Happy Sea Captain Appreciation Day, I mean Talk Like A Pirate Day!

It’s September 19th, the official National/International Talk Like A Pirate Day of 2016! The nonsense holiday adopted/invented by The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster to fight global warming.

I usually forget this celebration until the day’s half over–but not this time! With Pirates on our mind, we here at FLIM Springfield decided it was time to remember some of the many classic pirate references from the first ten seasons of the show. And, of course, appreciation for The Sea Captain, one of the most enduring members of the Springfield Baggy-Pants Players ensemble.

The Springfield Baggy-Pants Payers “Simspsons Spinoff Showcase” Season 8, 1997

The Sea Captain.
Sure, he’s not a pirate, but he’s got the lingo down…

Look no further,
heeeere come the pirates!

The Rusty Barnacle restaurant,
and its waitstaff.
Homer’s Night Out (Season 1)

Captain Cook, from
The Happy Little Elves.
Some Enchanted Evening (Season 1)

Treasure Island
Bart Gets an F (Season 2)

Stealing can also be called PIRATING!
Homer vs. Lisa & the 8th Commandment (Season 2)

“”If the water turns blue, a baby for you./
If purple ye see, no baby thar be.”
I Married Marge (Season 3)

Argh! 90 “Sea Chanteys” on three compact discs.
Mr. Plow (Season 4)

“You were gunna name it Camp Freedom!”
Kamp Krusty (Season 4)

“I am Calliope, the muse of Heroic Poetry!”
“No kiddin'” *punch*
Treehouse of Horror III (Season 4)

A Streetcar Names Marge
(Season 4)

New Orleans!
-Composed by Alf Clausen & written by Jeff Martin

Long before the Superdome
Where the Saints of football play…
Lived a city that the damned call home
Hear their hellish rondelet…
New Orleans!
Home of pirates, drunks and whores
New Orleans!
Tacky overpriced souvenir stores
If you want to go to hell, you should take a trip
To the Sodom and Gomorrah of the Mississip’
New Orleans!
Stinking, Rotten, vomiting, vile
New Orleans
Putrid, brackish, maggotty, foul
New Orleans!
Crummy, lousy, rancid, and rank
New Orleans

“Arrr! This chair be high, says I.”
Treehouse of Horror IV (Season 5)

“Love in the Time of Scurvy”…

Marge, “Does the earring mean you’re a pirate?”
“… Kind of.”
Lisa’s Rival (Season 6)

Jebediah Springfield
A K A . . .

Hans Sprungfeld, , murderous pirate!
Lisa the Iconoclast (Season 7)

Think of the corporate sponsors!
Lisa the Iconoclast (Season 7)

Natural Born Kissers
(Season 9)

Oh! Thank god dude, I’m saved!
Das Bus (Season 9)

Treehouse of Horror IX
(Season 10)

The Old Man & The ‘C’ Student
(Season 10)

Did we catch ALL the references? Probably not. Let us know which ones we missed in the comments. More importantly: Remember by talking like a pirate, with your help, we can stop global warming, and make the world safe for real scientific research.

July Trivia Recap, and See You Saturday… (August 27)

I’ve Been enjoying a month of month of lazy Saturdays, and almost never got around to posting a recap for July’s Simpsons Trivia at The Coronado. We celebrated the start of our 3rd year with a house full of friends, and breaking in a new co-host to our rotation!

Say hello to Miguel!

Umm, no, this guy…

THIS Miguel!

Miguel’s been a friend for ages, and often joins in on Simpsons binge watching marathons. Who knows what adventures we’ll have between now and when Simpsons Trivia in Phoenix becomes unprofitable?!

We also premiered a new category to open the contest, “New Kids on the Blech”. We used to start with a “Leg Up” round, easy question to warm up with. Well after 3 years we’ve run sort of low on obvious guesses like “Who is the Principal of Bart and Lisa’s school?” This time we developed a 5 question round, with an accompanying word bank of 5 characters/places/things to chose the answers from. Unfortunately, this first go-round wasn’t without hiccups, as we miss-identified one character. Luckily Diana spotted it right away and set things right.

For the mid-contest solo break, Diana did a few head-to-head rounds of  Identify the Scene the Song is From. A pair of challengers had to buzz in and pinpoint where tunes were used in the show. For instance “Monster Mash” from “I Love Lisa”,  “Convoy” sung through the Superstar Celebrity Microphone, and “Mandy” absentmindedly misquoted by Homer as he daydreams about Mindy–or a man named Andy. It was a hoot, and we’ll definitely do it again!

