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22
Mar
13

Reading Digest: Great (And Not) Songs Edition

By Charlie Sweatpants 8 Comments
Categories: Reading Digest, Simpsons and The Simpsons
Tags:

All Singing, All Dancing1

“Singing is the lowest form of communication.” – Homer Simpson
“Homer, you sing all the time.” – Marge Simpson
“No, I don’t.  I hate to rhyme.” – Homer Simpson

The first item this week isn’t even a link, it’s just a cute dog sent in by reader David:

I just got a new French bulldog puppy not too long ago and of course named her “Beatrice Simmons” after my 2nd favorite episode next to “Lisa’s Substitute”.

Aww:

Bea Simmons

I bet Audrey Meadows would love that.  (Good work, David.)

In terms of regular stuff this week, we’ve got musical entertainment all over the place.  There’s a fan made song about Milhouse, plus a list of some of the current show’s writer’s favorite songs (unsurprisingly, there is way too much Zombie Simpsons), and someone who was inspired by that to break out two old Simpsons CDs.  In addition to all that, we’ve got a Simpsons sand sculpture, Vulture magazine trolling the internet, a poor soul who’s mostly seen Season 11 and later, and an interview with Jay Kogen that would’ve been longer except that the Huffington Post is run by monkeys.  

Enjoy.

Artist organizing ‘Simpsons’ and ‘Akira’ mash-up – Smooth Charlie’s Link of the Week is this call to action:

“Milhouse is Kaneda. Lisa is Kei. Bart is Tetsuo,” Harvey posted on his blog. “Let’s do it.”

The idea all started when artist Ryan Humphrey posted an impromptu short mash-up of the two, provoking Harvey to take that errant idea and turn it into a full-scale project with different artist drawing different portions of the book. Harvey is taking submissions from artists at bartkiracommittee@gmail.com. He’ll choose the artists, and give each a five-page segment of the story and guidelines of which Akira characters match up with which Simpsons characters.

As for the $64,000 question that all of you are no doubt asking, Harvey was upfront about the legality. “Since it’ll be non-profit, parody/satire, crowdsourced and distributed peer-to-peer, I feel like it’s juuust on the right side of the legal grey area it inhabits,” Harvey explained. “If not — let’s do it anyway. I’ll take the rap.”

I cannot draw, and I’ve only ever seen the Akira movie, but many of you who read this site can draw and have read the books, so there you go.  Click here to see the original images.  Damn good idea.

This song about Milhouse from The Simpsons will bring a tear to your eye – This was making the rounds earlier this week, and deserves the full embed treatment because it is awesome:

The young lady on the left there has an album coming out soon, and (h/t to @dailysimpsons) also has a song about Grimes:

Excellent.

My Favorite ‘Throwaway’ Simpsons Joke – While we’re on the subject of Milhouse, YouTube of “guess who likes you”. 

Playwrights Horizons Season To Range from Simpsons to Kama Sutra – Everybody’s favorite post-apocalyptic Simpsons play is coming to New York City:

The season will begin with “Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play,” a post-apocalyptic tale by Anne Washburn about a future in which the “Cape Feare” episode of the “The Simpsons” is all that remains of Western literature. The play was unveiled last year at Woolly Mammoth Theater Company in Washington, D.C., to good reviews. The New York production will have the same director, Steve Cosson, and previews start Aug. 23.

It’ll probably make it out here to the provinces shortly before the actual apocalypse. 

‘Simpsons’ Writer Reveals Origin Of Bart’s Hair – A short video interview with Jay Kogan about James L. Brooks.  There’s a link to a longer (30 minute) interview that I couldn’t get to work in Firefox or IE because – holy shit – “Huffpost Live” is the worst designed video site I’ve seen since about 2003.  It’s cluttered, confusing, plays something (not necessarily the video you want) as soon as the page opens, and has all kinds of other problems I thought the internet had overcome a long time ago.  Jebus. 

Ned Flanders – It’s Pronounced SHAH-DAY ep by Llama Farm Recordings – There’s someone calling himself Ned Flanders putting pretty decent house music on Soundcloud.  That is all. 

The Big Ten Conference (2014 version) – From reddit comes this rather good image:

Simpsons Big Ten

Barney as Wisconsin is my favorite, though the whole thing is a bit spoiled by using that lame Zombie Simpsons turtle instead of, say, the one Homer kicks in “El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer”.

There is no flaw in the Simpsons – Speaking of reddit, Bill Oakley tweeted this earlier this week.  It’s true, there is no flaw. 

Hallelujah. S1 – Best door ever. 

Steve Hummer: So many Halls of Fame to visit – Excellent usage:

“The Simpsons” has taught us so much through the years. On the big subjects such as child-rearing, work ethic and diet. And on matters as seemingly trivial as appreciating our nation’s obscure sporting shrines.

“Homer,” Marge Simpson asked her husband in one episode, “do you remember our last family vacation when you made us go to the Bowlers’ Hall of Fame in St. Louis, Mo., so you could see that car shaped like a giant bowling pin?”

“Remember?” Homer answered. “Who could forget?”

I am proud to say I, too, have made that pilgrimage, and thrilled to the story of the late Don Carter’s rise from humble pinsetter to champion to Paula Sperber’s husband.

Perfectly quoted and highly apt. 

If I could turn back time… – Don’t think I’ve ever seen the episode, but that’s a pretty decent joke:

As Lisa Simpson said to Professor Frink’s Dad when he was brought back to life in Treehouse of Horror XIV, ”Sir your son has brought you into the twenty-first century. It’s a lot like the twentieth but everyone’s afraid and the stock market is much lower.”

It’s even aged well.

Bubble Bath Decapitations • Bart Simpson – Heh. 

"Mr. Burns" Presides Over Trial of "Bart Simpson" – Via @rubbercatsimp comes this amusing real life crime story:

But given enough time, at least some subset of all possible events will obviously happen, and some of them will be extremely unlikely. And so it was that on Monday, "Barton Simpson" stood trial before "Mr. Burns":

Few details were available, but according to this report Simpson was charged with possessing a prohibited firearm at Birmingham Airport last year, but pleaded not guilty. (So this may have been only a preliminary hearing, not a trial.) A court worker was quoted as saying, "It’s a bizarre coincidence that Bart Simpson is actually on trial in front of Mr Burns but it’ll proceed as any other criminal case would." Did a reporter actually ask something like, "How will the proceedings change given the fact that two of the participants share names with characters in an American cartoon?"

I guess that’s not impossible, it just seems really unlikely.

Sitcom Smackdown Finals: Cheers vs. The Simpsons – Vulture decided that The Simpsons was the best sitcom.  I did not need to be told that.

The Simpsons’ Writers Pick Their Favorite Songs – And then Al Jean showed up at Vulture to take victory lap and try to slip some Zombie Simpsons songs into a list of best Simpsons songs.  Nice try, Al, and while it’s not scientific or anything, this reader list that comments on yours doesn’t contain anything from Zombie Simpsons. 

Songs in the Key of Springfield & Go Simpsonic with The Simpsons – This is short, so I’m going to quote it in its entirety:

Yesterday, The Ten Best Simpsons Songs, As Picked by the Show’s Writers showed up in my Twitter feed. There are some fine songs in that list, but there are also some fine songs mentioned in the comments section to the story that were left off of the list, too. So, I pulled out my Simpsons CDs for my drive today. It was a pretty good time. I’d like to tell you that I am embarrassed that I know the words to all of the songs, but I’m not. Not one bit.

Neither is anyone else here.  The track lists are just a murderer’s row of stuff from the show, and you get things like that demo singer version of the garbage man song with the extra verse about Milhouse’s parents getting divorced.  

18 Academic Papers About ’90s TV Shows – There are two about 9the show on here, one titled (via) “From the Simpsons to the Bundys: A critical analysis of disrespectful discourse in television narratives”.  Now that’s my kind of science. 

The Best Sitcoms of the Past 30 Years – And as always, the Cost of Zombie Simpsons is borne by the young:

The past few weeks, Vulture has been has been having a bracket-style “Sitcom Smackdown” to determine the best sitcom of the the past 30 years.  Yesterday, The Simpons was chosen as the winner.  Today, however, Arrested Development was crowned in the readers’ bracket.  Here’s how I how I would have ranked the shows that were in contention.

[…]

4. The Simpsons (started watching regularly in season 11, seen a handful of episodes from before then)

That’s just tragic, like watching the Star Wars prequels only or something. 

You’re running a marathon! Ha! Ha! – This sign is exactly what you want to see around Mile 20 or so.  (Thanks, Jill!)

Simpsons: Tapped Out…In 10 Words – I have selected power drive.

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone…In 10 Words – So much nicer than the savagery of the jungle, ja? 

Leprechaun (movie)…In 10 Words – He tells me to burn things.

“Numero Uno” and “Due” – Excellent Simpsons art of Homer made from . . . words, or printing press letters, something.  Credited as “Mixed media by Barbara Guolo”.  Well done.

The Mercedes G63 AMG 6×6 vs. The Simpsons’ Canyonero: Which Is the Badass-est? – Mercedes has created a six wheeled monstrosity, this is a comparison.  They should’ve made it two lanes wide. 

Horror Story – An unfortunate bathroom encounter punctuated by a great YouTube of Homer’s screams set to the Simpsons tune. 

UltChart Tweets For 16 March 2013 – UK/US/Aus No1s on this day – Here’s something I didn’t know:

22 years ago this week (1991) ♫ The Simpsons – Do the Bartman♫ topped the Australian Chart

Click through for YouTube of that and other hits. 

Cake Bart Simpson – Lini Geriana – No idea what language this is, but it’s a rather cute Bart cake, and that needs no translation. 

Diary of an Arts Graduate #16 – Heh:

- A local Toronto resident is in the news because his name is Francis Pope. Reminded me of the episode where Homer Simpson becomes famous because he shares the same name with a popular television character, also named Homer Simpson. Never thought I’d see the day where instead of art imitating life, its life imitating The Simpsons.

Homer Simpson on the beach in Barcelona – Sand sculpture of Homer.

The Shining (1980) – A discussion of the movie that includes shaky cam YouTube of The Shinning with subtitles some language I can’t even identify. 

The Five Worst Musical Guests In Simpsons History – And finally, I get to end with someone who agrees with us.  After listing four pointless musical cameos from Zombie Simpsons, Kid Rock showing up in “Kill the Alligator and Run” checks in at #1:

Not only is the episode absolutely dreadful, and Kid Rock’s cameo completely pointless, but it marks the turning point when I personally realized that The Simpsons was never going to be a great show again. It came on the heels of a wildly successful run for the first nine seasons and even if Season 10 had its ups and downs, it seemed like the show could still rebound.

This episode, however, ended up being unwatchable. So congrats, Kid Rock. Whether you meant to or not, you will forever be associated in my mind with the day that one of the greatest shows of all time started to suck.

Amen.

18
Mar
13

Quote of the Day

By Charlie Sweatpants 2 Comments
Categories: QotD and The Simpsons
Tags:

Life on the Fast Lane5

“Don’t be scared, Dad.  It’s not so hard taking care of us.” – Lisa Simpson
“Lisa, I’m not scared.  I think it’s a great chance to spend some time with you kids.  Your mother always gets to be alone with you, and now it’s my turn. . . . Does the time always drag like this?” – Homer Simpson

17
Mar
13

Sunday Preview: Dark Knight Court

By Mad Jon 37 Comments
Categories: Sunday Preview and The Simpsons
Tags:

DKC

In the episode, Bart is falsely accused of pulling an Easter prank involving the school marching band and stuffing rotten eggs in the brass section’s horns, and Lisa must step in as his attorney to defend her brother. Meanwhile, Mr. Burns attempts to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming a superhero, Fruit Bat Man.

