Splitsider

As part of The A.V. Club's ongoing series "TV Club 10," they tried to rank the 10 most "representative" episodes of The Simpsons today, choosing a string of episodes that best summarize the show. These aren't what they find to be the best episodes; they're the ones that best sum up everything the show can do (and can't do). With 500+ episodes to choose from, it's a rather daunting task (The A.V. Club calls it a "fool's errand"), but here's their list:

"The Way We Was" (Season 2)
"Lisa's Substitute" (Season 2)
"Marge Vs. the Monorail" (Season 4)
"Last Exit to Springfield" (Season 4)
"Bart Vs. Australia" [...]

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Body Switching Movies and the Flimsy Justifications for Their Magical Premises

by John Murray | August 4th, 2011

-Freaky Friday (1976), (2003) — Mother and Daughter switch bodies, in 1976 because it's Friday the 13th, in 2003 because of a magical fortune cookie.

-Like Father Like Son (1987) — Father and Son switch bodies by accidentally drinking brain transference serum.

-Vice Versa (1988) — Father and Son switch bodies by both touching a magical skull.

-18 Again! (1988) — Grandfather and Grandson switch bodies by birthday wish/car accident.

-Big (1988) — Young kid switches to middle aged man by a fairground machine.

-Dream A Little Dream (1989) — Old man and rebellious teen switch bodies by meditation and being knocked unconscious.

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Other Horrible Bosses, In Order

by John Murray | July 7th, 2011

12. James Karen — Lynch from Wall Street

11. Brian Doyle Murray – Mr. Frank Shirley from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

10. Bill Murray — Frank Cross from Scrooged

9. Zach Grenier — Richard Chesler from Fight Club

8. Dave Koechner — Dan from Waiting

7. John Mahoney — Grant Gubler from Reality Bites

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The Episodes Of Curb Your Enthusiasm, In Order

by Matt Payton | June 28th, 2011

71. "The Black Swan"

70. "The Lefty Call"

69. "The Rat Dog"

68. "The Smoking Jacket"

67. "Funkhouser's Crazy Sister"

66. "The Korean Bookie"

65. "The Anonymous Donor"

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Not-So-Successful Attempts at Comedy by Serious Directors, In Order

by John Murray | June 21st, 2011

8. 1941 — Steven Spielberg

7. Brewster's Millions — Walter Hill

6. Vampire In Brooklyn — Wes Craven

5. Wise Guys — Brian De Palma

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Top Ten Sexiest Up-and-Coming Funny Young Underrated Comics with Genitalia That You Should Be Following on Twitter Whose Fresh Faces We Love to Watch

by Sara Schaefer | October 12th, 2012

Steve Martin

Hollywood take note: Steve Martin’s fresh take on everything from jerks to ancient Egypt is a goldmine just waiting to be discovered. See him for cheap while you still can, folks. This guy’s going places.

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Variety Names Its 10 Comics to Watch for 2011

by Adam Frucci | July 26th, 2011

Just in time for the Montreal Just for Laughs festival this weekend, Variety has unveiled its annual list of "comics to watch." It's a list that consistently features people you're about to hear a lot more from; the last couple of years' lists featured Hannibal Buress, Aubrey Plaza, Ellie Kemper, Garfunkel and Oates, Donald Glover and Ken Jeong, amongst others. Here are this year's honorees:

-Jerrod Carmichael -Chris D'Elia -Josh Fadem -Pete Holmes -Thomas Middleditch -Tim Minchin -Amy Schumer -Rebel Wilson -Harris Wittels -Ali Wong

Tough to argue with any of those choices. Lots of very funny and [...]

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The 20 Best Single-Serving Websites on the Internet

by Conor McKeon | July 6th, 2011

Auto Buds: From Delocated's Jon Glaser, Auto Buds are two cars of the same make, model, color, or as identical as possible, that are parked right next to each other or in close proximity.

Where is Randy Savage?: A collection of photos with randy savage ingeniously photo shopped into them.

Hungover Owls: Owls that look hungover.

Literally Unbelievable: People who mistake the onion headlines as real.

I’m not racist, but: People on social networking sites who start updates with 'im not racist, but…'

Cats who look like Ron Swanson: Self-explanatory.

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The Seasons of The Simpsons, In Order

by Chris Morgan | June 24th, 2011

22. Season 20

21. Season 14

20. Season 17

19. Season 21

18. Season 19

17. Season 22

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Actors Who Don't Pull Off Playing Musicians, In Order

by John Murray | June 16th, 2011

10. Jeff Bebe and Russell Hammond of Stillwater (Billy Crudup, Jason Lee) – Almost Famous

9. Michael Pare – Eddie and the Cruisers

8. The Lone Rangers (Brandan Fraser, Steve Buscemi, Adam Sandler) – Airheads

7. Stuart Townsend – Queen of The Damned

6. Micheal J. Fox – Light of Day

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TV Comedy's Ten Most Tragic Characters

by Liam Mathews and Kristina Monllos | August 18th, 2011

There is a very fine line between comedy and tragedy. Like sleep and death, laughter and crying are cousins. However, deep sadness isn’t always easy to show in television comedy; there’s only so much a non-sociopathic audience can see one character take before all the pain stops being funny. Sometimes, though, the schadenfreude can’t be resisted. These ten characters have been shit on, humiliated, and abused over and over again, but we can’t stop laughing at them. How else would we be able to tell ourselves it isn’t so bad?

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