Buzzers a the Ready!

Having a new co-host allowed The Klute to rejoin the field of trivia contestants. There were a bunch of really good teams, competition was tough.

Out of a possible score 109, the winning team, Be Like the Boys had 101 impressive points!
Followed by That’s A Paddlin’, making their last regular appearance due to an upcoming move, with 87 points.
And Crazy Vaclav’s Place of Automobiles with 75.5 points!

Sexy Dames and Plenty of them…MAAAATLOCK
won best team name.

Here’s some sample questions form the show to test yourself against.
Highlight between (the brackets) to see the answer.

• This character isn’t used to Springfield’s funny smell (Samantha Stanky)
• What criminal did Mr. Burns let win at golf in 1974 (Richard Nixon)
• When Selma says “It takes a ripe piece of cheese to catch the mouse.” Who is she about to go on a date with? (Barney)
• What is the 8th Commandment? (Thou Shalt Not Steal)
• In Bart On the Road, what is the Tennessee state motto on the sign they pass when entering the state? (Tennessin’ is Tennebelievin’!)
• Who is this Wife Beating Drunk:

(Andy Capp)

And a good time was had by all! (Sorry there aren’t more pictures, I made some bad device storage decisions this week.)

We’ll be back on The Coronado patio THIS SATURDAY, August 27th starting at 8pm, for another night of fun questions, hard answers, great food, and terrible hints about the best show of the 1990s–possibly the best show of all time, after Sheriff Lobo.

Back to School

“Does Marge Have Friends?” A Poem by Raphael Bob-Waksberg

As you know if you read this post, in addition to The Simpsons, we at Flim Springfield also love Bojack Horseman. So I’m very glad that today I stumbled over this small masterpiece by Bojack Horseman creator and showrunner, Raphael Bob-Waksberg. It’s an ode to one of the Simpsons’ most tragically underdeveloped characters, Marge. Sometimes we get a glimpse of Marge’s sad inner life, such as in Bart on the Road when, in a fit of loneliness, she pokes Maggie awake so that she can come to the rescue with some motherly comfort.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy Raphael’s sad poem as much as we did. If you want some butter, it’s under my face.

Joke Origins: Poochie, The Whatizit? and the ’96 Olympics

In advance of the 2016 Summer Olympics, Atlanta Magazine published a deep and delightful oral history of The Whatizit?.

Good morning everybody. Panic is gripping Springfield
as giant advertising mascots rampage through the city.
Perhaps it’s part of some daring new ad campaign,
but what new product could justify such carnage?

If you don’t remember the Whatizit?, also known as Izzy, don’t worry. There are gloomier memories from Atlanta’s Summer Games besides its star-farting, stoned-looking anthropomorphized comma, and Olympic mascots, much like Love Day decorations, are designed for disposability.

Much more memorable is The Simpsons’ 8th Season Episode “The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show” which first aired February 9, 1997. Commentary on the season 8 DVD tells how FOX was pushing to stir some media attention by adding a new character, despite the fact that The Simpsons was a still ratings giant, and still cranking out solid satirical stories. Show creators Cohen, Oakley and Weinstein fired back at their bosses by roasting the hoary tropes recycled in every attempt to jazz up a stale sitcom. They hardly bother to disguise the litany of Hollywood clichés they endured that inspired the insipid creation that is Poochie.

Obviously, the Whatizit isn’t a direct inspiration for The Kung-Fu Hippie™. There have been plenty of Brady Bunch-style Cousin Olivers on TV over the years that personify the desperate planing that leads to such hackneyed execution. The Poochie episode is full of jokes about out-of-touch TV executives forcing put-upon animators and exasperated writers to deliver on their panicky scheme for spicing up Itchy & Scratchy cartoons. Poochie is the soulless byproduct of committee thinking, a schmear of surfer and Rasta coated in buzzwords and vague notions about what’s hip and modern.