Ok, I would be fine with the prank,  and I can look the other way that Bart isn’t actually the culprit and is still being blamed, although I imagine it will be a scene filled with sympathy horns. I could even pretend to stomach the inevitable court room scene (which must be where they’re sticking guest star Janet Reno).  But Mr. Burns as a superhero? A superhero named Fruit Bat Man??   That dog won’t hunt, Monsignor.

 

 

15
Mar
13

Reading Digest: Sam Simon Rocks His Cancer Edition

By Charlie Sweatpants 9 Comments
Categories: Reading Digest, Simpsons and The Simpsons
Tags: ,

One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish9

“Now, a little death anxiety is normal.  You can expect to go through five stages.  The first is denial.” – Dr. Hibbert
“No way, because I’m not dying!” – Homer Simpson
“Second is anger.” – Dr. Hibbert
“Why you little!” – Homer Simpson
“After that comes fear.” – Dr. Hibbert
“What’s after fear?  What’s after fear?” – Homer Simpson
“Bargaining.” – Dr. Hibbert
“Doc, you gotta get me out of this.  I’ll make it worth your while.” – Homer Simpson
“Finally, acceptance.” – Dr. Hibbert
“Well, we all gotta go some time.” – Homer Simpson
“Mr. Simpson, your progress astounds me.” – Dr. Hibbert

The big, endlessly repeated Simpsons story this week was a piece of non-news: that there still isn’t a movie sequel in the works.  Groening and Silverman made an appearance and basically said that there are no plans right now for a second movie.  Since the pop-culture internet is often an inch deep/mile wide kind of affair, that became countless misleading headlines like this “The Simpsons Movie ‘ Sequel Should Be Here In ’10, 15 Years’”.  That’s not what they said at all, but run through copy & paste long enough, that’s what it becomes.  They said they weren’t working on a new one, which is unchanged from last year, and the year before that.  Carry on.

There was another piece of Simpsons news this week, though it didn’t get picked up in near as many places: Sam Simon has cancer, the really bad kind.  He announced it publicly on a radio show hosted by one of Howard Stern’s acolytes, and . . . well, you can listen for yourself.  Suffice to say, if cancer is what ends up getting me, I hope I handle it half as well as he is.  All the best to him. 

On more usual topics, we’ve got a beer review, the intentionally broken downside of “freemium” games, a great Homer cosplay, a Simpsons joke I’d never caught before, some Simpsons related roommate love, and a kid who wants to try out The Simpsons and needs some advice. 

Enjoy.

(Oh, and today is Issue #2 of the Ann Arbor Review of Books.  Get ’em while the pixels are still wet.)

Sam Simon announces he has colon-cancer on HOWARD 101 – The cancer part starts at the 6:30 mark:

I started to transcribe some of what he said, but it really doesn’t come across in print.  The radio guy is kinda flustered and screws up a few times, but Simon is laughing, bullshitting, and as at ease as it is possible for someone in his situation.  Sam Simon fucking owns. 

Matt Groening: ‘Simpsons’ Movie Follow-Up is Far, Far Away – No new movie is in the works.  We can all breathe easy, but if they wanted to make some more theatrical shorts, I’d be okay with that. 

Top 10 Simpsons Episodes – A great opening to a great list:

My forehead is creased beyond measure. Sweat pours of out my…uhh, pores. I grunt in frustration and viciously bite the end of my already well-chewed pen. I am trying to achieve the unachievable: narrow down my favourite Simpsons episodes.

It is very difficult, but this is a good one.  There’s is nothing from after Season 9 and it comes with quotes.  Bravo. 

Help Needed On Which Simpsons TV Series To Buy!!! – A young man asks a question:

I’ve been reading some Simpsons comics lately, and I was thinking that maybe I’d get a Simpsons DVD with some of my leftover birthday money (£40). I never knew there were over 30 series tho :eek:

Now, maybe the obvious thing to do would be to start with 1 and work my way through the series :roll: , but from a few reviews I’ve read, the first 5 or so series aren’t all that :neutral: . I thought that maybe I’d start with Series 11 or 12?!

Which series do you advise I purchase? Which series was best in your opinion?

Fortunately several commenters over there already pointed him in the right direction (far, far away from “Series 11 or 12”).  Amazon UK would appear to have Season 2, Season 3, and Season 4 for £12 each, and that’d be my recommendation. 

Meme Monday: Milhouse is Not a Meme – Is Milhouse a meme?  Click through for the mildly amusing answer. 

Krusty the Clown and the Star of David – I never noticed that before either.  Well done, animators. 

Steve Carell’s Disappearing Act – A review of The Incredible Burt Wonderstone:

The movie is structured as though it’s an expanded Krusty the Clown episode of The Simpsons. At the start, Wonderstone stands near the top of his magician world. Thanks to hubris and bad investments, he loses everything, and then he has to claw back. This being a mainstream Hollywood comedy, there’s also a redemptive arc even more rote than the soundtrack cues, which include Us3′s "Cantaloop" and C+C Music Factory’s "Everybody Dance Now" with no apparent irony.

What is it with big studio comedies screwing up their third acts?

Homer fought bums. – I’m not a big fan of that episode, but this is damn true:

I love the moral at the end. It totally makes you forget how the episode was entirely about Homer fighting homeless people while Moe made bets on the side and attempted to get rich off the physical harm of a friend. As long as there is a moral at the end, you can do anything. Had it been real life? Moe would have let Homer get beaten to death and went on living his life rich as fuck.

That would’ve been a much better ending.

Kristen Stewart’s Twilight character, Bella Swan, beats Marge Simpson as she is named favourite movie mum! – Someone did a survey about movie mothers.  Marge did win funniest and come in second on “Most Embarrassing”.

Isotopes Slammin’ Amber – A review of the beer on sale at the Isotope’s park in Albuquerque. 

Cosplays da Semana #5 – Scroll about halfway down for a great Homer costume.  Scroll further down for a fantastic “Sims” costume. 

Roomie – Heh:

4) Shared values, beliefs and endless conversation: Bri and I literally never run out of things to talk or laugh about – a sign of the truest true friendship. We go from talking about our day, to clothes, to ingrained sexism and feminist theory, to travel plans to guys to referencing Simpsons. There is a lot of Simpsons references that go on in our house.

A short and stylish Simpsons webcomic set in a post-apocalyptic Springfield – The comic that got started as a part of that Tumblr about drawing the Simpsons continues.  My only question: if you’re going to have a post-apocalyptic Simpsons comic, where’s the guy who drives a school bus by day?

Exclusive: Images From SXSW Doc On Branson, Missouri ‘We Always Lie To Strangers’ Plus Trailer – You can’t make a documentary about Branson without someone bringing up The Simpsons:

For a certain generation, their only knowledge of Branson, Missouri may be from a quip by Bart Simpson who once said that Homer described it as "Las Vegas if it was run by Ned Flanders." Indeed, known for its own brand of colorful nightlife and entertainment, the city is far from a punchline, and has become one of the top tourist destinations in America. And starting this weekend at the SXSW Film Festival, you can take a closer look at Branson and what it means to live and perform there.

Boy Racks Up £980 Virtual Donut Bill In The Simpsons: Tapped Out – That there is no automatic cutoff well before you get to a thousand dollars speaks volumes about what a rip-off most of these systems are:

Just like how oil and water do not mix, so too, do 8-year-old boys and an iPad (or tablet). Sort of, anyways, especially when you hear of Theo Rowland-Fry who hails from Bristol, UK, and actually racked up £980 worth of online transactions to purchase virtual donuts while playing The Simpsons: Tapped Out on his father’s iPad. It could easily have happened on an Android-powered tablet, too, so do take note!

It is nice to hear that Apple did refund their money – every single shilling of it, after taking into consideration their unique position in this case. It is also comforting to know that Apple has a heart, considering such incidents on a case-by-case basis.

Don’t you think you’ve spent enough?  No.  Okay, we’re required by law to ask every seventy-five hours.  Get the kid another free milk. 

Once Upon and Engagement… – Mulling over wedding themes comes this storybook tale:

I think one of the first “he’s my soul mate” moments was when we realize that our Simpsons collection matched up perfectly. I had seasons 1, 3, 9, and 10 and he had 2, 4, 5, and 7. When we realized we had no overlapping seasons for our favorite TV show, we bought seasons 6 and 8 together. It was a perfect nerd romance story.

Who says that romance is dead after being acquired in a hostile takeover by Hallmark and Disney, homogenized, and sold off piece by piece?  That’s beautiful. 

The Things That Make Me Go Hmmmm…. – Kids can be so cruel:

In 1991, I was in Grade Six at Stuart Park Primary School in Darwin.  The Simpsons craze had just hit and for my birthday, I got a Bart Simpson figurine that gave me hours of joy, regardless of the fact that I couldn’t move his arms or legs or turn his head.  In a kerfuffle with Ames and Josh one day, the siblings took Bart Simpson hostage, gave him a haircut (by chopping off his rubber spikes) and amputated all his fingers.

Those bastards!

Television – The show as viewed from Spain, including a picture of “La Taberna De Moe II”.  Viva life! 

Remembering A Chicken & A Baby Differently – It took me a very long time to get this joke:

From “Thirty Minutes over Toyko“, the season finale of The Simpsons 10th season,

Marge: “You liked Rashomon.”
Homer: “That’s not how I remember it.”

[…]

I love the first one because it’s a joke utterly in-keeping with Homer’s character. He says nonsensical and utterly random things, so his saying “That’s not how I remember it” doesn’t have to mean anything more than Homer being Homer. Its meta reference and next level of joke are ramped up by understanding that Rashomon is a story about differing perceptions and accounts of the same events.  In the film version, all three characters remember the same day and same events differently. Homer, thus stating he doesn’t remember the movie the same way Marge does is an homage to the Rashomon Effect itself.  I believe it was (but can’t quite remember, as I’ve read at least three books about The Simpsons) Planet Simpson that cited this sort of joke as being the cornerstone of the Simpson universe. They’re jokes that work as one-offs but to the person examining them at a meta level they work amazing wonders.

They do.

Five of the best posts from our new favourite Twitter account, Simpsons Quote of the Day – This is about a relatively new Simpsons quote Twitter account, but it’s pretty good.

Hypnotoad evolved from the frog Bart Simpson introduced to Australia – This is from a subreddit called “Fan Theories”, so set your internal geek-o-stat to 11, but the first entries are a discussion over whether Futurama is a show within The Simpsons, vice versa, or both.  For sheer fan panache, that is impressive. 

In the naughty corner: online gags flow over cricket’s ‘homework’ debacle – This is about Australia’s cricket team, so forgive me if I’m misunderstanding this, but it would appear that there’s a bit of a spat between the coach and some players, and that someone used the Bart chalkboard generator site to make fun of the coach, which then got picked up on Twitter.  I love living in the future. 

The Papal Conclave…In 10 Words – Now let’s all get drunk and play ping-pong!

Pope Francis I…In 10 Words –Buenos noches, mein fuhrer.

Things I Really Hate To Admit – Ha:

6. I didn’t know only women have ovaries until I was 15. It didn’t help that on an episode of the Simpsons, Bart once faked a stomach ache to get out of a test, yelling “Ohh! My ovaries!”…I thought they were stomach muscles.

