“It’s a thorny legal issue, alright. I’ll need to refer to the case of Finders vs. Keepers.” – Lionel Hutz
Tag: Lisa the Skeptic
Makeup Quote of the Day
“Um, you know, I can’t afford to pay you.” – Lisa Simpson “I didn’t become a scientist for financial gain. Whatever little money you have will be just fine.” – Stephen Jay Gould
Quote of the Day
“I say it’s the Angel of Peace, you idiot!” – Carl “I say it’s the Angel of Mercy, you jerk!” – Lenny Happy (kinda) 20th Anniversary to “Lisa the Skeptic”! Original airdate, 23 November 1997.
Quote of the Day
“Oh, Marge, don’t let go, no matter what! If they want you in Heaven they gotta take me too.” – Homer Simpson
Quote of the Day
“Attention, all honor students will be rewarded with a trip to an archaeological dig.” – Principal Skinner “Yay!” – Honor Students “Conversely, all detention students will be punished with a trip to an archaeological dig.” – Principal Skinner “Oh, no.” – Detention Students
Quote of the Day
“Well, it appears science has faltered once again in the face of overwhelming religious evidence.” – Rev. Lovejoy “But-” – Lisa Simpson “Go home, science girl!” – Moe “I am home.” – Lisa Simpson “Good. Stay there.” – Moe Happy birthday David S/X Cohen!
Quote of the Day
“Technocrats are learning a lesson in humility tonight, as angel supporters lay waste to Springfield’s scientific institutions.” – Kent Brockman
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 no more Simpsons DVDs. Once again, we have a lone link because there just isn’t much here. When they did that cash grab Blu-Ray/DVD release of Season 20 (sans extras or commentaries) back in 2009/2010, I joked that they were probably never going to catch up because at the rate they were doing them, Season 20 on DVD wouldn’t be coming out until like 2018, and does anyone really think people are going to be buying DVDs in 2018? Well, it turns out there are some people who thought that, and they are upset about this. We have an outraged YouTube video from one of them, but I only made it about a fifth of the way through the fifteen minutes runtime. I have long experience caring about things most people don’t care about, but there are limits. But, hey, we’ve also got some fan art, more cross stitch, an excellent piece of usage from a financial analyst (of all people), and more. Enjoy. MR BURNS – Fan made drawing of Burns and Smithers in what I assume is one of Smithers’ favorite positions. (NOTE: It’s not as dirty as I just made it sound.) Etsy: Moe Szyslak Cross Stitch – The Moe cross stitch has been completed. The Simpsons go to the boards in Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play – Backstory on the play coming to Toronto. 128th-Final, Round 8: Homie the Clown vs. Bart’s Girlfriend – Oof, that’s tough, though that is a great screen grab of Homer and Flanders from “Homie the Clown”. Lisa’s Subsitute – This: -I like Skinner explaining, in excruciating detail, how Lyme Disease works…to a second-grade class. Meanwhile, Hoover’s standing there getting queasier and queasier. The Simpsons: making malignant spirochetes funny. Round 1, Battle 11 – (S.3 Ep.13) Radio Bart vs (S. 9 Ep. 22) Trash of the Titans – That’s “Radio Bart” by knockout in the first so hard that the sanctioning body should be ashamed of itself. Round 1, Battle 13 (S. 9 Ep. 18) This Little Wiggy vs. (S. 5 Ep. 15) Deep Space Homer – Going against Season 9 again, for sure. Round 1, Battle 14 – (S.4 Ep. 9) Mr Plow vs (S.4 Ep. 14) Brother From the Same Planet – But this one is too close to call. The Simpsons First-Impression Matrix – Su-san from the country club would probably scoff at this. ‘The Simpsons’s Nancy Cartwright Made A Bartman Statue Out Of Clay – That Bart…
Quote of the Day
“My attorney, Lionel Hutz, calls your attention to municipal code 147(c), Protection of Antiquities and Fossils.” – Lisa Simpson “That’s right.” – Lionel Hutz
Quote of the Day
“Yeah, everyone’s heard of angels. But who’s ever heard of a ‘neanderthal’?” – Chief Wiggum
I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot Makes Baby Jesus Cry
“Why, why was I programmed to feel pain?” – Robot As far as Zombie Simpsons commentaries go this one is typically dull, right up until they do something actually worth listening to near the end. (Spoiler alert: Jean and Groening both hate “The Principal and the Pauper”. Cool.) Before that is the usual meandering conversation and basically ignoring the episode, which is a good thing because this episode is awful. It makes no sense, is full of fake drama and tension, tries to change something and then ignores it, and relies on Homer getting hurt in pretty much every scene. With the exception of the animation (which they justifiably compliment in places), this one would’ve fit in seamlessly with Season 24. Whoa, eleven people in this one: Jean, Allen Glazier, Matt Selman, Michael Price, Tom Gammill, Max Pross, Matt Warburton, Nancy Cartwright, Lauren MacMullan, TV critic Alan Sepinwall, and a very late arriving Groening. 0:30 – And we begin with everyone jokingly wondering why Sepinwall is here. 0:45 – This was just a regular pitch, but apparently people thought it was based off of a Twilight Zone episode. This is what happens when people give Zombie Simpsons too much credit. 1:15 – Jean compliments MacMullan, who directed, on how good the episode looks. She says “thank you”. That’s it. 2:00 – Jean asks Sepinwall how they’re doing on the commentary. Sepinwall laughs and changes the subject to what’s actually going on in the episode. Clearly he has not listened to many Zombie Simpsons commentaries. Nobody wants to watch the episode. 