The Whatizit?, on the other hand, was chosen as an afterthought. In the article, Atlanta Olympic’s CEO Billy Payne admits, “We had so many things to do. Were we raising enough money? Were the stadiums going to be built in time? How are we going to train 50,000 volunteers? All of those had enormously higher importance than the mascot.” The city was overwhelmed by more pressing financial and logistical matters. It wasn’t until their icon debuted at the closing of 1992’s Barcelona games, leaving viewers furrowing their brows and slack jawed, that it became a thing to worry over.

(Skip to 5:57 to go right to the Whatizit?)

Ed Hula, editor and founder of Olympic publication Around the Rings, who was in Barcelona, “I just felt at a loss to exactly what we’re seeing. Like, this is it? This?”

Shuman, “Then we come back to Atlanta, and the letters started coming in. I got the letters. They’re complaining: This is terrible.”

Dear Atlanta, There are too many mascots nowadays.
Please eliminate The Whatizit?
I AM NOT A CRACKPOT.

A 1993 Sports Illustrated piece about the games, quotes Matt Groening on the Whatizit?, “A bad marriage of the Pillsbury Doughboy and the ugliest California Raisin.”

WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?!

…And so, the tinkering began. The Whatizit? got streamlined and became the less in-your-face Izzy. Suggestions to make it louder, angrier and to given a time machine were ignored.

Is there any direct connection to The Simpsons, though?
Behind the scenes, yes.

Film Roman is a giant in the animation industry. They’ve been making licensed cartoons since 1985 and have had a hand in nearly every US animated adaption, from Garfield to Spider-Man to The Critic, ever since. The studio started animating The Simpsons 1992, and are still doing it. In 1995, Film Roman were hired guns on the TV special Izzy’s Quest for the Olympic Rings, as part of the advance Olympic hype campaign. According to the oral history, the cartoon is so bad that the Atlanta organizers had to pay for its broadcast! It was only shown twice, and is so obscure that it can’t be found online—the 2016 digital equivalent to being buried in an unmarked grave. (An interactive CD-ROM featuring Izzy is less hard to track down.)

It’s easy to imagine the animators at Film Roman sharing water cooler gossip with The Simpsons staff, guffawing over the horrible job from Atlanta they’d taken on. Groening and the rest of the creative team saw the Whatizit?’s debut, heard the incessant mocking that followed, and surely chuckled knowingly all the flop-sweat tinkering to try and fix it. The timeline fits, too: Groening was already aware of the Whatizit? in ’93. Animated shows take about a year to produce, Film Roman would have had the Izzy cartoon on their drawing boards throughout 1994; and Team Simpson would have been working on the 1997 season at the same time the media blitz for the Atlanta Summer Games was at fever pitch. Izzy was everywhere, a sore thumb constantly being tweaked in front of the public eye all along the way, until it completely vanished back to its home planet before the closing ceremony.

No children are going to be crying
when this puppy is put to sleep.

I think the presence of Springy the Springfield Spring in Season Ten’s “The Old Man and the “C” Student”—which also namecheck’s Whatizit?—shows that Izzy was on The Simpsons’ minds too. While I can’t say with complete certainty that there’s some Izzy in Poochie, it’s just the sort of massive public embarrassment that classic Simpsons did such a great job poking fun at, that I definitely wouldn’t rule it out.

It’s no box of Special K.

As a strange footnote, there’s some people (at least one) who think the 2004 mascots for the Athens Games, are a swipe off Matt Groening’s Akbar and Jeff characters from Life In Hell…

Your honor, you take away our right to steal ideas
where are they going to come from?

“Stole, made up, what’s the difference?” Bojack Horseman and The Simpsons

Kidding! The minds behind Flim Springfield have been enjoying the hell out of Netflix original cartoon Bojack Horseman. Its unique blend of heart-wrenching drama and adult humor plus its unflinching look at life with depression have made it a favorite in our household. We recently binge-watched all of season 3 in one night! What’s more, we have noticed that some of the jokes have made us laugh in the past…when they were used on the Simpsons. Now, we’re not saying that the Simpsons invented all of these jokes, but we’d bet that there are some Simpsons fans making the doughnuts at Bojack Horseman.

1. Season 2, Episode 9: “The Shot”“Don’t make me laugh!” Richard Nixon says, before making a garbled choking sound. When he realizes that this noise does not pass for human laughter, he says “You know what laughter sounds like!” Are Richard Nixon and Rex Banner…the same person?
   
