him. So when everybody was talking about a MAJOR CHARACTER got killed off and it turned out to be Larry, I immediately thought of Ponce.
I'm very nervous about the Simpsons not having a series finale should one of the core actors pass, Dan, Julie, Yeardley or Nancy. I hope they have one that is already printed if the show must end. The movie is great, but it would be ultimate disservice to generations of the audience if they don't already have a solid series finale when it comes time. Those 4 and Hank Azaria are irreplacable.
Don't forget Harry Shearer, he's already 80
9:08 Personally I chose to think that Fat Tony's death never happened and just ignore that particular episode. Still never understood why the writers think it was a good idea.
You say that you can't see them killing off anyone more major than Agnes, but wasn't Edna Krabappel way more major than that? I think they'd be willing to kill off more significant characters if it was caused by factors outside of their control.
They should do an episode where everyone dies, and now the show keeps being the same but in heaven, bringing back every dead character
The problem with deaths in some episodic cartoons like Simpsons is that: Death is indeed permanent but most of the time they move on, like few deaths really land and change the scenery of the show and impact characters, most of characters killed are either background, secondary characters that somehow we have to pretend we remembered or characters that basically were introduced in the same episode however Larry's episode is one that makes sense because they never pretend to be friends of him or even cared about it
4:27 Justice for Maude Flanders!