The Official Simpsons Griefing Thread

[Brit Crust]

Matt drew up the Simpsons in like five minutes because he was going to a pitch meeting to turn his comic life in hell into a show when he realized, "oh crap if I sell them my strip, I lose all rights to it. " he wasn't stupid. He knew the big studios could and would screw him over if he handed his passion project over to them. Matt has never had any genuine love for the Simpsons, he's always seen then as a means to an end

This is true. Prior to The Simpsons, he had a successful cult comic strip called Life in Hell, and he was interested in adapting it into a cartoon. He realized that if he sold the rights to it, the studios would butcher his passion project, so at the last minute he scrambled and came up with a generic American family idea with the characters inspired by his real life relatives, and the setting based off his hometown. His reasoning was that if the studio butchered it, it wouldn't be as catastrophic since the premise was pretty generic and bland compared to his original Life in Hell series.

Fun fact: Matt Groening's real life sister Lisa (who Lisa Simpson is based off) who was married to the creator of Nickelodeon's Hey Arnold! series.

A little sad to hear that Groening never really loved his most well-known creation (if that's true,) but it's still a smart move.

I've always preferred his comic strip Life in Hell and his second-most famous series Futurama over The Simpsons anyway.

 

[Trilby]

A little sad to hear that Groening never really loved his most well-known creation (if that's true,) but it's still a smart move.

I've always preferred his comic strip Life in Hell and his second-most famous series Futurama over The Simpsons anyway.

I could understand the motivation to not sell out your personal creation as Matt did for keeping Life In Hell to himself. That strip was worth holding onto as it was without corporate meddling over time.

 

[Exceptionally Exceptional]

I could understand the motivation to not sell out your personal creation as Matt did for keeping Life In Hell to himself. That strip was worth holding onto as it was without corporate meddling over time.

You know what bugs me? Matt Groening is probably one of the richest cartoonists alive. He has a personal net worth of over a half billion dollars. Why the fuck did he never finance a Life in Hell animated project himself? He could have resisted the corporate meddling and made the show/film however he liked, and yet he never did. You'd think if it was something he was so passionate about that he was at one point willing to turn it into a show but only stopped out of fear of losing creative control and ownership, he'd be willing to finance it himself.

Too bad, really. I'd have liked to see LIH translated to animation.

 

[A Grey Cat]

You know what bugs me? Matt Groening is probably one of the richest cartoonists alive. He has a personal net worth of over a half billion dollars. Why the fuck did he never finance a Life in Hell animated project himself? He could have resisted the corporate meddling and made the show/film however he liked, and yet he never did. You'd think if it was something he was so passionate about that he was at one point willing to turn it into a show but only stopped out of fear of losing creative control and ownership, he'd be willing to finance it himself.

Too bad, really. I'd have liked to see LIH translated to animation.

Oh could be similar to why Alan Moore hates movie Versions of his comics. He could have been creative control and the director's chair and he would have said no simply because he believes his comics work only as comics.

 

[Michael Jacks0n]

You know what bugs me? Matt Groening is probably one of the richest cartoonists alive. He has a personal net worth of over a half billion dollars. Why the fuck did he never finance a Life in Hell animated project himself? He could have resisted the corporate meddling and made the show/film however he liked, and yet he never did. You'd think if it was something he was so passionate about that he was at one point willing to turn it into a show but only stopped out of fear of losing creative control and ownership, he'd be willing to finance it himself.

Too bad, really. I'd have liked to see LIH translated to animation.

Like @Jasonfan89 said, I think it may have been too offbeat and strange to translate into an animated series, and would have worked better as a comic.

Honestly with the American public being accustomed the premise of The Simpsons, seeing something as unusual like Life In Hell on TV would just be a pile of confusion. I think a LIH cartoon would have been on a level above the average Simpsons viewer, and the show would be short-lived. I could see it perhaps being on Adult Swim and gaining an audience within today's culture...but 20-30 years ago? Nah, it wouldn't make it past the pilot. There was an adult-themed "intellectual" animated sitcom from early 2000 which got bogged down with controversy due to its irreverent themes, and I could see LIH getting the same treatment in the 90's:

Only a handful of episodes made it to air, with the remaining ones shown on Adult Swim (go figure).

 

[Y2K Baby]

White liberal woke Youtube channel The Take has made a video deconstructing homer and Marge's marriage and how it's problematic for "amazing" women to end up with mediocre men.

It's a literal simp take though. It's basically like saying the Average Jane is leagues above the Average Joe.

