Watching Simpsons

With the new Futurama DVD out, it might be good to remind people of the show itself. In many ways, the show is much less restrained than The Simpsons. Because, at it’s core, The Simpsons is also a family comedy, and so the episodes are structured more abround that aspect. This clip, while not really from the show itself, is an ad for Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth.” It also pretty much sums up what type of jerk Bender is.

Al Gore, Bender, Futurama

BAFTA stands for British Academy of Film and Television Award. It’s the rough equal, in the United Kingdom, to the Oscar Award. There’s also a version for kids 16 and under, The BAFTA Children’s Awards. which resembles the Kids Choice Awards. This year, The Simpsons won a BAFTA for best film by popular vote, but the actual academy honored “Happy Feet.” Care of news.com.au:

The film version of the hit US animated TV series beat off stiff competition from Happy Feet, Spider-Man 3 and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix to be voted Film of the Year by the under-16s.

Despite being the fans’ favourite, The Simpson’s Movie wasn’t in the category for Best Feature Film, which was won by animated penguin movie Happy Feet.

The awards took place at London’s Hilton Hotel and were hosted by comedian Keith Chegwin.

The Simpsons, BAFTA, Awards

It’s always, always funny to watch the voice actors to their characters in person….

Yet another take on The Simpsons theme, from YouTube.

The Simpsons Game has met with largely mixed results. Fans of the show love or like the game’s humor, but serious gamers are largely unimpressed with the quality of game play, not seemingly impressed with the Neverquest or Grand Theft Scratchy gags. It would be easy to say that the expectations for the game were pretty high – the game got a lot of press, whether it stemmed from the jokes itself, or from the fact that one of the companies that got ribbed – Rockstar – took offense. The level of press and attention is actually quite informally easy to monitor, if one does a Google news search for “The Simpsons.” Most of the results, lately, are either about the game, or about Britney Spears. Other Simpsons related news, like the Testify CD, the mobile game, or just info about the show kind of gets drowned out.

At any rate, when one’s thinking about the Simpsons Game, or anything else about that show, for that matter, it’s always interesting to get Matt Groening’s take. After all, while the merchandising of The Simpsons seems vast and endless at times, he’s still the creator, so to speak. The following interview, while plucked off of YouTube was initially conducted by Robert Summa of Epileptic Gaming. The event is the actual premiere of the game, and yes, if you look closely, it has a yellow carpet, not a red one. It seems that most premieres regarding the Simpsons, like the one with the recent movie, always have that quirky touch.

The Simpsons, The Simpsons Game, Gaming, Matt Groening

Since there’s the new Futurama DVD, it might be good to catch the non-Futurama-watching Groening fans up on who Bender is. Who better to explain Bender than the robot’s creator?

Futurama, Bender, Matt Groening

There’s a joke in The Simpsons where a guy is standing on a cliff, shouts “Why did they cancel Futurama?” And then, he throws himself off the cliff. Of course, there’s a little bit more to the joke, as this wasn’t really a case of Simpsons tit-for-tat feud with The Family Guy or South Park. Groening created and produced the show, the animation style was almost exactly the same, and so on. They both have the same style and spirit of satire, only Futurama seems a little more unleashed. In a way, I like to think of the two shows in the same way The Flintstones and The Jetsons are related.

So, in that Spirit, I think this blog needs a new tag and category. In short, the coverage here will be expanded to include Futurama. And in that department, there’s news as of late. Sure, Fox cancelled the show, but Groening has gone on with a few new projects, the first of which is set for release straight on DVD. A review over at Monsters and Critics explains more, as well as notes that while on hiatus, there has been no shake-ups on the voice acting and writing levels. Apparently, the new feature has all of the flavor and substance of the old show, only with a bit more room then the standard half an hour with commercials format. The new DVD is set for release on November 27. And, according to The Animation Blog, three more DVD movies will follow, and the show will end up back on TV, but at Comedy Central.

The Simpsons, Futurama, Bender, Comedy Central

Television is filled with absurdities, sometimes. Take Maggie Simpsons, for a moment. She’s absolutely one of the smartest toddlers on television. Think about it for a moment, she’s managed to shoot Mr. Burns, and on other occasions, escape day care, and even rescue her dad from a tow truck guy’s basement prison. These feats alone bespeak of an intelligence far more advanced than a mere two or three year told. And that’s kind of where a touch of irony comes in. For all of Lisa’s social awareness, the smartest of the Simpsons clan is the one that fall downs a lot and sucks on a pacifier. Yet, in one of the strangest touches, the writers of the show decided that Maggie needed a rival, a natural enemy. And so, the gag about the baby with black eyebrow was born. It’s probably one of the most pointless thing in the show – even if the segment was kind-of funny. Most of their “feud” consisted of the two infants glaring at each other.

