Sometimes on Simpsons a character will say in a high pitched, whiny voice "Mmmmm, that's good ______" What is this a reference to? Thanks!

Johnny Carson

I always thought it was a Jackie Gleason reference. I seem to recall, as a youngster, seeing him say "mmm, that's good booze" on his show, using some weird voice.


And I'm ashamed to admit I just used that line the other night, too

perhaps. I've always thought it was Johnny Carson....for some reason.


EDIT: I think it is Jackie Gleason now. Learn something every day!

I'm thinking it's a take-off of Carson doing Gleason ...

This and the characters tugging at their shirt collar and going "NYAAAH" are my two least favorite running gags on the show.

Other than the time Homer did it with is own skin.

I totally agree. I remember seeing the collar-grabbing thing one time on the season six dvds. For a while you saw it once every few episodes (I can't make any complaint towards the new episodes, however, since I haven't watched any new episodes in years...it's just too awful). It never was even that funny!

I also despise "Less (insert word), more (insert word that rhymes with previous word inserted)".

Even when they went to the chili cookoff? "Come on Marge, less artsy, more fartsy". Classic.

Actually, I found it a fairly helpful and reliable guide to how terrible an episode might be. How early they do the gag and the number of characters onscreen who perform the motion is inversely reflective of the quality of the show in question.

I found this to be true for almost every episode in the past 6 seasons or so. Although, to be fair, the past two seasons have been markedly better.

"HATE THIS GAG!" would be a sizeable understatement.

Figured this would be an appropriate place to post this question: Which season features the pardoy of William Golding's Lord of the Flies? I've been showing a much abused VHS taping of that ep. to my students for years.

Also, is there a site that lists the many literary allusions/parodies in the Simpsons? Specifically, I'm looking for eps. that parody Shakespeare, Greek mythology, the Odyssey, Fahrenheit 451, To Kill a Mockingbird, Steinbeck, "The Raven," etc. The Simpsons is a great tool for teaching irony and the kids get a huge kick out of seeing the many, many references to their readings.

Season 4, Kamp Krusty

Season 4, Treehouse of Horror III
"Dial 'Z' For Zombies" -- "Is this the end of Zombie Shakespeare?" ("...is this the end of Rico?" - Little Caesar)

How about the greasy, slick 'Yeeeeeessssss?" guy? I think he's usually overweight has that slicked back hair.

A 'literary references of the Simpsons' guide would be cool. I know the Simpsons printed books/episode guides have some, and I'm sure SNPP.com has a bunch, but they're organized by episode or small topic, I think.

Anyone read the book "Planet Simpson"? I had it reserved at my library and didnt get it before it got shelved.

No, it's not the season 4, Kamp Krusty one, although I do remember a couple of allusions to Golding's novel in that one. I believe the Flies one came a couple of seasons later

Didn't Jerry Lewis do a lot of this kind of stuff?

that's that freddie fillmore guy you always see in a bunch of I Love Lucy episodes. Phil Hartman used to do him too on the old SNLs. It's covered in more detail on snpp although it's hard to search for the exact episode to find the info.

As for the original question I never heard of those gags, but i havent watched since '98. I thought having 90 writers would prevent repetition..

Wasn't the Lord of the Flies one "Das Bus"?

I just watched Kamp Krusty. Unless there's ANOTHER Lord of the Flies one, that's it. They say it over and over in the commentary.

There's actually two Lord of the Flies episodes. Das Bus was the second, and came close to a decade later.

Das Bus was more of an outright, well, ripoff/parody of Lord of the Flies, whereas Kamp Krusty used the concept in a different milieu and with some different characterization.

And has my favorite Ralph line - "Go BANANA!"

This is the more relatable episode to Lord of the Flies, right down to Milhouse's glasses. The kids end up stranded on a desert island on the way to a model U.N. field trip.

Script here. The episode aired on Feb. 15, 1998 which makes it part of season 9.

TimeandTide (or anyone else for that matter),

If you are interested in Simpsons allusions to Shakespeare for your students, you might be interested in checking out "MacHomer". It's a one man show of MacBeth where all of the characters are Simpsons characters. The voices are dead on and it is extremely funny. I think it's pretty universal - my girlfriend, who is neither or a Shakespeare or Simpsons fan, really enjoyed it as well.

I don't knnow where in California you are, but the show will be in Berkeley Jan 23rd - Jan 29th, and in Arcata Mar 5 (among other places for everyone else).

More info here:
http://www.machomer.com/

j