Ask Simpsons Questions Here (Jokes We Don't Get, Which Episode, etc.)

[Hatter]

I've been wondering...

In "The Homer They Fall" what's the music playing during Homer's black-and-white boxing montage? I've heard it in other shows and commercials, but I don't know its origin...



PS. I was so elated when I figured out the Klaus von Bulow reference from "The Boy Who Knew Too Much". One I never got as a kid.

[Roger Myers III]

It's the same music cue from the montage in Scorsese's "Raging Bull" that the scene parodies - for the life of me, I can't remember if that would make it a clip from Cavelleria Rusticana: Intermezzo, Guglielmo Ratcliff: Intermezzo, or Silvano Bacarolle, or if I'm completely misremembering it. Any classical/opera fans out there?

Jer - there was just the one credit for Ian (and they had to get clearance from the WGA to make it so big - even though that size was crucial to the joke.)

[Miss Springfield]

WGA?

[George Cauldron]

The Writers Guild of America.

[Delete later if you like]

[Colburn]

He is in a mental hospital, so the joke seems to be that somewhere along the line, all the bad movies he had to watch for his job drove him insane to the point where all he can say is "It stinks!" (this was his catchphrase on The Critic, in case you don't know) over and over.

I always thought of it as an inside joke against Al Jean and Mike Reiss by other producers because their series didn't last.

[Larson Something]

Well, as a great man once said, "It works on so many levels!"

[Miss Springfield]

Lisa: Do we have any food that wasn't brutally slaughtered?
Homer: Well, I think the veal died of loneliness.

[the simpsons brainiac]

Umm Does anyone know if there's an official map of springfield (the simpsons version) on the internet and if there is does anyone know a link to it or sumthin like that?
I've seen so many unofficial maps to springfield i was wondering if there was an official 1.

[M Prower]

That's a bit tricky really, I don't think there is a consistent/official map. All of the video games(Road Rage, Hit and Run etc) have all had completely different maps and layouts of Springfield

[Butters]

In Fraudcast News, at the end when Willie shows his newspaper, he says he reviews the new tractors. Afterwards he says "They're all --"? Sounds like 'shite'. The Simpsons have never said 'shit' before, so was the word 'shite' or something else?

[the simpsons brainiac]

Does anyone have or know a list of EVERYSimpsons character? Lots of the lists I've seen are missing people.

[Hydro]

Wikipedia's list is pretty exhaustive when it comes to recurring characters (it also includes a lot of one-time characters)

[Larson Something]

In Fraudcast News, at the end when Willie shows his newspaper, he says he reviews the new tractors. Afterwards he says "They're all --"? Sounds like 'shite'. The Simpsons have never said 'shit' before, so was the word 'shite' or something else?

It sure sounded like "shite" to me. That word isn't used in North America much, so the Fox censors must have decided that it was too obscure to be as offensive as "shit" and allowed it.

[Andy]

This is considered to be the most effort put towards mapping Springfield: http://www.csupomona.edu/~jelerma/sp...eld/index.html

It's in no way official, but almost every Springfield place seen on the show has been mapped, and it's quite a sight.

[Roger Myers III]

I always thought of it as an inside joke against Al Jean and Mike Reiss by other producers because their series didn't last.

Not really. (Though I love Larson's quote.)

"Shite" - the 'origin' of 'shit' - isn't specificall on the FCC's list of banned words, so they got away with it. Though its not as if they overuse it.

I checked out Wikipedia's 'cast list', and there were already quite a few errors from a quick read. You might be better off with the SNPP's "Cast List" from its "guides & lists" page.

[Miss Springfield]

What about me the veal joke am I the only one who doesn't get it? Yep that is one extensive list whoo! Must have taken a long time to compile.

[Roger Myers III]

The veal comment was "mistaken Homer" - with a dose of irony. Lambs are "brutally slaughtered" just like other animals that are raised to become food. The crucial difference is that, to become good veal, lambs are - usually - kept isolated in individual pens, from the young time they can first stand up through the young age at which they're killed. The pens are just large enough for the lambs to stand and not turn around, and isolated from other lambs. The excercise that they get from allowing them to move around apparently makes their strengthened muscles more 'tough' and 'stringy' when they become the veal that is eaten. So, the lamb was, no doubt, 'lonely' when it was killed, but that is no less "brutal" a process for raising it or killing it. In fact, the process is usually viewed by animal cruelty activists as more cruel & brutal. Lisa would likely feel the same way.

Wikipedia entries are compiled by a huge number of on-line submissions by a wide range of participants, so it may or may not have taken 'a long time' - but its not really 'fact-checked' by any authoritative 'editor', so results may vary. In "veracity", too.

[Crotis Jivefunk]

What was the name of the Joe Millionaire parody in Simple Simpson?

[Larson Something]

Promiscuous Idiots' Island

[shoeman]

Registered just to be able to ask this, been bugging me all day, normally I consider myself quite competent when it comes to naming episodes, but this one I just don't remember... Oh well, enough with the selfflattering.

Which is the episode where there's a joke with Homer sitting in a class of some sort, and everybody is supposed to tell what their profession is, or something like that, but Homer yells out his own name instead.

