“Look, Mom, I finished my patch! It depicts the two greatest musical influences in my life. On the left is Mr. Largo, my music teacher at school. He taught me that even the noblest concerto can be drained of its beauty and soul. And on the right is Bleeding Gums Murphy. He taught me that music is like a fire in your belly that comes out of your mouth, so you better stick an instrument in front of it.” – Lisa Simpson
“Gentlemen, there’s only one solution: we place this last donut in the reactor core, exposing it to radiation, thereby making it big!” – Homer Simpson
This week we’ve got two links to great moments in food related Simpsons fandom, one on the consumption side and one on the production side. Happily, both of them are even videos, so you don’t have to reduce your boredom by reading anything. In addition to that, the play is spreading like the Osaka Flu, we’ve got three late obituaries, lots of drawings of Milhouse, a couple people who agree with us, another Simpsons-movie casting mashup, and more.
Gone Girl: Cool Girls and Yellow Trash – Our friends over a Flim Springfield have done another of their .gif heavy casting calls. Officer Marge as Kim Dickens is inspired.
“Homer, lighten up. You’re making Happy Hour bitterly ironic.”
Also, Noah would like some suggestions:
(EDITOR’S NOTE: While this will always primarily be a “rewatch-’em-all” blog, I’m thinking about occasionally doing posts about other Simpsons-related things, such as characters, locations, lists, what-have you. I’m criminally wishy washy, so if you’ve read this far, I beg you [please?] for some input. Advance thanks!)
Hmm, how about Ghost Mutt? Or, like Hans Moleman in this episode, a look at the first (or only) time we see characters?
VR vs. School – I will buy a VR system as soon as I can go where Genghis Khan goes, defile what he defiles, and eat who he eats.
Confusion Is Sex (1983) – A discussion of Sonic Youth that includes the obligatory Simpsons mention:
It’s obvious Sonic Youth didn’t get on The Simpsons off the back of this record. Nor did they want to. This is not the album of a band whose objective was mainstream success, rather the album of a band who just wanted to do their own thing and cater for the fans of their local music scene.
Of course, the blog header for their month of Sonic Youth is those damn kids eating Peter Frampton’s watermelon.
Dream Theatre has tied up with Bio World, a Delhi-based manufacturer and distributor, specialising in licensed merchandise. It had earlier partnered with The Simpsons’ franchise outside of India.
“The Simpsons has a huge fan following and with direct-to-retail now an option, thanks to e-commerce, we plan to launch the apparel range in the coming months. The fact that our audience is also an avid user of the e-commerce platform makes it better for business,” says George. He adds that with a franchise that has been around for 26 years, it makes sense to have as many merchandising options as possible.
“We want to go as horizontal as possible with The Simpsons. Apparel and accessories are the most obvious routes, but there is a lot of scope in the novelty, gifts, collectibles and figurines segments. In fact, within accessories, we have products like mobile cases which are popular with young adults. So, you see, the scope to scale up is huge with The Simpsons,” he says.
I know those words, but that sentence makes no sense.
I learned about Pablo Neruda from the Simpsons in an episode where Bart sells his soul. I learned about classic film, scientific theories and television history from them as well. The Simpsons led me to consume better art and comedy. It may be the easiest pop culture touchstone to praise.
Lemon of Troy is a classic Simpsons episode in which the neighbouring town of Shelbyville (boo, hiss etc) steals Springfield’s prized lemon tree. This may not sound like much of a plot but, in the capable hands of The Simpsons’ finest writers, it becomes one of my favourite episodes of all time. My favourite gag centres around Springfield’s belief that the residents of Shelbyville have a tendency towards inbreeding. Awesome.
Watch it for: The incest gag, the Shelbyville doppelgängers, a reminder of how good this show used to be.
“You’ve been flushing for twenty minutes. Is there a problem?” – Principal Skinner “Uh, no, Principal Skinner.” – Jimbo Jones “Very well. I’ll continue to wait.” – Principal Skinner
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.My guess is still that it’ll be renewed, but it looks like production is beginning to shut down, so we’ll see what happens. In regular link news, this week we’ve got some great fan art, the death of DVDs, emoji Simpsons, a look back at when the show knew how to inject culture into its episodes, and more.
Enjoy.
11 Minimalist Simpsons Posters – Oh, wow, some of these are outstanding. And you can download them as wallpapers if you like.
