“Ooh, look Maggie, what is that? Dodecahedron. Dodecahedron.” – Lisa Simpson “Lisa, I don’t know what you’re doing but it’s very strange and your father’s trying to worry.” – Homer Simpson
Month: April 2011
Reading Digest: All Hail “Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy” Edition
“No, Celeste, I mean the things she says are sexist.” – Lisa Simpson “Lisa said a dirty word!” – Girls This week we have two people who watched “Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy” for a class and had to blog about it. Isn’t the internet wonderful? “Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy” is just about the quintessential “watch for a class” episode when it comes time to study female portrayals in popular media. But if I may make a suggestion to the syllabus writers of the world, don’t overlook “Dukerella”, the penultimate episode of The Critic. Presumably because the DVD revenue is miniscule,…
Quote of the Day
“Bleah, the lottery. Exploiter of the poor and ignorant.” – Moe
Some Love for Season 3 (and 4 and 5)
There are four consecutive weeks of Zombie Simpsons starting on Sunday, so we’ll be back on our regular schedule for the month of May before embarking on Season 10 for the summer. In the meantime, please enjoy some excellent Simpsons writing from two of our longtime blog friends. First up is Kokairu, who’s continuing her series of looking back at all the episodes. She’s crammed a whole lot into this one “The Simpsons on Reflection Part V: Seasons 3-5”. (I originally read this back when she posted it at the beginning of the month, and I could swear I posted…
Quote of the Day
“With all due respect, Mrs. Simpson, you’re not a doctor. The boy’s not a doctor. I’m not a doctor. The only person in this room who even comes close is this man.” – Lionel Hutz “Stop, you’re embarrassing me.” – Dr. Nick Riviera
Quote of the Day
“A car impound lot, the impenetrable fortress of suburbia.” – Martin Prince
Chart and Art from the United Kingdom
“What about Bart?” – Marge Bouvier “Let’s see, Bart, cart, dart, eart . . . nope, can’t see any problem with that.” – Homer Simpson As the title indicates, we got two reader submissions from the UK, one with a chart, the other involving art. (This ends the rhyming portion of this post.) First up, the chart. Seb Patrick noticed something while watching Season 8 recently. He thought the episodes that began with shows-within-the-show ended up being better than those that just started in the regular world of Evergreen Terrace. Curiosity piqued, he plunged ahead: And for some reason, when…
Quote of the Day
Image used under Creative Commons license from Flickr user Timm Suess. More here. “And thank you most of all for nuclear power, which has yet to cause a single, proven fatality . . . at least in this country. Amen.” – Homer Simpson
Monday Evening Cartoons
“Hey, I like this kid. I can’t believe we we’re gonna shoot him.” – Fat Tony As part of the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day that opens this episode, Bart eventually falls down some concrete stairs, only to have a halo of guns surround his head. His ultimate fate is decided in court, on charges of murder; in between he is in various forms of serious jeopardy. But no matter how many times guns are jammed in his face or adults scheme his false conviction, the story is never played for tension or suspense. This extends to Bart’s…
Bonus Quote of the Day
“Pardon me, but I would like to see this money spent on more police officers. I have been shot eight times this year, and as a result I almost missed work.” – Apu Nahasapeemapetilon “Crybaby.” – Chief Wiggum Happy birthday Hank Azaria!
Quote of the Day
“They need me over in the projects of Capital City.” – Mr. Bergstrom “But, I need you too.” – Lisa Simpson “That’s the problem with being middle class, anybody who really cares will abandon you for those who need it more.” – Mr. Bergstrom Happy 20th anniversary to “Lisa’s Substitute”! Original airdate 25 April 1991.
Quote of the Day
“I remember another gentle visitor from the heavens. He came in peace, and then died, only to come back to life. And his name was . . . E.T., the Extra Terrestrial. I love that little guy.” – Reverend Lovejoy
Quote of the Day
“Hey, Skinner, wanna drag race?” – Homer Simpson “My high school sweetheart was killed in a drag racing accident.” – Principal Skinner “Come on, it’ll be fun.” – Homer Simpson “That’s what Debbie-Sue said.” – Principal Skinner
Reading Digest: Children’s Art & Crossover Edition
“Coming up next, ‘The Flintstones Meet The Jetsons’.” – TV Announcer “Uh-oh, I smell another cheap cartoon crossover.” – Bart Simpson There is a larger than usual list of links this week, we’ve got everything from lawn mowers and Lithuanian comic books to Homer cakes and another rebuttal of the idea that pop culture necessarily ages badly. As for the title, well, there are two of them. First someone pines for a crossover, and then an art teacher talks about how the interests of kids have changed over time. Then someone gets a crossover, and we discover a way to…
Quote of the Day
Image used under Creative Commons license from Flickr user TooFarNorth. “How are you enjoying your ham, Homie?” – Marge Simpson “Tastes so bitter it’s like ashes in my mouth.” – Homer Simpson “Hmm, it’s actually more of a honey glaze.” – Marge Simpson
“Homer vs. Lisa and the 8th Commandment” Spews Truth
“Now, today’s Christian doesn’t think he needs God. He thinks he’s got it made. He’s got his hi-fi, his boob tube, and his instant pizza pie.” – Reverend Lovejoy “Ooh, pizza.” – Homer Simpson After we got such a positive response when we did those posts about “Lisa’s First Word”, and caught in the barren wasteland of the week it’s been around here, I thought I’d go back through the commentary tracks for The Simpsons and see what’s there. For the record, I have only ever heard a tiny handful of these. I got most of the DVD sets as…
Quote of the Day
Left image taken from Wikipedia. “I am Horst; the new owners have elected me to speak with you because I am the most non-threatening. Perhaps I remind you of the loveable Sergeant Schultz on ‘Hogan’s Heroes’?” – Horst
Quote of the Day
“They think they’re so high and mighty, just because they never got caught driving without pants.” – Moe
Source Material
“They haven’t changed a bit, have they?” – Troy McClure Apologies for the relative lack of posts the last few days. I had a couple of ideas go south on me, and Google Alerts has been bone dry of interesting ephemera of late. Today is the 24th anniversary of the premier of the shorts, and all the internet coughed up (that I saw, anyway) was a few “On this day” type things. In honor of this momentous occasion, however, here’s part of the very first one (easily recognizable from its inclusion in “The 138th Episode Spectacular”) as it appeared on…
Quote of the Day
“Although there is no change in my patrician facade, I can assure you, my heart is breaking.” – Lady at The Grateful Gelding Stables