Still, as pointless as “Maggie vs. Unibrow” is, it didn’t make the top ten list posted on bspcn.com. Neither did Bart’s pranks calls to Moe. Still, what the site has listed as “The Top Ten Pointless Feuds” is still instructive, and rather funny. Number seven is Wile E. Coyote vs. The Road Runner, where a chase usually ends with a poof of smoke at the bottom of a canyon. The listed number one, however, is even more instructive:

Ned Flanders is a completely selfless, moral, upstanding citizen to every fellow human he meets, free of anger and vulgarity and incapable of any action other than compassion, and yet, Homer Simpson’s unbridled hatred for Old Painty Can Ned is completely and utterly believable. No matter how many times Homer forgets the name of his third child or gets pulled over for a DUI or makes his daughter’s suitors tar his roof, every child in the world would choose his love over Ned Flanders’ locked-out satellite dish and unflavored ice milk. It’s the most unique, humorous, and impossibly relatable rivalry in contemporary history, and I would compare it to the readers’ inherent fascination with Othello’s rival Iago, but I’m just not sure Shakespeare’s quite on that level.

There’s a great point to that. After all, most rivalries between neighbors are as pointless as they are petty. Homer is jealous, even so much that he wrote an annoying song about Flanders.

The Simpsons, Homer Simpson, Ned Flanders, Maggie Simpson, rivalry

The following aired on the Bob and Tom Show. Somebody put some graphics to it and slapped it up on YouTube.

The Simpsons, Homer, Homer Simpson, Dan Castellaneta

With the new game out there, it’s interesting to take a quick, ramdom sampling of the reactions found on technorati:

at Gosu 7, there’s a sharply critical take. This is the intro, followed by bullet points:

While The Simpsons has enjoyed a fairly healthy video-game franchise- from its early arcade roots to Hit and Run and Road Rage, the formula has finally started to become stale. Knowing that, The Simpsons Game is a parody on video games itself, with the comic book storekeep calling attention to blatant cliches…the only problem? The game itself is a cliche.

Over on Loot Ninja, there’s this more positive take:

This game is made for Simpsons fans to enjoy the humor, the gameplay could have used some work from what I have seen so far, but for the parts I got to play with my friend (before my Xbox died!) was pretty fun. It is the equivalent of watching a Simpson’s episode.

Variety has the following to say:

There’s nothing groundbreaking in the gameplay, which involves a lot of puzzle-solving and simple fighting, but it works well enough in service to the comedy, which is the point. Offline co-op play is an option, but hardly necessary, as the game is quite easy. On the rare occasions when players die, they’re greeted by Nelson’s trademark “Ha ha!”

Graphics are excellent, and all of the characters feature authentic voices. Oddly, however, half the pre-animated cut-scenes look like rough drafts that were never completed.

The only other serious complaint that can be lodged against “The Simpsons Game” is the number of targets it didn’t get around to parodying. Where’s “Halo”? Or “Guitar Hero”? One can only hope the Simpsons will live half as long in interactive form as they have on TV, so they can get around to skewering those games and all the deserving ones yet to come.

The AV Club is also critical:

Early hype for The Simpsons Game promised it would be a clever, Simpsons-style satire-from-within about the game industry. Instead, it’s blunt, dumb, ridiculous, and almost never funny. Never mind that this action platformer is buggy, dull, and handles like wet cardboard, or that the faces look like they were drawn on an Etch-A-Sketch. A weak game could pass, if only it had some good laughs.

At anyrate, a consensus seems that the game is a little lackluster. I must admit though, the concept of satire itself was funny, at least.

The Simpsons, The Simpsons Game, Games, Consoles

Ugly Betty, while certainly well written and well cast, would be absolutely nothing America Ferrera. After all, she plays the title role, the central character. Sure, there is a universe at play, with the New York fashion world, but Betty is also the emotional center of the show. Basically, there are a ton of side stories and subplots, but it’s Betty’s drive to “do what’s right” and “be a good person” that drives the show. In a way, that makes it even funnier, because the professional world she lives in is so catty and image driven. Most everybody is concerned with image, appearance, and surface, making a lot of the fashionistas rather shallow. It gives Betty a good sense of conflict.

So, if America Ferrera where to guest host on The Simpsons, what would her appearance be like? There could be a couple of angles. First, since Ugly Betty is an adaptation of a Spanish language program, she could have a story revolving around the guy in the bumble bee outfit, who seems to be Springfield’s sole representative, when it comes to Spanish language television. Basically, intriguing concept, but not necessarily funny.

One thing, however, comes to mind. She could reprise her role as Betty, and come on the show based on that. So, the question now shifts away from America Ferrera to her character, Betty Suarez. What would she do in Springfield?

Unfortunately, the resulting episode has already been done. Still, here goes anyway. Betty is fired from Mode, and so, trying to get over her latest romantic failure, decides to relocate to Springfield. Since Smithers has come down with a disease, Betty gets a job as Mr. Burn’s executive assistant. She does an efficient job, Mr. Burns falls in love with her, and Mr. Smithers gets jealous, thinking Mr. Burns wants to replace him. Before any of that can happy, Betty becomes conflicted by Mr. Burns’ inherent evil nature and decides to quit.

Again, not the best of possible episodes. Mr. Smithers has been replaced before – one time, by Homer.