The Simpsons Outlives DVD Market – Darn, I guess I’ll never get to own all those great Season 18 episodes. Then I will hug and kiss some poisonous snakes.
No More Simpsons Seasons Released on DVD – Reader John H. sends in this IGN link, with a picture/headline juxtaposition that doesn’t quite convey the sadness the article presumes to be occurring among fans:
11 best uses of bad grammar from The Simpsons – There are about three Zombie Simpsons entries on here, which is three too many considering they left out “perfectly cromulent”, “no more apples in the vending machine please”, and Lionel Hutz not working on contingency.
During its second season, The Simpsons aired an episode entitled “Dead Putting Society,” about a miniature-golf match between Bart Simpson and his neighbor Todd. What qualifies this episode as a “medieval afterlife” is the miniature-golf setting itself. On Bart’s first visit, it’s introduced by a sign at the entrance: “Sir Putt-a-Lot’s Merrie Olde Fun Center,” with a cartoon icon of a jousting knight; further attractions listed include “Her Majesty’s Batting Cage” and “Merlin’s Video Dungeon.” The “Merrie Olde Fun Center” itself, shown in the background, is a pseudo-medieval castle, and throughout the episode attentive viewers may catch sight of signs for “Ye Olde” everything: “Ye Olde End of Course,” etc.
I’m always charmed by this episode because these post-medieval features are treated as throwaways: they’re not necessary to the plot, and no one calls attention to them; indeed, the viewer has to slo-mo through the entrance sign if s/he is to appreciate the Fun Center’s features. It’s all just part of the lower-middle-class decor, and thus reflects an important aspect of the medieval Arthurian afterlife in the USA: its association with class aspirations. Everyone has seen a trailer park or motel named “King Arthur’s Court,” and the creators of The Simpsons clearly understood this phenomenon as widespread enough to be satirized for the TV audience.
“Oh, right as rain! Or, as we say around here, left as rain!” – Ned Flanders “Just stamp the ticket.” – Guy
There are two things I didn’t have time to properly explain in Reading Digest yesterday. The first is our old friend Noah P, who’s adding a new twist to his “watch ’em all” blog: Character Files. Similar to that “Permanent Record” thing we tried to do here a few years ago, he’s taking a look at one character’s appearances through the show. He’s done a couple of big name characters (Troy McClure, Frank Grimes), but my favorite so far is the “Just Stamp the Ticket Guy”:
When Flanders begins to start taking about non-parking-related things, he scolds, “Just stamp the ticket”, hence his nickname given to him by the hardcore Simpsons fan community. But…is that all we saw of him?
No. His legacy would not end there.
Turns out JSTTG is a jerk all the time. When the Squeaky-Voiced Teen tries to talk to him, he scurries away, saying, “Don’t touch me”. Then, when he sees Barney Gumble dressed as a baby, passing out fliers, he says, “You disgust me”. He also tells Marge that his kids aren’t stupid enough to want one of her wishbone necklaces, and for an encore, he punches a hippie, and later, Homer. A man of a few words, most of them rude.
Anyway, if you’d like to put in a request for another character, click through. Surely the Sarcastic Guy (“Okay, but I’m only paid to drive”) can’t be too far behind?
It’s significant that the characters featured are an unnamed King and his daughter, a Princess. This allows for Moe’s initial concern that they are connected to a “Nigerian prince” who had scammed him on the Internet. But in aid of a silly, predictable subplot (one that’s not too timely, either— 419 scams were parodied in Fox stable mate Futurama eight years ago), The Simpsons’ crew have failed in their responsibility to reach beyond the lowest common denominator.
The same site also asked yours truly and some other writers to comment on that one. My favorite was this, from Ikhide Ikheloa:
This episode is disappointing on at least one level— the script was poorly written. As someone who used to watch The Simpsons religiously in the past, it just seemed disjointed and contrived. Sarcasm, snide retorts and brilliant takes on society’s dark sides are her trade mark, but this episode struggled.
“Holy moly, nine-thirty! Hello, Marge, sorry I didn’t call, but it’s been a madhouse down here. Yeah, these twelve hour days are killing me.” – Homer Simpson
My apologies, but there won’t be a Reading Digest this week. I am eyeballs deep in my stupid real job. However, there are two things I’d like to note.
