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No, it’s not a healthy, balanced meal — although it certainly gives the appearance of one. This is a birthday cake from Paul’s Creative Cakes to remind some lucky dad that he’s showing his age.
Link -via That’s Nerdalicious! | Baker’s Website
To celebrate The Simpson’s upcoming 500th episode, the interwebs is passing around this note straight from Krabappel’s classroom- all 288 of Bart’s chalkboard punishment quotes from the intro! But you have to hit the link to see them all, is the writing really small or is that one ridiculously long chalkboard?
Love The Simpsons? Check out the Simphabets, created by Fabian Gonzalez (who we have featured previously on Neatorama a number of times): Link
Now can someone list the entire characters featured? I'm bewildered about that "T" and "X"
FreddeGredde’s medley of songs from The Simpsons gives me an idea: turn the show into a musical. You know, like Cop Rock or Rags to Riches. It’s guaranteed to breathe new life into the series.
-via The Uniblog | FreddeGredde’s Website
Previously by FreddeGredde: Classic Cartoon Theme Song Medley
Who knew Homer was speaking dragon this whole time?
Link Via The Daily What
The Simpsons has a reputation for clever, subtle references. It occasionally mentions or imitates famous works of art. After twenty-three seasons, that “occasionally” builds up to a lot, and the author of Simpsons Park has compiled a huge list of dozens of works of art that the writers worked into the show. Pictured above is their take on Henri Rousseau’s The Dream.
Link -via The Agitator
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
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website. This post is in honor of The Simpsons anniversary tomorrow.
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
Of all the hundreds of Simpsons celebrity guest voices, just six have appeared in episodes as both themselves and as a fictional character. They are Elizabeth Taylor, Susan Sarandon, Alec Baldwin, Mark Hamill, Steve Buscemi, and Joe Montagna.
Sensitive guest voice.
Former heavyweight boxing champion “Smokin’” Joe Frazier guested on a Simpsons episode. In the episode, Joe gets into a fight with the local drunk, Barney Gumbel. Joe objected to Barney beating him in a fight, so the writers changed the scene so Joe would win.
For more on The Simpsons, see The Birth of The Simpsons, Life Imitates The Simpsons, and Meet Omar Shamshoon.
Images: (L) Gentileza Diario Uno/Infobae
(R) Simpsons Wiki
A group of fishermen in Cordoba caught a mutant fish off a lake near a nuclear power plant that looked like it came straight out of The Simpsons. Folks, meet the real life equivalent of Blinky, the three-eyed fish:
"We were fishing and we got the surprise of getting this rare specimen. As it was dark at that time we did not notice, but then you looked at him with a flashlight and saw that he had a third eye," said Julian Zmutt, one of the fishermen.
Link [Google Translate] - via Geekosystem
Doesn’t Marge look lovely? Japanese artist y_yamaden carved her likeness in a banana. Link -via Laughing Squid
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John Kricfalusi, the animator for the legendary Ren & Stimpy Show, got a chance to direct the couch gag for last night’s episode of The Simpsons. Kricfalusi is not one to hold back his creative vision, even for a children’s show (Nickelodeon ultimately fired him). His work in this short is deliciously weird and psychedelic.
-via Boing Boing | Previously: Banksy’s Couch Gag
Barbara Bush, the First Lady of the United States from 1989 to 1993, didn’t think much of The Simpsons, and said so publicly. Marge Simpson took offense and wrote a polite but firm letter objecting to Bush’s characterization of the show as “the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen.” The First Lady responded to Mrs. Simpson’s note and apologized for the remark.
Link -via The Mary Sue
The following is an article from Uncle John’s Heavy Duty Bathroom Reader.
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.
more …
Come Home To The Simpsons from devilfish on Vimeo.
Lost as a Friends-esque sitcom? The Simpsons as real people? It could have all happened if only producers had edited their opening credits a little differently. Check out these and a few more over at Shortlist. I didn’t quite buy the Lost as Friends, but I was amused. And the Gorillaz soundtrack coupled with original The Walking Dead comic book art is nothing short of amazing.
Link via Flavorwire
Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, teamed up with Apple in 1989 to try and sell computers to college kids. The artwork for the “Who Needs a Computer Anyway?” booklet came from Groening’s book, School is Hell. It seems an odd pairing, but it was reprised later by an Etsy seller’s unauthorized Homer Simpson iPhone decal. There are a few more of the pages from “Who Needs a Computer Anyway?” on The Daily What. Link
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The Simpsons have been around for over twenty years. And in that time Bart, Homer and the rest of the gang have played a lot of video games. Here is a collection of every fictional video game that has appeared on The Simpsons in the show’s history. It’s interesting to see over time how games have changed through cartoon parody.
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If you’re in Mexico, Argentina, Colombia or Chile anytime soon, you can pick up a bottle of Duff, Homer Simpson’s lager of choice. Though the product is probably in violation of licensing agreements–or more specifically, being produced without one–it’s a hot seller in South American markets.
Fox has never licensed the beverage in the United States. According to several reports, Simpsons’ creator Matt Groening fears that bringing Duff into the real world would be tantamount to pushing alcohol on minors.
The Duff dearth north of the border has only made fans more desperate. Online message boards buzz about where to find Duff. On eBay, an empty bottle of Duff beer from Argentina sells for $14.99; a decal off the Colombian product is being offered for $8.99.
At Rock Garden, a bar in Bogotá, Duff commands import prices — about $5.50 a bottle — even though it’s brewed in the nearby city of Medellin.
