Dead Homer Society

“Dos huevos, por favor.  Oh, que lastima.” – Bumblebee Man
“I gotta steal that bit.” – Krusty the Klown

Late last week, it was announced that Chesperito, a/k/a Roberto Gómez Bolaños, a/k/a the inspiration for Bumblebee Man had died at the age of 85.  Reader Alex from Chile, writes in:

He and his characters were loved in all Latin America and it’s easy to compare his shows rise and fall with the Simpsons, being the 70s the golden years of “El Chavo del Ocho” and “El Chapulin Colorado” and then from the 80s until now having nothing but the zombification of all his programs. Luckily in Chile we only have reruns of the best years of Chespirito’s career, but that’s another story.

We’ve got a couple of Chesperito links for you, along with some excellent usage, a giant tattoo, more fashionable clothing, quite a few .gifs, and the odd bit of Australian politics.

Enjoy.

Mexico comic icon Gomez Bolanos ‘Chespirito’ dies at 85 – Adios:

Known as Chespirito (Little Shakespeare), the Mexican’s work delighted children over four decades.

[…]

In 2011 he said: “Nicknames are the most essential in life, more valuable than names.”

Funeral Plans For Chespirito, The Simpsons-Related Mexican Comedy Icon [Videos] – If you want to see some of his work, YouTube has you covered.

Duffman Runner – An awesome Duffman costume (via @joggingjeans).

Simpsons-mad grandfather tattoos back with EVERY character from the show in world record bid – I linked this guy earlier in the year, but his back is done now, and David Mirkin brings the snark:

Simpsons Now – And speaking of Twitter, here’s a new account that highlights the awfulness of Zombie Simpsons ins a delightfully understated way.

Mental Health Minister Jack Snelling under fire for referring to former Liberal Leader Isobel Redmond as ‘Crazy Cat Lady’ from The Simpsons – Commenter P. Piggly Hogswine sends us this piece of Parliamentary bickering from Australia:

Mr Snelling was interrupted by former Liberal Leader Isobel Redmond while speaking on the State Government’s plans to reform the health system.
He responded by saying “Eleanor Abernathy is talking again”, referring to a character from The Simpsons who is described online as “the Crazy Cat Lady” and “a mentally-ill woman who surrounds herself with a large number of cats”.

The Real-Life Drawbacks of Aspect Ratio Preservation – Our old friend Nebel tells you everything you need to know about cropping TV shows for, uh, TV.

Sonic Boom Rise of Lyric: Should Sega give up on Sonic the Hedgehog? | Metro News – Excellent usage:

In spite of some bright spots – and crowd-pleasing visits to Super Mario’s world at every opportunity – his recent games haven’t been stellar.

It’s the sort of status quo which makes you wish someone would put this mascot out of his misery.

As said by a not-at-all-wise-child on The Simpsons: ‘Stop, stop… he’s already dead!’

Happy Thanksgiving! – Can’t have Thanksgiving without cranberry sauce a la Bart.

Family: A (Very Late) Thanksgiving Story – Illustrating family with “Bart vs. Thanksgiving” and the above linked cranberry sauce scene.

TV Review: ‘How Murray Saved Christmas’ is a rare, irreverent holiday special – The kids book that Mike Reiss wrote that got picked up as an animated special is airing tonight.

Hello Kitty x The Simpsons by JapanLA Clothing – Models modeling.  Also, there are bizarre hairstyles, I’m sure worn only for shock value.

Fashion Spotlight: Lisa Vs. The World, Bad To the Bone, and Bite and Fight – Not sure if these are actually still for sale or not, but Lisa in the style of Scott Pilgrim is pretty damned good.

Five Favourite Birthday Episodes – “Stark Raving Dad” tops the list, but there’s some other good ones here and plenty of YouTube.

Springfield, USA: Small Town and Society Through the Simpsons – A nice little writeup of “22 Short Films About Springfield”:

Rather, it seems as though the whole episode is concerned with exploring how the people of Springfield fit into the wider fabric of their society, and then by extension ours. The transitions create an entwined society, forcing us to think about the connections that we unknowingly share and the stories that happen outside of our context.

“All right, Rubbermaid; you just made THE LIST!” – Everyone should have a list.  Mad Jon carries his in his wallet.

Imagining a Live-Action Version of ‘The Simpsons’ with Celebrity Look-Alikes – These come along every so often, but Ed Helms as Frank Grimes is pretty inspired.

