Remember the 1991 episode of The Simpsons, called "Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington," in which a tearful Lisa tears up an essay she wrote after she witnesses government officials engaged in corrupt behavior? Well, U.S. Secretary of State remembers that episode, too, and he cleverly chose it to show his solidarity with Senator Pelosi for ripping up Trump's State of the Union address. Trump and his delusional followers will think Pompeo is making fun of Pelosi, but everyone else is in on the sly message of support from inside the walls of Trumpistan. Well played, Mike!

pic.twitter.com/AaopLt8f9f

— Mike Pompeo (@mikepompeo) February 5, 2020

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Embroidery master Rayna created this exquisite hand embroidery of Homer Simpson disappearing into the bushes. This follows on her Lisa Simpson "true crime" embroidery and other fine Simpsons stitchery available at her Etsy shop HermitGirlCreations.

(via Kottke) Read the rest

This is a lot of fun. Katrin and Janine, a couple of Swiss gals, recreated the sequences where Homer Simpson eats his way through New Orleans.

It even impressed the animators of The Simpsons.

Eric Koenig:

"Hey! Just wanted you to know, we here at The Simpsons Animation Studio saw your video and were blow away! And also hope you don't have heartburn from all that eatin'!"

(tmn, Nag on the Lake) Read the rest

Something uplifting to start the week with!

BONUS: The Simpsons intro as a dimly-remembered VHS nightmare:

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Watch the video below. As a wise man once said, "God bless America!"

Fixed it: Wilbur Ross dubbed over Mr. Burns pic.twitter.com/UQn8Hq6WrR

— ElElegante101 (@skolanach) January 24, 2019

“Are you sure it’s not a witch hunt?” This is the best GIF adaptation of all time, as one commenter already said. Read the rest

Children's shows often include jokes to give a little "nudge nudge wink wink" to grown-ups. I mean, who could forget the subversive bits in Looney Tunes or, say, Pee-wee's Playhouse?

But this compilation by YouTube channel Best of Simpsons Characters is different, because The Simpsons isn't really a show for kids. It's just the Simpsons' jokes that they didn't get when they were little. Read the rest

With episode 636 on Sunday, The Simpsons finally outran Gunsmoke as America's longest-running TV show, as counted by scripted episodes. It overtook it about a decade ago in terms of how many seasons it's been on TV. That said...

“Gunsmoke,” however, was an hourlong program for about half its run, while “The Simpsons” is half-hour, and so the former retains the record for most hours of television. As well, the Western series had begun on radio in 1952.

The closest other scripted prime-time series, the family drama “Lassie,” about an ingenious collie, ran on network and then in first-run syndication from 1954 to 1974, for 591 episodes.

In a welcome coda to the Apu imbroglio, Hank Azaria (who also voices other characters on the show) is planning to let a South Asian actor take over the role and help transition the character to a less stereotypical portrayal. Read the rest

The season 7 gem starring Principal Skinner and Superintendant Chalmers has seen a massive uptick in meme activity in late 2017. Here are some highlights: Read the rest

It's generally recognized that The Simpsons drifted from sharp comedy to cosy light entertainment as the years went by, and that a threshold was passed somewhere between seasons eight and eleven. Using data culled from IMDB and a contiguous cluster analysis, Nathan Cunn pinpoints the exact end of The Simpsons' golden age to the half-hour: episode 11 of season 10. This particular way of seeing things condemns no particular episode's sins, merely putting a statistical dividing point between Wild Barts Can't Be Broken and Sunday Cruddy Sunday. Compare to The Principal and the Pauper, the season 9 episode traditionally identified as the shark-jumper, which in this chart is a controversial blip on the road to all the disengaged meta to come.

It’s remarkable that the show managed to go for over nine seasons, and over 200 episodes, with an average rating of 8.2. The latter seasons, in contrast, have an average rating of 6.9, with only three episodes in the latter 400+ episodes achieving a rating higher than the average golden age episode—those episodes being Trilogy of Error, Holidays of Futured Passed, and Barthood. Given that the ratings approximately follow a Gaussian distribution, we expect (and, indeed, observe) that roughly half of the golden age episodes exceeded this mean value.

