Four years ago, we published an article called Life Imitates The Simpsons, containing six plots from the TV show The Simpsons which later happened in the real world. In the years since, many more Simpsons plots were prescient of, or else inspired, real-life incidents. Ranker now has a list of 13 Simpsons Jokes That Actually Came True, and I was amazed to find no overlap in the two lists! Check this out: the picture on the left shows a promotional billboard for Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie, which was featured on The Simpsons in 1992. On the right is a billboard for Kill Bill, which came out in 2003. Read all the details at Ranker. Link

Mrs McIntyre said: ‘Our sons took it to St Andrews Museum and they were completely amazed by it. They said that they would try and carbon date it.

‘They had it for 11 or 12 weeks, but they couldn’t find out when or where it was from, but they said they thought it was very, very old.

‘They sent it around various places but no one could find out anything about it.

‘When they gave it back to us you could see where they took parts of the stone from behind the ear to try and date it.’

Mrs McIntyre said that the bulbous-eyed sculpture was completely solid, and very heavy, but full of detail.

She added: ‘If you put your finger into his mouth you can feel all the ridges and his teeth.’

Since the head has come into their lives, the intrigue has taken up so much time that the artefact has become part of the family.

‘There is no other word to describe it other than ugly, but we have become quite attached to it,’ Mrs McIntyre said.

The McIntyres speculate that the head may be a gargoyle from a 13th-century church. Link -via HuffPo

(Image credit: Central Scotland News Agency)

Neatorama presents

On December 17, 1989 The Simpsons made its debut on Fox TV. What can you say about The Simpsons? Now in its 23rd season, it is, without a doubt, one of the most brilliant television shows of all time. Let’s take a look at some Simpsons trivia you may not have known

Why are they yellow?

Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons, said he made the characters yellow to grab the attention of channel surfers.

How much does Maggie cost in the opening sequence?

O.K. we’re all familiar with the classic opening sequence on the show, where Marge and Maggie are at the supermarket checkout line and Maggie goes through the market scanner. Ever wonder how much she scans for? Maggie originally scanned for $847.63, which was the price of raising a baby for one month back in 1989 (when the show debuted). Now things have changed and Marge’s groceries add up to $243.36. When Maggie is added and scanned, she doubles the tab to $486.52.

Tracy Ullman sued the show.

The Simpsons is one of the most successful spinoffs in history, spawning from The Tracy Ullman Show. Tracy Ullman’s variety show ran for three years on Fox, and The Simpsons originated as brief cartoon vignettes on the show. Dan Castellanetta (the voice of “Homer”) and Julie Kavner (“Marge”) were regulars on the series, nancy Cartwright (“Bart”) and Yeardley Smith (“Lisa”) were brought in to do the voiceovers for the cartoons. After The Simpsons took off on its own, Tracy Ullman sued, unsuccessfully, to earn a share of The Simpsons‘ merchandising bonanza. (So far, The Simpsons has lasted twenty years longer than the show that spawned it.)

Most unnecessary translation switch.

The Simpsons is dubbed in by foreign-speaking actors for its runs in many different countries. In episodes dubbed in French, Homer’s catchphrase “D’oh!” is translated and read as “T’oh!”

Most Parodied movie?

The Simpsons is always incredibly clever satire. One of the show’s favorite satire targets is, of course, the movies. According to the show’s creators, the show’s most parodied film is Citizen Kane. “They could create an entire film from Simpsons clips,” a Simpsons writer has stated, referring to the amount of Citizen Kane gags they’ve used.he added that The Godfather films were very popular targets, too. Specifically, the show’s creators listed the show’s four most popular movie targets for satire as:

1. Citizen Kane
2. 2001: A Space Odyssey
3. The Shining
4. A Clockwork Orange

What celebrity guest star has played the most roles?

The Simpsons is not only the longest-running animated TV show in history, but it holds the record for the most celebrity guest star appearances. Albert Brooks has made the most guest appearances in the most different roles: five different appearances as five different characters.

Many last names come from actual streets.

Matt Groening got many of the last names of characters on the show from streets in his hometown of Portland, Oregon. Lovejoy, Quimby, Flanders, Kearney, Terwilliger, and Burnside are all actual street names in Portland.

Who is the only character on The Simpsons to have five fingers on a hand?

The Simpsons characters, like almost all animated characters, have only four fingers on each hand.Only one Simpsons character has ever had five fingers. “God” is the only character portrayed on The Simpsons to ever have five fingers.

