“Welcome to the Knowledgeum, I’m Troy McClure. You may remember me from such automated information kiosks as Welcome to Springfield Airport and Where’s Nordstrom?” – Troy McClure
A new Tumblr hit the internet this week, dedicated to fake posters for Troy McClure movie titles. We have three links about it, and deservedly so. It’s got everything from Hydro, The Man With the Hydraulic Arms to Let’s Save Tony Orlando’s House. In addition to that, we’ve got a bunch of links about the Tapped Out game, interviews with Reiss, Azaria and Ken Levine, a new rendition of the theme song, Milhouse in the British Labour Party, and another Simpsons quote list.
Enjoy.
The Weekly Homer Simpson Quote Idea – Before this site existed, there was this:
Exactly ten years ago today, I had an idea. I was going to share a quote from Homer Simpson every week.
[…]
I kept it up for years, posting my final Homer Simpson quote on February 2, 2008. I was so used to posting a Homer quote first thing Saturday morning that it took a while to shake the habit. It’s a slippery slope my friends.
His quote archive is linked here. There’s some Zombie Simpsons, but it’s mostly good and while I didn’t check all of them, the quotes appear to be very accurate. Well done. (But beware, it’s long and a serious timesuck).
Our Favorite Queer Characters of All Time – Our old friend Lenny discusses queer TV characters, very much including Patty and Smithers, on her TV podcast.
25 Troy McClure Fan-Made Movie Posters Inspired By The Simpsons – That’s to a compilation, here’s the direct Tumblr link.
You Might Remember Me From… – And Alice’s Adventures Through the Windshield Glass.
Hi, I’m Actor Troy McClure – Another one of those fantastic fake Troy McClure posters, this one for The Erotic Adventures of Hercules. Just a reminder, this is the main Tumblr.
The five most exciting film happening events this week – Now. Here. This. – There are a lot of fan versions of the theme song on-line, many with millions of views on YouTube and all kinds of musical devices and instruments. So far, however, I have never seen one using classical Indian instruments:
Awesome.
Just a few notes about this site – This is from that same new Tapped Out blog I linked last week, and it contains some very sensible blogging policies and guidelines.
My View of the Tapped Out World: Pt. 1 – An enjoyable rant about what happened to the previous Tapped Out blog, part the first.
My View of the Tapped Out World: Pt. 2 – An enjoyable rant about what happened to the previous Tapped Out blog, part the second.
The Simpsons: Original Sky1 Artwork! – It’s apparently been twenty years since the show came to Sky, and there are a bunch of links to old stuff to celebrate.
Meet the ‘Simpsons’ writer who named the Dodgers-affiliated Albuquerque Isotopes – An interview with Ken Levine about “Dancin’ Homer”. It’s not that different than what’s on the DVD commentary, but it’s pretty cool.
Nursery Crimes – Why, yes, most nursery rhymes are horrifying, and this is also true:
I’ve heard that grown men have gone insane trying to put into words the genius of early episodes of The Simpsons. But if I could highlight just one thing the Greatest TV Show of All Time ™ does brilliantly, it would have to be its almost child-like ability to articulate those tiny little nuances of our culture that we’ve always known were there, but had never really devoted any conscious thought to.
In one of the earliest ever Simpsons moments – while it was still a Tracey Ullman sideshow, and the characters looked weird – Marge croons Maggie to sleep with the most famous lullaby of all time: Rock a Bye Baby. As Marge sings, Maggie visualizes the song’s words: when the wind blows/the cradle will rock/when the bough breaks/the cradle will fall/down will come baby/cradle and all. She kisses Maggie softly on the forehead and exits the room, leaving her baby alone, in the dark, eyes out on stalks and the fear of god in her face*.
Rock-a-Bye Baby may not technically be a nursery rhyme, but it shares with them the fact that the sheer violence and horror of it seems to have been lost on the entire human race.
The Last of Springfield by ~Raqos on deviantART – Fan art of Homer, Lisa and Bart drawn like The Last of Us. It got linked a lot of places this week, and with good reason.
If we cast a live-action The Simpsons movie – These come up every once and a while, and this one is less blatant pageview whoring than most. (Patton Oswalt as Chief Wiggum is pretty good, too.)
Recreating An Accurate Springfield in ‘The Simpsons: Tapped Out’ – Part 1 – This is for you compulsive types who just have to tap.
Best. Episode. Ever. (Round 55) – Look, kids, Batman!
Best. Episode. Ever. (Round 56) – Run along, Quimby. I think they’re dedicating a phone booth somewhere.