First, the radio silence regarding the show being on hiatus continues. I checked a few staff Twitter accounts and haven’t seen peep outside of Jean responding to someone from No Homers that the negotiations are ongoing. (Sadly, Isabel Vega has deleted her Twitter account after her tweets kept popping up here and elsewhere in Simpsons fandom. Sorry, Isabel! Really didn’t want to get you in trouble or anything.) One of the last tweets from Vega was that increasing numbers of staff are being told not to come in and that people around the office are worried:
That moment when a director goes around saying good-bye to the remaining crew saying “See you next season, if there is one…” #TheSimpsons
So we’re about where we were last week: nobody’s saying squat. That is probably for the best, since swirling rumors and ill sourced media speculation don’t have any bearing on the negotiations but do get a lot of people agitated for no reason. My money continues to be on the show getting renewed.
Second, and far more fun, is this fantastic article (that mentions Zombie Simpsons by name) about the unrivaled cultural legacy of the show:
We’re automatically programmed to know that Dickens was the greatest writer of his day. It’s reasonable to assume that in the 19th century he was just really, really popular. Nobody in that age would have guessed that they would be teaching his work in primary schools a century down the line. The reason they do so is because it was the most accurate satire of Victorian England, much like The Simpsons to the modern West.
Bart’s tall tale about not being involved in a bulldozer accident is a doozy, but a skeptical Marge decides to dog him all over the place until he ‘fesses up. Meanwhile, Flanders gets a new dog which leads Homer to overlook Santa’s Little Helper.
I wonder if there will be as many horns as the One Bad Episode from season 7. Who am I kidding, of course there will be. Also, I am offering even odds on Flanders’ new dog being named “Laddy”.
This single shot from “Sideshow Bob Roberts” contains a more coherent story than the entirety of “Peeping Mom”.
After four weeks off, Zombie Simpsons is back. Not much changed. This week, Chief Wiggum accuses Bart of going on a bulldozer rampage, he then hands Bart to Marge so that the two of them can have the same idiotic conversation several times in a row. Because that one note attempt at emotion couldn’t possibly fill twenty whole minutes of screen time, the Flanderses get a new dog who likes Homer better than Ned.
– Decent couch gag.
– We’re not off to a good start here as Marge walks into the Apple store (or whatever they’re calling it) and has a random stranger exposit things at her before taking off his shirt and waving it around.
– Marge is in the car, brakes suddenly, then asks what happened so Lou can appear out of nowhere to tell her.
– Chief Wiggum, handcuffed to Bart (who is weirdly silent) continues this week’s parade of telling us what’s happening.
– Now Lisa is using a magnifying glass to look at, in order, “monarch butterfly, earwig, rollypolly, doodle bug, beer cap, ant, beer bottle, Barney”. She then tells us that the Flanders got a new dog.
– Oof:
Ned: Now it’s time for her Christian doggy training.
Lisa: This will be interesting.
Guess what comes next?
– This conversation between Marge and Bart is really bad.
– Sigh:
Homer: Marge, Bart, I’ve noticed neither of you has said a word all meal. Are there feelings going unexpressed here?
He then holds up his fist and threatens . . . both of them? It’s not clear. It is awful writing, though.
– Marge and Bart are now in the kitchen going through the exact same conversation we just saw them have . . . again. In a sick way, it’s almost impressive how many words they can use to describe basically nothing.
– Ooh, a popped eyeball! When it doubt, go with what you know.
– They’re still having the same back-and-forth conversation. Bart says something, Marge doesn’t believe him, repeat until time on the episode expires. For extra stupidity this week, neither of them is acting like even a vaguely sentient person. Marge hasn’t asked Bart for an explanation and Bart hasn’t offered one. In what parent-child conversation has that ever been true? And we’re on the third go round of this.
– Marge is now following Bart onto the school bus.
– Homer just said, “Oh, you must be Flanders’ new dog.” We’re looking right at him!
– Marge is in class with Bart now. Even if this did make sense it wouldn’t help when Nelson just ran screaming out of the room because he thinks she’s a zombie.
– The bullies just zinged Bart while Marge stood there. Nice to see they still don’t care who’s present for a conversation.
– Now we’re on the playground. Milhouse just told us what we were about to see, then we saw it.
– Now we’re at dinner and Marge told Lisa to lean back so she could keep looking at Bart. Here’s one of the problems with this: we’ve already seen Marge not look at Bart several times. Her focus on looking at him at all times is so stupid they can’t even keep it up, but they keep bringing it back up.