Trans life: the benefits of a urinal-free world – I learned something today:

There is an episode of the Simpsons in which Bart gets a job at a burlesque house. In one scene, he’s working the door when Grandpa Simpson arrives, whistling nonchalantly. Grandpa turns to hang his hat, keeps turning and notices his grandson Bart. Then, without stopping, he continues to turn, picks up his hat and leaves the same way he came in. It’s a perfectly smooth abort, the only giveaway being a slight widening of his eyes.
The clip is often shared in social media groups for trans men. Not because we are all huge Simpsons fans (though in my case this is true), but rather because this is the best representation of an experience only we can relate to – that of walking into the gents, seeing there’s no cubicle for a private pee, turning on your heels and walking straight out again.

Heh.  I can’t ever recall seeing a bathroom without a single stall, but I’ve never been to Britain either.

Kojak, Farrah, Rachel and Bert: TV’s greatest hairstyles – Marge justly tops the list, though I’d have put Mr. T higher.

Photos: Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Through The Years – Scroll down for a great picture of the inaugural Bart balloon in 1990.  Be warned, though, some of the older ones are serious nightmare fuel.

When the Raven meets Homer Simpson – “Treehouse of Horror” remains a valuable, even bilingual, teaching tool.

TV Review: The Telltale Head – Heh:

I like how Homer gets extremely offended at the fact that monkey’s don’t go to heaven. Which sounds like a country song title.

Also, Homer talking to Bart about popularity remains a series highlight.

The Inappropriate Time To Say Hello! – Excellent real life usage:

Steve was indeed a gentleman but he was no salesman. In fact the team started to call him ‘Gil’ after a few weeks, which was the name of hapless salesman in The Simpsons. He took this bit of team banter very well and would even do the odd impression of Gil from the Simpsons, which was very accurate.

Best GIF ever? – I don’t know about best, but it’s pretty good.  It’s Superman (I think) quickly rotating through outfits of other characters, including Flanders, the Tin Man, and even Arthur from The Tick.

New trending GIF tagged tv cartoon the simpsons… – Burns “Excellent”ing.

New trending GIF tagged the simpsons laughing taunting… – Marge, Homer and Lisa laughing at Bart’s stamp collection.

Can’t Get Enough of That Wonderful Duff! – Unofficially licensed beer tastes just like it should:

Surely an American company that tried this would lose the fight, but this beer is German, and Europeans love sticking it to America almost as much as they love protected place names. The beer itself probably isn’t too different from what the Simpsons creators had in mind. It really is a very ordinary mass-produced beer. The only hint that this is really a cheap German lager instead of a cheap American lager is that there is no hint of corn or rice in the flavor and there is a little bit of hoppy dryness in the finish, maybe even a touch of grass. I overpaid just because of the name, but if this were priced the same as beers of similar quality, I could definitely see my way to imitating Homer and drinking a lot of it.

That’s the idea!

Stupid Pop Stars – Sounds nice:

Been having a Simpson’s binge the last couple of days – Seasons 3 and 4, the halcyon days of the Simpsons. Stuff that genuinely makes you laugh out loud though I have to confess that at least part of the chuckles are nostalgic. When it was no longer about Homer’s stupid antics, when Lisa was less of a know-it-all, when characters weren’t caricatures and when Springfield could enjoy Troy McClure, Lionel Hutz, Edna Krabappel, Maude Flanders and Lunchlady Doris (all sadly missed).

Enjoy Seasons 13 – Present of The Simpsons – And finally, I get to end with someone who agrees with us.  This blog is called “Things I’ll Never Do”, and it even comes with a nice cartoon.  Amen, sister.

“What’s Gabbo?” – Bart Simpson
“I figure it’s some guy’s name.  Some guy named Gabbo.” – Homer Simpson

It’s been relatively quiet around here the last few weeks.  I’ve had a Season 16 disc from Netflix sitting next to my computer since the beginning of the month, but haven’t yet gotten around to more Lies Make Baby Jesus Cry or anything else.  However, it was all in the service of something equally pointless: another little mini-book.  It’s much shorter than “Zombie Simpsons”, so even using the word “book” feels like a stretch, but it does have a cover:

Thanks, Cessna!

In case my indirect and overlong title is confusing, it’s about The Simpsons: Tapped Out and it’s not flattering.  The full announcement post should go up on Tuesday of next week, though this thing has already taken so much longer than I originally intended that I wouldn’t carve that in stone or anything.  I sincerely hope you all like it, but I’ll forewarn you that it’s far more about the game than it is about the show.