“Black Eyed, Please” | The Simpsons – I don’t usually read reviews of Zombie Simpsons episodes, but I’m glad I didn’t watch last week’s:

When Principal Skinner tells Homer and Marge that he can’t get rid of Ms. Cantwell due to union rules, Homer growls, “I hate unions. There’s a guy at the plant, caused three meltdowns, and he still keeps his job.” That should have been the end of the scene, but Marge answers, “Homer, that’s you.” And Homer says, “Oh, yeah. I say ‘union,’ you say ‘power!’” That’s still not the end of the gag, but you’ve suffered enough.

Dag 034 – A great Barney shirt.

Dag 033 – A “Springfield Choppers” t-shirt. 

Death of The Simpsons – Yes:

Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, Maggie and all the other memorable characters are always going to remembered and thought of as a legendary piece of American TV history. All great things have to come to an end and it has been due time for The Simpsons to be put in the TV Hall of Fame and off of normal broadcast television.

Let’s remember The Simpsons’ greatness of the past but not diminish it anymore than it already has been with a bad product no one is watching. It’s time for the The Simpsons’ tombstone to be chiseled.

Fox Can’t Handle Nice Things – And finally, I get to end the way I like, with someone who agrees with us, in this case, very succinctly:

They cancelled Firefly before its time and let The Simpsons go on long after it jumped the shark. In other words, they all have whacked-out poo brain

Indeed they do.

10
Mar
13

Sunday Preview: Black Eyed, Please

By Mad Jon 42 Comments
Categories: Sunday Preview and The Simpsons
Tags:

homer_cover_eye01055718

When Flanders’ parents prove to prefer Homer’s company to his, he jealously responds by giving Homer a shiner, and then tries desperately to reconcile with him. Meanwhile, Lisa is at a loss to understand why a new substitute teacher is bullying her for no obvious reason.

I haven’t thought about Flanders’ parents in a long, long time.  So that’s a thing I guess. Perhaps these freaky beatniks will get The Simpsons off the train to “Squaresville”.  But probably not.

08
Mar
13

Reading Digest: Overpriced Video Game Edition

By Charlie Sweatpants 13 Comments
Categories: Reading Digest, Simpsons and The Simpsons
Tags:

Waterworld Game

“Thirty-eight, thirty-nine, forty quarters, this better be good.” – Milhouse van Houten
“Game over.  Please deposit forty quarters.” – Waterworld Game
“What a rip!” – Milhouse van Houten

This week we’ve got four different links about the Tapped Out game.  Three of them are about how damned annoying and greedy it is when it comes to squeezing you to keep putting in virtual quarters after a minute or two of gameplay.  We’ve also got a couple of great pieces of fan made photography, the Bill Plympton opening from this Sunday’s episode of Zombie Simpsons, a boss Bart tattoo, two different respectable media outlets mocking the show for their Harlem Shake entry, a rather obscene car decal, and a truncated Wall Street Journal article that says the Simpsons are about to go Lego.

Enjoy.

House of Simpson family – Smooth Charlie’s Link of the Week is this fan made drawing of the Simpson home.  Reader Sam, who sent this in, described it as “lovingly detailed”, and that it is.  The attention to detail is just wonderful, and you can buy prints.  Thanks, Sam! 

60/365 – Close up artsy picture of Lisa and Bleeding Gums figurines jamming under a starry sky.  The musical notes in the air are a nice touch.

Be Who You Feel You Are – From a different photographer (assuming that’s not photoshop) comes this picture of Homer imagining himself with Herb’s hair and Flanders’ stomach.  Damn well done.

Mega Homer – Fan made drawing of Homer as Mega Man riding Santa’s Little Helper as Rush.  Cool.

Exclusive Sneak Preview: The Simpsons Go Noir – Sunday’s episode of Zombie Simpsons is getting a nicely stylish opening courtesy of Bill Plympton.  You can watch it here on-line so you don’t have to watch in on TV.  The future!

Matt Groening’s Artwork for Apple – Groening’s Life in Hell style brochure for Apple from 1989.  (I’ve linked it before, but it makes the rounds every now and again, so why not link it when it does?)  (via)

Dag 030 – A joke t-shirt with Homer sitting on a chair captioned “Perseverance” with the punchline “If something is hard it’s not worth doing”.  The actual quote, of course, is “If something’s hard to do, then it’s not worth doing”, but it’s still a cool shirt.

Missed Opportunities: Freemium Subtlety – A less than enthusiastic report from the Tapped Out game:

When creating a freemium app game, where you need to encourage players to spend money, it’s important not to beat them over the head. The Simpsons Tapped Out doesn’t seem to get this, and constantly badgers the player to cough up some dough.

Poorly made micro-transactions are killing gaming. – More in that vein:

To speed this up, they include the use of “doughnuts” a form of premium currency in the game and the thing that irks me the most has to be the fact that they don’t even state a price before you buy it, the game pushes you to buy them through impulsive purchases because they know that people will buy them because the game takes so long for everything to even happen you’re forced to through pure impatience, this means less gameplay and more sitting around and waiting unless you choose to buy their premium currency, what’s the point in that? I’d rather you not let the game go free-to-play if you’re just going to cover that up through a horrible form of in game currency which we are forced to buy.

The future of gaming, micro-transactions – And why they do it:

Star Trek Online, Lord of Ultima, Dungeons and Dragons online and The simpsons What’s the common thread? You can play them but if you want to see the closing credits you’re going to need to peel off some green.

It’s become a very lucrative space with $25 million made by EA in the last quarter of 2012 just on their  Simpsons mobile  game alone.

[…]

Of course you don’t have to purchase the extra content but your experience will be diminished compared to those that do.  EA’s Blake J. Jorgensen thinks that’s where the money is.

“The next and much bigger piece is micro transactions within games…  we’re building into all of our games the ability to pay for things along the way, either to get to a higher level to buy a new character, to buy a truck, a gun, whatever… and consumers are enjoying and embracing that way of the business“

I’m not so sure consumers are “enjoying “micro-transactions as much as they’re just tolerating them at this point.  The model  can work if your upfront investment is minimal but the future may not be so certain if we’re still paying triple-A prices.

Indeed.  And let’s not forget that EA’s SimCity release is going about as poorly as it is possible for something to go.  (Also, nice WordPress theme.)

The Simpsons Tapped Out Android Hack | Unlimited Money & Doughnuts – Should ye be as frustrated as the above three, I present this without comment as I do not own an Android device on which to test it.

Lego Eyes Tie-Up With ‘The Simpsons’ – Speaking of merchandising money, this is behind one of Murdoch’s idiotic paywalls, so you can’t read the whole thing, but here’s the opening:

COPENHAGEN – Lego, looking to expand its string of partnerships with media franchises, is in talks with 20th Century Fox about making a toy set based on TV show The Simpsons, a spokesman said on Thursday.

A deal would pair the fast-growing Danish toy maker with what is believed to be the longest running scripted show in U.S. TV history.  The Simpsons has a cult following and appeals to younger audiences as well as adults who have followed the show since they were children.

We’re getting ever closer to Simpsons the flame thrower.

Homer Simpson’s Poker Face – A nice little writeup of a small talk Simon gave to some students at Old Dominion last week.

Talk of the Town: These folks love animals! – A retired school teacher named Sue Simpson has dogs named Bart and Ralph.  Ha!

100 More Simpsons Quotes, In Order Of Importance – Lotta good quotes here.

Quick Reviews: Oscar Nominated Shorts – Well, the Oscars are gone, but how about one more review:

Filled with visual gags and recognisable faces, Maggie Simpson in “The Longest Daycare” manages to impressively entertain audiences even whilst feeling no more original than an episode of The Simpsons. The choice to create the film from Maggie’s point of view with no dialogue is a respectable one, and the film’s plot is solid and witty enough to maintain laughter. The ending is surprising and you root for Maggie throughout, but this film ultimately falls flat and one can’t help but feel that a webisode is a more suitable format (legitimacy of web videos for this category aside) and one where the film would fit in with it’s peers much better.

Homer Simpson Bape Character – Just what it says.

“Die Bart Die” from the Tattoo Shooting Gallery – Awesomely grotesques tattoo of Bart with a knife through his head.

BOO-URNS – It’s another Simpsons Tumblr with lots of images and .gifs (and very little Zombie Simpsons).  It’s maintained by this young lady:

When I was younger I could relate to it because my family was pretty similar. I was the (pardon my lack of modesty) smarty-pants little sister, my brother was more similar to Bart than anyone I had ever met, my mother was super-maternal and maybe a little traditional-housewifey. I can’t stress how different my Dad is from Homer, but you get the point.

I do.  Well done.

Andy Wilson: Rich Moore: From The Simpsons to Wreck-It Ralph – Jebus, the Huffington Post sucks.  This should’ve been an interview with Rich Moore, instead it’s mostly filler.

Homer Simpson: Trolling Jesus – I don’t think this really counts as trolling, it’s just a subtitled screen grab of Homer’s joke about Jesus needing better arch support.  Still cracks me up every time.

Top 5 Best Beatle Album Covers – Includes the Simpsons parody of Sgt. Pepper’s.

My favorite TV shows, pt. 1: The Simpsons. – A fan of Zombie Simpsons writes:

The Simpsons will always have a special place in my heart. It is one of the most impressive shows on the air. It is in its 24th season with no end in sight. It isn’t quite as popular as it was during the first 10 or so seasons, but with its ability to poke fun at any current event without being quite as offensive as a show like South Park (love it, but it offends many), it is able to appeal to adults who want a bit more grown-up humor, as well as to their teenage kids. As such, it’s one of few shows that are still on the air that are viewed by the whole family together.

Obviously, I don’t agree, but that’s okay, everybody gets their own opinions.  Here comes the funny part: the blog is titled “Zombie Love is Forever”.  Oh, the irony.

Feeling Old? Ages of 90s T.V. Characters Today – They’ve got everything from Friends to Full House on here, and they’ve got the Simpsons at:

This doesn’t work so well, because the characters ages are constant, but as with Rugrats, I’ll act like everyone has aged in real time since season one. Bart: 33, Lisa: 31, Maggie: 24, Homer and Marge: 58-ish.

Seems about right.

21 & Over…In 10 Words – What better way to spread beer fueled mayhem?

Dallas…In 10 Words – That’s right, I shot JR.

The 2013 Sequester…In 10 Words – Looks like those clowns in Congress are at it again.  What a bunch of clowns.

Fare thee well gym! – Quitting the gym with help from YouTube of Homer discovering what a gym is.  I don’t know about the rest of you, but ever since that episode I mentally pronounce gym “gime” pretty much every time.

Introducing the blog to IE business school… – Well done:

Also check out my twitter @chizwozla

The word ‘chizwozla’ came from an episode of The Simpsons when I was 10 years old and making my first email account. Now that I have 5 email addresses, a twitter, a facebook page, (previously myspace and bebo and even more previously an Angelfire blog), a fantasy football team, 2 wordpress blogs, a flipboard account, a skype account, etc etc it has come in very handy in using one, common word that is never previously taken. I’ve never had to use Roboconnor123456 or similar because I was a visionary 10 year old…

The Simpsons – It’s a car decal on a gas tank cover of, I am not making this up, Maggie sucking Bart’s dick.  The hell of it is, it looks like a real picture, as in that’s actually on the side of somebody’s car and they drive around with it like that in public.  Huh.

‘The Simpsons’ voted Britain’s favourite TV family – This is about as meaningless as it’s possible for something to be, but it’s nice, I suppose:

The Simpsons have been voted Britain’s favourite TV family in a new survey from Channel 4.

Homer, Marge, Maggie, Bart and Lisa collected 45% of the vote, finishing above The Flintstones and The Royle Family.

So it’s come to this: The Simpsons do "The Harlem Shake" – The A.V. Club has it about right:

It seems like everybody short of the Vatican is sharing their take on the ubiquitous dance sensation that’s sweeping the nation. That now includes The Simpsons, who have entered into the fray with an exuberant clip that will undoubtedly age like a fine wine and not be something that everyone involved will be embarrassed by a week from now.

