What's wrong with you, FOX?

I'm old enough that I remember when FOX first started airing prime time animation shows (read: The Simpsons).  It was crazy enough that nobody really knew what to make of it, whether it was okay for children to see because it was "a cartoon" or if it was completely obscene.  Parents hated it, children loved it, and phrases like "Don't have a cow, man" and "Eat my shorts" became common phrases tossed around school yards.

The thing was, The Simpsons was also really funny.  It had a brilliant cast, well developed characters, and plots that at first seemed to simply be purely done for humor but would make you stop and think afterwards as you realized what it had in common with other things happening in the world.  To be fair, there was almost no ongoing character development unless something huge happened, such as a character's death or a wedding or a child being born.

But that was part of the charm.  Whenever we heard Mr. Burns say, "Simpson, eh?" or had Homer learn something important just to forget it the next episode, it managed to have a charm unique to it.  It was a world like something from the Twilight Zone, stuck forever in the same year, everybody forever remaining the same age, and living the same life forever.

And then things got weird.

Ask Erik: Episode Twenty-One

Here at Ask Erik, we've spent a lot of time reading books and comics, watching movies, and browsing through the Internet in the hopes of finding the answers to life's biggest mysteries. How much does all the air in the world weigh?  Can the wheel be reinvented?  Why do I keep smashing the same toe into things all the time?

Having instead amassed a vault of useless knowledge stored in his head, Erik instead tackles your questions and tries to find the answers you care about (or a reasonable facsimile).  Or, if you don't care, he'll at least try to make you laugh and forget you just wasted time you could spend doing anything else.

Ask Erik: Episode Twenty

Here at Ask Erik, we've spent a lot of time reading books and comics, watching movies, and browsing through the Internet in the hopes of finding the answers to life's biggest mysteries.  At what point can we no longer really consider England to be an "empire?"  Are the current changing patterns in weather severity something that will just come and go, or are we really looking at permanent global change?  Who thought it was a good idea in my car to have the check engine light randomly turn on every now and again just to remind you to have it checked out and maintained?  I freak out every time that happens, guys.  Stop it.

Having instead amassed a vault of useless knowledge stored in his head, Erik instead tackles your questions and tries to find the answers you care about (or a reasonable facsimile).  Or, if you don't care, he'll at least try to make you laugh and forget you just wasted time you could spend doing anything else.