2. Season 3, Episode 4: “Fish Out of Water” While at a film festival in an underwater hotel, Bojack spies Kelsey Jannings, the no-nonsense director he got fired from the Secretariat movie. To avoid a confrontation with her, he picks up a nearby magazine to obscure his face, but it ends up doing more harm than good. Sound familiar?
   
3. Season 3, Episode 1: “Start Spreading the News” When newly minted TV executive Pinky the Penguin tells Mr. Peanutbutter about his recent promotion, Mr. PB inquires about Wanda, his predecessor. Their exchange is extremely reminiscent of a gag the Simpsons did a few times.
   
   

   
4. Season 3, Episode 6: “Brap Brap Pew Pew” In this episode, Diane and Mr. Peanutbutter visit “Planned Parrothood” so that Diane can get an abortion. A sign in the waiting room shows what must be a too-common meal for some Hollywoo residents.
   Of course, we’ve seen the California Cheeseburger before on a field trip to Springfield’s Museum of Crime, from the Simpsons, season 8, episode 25: “The Secret War of Lisa Simpson.”
   I’m sure there are more that I forgot to note here, but since there will be another year before we get more Bojack, we will be rewatching the first three seasons and can add to this list. If you caught some we didn’t mention, please let us know!

Addendum: I know this has nothing to do with the Simpsons, but I wanted to put it somewhere. You know that Jellybean book that Kelsey wanted to make into a movie starring Bojack?

Yeah, that one. I have read that book. It’s not really about jellybeans, it’s Weird Girl and What’s His Name by Meagan Brothers and it’s about a girl and her friend who love The X-Files. Potato, potatto, right?

Bastille Day 2016! I know where we can get some baguettes

We’re celebrating Bastille Day with Rick and his family this Summer. Congratulations on 227 years of revolution and freedom, France! While we here in AmericaTown claim our independence a full 10 days earlier, we like your hustle–never give up.

You’re living in a world of make-believe
with flowers and bells and leprechauns
and magic frogs with funny little hats.

It’d be easy to dedicate this whole post to Bart’s inspiring story of wine country survival from Season one Episode 11’s The Crepes of Wrath*, but we wanted to show the sunny side of the land of Liberté, Equalité, Fraternité. Here in no particular order, are the most prominent references to France and French culture we could find in The Simpsons first 10 seasons, enjoy!

Like most American media,
there’s a long history of The Simpsons poking fun at The French.

But it’s not all bad…

Without you,
summer’s a bummer.
-Rick

The French have a rich, deep culture, with many facets,
like a well cleaved cubic zirconia…

the many faces of France.

The beautiful language…

so romantic

(I suppose it depends who’s speaking it.)

. . .

yea, that’s better.

The Art!

An impression of Impressionism.

The cuisine…

SAY IT, FRENCHIE!

The drink!

♪ Here we sit enjoying the shade ♪
♪ Hey brother, pour the wine ♪
♪ Drink the drink that I have made ♪
♪ Hey brother, pour the wine ♪
♪ He’s here at last, my one and only ♪
♪ Good-bye, friends, and don’t be lonely ♪
♪ Hey brother, pour the wine ♪

We even owe them for influencing
the very foundations of our Democracy…

Art imitates life, imitates art.

Yes, the French have given far more to the world
than just clumsy Clouseau-esque waiters…

For instance:
the tradition of humane capital punishment.

nuclear proliferation…

The original French Bikini!

And more peaceful cultural exports:
A love of spirit…

This place has a weird smell.
(France doesn’t want ’em, Canada doesn’t want ’em…)

oot and aboot
(ahem, Canada Day was July 1st you know)

(did you notice that last girl in the line,
she’s trudging like it’s a march
through the desert with the Foreign Legion.)

and the body…

(speaking of bombs)

And what’ve we ever done for them in return?!

Expatriotism!

Well, they know good music when they hear it,
but otherwise…

The Happiest Place on Earth.

Oh, and…

Art appreciation?
(mon père ce qu’est un buffon)

Yea, I guess…

maybe we’re getting what we deserve?

Chortling.

So remember, even if you only ever meet one nice French person in your life, there’s is a country that has given us so much to savor, to indulge in, to laugh at, and hopefully through the teaching of a cartoon family, to laugh with.

Update: Thursday July 14th, 9:10PM MT time.

Liberté, égalité, fraternité
to all. Love and peace.

Please, let us know if we missed anything good, from seasons 1-10, in the comments!

