Stupidest Episodes

[The Top Crusader]

I totally agree with Bob on OT Action News. And BTV. And random KYDS variety shows or whatever. >_>

I just never, even as a kid, liked those episodes.

[Marvin D.]

Hey guys...it's getting kind of long here, so I'll just put the extra long ones between Bob and Candy in spoilers Carry on!

[The Top Crusader]

...my earlier post only shows up in the preview on the reply page, not on the main page.

Bow before Bob.

[Bob]

Bow before Bob.

—

And I'm not anywhere near Peter.

Not tryin' to be touchy or anything, t's just I'm not sure about that kinda thing, even as a joke.

I totally agree with Bob on OT Action News. And BTV. And random KYDS variety shows or whatever. >_>

Thanks for the support.

I don't think a lot of these are necessarily horrible, and I even enjoy listening to a lot of them, to at least some extent, but I do think there's a tendency to overrate those kinds of episodes -- and it comes off as unfair to me when people slam new episodes that do pretty much the same thing. Just because an episode is old doesn't automatically make it good, and I think it's important to keep that in perspective.

[Young&Mighty]

I Slap Floor, hands down.

[Candy]

Hey guys...it's getting kind of long here, so I'll just put the extra long ones between Bob and Candy in spoilers Carry on!

Doesn't this take away our money that we made for the post then?

[Bob]

My cash totals seem to be fine, so I don't guess it does.

[Leonard Meltsner]

That's for Quotes, not Spoilers

[mortymoscowitz]

I hate to resurrect this after so long, but there's a right answer to this question: The Day After Christmas.
This episode is rough and, honestly, pretty racist.

Other honorable mentions: Castles and Cauldrons, What Are We Gonna Do About Halloween?, No Boundaries (maybe not STUPIDest, but really scary and kind of manipulative. Makes a good point but in a really messed up way), Not So Trivial Pursuits (some of the trivia answers are literally wrong and Truth Trivia and 'Trina was a much better game-show-centered episode)

[Patterson]

I hate to resurrect this after so long, but there's a right answer to this question: The Day After Christmas.
This episode is rough and, honestly, pretty racist.

Maybe it's just nostalgia, but I like that one. Get ready for my long rant about how a kid's radio show episode from the 80's isn't that bad. I think the only thing that's possibly a real racist stereotype in there is the street gang being implied as Hispanic (calling them the Locos). I didn't like how the gang was after the kids, maybe that was unrealistic, but there are genuine creeps out there. My little brother was almost kidnapped when we went on vacation one year! Everything else seemed to make sense just fine. The girl is implied middle class and doesn't realize that people can't just buy better things whenever they want. A pretty honest mistake for a naïve spoiled little kid. The Senior Center not allowing people under 18 in is something I've read about in our newspaper in the past, though I bet our local one would enforce that with events where there's alcohol. Calling the place a ghetto is pretty insensitive, but I think they just meant that the homes are pretty bad. My next door neighbor lives an a little plywood shack with no water or power and she likes it that way(though most people wouldn't). Plenty of people down my road live in old school busses and the like. I realize that this episode is about a poor urban area, not rural like mine though. I bet most of us have at one point or another met someone like Mrs. Vencini, kinda rough, but actually nice enough deeper down. The girl seemed to rub her wrong at first (to borrow the colloquialism) and her reaction mostly made sense to me. I love the story Mrs. Vencini shares about when she was a little girl. That's the kind of silly thing we worried about as kids. The thing about some people who need help but won't get it because of pride is very true too. It's a human nature kind of thing, and depending on the scenario, anyone might be too ashamed of their own situation to accept help. I know a woman with no income who needs cancer treatment(living out of an old bus no less), but refuses to let others help her out of pride or self worth issues. Sorry that got really long, but I don't feel that this episode deserves the hate it gets. The Homeschooling episode on the other hand...

[Catspaw]

Thanks for sharing your perspective, Patterson. Some episodes age better than others; you're right that our own personal experiences can shape our views a lot regardless of when it was made.

[Bananareader]

Chain Reaction, because three completely coincidental events lead to a water slide or water park never being built is extremely ridiculous.

[Jonathan]

Castles and Cauldrons.

Both of my parents grew up in the church, happily walked away from the faith, and came back to the faith in the early 80s. Christianity (and spirituality in general) went through a weird time in the 80s. So my parents (moreso Dad) came out of the decade with some interesting biases. An outright condemnation of Dungeons and Dragons was included in those biases. One of the first episodes we heard as a family was C&C, and Dad was all in on that message.

Fast forward 20 years. I'd seen D&D played a few times, but never played myself, but started during the pandemic. Guess what? It's nothing like how it was protrayed in C&C. I get why Focus and Evangelicalism have the biases towards the game that they do, but I think Evangelicalism and my parents generation, including Dobson, just don't know what the game is.

That all said, listening to C&C is almost painful now.

[Everett]

Castles and Cauldrons.

Both of my parents grew up in the church, happily walked away from the faith, and came back to the faith in the early 80s. Christianity (and spirituality in general) went through a weird time in the 80s. So my parents (moreso Dad) came out of the decade with some interesting biases. An outright condemnation of Dungeons and Dragons was included in those biases. One of the first episodes we heard as a family was C&C, and Dad was all in on that message.

Fast forward 20 years. I'd seen D&D played a few times, but never played myself, but started during the pandemic. Guess what? It's nothing like how it was protrayed in C&C. I get why Focus and Evangelicalism have the biases towards the game that they do, but I think Evangelicalism and my parents generation, including Dobson, just don't know what the game is.

That all said, listening to C&C is almost painful now.

Yeah, I'm not into those games (or any kind of video/pc/online games) but even I thought it was rather ridiculous the way it was portrayed. The writers had a good idea overall but definitely should have checked a few things. it would have worked better if Len was interested in an actual cult type group (who used the board game as the reason for meeting) and tried to get Jimmy to join. after talking to several people (ie, Lucy, Eugene, etc) Jimmy decides to join a game at the end of part 1. in part 2 Whit and George are concerned about Jimmy, and after the incident with Donna's doll Whit discovers the truth about the game, and he and George then step in like they do. it's not too much of a change, but it fixes the major overall problem.