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:
Jean also verified that he's sure that he was dealing with the real Banksy, and not an imposter:
Link via Super Punch | Image: Fox
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
that's so banksy dood
seriously, if his art was good people wouldn't be so curious who he was, because his artwork would hold up on it's own.
i'll still never understand why a hack like banksy got famous worldwide and great artists like KAWS only achieved minor total global domination despite a true graffiti background and an impeccable eye for design
KAWS did the simpsons right
Fine: it struck me as a little desperate, when the name was "sprayed" twice in the opening credits. The actual sequence was hypocritical, tedious, and unnecessarily violent. The joke was tired, old, and drawn-out.
Slap it onto a mediocre episode that feels like a rehash of twelve others, and you have failed.
The whole "Who is Banksy" thing: more worn-out than "Where's Waldo".