“Your teenage son or daughter will think this wishbone necklace is really ‘cool’.” – Marge Simpson
“I doubt my son or daughter is that stupid.” – Man

Woo-hoo!  We’re less than nineteen hours away from my Simpsons/beer marathon.  (If you haven’t already voted you can do so in the poll at right.  It’s pretty close right now.)  In the meantime we’ve got lots and lots of fan art this week; there’s a morbid but fun painting, an elaborate and realistic looking Mr. Burns image, and an embroidered Ralph Wiggum . . . as Idaho!  Plus we’ve got life imitating Homer’s turn as an airline pilot, a slew of pictures from the Simpsons area at Universal Studios Hollywood, an Independent Thought Alarm at Hulu, plenty of excellent usage, and frontal nudity! 

Enjoy.

Cherry Valley Lodge’s CoCo Key park allows tropical frolicking in February – This is about a trip to an indoor water park.  Here’s the water slide part:

Then, flying along in the dark, I recalled cartoon character Homer Simpson — too fat to fit through the tube — getting stuck in just such a place. A few seconds later, I was shooting out the bottom, laughing and wanting to do it again.

That’s more citation than usage, but it’s still nice to see.

Exclusive: ‘Castle’ spoofs NBC’s Jay/Conan ruckus… and kills [spoiler alert] in the process! – This is mostly boring Hollywood promotional dreck posing as news but at the end we learn that Yeardley Smith will be a guest star on the April 26th episode. 

I’m Idaho! – Awesome piece of fan art here.  It’s an embroidered Ralph as he appeared at the geography pageant.  This is as fan-fugu-tastic as fan art comes. 

Homer Simpson’s Guide to Software Development – Using two of Homer’s truisms to remind oneself that complex problems need not have complex solutions, especially when it comes to programming. 

Eating salad at the Rod and Gun Club banquet – It’s you don’t “win” friends with salad, but it’s still decent usage. 

"What ‘The Simpsons’ pulled off, ‘Cold Souls’ could not." – Movie Review – This is a review of that movie where Paul Giamatti has his soul extracted.  We’ve mentioned it a couple of times before because lots of people drew the connection between it and “Bart Sells His Soul”.  This review is all about that. 

‘Fake pilot’ arrested moments before take-off – “As a change of pace I’m gonna to let you do most of the work, I think you’re ready for it, Alan.”

PAUSE FOR THE KAWS – Enjoyably morbid rendition of the family with skull heads.  Here’s a little bit of background.  If you put “KAWS SIMPSONS” into Google Images you’ll get even more. 

The Simpsons: Stealing Homer’s Change – Commenter Hoang’s site has Hulu video of Bart’s Raiders of the Lost Ark opening.  Sweet.

Hey Hey! Two Thumbs Down! – Does the new post-surgery and largely chin-less Roger Ebert look like Krusty?  Actually, yeah, he kinda does. 

Facebook: Or How I Learned to Start Worrying and Forget the Marketed Social Network – This is a discussion of the ways Facebook pressures people not to leave and it involves the Movementarians.  The Simpsons facts are slightly off (Marge wasn’t in the theater) but this is too awesome not to quote:

It is soon discovered that no one finds themselves able to leave, each persuaded by the Movementarians to stay and remain a part of the community. Without pressure from other members, I realize that the Simpson family wouldn’t have remained a part of the cult or the communal labor the Movementarians gained from them as a benefit. In the same way, the users of Facebook would not stick with the site if there were no social pressure or the perceived personal benefit of an easily accessible community.

There’s no quote so this is more a reference than usage, but it is excellent. 

10,000 Page Views!!! – This is a collection of random internet humor.  Scroll to the bottom for an animated .gif of Bart’s chili hat.  The caption is slightly off (it’s “mad” not “upset”), but close enough. 

The Simpsons Show, Santa Fe, February 13, 2010 – I’m pretty sure I mentioned this awhile ago, but now you can see photos of it.  Most of the pictures are people you don’t know smiling at the camera, but some of them contain neat looking Simpsons art. 

Adventure to Universal Studios Hollywood – A couple of people went to Universal Studios and took a lot of pictures, mainly of the of the Simpsons ride and its environs.  Cool. 