The Simpsons, Ugly Betty, America Ferrera

Chalk this up as something weird and quirky. Bhutan is a small country near South Asia, in the Himalayan mountains. It’s a monarchy, and the King of Bhutan has often remarked that his less concerned with the heartless economics, and is more concerned with “Gross National Happiness.” The “gross” part is a play on economic jargon, as in “Gross National Product.” Simpsons Producer Sam Simon, traveling abroad, has visited Bhutan, as a news update from The Hindu states:

Thimphu (PTI): Bhutan’s guiding development philosophy — gross national happiness — will make a great Simpsons’ episode, co-creator of the popular cartoon series Sam Simon has said. One of the original developers of America’s most successful and longest running animated TV programme, Simon said he would like to see the idea of gross national happiness implemented in the US.

“Gross national happiness will make a great Simpsons’ episode,” said Simon, who was on a trip to the Himalayan nation. According to him, the inspiration for The Simpsons was originally just about about a dysfunctional family that wanted to be functional but as time passed by it became a satirical look at America.

The Simpsons, Sam Simon, Gross National Happiness, Bhutan

People tend to be more forgiving if a person demonstrates an ability to laugh at themselves. Think about it, for a moment, if Martha Stewart, fresh out of prison, decided to go onto Saturday Night Live and do a bunch jail jokes. Likewise, imagine if Paris Hilton, rather than causing a media stir, stepped into the public spotlight and laughed about the way she’s acted. People can get a lot of mileage out of such things. Look at former Vice President Al Gore, for example. Back in 2000, the speculation was that he was a wooden policy wonk, and now, at the Academy Awards, and on shows like 30 Rock, he demonstrates a sense of humor, and people become a little more willing to change their perceptions regarding him – not everybody though.

So, it’s interesting, then, to note that Britney Spears is in talks and negotiations to appear on The Simpsons. To some, Britney may be beyond saving, but then again, a good appearance in Springfield may help turn around the publicity nightmare that’s been her life, recently. Of course, appearing on The Simpsons won’t wipe her slate clean. Plus, when somebody is forever pursued by paparazzi, they are bound to make other slip ups that will spark new outrages. Yet, when somebody can take part in their own satire, it just helps them look more human. As the cliché goes, laughter can be a healing force.

This isn’t, of course, another moment where I speculate about a possible appearance, as I did with Hugh Laurie. Via Now Magazine:

Britney Spears is being given a career lifeline – she is being lined up to star in The Simpsons.

And producers of the hit US show want to present the 25-year-old in a favourable light.

‘Britney is ripe for the picking,’ says Yeardley Smith, who voices Lisa Simpson. ‘But we have to do it well – I don’t want to be cruel.’

Brit is tentatively going to appear in a sketch that will take the mickey out of her infamous first video for Hit Me Baby One More Time.

The Simpsons, Britney, Britney Spears, K-Fed, Kevin Federline

While this clip is fairly long, it gives the viewer a sense of the game. I suggest turning the volume down, has the cell-phone-techno is a bit annoying. (I hope that’s not that actual game track, and if it is, it could be muted). It’s likely that the clip contains game spoilers, so be wary. While the clip was found on YouTube, it likely originates from Project Next.

The Simpsons, The Simpsons: Minutes to Meltdown, Mobile, Mobile Games, Games

Basically, I’d like to create an ongoing series on this blog, on which I think up an actor or actress and argue why it would be great to see them on The Simpsons. This isn’t fan fiction, although it is going to be a bit of wishful thinking on my part. Of course, there will be a number of suggested storylines for the prospective guest star.

First up, this time around, is Hugh Laurie, noted comedic actor from BBC shows like “A Little Bit of Fry and Laurie” as well as “Wooster and Jeeves.” Laurie will likely get a second entry later based on that part of his resume, but at the present, it would make more sense if he did a guest spot based on his widely successful turn as Dr. Gregory House. Most viewers in America know him as that cranky doctor, the one that shoots cadavers to test his theories, can’t get along with his patients, and his a prescription drug problem.

So, it’s in that fashion Hugh Laurie should first visit Springfield. Naturally, this episode would call for some sort of epidemic of a hilarious nature, but it really should not be something gas related – this is The Simpsons, after all, not South Park. Lets say everybody in town starts hallucinating. “Dr. House” is passing through Springfield because somebody duped him into thinking that there was a prestigious medical conference in town. At any rate, he sees everybody tripping out, and he gets to his diagnostics. He is alone, however, and so that means his entourage and team are back at Princeton-Plainsboro. That means he has to enlist the assistance of Doctor Hibbard, and Doctor Nick Rivera, both of whom irritate House to no end. Dr. Hibbard can handle the usual ethical complaints, and Dr. Nick can end up offering the most inane, useless advice ala “lets give everybody boob jobs!” And, despite Dr. Hibbard and Dr. Nick’s uselessness, Gregory House saves the day, but in the process, he makes everyone in Springfield so mad, they chase him out of town in classic Springfield mob fashion, led by Sideshow Mel.

The Simpsons, House, Hugh Laurie