CTV.ca entertainment producer Darren O'Donoghue has a piece on seven great Simpsons episodes and six great one-liners. There's a movie coming out next week.
Some Simpsons vignettes that stick out in my mind:
When the Germans buy the nuclear power plant and hold interviews with all the employees (pinning down Homer was a challenge), they inadvertently trigger Homer into a reverie about the Land of Chocolate. There's free chocolate everywhere, but Homer really got excited when sees a sign that makes him exclaim: "Wow! Chocolate -- half price!" Later, a public announcement is made: "Attention workers, ve haff completed our evaluation of ze plant. We regret to announce ze following lay-offs, which I will read in alphabetical orduh: Simpson, Homer. Zat is all."
At a Springfield Junior Chamber of Commerce meeting, Mr. Burns tells the tykes: "Faith. Family. Friends. These are the shackles from which you must free yourself if you want to be successful in business!"
"It's not pollution; it's evolution!" -- Monte Burns on a three-eyed fish caught near the nuke plant when he's trying to run for governor. He showed up at the Simpsons home for a photo-op dinner before the cameras and Marge served him the fish. He refused to eat it. On the way out, the now-ruined politico ominously hissed at Homer: "Simpson, I'm going to see to it that all your dreams go unfulfilled." This terrified Homer until Marge pointed out that Homie's dreams were so limited that no man could take them from him.
Crocodile Dundee-looking Aussie: "That's not a knife. This is a knife!" Bart: "That's not a knife. That's a spoon." Disappointed-sounding Aussie: "Oh. I see you're familiah with our little game of knifey-spooney."
In a video arcade, while the other kids are playing ultraviolent karate-kill games, Martin is playing My Dinner with Andre. The notion of the least kinetic movie ever made as a video game is funny enough, but the control buttons were "trenchant insights" and "witty bon mots." You had to press up on the joystick for "tell me more!"
Every Itchy and Scratchy segment ever made.