Mr. Burns bust – I’m generally not a big fan of those creepy looking images of what Simpsons characters would look like in real life, but this one of Mr. Burns is awesome.  He’s got real eyes, liver spots, and his bony fingers are tented.  Really, really well done.  Dare I call it . . . excellent?  (via internettoday). 

TV’s ‘The Simpsons’ are part black now – If you get upset by open racism you probably shouldn’t click this link.  It goes to a white supremacist message board where a bunch of morons stained their tighty-whities brown over “The Color Yellow”.  It’s not often you’ll see me say something nice about Zombie Simpsons, but at least it can piss of self righteous assholes like these.  Of course, anything that doesn’t have a sheet over it pisses these people off, so it’s not a high bar.  But still, it’s nice to see them feel the world slip away from them a little bit more. 

These races would be funny if it wasn’t so tragic – Small time Texas office holders might not be the best people in the world?  I’m shocked.  Excellent usage, though. 

Today’s Pop Five: aestrap’s favorite TV bars – Moe’s comes in at #5.  “Where you can drink your misery away . . .”

What Not to Say: Six Surefire Ways to Get Lectured by Internet Commenters – In the midst of an excellent discussion of the pitfalls and pratfalls of writing on-line we get this excellent usage:

4. Get a detail about the world of Star Trek/Star Wars/Avatar wrong.

“Um, hello? The tauntaun’s sole appearance in the Star Wars franchise was in The Empire Strikes Back, not Return of the Jedi as you erroneously claim.”

“In your misguided attempt to pillory the Na’avi language, you neglected to take into account that they lack both the word for ‘murder’ and the pluperfect subjunctive tense.”

“In episode 2F09 when Itchy plays Scratchy’s skeleton like a xylophone, he strikes the same rib twice in succession, yet he produces two clearly different tones. I mean, what are we to believe, that this is some sort of a magic xylophone or something? Boy, I really hope somebody got fired for that blunder.”

There’s even art of the nerds.  Excellent usage. 

The 20 Worst Bootlegs – These are indeed some epically bad pieces of bootleg merchandise.  There’s a couple of Simpsons items, though the last one just has the name on it, the art looks like a rejected character concept for someone’s high school flash project. 

Simpsons did it – A complaint/lament about the recycled nature of words.  Meh.  (Though it does contain some interesting etymology for “D’oh”.) 

YEP, THAT’S A BURN. – I couldn’t care less about Jennifer Lopez, but any time one of the corporate cogs at Hulu triggers an Independent Thought Alarm it’s excellent usage (with video). 

Heard on the Hill: Best Floor Speech Ever – A US Representative from Illinois is a fan of the show.  He even gave a little floor speech praising it.  That’s all well and good, but this is the kind of weasely cop out one expects from obscure House members:

So where does Quigley weigh in on the heated debate among “Simpsons” fans over whether the animated sitcom is past its heyday?

“It’s still my favorite show,” Quigley says. “I guess, overall, earlier was a little better. But there are some real gems that still pop up.”

Take a stand! 

Homer Simpson [NSFW] – You’ll have to click twice (once on the link and again on the image link at the top of the page) because this indeed involves a picture of a naked lady, but her torso does look like Homer Simpson (eye boobs!). 

The Simpsons: 20 Years, the Complete Twentieth Season – And finally I get to end the way I like, with someone who agrees with us:

Sadly, far from continuing to tap into the cultural zeitgeist, the show lost its way sometime early last decade and started to rely on storylines that sought to see what stupid antics Homer could get up to each week. Instead of being a high water mark for social satire and a funny little show about a dysfunctional yellow family, we saw Homer grow into a buffoonish caricature of his former self. Sure, he’s always been dumb—but did he need to become this dumb? The twentieth season shows just how far the series—and, by extension, animated comedy in general—has fallen;

I’ve always hated the word “zeitgeist” (it’s a little too proactive and paradigm-y for me), but other than that yes to all of the above.  Click on the link for a brilliant rundown of examples of great humor from The Simpsons that Zombie Simpsons has never even managed to approach.