Obviously, I can’t respond to those specific titles since I haven’t seen them. Or maybe I have, who knows. But I can speak to the general idea of satire in the show post 1993. Yes, the show continues to poke fun at society in the sense that it makes references to issues of the day, celebrities of the day, etc. But that’s all it ever does- make reference to. No wry observations, no sharp insights, no nothing. Just references. Any moron can make a reference- it takes a true artist to point out the emperor’s new clothes.
The bitter irony is that this is exactly what Groening was so good at with his Life In Hell strips. I mean, the guy nailed the shallowness of our culture, the vast hypocrisy that plagues adulthood, better than anyone, and with just a sharpie. It was punk rock comics at its finest. And the Simpsons continued that level of quality at first. The first episode, with Bart at genius school, completely shreds academia and the over-acheiver mentality. It also established exactly what you mentioned, the small-scale foibles of humans and families. In it, we see Homer and Bart bond in the shared ignoramus experience of ridiculing opera, for example. It manages a truly heartwarming moment, and then, in perfect satire, destroys it when Homer fails to recognize Bart’s eloquent insights and just gets mad that he tricked everyone.
None of that is present in the show after a few years. The characters are reduced from being complex (complex for a goofy cartoon, that is) to just being one-dimensional shadows of their former selves. Bart is just a pain in the ass- and nothing else. Homer is just an idiot- and nothing else. Etc. The show loses it’s artistic bite AND it’s human soul as it hands the spotlight to celebrity cameos and empty non-sequitors. Sure, they may have referenced healthcare, job outsourcing, and Creationism, but I’m willing to bet that had nothing much to say about it, and couldn’t be bothered to craft an entire story around it. They just threw it in there for a gag, and then ran off to the next pop-culture reference they could think of. Philosophically, Groening & Co. went from “We’re here to strip society of its bullshit facade” to “If we can’t beat them, join 'em” in two years. Humor as a coping mechanism rather than an element of change.
Yes, it made them a lot of money and I’m sure they had a lot of fun while Rome was burning. Fuck them all.
