The BBC made this way back in 2000, so for all I know every other Simpsons fan on the internet has seen this already. But it was new to me and I thought I’d collect it in one handy place for everyone. Plus, there’s an absolute knockout quote in the second part.
Part 1 – Enter Groening and his teevee infused childhood:
Part 2 – Groening becomes a cartoonist and moves to Los Angeles:
And at about the 8:45 mark of Part 2 he shatters my irony meter (emphasis mine):
“I finally got out of school in 1977 and I headed immediately for Los Angeles. Cause I figured, here is the center of all the garbage that the rest of pop culture consumes and I thought everybody here would be really sophisticated about it. I mean they’ve gotta, this is where it’s made so they’ve gotta know what garbage it is. And I got here and the crazy thing about L.A. is, they believe it more here than anywhere else in the world. It’s amazing. You talk to people about these movies and you think that they’re kidding. And no, they really like this stuff! People here really like those movies, they really do, those TV shows, those lousy TV shows? They’re proud of them. I’m not kidding.”
It’s probably impossible to describe the thinking behind Zombie Simpsons any better than that. For the record, this came out at the same time as Season 11. Which is to say the show had clearly lost itself, but it hadn’t yet become the unquenchable cesspool of pop culture that it is today.
Part 3 – Groening draws stuff and Exeunt:
At about the 1:15 mark Groening draws Akbar and Jeff from “Life in Hell”. It’s really neat.
I can’t get over that quote from Part 2 though. It’s an unbelievably dead on description of Zombie Simpsons creators and defenders and it came from no less a man than Matt Groening, and he said it ten years ago. There aren’t enough bolds and italics in the world to emphasize how amazing that is. I had to listen to it half a dozen or so times to get it transcribed from YouTube and I still almost can’t believe he really said that.
(via I Am A TV Junkie)
charliesweatpants.com
(The crotch really does wear out too fast.)
I suppose he’s more inclined to defend crap if it’s his crap. Rather like those parents who refuse to believe that their beloved child is a bullying little shit, despite all evidence.
“I suppose he’s more inclined to defend crap if it’s his crap. Rather like those parents who refuse to believe that their beloved child is a bullying little shit, despite all evidence.”
I have to wonder if Groening really knows how bad the show has gotten but just won’t admit it (for obvious financial reasons), or if he’s actually convinced that the show is as good as it ever was. Is he that dense?
I’d expect Matt to say to a critic:
“It’s okay. Why? Becasue I have more money than you.”