 

*not to be confused with this swanky food blog

 

San Diego Comic-Con 2016: Simpsons Preview

Another July is upon us, and nerds the world over will flock to California, tipping the entire continent to the West, causing us all to slide into the ocean. Perhaps that won’t happen, but maybe it will. Who knows? What I do know is that Comic-Con International, aka San Diego Comic-Con, is taking place from July 21st to 24th.

Check out our Comic-Con Survival Guide!

Over the past decade, Hollywood movies and television have taken over the event, and while this is a lamentable loss of focus, is does mean there’s usually some great finds for Simpsons fans throughout the weekend. Matt Groening started out as a cartoonist for alternative newspapers himself, a his love of the medium has always been part of The Simpsons.

In fact, one of the big happenings this year is Groening’s nomination for the Will Eisner Hall of Fame! Each year a pair of comics creators are chosen: this year Carl Burgos (creator of the original Human Torch) and Tove Jansson (creator of Moomin) for induction. In addition to the Judges Choices, a ballot of nominees is compiled, and after further voting, four more inductees are selected by their peers.

2016 Nominee
Awards In Hell

Matt is in this pool, a class that includes his good friend and peer Lynda Barry, as well as legends such as Rube Goldberg; fellow alt-cartoonist Bill Griffith creator of ZIPPY the Pinhead;  Raw Comics founder and New Yorker Editor Francoise Mouly (video); Ranma ½ creator Rumiko Takahashi (perhaps the best selling woman comics creator in the world); and Herb Trimpe, one of the Marvel comics key illustrators from the 1960s-80s, known for his work on GI Joe, Godzilla, and his character defining work on The Incredible Hulk alongside writer Bill Mantlo. Those are just a few of the amazing talented people Matt is ‘competing’ against.

Yes, The Simpsons have come a long way
since an old drunk made humans
of his rabbit characters
to pay of his gambling debts.

Honestly though, this is one of those awards where it is just an honor to be nominated. Matt already received an Icon award at the Con’ in 2012, so if he isn’t a 2016 inductee, Life In Hell will certainly find its way in eventually.

The other big Simpson related event is probably going to be Nancy Cartwright’s art show at the Chuck Jones Gallery!

My high school art teacher hated them. /
What?! The man was a fool.

Apparently Bart’s Voice has been studying painting and sculpture for a while now, and has developed a nice body of work. Here’s a picture of a bronze bust of Bartman she did for her show’s 25 Anniversary…

Who are you supposed to be?
A voice actor, painter, and sculptor!
(Photo: Mike Ayers, the Wall Street Journal)

Actual footage of Ms. Cartwright’s creative process.

If anyone goes to this show’s reception, please take pictures for us, we’d love to include it in our post-SDCC wrap-up!

For fans looking for super-swag, it looks like the big ‘get’ for Simpsons fans this year will be KidRobot‘s 7″ Mr. Sparkle…

Oh, hello, American investor.

…KAIJU Monster!

$50 for a plastic toy?!
…who sculpted it, Michael Malangelo?

If you can’t make it to the show, you can try pre-ordering one of the 500 limited editions they’re casting. Might look cooler that Nancy’s bronzes, but surely not as limited or unique.

Other things to watch out for at the con include The Simpsons and SpongeBob Smile-Time Hour (Thurs. 21st, 1-2pm, room 23ABC) where BONGO director/editors Nathan Kane, along with Terry Delegeane and Chris Duffy will speak about humor in comics! BONGO itself will have a booth at spot 2519 in the exhibitors hall, and they’re sure to have artists and writers signing and sketching all weekend.

The Fox network will have a reduced presence at the con overall, but still host Hall H Simpsons (Sat. 23rd, Noon, Ballroom 20) and FOX panels, where the show’s creators, and network bigwigs will talk-up the upcoming season. Groening, Al Jean, Matt Selman, Mike B. Anderson, David Silverman, and Nancy Cartwright will hype the 28th season and 600 episode! (Apparently they’re still making new ones every now and then? I had no idea.)

Perhaps Matt Groening will also have an update on plans to develop a new show for Netflix?!

Additional Bongo Comics creators attending the show this year include:
Sergio Aragonés (creator of Groo, and long-time MAD Magazine contributor) who occasionally writes Simpsons comics will be at booth I-07; Scott Shaw! will be next to Sergio at I-08. In addition to helping found SDCC, Shaw also co-created Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew at DC Comics, and drawn issues of Bart Simpson Comics and designed some of the Simpsons toys for McFarlane Toys.