Although The Simpsons isn’t quite the show it once was, the decline in the show’s latter seasons is more testament to the impossibly high standards set by the earlier seasons than it is an indictment of what the show became.

Tattoo artist Phil Berge's handiwork is old school, yes, but some of his tats more than that. They are animated!

How does he do it?

At the Tattoo Shack in Quebec where he works, he inks multiple people with one frame of an animation.

For instance, to create that Bart Simpson "tattoo flipbook" (above), he had to ink 19 different people.

This one was inspired by a 1950s Gallo wine commercial and took 11 inked people to animate:

"Bad Mickey" took 13 (naturally):

This one was inspired by a Popeye cartoon short called, "Sock-a-Bye, Baby" and took 17 individual tattoos to complete:

Pretty cool, isn't it? You can check out more of his (mostly non-animated) work at his Instagram.

(Geekologie) Read the rest

Comedian Hari Kondabolu's documentary The Problem with Apu dropped a trailer in advance of its debut on TruTV. The film surveys opinions on one of the most recognizable Indian-American characters in the media: Apu Nahasapeemapetilon and his outsize, often negative, role in shaping opinions on Indian depictions in the media. Read the rest

Nancy Cartwright surprised the heck out of this 13-year old boy when she revealed she is the real voice of Bart Simpson. The look on his face, ha! Read the rest

Artist François Dourlen has a really great Instagram series in which he cleverly lines up Simpsons images with real-life situations.

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Oops I did it again :) #photooftheday #photodujour #instagram #instadaily #thesimpsons #flowers #hollidays #sun #soleil #vacance #fleurs #bartsimpson

A post shared by Francois Dourlen (@francoisdourlen) on Apr 22, 2017 at 7:58am PDT

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#monday #photooftheday #photodujour #thesimpsons #instadaily #instalike #😭

A post shared by Francois Dourlen (@francoisdourlen) on Jan 30, 2017 at 3:15am PST

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#trump #photodujour #photooftheday #instagram #instadaily #simpsons #duff :😂😂😂

A post shared by Francois Dourlen (@francoisdourlen) on Jun 6, 2017 at 8:49am PDT

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Sunday evening... :)

A post shared by Francois Dourlen (@francoisdourlen) on May 28, 2017 at 9:23am PDT

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À tout à l'heure au bar @lekrakencherbourg pour le vernissage de l'expo ! #instadaily #instagram #francoisdourlen #photooftheday #photodujour #thesimpsons #tahitibob :)

A post shared by Francois Dourlen (@francoisdourlen) on Apr 29, 2017 at 7:56am PDT

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#thesimpsons #flowers #marge #spring #hollidays #francoisdourlen #instagram #instadaily #photooftheday #photodujour #😜

A post shared by Francois Dourlen (@francoisdourlen) on Apr 15, 2017 at 7:46am PDT

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Bricolage... #thesimpsons #instagram #instadaily #photooftheday #photodujour #francoisdourlen #😂

A post shared by Francois Dourlen (@francoisdourlen) on Apr 11, 2017 at 9:52am PDT

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#krusty #eosm10 #françoisdourlen #canon #eos #instadaily #photodujour #mirrorless #macdonalds @canonfrance #canonphoto #clown #weekend

A post shared by Francois Dourlen (@francoisdourlen) on Mar 24, 2017 at 8:15am PDT

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#weekend !

Here is The Simpsons' take on Trump's 100th day in the White House, which includes Sean Spicer hanging himself with a sign that says, "I Quit!" and a strangling match between Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon. We also get to see Trump in his jammies, lying in bed with a remote in his hand. An aide comes to his side and asks him to read a bill that will lower taxes for Republicans. "Can't Fox News read it and I'll watch what they say?" the president asks.

With the 100th day hitting us this Saturday, thank god for comic relief! Read the rest

Dan Cretu created this pretty fancy Homer Simpson fried egg portrait. The broken-yolk-as-smile is a nice touch. Read the rest

On last night's episode of The Simpsons, the couch gag was animator Michael Socha's excellent spoof of Ikea's instruction manuals. Read the rest