That's not it with me at all. I'm not complaining because this episode sucked by classic Simpsons standards, I'm complaining because it sucked by ANY standards. I like the show in general, thus as a loyal viewer, I feel they owe me.

Totally agree. This wasn't merely a bad latter-day Simpsons episode by bad latter-day Simpson episode standards. This was bad on a level that honestly surprised me. I mean even in spite of my diminished expectations I still have some standards. This was the most intelligence-insulting episode they've ever done IMO.

Yep, latching on to some stupid pop culture fad instead of skewering it.

Exactly. They've poked varying degrees of fun at major celebrities before but the Gaga one was insanely reverential.

Yep, that one's in the bottom ten, at least. And the one where Burns is brain-damaged and becomes the village stooge.

Up to that point they'd never sold out for a celebrity that hard. Lady Gaga and The Simpsons, not Lady Gaga ON The Simpsons. IMO they'd never been that crass about it before.

That's true, complaining about The Simpsons is almost as old as the show itself. But speaking for myself, I've hung in there and still find it enjoyable. Not this episode, though.

My school system actually did give out E grades. This was in olden times, though, back when we still had air raid drills and smoking sections. I don't know why they didn't use F but they never did. E was below 70%.

I thought the same thing, it was as if they decided to deliberately make the worst possible episode they could, just to make some sort of satirical point or something. It was the most out-of-character and jarring episode I can remember right now.

Likewise, I'll defend episodes no one likes as well, but this one was indefensible. There are maybe five episodes that I find downright embarrassing and that I wouldn't re-watch under any circumstances. Right now I'm not sure if this one isn't the worst of the lot.

Bear in mind that I'm not a latter-day Simpsons basher who's constantly bitching about the show and it's not about continuity or canon either. IMO it just sucked, plain and simple. Out of 562 episodes there are only a small handful of them that I find embarrassing to watch and this was one of them. It was almost as if…

I liked That 90s Show too. Not this one, though.

I've always liked "Midnight Rx" and the Super Bowl halftime one too, also the one where Ned moves to Humbleton. It's a very good season by later-day standards.

IMO it's HOW you break the continuity, you can (and sometimes have to) do it without being obnoxious about it. Maybe of they had tied it all up by explaining as a hallucination or a dream sequence or something, but this was just lazy and extremely stupid.

The Gaga one sucked because they wrote the entire thing around her as if she was some sort of superhero. It played like a big commercial for Gaga, not a wacky celebrity guest spot.

That's a good point, it was like they put no imagination into it at all and did a whole bunch of "wouldn't it be wacky?" gags instead. I'm not expecting high art here but come on, don't just downright insult my intelligence.

Yes, I would. Season 16 in particular was pretty good IMO. I don't think the difference is huge, but in recent years I'm seeing a lot more episodes that never would have made the cut before, even in down years.

They've done a few episodes where I barely paid attention but this is the first one since Gaga where I found myself actively disliking it. Forget continuity and all that, it just plain sucked even as a standalone episode. It would have easily been the worst "Treehouse" skit by a mile, too.

Until tonight I considered that one to be the worst one ever. This one is just as terrible though.

I usually defend the show, as in recent years there have usually been a few solid episodes. But this was just plain bad.