– Lisa and Homer are now having a fully expositive conversation, with both of them say how they feel at all times.
– Now Bart and Milhouse are in the woods. This will make it even stupider the next time Marge insists on focusing her gaze at all times on Bart.
– Bart and Marge just rehashed their conversation again. Neither one of them offering or asking for an explanation. Ten minutes to go, I’m setting the O/U on times this happens again at 2.5.
– Oh, goody, half the family is dressed like ninjas now.
– The b-plot about Flanders dog just checked in.
– Now we’re rehashing the opening credit sequence as Marge chases Bart. Filleriffic!
– Even by the rock bottom standards of their chase/action sequences, this is bad.
– Yet another bulldozer conversation rehash. Two and a half minutes since the last one.
– The b-plot is winding down, so Homer’s Brain is now expositing what he’s feeling for us.
– After telling us what he was feeling several times, Bart changes his big, end-of-episode prank. That took a lot of time.
– Bart just ran up and told us what we just saw him do.
– And, naturally, we get one final bulldozer conversation. The under has it at 2.0 since I set it.
– Since they remain completely unwilling or unable to structure an episode to actually fill their allotted time, we’re now getting one of their bizarro post-plot series of sketches. This one involved dog’s butt sniffing and the theme from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
Anyway, the numbers are in and they continue to be real bad. Last night, just 3.23 million people couldn’t understand why Bart and Marge had the same idiotic conversation over and over again. That’s #4 on the all time least watched list and keeps Season 26 on track to be the least watched season ever.
“I’m glad I’m not crying, because I would hate for you think that what I’m about to say is based on emotion. But you, sir, are a baboon!” – Lisa Simpson “Me?” – Homer Simpson “Yes, you! Baboon! Baboon! Baboon! Baboon!” – Lisa Simpson “I don’t think you realize what you’re saying.” – Homer Simpson “Baboon!” – Lisa Simpson
First off, sorry for the lack of Compare & Contrast this week. I’m still in the thick of it at work and didn’t have time. (Things will – he typed hopefully – ease off starting next week.) In regular news, we’ve got some great links this week, including outstanding fan art (there’s a whole exhibition of the stuff!), a brand new Simpsons blog, some excellent usage, and an on-point article about one of those perfect little subtleties in “Lisa’s Substitute” (which, coincidentally enough, aired for the first time twenty four years ago tomorrow).
Enjoy.
The Timing of a Door Slam on The Simpsons – Smooth Charlie’s Link of the Week is this fantastic observation about the end of “Lisa’s Substitute”. It’s one of those things you don’t notice because it’s so flawlessly done. Well worth a click.
The Simpsons’ top 30 movie references – Great list (although it bafflingly leaves out The Shining) at Den of Geek. Two unsurprising things deserve note: 1) none of the entries are from Zombie Simpsons and 2) they don’t mention that at all because nobody wants the hassle.
When the season 17 set was released last December, I held off on buying it because it didn’t feel worth the week-of-release sale price. We have to have it someday because Sideshow Bob is on the cover, but perhaps we can wait for Black Friday pricing. No hurry. We haven’t even cracked open the season 16 set.
Todd VanDerWerff: Do you guys remember that one episode of The Simpsons “The Simpsons Spin-off Showcase”? Airing in season eight, it purported to show three separate proposed spinoffs from the series, including a cop show, a stupid gimmick sitcom, and a variety show. The terribleness of the ideas was the point — this is what television networks do when left to their own devices, the episode seemed to snark.
Well, I feel roughly similarly about “New Business,” which feels for much of its running time like “The Mad Men Spinoff Showcase.”
In The Simpsons episode “Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie” — which, by virtue of being a Simpsons episode about the internal machinations of television, makes it one of our best excoriations about how stupid the internal machinations of television are — Homer is drafted to provide the voice of Poochie, a hip dog brought in to revitalize the flagging cat-and-mouse cartoon show. For his first voice session, he’s understandably nervous: “Is this episode going on the air live?” he asks. “Very few cartoons are broadcast live,” an old hand reassures him. “It’s a terrible strain on the animators’ wrists.”
2. Maggie – Fruit flies with a mutated Maggie gene results in arrested development, like Maggie Simpsons from the cartoon series The Simpsons.
Trial and Error – And finally, I get to end with some academic types who agree with us:
For the group survey and interview assignment my group and I have decided to look at how families are represented in television sitcoms and if it has changed over time, with specific reference to The Simpsons (pre 2000) and Modern Family.
