“Sir, the actors are here to audition for the part of you.” – Mr. Smithers “Excellent.” – C.M. Burns It’s a short Reading Digest this week because I’m still behind the eight-ball, and the Dead Homer Society inbox still has rainbow wigs and floppy shoes everywhere, but some Reading Digest is better than no Reading Digest (right?). Since the announcement of the (possible, still very unconfirmed) departure of Harry Shearer, plenty of people have been throwing their voices into the ring. This week, we’ve got three of them (kinda). We’ve also got some excellent usage, another Simpsons recasting, globetrotting Nancy…
Category: Simpsons
Behind Us Forever: Bull-E
“I guess I’ve always used violence as a way of getting attention.” – Jimbo Jones “Yes, yes! Me too!” – Nelson Muntz Bart gets bullied, so Marge gets the town council to pass an anti-bullying law, which allows Wiggum to lock up a bunch of random people, which puts Homer into group therapy for bullying Flanders, which causes Homer to become a hero, which causes Flanders to resent him and make him beg for forgiveness. That terrible sentence took you much less time to read than this episode would to watch. – Weird couch gag with all the soccer balls,…
Reading Digest: The Show Will Go On, The DVDs Will Not Edition
“Come on, who wants to complain with me?” – Lisa Simpson The obvious big news this week was the renewal. For those of us who were paying attention, it wasn’t the least bit surprising. For the overwhelming majority of people who have the good sense not to be paying attention, it was big news. So the Simpsons signal-to-noise ratio went bonkers and, as is always the case when that happens, this is a pretty short Reading Digest. We’ve only got one renewal link, and that was just because it has a marvelous headline. In other not-news news, there will be…
Zombie Simpsons Renewed For Forty-Four More Episodes
♫”If this old clown was found dead in his bed tomorrow/ I’d be in heaven, still doing this show!”♫ – Krusty the Klown This here blog has been live on the internet for six years and change. In that time we’ve seen four renewal announcements, including last night’s. Here are the details: – two more full production runs of 22 episodes each – will take the show through Season 28 and give it the first seven episodes of a Season 29(!) – new guaranteed episode total of 625(!!) – the next time to look for a renewal announcement will be…
Behind Us Forever: Let’s Go Fly a Coot
“Hey, look, someone’s attractive cousin!” – Bart Simpson This week on Zombie Simpsons, a bunch of old Air Force pilots show up to threaten Homer into spending time with his dad, or something. Meanwhile, Milhouse’s hot cousin (voiced by Carice van Houten, a/k/a She Who Queefs Shadows on Game of Thrones) likes to use e-cigarettes. Nothing much happens in either. – Short couch gag and shortened opening, don’t see that too often. – We open at Milhouse’s super elaborate birthday party. Homer picks up the take home bag and helpfully tells us what each of the contents are as he picks…
Reading Digest: Real Life Soul Donut Edition
“Well, well, finishing something?” – The Devil This week, someone not only made Simpsons donuts and posted the recipe, they made the Soul Donut! Excellent. In addition to that we’ve got fan art everywhere from crosstitch and felt to statues and house paint. Plus there’s some excellent usage, more episode rundowns and reviews, and more. Enjoy. Note: Still no news on contract renewal. I continue to assume there will be a full Season 27. Homer Simpson’s Donut Recipe – Just what it says, with easy to follow instructions and this: Etsy: Marge Simpson Cross Stitch – Excellent and for sale. Works in…
Behind Us Forever: The Kids Are All Fight
“It all began about two years ago before Maggie was even born. Bart, you were Lisa’s age, and Lisa, you were the age Bart was several years ago.” – Homer Simpson As it has doddered along these last few years, Zombie Simpsons has started to turn to flash forward episodes a bit more often where Bart and Lisa are adults with kids of their own. For “The Kids Are All Fight”, they went the other way, going backwards to some indeterminate time a few years ago when Bart was four and Lisa was two. The story, which was even more…
Reading Digest: Perfectly Timed Door Slam Edition
“I’m glad I’m not crying, because I would hate for you think that what I’m about to say is based on emotion. But you, sir, are a baboon!” – Lisa Simpson “Me?” – Homer Simpson “Yes, you! Baboon! Baboon! Baboon! Baboon!” – Lisa Simpson “I don’t think you realize what you’re saying.” – Homer Simpson “Baboon!” – Lisa Simpson First off, sorry for the lack of Compare & Contrast this week. I’m still in the thick of it at work and didn’t have time. (Things will – he typed hopefully – ease off starting next week.) In regular news, we’ve…
Reading Digest: Still Waiting For Renewal Edition
“You’ve been flushing for twenty minutes. Is there a problem?” – Principal Skinner “Uh, no, Principal Skinner.” – Jimbo Jones “Very well. I’ll continue to wait.” – Principal Skinner As near as anyone can tell, the show remains without an official renewal. Eika Isabel Vega, who’s been a real good sport about me using her Twitter feed to track the potential death of her job, tweeted this an hour ago: My guess is still that it’ll be renewed, but it looks like production is beginning to shut down, so we’ll see what happens. In regular link news, this week we’ve…
Zombie Simpsons Renewal Goes to Overtime
“Hey, you know we’re getting into golden time?” – Estonian Actor “Yes, well just get it right or you’ll all be back doing ‘Come Blow Your Horn’ at the Westport dinner theater!” – C.M. Burns Six months ago, we got word from Al Jean himself that the current TABF production run was indeed a full twenty-two episode order. The most recent episode was TABF10, which means that they have twelve more episodes to broadcast under the current contract. Last night, commenter Mr. Incognito e-mailed me to let me know that Erika Isabel Vega, who’s been with the show since 2006,…
Reading Digest: Eating Like Homer Edition