Duff Sudamerica, the Chilean producer, expects to sell $750,000 worth of Duff beer this year, but personally I think they’ll surpass that once Simpsons superfans get in on it.
Link | Image: Jim Wyss / Miami Herald Staff
D’oh no! Its’ the Smithers Love Song by Your Favorite Martian.
Comments Off We seem to be on a roll with The Big Lebowski mash-ups. Coming hot on the heels of The Big LEGOwski, now we have Homer Simpson, Lenny and Carl reenacting the “They peed on your effing rug” scene at the bowling alley.
via GeekTyrant
Guess what, neighborino; you know those all-too-brief moments during The Simpsons in which we see marquee tough guy McBain getting his Ahnuld on? They’re Easter eggs. Parts of a whole.
It turns out that if you arrange all of the McBain clips from old episodes of “The Simpsons,” they form a cohesive four-minute excerpt from an action film in which the titular hero “hunts corrupt drug kingpin Senator Mendoza and tries to exact revenge for his murdered partner while battling red tape at police headquarters.”
Link -via CollegeHumor
Remember the The Simpsons opening sequence directed by the guerilla artist Banksy? Well, he’s uploaded the original storyboard of the now famous intro to his website. Take a look: Link – via Buzzfeed
Brian Boyko admired the one-man four-part harmonies of YouTube member trudbol and the four-part one-woman harmonies of gwenatav. They both performed the song “Baby on Board” from the TV show The Simpsons. So in true geeky fashion, he mashed up the two versions of the song and created an eight-part duet.
As it turned out, it wasn’t quite so easy. There were slight differences in timing and tempo which meant I had to alter Gwenatav’s part slightly, cutting out moments of silence so the two would sync up. Since choppy video would be unacceptable, I had to do my best to match up what I could – compounded by the fact that Gwen’s video was recorded in 25fps and Julien’s at 30fps. That said, I’m happy with the results…
Which you can hear at Geeks Are Sexy. Link
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The producers of The Simpsons arranged for the British street artist Banksy to write the “couch gag” that takes place in the introduction to The Simpsons. But how did they manage to get in contact with this elusive, mysterious artist? David Itzkoff of The New York Times interviewed executive producer Al Jean:
I saw the film Banksy directed, “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” and I thought, oh, we should see if he would do a main title for the show, a couch gag. So I asked Bonnie Pietila, our casting director, if she could locate him, because she had previously located people like Thomas Pynchon. And she did it through the producers of that film. We didn’t have any agenda. We said, “We’d like to see if you would do a couch gag.” So he sent back boards for pretty much what you saw.
Jean also verified that he’s sure that he was dealing with the real Banksy, and not an imposter:
The original boards that we got from him were in his style and were certainly by an extremely proficient artist. We were dealing with the person that represented him making the movie. I haven’t met him, I don’t even know what he looks like, except what the Internet suggests. And he’s taken credit for it now so I’m pretty sure it’s him. We went through the people that made the movie so I assume they would know how to get to the real him.
Link via Super Punch | Image: Fox
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
I don’t know about you guys, but I love The Simpsons and I must say that getting to watch The Simpsons while writing about the show was a dream come true for me. Getting to learn about the stories behind many of my favorite characters made this one of the most fun articles I’ve written for Neatorama so far. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Barney was based on a drunkard character named “Crazy” Guggenheim that was in the “Joe the Bartender” sketches of The Jackie Gleason Show. Matt Groening wanted him to be the most pathetic sitcom sidekick ever and he always wanted to break the unspoken rules of television that made it taboo to have alcohol serve as the source of comedy. As for his name, it was based on another popular comedy character, Barney Rubble of The Flintstones.
Video link.
While Bart’s name is just an anagram of “brat”, the character was largely based on Matt Groening’s older brother. On top of that, the character is an extreme version of a bratty child, and Groening incorporated all of the bad traits from Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn and Dennis the Menace.
Image via Hans Reitzema [Wikipedia]
Bleeding Gums’ character design is loosely based on the now deceased saxophone player LeRoi Moore, who played for the Dave Matthews band. His character is believed to be a homage to saxophone player Sonny Rollins, who quit his jazz career to play by himself on a bridge.
Bumblebee Man is the Simpson’s version of a popular Mexican television character known as El Chapulin Colorado (The Red Grasshopper). The show’s producers said that whenever they watched Telemundo, the character seemed to always be on the screen, which served as inspiration for Bumblebee Man to always be on TV as well.
Video link.
Etsy seller apjam made this clever albeit unauthorized Homer Simpsons sticker for your Apple iPhone.
The next time your iPhone G4 drops a call, don’t blame Antennagate – it’s probably Homer nom nom nomming the connection.
Nerd Approved has the larger pic: Link or go to apjam’s Etsy shop
The years fly by so fast, don’t they? This is from the episode “Lisa’s Wedding” {wiki} which aired in 1995. -via reddit
Need a sofa? How about a life-size sofa from The Simpsons, complete with characters? It only seats one, but with if you’re such a hardcore Simpsons fan, then chances are you don’t have (or need) any friends to share the couch with anyhow, right? Link
"cat & mouse" (2005)
In his art series "Perspective Sculptures," British artist James Hopkins uses optical illusions to transform what appears to be a random jumble of objects into a particular image when viewed at just the right angle.
Designboom has more: Link | James Hopkins website – via Nerdcore
Comments Off The opening to last night’s episode of The Simpsons parodied “Tik Tok“, a song by American pop singer Ke$ha (that’s how she spells it). Featuring Groundskeeper Willy brushing his teeth with a bottle of Jack.
via Comics Alliance | Another Tik Tok Parody
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