The family takes a trip down memory lane to see the origins of how Bart and Lisa first started fighting with each other.
Flashback episode eh? I watched the promos for this episode earlier, and as per usual, I was less than unimpressed.
In one of the promos Homer seems to hire Grandma Flanders as a babysitter, and she is remarkably more with it than when we were first graced with her presence during “Lisa’s First Word”. I am now going to go watch that episode to wash the promos out of my eyes.
“Can you say David Hasselhoff?” – Bart Simpson “David Hassahof.” – Lisa Simpson “Can you say Daddy?” – Homer Simpson “Homer.” – Lisa Simpson
The Simpsons did its first flashback episode way (way) back in Season 2. “The Way We Was” introduced us to Homer and Marge as high school kids who had never even met; and along the way answered one of the fundamental questions of the show: why, exactly, is Marge with Homer? Over the next four seasons they flashed back three more times, each time showing the birth of one of the Simpson kids. “I Married Marge” showed us Bart’s accidental conception inside a mini-golf decoration. “Lisa’s First Word” put the family in now their iconic house and showed the beginning of Bart and Lisa’s never ending rivalry. “And Maggie Makes Three” completed the set and showed us that there was no sacrifice too painful for Homer to make for his kids (well, not the boy, but you know what I mean).
Genuine character development, a concept unknown to Zombie Simpsons.
These episodes do not, strictly speaking, fit chronologically. If Bart was conceived after his parents saw The Empire Strikes Back in a theater, there’s no way he can be two years older than Lisa, who was born in the summer of 1984. Similarly, if Homer and Marge were leaving high school in 1976, Homer wouldn’t be twenty-four-years-old in 1980. But it doesn’t matter because background numbers that only the dedicated will ever put together aren’t the point.
By spacing events a little further apart, they gave themselves more defined cultural targets than just borderline meaningless shorthand like “The 70s” or “The 80s”. So not only do these four episodes form a coherent whole while filling in the background of our favorite family, they do so while making pointed fun of distinct slices of American culture.
Homer and Marge are in high school in the mid 1970s, then Bart’s birth is the early 1980s, Lisa’s the mid-1980s, and Maggie’s the early 1990s. Poking fun at Ms. and “makeout music” becomes Yoda and John Anderson, which becomes the 1984 Olympics preceding an hour long episode of Mama’s Family, which finishes up with the “clear beverage craze” and “information superhighway”.
Homer Simpson, early pioneer of the sarcastic t-shirt.
That level of specificity is missing from “The Kids Are All Fight”, as is any meaningful background on the family and/or general cultural coherence. They tell us Lisa and Bart are two and four, but neither of them acts anything like a two-year-old or a four-year-old. They use film development as a justification for looking back, but it’s not like many people were still using film in 2009. The flashback idea that used to be so carefully handled has become just another excuse for a weird, semi-magical adventure in a “past” Springfield that is indistinguishable from the one they usually use.
They do make a stab at showing us a little family development, but it’s pretty halfhearted. You see, Bart and Lisa used to fight a lot (and they will make sure you understand by stating so explicitly many times), and now they don’t. The eventual story reason they offer for this is that Lisa “gives in”. There are large scope problems with that (we’ve seen them fight countless times, and Lisa clearly hasn’t given in), and there are small scope problems with that (the wacky adventure they go on is more about Bart bolting than Bart and Lisa fighting). But what really makes the kids’ story ring hollow is the way that conclusion glosses over Lisa’s surrender.
A show with characters who are faintly recognizable as human beings, or even one with just a little heart, could do a lot with a younger sibling resigning herself to years of dangerously crazy behavior from her brother. There’s a plenty of material there for emotion, comedy, and fun generally, but Zombie Simpsons brushes any of that off for action scenes of Bart riding a big wheel through traffic and cutesy title cards announcing each new wacky scene.
For proof of this, look no further than Ralph Wiggum’s brief cameo. Since this is Zombie Simpsons, he appears out of nowhere, then gets into the wheel of a semi-truck, then is shipped off on a boat. They put him next to Lisa, but he hadn’t been there the last time we saw her and the two of them don’t interact at all. He just pops in and then starts talking.
Your brother is stupid. Bye bye. The wheel I’m inside goes round and round, round and round, round and round. The boat I’m aboard goes up and down, up and down, up and down.