The Simpsons Attempt The Harlem Shake, Fail Miserably – The Mary Sue piles on as well:

I guess this means this whole thing is done now, right?

Heh, they wish they were relevant enough to make something uncool.  Regardless, I’m confident something else will be along shortly.

SimpFail – And finally, I get to end the way I prefer, with someone who agrees with us:

Recently the Simpsons, my beloved and favorite show of all time, has been making me upset and disappointed. Since about season 10 the quality of the show has gone down. However within the last 5 seasons I will say it has really sunk quickly and I don’t know how much longer they can keep it up. Last Sunday’s episode featured an opening scene of the Simpsons doing the Harlem Shake, A fad that has really gone way overboard allowing people to go full retard for a minute.

Sadly, they’re not going to run out of hapless stabs at relevance anytime soon.

07
Mar
13

The Telltale Head Spews Truth

By Dave 1 Comment
Categories: 23rd Anniversary Yellow Jubilee, Spews Truth from Every Orifice and The Simpsons
Tags:

telltalehead

Today’s post is another installment in our long-running “series” of DVD commentary posts; the lucky victim this time is Season 1’s classic “The Telltale Head.” Featured speakers on the commentary are the episode’s director Rich Moore and writers Al Jean and Mike Reiss. I’ll keep it short and simple (read: descriptive and lacking in any meaningful/substantive analysis), but here are the highlights from their conversation for me:

(Times are approximate)

  • 00:17 – Supposedly there were a lot of Elvis sightings when this episode was written, hence the chalkboard gag
  • 00:31 – Early intro didn’t have Burns or Smithers in the Homer/SNPP shot
  • 01:21 – Directors, well at least Rich Moore in this case, don’t get residual checks when this episode airs. Wah wah.
  • 02:08 – During table readings, the episode got big laughs up front and petered out, which explains the reverse structure of the episode as it we know
  • 02:34 – This is one of the few episodes that actually has the title after the credits
  • 02:52 – This is also Rich Moore’s Simpsons directorial debut
  • 03:14 – Episode is full of first appearances – Rev. Lovejoy, Jimbo, Dolph, Kearney, Quimby, Apu
  • 03:40 – Homer standing on the couch is where the episode originally started before the structural changes
  • 03:51 – This is the first time the family goes to church
  • 04:15 – The Simpsons staff is full of football fans, so references work their way into many episodes
  • 05:45 – Apparently the Sunday school teacher doesn’t have a name
  • 07:15 – “Twister mouths” were phased out in Season 1, but made an accidental appearance in Season 3 thanks to Wes Archer
  • 07:37 – Repeat backgrounds are a godsend
  • 08:11 – “Space Mutants” was a regular thing that just sort of dropped out of later episodes
  • 09:25 – Jimbo is named after Jim Brooks
  • 10:50 – Apu wasn’t originally intended to be an ethnic character, but Hank Azaria added the accent during the table read and the rest is history
  • 11:17 – It’s still a five-fingered discount even though the characters only have four fingers
  • 14:07 – Rich’s father called after this show aired to ask if Homer was based on him
  • 14:27 – Bart’s first ninja costume
  • 15:30 – Intent of the episode was always to be played as “live action” with interesting composition and shots rather than the flatness associated with many early episodes
  • 16:50 – At the table read, the fact that the Jebidiah’s head was cut off didn’t resonate with the group as much as the denizens of Springfield
  • 17:50 – This is where shit gets weird: the head starts talking. This didn’t get many laughs initially
  • 18:22 – You rarely see Moe and Burns share a scene together
  • 18:31 – First episode where Smither’s affection for Burns is notable
  • 18:40 – Around the middle of the first season, Sam Simon declared that Smithers should be gay, but not to make a big deal about it. The audience caught on quickly though
  • 18:57 – First Sideshow Bob, who is both silent and looks nothing like his later incarnation
  • 20:40 – First mob made up of supporting characters and not generic people
  • 22:04 – The early internet was a cruel mistress in pointing out animation inconsistencies and other flaws (sound familiar?)
  • That’s a wrap!
05
Mar
13

Compare & Contrast: Bart and Grampa Team Up (Plus Shameless Self Promotion)

By Charlie Sweatpants 12 Comments
Categories: Compare & Contrast and The Simpsons
Tags: ,

The Curse of the Flying Hellfish5

“Hey, Grampa, do you think I could’ve been a Flying Hellfish?” – Bart Simpson
“You’re a gutsy daredevil with a give ’em hell attitude and a fourth grade education, you coulda made sergeant.” – Abe “Grampa” Simpson 

Since Zombie Simpsons has no choice but to copy the format and characters of The Simpsons, it’s basically inevitable that they have to repeat the same ideas and even story structures.  Sometimes they’re at least a little clever about it, other times, as in “Gorgeous Grampa”, they basically just put an old episode on the copy machine and hope that the inevitable degradation in quality keeps people from noticing what they did.

Both “Gorgeous Grampa” and “Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in ‘The Curse of the Flying Hellfish’” revolve around three main characters: Bart, Grampa and Burns.  And both episodes have each character relating to one another in the same manner: Burns and Grampa delve back into something from their pasts, Bart gets caught up in it, and eventually helps Grampa defeat Burns.  The specifics are, of course, a bit different, and even if you set aside the xeroxed nature of “Gorgeous Grampa”’s plot, they’re also where Zombie Simpsons collapses into incoherence while The Simpsons steams smoothly ahead all the way to seeing Kraftwerk in Stuttgart. 

For starters, just consider the physical nature of the two.  In “Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson”, Grampa is depicted right up until the end pretty much as he’s always been: feeble, easily confused, and generally a mess.  His pants fall down, he evades Burns’ assassination attempts mostly by tripping, and when confronted by Burns he gives up instantly and hands over the key.  It isn’t until the end, when he’s first inspired by Bart and then fearful for his grandson’s life, that he becomes the great soldier he once was.  Grampa is still Grampa, until the story and his character give him a reason to become a badass.

Compare that to “Gorgeous Grampa”, where hapless, feeble old Abe just up and decides that he’s going to start wrestling again and instantly slips right back into the ring to fly around like it was old times.  As with so many episodes of Zombie Simpsons, there isn’t really anything compelling Grampa’s transformation, it happens just because.

Spry Geezer

This is the least wrinkled Grampa has ever looked.

Nor is the lunacy limited to Grampa.  It’s easy to understand that Burns would be willing to kill Abe over priceless art.  Not letting anyone get between him and wealth is the rock bottom foundation of Burns as a person.  It’s not so easy to swallow Burns as a closet wrestling junkie who’s willing to put on an extravagant show so that he can see old guys pretend to battle one another.

Bart’s bizarre actions are perhaps even harder to take.  Not only does he come to love being booed for basically no reason (and the fact that the episode wrings its hands and exposits about it several times doesn’t make it any more believable), but the things we see him do make absolutely no sense.  Wrestling villains can be villains because wrestling is scripted.  But Bart starts acting like a wrestler at a baseball game and in school, which isn’t going to get anyone to love-hate him the way people love-hate wrestling villains, it’s just going to get him kicked off the baseball team and given detention.

Worse, dropping his wrestling antics into Little League is the simplest kind of empty headed desperation humor.  Watching it, I was reminded of nothing so much as Moe and his puzzlement at people booing his giant lollypop in “They Saved Lisa’s Brain”:

How Low Can You Go

One of these is intentionally bad, the other is just bad.

Smashing two different things together with no regard for context, character, or anything else is about as lazy and hacktacular as scripted comedy can get.  It’s also why they had Burns not know that wrestling is fake: it’s so out of character!  Well, yeah, it is, but that doesn’t even make it clever, much less funny.   

At the end, the whole thing collapses under the weight of its contradictions and shortcuts as Burns, who has apparently just been standing there, gets picked up and spun around the ring by Grampa.  It has nothing to do with what we’ve seen so far, but they once again backed themselves into a completely predictable corner and needed a way out, and what better way that to have one old man hoist up another and spin him around?

“Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson”, however, didn’t need a last second turn to wrap things up.  The fight between Burns and Abe has been brewing for the whole episode before Grampa defeats him and throws him out of the Hellfish.  Its twist ending isn’t a nonsensical turn of events, it’s the rather cruel joke that the douchebag German aristocrat gets the loot, with Grampa even saying, “I guess he deserves it more than I do”.  Things don’t need to be perfectly real-world believable so long as they’re going somewhere and you’re having fun along the way; too bad Zombie Simpsons forgot that while the copy machine was running. 

—Begin Shameless Self Promotion—

Well, it finally happened.  Six months behind schedule, and three days late thanks to some technical fun with Amazon, the spinoff site is finally ready to put on its big kid pants and head for the deep end of the internet.  The Ann Arbor Review of Books has published its first Kindle issue, which you can acquire for the low, low price of just $2.99.  Inside, our sometime guest bloggers Lenny and Wesley compliment excellent television shows while I compare Lincoln unfavorably to Django Unchained, and that’s not even the half of it:

1.1 CoverNo trees were harmed in the making of this magazine.  A laptop died and somebody shot a duck, but that’s it. 

You can purchase it directly from Amazon right now, but like the Zombie Simpsons mini-book, all of the words will eventually be free to read on-line.  It worked for a book, so now we’re trying it with a magazine.  If you enjoy my Simpsons bitching, I can assure you that this is just as half-assed. 

03
Mar
13

Sunday Preview: Gorgeous Grampa

By Mad Jon 16 Comments
Categories: Sunday Preview and The Simpsons
Tags: ,

shot-grampa1

Homer’s obsession with the TV show “Storage Battles” leads the family to discover Grampa’s past identity as “Gorgeous Godfrey,” the most feared, villainous man in pro-wrestling history.

What’s more amazing, he was once revered by a young Montgomery Burns, who now convinces Grampa to get back in the ring. But when Bart starts to adopt some of his grandfather’s former cheating ways, Grampa must reconcile with his past before it’s too late.

Homer’s love for a staged reality show about people’s crap leads to Bart being a bastard, and for some reason Grampa feels the need to fix it.  I have a hard time imagining Burns being into wrestling, but whatever.

01
Mar
13

Reading Digest: Late Scratch Edition

By Charlie Sweatpants 6 Comments
Categories: Reading Digest, Simpsons and The Simpsons
Tags:

Lisa the Greek12

“After  evaluating millions of pieces of data in the blink of an eye, the Gamble-Tron 2000 says the winner is . . . Cincinnati by . . . two hundred points?  Why you worthless hunk of junk!” – Professor Frink

Sorry for the late Reading Digest, everybody.  I hope your Friday at work/school/whatever wasn’t too dull without it.  This post was originally going to contain a link to the first Kindle issue from the spinoff site, but Amazon appears to be having some difficulties and it looks like it’s not going to be ready today.  So here’s a regular Reading Digest post instead.

The good news is that the internet was bountiful this week.  We’ve got several people reviewing old episodes, YouTube interviews with both David Silverman and James L. Brooks, two different real life Moe’s Taverns opening (one licensed, the other not), fully legal video of “The Longest Daycare”, several people who agree with us, real life patented, space age, out of this world moon waffles, and, a Simpsons themed podcast featuring previous DHS guest authors Lenny Burnham and Wesley Mead.

Enjoy. 

Homer Simpson’s Patented Space Age Out of This World Moon Waffle – Smooth Charlie’s Link of the Week is this piece of internet genius wherein someone actually made Homer’s moon waffles!  Mmmm, liquid smoke.   