>>>>>Update (July 13)! Thanks to Jesse Lankford on twitter, we’ve been told about another off-site event: On Friday 22, 6pm there’ll be a Simpsons Collector’s Panel/meet-up, held at the Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina, Pacific 24, North Tower. This event is hosted by the folks at SimpsonsCollectors.com.
Thanks Jesse!

For those of you lucky/crazy enough to go to SDCC this year, get pictures of the Simpsons cosplayers for us, and if Fox is doing any kind of Simpsons freebee we’d love to have some to give as prizes at our monthly Classic Simpsons Trivia contest.

Most importantly, remember: Comic-Con is the place to discover new talent, as well as meet legends of the industry. Some of the most fun you can have will be meeting the DIY creators shilling their own books, art, and creations. Fight your way past the huge Hollywood displays…

♪ It’s got Paul Anka’s guarantee♪

…and surprise yourself by buying work from new creators and tomorrow’s stars of the medium. Remember: before Superman was the cornerstone of a multi-media empire, there was two kids desperate for any break, before their was Walking Dead on AMC, there was 50+ issues of a black & white comic book, and before their was Simpsons Roasting On an Open Fire, there was…

Cover of Life In Hell No. 4, published in 1978.

 

June Trivia Wrap-Up, and July Trivia Date Announcement!

June is the traditional beginning of Arizona’s long, hot Summer. Unless it begins in May. Unless it begins in April. What I’m trying to say is, right now it feels like that ozone hole that devastated Brazil is always wintering over Phoenix.

That didn’t stop us from giving the best performance of our lives! That’s right: The best performance of our lives! What? The/Best/Performance/Of/Our/Lives!

Really, we had a great time back home at The Coronado after holding court at the library in May. The patio was cool, and even with the PA not available, you could hear us and the irritated groan of our audience all across 7th Street. Our regular fill-in guest host, The Klute, took time away from promoting his new book of shark themed poetry Chumming the Waters to be our third rail, he really helped make with the laugh-laugh.

The Klute has also been live-tweeting Discovery Channel’s annual Shark Week since it started. More importantly, his book isn’t just in the name of poetry, The Klute will be featured at Shark Con in Florida this year, as he is a staunch advocate of shark preservation!

On with the recap! The Best Team Name of June was Rootmarm, who also turned in this awesomely decorated answer sheet…

You have real talent.
Do you really think so?
My high school art teacher hated them.

…Still, that didn’t earn them extra credit and they only came in 4th with 22 points out of a possible 107. Even I have to admit our questions were a little rough this month though–we had a little too much sarsaparilla while working on the quiz I guess.

First place this month were Lord Thistlewick Flanders with 84 points.
Team That’s A Paddlin’ were back this month with strong second place of 74 points.
And newcomers Jeremy’s Iron rounded out the top spots with a score of 42.

Here’s some pictures of the show…

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The mid-game solo competition was one of our weirdest experiments yet: We piled up all the Simpsons toys we could (a motley assortment), and gave anyone who wanted the chance to set up a diorama based on an actual scene from the show. Then we timed how fast we judges could figure out what moment was being presented. The best contestant got us in under 7 seconds, wining a cyborg-Burns and Smithers in Bobo costume set! Sadly I didn’t remember what scene they challenged us with.

And now, lets test your Simpsons Q!
with some sample questions from our trivia contest show:
(Highlight between the parenthesis to see the answer)

• What item does Homer declare his fourth child? (football, “Stitchface”)
  The crusty old dean of Springfield University used to play bass for this band. (The Pretenders)
• What are the last names of the two biggest gossips in Springfield? (Aaronson and Zakowski)
• While attacking Homer, George Bush threatens, “I’ll ruin you like a _____ (Japanese banquet)
• What are the three examples of jolly fat men given by Kent Brockman in a newscast about obesity? (Dom Deluise, Alfred Hitchcock, and Santa Claus)
• What is the name of the pup Smithers is holding?…

He’s kind of tiny, so…you know, it’s a joke.

(Hercules, his Yorkshire Terrier)

Thanks again to everyone who came out, new and old alike, and brought there friends along! We’ll be back at the end of July, on Saturday the 30th 8-10pm for another night of great food, cool drinks, and terrible hints!