It isn’t even a good Ralph-ism. He just tells us what we’re seeing, and it goes on so long that he uses more than twice as many words as “Super Nintendo Chalmers”, “I bent my wookie”, and “Me fail English? That’s unpossible” all put together. Even if you don’t care about him materializing and not having anything to do with what was happening, that’s just awful.
The final evidence that story coherence and relatable characters don’t even enter into the thinking at Zombie Simpsons comes one scene later, when we see Chief Wiggum for the first and only time. The whole second half of the episode is about Lisa and Bart getting into trouble unsupervised and Homer and Marge’s panicked search to find them. Ralph Wiggum is doing the exact same thing as Bart and Lisa, but all we see Chief Wiggum do is interview Gil (for some reason).
Wiggum doesn’t know that his kid is roaming the streets, and the episode seems to have forgotten it completely as well. There isn’t even a blithe, expository explanation because, as far as Zombie Simpsons is concerned, the Chief and Ralph are just one scene props.
There isn’t even any connection to the fact that this is a flashback. Like most of the people, places and events we see in “The Kids Are All Fight”, both of them could just as easily be doing and saying the exact same things in the show’s regular timeframe. When The Simpsons went to the past, it went with a purpose and made fun of everything it saw. When Zombie Simpsons goes to the past, it trips backwards, stares blankly for a bit, and then continues stumbling around like always.
This week, someone not only made Simpsons donuts and posted the recipe, they made the Soul Donut! Excellent. In addition to that we’ve got fan art everywhere from crosstitch and felt to statues and house paint. Plus there’s some excellent usage, more episode rundowns and reviews, and more.
Renowned Brighton graffiti artist Aroe MSK was commissioned by the landlord to paint the striking artwork on the house in Hartington Road as a result of his Viaduct Road piece last month.
The Simpsons trivia tournament was, as many predicted it would be, perfectly cromulent.
The questions were tough, the players were nerds. I went into that tournament all but certain we’d win; we placed fourth.
I am an early Simpsons nut and the questions were all from seasons three to ten. How could I fail? I’ll tell you how: questions like What is the name of the gun store from which Homer buys his gun?
Fourth. Shameful.
Really though, my friends and I had a blast. The host was dressed as Otto and the prize for winning was an inanimate carbon rod.
Our team name? Worker and Parasite.
PeteSnyder on Twitter – Apparently there’s now a “Bartman” sculpture in front of the FOX News headquarters:
Old Money – I love that wool shawls are in “Activewear”:
-“Grandma’s World” has to be real store somewhere.
Brush With Greatness – Ah, for when Homer’s screams were quick and meant something:
-My favorite part of the episode? Probably Homer’s reaction to seeing Burns in his house. He screams the most abrupt scream in the history of television.
Shore’s email (Subject: “Spidey thought”) reads like the pitch scene from the Poochie episode of The Simpsons (“He needs more attitude!“) It imagines an EDM blasting, Tough Mudder-running, Snapchat-obsessed douchebag Spider-Man.
Thoughtful investors know their job is to restrain the reflexive response, which produces behaviour that is the very antithesis of intelligent investing.
I follow the maxim of a commentator who said: “The best thing to do at key turning points is to ignore the news completely and watch the Simpsons”.
Given all that, the idea that Maine might end up playing Springfield to Cate Street’s Lyle Lanley should come as no surprise. The only difference between the Cate Street scheme and Lyle Lanley selling Springfield a monorail in “The Simpsons” with the city’s nuclear fallout settlement money is that at least Springfield was lucky enough to have Marge Simpson as a lone voice of reason. Though she was completely ignored, she argued to use the settlement money on traditional infrastructure improvements, like repairing Main Street.
Under the dome in Augusta, there was no Marge Simpson: the New Market tax credit plan sailed through with bipartisan support.
Grampa’s days in the Air Force are rehashed, while Bart picks up the smoking habit in an effort to impress Milhouse’s Dutch cousin, Annika.
Do you think airing what will probably be an anti-smoking PSA counts as community service for Murdoch? Carice van Houten (The Red Woman for all you Game of Thrones fans) is voicing the role of Annika tonight, so I guess that is about as convenient as it gets. Well I guess I don’t know how convenient it is for anyone, but it’s definitely the reason the episode was written. I can see it now…. “Hey an actress from that extremely popular HBO show’s agent called and said she wants in, and guess what her name is!!! This thing will write itself!”