2:30 – Jean asks MacMullan how much drawing the director actually has to do: some but not much. They had a new artist on this one who had to do a lot of the crying. 3:30 – Long discussion of how hard it is to get tears to look like real water. Also, Snowball II just got run over. 4:00 – Jean’s talking about how this was loosely based on his daughter, who had three cats die on her in quick succession. He jokes, “Like any writer I didn’t consider what her feelings might be, I just said we should do this”. It’s funny. 4:40 – Oh, fuck, Selman’s natural ass kissing reflex has kicked in and he’s buttering up Sepinwall. 5:00 – Apparently Selman and Sepinwall went to college together. There you go. 5:40 – Everyone’s cracking up as Bart crashes his bicycle. 6:20 – After a brief silence, Jean asks about the models for the fighting robots. Some of the guys on the show- were into fighting robots. 7:00 – Gammill, trying to fill a void, points out that MacMullan and a couple of the writers also went to college together. Meanwhile, nothing is happening in the episode. 7:40 – While Homer sets himself on fire a couple of times, MacMullan describes how they tried to make some of the uglier characters uglier in a more traditional way. This prompts Cartwright to do Nelson’s voice in protest. As…
Quote of the Day
“Principal Skinner, remember how I didn’t sue when I found that scorpion in my apple sauce? Well, I’m calling in a favor.” – Lisa Simpson “I knew this day would come.” – Principal Skinner
Quote of the Day
“I find the defendant not guilty. As for science versus religion, I’m issuing a restraining order. Religion must stay five hundred yards from science at all times.” – Judge Snyder Happy birthday David S/X Cohen!
Quote of the Day
Image used under Creative Commons license from Wikimedia Commons. “There’s that new megamall they’re building. They say the air conditioner will be more powerful than a million hydrogen bombs.” – Marge Simpson
Crazy Noises: Lisa the Skeptic
“Miss Simpson, how can you maintain your skepticism in spite of the fact that this thing really, really looks like an angel?” – Kent Brockman “I just think it’s a fantasy. If you believe in angels, then why not unicorns or sea monsters or leprechauns?” – Lisa Simpson “Oh, that’s a bunch of baloney, Lisa, everyone knows leprechauns are extinct!” – Kent Brockman There’s no new Zombie Simpsons until September, so we’re going to spend the summer overthinking Season 9. Why Season 9? Because we did Season 8 last summer, and Season 9 was when the show started becoming more Zombie than Simpsons. Since we’re too lazy to do audio and too ugly to do video, we’ve booked a “chatroom” (ours is right between the one with the sexy seventh graders and the one with the bored federal agents pretending to be sexy seventh graders). So log on to your dial-up AOL and join us. This text has been edited for clarity and spelling (especially on “Barnabas”). Today’s episode is 908 “Lisa the Skeptic”. Yesterday was 907 “The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons”. Mad Jon: Sorry Charlie Sweatpants: It’s okay. Dave: We were listening to Jeopardy think music during your sprinkler outing. Charlie Sweatpants: Ironically enough, the question was “What is neighborhood association enforced lawn maintenance?” Dave: How about that. Charlie Sweatpants: Shall we proceed with Lisa’s foray into marketing stunts? Mad Jon: Yes Dave: I know a thing or two about marketing stunts. Charlie Sweatpants: I detest many parts of this episode, but for once my complaint is more with the specifics than the underlying story. I like the idea that marketing sociopaths would exploit people’s beliefs for fun and profit, and I like even more the idea that those who’ve been exploited would forgive them instantly once they see all the wares for sale at low, low prices. Mad Jon: Those are both funny premises. Even Rat Spray. Charlie Sweatpants: That’s the kind of borderline nihilism that did a lot to make the show great. Dave: But… Charlie Sweatpants: The problem with it is the execution, there’s a massive overreliance on string music of suspense, Marge and Lovejoy turn into complete assholes, and there was no reason for Stephen Gould to voice himself. Also, there’s a great deal of Jerkass Homer. Mad Jon: There is quite a bit of that. Dave: Gould’s appearance always confuses me. I’m not sure why he’s written as a borderline malicious character. Or if that was even the intent. Either way, I could do without him. Charlie Sweatpants: I don’t mind that so much, I actually think most of his lines are pretty good, what bothers me is that he was playing himself when could’ve just been some bitter scientist stuck in a dead end job that he thinks is beneath him. Mad Jon: Every time I see him all I can do is think about punctuated equilibrium, which brings terrible memories of Bio 415. Dave: So is that all…
Stained Glass Simpsons
On the same day we’re talking about St. Eleutherius of Nicomedia, I come across the work of Joseph Cavalieri, an artist who makes stained glass windows with Simpsons characters. The one on the left is from Cavalieri’s site, the one on the right is from Stuff Boston. Much like that hyper-elaborate Homer drawing from a couple of weeks ago, I’m just incredibly impressed by the skill it must take to create something like this. It’s the little touches that really make it, like Patty & Selma having those conical bras and all of the scrapped televisions beneath Bart & Lisa. (found via)