Don't have a cow, Rupert
There's an entertaining interview with Simpsons creator Matt Groening in the new issue of Playboy, not that I ever read Playboy or look at the pictures or have ever seen a naked girl. (I even close my eyes when Tony Soprano visits the Bing.) You can find the whole thing at Playboy's website, although that's a subscription site; or buy a copy, although that's $6 you won't have for beer; or you can just read the part right here that I've thoughtfully plundered for you.
Groening, on being a dad: “I appalled some of my friends with how undisciplined I was as a parent. My kids talked back to me, and I laughed it off. Now they tell me I’m not funny anymore. I just assume they’re kidding. My son said he wishes [Family Guy creator] Seth MacFarlane were his father."
On celebrities who have appeared on The Simpsons: "It’s an astonishing list. I can barely believe the people we’ve had on the show--Bob Hope, Kirk Douglas, Elizabeth Taylor, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, the Ramones. Hugh Hefner had the Bunnies working as research scientists in the basement of the Mansion. Elizabeth Taylor was on twice. Once she played herself; the other time she played the voice of Maggie saying “Daddy,” her first word. We did 24 takes, but they were always too sexual. Finally Liz said, ‘[Bleep] you,’ and walked out."
On the sexiest woman in cartoons: “No one likes Wilma. Everyone wants to sleep with Betty.”
On Rupert Murdoch: “When I met him, he said he liked the show. He seemed sincere. Yes, there were little dollar signs in his eyes, but he does seem to be a fan. He’s been on. He introduced himself as 'the evil billionaire tyrant Rupert Murdoch.'”
On Fox News: “Fox News gives me a headache and not even so much for its political content but the spinning logos and American flags and music designed to scare you [bleepless]. Who needs it? We make fun of Fox News on the show. The most fun we had was putting a news crawl like theirs across the bottom of the screen. It said things like Rupert Murdoch: terrific dancer, Brad Pitt plus Albert Einstein equals Dick Cheney, Study: 92 percent of Democrats are gay, The Bible says Jesus favored capital gains cut. We were forbidden ever to do it again. Fox said it would confuse viewers.”
On political parties: “It’s fun anytime you can piss off a right-wing lunatic, but it’s also fun to piss off a left-wing lunatic. In fact everybody on the show is concerned about not being preachy or heavy-handed. We try to mix it up. Sometimes we go for satire and take a point of view we don’t agree with. In one of our classic shows Marge successfully gets the violent version of Itchy & Scratchy banned from television. As a result, children actually go out and play in the sunshine and have a good time. We’re saying the direct result of heavy-handed censorship is this pleasant outcome, which is obviously something we were being completely sarcastic about.”
On his favorite cartoon on TV: “South Park at its best is some of the most astonishing TV ever made. I love the episode about Mel Gibson. The South Park kids go to see The Passion of the Christ and feel ripped off, so they journey to Malibu to meet Gibson to get their money back. It was almost anticipatory. Mel Gibson is depicted as this underpants-wearing lunatic doing cartwheels.”
Yo, duuude, i absolutely . . . the simpsons is 100% my favourite favourite favourite show. matt groening is awesome - matt grayning rhyming with raining not growning rhyming with moaning!!!
c u -
eddy
Posted by: Eddy Smith THE KID WHO LOOOVES SIMPSONS | July 22, 2007 at 12:19 PM