Secret Hidden Beatles Message

What Simpsons foods would you want to try? Personally, I’m curious about tomacco.

Link

If you’ve ever visited the Middle East, you know that when American TV programs are shown on Arab TV, culturally sensitive content is often altered or removed. Turns out some hows aren’t so easy to “Arabize.”

MUST-SEE TV

In late 1991, the Middle East Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) went on the air for the first time. It was the Arab world’s first privately owned, independent satellite TV network, and the first to offer 24 hours of Arabic language television programming free of charge to anyone with a satellite dish.

Other networks soon sprung up, creating a huge demand for content to fill the airwaves. In the years that followed, countless American TV shows -everything from Friends to The Late Show with David Letterman to Two and a Half Man to McGyver to Dr. Phil and Oprah- found their way onto these channels, either dubbed into Arabic or broadcast with Arabic subtitles, and with culturally offensive subject matter toned down or removed entirely.

Shows that appealed to younger audiences were especially popular. In some countries as much as 60 percent of the population was under 20 years of age, and the numbers remain high today. So it was probably inevitable that sooner or later, one of the Arab networks would set its sights on The Simpsons, one of the most successful shows in American TV history, and try to bring it to the Middle East. In 2005, MBC did just that.

HOMER OF ARABIA

No expense was spared to prepare The Simpsons for the Arab market. The Arab world’s best TV writers were hired to translate episodes into Arabic, and A-list actors and actresses were hired to provide new voices for the characters. To make the show seem less “foreign,” Homer Simpson was renamed Omar Shamshoon, and the show itself was renamed Al Shamshoon -”The Shamshoons.” (Marge Simpson became Mona Shamshoon, Bart became Badr, and Lisa became Beesa.) Each episode that was selected for translation into Arabic was carefully reviewed to remove anything that might be offensive to Muslims. For example, where Homer Simpson drinks Duff beer (Islam forbids the consumption of alcohol), Omar Shamshoon drinks Duff fruit juice. Homer eats hot dogs (which commonly contain pork, also forbidden) and donuts (which are unfamiliar to most Arabs), but Omar eats Egyptian beef sausage links and khak cookies, which, like donuts, are often made with a hole in the middle.

Not every episode made the cut: Those with strong religious themes were out, as were the ones where the characters spent lots of time drinking beer in Moe’s Tavern. In episodes featuring shorter church and tavern scenes, they’re referred to as a “mosque” and a “coffeehouse.” And Ned Flanders? He became just an annoyingly perfect neighbor, not an annoyingly perfect Christian neighbor.

As for all the Simpsons-centric dialog, like “Don’t have a cow, man!” and “Hi-diddley-ho, neighbors!” …well, the writers just translated as best they could. (“D’oh!” was translated as “D’oh!”)

NEITHER HERE NOR THERE

The final product was a confusing mishmash of cultural references, something not really American, not really Arab (Marge Simpson and the other female characters don’t wear veils, for example) …and definitely not The Simpsons. It wasn’t very funny, either, and with all the translations, revisions, and deletions, the storylines could be maddeningly difficult to follow.

The premier episode of Al Shamshoon aired in October 2005, on the first night of the holy month of Ramadan -the biggest TV viewing night of the year. Muslims fast from sunup to sundown during Ramadan, and after the fast is broken with an evening meal, millions of the faithful settle in for a night of watching TV. Though 52 episodes were scheduled to air that month,  -with MBC looking forward to “Arabizing” all 17 seasons of The Simpsons in years to come- the series was pulled after only 34 shows. Why? Because not many people tuned in to watch it. Al Shamshoon turned out to be just too strange a show for many viewers, especially in a part of the world where cartoons were still seen as entertainment for children.

But what really killed Al Shamshoon may have been the very thing that brought it into being in the first place: Satellite TV channels. Arabs with satellite TV dishes can pull in non-Arab stations, and some of those broadcast The Simpsons in all its original, unadulterated glory. (The show is also available on DVD.) Many of the people who tuned in to watch Al Shamshoon were fans of The Simpsons who just wanted to see how badly MBC would botch the job, and after having a few laughs at the network’s expense, they went back to watching the real thing.

HOME GROWN

For Arab critics of Al Shamshoon, one of the most frustrating things about the show was knowing that if MBC had just taken a fraction of the money it spent on Al Shamshoon and hired Arab animators to create an entirely new, entirely Arab show from scratch, they might have come up with something funny and engaging that Arabs could understand and call their own.

