I like Disco Stu. That is my answer to that.

Yep, what Brass said, that and Homer becoming tediously stupid, instead of just naive. Homer post-season 10 would have joined the tea party already, old Homer would be wondering if Obama is Lenny or Carl.

Duffman never dies, only the actors who play him.

That's also how we got Groundskeeper Willy, Lionel Hutz, Sideshow Mel, Otto and many others. They were all meant to be one-off gag characters until the writers brought them back and expanded on them. Even Itchy and Scratchy began like that.

All those characters got developed in some way, duffman and cat lady are still the same tired joke repeating itself over and over.

Don't forget Barney. Not that it hurts Brass's theory any.

Duffman originally was a satire of beer advertising, and a spot-on one at that. Moe was a solid character and most of his humour came from him being cheap, depressed, a degenerate, and so on. This is just zaniness with little else going for it. THAT is the problem with old Simpsons vs new Simpsons.

pretty much.

Involuntary pelvic thrusts while suffocating.

That he's always in character

Also that he's a male prostitute, but that doesn't come in until later.

Tom Collins nailed it.

Oh, Simpsons, you ruffians!