Podcasts – Secret Lover – Our old friend Lenny’s television podcast takes on the best show ever.  The link above is to iTunes, but you can also visit the main website here.

Top Twenty Simpsons Episodes (According to Me) – Great list with lots of quotes and context and not a trace of Zombie Simpsons. 

The Longest Daycare Now Online – Well, they didn’t win an Oscar, but you can now watch the whole Maggie short on FOX’s official YouTube account:

Bitching about the Academy Awards is a pointless as it is possible to be, but that is way better than Paperman. 

David Silverman on Guiding ‘The Simpsons’ to the Oscars via ‘The Longest Daycare’ – A twenty-five minute interview with David Silverman.  It starts with how he got started as an animator and how he got involved with the show and moves up through the short, including one of the best explanations for 3D I’ve ever heard.  (That starts around the 11:00 mark.) 

I liked this exchange:

Interviewer: So, just we’re gonna do a short, might as well do it in 3D?
Silverman: Oh, yeah, I mean, it pays well.

Heh.

James L. Brooks on His ‘Simpsons’ Journey, from ‘Tracey Ullman’ to the Oscars – The same guy interviewing Brooks.  The story about drunken David Silverman at the Christmas party comes in around the 9:00 mark. 

My Kind of Nerds. – A salute to nerds includes this cool Simpsons cross stitch from Flickr user the.barb:

Cross Stitch Simpsons Well done.

The Simpsons: Tapped Out becomes one of the highest grossing games in Google Play – Merchandising, merchandising, where the real money from the TV show is made:

Even though it has only been a few weeks since the game launched on Android, it has already become one of the highest grossing games in Google Play. The Simpsons: Tapped Out is currently the third highest grossing game in Google Play behind Blood Brothers and Candy Crush Saga. On Monday evening, it had gotten as high as #2. It’s also in the #6 position of Google Play’s “top free” section in the games category.

Before The Simpsons: Tapped Out came to Android, it managed to bring in over $23 million in one quarter on the iOS platform.

28 Funny Products Spotted on The Simpsons – Pretty much what it says, with only one from Zombie Simpsons.

Senators organist a fan of The Simpsons – As this game between the Canadiens and the Senators went to the first intermission, the organist played them off with the Simpsons theme, and the link has video.  

The Simpsons as First Time Buyers – Comparing the Simpsons buying a home in “Lisa’s First Word” with the actual process. 

The Simpsons Movie (2007) – A review of the movie that also agrees with us:

I have been a Simpsons fan since before the cartoon even came out. I still remember the Butterfinger commercials, announcing the “coming” of the animated show. The series started off strong and really hit its stride in the mid-to-late nineties and then, I felt, lost some of its edge with shows like Family Guy being more bold and edgy. I did notice the Simpsons start to do this but not too much (as Family Guy sometimes does).

The movie was great in the first half, but lost its momentum.

Why no TV show should go beyond five seasons – I think you can see where this is going:

That’s not to say that a show can’t have a good season past five, it’s just that I don’t know of any shows which have their best season that far into their run. Friends, one of the longest running sitcoms, peaked earlier than five seasons. The Simpsons, the longest running show on tv, is way past its best, which could be found in the first five seasons.

I wouldn’t say it’s just the first five, but that’s a pretty good rule of thumb.

The Simpsons Super Review – Another attempt to watch all the episodes:

For now I just want to say thanks for reading, buckle up, and try to enjoy the ride. I have a feeling things will start to get bumpy after about 13 seasons. We’ll have to start drinking heavily. Together.

Indeed.  (Also, thanks for the link.)

The Simpsons – “Cape Feare” – Looking back at a very good episode:

I can’t help but feel so very nostalgic while watching this episode. The 90′s was my childhood, despite the occasional grown up content, I would always park my arse on the sofa when The Simpsons came on the TV when I was a kid.

Bart’s Comet (TV Episode Review) (1995) – True:

The signs on the balloon states Big Butt Skinner, which got me laughing… I still find it funny. Today, Skinner would’ve easily got Constance Harms to do his dirty work 

Corey Hotline – Yet another review from long ago:

Lisa eventually beat her addiction as most people do by simply making it to midnight without calling. Ya hear that alcoholics? Yeah, it’s that easy. Apparantly your twelve steps should be not drinking from noon till midnight and you will be cured. You are welcome.

Heh.

Picture: Chief Wiggum and Ned Flanders were in the crowd at the Milan derby last night – Well done, Italian soccer hooligans:

AC Milan and Inter Milan went head to head in the San Siro last night and although they couldn’t be separated on the pitch, the Rossoneri won the battle in the stands with a brilliant banner featuring Chief Wiggum and Ned Flanders from The Simpsons that was passed around by the AC Milan fans.

Click through for the impressive picture.

Simpsons – Koala (gif) – Animated .gif of the stowaway helicopter koala from “Bart vs. Australia”. 

The 2013 Oscars…In 10 Words – Too bad that delightful Billy Crystal wasn’t involved.

Duck Dynasty…In 10 Words – The men of the 9th Bearded Reality Show were sunning and fluffing their beards . . .

Embiggen – Using the word to make map art (assuming that’s a thing). 

It’s Moe’s, of course | Our Springfield gets a version of Homer Simpson’s favorite bar – Springfield, Oregon is getting a bar called “Moe’s”, though one presumes that for legal reasons that’s where the similarities will end.

‘The Simpsons’ and the Birth of the Modern Animated TV Comedy – The dangers of sponsored content:

This post is brought to you by Out There, airing Fridays at 10:30/9:30c on IFC.

The rest of it reads like a poorly edited Wikipedia history of network animation.  It meanders around and doesn’t go beyond the most cursory of outlines before ending with a tease for part two.  I understand that times are tough and everybody’s gotta earn bread, and Jebus knows I’m no expert, but crappy, lowest common denominator content is never a good idea.  

MACGYVER: Paperclips, Marge Simpson’s sisters, and bringing back the mullet – A publicity interview for Richard Dean Anderson ahead of a visit to a comic convention in Australia.

‘The Simpson’s’ Nancy Cartwright Slated to Host Boys & Girls Club Fundraiser – Pretty much what it says.  They’re trying to collect enough quarters to stretch around a mall in California.

Top Twenty Favorite Opening Themes – The show checks in at #10 here, and there’s plenty of good YouTube. 

More of Springfield is coming to Universal Orlando – Restaurants inspired by ‘The Simpsons’ are being constructed – This is from “Orlando Attractions Magazine”, but it looks like Moe’s, a Krusty Burger, and possibly even the Gulp ‘N Blow are coming to Florida.  

Bart Simpson Defense – If you’re tired of playing Tapped Out, here’s a definitely unlicensed Simpsons defense game.  Basically, Nelsons are attacking and you have to stop them.  It has little to nothing to do with the Simpsons, but it’s fairly clever.

“Me fail English? That’s unpossible!” – A detailed breakdown of Ralph’s most famous quote.

Bart’s Hut – Simpson graffiti on a train station in (I think) Germany. 

The Decline Of The Simpsons – Yup:

Classic Simpsons had heart and the characters had layers, now they are all one dimensional jokes. Homer for example, used to be a buffoon but showed he loved his family. Nowadays he throws Bart into a lions pen, gets annoyed whenever he has to do even the lightest of family duties, and is very self centered and obnoxious.

Reboot Something That Matters: The Simpsons – And finally, I get to end the way I like, with someone who agrees with us:

In my life, few things have left as big a mark on me as a person as The Simpsons.  I’ve seen so many episodes and up until the last couple seasons, they’ve been incredible.  I know, everyone with a blog complains about how its “just not the same”, but hey, have you seen the last 3 seasons or so?  They’re not funny. 

Amen.

27
Feb
13

Quote of the Day

By Charlie Sweatpants 1 Comment
Categories: Happy Birthday, QotD and The Simpsons
Tags: ,

Bart vs Australia11

“Nine hundred dollary-dos?  Tobias!  Did you accept a six hour collect call from the States?” – Bruno Drundridge
“It was an emergency call from the international drainage commission in Springfield.” – Tobias Drundridge
“Oh my God!  There’s nothing wrong with the bidet, is there?” – Bruno Drundridge

Happy birthday Bill Oakley!

22
Feb
13

Reading Digest: Foreign Art Edition

By Charlie Sweatpants 6 Comments
Categories: Reading Digest, Simpsons and The Simpsons
Tags:

Itchy and Scratchy and Marge12

“This will be the art event of the century!  The greatest masterpiece of Italian Renaissance, Michelangelo’s David, on a coast-to-coast tour, United States.” – Italian Art Guy
“Sir, which cities will be included in your itinerary?” – Reporter
“Ah, New York, Springfield, and if we have time, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles.” – Italian Art Guy

This week we have four(!) outstanding pieces of serious Simpsons art from a bunch of foreigners.  There’s a Canadian, a Frenchman, Brits, and one that I think is Brazilian, but I couldn’t tell for sure, and all of them are excellent and click worthy.  There’s also a couple of people marking Groening’s birthday last week, several others who agree with us, two mentions of “Bart’s Comet” since deadly rocks became all the rage last week, and a bunch more links about “The Longest Daycare”.

Enjoy.

Smooth Charlie’s four part Click of the Week presented in no particular order:

Happy Birthday Matt Groening: A look back at the legacy of the animation legend – A quick tour of some of what made the show so great that also agrees with us directly and indirectly.  For the indirectly, all of the examples it cites for why the show was great (with one tiny exception) come from The Simpsons, not Zombie Simpsons.  For the directly, there’s this:

Celebrity Cameos

Although this later became a hindrance due to including celebrities just for the sake of it, there is a plethora of worthwhile cameos from the illustrious kind.

Worth a read, and there’s an awesome, thirteen minute YouTube video that’s nothing but songs (none from Zombie Simpsons).

Sketchbook Feb 18, 2013 – This is just a sketch, but check out Kirk wearing a Gudger sweatshirt.

15th February 2013 – Matt Groening’s Birthday – Celebrating Groening’s birthday by watching Duffless, which itself just turned 20 on Monday.

Three (Day 47) – A woman took a picture of her son’s “Simpsons magazine” and, tsk-tsk, someone didn’t do the proof reading.

‘The Simpsons’ Oscar-Nominated Short, Starring Maggie And Baby Gerald – Warming Glow, a television blog named after a Simpsons reference, handles the delicate issue of being critical of Zombie Simpsons well here:

The short, titled The Longest Daycare, features Marge dropping Maggie off at daycare, and the butterfly-related adventure she goes on while she’s there. In four dialogue-free minutes, it manages to be both funny and charming, which [fill in complaint about newer seasons of The Simpsons versus the golden years].

Yes, Apatow’s Simpsons Script Will Be Rewritten – Confirmation from Mike Reiss that yes, they are going to make Judd Apatow’s script:

"We never got around to it, and decades went by," Reiss said. At one point, ten years or so after receiving Apatow’s idea — a hypnotist regresses Homer to childhood, enabling him to pal around with Bart — The Simpsons did an episode with a hypnotist, 2001′s "The Blunder Years," where Homer was hypnotized and discovered repressed memories, "so we had to wait another ten years," Reiss said.

Meh.

Your Top 20: Television Cartoons of All Time – This is from the same site that had the shown down at #10 for all time best shows, but it’s #1 here for cartoons.

Festival of Animation welcomes ‘Simpsons’ Producer David Silverman to La Jolla – The possibly-soon-to-be-Oscar-winner Silverman stopped by a San Diego animation festival and earned this nice writeup.  Not much news, but Silverman does appear to be wearing a Homer T-shirt where he’s wearing 3-D glasses.

