The Simpsons Needs Less Cameos (From Celebrities Playing Themselves)

The more celebrities play themselves on The Simpsons, the more the show worries about offending them, resulting in drab, disappointing episodes.

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The cast of The Simpsons recently teased a possible future episode where The Rock befriends Lisa, but the series needs to move on from celebrities playing themselves to utilize the full potential of their guest stars. The anarchic animated family sitcom The Simpsons has been around a long time now. As the show nears its season 33 debut, it is not a surprise that The Simpsons has changed a lot during this time.

The Simpsons began life as a spiky, often surprisingly cynical deconstruction of the warm, saccharine family sitcoms that dominated the television comedy landscape of the ‘80s. In this regard, the series was not unlike Married With Children, but soon The Simpsons’ early ‘Golden Age’ began and the show gained unprecedented critical acclaim. This era of the series, running from approximately season 3—11, saw The Simpsons become a more anarchic, subversive, and gag-heavy comedy.

During this time, the fame and popularity of The Simpsons increased dramatically, and the series became able to book more and more impressive celebrities as guest stars. On occasion, celebrities would play themselves and poke fun at their public personas, but for the most part, The Simpsons used celebrities as the voices for one-off characters with original quirks. However, that approach has changed a lot since the Golden Age era of The Simpsons. A recent 2021 Comic-Con at Home panel for The Simpsons saw the actors talk about a potential episode wherein The Rock and Lisa become friends, and the impulse underlying this conversation—of prioritizing big-name guest stars over original characters—has been dragging down the show’s penchant for guest stars for some time now.

The Simpsons Has Always Had Great A-List Guest Stars

As early as season 3 of the series, The Simpsons boasted big names like Danny DeVito, Michael Jackson, and Dustin Hoffman, but there was one vital distinction that separated the episodes these actors appeared in from the many recent outings that have seen the series depict famous guest stars. None of them (not even the immediately recognizable Jackson) played themselves, with the famous faces being given rounded, poignant, and most importantly, funny characters to play instead. Even Prince, Michael Jackon’s famous rival, was approached by The Simpsons not to play himself, but to play a variation on the character Jackson played in a meta-joke that was designed to poke fun at the idea of celebrity.

The greatest A-list guest stars of The Simpsons’ early seasons had incredible scripts to work with, but most of what made their appearances soar was the fact that their characters would have worked even without the presence of a big name. For example, Dustin Hoffman’s Mr. Bergstrom starred in one of The Simpsons’ most moving early outings, but his appearance did not rely on Hoffman’s star power. Hoffman had been a Hollywood star for years by the time he appeared on The Simpsons, but the celebrity cameo consisted of him playing an unassuming but inspiring substitute teacher Lisa has a connection with. As a result, while the actor is superb in the role, it would always have worked as a plot on the series even without his involvement.

Celebrities Playing Themselves Are A Mixed Bag

However, celebrities playing themselves is not the only problem that has plagued The Simpsons in recent seasons, and can not bear the brunt of the criticism the series often receives. The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bette Middler, and Robert Goulet are just a few examples of Simpsons cameos by celebrities playing themselves that worked as, not only did their scenes not drag down their respective episodes, but they instead elevated the outings with killer one-off gags. There, though, is the rub. The cameos work because they are brief, where bigger cameo roles like John Waters’ Simpsons character John were still reserved for original creations, no matter who voiced them. The celebrities playing themselves, from Cypress Hill to Smashing Pumpkins, do not play a pivotal role in the episode’s stories—unlike later, lesser celebrity appearances.

Celebrity-Centric Simpsons Episodes Always Fell Flat

From the drawn-out Mel Gibson appearance in “Beyond Blunderdome” (season 11, episode 1) to the fawning depiction of Kim Basinger, Alex Baldwin, and Ron Howard in “When You Dish Upon A Star” (season 10, episode 5), The Simpsons has never been able to pull off episodes entered entirely around celebrities playing themselves. These earlier outings were not the show’s weakest episodes, but they avoid any jokes that could be controversial or offensive to the guest star and limited their subversiveness as a result. The show rarely avoided controversy (save for The Simpsons’ lost Scientology episode), but bringing more and more big-name celebrities on to play themselves soon meant that the series could not criticize any major stars, lest they later turn down an offer. The Simpsons can base a story around a real-life figure successfully, but many of the successful cases of this rely on the show knowing they could not book the celebrity in question for a future outing.

One need only look at George H Bush’s appearance in ‘Two Bad Neighbours’ (season 7, episode 13) to see that the series is happy to parody even at a former US president, but it is worth noting that The Simpsons contacted every living President for an earlier episode and received no reply (save for Ronald Reagan’s polite rejection) before spoofing Bush. This desire to only spoof the powerful once it is already clear that they are not willing to appear on The Simpsons has been indulged repeatedly as the critical reception of the show has declined and the series has begun to rely more and more on famous faces for attention from a dwindling viewer share. In recent seasons, when the real-life figure is playing themselves and not being portrayed by an impersonator, the humor becomes anodyne and sycophantic. This impulse is embodied in two of The Simpsons’ lowest-rated episodes, Lady Gaga and Elon Musk’s cameos. Both of these episodes saw The Simpsons fastidiously avoid any jokes that could conceivably offend their stars, resulting in outings that watched like episode-length advertisements for their cameo-ing celebrities—thus proving that the last thing The Simpsons needs is the Rock to arrive in Springfield unless the show intends to bring back some of its earlier edge.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/simpsons-the-rock-cameo-celebrity-guest-stars-bad-why/