“And now, to present the trophy, three time soap box derby champion, Ronny Beck!” – MC
“Congratulations, Bart, seeing you out there brought back a lot of memories.” – Ronnie Beck
“Good evening, young man, my name is Charles Norwood. Furthermore to this beer, I would also like three of your finest, cheapest cigars. Here’s my ID, which confirms my adultivity.” – Kearney
“Come on, who wants to complain with me?” – Lisa Simpson
The obvious big news this week was the renewal. For those of us who were paying attention, it wasn’t the least bit surprising. For the overwhelming majority of people who have the good sense not to be paying attention, it was big news. So the Simpsons signal-to-noise ratio went bonkers and, as is always the case when that happens, this is a pretty short Reading Digest. We’ve only got one renewal link, and that was just because it has a marvelous headline.
In other not-news news, there will be no more Simpsons DVDs. Once again, we have a lone link because there just isn’t much here. When they did that cash grab Blu-Ray/DVD release of Season 20 (sans extras or commentaries) back in 2009/2010, I joked that they were probably never going to catch up because at the rate they were doing them, Season 20 on DVD wouldn’t be coming out until like 2018, and does anyone really think people are going to be buying DVDs in 2018? Well, it turns out there are some people who thought that, and they are upset about this. We have an outraged YouTube video from one of them, but I only made it about a fifth of the way through the fifteen minutes runtime. I have long experience caring about things most people don’t care about, but there are limits.
But, hey, we’ve also got some fan art, more cross stitch, an excellent piece of usage from a financial analyst (of all people), and more.
Enjoy.
MR BURNS – Fan made drawing of Burns and Smithers in what I assume is one of Smithers’ favorite positions. (NOTE: It’s not as dirty as I just made it sound.)
Metanarratives play a key role in the structure of ‘The Simpsons’. Authority and authoritative figures are ever-present in Springfield and are almost always cast in a negative light.
And people wonder why kids who were born after the show went south still love it.
No More “The Simpsons” DVD Sets – I have a hard time caring about this, but that is an inspired .gif choice. In related DVD news, reader Dastardly Devious sent in this YouTube rant about the DVDs. I stopped at the three minute mark when he said he wasn’t addressing people who are capable of admitting the show sucks now, but if you seriously care about Zombie Simpsons DVDs and teevee DVDs in general, I guess you might like it.
Morgan noted a chart he’d seen which attempted to show recent market tops on the S&P500 were spread 1897 days apart and showing we’re now at the end of the next point in that cycle. Which prompted this:
I usually put this sort of analysis in the same bucket as astrology and tarot card reading, but I had a technical look at our own market and was also alarmed with what I saw. Do you see what I see in there? A Patrick Star gave way to a half-Batman and then yielded to a full Bart Chart. Janet Yellen is right – there is nowhere to go but down from here.
This is partially a legacy issue. The original crucible for the characters was in the form of short stories, almost like a TV anthology series, where each episode ended with the characters back in the position they were in at the start.
[…]
In the words of philosopher and influential third-wave feminist Lisa Simpson:
“Don’t worry, Bart. It seems like every week something odd happens to the Simpsons. My advice is to ride it out, make the occasional smart-alec quip, and by next week we’ll be back to where we started from, ready for another wacky adventure.”
It is the nit pick of nit picks, but Lisa does say “an occasional” not “the occasional”. Still, that hardly matters. Great quote and very apt.
“Wait a minute! Martin, if you, Milhouse and I went in together, we could buy a copy of Radioactive Man #1 right now!” – Bart Simpson
“Wow!” – Martin Prince & Milhouse van Houten
After Bart gets bullied at the school dance, Marge convinces the town to pass anti-bullying legislation. Homer then gets arrested and sent to rehab for bullying Ned Flanders, only to subsequently leave rehab as a hero.
Albert Brooks is guest voicing tonight, so those of you who choose to watch have that going for you. I especialy won’t be watching now, as I feel whenever he voices a character anymore it just makes the episode even worse by comparison. It’s like using Godiva chocolate syrup on a dog shit sundae. Rest assured, I believe there is only one more episode before summer vacation.