 

[Exceptionally Exceptional]

Like @Jasonfan89 said, I think it may have been too offbeat and strange to translate into an animated series, and would have worked better as a comic.

Honestly with the American public being accustomed the premise of The Simpsons, seeing something as unusual like Life In Hell on TV would just be a pile of confusion. I think a LIH cartoon would have been on a level above the average Simpsons viewer, and the show would be short-lived. I could see it perhaps being on Adult Swim and gaining an audience within today's culture...but 20-30 years ago? Nah, it wouldn't make it past the pilot. There was an adult-themed "intellectual" animated sitcom from early 2000 which got bogged down with controversy due to its irreverent themes, and I could see LIH getting the same treatment in the 90's:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=6y7AbATVNuM
Only a handful of episodes made it to air, with the remaining ones shown on Adult Swim (go figure).

I remember finding God, The Devil and Bob on a cartoon pirati- I mean streaming service quite awhile back and while it wasn't the funniest thing I'd ever seen I overall liked it.
But yeah, LIH would be weird as fuck to try and translate to an animated adaptation. Then again, I didn't think the Boondocks would work in animation when it first aired, either, but the show did surprise the hell out of me when it was actually just the right combination of pop culture reference, edge, and social commentary on the black community. Didn't hurt that it was also often funny as shit.

But back to the Simpsons. Remember when Homer's search for what his middle initial meant led to him trying to become a hippie and doping a fuckload of people with peyote?

Goooood times.

 

[Preferred Penne]

Like @Jasonfan89 said, I think it may have been too offbeat and strange to translate into an animated series, and would have worked better as a comic.

Honestly with the American public being accustomed the premise of The Simpsons, seeing something as unusual like Life In Hell on TV would just be a pile of confusion. I think a LIH cartoon would have been on a level above the average Simpsons viewer, and the show would be short-lived. I could see it perhaps being on Adult Swim and gaining an audience within today's culture...but 20-30 years ago? Nah, it wouldn't make it past the pilot. There was an adult-themed "intellectual" animated sitcom from early 2000 which got bogged down with controversy due to its irreverent themes, and I could see LIH getting the same treatment in the 90's:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=6y7AbATVNuM
Only a handful of episodes made it to air, with the remaining ones shown on Adult Swim (go figure).

I could easily see Akbar and Jeff being voiced by Zach "psychicpebbles" Hadel.

 

[A Grey Cat]

The simpsons at one time was like mad magazine. A satirical look at everyday life that mocked or used humor on everyone. Political left, political right, good movies. Bad movies, decent TV, crappy TV. Music and Celebrity culture. But like Mad the Simpsons went on too long and tried to pander to the very thing they once stood against and became their own worst enemy. Except unlike the Simpson mad has been laid to rest.


Wich makes since since Matt and a majority of the original staff grew up reading Mad, cracked, and national lampoon magazine it served as an influence on their Sense of humor

 

[The Pink Panther]

I could easily see Akbar and Jeff being voiced by Zach "psychicpebbles" Hadel.

Thanks for implanting that into my head.

That has grand potential.

 

[Trilby]

The simpsons at one time was like mad magazine. A satirical look at everyday life that mocked or used humor on everyone. Political left, political right, good movies. Bad movies, decent TV, crappy TV. Music and Celebrity culture. But like Mad the Simpsons went on too long and tried to pander to the very thing they once stood against and became their own worst enemy. Except unlike the Simpson mad has been laid to rest.


Wich makes since since Matt and a majority of the original staff grew up reading Mad, cracked, and national lampoon magazine it served as an influence on their Sense of humor

They were perfect magazines of their time.

 

[John Titor]

A little sad to hear that Groening never really loved his most well-known creation (if that's true,) but it's still a smart move.

I've always preferred his comic strip Life in Hell and his second-most famous series Futurama over The Simpsons anyway.

I don't know, he put a lot of thought into what was originally a throwaway project. It's one hell of a happy accident.

Originally Marge was actually supposed to have rabbit ears under her hair as a callback to Life in Hell, which can actually be seen in several bits of media at the time like The Simpsons arcade game.
View attachment 1303107
They eventually scrapped it, but I wish they hadn't. The implications were delicious. This is Marge's private custom tailored Hell. Her life as Marge Simpson is a punishment for past sins.

That was such a fun game, I wished there was a proper successor for it.

 

[Jub-Jub]

I really like the little details Juiceone has been adding, like Mendoza's drink spilling in the puppy dropping scene.

Lttp but I'm trying to exploit all I can from this Disney plus free trial thing but the Simpsons look like ass wtf.

