Behind the Laughter: 22-Year-Comatose Homer?

February 14, 2015Episodes, MiscellaneousPhinbart

Could it be true? Could Homer Simpson, one of the most famous characters in US cultural history have been dreaming since April 1993, when Bart’s April Fools prank of shaking a beer can so furiously (and him being flattened by a vending machine), have sent him into hospital?

The theory, which was originally posted on Reddit 10 days ago (Feb 4) and has become so popular it has nearly 1000 upvotes and has made worldwide news.

The redditor, Hardtopickaname, starts off his post with:
“October 1992: Homer The Heretic airs and ends with Homer talking to God.

Homer: God, I gotta ask you something. What’s the meaning of life?
God: Homer, I can’t tell you that. […] You’ll find out when you die.
Homer: I can’t wait that long!
God: You can’t wait six months?

April 1993 (SIX MONTHS LATER): So It’s Come To This: A Simpsons Clip Show airs and involves Bart’s April Fools prank inadvertently putting Homer into the hospital, where he is then crushed by a vending machine and put in a coma.

Now the episode ends with Homer waking up (and giving us a hilarious POV shot of him choking Bart), but it seems to be too convenient and sudden.”

We see Homer’s eyes open before he strangles Bart…but is it something he thinks he’s doing…?

Continue reading →

Chief Wiggum is mistakenly delivered a military jet pack this March

February 13, 2015Episodes, Guest starsAleWi

Information about the plot for the episode “Sky Police“, which will air on March 8, 2015, has been released on The Futon Critic.com.

In the episode …
“Chief Wiggum is mistakenly delivered a military jet pack, which he gleefully accepts and uses in order to fight crime. But when the jet pack crashes into the church, the congregation, led by Marge, must resort to gambling and counting cards in order to collect money to repair the church.”

And it will guest star Nathan Fielder as himself.

If you want to read the original listing from The Futon Critic.com, visit this page.

Stay tuned!

Homer’s running late for Valentine’s…and so is EA!

February 12, 2015Tapped OutPhinbart

Today we finally got our Valentine’s event, well, mini-event. It started today, two days prior to the big event, and ends on the 17th, 3 days after the big event.

The questline starts off with Lisa preparing to send Valentine’s cards to some humanist and environmentalist causes, and then – to Fallout Boy. Hmm…

Anyway, all the Valentine’s items are back – and this year, no dreaded Wheel of Friendship! – which means that all the items that were available JUST last year in the Wheel of Friendship have not been made available again. This event’s basically 2013 with 2014’s buildings and characters and this year’s new decorations and costume.

Keep him in the Clash of Clones area where nobody goes except to collect cash and XP.

EA have also been kind and given us the long-awaited Fallout Boy costume, or “Sidekick” costume for Milhouse. And, we’ve got a cute teddy bear called Sir Love-A Lot unlocked to place in our town as a decoration – FREE on the day.

EA also have another V-Day surprise… the real Fallout Boy!

You can read all about the event here. That’s it for now! Happy early Valentine’s Day!

P.S. The fact that we’ve had mini-events like Stonecutters Black Market Sale and Valentine’s suggests EA might have a big ‘un up their sleeves…

Throwback Thursday: It’s Double Trouble… “Homie the Clown”

February 12, 2015Throwback ThursdayPhinbart

So Krusty is not Homer’s secret persona, then…

20 years ago to this day, we saw Homer set off to clown college and becomes a clown impersonator. Unfortunately, the mob think Homer’s Krusty…and things get a little out-of-hand.

I heard somewhere that Krusty was originally to be Homer’s secret persona, but I don’t think that plan kinda worked out – especially since it’s blatantly not him in the shorts…which we move onto now, as today, we’re celebrating 26 years since Bart and Lisa went to see a Space Mutants movie in an incongruously empty theater.

The old man at the back is only surprised at the fact he’s not the only one watching this – Ahem.

Also on this date three years ago, three things happened. Lisa found a new love interest in a weird kid who wears a thick jumper all the time and Homer tried his hand at watershoes, two people finished watching 86 hours and 37 minutes of The Simpsons and John Severin, the comic artist who part-worked on story Two Tickets to Heck died.

Other mentionables include on this date in 1980, the actress and guest star Christina Ricci was born, later going onto play Erin in “Summer of 3 Ft. 2” and be interviewed in UK network Sky1’s 20-year celebratory documentaries in 2010; and in 2008, the Writers Guild of America strike, which resulted in Season 19 being shortened, ended.

And that’s it for now! See ya next Throwback Thursday!

Matt Groening to guest star as himself on Portlandia

February 11, 2015MiscellaneousSolar Dragon

The Simpsons creator Matt Groening is to guest star as himself in an episode of Portlandia.

Matt Groening will portray a disgruntled version of himself who sues Spike (Fred Armisen) after he creates an unlicensed “Bart Ska-mpson” T-shirt.

Groening was contacted for the role through another Simpsons writer, Matt Selman, who knows Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein. A guest appearance on another TV show is very rare for Matt Groening who only really guest appears in obscure documentaries. Groening says that he has not acted since a cameo on The Tracey Ullman Show in 1988.

