This Sunday, Weezer will cameo on The Simpsons and as a teaser, the band released their cover of "The Simpsons Theme" by Danny Elfman. From Rolling Stone:
In the new episode of The Simpsons, Weezer will play a cover band called Sailor’s Delight, which serves as the house act on a romantic cruise Homer and Marge are taking. Sailor’s Delight will “perform” a handful of tracks from Weezer’s 2019 self-titled record (also known as The Black Album) and their 2017 effort Pacific Daydream, while the episode will also boast the premiere of the band’s new song, “Blue Dream,” from their upcoming LP, Van Weezer.
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This is a wonderful thing. Author and Librarian Joel A. Sutherland posted this video, with the following message, on Twitter:
Social Isolation, Day 23
Kids: We're booooored! What can we do?
Wife *cleaning basement*: What are we ever going to do with these Simpsons Halloween costumes we only wore once?
Me:
How great is that?!
Thanks, Bub! Read the rest
If you care about The Simpsons with the same intensity that I don't care about the Simpsons, you'll be happy to hear that that Disney has finally sorted out how to stream the long-running cartoon sitcom in its proper 4:3 ratio. Disney+ will start kicking it old school, by the end of May.
In a message posted to Disney+'s Twitter account yesterday, the company's reps stated:
"We appreciate our fans’ patience and are working to make the first 19 Seasons (and part of 20) of The Simpsons available in 4:3 versions on DisneyPlus. We expect to accomplish this by the end of May."
So that's nice.
If you keep track of such things, you'll recall that, a few months ago, Simpsons fans lost their shit over Disney+'s streaming earlier seasons of the show, which were originally broadcast in a 4:3 aspect ratio, in 16:9. While this might fill up a modern wide screen television's display quite nicely, the forced 16:9 aspect ratio cut out a lot of what was going on, on screen. This left many elements of some of the series' best sight gags, unseen.
I know that many films suffered from the pan-and-scan nonsense they were put through before televisions moved to a wider aspect ratio. While I'm not personally invested in The Simpsons being shown as each episode was intended to be seen, I have to wonder how many other television shows from the 1990's on back are currently being ruined by being shown in 16:9.
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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!
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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)
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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!"
(Thanks, Bob Pescovitz!) Read the rest
“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.
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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.
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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