Sunshine, on my shoulder…

Makes me happy

Simpsons emoji Concept Art, by Ariel Hart

These were designed by Ariel Hart and are on her Tumblr, here.

by Ariel Hart 2016

I don’t recall if there’s ever been an official Simpson emoji set, but if there were, I suspect we’d have seen it when the movie came out. A fan can only wish these were available for use–even if there are some post-season 10 icons in the mix here.

Ariel has lot of great work on her blog, it is well worth a look. If you need work done, she is freelance!

12 Angry Men: How many S’s in “innocent?”

12 ANGRY MEN is a hell of a film. They really don’t make ’em like this anymore. The story is told approximately in real-time, over the course of 2 hours, in a single room. The limited cast is one thing that attracted us to this film for recasting. Besides the bailiff and a glimpse of the suspect, there are hardly any characters other than the 12 jurors. They each have one overriding character trait: From the utterly reasonable Henry Fonda as Juror 8, to the lazy and intellectually inert Juror 7 played by Jack Warden, whose only goal is to kill time in the most entertaining way possible. (essay continues after gif set)

Gil Gunderson as Juror #1 (Martin Basalm) “Jury foreman? Gil’s moving up to the big time!”

Ned Flanders as Juror #2 (John Fiedler) A friendly weenie who tries to make everything better by offering people gum, Ned would probably also voice “Piglet” if he was asked to.

Roger Meyers Jr. as Juror #3 (Lee J. Cobb)  An angry loudmouth who definitely has the boorish manners of a Yalie, Juror #3 is the final juror to change his mind.

Hollis Hurlbut as Juror #4 (E.G. Marshall)  These two seem pretty similar: they’re both tightly wound, dedicated to The Truth, and both come around in the end. But for all their twitchy certainty, Hollis knowingly defends a lie, where Juror 4 just needs to take a clear second look.

Frank Grimes as Juror #5 (Jack Klugman)  Juror #5 is a truly angry man whose humble upbringing gives him something in common with the suspect, but separates him from the more fortunate jurors, who probably live in mansions and eat lobster every night.

Surly Joe as Juror #6 (Edward Binns)  He seems like your average surly blue-collar worker, but he is ultimately a fair person who changes his mind when confronted with the fact that the “witness” really wouldn’t have been able to see or hear anything with an El train going by.

Larry Burns as Juror #7 (Jack Warden)  The one juror who doesn’t take the proceedings seriously because he just wants to go see his baseball game. Oh, and once he sawr a blimp!

Dean Bobby Peterson as Juror #8 (Henry Fonda) Do you know how hard it is to find a fair and open-minded person in Springfield?

Hans Moleman as Juror #9 (Joseph Sweeney) The out-of-it old man who at least recognizes this in himself enough to doubt the story of the elderly witness. Did I do wrong?

Krusty the Clown as Juror #10 (Ed Begley) Krusty’s prejudices and frequent tantrums make him the obvious choice. *dickey flaps*

Apu Nahasapeemapetilon as Juror #11 (George Voskovec) The naturalized citizen whose outsider status causes him to take the American justice process more seriously than some of his peers. He is the fourth juror to change his mind.

Lyle Lanley as juror #12 (Robert Webber) How much did you see! Um…Nothing incriminating. Good.

Judge Snyder as the Judge (Rudy Bond) We used white Judge Snyder because that’s the nature of the time this movie was made.

Pepi as the defendant  (John Savoca) A large-eyed, ambiguously ethnic, slum-dwelling youth, Pepi was the perfect fit for our suspect. Hopefully his involvement with Tom and the Bigger Brothers program will put Pepi on a better path.

12 Angry Men is all about the greatness of the American system of trial by jury. Reginald Rose wrote the original version for television in 1954, later adapting it for film, as well as stage. Perhaps its most hopeful message is: given evidence, everyone will be persuaded by a logical argument. In the 1957 theatrical version we’ve recast, an all-white, all-male jury is asked to decide whether to convict a young man of color of murdering his father, and all but one of them are in a hurry to send him to the slammer. The suspect’s n00b public defender didn’t do a very good job, Lionel Hutz levels of incompetence, which says everything about the kid’s chances: he’s doomed. You don’t get to see his face when the jury announces they’ve found him not guilty.