“Gentlemen, there’s only one solution: we place this last donut in the reactor core, exposing it to radiation, thereby making it big!” – Homer Simpson This week we’ve got two links to great moments in food related Simpsons fandom, one on the consumption side and one on the production side. Happily, both of them are even videos, so you don’t have to reduce your boredom by reading anything. In addition to that, the play is spreading like the Osaka Flu, we’ve got three late obituaries, lots of drawings of Milhouse, a couple people who agree with us, another Simpsons-movie casting…
Reading Digest: The Simpsons Will Outlive Us All Edition
“Hey, Bart, according to this magazine, in another million years man’ll have an extra finger.” – Lisa Simpson “Five fingers? Eww, freakshow.” – Bart Simpson For obvious reasons, this site takes the position that The Simpsons was and is the greatest show ever. (Zombie Simpsons naturally excluded.) Of course, plenty of people disagree about that for one reason or another, but the nice thing about being a Simpsons advocate is that I get to cite examples, lots of them. For instance, this week we have a link to an article about the best sitcom of the 1990s, the author presumes that The…
Reading Digest: Moar Sam Simon Tributes
Sam Simon was so widely beloved that there was no way to sort through even a part of people’s tributes to him last week. Now that the noise has settled down and big media outlets are on to the next thing, this week we’ve got a ton more great stuff about the man. There’s other stuff too, of course, but mostly it’s Simon. Enjoy. My buddy Sam Simon. – Smooth Charlie’s Link of the Week is this long and loving encomium for Simon by a writer who met him over poker. It’s long, but it’s a great read. Someone built all of…
Reading Digest: Snowmen Edition
“Check it out, boy, it’s like looking into a living snow mirror.” – Homer Simpson Two different people in St. Louis decided to use this winter to make some snow Simpsons. One is just Homer, but the other is the whole family and the couch. It’s great. In other impressive fan feats this week, there’s glow in the dark zombie Simpsons, a zombie Springfield, a grammar rodeo t-shirt, and money. In addition to that we’ve got some excellent usage, lots of Nimoy links, reviews of old episodes and Season 7, and someone who literally agrees with us. Enjoy. Zombie Simpsons…
Behind Us Forever: The Princess Guide
“I’m sorry, Homer. It’s just, it’s been four years since my last date with a whatchacallit . . . a woman.” – Moe Another week, another Zombie Simpsons episode. This one starts with “Take Your Daughter to Work Day”, which means Lisa gets to go to the power plant again. That doesn’t last long, however, as Burns suddenly needs uranium and begins negotiating with a Nigerian king (yes, you read that correctly). In the meantime, the king’s daughter is going to be looked after by Homer. The daughter wants to go out and see the town, but ends up inexplicably hanging…
Reading Digest: Over the Gorge Edition
“I’m the king of the world! Woo-hoo! Woo-hoo!” – Homer Simpson The first and best link we have this week is a fan made poster of Homer’s disastrous attempt to teach Bart a lesson. I cannot recommend it highly enough. After that there are a bunch of other links to great fan made stuff, including Legos and crayons. And after that, we’ve got the play moving to America’s wang, a whole website dedicated to Simpsons tattoos, idiotic donut marketing, and more. Enjoy. Cool Stuff: Official Mark Englert Simpsons Poster – Smooth Charlie’s Link of the Week is this high res poster…
Reading Digest: Fan Made Donuts & Zombies Edition
“Aww, honey, that looks just like a real donut.” – Homer Simpson “Dad, it says ‘non-toxic’.” – Bart Simpson “Well, that’s a plus.” – Homer Simpson This week we have two excellent pieces of fan art, one a painting the other some CGI zombies, and both are great. Since Bacon Day is tomorrow, we also have a bunch of links involving “I Love Lisa” one way or another, plus some excellent references, Groening on live TV, a protest south of the equator, someone who agrees with me about the lameness of last week’s Zombie Simpsons, and much more. Enjoy. Zombie…
Reading Digest: Pixels Pixels Edition
“Keep cool, Simpson. Be in the game, but not of the game.” – Bart Simpson “No es bueno!” – Panamanian Strongman There was one link that dominated the Simpsons internet this week. Usually when that happens it’s yet another lame publicity stunt or the latest celebrity to do a guest voice. This time, however, it is truly worthy: Watch it. Then watch it again. It’s so slick and professional that at first I thought it was another one that Zombie Simpsons had commissioned. Nope. Just some guys who have serious skills and love the show. Excellent. Bravo. Well done. Kudos…
Reading Digest: Suggested Search Edition
“I suggest a lengthy, inefficient search, at the taxpayers’ expense, of course.” – NASA Scientist “I wish there was an easier way.” – NASA Director It’s a very short Reading Digest this week. The WordPress “Simpsons” tag wasn’t working, those Auschwitz images I linked last week went kinda big, plus all the chatter about Elon Musk meant the signal to noise ratio went to hell again. We’ve got some usage, some more play reviews, a couple of cool fan doodles, and the first few instances of Bacon Day cards, so it’s not like it’s completely barren. Things should smooth out…
Reading Digest: Cranky with the Media Edition
“Wow, a bustling metropolitan newsroom, funneling scoops from all over the globe.” – Lisa Simpson “Hi, are you interested in a subscription to the Shopper?” – Sales Dude “Low introductory rates.” – Sales Lady “No, please, you gotta help old Gil. What’s it gonna take to keep you on the phone? Dance for you? But you wouldn’t even see it. Alright, I’m a dancin’!” – Gil This week, I make only tangentially relevant complaints about several linked articles: lazy sourcing, inappropriate pageview whoring, and two instances of recycled content that sort of, somehow had something to do with the show.…