In a weird, bizarre way, Larry had been on television screens for longer than most characters/shows in American television history. And yet, he barely had a presence.
They forgot about Sam clearly did not watch old episodes before doing this just killing off a character to try and get viewers for people to see it was no one important. sam was already forgotten anyways
It would geniunely be an interesting premise if they felt guilty enough about not interacting enough with Larry that they make a concerted effort to befriend sam
I mean RIP to Larry and all, but these media outlets calling him "iconic" or "beloved" are really stretching it. He was a background for years and he rarely showed up at Moe's. Also he has barley said a single word during his appearance on the show. Its different from when they killed off Krusty's dad, he was at least are recurring character who was important in some episodes.
To stop and understand that to someone else, we will be Larry; to realize that the worst day of our life will be just a day to billions of people, who have never known us and whomst we will never know; it is to face entropy and to walk forward to the embrace of ego death. Don't worry, it embiggens the smallest soul.
They actually did that as a throwaway gag way back when when the Retirement Castle called the Simpsons' home with an automated message that "Abraham Simpson!!" (using Abe's voice) has died along with the grieving process that followed.
@@lukacunningham342that’s when and if Dan passes away but they have a successor in mind. Killing off Abe because of that would also be symbolic for that reason.
Same here, man. It's much better having Larry die instead of Barney because of how famous he is. And besides, Barney's went through enough problems in this show.
Larry's the type of guy who we never talk to as a group or ever really acknowledge him, he's just there. But once he's gone, we all miss him and the group feels empty.
The absence of Sam feels very intentional, since him and Larry were basically tied at the hip as characters. His absence feels correct, like he's grieving his friend privately, like lots of men his age do.
I thought it was just because they didn't want people to ship Sam and Larry. Like, I'm all for representation and all, but sometimes two people _can_ just sit next to each other without bumping uglies. And before you claim I'm making up things to be mad about, I'm not _that_ mad, just mildly disappointed at Lenny and Carl. They were basically Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, that was it, but everyone had to ship them, because apparently you can't stand next to anyone without knocking boots. You know, the Mario Brothers stand next to each other, do you-- of course the internet ships them... degenerates... Hell they probably even ship Rosencrantz and Guildenstern despite most having no idea who they are. I just crave a well written romance. Like Smithers x Burns, or Patricia "Peppermint Patty" Reichardt x Marcie Carlin.
@@KasumiKenshirou There is also an _awful_ lot of subtext, like a painful amount. There's a love triangle going on, sure, but it's totally different than Lenny and Carl. But, fair enough... maybe it did start out like Lenny and Carl... I have never rĕad the strips from 50+ years ago.
Honestly, Sam not showing up is kind of hilarious to me. It makes me imagine that Sam was to Larry what Larry is to the rest of the main barflies? Just some guy who hung around him all the time and thought they were close, but Larry barely even knew he existed.
I recall reading several months ago when looking up Simpsons characters who didn't have a centric episode where a fan wrote synopsis for characters who never had one. This fan wrote about one of the barflies dying due to alcohol poison (either Sam or Larry, can't remember.) Homer swears off drinking to honor the guy only to find out the barfly considered the guys at Moe's Tavern his family. Homer starts drinking again to honor him. This fan spoke Larry's death into existence. Creepy.
My wife is from Spain and she always critiques when people speak Spanish in movies and tv but she clapped and said barneys Spanish was great I was so shocked
I always thought that he was already gone, because the only two times he spoke, he was a Phil Hartman character. All the characters he did were basically retired.
@@JohnWilliams-wl9px You're right. I read it somewhere a couple of years ago that Phil Hartman voiced him and that was why he never spoke anymore. Can't always believe what I read, I guess.
This show really should stop killing off characters. Like, i know Larry was just a forgotten character who barely contributed to the show at all, but him actually dying in the show means yet another fragment of the original show dying.
@@HereForTheCommentsyeah, the reason that the recent seasons have worked is because theyre forming a new identity instead of just redoing what already worked
I get they wanted to make it little emotional for the guys, but I honestly felt little investment in the episode. They should've Included Sam and had them call out the guys for not getting to know him and Larry, that would've made it more impactful.
Honestly, it feels like they thought up the idea for "We never knew him, what if he died?" and then just tossed the rest of the episode into filler. A disservice of writing tbh
Man. I actually unironically really liked Larry. I just liked his and Sam’s designs. They really added a lot to the background of Moe’s and made it feel more alive, which I suppose isn’t the word Moe’s should be described as?
That lack of Sam really was weird, i always felt that those two were friends so that the bar had two friend groups present rather than just one with Homer and his gang.
