‘Simpsons’ movie shouldn’t have been made

Or take “The Front,” in which Bart and Lisa write an episode of the cartoon “Itchy & Scratchy.” During one scene, Roger Meyers leads the two kids on a tour of the animation wing of I&S studios, remarking that animators sometimes reuse the same backgrounds over and over to save money. As they walk down the hall, the same cleaning woman appears in the background several times.

But here’s the problem with that sort of intelligent humor, the reason why those years in the early to mid-’90s at once marked “The Simpsons” greatest glory and ushered in the show’s inevitable downfall: Those jokes really only work once. The first time you see a self-referential gag, it’s brilliant. The second time, it’s chuckle-worthy. The third time, it’s irritating and smacks of laziness.

That’s why, over the last decade, the show has devolved into repetitious, zany adventures punctuated by Homer-abuse; you can sense the writers desperately flailing around for something, anything, funny that their predecessors hadn’t already thought of. And that’s also why, even though it’s sure to have an amusing moment or two (the “Spider-pig” scenes look promising), the big-screen version is doomed to be as flawed as its small-screen inspiration currently is.

In a recent conversation on “TODAY” with Al Roker, Matt Groening tried to sell the movie to viewers by saying, “It’s actually a deep story with romance and love and heartbreak.”

Who wants that from the Simpsons?

Patrick Enright is a freelance writer and editor whose work has appeared in MSNBC.com, Mr. Showbiz, Wall of Sound, Movies.com and Seattle Weekly.

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