Oh, OK, it never occurred to me to equate Disney cartoons with fairy tales. I'm also an American '80s/'90s kid, but to me fairy tales are written stories. (By the way, Grimm, Lang, etc. are 19th century, not 800 years old).

You make a fair point. I mean, if I created an "AI" that consisted of nothing but a computer playing an audio file of the words "I am conscious and self-aware", obviously, no one would consider it to be a conscious entity. But if one is to take pretty much the entire AI sub-genre of science fiction seriously, one…

When someone can rigorously pose the so-called hard problem of consciousness in a non-questioning-begging way, get back to me.

We cannot stem linguistic change, but we can drag our feet.

A minor digression - but you know, a lot of fairy tales are actually very, very dark. The whole 'fairy tale' = 'unrealistically happy and sweet' thing annoys me.

Kubrick's treatment apparently did have the ending that we see in the final film; here's Spielberg talking about it:
https://www.youtube.com/wat…

When my sister was in Costa Rica and ended up covered in mosquito bites despite wearing mosquito netting, I suggested that maybe she had the netting inside out.

You're crazy, Marge. Get off the road!

I see that you live in a universe in which the Simpsons ended after season 11.

You know, there's a fine line between witty, ironic meta-awareness and lazy, lazy writing.

Hmm, I remember liking the Loch Ness Monster episode…

I also just realized that the Grimes Jr. episode is from earlier than I thought. I could have sworn it was 15th-16th season, but no, first half of 14. Turns out it was not one of the last new episodes I watched, though it probably should have been.

Yeah, I really don't get it either. I would say it was one of the better episodes of season 12. But then again I also don't hate "Kill the Alligator and Run", so what do I know?

You're welcome.

Oh, wow, that was the same episode? I remember that Sideshow Bob thing, but I had no recollection that it was from the same episode as Grimes Jr.

The fact that he says "packages" instead of "packets" is just so subtly and indefinably brilliant.

Yeah, that was a strange comment for the reviewer to make. I think it's generally acknowledged that the first-act red herrings came into greater prominence during those years, rather than the other way around. (Personally, I liked those red herrings up to a point, though they eventually got out of hand).

Springfield Elementary does churn out class after class of ugly, ugly children.

Yeah, I kept watching regularly for a little bit after that, but I remember "Large Marge" as the episode where I realized the show was not only not great anymore, but also not even good anymore.

So, my opinion on Homer's Enemy is that it was both 1. a symptom of changes in the show that would eventually lead to its decline and 2. a great, great, episode.