Answer greatly appreciated.

[George Cauldron]

That would be Homie The Clown. Everyone has to name where they're from.

[Mason]

From some reason I thought of this the other day: Disco Stu's shoe with the fish below the heels. Which episode is this from?

[Larson Something]

The Twisted World Of Marge Simpson:

STU: Did you know that disco record sales were up 400% for the year 1976? If these trends continue, Ayyyy! (Puts his feet up)

HOMER: Uh, your fish are dead.

STU: I know, I...can't get them out of there.

[jesle]

The veal comment was "mistaken Homer" - with a dose of irony. Lambs are "brutally slaughtered" just like other animals that are raised to become food. The crucial difference is that, to become good veal, lambs are - usually - kept isolated in individual pens, from the young time they can first stand up through the young age at which they're killed. The pens are just large enough for the lambs to stand and not turn around, and isolated from other lambs. The excercise that they get from allowing them to move around apparently makes their strengthened muscles more 'tough' and 'stringy' when they become the veal that is eaten. So, the lamb was, no doubt, 'lonely' when it was killed, but that is no less "brutal" a process for raising it or killing it. In fact, the process is usually viewed by animal cruelty activists as more cruel & brutal. Lisa would likely feel the same way.

Wikipedia entries are compiled by a huge number of on-line submissions by a wide range of participants, so it may or may not have taken 'a long time' - but its not really 'fact-checked' by any authoritative 'editor', so results may vary. In "veracity", too.

Only one mistake in this: Veal is a baby cow, or calf, not a lamb.

From eb.com:

"meat of calves slaughtered between 3 and 14 weeks."

[bobservo]

One of the few jokes I still don't get is in the S4 episode when Marge goes to jail. When the family is cleaning the house for her return, Bart starts walking across the carpet, which is packed with garbage. Out of nowhere, the wiseguy voice says, "Hey, watch it!" Is this a reference to something, or just out-of-place strangeness?

Also, I was just watching Duffless a few days ago, and the part of the episode where there are various items in the beer bottles seems like a reference to a scare around that time when people were claiming to find syringes in Pepsi cans. They didn't point this out in the commentary, so I'm not completely sure if this was their intent.

[Roger Myers III]

Only one mistake in this: Veal is a baby cow, or calf, not a lamb.

Dang - great call, Jesle. Like Lisa, I simply had visions of lambs in my head. (And I did that just before attacking Wikipedia's accuracy. Stupid poetic justice!)

BTW, veal is only derived from the male calves of dairy-cows. The female ones are raised to full-grown, to have another dairy-cow from which to get milk.

The voice from the garbage, unless I'm forgetting something else in the scene, is only to illustrate that the garbage is piled so thick that a full-grown man is hidden by it.

The syringe, rat, and human head in the bottles isn't a ref. to any specific can or bottle 'scare' - just to the general urban legend of such items getting through the process. (Which isn't saying that it never happens - just that the 'reports' far outweigh the incidents.)

[729]

This is considered to be the most effort put towards mapping Springfield

It's in no way official, but almost every Springfield place seen on the show has been mapped, and it's quite a sight.

According to Homer The Great SNPP parking lot is next to the Simpsons house.

Wikipedia's list is pretty exhaustive when it comes to recurring characters (it also includes a lot of one-time characters)

In the teachers section which one is the hippy from Seperate Vocations (Did I ever tell you kids about the 60's?)

[Roger Myers III]

According to Homer The Great SNPP parking lot is next to the Simpsons house.

You must realize that Springfield is a fictional place. In individual episodes, there is plenty of variation - for individual jokes, like the one you cite, locations are changed for the sake of the joke. That is normal.

The "Map" that PEF pointed you to is the most excellent, comprehensive project of its kind. Its maker, "Jerry", iirc, knows about "Homer the Great", and many other contraindications in episodes. He has, correctly, imo, decided to use the overwhelming geographic indications from the show, and make up the most logical connections where none have been presented.

In the teachers section which one is the hippy from Seperate Vocations (Did I ever tell you kids about the 60's?)

That teacher has never been named. Nor has the elderly black teacher.

As I said before, Wikipedia's cast list is very misinformed. Use this one:
http://www.snpp.com/guides/castlist.html

[Hydro]

As I said before, Wikipedia's cast list is very misinformed. Use this one:
http://www.snpp.com/guides/castlist.html

Take heed, though, that SNPP's cast list (except for the inclusion of Edwina) is only up-to-date through season 11. That's four seasons of missed characters -- e.g. Constance Harm, who is now a regular on the show, isn't on SNPP's list.

[Miss Springfield]

There are some jokes off Family Guy (Is this for any jokes or just Simpsons? If not move it but can someone answer?) In one where they go to the jousting competition Peter says I've never been beaten before except once... then it turns into this computer game and they're in cars and someone he knows from somewhere he goes Hey so what have you been doing? Oh I am the red guy shut up how about you I am the blue guy, no kidding then he smashes into him and explodes.

Another one was the one where he says remember when we invited Margot Kidder to dinner, and then she screams and smashes plates....