Yeah, along with Todd I'm the one other guy in the universe who was afraid of Slimer based on the promo materials, before I actually saw the movie. Then he became the Ghostbuster's wacky sidekick in the cartoon. That kind of messed me up.

"If you believe in yourself, you can do anything. I never thought I could shoot down a German plane, but last year I proved myself wrong."

The teacher thing wasn't really about politics like these other examples were, though—it was mostly that it was a show that lionized misfits and, in Bart's case, troublemaking. Of course the show later became pretty sympathetic to educators, but you'd have o actually watch it to know that. In 1999, a lot of teachers…

My gym teacher—yes, my fucking gym teacher—wouldn't let us wear Simpsons T-shirts. At the time I didn't watch the show, and I was really young, so it went over my head, but as early as a year later (after I had become hooked on the show) I realized how fucking dumb it was.

Webster's defines "Excellence" as "the condition or quality of being excellent".

Dear Mister President, there are too many states nowadays. Please eliminate three. PS. I am not a crackpot.

All aboard the nappy train to visit mother goose!

I hope the Spinal Taps don't play too loud.

Of course, no one needs me to comment on the fact that this final episode by Wong and Morgan, who had already left the show once and come back, is about a toxic relationship in which one of the participants realizes what an arrogant, self-absorbed ass the other is and tries to leave, but circumstances contrive to…

But none of that changes the fact that the genre elements get piled on top of each other pretty heavily in Doctor Who (and most long-running genre shows, for that matter). You can argue that, because each episode usually has its own premise, the ideas pile up slowly enough that we get used to them more easily, but…

No argument that it takes talent, I was just objecting to the idea that it can't or shouldn't be done. Of course you don't want to lard up every or even most genre stories with lots of crazy stuff if it's not needed, but I don't think you should shy away from it as consistently as most writers and filmmakers seem to…

And of course, the blink-and-you'll miss it gag of the restaurant being called "The Sit 'N Rotate Room".

Mixing Genre Elements
"The old maxim is that if you're going to do a genre story of some type, you can't mix up two different basic genre concepts. For example, you can't have a bunch of characters step into a time machine, then end up in an alternate Elizabethan London where everybody's a zombie. Well, I mean, you…

@Otto Mann: "I can think of at least two things wrong with that title."

Is "CCH" her initials, or her actual name? How do you pronounce that?

Wait, I thought "Lisa's Wedding" was the Simpsons episode that most directly inspired Futurama. Well, that and the Halloween episodes.

Season 4 is DRAMA!
This is definitely the season in which the writers figured out how to do real character drama. Looking ahead, there are an awful lot of effective dramatic episodes coming up, including a few truly kick-ass ones (Legacy, Reunion) which along with "Brothers" do a great job of paying off earlier plot…

Year One was directed by Harold fucking Ramis, Cyrus. Harold fucking Ramis.

Shame on all of you for not mentioning Breaking Bad, the actual best show on TV right now.

Yes, I'm pretty sure the two networks were against crossovers in S3. It seems like they couldn't even mention Buffy's name on Angel for a while there, which is why they keep talking around her. They seem to have mellowed by S4.