I feel like Apu could come back with a recasting, and an introduction of a new recurring indian character who can go “no he’s just really weird, we aren’t all like that”
PS I bet Sam will be around. My meta theory is going to the funeral would be too painful for him, or he's part of the gem smuggling and had to go into hiding once the cremation would reveal the secret. Remember as well, this is 6 AM in the morning they're at Moe's in this episode...
Before I tapped on the video: "Hans Moleman?" After tapping on the video: "Oh! That guy! Yeah, he HAS been around a long time!" There are people that are around you all the time and when they pass away, you don't notice until some time later.
I think if they wanted to correct the plot hole of Sam not being in the episode, they could have just said he was with Barny. Writes the two characters out and shows that Sam also had a friend that Larry didn't have.
Even though we never knew Larry I’m sure gonna miss him. R.I.P larry say hi to snowballs 1-4, Maude Flanders, Edna Karbaple, the old fat Tony and sherry bobbins for us ❤
Larry the Barfly died in the bar and was buried along with his name Nobody came Ol' Reverend Lovejoy whipping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave No one was saved...
Another one of those "The Simpsons does something worth while except with the character that isn't really a big part of the universe and no one really knows to try and keep relevancy" type things. Clown in the Dumps springs instantly to mind.
And they didn't have to do this, they could of made Lisa a "hot lesbian" or something... Instead they do the most lazy and safest thing you can imagine ...
I feel like adding Sam would have really cheapened the whole “you never got to know or notice Larry” thing. Also it would have made it less tragic like “well he had at least one actual friend”. The episode keeps a better melancholy when it’s just these guys not realizing
Kinda wish they did more with Sam & Larry. Suprised they didn't do anything with them in over 35 seasons. Like maybe instead of killing Larry off they could have had the bar regulars finding out about his loneliness/ liking for them, and maybe they could have took him on a road trip for real. Or something. I don't know, I know he was always in the background, but he does feel nostalgic in a way, like he was always there. It's like the Kwiki E Mart without the Squishee machine or the Power plant without the cooling towers. Sorry I'm just rambling while being tired as hell lol
They could’ve said Sam was dead too. Like when they said Larry was unloved they could’ve said “what about that one guy he always hung out with?” Then cut to his tombstone or something and they’re like “oh.”
We actually get an accurate time when he dies in the episode. When Moe is ranting about his dollar bet, we see Larry looking on with a vacant expression as per usual, but most importantly he's actually holding his beer. He's alive. The next time we see him just a few moments later, his hands are folded and he's staring dead-eyed ahead with a slackened jaw. He died roughly when Moe was swinging his mop around at Homer, Lenny, and Carl, and that was likely the last thing he ever saw.
"And Moe? He just triggered me right down to my core." "It's just a sad, silent void: nothing. And it's not even a regular nothing; it's an absence of everything." No wonder I always liked Moe so much. I hate how relatable that opinion is to me.
I haven't kept up with the show in years but I heard about this one and immediately wondered if Sam was included. I'm super disappointed to learn he wasn't, and even more so to learn that Barney hasn't been relevant since 2003! That's just rotten, if I'm being honest.
They should have had a tag with Sam and Fat Tony. Tony says, "With Larry gone, you're promoted to jewel smuggling." Sam nods and begins swallowing gems. We hear him swallowing gems all through the credits.
Now i really feel old. I've been watching Simpsons long enough to know the character by name and face just by causally watching the show for 35 years. Damn and while everyone is like "who?" it still hurts watching a character you've seen all your life, even if they didn't do or say much, die.
The one thing I found weird was the slight inaccuracy at the top of the episode. The Jaguars did play at Wembley in the 2023 season, but it was against the Falcons. The Jaguars/Bills game took place at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium. (Also the Detroit/Ravens game went the other way IRL)
I feel like the Simpson writers are just trolling us with how they refuse to kill off any major characters and go out of their way to kill off minor ones like with Larry and Krusty’s dad a few years back.