Dress up or dress down with a classic bow tie – Excellent reference:

Sporting a bow tie in broad daylight – or really anywhere other than a horse race — may seem the sole domain of uppity pricks. Donald Duck and the Cat in the Hat gave bow ties a comedic reputation, and Krusty the Clown didn’t exactly help the professionalism of bow ties either.

The article is actually in favor of rocking the bowtie, but the truth is, you should never trust a man who wears a bowtie.  A cravat’s supposed to point down to accentuate the genitals.  Why’d you want to trust somebody whose tie points out to accentuate his ears?

Oscar Shorts: Animated nominees – Comparing and discussing all the nominated movies, goes with “Fresh Guacamole” as the predicted winner.

Maggie Simpson’s Oscar dress – The show put out some drawings of Maggie in snazzy looking Oscar dresses this week.  Cute.

David Silverman on Guiding ‘The Simpsons’ to the Oscars via ‘The Longest Daycare’ (Video) – Some fluff background on Silverman’s career and how “The Longest Daycare” got started.

Maggie Simpson Stars in ‘The Longest Daycare’: Where Babies Face Off – Still more praise:

the The Longest Daycare uses Maggie’s silence to reinvent the sort of irreverent comedy and affable charm that has made the series so enduring.

Review: Oscar Nominated Shorts – An animator’s take on the short:

The film is funny but it’s also very touching and it isn’t afraid to mix the two to get the desired effect. This again, is why the Simpsons has been on for so long, because of its ability to have such empathy in its characters. The animation itself is a blend of 2-D animation with 3-D elements, which is quickly becoming the standard today and it was used very effectively. I think the fact that these people have been working with these characters for so long just gives this short a certain level of polish that only comes with time and the 3-D elements are well integrated and don’t feel in any way added unnecessarily. So how have they readapted to their original format: with humorous elegance.

And the Oscar Goes to…D’oh – Seeing “The Longest Daycare” rekindles the Simpsons spark for someone who lost it around Season 10.

HOMER SIMPSON – It doesn’t quite qualify as great art, but here’s Homer as done in snow.  They even got the hair, bravo.

Five Best Fictional Meteor/Asteroid/Comet Moments – Bart’s Comet ranks at #2 here.  Great list idea.

I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that – Watching 2001: A Space Odyssey for the first time and finally getting all the references.  Don’t forget the Dawn of Man thing at the beginning of “Lisa’s Pony”.

Happy Valentines Day Part Deuce! – A (fan made?) choo-choo valentine that reverses the syntax.

I Got the Job! – Celebrating the acquisition of employment with YouTube of Homer doing the same.  Congratulations.

Simpsons – Oink (gif) – Animated .gif of Homer meeting Old Zeke.  Heh.

A Good Day to Die Hard…In 10 Words – Don’t worry, boy, you don’t have to follow in my footsteps.  That’s okay, I don’t even like using the bathroom after you.

That Meteor That Struck Russia…In 10 Words – At least it landed in a lake and not on someone’s bomb shelterini. 

Beautiful Creatures…In 10 Words – Must . . . drop . . . pantaloons. 

‘The Simpsons’ Perfectly Sums Up U.S. Politics In Less Than A Minute – Shaky-cam YouTube of the epic PTA meeting from “The PTA Disbands”.  The finger thing means the taxes.

Mississippi looks like Bart Simpson – I’ve seen this comparison before, but this one does have a nice image to go with it.

The Simpsons Might Win an Oscar! – A brief discussion of “The Longest Daycare” that agrees with us:

I rather enjoyed this little cartoon. The ending is especially fun. And it would be delightful to see The Simpsons win an Oscar. I’m a long-time Simpsons fan, though, of course, I haven’t seen a new episode in years.

Of course.

Area Man Has Opinion On Oscar-Nominated Short – And finally, I get to end the way I like, with someone who agrees with us, rather epically, it turns out:

Maggie Simpson’s animated adventure “The Longest Daycare,” screened before last year’s Ice Age: Continental Drift, has been nominated for an Academy Award. I didn’t see the thing until five minutes ago, and my reactions are thus: Thank Jeebus a cinematic “Simpsons” product of merit has come along to atone for that deflated mess in 2007 they called The Simpsons Movie. Let me also jam in the requisite complaint that “The Simpsons” tv show hasn’t been able to do anything with a fraction of this much soul since Dikembe Mutombo played for Atlanta.

Where is the soul, “Simpsons” brain trust? Where is the love? Must you give us irony in place of balls, balls in place of brains, and brains in place of soul?

Well said.

19
Feb
13

Permanent Record: Maggie Simpson

By Charlie Sweatpants 3 Comments
Categories: 23rd Anniversary Yellow Jubilee and The Simpsons
Tags:

The Call of the Simpsons8

“The boys certainly are taking a long time.  I hope Maggie isn’t slowing them up too much.” – Marge Simpson

For reasons of television necessity the Simpson family has always been an adventurous lot.  But while Homer, Marge, Bart and Lisa can easily go out into the world and get into and out of trouble, little Maggie is limited by the fact that she can’t talk and can barely walk.  But while those limitations usually see her shuffled off to the side, the show also gives strong hints that she is the smartest and toughest of them all. 

“The Call of the Simpsons” is the first serious indication that we in the audience get that Maggie is more than a pacifier sucking background character.  It’s true that in “Bart the Genius”, while the rest of the family is trying to build Bart’s vocabulary with Scrabble, she’s spelling out physics equations with wooden blocks.  But having her wander into the woods, befriend a clan of cave bears, and then save Homer and Bart from them was the first time the show took Maggie out and built a little story around her.

With the exception of the television idiots and the camping jerk and his wife, it’s told entirely without dialogue.  It’s just Maggie being silently fearless and resourceful with a musical accompaniment to set the mood.  It’s not a major part of the episode, but it is in the best tradition of The Simpsons, sweet but absurd and funny. 

The Call of the Simpsons9

 And people say the crazy stuff didn’t start until Season 4.

In subsequent seasons we see her liberate pacifiers from a heavily guarded locker at the Ayn Rand School for Tots, unintentionally stage a massive jail break by crashing a car into the prison, and trek across Springfield in a search for Marge that ends with a peaceful nap under an ice cream sign while the police panic beneath her.  She may be silent, but she is smart, tough and funny, so when the Simpson kids are shipped off to the unfortunate care of Patty and Selma in “Homer Alone”, Bart and Lisa go along meekly while Maggie outfights a grown man and stays safely out of their clutches.  She effortlessly snags the bottle thrown at Homer’s head in “Lisa on Ice”; and while she is only briefly on screen in “Lisa’s Wedding”, we get a clear portrait of a teenage Maggie who has the attitude of Bart and the brains of Lisa.  Oh, and she shot Mr. Burns.

All that stuff was well in the future when this episode was created, but you can see the seeds of it right here.  Even at this early stage they were already having fun with unconventional storytelling and doing things that would’ve been impossible on a non-animated show.  (It’s also a great example of how they put that live orchestra to good use.  Maggie and the bears simply wouldn’t work without that “Peter and the Wolf” style music.)  Maggie is the least prominent Simpson, but the show still had the good sense to treat her like a real character, even way back in Season 1.

17
Feb
13

Sunday Preview: Hardly Kirk-ing

By Mad Jon 4 Comments
Categories: Sunday Preview and The Simpsons
Tags:

image

 

Bart and Milhouse explore the perks of being an adult when a shaving experiment leaves Milhouse looking exactly like his father, Kirk. Also, Marge desperately tries to save Maggie from the dangers of children’s television.

Millhouse thinks it will be beneficial to pretend to be a failed cracker factory manager, and Marge is again crusading against television. Sounds like a rousing Sunday night.

15
Feb
13

Reading Digest: Most Everyone Loves Maggie Edition

By Charlie Sweatpants 10 Comments
Categories: Reading Digest, Simpsons and The Simpsons
Tags:

Lady Bouvier's Lover7

“Everybody get ready, here comes the birthday girl in her very first dress.” – Marge Simpson
“Awww.” – Everybody
“She’s a little angel.” – Patty Bouvier
“Yeah, I want to put a hook in her and hang her from our Christmas tree.” – Selma Bouvier
“What smells?” – Abe “Grampa” Simpson
“Uh-oh.” – Marge Simpson

There were so many links about “The Longest Daycare” and the other award nominated animated shorts this week that I’ve set them aside in their own special VIP section.  (I came across so many that I initially thought the ceremony was this Sunday, not next Sunday.)  Almost everyone seems to like or love “The Longest Daycare”, though it also seems like nobody has any idea who’s actually going to get to read an awkward thank you speech on stage while most of the audience wonders when they’re going to get to the good awards.

Beyond that there are also a bunch of Valentine’s Day links, including not only the usual assortment of “I Love Lisa” stuff, but also one taking Valentine’s Day to task for being oh so much like Love Day from “Trash of the Titans”.  And beyond even those, there’s also a great animated .gif of one of Homer’s more epic nights out, a homemade Simpsons blanket, awesome looking Simpsons cookies, someone who thinks the show peaked in Seasons 6 and 7, and some fashionistas who take some of those couture Bart clothes for a spin. 

Enjoy.

(BEGIN “The Longest Daycare” Section)

The Simpsons: The Longest Daycare – People of Australia, you’ll be able to see the Maggie movie at 6:25pm this Sunday on TEN.

FOX to Broadcast Oscar Nominated Short Film MAGGIE SIMPSON: THE LONGEST DAYCARE, 2/17 – People of America, we will be able to see the Maggie movie after Zombie Simpsons this Sunday.

Watch All Five of the 2013 Best Animated Short Film Nominees in Full – Or the people of Australia, America and everywhere else can just click through here and watch all five of the Oscar animated shorts on the internet.  (via Animation Fascination)

‘The Simpsons: The Longest Daycare’ review by Javier – A short review which I will quote in its entirety because it agrees with us:

I enjoyed this mini Simpsons episode, heck, it could be the best episode I seen from the Simpsons in 7 years, actually, now that I’am thinking about it, they should make the Maggie Simpsons adventures, I be down for that.

Back to the short.. ‘The Longest Daycare’ is fun, well pace. The comedy is classic Simpsons but with the class of a film from the 1930′s.

Indeed.

Maggie Simpson in: The Longest Daycare (2012): Academy Award Nominee Best Animated Short Film 1 of 5 – More kind words for Maggie:

This short film is certainly the funniest of this year’s nominees, and with its success I am sure we will see more Simpsons short films in the future. Let’s just hope they are all this entertaining.

Fingers crossed.

Oscar-nominated animated shorts: The Simpsons spin-off The Longest Daycare – And a rather more negative review:

This five-minute Simpsons cartoon played before the most recent Ice Age feature; and while it features a couple of satirical gags worthy of a good Simpsons episode, it feels closer in spirit to the kid-friendly entertainment of the Ice Age movies. The plot has baby Maggie enrolled at the "Ayn Rand School for Tots," where toddlers are divided into a "Gifted Area" and a grim-looking room marked "Nothing Special." Apart from the appearance of "Raggedy Ayn Rand" dolls, the filmmakers never advance on the satirical promise of that set-up.

Could they have done more?  Sure.  On the other hand, the Ayn Rand School for Tots is from Season 4’s “A Streetcar Named Marge” and has all of the things this review is looking for in terms of satire (The Fountainhead Diet, Helping Is Futile), so something that was just whimsical and funny worked well.

[F the] Oscar Nominated Shorts: The Ghost of Nominees Past – And a more positive one:

As far as I’m concerned, Maggie Simpson in The Longest Daycare was the best (read: least annoying) short that the collection had to offer. In tribute to the short movie convention of actually being a SHORT movie, it was only five minutes long. Those five minutes were filled with humour, brilliant sight gags, and a sense of completion for which every film should aim (call me a traditionalist).  Yeah, Fox has the budget to make all of their wildest dreams and ambitions into animated reality, but you know what? Money works. Sorry. I feel like this film will win.