It's zoomed in but they clearly knew things are cut out because the TV scenes are still 4:3 but the worse is they either got the saturation too high or they attempted to give it the "HD clean up" but after awhile I feel kind of sick.

Yeah we talked about that in the thread a while back, the example joke being cut is the Duff, Duff dry and Duff light tanks being supplied from the same pipe. It was also mentioned that it might've originally been due to the FX channel deciding to crop. Disney said that eventually the 4:3 option would be available, but who knows if it will ever be. It might be similar to the eternal promised true de-specialised original Star Wars trilogy that'll never come.

 

[Exceptionally Exceptional]

I really like the little details Juiceone has been adding, like Mendoza's drink spilling in the puppy dropping scene.

Dude puts in some good work, and you can really see his evolution from is older videos. The way he mashes some of it together almost looks organic. The scene where the chimp is Mendoza, for example, the redraws were absolutely perfect.

Yeah we talked about that in the thread a while back, the example joke being cut is the Duff, Duff dry and Duff light tanks being supplied from the same pipe. It was also mentioned that it might've originally been due to the FX channel deciding to crop. Disney said that eventually the 4:3 option would be available, but who knows if it will ever be. It might be similar to the eternal promised true de-specialised original Star Wars trilogy that'll never come.

It's a massive sign of incompetence when viewers are actively better off finding sites that host illegal rips of your show to watch your show. The fact that Disney, with all of it's wealth and the army of people working for it hasn't resolved the aspect ratio issue already speaks volumes about how utterly fucking bad and rushed Disney+ is.
And I really am not going to be surprised when all the little jokes at Disney's expense are memory holed.

 

[Duncan Hills Coffee]

Yeah we talked about that in the thread a while back, the example joke being cut is the Duff, Duff dry and Duff light tanks being supplied from the same pipe. It was also mentioned that it might've originally been due to the FX channel deciding to crop. Disney said that eventually the 4:3 option would be available, but who knows if it will ever be. It might be similar to the eternal promised true de-specialised original Star Wars trilogy that'll never come.

Last I checked, they said that it would be available by the end of the month, but given that they've been pushing that back since last November who can really say.

 

[TowinKarz]

They're also censoring the crap out of new properties they buy up, not for aspect ratio issues, but, to make them more "audience friendly" by removing anything too edgy.... and any corner not rounded down with 5000 grit sandpaper is "too edgy" for the likes of Disney.

So even if they didn't accidentally snip something out of shot that ruins a joke through carelessness, rest assured, they'd have probably cut it out eventually anyway as some D-grade executive argued that a joke about fat people treating bowling as serious exercise had to go since Disney, through 4 degrees of merger, now owns 80% share in a bowling equipment company and we can't be knocking our own stuff with off-brand messaging like that.... sheesh....


When the fantasy version of Trump that lives in my head finishes tearing Google apart with antitrust law, DIsney should be next....


Also, the reason Groening never revisited Life in Hell was probably because after he'd made his fuck-you money, what purpose would be served by developing an old property like that into a medium it wasn't intended for and inevitably having to suffer some kind of executive meddling? More money? More fame? What could it bring that he didn't already have without risking someday regretting he sold himself out? It's like, if one-shot time travel was possible, would you go back and redo your 5th birthday party to make it "perfect"? Probably not because, well, there's more important things in your life to deal with.

 

[A Grey Cat]

Before the Disney buyout fox was legit considering launching a full on "the Simpsons channel " nothing but all the episodes and the movie 24/7 with behind the scenes tidbits in between as bumpers

 

[Duncan Hills Coffee]

Before the Disney buyout fox was legit considering launching a full on "the Simpsons channel " nothing but all the episodes and the movie 24/7 with behind the scenes tidbits in between as bumpers

That's kind of a neat idea actually. Despite the fact The Simpsons has more bad seasons than good at this point, there is enough Simpsons content to sustain a channel. The series reached 600 episodes by 2016. With a little planning and with the addition of the behind-the-scenes material, there's plenty of material to work with.

 

[Ruin]

"I will stop them I am strong! I am the Great Humongous!"

 

[BrunoMattei]

You know what bugs me? Matt Groening is probably one of the richest cartoonists alive. He has a personal net worth of over a half billion dollars. Why the fuck did he never finance a Life in Hell animated project himself? He could have resisted the corporate meddling and made the show/film however he liked, and yet he never did. You'd think if it was something he was so passionate about that he was at one point willing to turn it into a show but only stopped out of fear of losing creative control and ownership, he'd be willing to finance it himself.

Too bad, really. I'd have liked to see LIH translated to animation.

There's a saying among the rich: never spend your own money.