The episode he guest stars in, “Fashion”, airs tomorrow, 12th February!

Sources:

Entertainment Weekly

10 New Promotional Images for “The Princess Guide” have been released!

February 11, 2015Episodes, Guest stars, Promotional ImagesLoco87

TEN promotional images for the upcoming 15th episode of season 26, titled “The Princess Guide“, which airs on Sunday, March 1st.
Don’t forget that Richard Branson, Yaya DaCosta and Joe Mantegna will be guest-starring as Richard Branson (Himself), Princess Kemi and Fat Tony respectively!

If you want more info about the episode, check out our post on its plot!

Stay tuned for more!

Promotional Images

Pharrell invites 2.8m

February 10, 2015EpisodesPhinbart

It appears Springfield’s proposed new anthem wasn’t as popular as they thought…and we…and FOX.

FOX stupidly decided to air The Simpsons against ratings powerhouse the Grammys last night (which itself was down), which attracted an average of 24.82 million over its 3 hours, leading the show to bring in its second-lowest ever audience, ahead of the 2.69m-pulling “Diggs” of Season 25, attracting 2.78 million (18-49: 1.2/3), down 0.7m (2.85m; 18-49: 1.2/3) from the rating logged in yesterday’s unofficial report.

The night on FOX was down in general, with Brooklyn Nine-Nine logging the only audience number normal for its run at a 20k-down 2.59m, Family Guy down to 2.81m and Bob’s Burgers down to 1.94m. All the other networks were clever and aired encore programming, logging similar ratings. And it’s not usual that Family Guy beats Simpsons.

So, here’s how the lowest ever The Simpsons ratings table is looking:

1 DIGGS MARCH 9 2014 2.69M
2 WALKING BIG & TALL FEBRUARY 8 2015 2.78M
3 THE YELLOW BADGE OF COWARDGE MAY 18 2014 3.28M
4 THE MUSK WHO FELL TO EARTH JANUARY 25 2015 3.29M
5 WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN BART’S EXPECTING APRIL 27 2014 3.45M
= COVERCRAFT NOVEMBER 23 2014 3.45M

That’s it for now! Hope next Sunday it won’t be so gloomy! Gone are the days where the table above would have been filled with 5m and 6m.

(Sources: Wikipedia; TV by the Numbers)

Who is EA’s cheap(-ish) replacement for a Valentine’s event? They are, they are!

February 5, 2015Tapped OutPhinbart

That’s right, as you may have guessed from the title, it appears EA might not be bothering with Valentine’s Day this year and have treated us to the Stonecutters – back for one week only!

EA have given us a welcome return to many of the Numbers – including Number 36 – Krusty’s costume, which is free, but only has one quest if you don’t want to fork out 140 Donuts for the Stonecutter Lodge – which unlocks all of his other jobs.

Number 51 is also back, having a brief return from last Halloween also, for 100 Donuts. Number 12 and Number 14, that’s Lenny & Carl, cost 50 Donuts, with Arnie Pye’s Number 67 on for 60. Homer’s Number 908 is also back, free with the Stonecutter Lodge questline.

The Stonecutter Daycare Center costs a measly $250k for you players with millions of cash – but as it’s unlocked at Level 5 – those all the way down there will be heavily disappointed. The Abandoned Store is back for 30 Donuts, and so is the All Seeing Eye for 100, the Stonecutter Table for 150 and the… why not just pop over to the article itself to see what else has come back?!

Number 36 is off promoting corn-sumerism in my town.

However, this is only WAVE 1, with 13 items. Waves 2 and 3 are set to spring up over the weekend and into next week, so Homer will be happy to let you prize open your wallets and fork out for some jaunty goodness – if you happened to miss the event last June.

When you log on, you are greeted with a message from Homer, Lisa and Number 1, detailing how the Stonecutters rigged the Super Bowl.

And that it for now – see you this weekend when Wave Two is coming – hopefully the Sea Captain is ready and bracing!

Throwback Thursday: “Bart’s Little Fantasy”

February 5, 2015Throwback ThursdayPhinbart

February 5, 1989 saw the Simpsons have a role-reversal and Bart, Lisa and Maggie became the adults, ordering little Homer and Marge about – but that wasn’t quite how it went.

“We’re the Kids and You’re the Parents!”

It turns out that was just Bart’s Little Fantasy after Bart and Lisa disobeyed their parents’ orders to clean up the rumpus room, and so Bart was sent out to mow the lawn as a punishment.

Isn’t that what every kid dreams of – ordering their own parents about?! Well, they do that anyway nowadays.

And on this day in 1995, some else of “Bart’s” was first shown – his Comet.

Everyone in Flanders’ shelter…except Flanders…

Also on this day in 1927, the late Lee Miskin, who served as an animation timer on two episodes, was born. Christopher Guest, who voiced Nigel Tufnel, was born on this day in 1948. The youngest-ever voice actor on The Simpsons, voicing Charlie the orphan at age 9, Jordan Nagai, was born on this day in 2000. And finally, this day in 2004 saw Bart and Lisa deliver the slogan for their new TV show in the now-defunct UK comic The Best of The Simpsons, issue #8.

That’s it for this Throwback Thursday, and we’ll be throwing back even more next week!