For today, we’ve got a decent if somewhat skinny (it is summer, after all) link selection.  We’ve got a couple more play reviews, the possible origin of the Mathemagician, more Bartkira art, the artist currently known as Pitbull, and frickin’ bacon donuts.

Enjoy.

Mmm…collectibles: estate sale at home of Homer Simpson’s dad – Castellaneta’s father’s stuff is for sale in suburban Chicago today and tomorrow.  Click through for the drawing of Dan done by his dad.

My Tapped Out Anniversary – I didn’t make it a whole year, but I understand.  Keep up the good work.

Talk Tuesdays w/ Steve Reiss, The Math Magician and The Most Boring Author in San Diego – I did not know this, but apparently Mike Reiss has a brother who is a “Math Magician”.  Was he the basis for the man who tried to make a remainder disappear?

Who Is America’s Favorite TV Family? Answer Depends on Age, Gender and Political Affiliation – Well, mostly age.  As in, if you aren’t currently over 50, you probably like The Simpsons.

The Simpsons Challenge – 552 episodes of glory? – Todd, don’t do it:

So 552 episodes (currently) in 365 days should be pretty easy.  Much easier than my Doctor Who challenge (800 episodes some hour-long ones!).

It starts off as 1.51 episodes a day as a target.  I’m 44 episodes in, having rewatched all 1st and 2nd season episod

Quit at 11.  For pity’s sake, quit at 11!

Simpsons/Akira mashup Bartkira volume one released online – “Moe’s Bar”, yes!

INTERVIEW: ALISON WONDERLAND ON THE SIMPSONS AND HER SKYROCKETING SUCCESS – The kids remain alright:

You also post Simpsons screenshots pretty regularly on social media. If you could collaborate with one Simpsons character on a track, who would it be and why?

It’d be Otto!

Vocal sample?

Yeah, definitely! Or Barney burping, I could totally sample that. Tune it, make it an instrument. That would be kinda weird.

I asked The Game the same question and he said Maggie. He wants to sample her pacifier noise into a beat.

Oh, that’s sick. I wanna sample Barney’s burp.

On your next EP?

Okay, done! I’ll credit you.

In London, ‘Mr. Burns’ and ‘Adler & Gibb’ Stir Things Up; ‘Khandan’ Provides Relief – The official New York Times stamp of approval.

From the Bard to Bart: how Mr Burns challenges our common culture – And from The Guardian.

A Numerical Bart Simpson Snack Store in Hengyang – Don’t think FOX is getting a check for that.  I’m sure they’ll be okay.

VIDEO: Giant Duff Beer Pong With Pitbull And Jimmy Fallon – The title pretty much says it all.  This, by the way, does not detract from my theory that Pitbull is not a real person, but rather was created explicitly for the purposes of selling Dr. Pepper and Bud Light.

10 Hilarious Visual Gags from The Simpsons – Nary a trace of Zombie Simpsons.  Bravo.

Donut Sundae! – Apparently they serve donuts with ice cream at the amusement park in Florida.

Top Thirteen Female Characters – Honourable Mentions – Marge makes it between Belle and Jessica Rabbit.  Hopefully Lisa will make the actual list, which is counting down and hasn’t fully been published yet.

List O’ the Week: 20 Worst episodes of the Simpsons (Classic Era) – Part. 2 – Oof.

Has it ever happened to you, KalZ? – Heh.

Hot Smoked Salmon – Our old friend Gusface Grillah with an excellent paraphrase:

I don’t often eat salmon because the thought of having to wrestle a bear to snatch away his favourite delicacy frightens me.
But then I remembered the wise words of Homer Simpson, “Hey, if you want wild bears eatin’ your children and scarin’ your salmon, that’s your business. But I’m not gonna take it! Who’s with me?” (Unfortunately the bear patrol was as ineffective as a rock that keeps tigers away… ‘Lisa, I’d like to buy your rock’

Bacon Week Continued – Bacon Donuts – Homer would plotz.

Batman: Arkham Knight – 8 Reasons It Should End The Franchise – If you want to invoke pop culture zombies, there’s only one place to turn:

Sometimes one of the most amicable traits a creator of any entertainment property can show is restraint. Hell, just look at how perfectly Vince Gilligan knew how to handle Breaking Bad, as oppose to what remains of something like The Simpsons in 2014 being every possible plot thread has been pulled at until there’s nothing left.

Stop . . . stop, they’re already dead.