If you want to go to Hell, you should take a trip to the Sodom and Gomorrah of the Mississip'

[vovat]

bethje and I have finished watching all of the Season 3 Simpsons episodes with commentary, including the hidden commentaries with Al Jean and Mike Reiss. I found out how to access them through a website; I'm not the type who would ever be likely to find such Easter Eggs myself. I found Reiss's comments on the episode that was never made, in which Leon Kompowski (the bricklayer who thought he was Michael Jackson) started thinking he was Prince, to be interesting. Apparently Prince didn't like the script, although he DID like an unsolicited script that someone unconnected to the show had sent him.

The first disc of Season 4 includes two brief segments on controversies the show sparked: the one with Barbara Bush, and the one involving the New Orleans song from "A Streetcar Named Marge." I really found it odd that the second controversy ever happened. The writers insisted that it was taken out of context, and was intended as a play on the song at the beginning of Sweeney Todd, about how lousy London is. Makes sense, but even if there HADN'T been this context for it, what did those who objected to it think would happen?

"Hey, you wanna go to New Orleans for the Mardi Gras?"
"No way! They said on some song on The Simpsons that that place is a hellhole!"
"Well, if they said it in a satirical cartoon show, it MUST be true!"

I mean, come on! I guess it's just another example of people not being able to recognize humor. I remember reading an amusing Dave Barry column on what he called Humor Impairment (I think it might have been reproduced in Dave Barry Talks Back), and that seems to have been at work in this case.

Another interesting thing from the Season 4 commentaries was when they said Krusty's "I heartily endorse this event or production" was a reference to Art Linkletter's "I heartily endorse this game" on old versions of the Game of Life. What's interesting is that my dad actually had one of these Linkletter-endorsed Life sets. I forget whether it was a gift or a garage sale purchase, but it was pretty old. Linkletter was on the $100,000 bill, and Milton Bradley was on the 50,000. I know Beth has a newer version of the game, which is basically the same but the dollar amounts are higher. I also remember playing an even newer version of the game with the son of my dad's ex-girlfriend, and this version was pretty much completely different. I don't even remember much about it, aside from that you had career cards. I hope this isn't the standard version of the game now, because it wasn't as much fun.

I had a dream last night about some kind of war, which started when a ship took someone's long hair (it might have been mine, although this was never totally clear) as a sign of war. Then there was something about a ship sailing through Africa. The thing is, even though I might have been involved in the triggering event, I didn't know much about the story. Some guy was telling it to me in a restaurant, but I had to leave for class, and never got to hear how it ended. It really didn't make much sense, and it's not as interesting to tell as I had originally hoped. Sorry about that

Also I got this from jenhime. It sounds like a good way to get ideas for future posts, if anyone is interested in replying to it.

1. Comment with any subject that you would like me to rant on, with possible swearing involved. Any subject - I don't even have to agree with it.
2. Watch my journal for your rant.
3. Post this in your own journal, so that you may rant for others.

Comments

[revme.livejournal.com]

I think my copy of Life, bought in the lateish 1980s, still had the MB/Linklater bills. I'd have to double check, though.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think the newer versions do still have those bills. I had forgotten, but Beth said her set does. I guess they kept Linkletter's face on the bill after taking his hearty endorsement off the box. {g}

If I remember correctly, all the bills UNDER $50,000 had made-up people with pun names.