“Nobody’s mentioned me, have they?” – Principal Skinner “I thought I heard someone say your name in the cafeteria, but they might have been saying ‘skim milk’.” – Bart Simpson
The internet is full of reports that Harry Shearer will not be doing voices for the recently announced two season renewal. This being the internet, the certitude of the headlines ran a bit ahead of the actual information. Here are the facts:
1. Over the last couple of days, TMZ (I know, gross) reported that Shearer was not on board with the most recent renewal.
2. Late last night (though since I think he’s in Britain it might have been morning for him), Shearer tweetedthefollowing:
from James L. Brooks’ lawyer: “show will go on, Harry will not be part of it, wish him the best.”. (1/2)
This because I wanted what we’ve always had: the freedom to do other work. Of course, I wish him the very best. (2/2)
Thanks, Simpsons fans, for your support.
Shearer subsequently turned down a couple of media interview requests.
3. That was followed a couple of hours later by Jeantweeting:
.@TheSimpsons#everysimpsonsever The show will go on, made by people who love it and see in it the most wonderful vehicle for satire ever.
Jean was very active, replying to people and generally doing his job as the public face of the show.
4. A couple of hours later, James L. Brooks replied (also on Twitter):
Hey, we tried. We’re still trying. Harry, no kidding, let’s talk.
5. After speaking with a couple of media outlets, Jean did a quick interview with Entertainment Weekly in which he said that they were still hoping to work things out, but that if Shearer was out the door, they would recast his parts, probably with multiple people. As to the question of why, he gave a round-about answer (bold italics are mine):
What is that period of time? Weeks? Well, it’s pretty vague because we have seven holdover [episodes] that Harry did in the fall, so there’s a big period of time. Obviously, we just want to know what he wants. We’ve rededicated ourselves this season to making the show better and not just saying, ‘Okay, we’re just happy for the pickup.’ We really care about it and everybody’s coming to more [table reads] and doing more on the show, so if he’d like to be a part of that, we’d love him.And if not, we’d like to know and then we’ll go another way.
Would you describe yourself as hopeful then that this could be resolved? I have no idea. I didn’t know he was going to tweet last night. That was very surprising. And the tweets were confusing because he had an offer. It wasn’t like we didn’t offer him a substantial thing. No. 2, he mentioned that he wanted to do outside projects. Everybody on the show does lots of outside projects. He actually gets to record on the phone and do the [table] reads on the phone. So we’ve never kept him from doing that stuff. So that’s one confusion I had. For the last several years, he’s done reads on the phone. He doesn’t always participate. We’ve excused him for several and he records, as long as it’s done in time, when it’s convenient for him. So it’s not a scheduling thing and he says it’s not a money thing, so I’m not sure what he’s thinking.
So, all the sturm und drang aside, all that appears to have happened is that, through a couple of unexpected tweets, Shearer broke off a negotiation and dropped a big, steaming PR shitpile in the collective lap of Jean, Brooks, and FOX.
What does all this mean? Well, it could end up meaning nothing. This isn’t the first time Shearer has been unhappy in public during negotiations for renewal. In the linked interview, Jean was deliberately cagey about how long they could go on without Shearer, but based on what we know about production schedules, it could easily be months before they’d actually need him to record new episodes. If they announce new cast members, that’d probably mean it’s a done deal, but I’d guess we’re a ways away from that.
There are, however, a couple of circumstantial pieces of evidence that this isn’t a public negotiating ploy on Shearer’s part and does indeed mean he’s leaving the show. The first and biggest is that the other five main cast members have already signed. Jean makes it clear in that interview that Shearer has been given the same offer the rest of them already took, so even just negotiating with him at this point would upset a deal that already took them months longer than usual to reach.
There’s also the fact that Shearer has never actually called it quits before. He’s needled the show and ragged on FOX, but to my knowledge he’s never said he was done.
Finally, there are Jean’s highlighted comments above. If it’s true that they’ve “rededicated” themselves and want more active participation from people, Shearer might not want the hassle. He’s been content to (literally) phone it in these last few years, but he values his time a lot more than a few extra million bucks he may never spend anyway, so why bother? He knows damn well the show is a shadow of itself, and if everyone’s just there for the money and he doesn’t need the money . . . well, that may be all she wrote.
Whatever his specific reasons, at the moment the safest assumption is that Harry Shearer will not be a member of the cast for the UABF production run. If that holds, the last episode with his voice will be broadcast next season, probably in November or December. We’ll see what happens, but unlike the renewal that always seemed like it was going to get done, this is uncharted territory.
Image may be NSFW.