 The Simpsons have entered the Municipal Fortress of Vengeance on numerous occasions in the first 10 seasons: Marge’s trial for shoplifting, Freddy Quimby’s “Beat Up Waiter” case on which Homer is a juror, Bart’s trial for Principal Skinner’s disappearance, and the prosecution of Mr. Burns for hitting Bart with his car, are just a few of the court-heavy episodes. The Honorable Judge Snyder has presided over most of them. In most cases, only a last-minute eyewitness stops the miscarriage of justice. (essay continues after poster)

Star Power!

We had trouble deciding on certain recastings, and in some cases, to avoid going back to the same rouges gallery of obvious substitutions, we dug deep into the Simpsons’ pool of one-off actors: Diana really wanted Apu to play Juror 11, a European immigrant watchmaker, in the original film. Apu is educated, a naturalized citizen, and takes pains to be polite, which is why she wanted him over JRC’s choice of Bumblebee Man, about whom little is known besides his goofy TV antics (though he does speak with a British accent at one point). It felt obvious that Mr. Bergstrom could take Henry Fonda’s place as the open-minded thoughtful Juror 8, but we’d used him previously, so for contrast decided “Crusty” Dean Peterson would be a good foil against the other old and stodgy members of tribunal. True, you can’t picture Fonda playing bass for The Pretenders, but he’d probably be a good at leading a liberal college program routed in social justice.

When Juror 10 makes one final, desperate appeal to racism and the other men turn their backs, it brings to mind of the scene from The Last Temptation of Krust, where Krusty is losing the audience at an alternative comedy show, so he uses his ace up the sleeve: a flapping dickey and racist impression, which ends up being the last straw for his career (for a while).

One character we barely see but learn a lot about, is the defendant. His story unfolds through proxy: Jack Klugman’s Juror 5 defends the boy’s bleak upbringing. The stereotype of his ethnic background is broken by hard working Juror 11. We also hear about the ugly violent crime he’s accused of, persuasively used by Juror’s 3 and 4 to bolster their decision to convict. Pepi’s neighborhood is a great stand-in for the unseen slum described in 12 Angry Men. Bums sleeping in dumpsters, police sirens, boarded up windows, and cramped dingy hallways with crumbling walls and exposed leaking pipes. It makes the permissive chaos of Evergreen Terrace seem tranquil in comparison, an ivory tower that Juror 4 looks down from as he says, “We’re not here to go into the reasons why slums are breeding grounds for criminals; they are. I know it. So do you. The children who come out of slum backgrounds are potential menaces to society.”

In 12 Angry Men, you’re not certain of the outcome until Juror 3 tears up his family photos and breaks down sobbing. It’s the best possible resolution, but aside from the reassuring presence of Fonda, there isn’t a guarantee the defendant will be found innocent. In fact we really can’t be sure he didn’t do it. Occam’s razor suggests he likely did, but the noble mission of the court is to see if there’s just any reasonable doubt. Luckily in this case someone was willing to do the heavy lifting needed to uncover it—the role Lisa typically plays in the more serious Simpsons episodes.

One of the reasons we chose to recast 12 Angry Men is because the characters are marvelously focused types who test to each other in exciting ways. Like The Simpsons, 12 Angry Men is engaging because it explores characters as they react to a simple high stakes situation. Some of the best episodes of The Simpsons, like Lisa the Vegetarian, or Bart Sells His Soul, ask a straightforward question and wring great emotional action by challenging their initial answer. It’s impressive how much pathos is found in The Simpsons, it is also a key part of the show’s enduring appeal. 12 Angry Men endures not just because it asks an important question, but invites us to join the discussion and question our initial answer as it guides a reasonable discussion.

JRC: I remember reading and acting out the play in 8th grade—not for the public, just for the other students in our English class. It was a fun change from the usual spoon-feeding we had to put up with from our unimaginative teacher. I’d already seen 12 Angry Men on TV a few times on my own, which put me a couple steps ahead of most of my classmates. Still, at 14 years old it didn’t make much of an impression. I think Lee J. Cobb and John Fiedler stood out the most to me, as extreme opposites in personality. Having rewatched it for our recasting, and being so impressed at how convincingly it delivers its message of civic duty, I hope schools still have a place for it somewhere in their curriculum.

It would mean so much
to me if we could have
just one nice family photo.