Blessed Cancellations | The A.V. Club [same as in above post]
...Veronica Mars never had a huge audience, and the audience it did have consisted of the kind of fickle TV geeks who tend to take any creative stumble as an opportunity to jump on the internet and proclaim, “Worst. Episode. Ever.” (Aside: Who’d have thought, when that phrase was introduced on The Simpsons in a throwaway gag, that it would go on to become so pervasive? Weird.) huh: "worst. episode.ever." is a phrase? ggl... [Salon Entertainment | Worst episode ever Jan. 24, 2000 The most obvious dig at the fans came in a scene in the episode that first aired Feb. 9, 1997. It began with the still-unnamed Comic Book Guy saying: "Last night's 'Itchy & Scratchy' was, without a doubt, the worst episode ever. ...]
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-the term "worst episode ever" originated on the alt.tv.simpsons newsgroup way back around 1994 or 95. Every new episode from about Season 5 on had at least one or two regular users proclaiming it to be the worst episode ever, usually using the term as the subject line for their reviews. Go check out the a.t.s. archives (if such a thing exists) or read through the increasingly detailed "episode capsules" at snpp.com and you'll see where the Simpsons writers got most of their material for the "Poochie" episode that brought the famous phrase into widespread use.
[ The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show - Wkp: This episode features the first mention of Comic Book Guy's soon-to-be catchphrase "Worst episode ever", which was taken from the alt.tv.simpsons message boards.^[5] The first mention of "Worst episode ever" can be found in this post, which was about the episode "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie". ]