Even as Al Shamshoon was falling flat on its face in 2005, work had already begun on just such a show. Freej (“Neighborhood”), a comedy about four grandmothers living in a quiet neighborhood of Dubai, a booming metropolis in the United Arab Emirates, was already in production. Freej was the brainchild of a twenty-something UAE national named Mohammed Saeed Harib, whose first exposure to animated shows came in the late 1990s when he was a student at Boston’s Northeastern University and his dormmates downloaded bootleg episodes of South Park and other shows to watch on their computers. Harib came up with Um Saeed, the first of his four grandmother characters, while he was still living in the dorm. By 2003, he’d developed a concept for an entire show, which he sold to the satellite channel Sama Dubai.

FULL CIRCLE

One year after Al Shashoon bit the dust, the first episode of Freej aired in the same coveted time slot -the first night of Ramadan. Unlike Al Shamshoon, Freej, the Arab world’s first 3D animated series, was a hit from the very start. By the time the second season of Freej aired the following year, half of all television viewers in the UAE were tuning in to watch the show. Stay tuned; you may be watching one of these days, too. In 2009, Harib entered into talks with American media companies to bring his show to the United States. (Until then, you can look for clips on YouTube.)

___________________

The article above was reprinted with permission from the Bathroom Institute’s newest book, Uncle John’s Heavy Duty Bathroom Reader.

Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute has published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts.

If you like Neatorama, you’ll love the Bathroom Reader Institute’s books – go ahead and check ‘em out!

Tonight’s opening sequence of The Simpsons was written and directed by street artist Banksy. It may be disturbing to some viewers. -via Laughing Squid

Well, Bill made good on his end of the bargain by answering a lot of those questions! Check out the full interview below. Meantime, we’re going to make good on our end of the bargain too, by giving away FOUR copies of The Simpsons Futurama Crossover Crisis, which goes on sale tomorrow. But we got advance copies and are ready to unload them on four lucky neatoramanauts. Here’s how to win: Read the interview! At the end you’ll find a couple questions. Send your answers to me: david ‘at’ neatorama.com. We’ll pick winners at random and shoot you an e-mail to find out where you want your book sent. Pretty easy, right?

—— Now, on with the interview!——

Alex: How did you get started drawing cartoons? Where do you get your inspirations from? And lastly, do you have any advice for budding cartoonists?

Bill Morrison: I have an older sister who taught me to draw when I was only three years old! But I think I really got into some serious doodling when I discovered Batman on TV. I started reading Batman comics, and then every other kind of comic book, and I was hooked. I decided I wanted to be a comic book artist.

My inspiration comes from everywhere; current events, history, old movies, you name it. I recently wrote a story that was inspired by an urban legend I’d heard as a child. My series from the 1990’s, Roswell, Little Green Man was inspired by the story of the Roswell UFO crash, but also by my desire to draw vintage cars, fashions, architecture, etc. from the 1940’s. I was also influenced heavily by Dave Stevens’ wonderful Rocketeer strip.

My advice to budding cartoonists is to get a good education. Soak up as much knowledge and culture as you possibly can. It may seem boring now, but everything you learn will enrich your writing and your art in the years to come. When I was a student, I thought I would only be a comic book artist, and that I didn’t need to study certain things like English or History. Big mistake! I eventually became a writer and an editor, and had to educate myself in the areas I’d avoided in school.

Bill Peschel: Have there been proposed Treehouses of Horror stories that made y’all blanch and say, “Absolutely no way, Jose”?

Bill Morrison: Yes, but not often. The writers we invite to craft Treehouse of Horror stories tend to be great fans of The Simpsons, and they seem to know instinctively what to stay away from when they pitch ideas.

Paul in Prep: How does hearing the word Chondroitin, out loud, make you feel?

Bill Morrison: I love that word! It sounds like a noise that Jerry Lewis or Professor Frink would make!

Patty The Fatty: Any chance we’re going to see a Roswell – Little Green Man TV series? If so, when? If not, why not?!?!

Bill Morrison: I would love to do a Roswell TV series or movie in the near future! I’m working on reviving the comic book at the moment, so after I reintroduce my little green pal to the world, I definitely intend to set my sights on the big or small screen (or both!)

burninglily: What’s your muse? What was the deciding factor, that it moment when you just “knew” you were going to do this for the rest of your life?