Best. Episode. Ever. (Round 57) – I told you she was soft on full frontal nudity.
The BlogAwards.ie – A Blogging Challenge – A perfectly cromulent blogging task.
Disney’s Planes…In 10 Words – That’s just the engine struggling.
Blackfish…In 10 Words – I don’t like this new director’s cut.
The Hyperloop…In 10 Words – I’ve built hyperloops for Brockway, Ogdenville and North Haverbrook, and, by gum, it put them on the map!
Soda Shaq…In 10 Words – Here comes the Shaq attack.
Starship Troopers…In 10 Words – Where do you want it, Skinner?
Milhouse!! – Hooray for flood pants!
Money Woes #30 – Animated .gif of the above.
Loud Silence witness Mayer Hawthorne and visit Springfield – More pictures from the new Simpsons area at Universal Studios Orlando. The Seven Duffs shrubbery is pretty impressive.
New England Clam Chowder & Crab Cakes – A discussion of chowder leads to YouTube, and scroll down for a cool soup of the day sign.
List O’ The Week: Top 25 episodes of The Simpsons (Post Season 8) – There are a few good episodes on here, but I find most of these unwatchable. (Though “Trilogy of Error” is entertaining even if it isn’t very funny.)
Marge, is that you? – Marge’s hair built from bottle caps. Cool.
The Best Video Game Adaptations of TV & Movies, Period – The arcade game makes the list here.
Universal Studios Springfield ride Simpsons – A newspaper writer recounts the new “Twirl & Hurl” ride in Florida.
Fans Vote For Homer Simpson For Sixers Head Coach – He’d certainly be good at doing the cuts.
Hank Azaria, "The Simpsons" voice actor, "just born doing" impressions – Azaria did a publicity interview for Lovelace with some CBS morning show. There’s video of the interview at the top and clips of some of Azaria’s roles at the bottom. (His scene in Dodgeball was easily the highlight of that movie.)
Hank Azaria Shares Favorite ‘Simpsons’ Voice And Episode On ‘Watch What Happens: Live’ – Another publicity interview, including this little tidbit:
“I think Professor Frink is my personal favorite of the characters," Azaria said in Frink’s voice.
Legendary Simpsons Scribe Mike Reiss on Rubble, FringeNYC, and the Upcoming Simpsons/Family Guy Crossover – Reiss is doing (much lower scale) publicity for his next play, and got asked the usual questions, including:
Does the "it’s not as good as it used to be" talk about The Simpsons anger you?
The biggest thing with The Simpsons is, if the show gets weirder, it might get too self-referential, because we’re desperately trying not to repeat ourselves. Tell us somebody who Lisa can get a crush on that hasn’t happened. We’ve done every single member of the Simpson family has gone to jail. The show has to get a little weirder and faster-paced. We go "Here’s an episode like the old days" and we get comments like "Oh, that’s boring." There’s no model for us. There’s no template for what a series should be like in its twenty-fifth year.
That’s pretty much his stock answer to that. He’s too honest to “It’s still great!”, so he just points out that it had to get really bizarre to keep going and move along.
5 ways that Ed Miliband and Milhouse may also be the same person – Heh.
Can Fruit Kick Candy to the Curb? – Excellent usage:
"Fruit is nature’s candy," Marge Simpson once said after serving apples and oranges during a Halloween party. Screams from Bart and the other children at the party followed her offer of healthy snacks.
That and a hurled ashtray.
Get Simpsonized… like the Belgian Royal family – I know nothing about the Belgian royal family, and this isn’t in English to explain it to me, but here they are.
Last piece of Springfield falls into place as Kang&Kodos opens at Universal Studios Florida – Just what it says. You can control the little ships to some extent.
Designer Olly Moss Talks Movie Posters, Comics and ‘The Simpsons’ – Licensing is a bitch and the fun police at FOX hate fun:
Are there any great ideas for posters you’ve had that you haven’t been able to execute because of licensing issues?
Not films, but I want to do Simpsons stuff. I want to do Simpsons stuff so bad!
[…]
What sort of Simpsons stuff do you want to do?
I can’t say! ‘Cause I sorta may be working on something a little bit … But I want to do some Simpsons stuff that doesn’t perhaps look like Simpsons stuff. I think that series has so many amazing niche references that everybody gets that you don’t need to do it in the Simpsons style. You can have things that speak to how influential and affecting it was throughout the first nine seasons or whatever. You can throw those little references into something that perhaps isn’t their traditional style.
That’d be cool; doubly so since he’s not going to bother with Zombie Simpsons.