This episode was genuinely so heartbreaking and yet so realistic The fact that larry was left unoticed and forgotten by those closest those who he considered his friends the segment where the parody of Eleanor Rigby plays is so depressing that he's just observing his friends having fun or hanging out. And the fact that he was observing every conversation every good night out and was not once either invited or spoken too It makes it even more depressing when larry wrote in a book that moes was the place he felt the happiest where he felt like he belonged but yet no one batted an eye It was scary how realistic the episode was. Larrys death was eerie, each characters reaction was realistic. Lennys guilt and immediately treating larrys remains like if larry was still alive and carl denying it and brushing off carl for example. The episode was genuinely the most real and scariest simpsons has been in a while because i relate to larry. I had friends who just ignored me even though i cared about him alot like larry did. Rip Larry. You're not forgotten to us
I think a good way to have written this episode, not that this was bad, because I think many can relate to this in some way, but, perhaps what would have worked would have been, after the funeral, Sam going "He loved you guys, and you barely acknowledged him for years." Which would then go into flashbacks of Larry trying to talk, or do nice things for the guys at the bar and often being ignored (something I feel many of us at one time or another could understand or have personally been through), but other times being somewhat recognized, and for a guy who feels incredibly lonely, even the tiniest amount of kindness was enough for him, living his days at the bar hanging with everyone, even if he wasn't along for the ride on bigger adventures, it was just enough for him to be there with people who did pay him attention here and there. The guys would then realize how much they screwed up and want to set things right by Larry by fulfilling his final wish. I think this would have been a stronger way to right the episode, but I still give the writers credit for actually making people care about a character that had no real impacts other than just being another one of Springfields familiar faces.
@@jimjimmers8571 thank you! I do a lot of writing and stories in my spare time, have ever since I was a kid, and I've watched movies and shows that have destroyed their characters and plots, while watching others master their characters development and story. So at 37 years old I think its safe to say I know a thing or two haha
The thing is: they could've answered where Sam was by having him and Barney going on that trip together, adding intrigue and a possible direction for the both of them in later episodes.
Nobody knows, that's how pathetic this show has gotten, this is what they do for attention Surprised they didn't make Bart a gai tronsgader .... Or something ...
I admit even I completely forgotten about Larry even though I’ve seen him in and off back in the old days of the series. They really went out of their way to make his passing really freaking sad. We gotta applaud the writers this season for stepping up and doing something different to effect the audience
You know what they should have done in The Simpsons episode where they talk about Larry's death they could of showed Sam and him standing up and talking about him cause what about if they were friends since kindergarten or if they were drinking buddies you know some extra lore. Because then Larry could have had a true real friend that remembers him since they always sat next to each other in Moe's tavern. He could have said something to the guys and how Larry meant so much to him and stuff you know like a friend cuz what about if they were friends since like kindergarten before they met Homer and the guys. Cause then he could have had a true real friend that cared cause Homer and the guys barely noticed him or remembered him
I don’t think I ever knew this guy was named Larry until this episode. The concept of sending off a character as intentionally bland and undeveloped as him is kinda goofy, but it does lead to a good story for the Moe gang. One of the best this season. (Though the previous ghost kitchen episode maybe hit a bit harder.)
I mean if they really wanted a heartfelt moment have it be that moe finally lost his battle with his depression and he finally off himself leading everybody in town to look and see hey we need to do something about this so it doesn't happen to anyone again
Kinda wish they did a thing were sam and barney might of felt larry and moe were the main 4 of there own story and then larry might of not felt the same way to barney and Sam felt about him not really caring for them explaining there exit from the episode
This is what the show has reduced to. Killing off background characters and they can’t even include the background character Larry was paired with. The show hasn’t been good since the movie.
I’m glad people are starting to acknowledge that the Simpsons movie was the last consistently great thing the show did, even though we’ve had some good episodes here and there since.
@@joshslater2426 I think it’s mostly because Dan’s voice talents. The show during the 2010 shifted toward Political correctness which is what they always went against in the early years. Now Apu is gone and Moe married a little person? They’re trying to check off every box.
An easy solution would have been to have Fat Tony putting the screws to Sam til he got the sapphires. This would have explained his absence while doubling down on how oblivious the guys have been. Why isn't he in the drawing? Because he drew it. At least, that's my head canon til we see him again ( if we see him, thanks to Moe. )
If Apu died it would be mortifying. He’s a classic character with an interesting personality and long history. It would be horrible to see him die and watch his eight kids and family mourn.
They should’ve done like a 5 second post credit scene with Sam walking in wearing a hawaiian lei like he just got back from vacation, he looks around, and asked ‘hey wear Larry?’
Simpsons : Let's rectify a mistake with Larry Simpsons : Oh right, we should have avoided an identical mistake with Sam, by trying harder Sam and Barney could have won a lottery ticket. Remember when the first 100 seconds of every episode had its own B-plot, completely resolved, and leading directly onto the ACTUAL plot of the episode?
I cant say that i was a big fan of Larry but its always sad to see a Simpsons character die. Especially one that's been around for so long. It would have been nice to see a Sam and Larry background episode though. RIP Larry
Names of businesses behind Larry walking: Bail Bondman - We put criminals back on the street Check Chompers Nudes at 11 Bloodbath (the rest of the sign is missing in frame)