Bill Morrison: As I mentioned earlier, I’ve wanted to be a comic book artist since I was a kid, but I think the moment I knew I wanted to make this my life’s work was when we won the Eisner Award™ for Simpsons Comics #1. Will Eisner’s work inspired me and influenced me from the moment I was aware of it, so receiving the award named for him meant a great deal to me, and made me want to be a part of the art form he called “sequential art.” By the way, if you missed it way back in 1993, we’ve included a reprint edition of the historic Simpsons Comics #1 inside The Simpsons Futurama Crossover Crisis book!

Hellboy: Did the Simpsons created a new kind of hero : the stupid hero ? It seems to be the new standard in animated series (futurama, family guy, spongebob…) Does it reflect any kind of change in american society ?

Bill Morrison: I think “stupid” heroes have existed in animation going back at least as far as Disney’s Goofy (known way back at his inception in 1932 as Dippy Dawg!) In comics, the Captain from The Katzenjammer Kids, created in 1897 comes to mind. So no, I don’t think “stupid” characters are anything new. I do happen to believe that The Simpsons and Futurama are two of the most smartly-written shows on television. If there’s any conclusion about change in American society to be drawn from shows like these, I think it’s that we enjoy viewing smarter TV shows (and comics!)

Zim999: Will the following Simpsons Comics stories ever be reprinted?:  Bongos that time forgot from 32, More Bongos that time forgot from 35, The Itchy and Scratchy comics, The last 3 Bartman comics, The 4 stories from Simpson Comics and Stories, The Super Spectacular comics, The Winter Wingding comics, The Summer Shindig comics.

Bill Morrison: I was wondering what stories we had yet to reprint! Thanks for the handy list! I’m sure we’ll get to them all, eventually!

Bizznatch: Will there be a Bongo Comics website anytime soon?

Bill Morrison: Yes!

Bizznatch: How about a third Simpsons/Futurama Crossover comic series?

Bill Morrison: Funny you should ask! While compiling the material for The Simpsons Futurama Crossover Crisis book, we got very excited and started talking about doing a third series. But we won’t do it just to cash in on the huge success of our hardcover collection. First, we need to think up a third story worthy of the first two!

Bizznatch: Any more Itchy & Scratchy comics coing?

Bill Morrison: We like to follow the lead of The Simpsons TV show by working Itchy & Scratchy episodes into our Simpsons comic book stories. We’ve found that the ultra-violent cartoon humor is much funnier in small doses!

Bizznatch: Will Sergio Aragones draw a full-length Futurama issue or cover? What other Bongo comics will Sergio Aragones be drawing this year?  All glory to the Hypnotooooad!

Bill Morrison: With Sergio, anything is possible! In the meantime, check out the dynamite two-page pin-up that Senõr Aragonés drew especially for The Simpsons Futurama Crossover Crisis book! It features characters from both the Simpsons and Futurama meeting face to face at a very crowded comic book convention! And of course, Sergio’s work will appear regularly in each and every issue of Bart Simpson comics!

—–Contest Questions—–

1. Which neatoramanaut got props from Bill for helping him out with a list?

2. What’s Bill’s advice to cartoonists looking to break into the field?

That’s it! Don’t leave these answers in the comments please. Send them to me via e-mail!

Anything you’ve ever wondered about Simpson’s Comics, Radioactive Man, Bartman, Bart Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror, Roswell – Little Green Man, or Futurama, etc. etc, etc.? Now’s your chance to ask the main principal writer and artist/editor. (Also the editor of this new book!)

So go ahead and leave your question in the comments below and we’ll select some to put in front of Bill!

This Simpsons mosaic table is made of leftover tiles and places from a Target clearance sale and leftovers at the local home improvement store by craftster user redflag. She completely freehanded the pictures, which is pretty impressive. I like how suspicious Moe and Mr. Burns look.

Link

After almost 19 years of the classic Simpsons introduction scene today the brand new HDTV intro with brand new drawings and animation is being heralded across the interwebs. Being a life long fan of The Simpsons TV show this really is quite a breath of fresh air to the tired yet famous intro scene. So far since this post there have been up 521,439 views alone on YouTube since February 13th.

What would Edvard Munch’s "The Scream" look like if Matt Groening painted it?  Or how about Van Gogh’s self-portrait?  Or Vermeer’s "Girl With a Pearl Earring"?

See what happens to great masterpieces when Simpsonized via the Phoenix image editor, a design tool made by Aviary.

Link

On Australian’s weekly television talk show Rove Live, hosted by Rove McManus, he speaks with Nancy Cartwright who is famous for the voice of Bart Simpson. In the interview, she also impersonates does other charactors such as Nelson Muntz, Rod & Todd Flanders and others.

Link: YouTube