I guess we’ll see.

Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts – A take that liked it, but not to win:

While it is the second shortest nominee it’s stil an example of The Simpsons at their finest, it’s a little bit crude, but it’s funny, and packed full of pathos. I’d probably rank it as my least favorite of the five, but that’s a tribute to the competition, rather than a slight to this fine film.

Five Animated Shorts, Only One Oscar – People do seem to enjoy this film:

Maggie Simpson in The Longest Daycare, directed by David Siverman displays the still relatively sharp and wiry humor that the show is known for. Set in “Ann Rand’s School for Babies” we get Maggie battling her arch nemesis to save a hapless butterfly. Entertaining and even a tad suspenseful, I liked how clever this short was. 8.5/10

Oscars 85.0: Best Animated Short Film – Though not everyone thinks it’s worth of the golden phallus:

Finding its place somewhere between a rejected minor subplot for an episode of The Simpsons and a cheap short to simply capitalize on 3D technology, Maggie Simpson’s antics in The Longest Daycare are fun but nowhere near Oscar-worthy.  The short is simple and full of the satire and subtle humor that has made The Simpsons beloved for so long, but the multiple decisions that were clearly made simply for the purposes of 3D are hard to overlook, as are the choices of humor and satire that seem poorly out of place in a short like this.

And we’re done.  Good luck next Sunday, Maggie! 

(END “The Longest Daycare” Section)

Beckerman Bite Plate: Bart Simpson + Layering – The Bart Simpson scarf and hat in the wild, photographed for a sisterly fashion blog.  Cool.

The Simpsons and ‘Moneyball’ – This seems about right:

I clicked on it expecting to hate it, but like Scott Hatteberg fielding grounder after grounder, it worked and worked and worked at its goal, and I think it succeeded. A Simpsons/Moneyball mashup worth about 120 seconds of your time:

Brad Pitt as Mr. Burns and Jonah Hill as Smithers works pretty well.  (Incidentally, the YouTube account there is called “simpsonstrailers” but this is the only one on there.  It was posted last year when Moneyball came out, and if you look at the stats the video had just a few views until earlier this week when it went nuts, so maybe they’ll finally get around to making some more.)

39/365 – From the same blog that brought us the image of the three Homers last week comes this very cool, double exposure ghosted Otto.  Bravo.

Blankets!!! – A homemade Simpsons blanket for a friend’s daughter.  Aww.

Simpsons Challenge – Another blogger contemplates taking the leap and watching every episode:

One idea I have is a review based one. And what do I feel like reviewing? Every episode of The Simpsons. Yes, even terrible ones.

I thought this would be an interesting one, as I’ll be honing my reviewing skills and I know that I’ll get a chance to review some fantastic episodes and some lousy episodes. It would take me over 500 days to do them all… I think I’m okay with that.

I still don’t know if I will or not, but it’s an idea that’s bouncing around my head.

Would you, O grand Internet, be interested in something like that?

Of course!  But having seen people both succeed and struggle with it, I’d strongly recommend calling it quits around Season 11.

Simpsons Reviews – From the same blog as the above:

The more I think about reviewing every episode of The Simpsons, the more I really, really want to do it.

It just sounds like a cool idea to try! I love the golden years of the show (and who doesn’t) and I’m honestly baffled by how far the quality has declined. By watching every episode, I’d have a complete understanding of the show… Kind of.

What do you need to know?  The show grew up, got married, and became cheap TV.

From Fuzz, to Clarity, to Convenience: The Revolution of Television – From a college course blog about the evolution of television:

Being a child of the broadcast waves I gradually started to recognize advancements and transitions in the Television Industry. Everyday when I was young I vividly remember rushing home to watch the Simpsons, which aired at 5:00 on the fuzzy, off color living room TV set. This meant that everyday at 5 o’clock I was at the same place, doing the same thing. It didn’t take long before I found myself following a pretty strict schedule, never missing an episode.

She goes on to discuss how with all the silicon chips and such these days you can watch it whenever you like, which means you can also watch more stuff.  Hooray!

TV’s Best Valentine’s Day Episodes: The Office, Modern Family, Glee and More! – According to E! Online, “I Love Lisa” is the #2 Valentine’s Day episode. 

Valentine’s Day: A History – Taking a look at the opening of “Trash of the Titans” as a way to get into the true spirit of Valentine’s Day: figuring out how it got this out of control.

The Simpsons Valentine’s Day Cookies – Deliciously sugary looking Valentine’s day cookies featuring various Springfield twosomes.

Is It Bacon Day? Happy…Valentine’s Day! – Just a screen grab of Homer’s love letter from “Bart the Lover”, but at least someone remembered that yesterday is also Bacon Day.

Vege-might – “Lisa the Vegetarian” holding its own in a serious contemplation of vegetarianism with George Orwell and Peter Singer:

A familiar – and more possibly revealing than was intended – portrayal of the meat industry broadcast to my generation can be found in an episode of The Simpsons. In the episode Lisa the Vegetarian , students at Springfield Elementary are shown the Troy Mclure (who you may remember from other such educational films as “Two Minus Three Equals Negative Fun” and “Firecrackers: The Silent Killer”) fronted student education film Meat and You. Following a tour of a meat processing plant, the film’s protagonist, Jimmy, asks “Mr McClure? I have a crazy friend who says its wrong to eat meat. Is he crazy?” to which McClure responds “Nooo, just ignorant. You see, your crazy friend never hear of the food chain”. The image then presented to the viewer is a telling and brilliantly  satirical representation of our perceived relationship with the animal kingdom:

simpsons-food-chain

That image remains hilarious.

An Engagement with a Tiny Box – Discussing Homer’s onion ring proposal among many other television propositions:

The poverty-stricken Homer, now a lowly trainee at a fast-food outlet, puts an onion ring on pregnant Marge’s finger before she asks him to take it off before the grease burns her. Homer, of course, eats the onion ring seconds after removing it. The poignancy of The Simpsons can make unglamorous moments like these seem like the ending of Casablanca,

Well put.

3 episodes of The Simpsons students in blizzards should watch – I’d replace “Skinner’s Sense of Snow” with “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire”, but that’s just me.

DR ZAIUS, DR ZAIUS – Somebody just discovered Eye on Springfield:

for those of you who know each joke off the top of your head, it’s still an entertaining way to kick back, ignore that lingering deadline, and indulge in some eye candy.

viva la simpsons!

Viva!  (And bonus points for naming the blog Glower Power.)

Winter Storm Nemo…In 10 Words – Lisa, these men are professional meteorologists.

The 2013 Grammys…In 10 Words – It really shouldn’t be considered an award at all.

The Pope’s Resignation…In 10 Words – Feh.  I’d rather watch the baby goat drinking from the bottle.

Identity Thief…In 10 Words – Hello, my name is Mr. Burns.

28 More Funny Signs From The Simpsons (2.11.13) – A great list with some fantastic sign gags.  There’s one or two from Zombie Simpsons, but that’s it.

Simpsons – Homer’s Night Out (gif) – Awesome animated .gif of Homer’s “Scene Missing” evening on the town.

Valentine’s Day is no joke – Just YouTube of Skinner’s Valentine’s Day Vietnam flashback.  Johnny! 

The Vacuous Love of Valentine’s – A defense of Ralph from “I Love Lisa”:

How should we think about love? Ironically, Ralph Wiggum – one of the dumber characters on The Simpsons, a character who may be accused of not thinking at all – answers this question. Walking Lisa home from school he explains that he picks his nose too much, so much in fact that he must see a doctor because it frequently bleeds. If that’s not being yourself I don’t know what is. Have you seen that episode? Ralph Wiggum gets his heart totally annihilated, on live television no less. And yet, Ralph Wiggum demonstrates something profound,  something he may not entirely comprehend: there is nothing romantic or loving or compassionate or chivalrous or true about taking a girl on a date and acting like someone else. That is the real selfish behavior.

I never thought of it that way, but Ralph certainly is incapable of jerking anyone around.

Was 1995 The Greatest Year In The History Of The Simpsons? – Maybe?  There’s some good discussion here about why Seasons 6 and 7 are incredibly fantastic.

Top 10: Television Shows of All-Time – The show checks in at a shockingly low #10 here.

It’s 6 o’clock! – That episode where Marge briefly gets breast implants comes in for a lot of well justified criticism here. 

30 Day Book and Literature Challenge: Day 25 – And finally, I get to end the way I like, with someone who agrees with us.  Reviewing “Planet Simpson” by Chris Turner, Mrs. S. writes:

Given what the show has become this book is already like a time capsule of a happier, more intellectual and richer time.

Indeed.

15
Feb
13

Quote of the Day

By Charlie Sweatpants Closed
Categories: Happy Birthday, QotD and The Simpsons
Tags: ,

A Bunch of Hilarious Stuff

“Cartoons don’t have messages, Lisa.  They’re just a bunch of hilarious stuff, you know?  Like people getting hurt and stuff, stuff like that-” – Bart Simpson

Happy birthday Matt Groening! 

14
Feb
13

Zombie Simpsons on Wikipedia

By Charlie Sweatpants 10 Comments
Categories: News and The Simpsons
Tags:

Wikipedia Logo

“Lisa, I’m afraid we’ll have to stop getting you those volumes of Encyclopedia Generica from the grocery store.” – Marge Simpson
“But, Mom, next week is Volume IV, Copernicus through Elephantiasis.” – Lisa Simpson

Wikipedia has a simple test for whether or not something merits its own article: notability.  Like the rest of Wikipedia, it doesn’t work in theory, only in practice, and the current guidelines list five criteria:

  • "Significant coverage" means that sources address the subject directly in detail, so no original research is needed to extract the content.
  • "Reliable" means sources need editorial integrity to allow verifiable evaluation of notability
  • "Sources", for notability purposes, should be secondary sources, as those provide the most objective evidence of notability.
  • "Independent of the subject" excludes works produced by those affiliated with the subject or its creator.
  • "Presumed" means that significant coverage in reliable sources establishes a presumption, not a guarantee, that a subject is suitable for inclusion.

Basically, “notability” means that someone besides the subject or its author is discussing something and that there are multiple citable sources of such discussion.  In that vein, Wikipedia has now brought us:

Quality issue of The Simpsons

The missed capitalization and odd phrasing of the title are in the original, but don’t let that throw you, the article is a remarkable piece of work.  (And I’m not just saying that because it cites us several times.)  There are two primary authors, Coin945 and Martarius, and while I have no idea who they are, they have pulled together a staggering number of sources and references from articles discussing the decline and fall of the show.

From a readability standpoint the article is way too long (someone on the Talk page pegs it at 17,000 words).  But they have amassed 173 individual sources documenting criticisms, and a few defenses, of the quality of the show.  As someone who has a little experience researching and writing about the show and its descent, I am awed by that.  Just organizing all of those had to be an enormous amount of work, and good on them for doing it.  The sheer scale may make it tough to read all the way through, and I’m sure it’ll get pared down eventually, but they’ve got an outline of the opinions around the show that looks fairly accurate, and that’s a valuable thing to have.  Three cheers for notability and diligent Wiki/Simpsons geeks!  Well done. 

13
Feb
13

Quote of the Day

By Charlie Sweatpants 1 Comment
Categories: QotD and The Simpsons
Tags:

You Only Move Twice9

“They laughed at me the first time I wore jeans with a sport coat.  I was the first wealthy man in America to ever do that, now they all do it!” – Hank Scorpio

10
Feb
13

Sunday Preview: Love is a Many Splintered Thing

By Mad Jon 6 Comments
Categories: Sunday Preview and The Simpsons
Tags:

shot-splintered

A mature Bart looks back on his life when his heartstrings are pulled once again when Mary Spuckler returns to Springfield, but his failure to pay her enough attention strains their relationship. Marge, too, puts Homer in the dog house after not going to a travel bookstore soft opening with her. Homer, along with Bart and a few other displaced husbands living at the Brokewood Apartments, decide to watch some British movies to figure out a way to win back their wives.

Homer falls out of Marge’s grace for “…not going to a travel bookstore soft opening with her.” …That’s pretty specific.  I guess generally being a bad husband isn’t doing it any more.

 

08
Feb
13

Reading Digest: Celebrities Behaving Well Edition

By Charlie Sweatpants 2 Comments
Categories: Reading Digest, Simpsons and The Simpsons
Tags:

Radio Bart15

“But this isn’t about show business, this is about some kid down a hole, or something.  And we’ve all got to do what we can.” – Sting

Dead Homer Society is coming at you live from my new and pointlessly overpowered PC; the laptop is dead, long live the laptop.  (Windows 8 is not nearly as terrible as advertised once you install Classic Shell so it can actually work with a mouse and keyboard.  Jebus, Microsoft, do you enjoy creating headaches for yourselves and everyone else?)  This week we’ve got two Simpsons mainstays both being their naturally awesome selves, one by being nice to a fan, the other by cross dressing.  Try to guess which, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.  We’ve also got three links to long and thoughtful articles about the show.  There’s one about the “Terror at 5 1/2 Feet” Halloween segment, one about “Marge Be Not Proud”, and one about how the show can’t string a story together anymore.  In addition to all that, we’ve got some awesome fan made Bart shoes, a newfangled bootleg t-shirt, a fantastic rendition of the theme song, and some excellent usage.

Enjoy.

The Simpsons Theme Song – Smooth Charlie’s Link of the Week is this epically excellent one-man, multi-instrument rendition of the theme song:

He even did the elongated circus version complete with whistle!  Well done.

The One Where Bart Sells His Soul – Self examination through The Simpsons:

In the past few years there has been a rekindling of the relationship I once had with my spirit. One of my treasured activities is going on long walks where I find peace in my thoughts. I also enjoy time spent with friends and family. When I caught The Simpsons re-run it was an epiphany. “That was it,” I thought, “that was exactly how it felt”.

Comic collage – Exactly what it says.  There’s quite a few Simpsons characters mixed in with everything from the Smurfs and Peanuts to stuff I don’t recognize at all.

Games Go To Hollywood: The Simpsons, “Marge Be Not Proud” – An article about how “Marge Be Not Proud” showcases something new in Bart, from which I’d like to highlight two things:

Bart Simpson is the quintessential bad kid. He talks back to his teachers, picks on his sister, and (at least in early seasons of The Simpsons) he’s quick to tell any figure of authority, “Don’t have a cow, man.”

Among the many, many things Zombie Simpsons has lost is Bart’s reflexive disdain for authority.  It just isn’t something they do anymore because Bart, like Homer and many others, seems to understand now that there are no consequences and that he can get away with anything.  Which leads to this:

Bart realizes that he’s capable of stealing—capable of carrying out a bad act. And of all the things to take, he chooses a video game. He’s using his newfound nefarious powers to grasp desperately for an escape. The powers work, but the escape doesn’t happen. For a minute, this bad kid realizes he’s bad.

And while that’s all well and good for character development and hugging, it’s a real departure from what the show used to be.  The whole thing’s worth a read. 

pale division: bart simpson – More high fashion clothes with Bart on them.

In Character: Krusty the Clown – Speaking of fashion, here are the high end clothes you’d need to dress just like Krusty.  Presumably the nicotine patch is sold separately.

Terror At 5 1/2 Feet – Discussing “Treehouse of Horror IV”’s middle segment:

I love the role of Principal Skinner in this Treehouse of Horror piece as well – he borders humourously on Nurse Ratched territory at times. “I’ve gotten word that a child’s using his imagination, and I’ve come to put a stop to it,” is one select quote. “Right or wrong, young man, your behaviour was disruptive. Perhaps spending the remainder of your life in a mad house will teach you some manners,” is another one that hits the spot particularly well.

And perhaps that’s the most chilling thing about this story. Firstly, that Bart’s apparent madness was in fact rational, revealing everybody else’s sane desire to remain calm as totally irrational given the circumstances. That’s ultimately what he gets sent to a mental institution for as well: disturbing the routine way of things rather than actually being mentally ill. Oh, how the mental health care sector has a chequered past in that regard which The Simpsons, as ever, satirises brilliantly.

Classic Halloween segments tend to get more disturbing the more you think about them. 

Dan Castellaneta – Good dude, that Dan Castellaneta:

I mailed a drawing (with stamped return envelope and request letter) to Dan Castellaneta on December 13, 2012.
It was signed and mailed back to me on Saturday, February 2, 2013; 51 days later.

Click through for a picture of the (now signed) drawing.

February 4 – Lounge Lizard #2 – A list of great fictional bars includes Moe’s.

36/365 – Fantastic fan photo of three Homer figurines all lined up and lit well.

Universal and IOA Update for February! – More information about the construction being done around the Simpsons ride down in America’s wang (emphasis in original):

Last September, I started seeing rumor mill about The International Food and Wine Festival restaurant closing to make way for a new Simpsons themed eatery. Well rumor turned to truth and then grew to rumor…AND EXPLODED!!! Now we sit at beginning of February and all sorts of construction is going on. Rumor mill says you have this to look forward to: The Krusty Burger, Moe’s Tavern, Kentucky Fried Panda, New Simpsons Flat Ride near MIB, and Other Facades.

Springfield, here I come – Man decides to rewatch the whole series:

The Simpsons has always been one of my favorite shows, and I know I’ve missed a ton of the more recent ones. I’m especially excited because there are so many pop-culture references in the show that I’m sure I didn’t get the first time through as a kid. I really think watching through them again is going to be a blast.

Sounds fun, though my strong advice would be to quit sometime early in the double digit seasons.  Nobody needs to torment themselves like that.

My Rejected Scripts #3: Deadli-er Catch – A fake show pitch ends with a related Simpsons reference to poor Pinchy the lobster.

How to draw Krusty the Clown from The S – A step by step tutorial for MS Paint (or something similar).

Album Review: Alice Russell/To Dust – Not that we needed any, but further proof that Harry Shearer is as fantastic as it is humanely possible to be:

(Check the video for the single on YOUtube. It stars long-time Russell fan Harry Shearer from The Simpsons and Spinal Tap, and is a beautifully touching little vignette/short story. Worth a watch all the way through, you ADHD kidz).

I have now seen Mr. Burns put on makeup and pad his bra.  The look on his face when room service shows up is hilarious. 

Broadcasters take The Simpsons short film – “The Longest Daycare” is coming to TVs in Britain, France and here in the States.

The Simpsons: Tapped Out finally available in Google Play – The Tapped Out game is now available for Android.  That is all.

El Barto sneakerz – Fan made El Barto shoes.  Bravo.

[News] Jung Yonghwa’s Playful Homer Simpson Impression Selca – This is a fan site for a Korean band that I’ve never heard of, but their lead singer apparently likes him some Homer.

D’oh!: Driver with parking boot apparently asks, ‘What would Homer Simpson do?’ – Yeah, there’s a reason you’re not supposed to drive with the boot on.

Play game Lisa Simpson Dress Up Flash online free games at Y8.com – I can’t entirely recommend you click on this as it is a hacktacular flash “game” where all you do is click through different outfits and accessories for a completely static image of Lisa.  I just find it amusing because the background music is the piano song from the old Incredible Hulk TV show.  It’s such an odd confluence of unlicensed pop culture.

Movie Review: No 74. Cinema Paradiso – Excellent reference:

To me, however, the job of the filmmaker is to effectively tell a story, and I really feel like we were let down on that one. Fundamentally, it’s a great story, but there is so much going on (much of which is irrelevant to the story) that it loses its cohesion and starts seeming less like a good film and more like an “onion on my belt” rant.

Heh.

2 meals 1 Chicken – Excellent usage:

So what do you do when you open your fridge and all you see is -

  • 2 limes
  • half an onion, 1 jalapeño
  • and a delicious local organic chicken from Richardson Farms Rockdale, Tx (purchased at in.gredients my fav grocery store)

I’ll tell you what – you MacGyver 2 delicious paleo meals *no need for paper clip, ballpoint pen, or tweezers

[…]

“Don’t thank me. Thank the moon’s gravitational pull”

Editor’s Chair: Let’s Destroy the Sun – A Simpsons based cure for writer’s block:

A friend of mine–and one of my favorite pessimists–has said that she cures writer’s block by placing one simple sentence at the top of her page and going from there.  So here goes:

Since the dawn of time, man has yearned to destroy the sun.

There.  Maybe that will help…

Couldn’t hurt.

Sleaze Factor – Most of the “black Bart” bootleg t-shirts are from the dawn of the show, but this is brand new.  Cool.

Super Bowl XLVII…In 10 Words – What you got riding on this game?  My daughter.  Whew, what a gambler.

RuPaul’s Drag Race…In 10 Words – At last, an excuse to wear makeup!

Bullet To The Head…In 10 Words – If you want results, you’ve got to go to the Schwarzeneggers, the Stallones, and, to a lesser extent, the Van Dammes.

Why being a Vegetarian DOES NOT mean you are Healthy – We’ll never know just how many real life vegetarians were influenced by “Lisa the Vegetarian”, but it’s lot:

I’m 31 years old now and I’ve been a vegetarian since I was in 6th grade or so.  There were certainly different degrees of vegetarianism as I got older and as I learned more about what that really meant.

I have to admit that when I saw the episode of the Simpsons when Lisa became a vegetarian I felt her pain.

I came from a household that was strictly meat and potatoes.  And that may be why I became the type of “vegetarian” that I did at an early age.

What is the Appeal of The Simpsons? – This is dead-on correct, and it’s no coincidence that all the examples she cites are Zombie Simpsons:

I mean, it’s not the inconsistencies of characters (In ‘Please Homer Don’t Hammer ‘Em’, Bart is revealed allergic to shrimp. Who knew?) or the amount of injuries sustained over the years that are never mentioned. The writers probably do this to mock one thing or another, as is often good about The Simpsons.

It’s the fact that, as writers, it promotes flimsy plotting and a ‘happy ending’ that real life cannot give. It gives watchers the wrong idea that something can be fixed like that *clicks fingers* and gives non-writers the idea that all stories must end on a high note.

When The Simpsons was still itself, they always had a way of ending that was both happy and still mean and/or cynical, like Bart and Homer taunting Nelson after the soap box derby race, Selma describing Jub Jub as a “little version of me”, and Maggie calling Homer “Daddy” when he’s out of the room and can’t hear her.  These days?  Not so much.

Looking Ahead To A Fourth Season Of Community – And finally, an aside about Community agrees with us:

I’ve written before about 30 Rock, Parks & Rec, and Community.  For a while there, I had a real hard time distinguishing between the three which one was my favorite.  Usually, it was whatever show I’d seen most recently.  But, with less-than-stellar 6th and 7th seasons, I’d say 30 Rock has diminished in my eyes (much the same way the Simpsons fell from grace after season 9).

Fell from grace, I like that. 

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  • #QotD: “Without a strong male presence in the house, you could turn sissy overnight! Oh, these stubborn grass stains.” – Homer Simpson // 10 hours ago
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