Bart's Blackboard Blog

This one is for CRChair - a blog dedicated to chronicling the blackboard gags from each and every Simpsons episode. Both a good resource, if you missed the first 30 seconds of the episode, and a fun place to while away a few hours with laughter.

New Simpsons Opening?

Supposedly, this new opening will start tonight, along with a new HD presentation.

This is for CRChair - Mixing two of his favorite things

CRChair *NEEDS* to play this level of Quake III

How many Simpsons do you know?

This is a fun game to test how many Simpsons characters you can identify. I got them all with 1:39 left to go. I suspect CRChair will do far, far better... if the spelling does not defeat him.

This one is for CRChair

The second half is MUCH funnier than the first half, in my ever-so-humble opinion.

Simpsons-ese enters Scientific Parlance

In the episode "Lisa the Iconoclast", the following exchange happens.

Jebediah: [on film] A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man.
Edna: Embiggens? I never heard that word before I moved to Springfield
Ms. Hoover: I don't know why. It's a perfectly cromulent word.

This little exchange makes fun of the ease with which small communities invent their own lingo. Well, in a sign of the cultural power of the Simpsons, "embiggens" has appeared in a recent Physics paper and the author appears to be happy it is drawing some attention.

The Simpsons Movie was good

CRChair and I saw the Simpsons movie yesterday and it was very good. Not great, in my opinion, but very good. It was like a very long episode - in mostly the good ways, since we love those episodes. It was not perfect, and yes, you do see Bart's doodle for approximately 1 second so parents may want to screen this before letting their chidren see it. I was going to write a long review, but I think this one at AICN says it about as well as I could, though he loved it a bit more than I did.

And one reason I’m glad I saw this with the crowd I did is because they were into it. They were with the film all the way through. Everyone reacted to different things. Some of the biggest moments got deservedly outsized reactions, and some lines had maybe one or two people in the whole place laughing, but it was a kick to see what people responded to with this one. It’s fun because we all love something different about THE SIMPSONS at this point. If you’re a fan of it, I’m sure you’ve got specific scenes or jokes or characters or images that define why you are a fan. A lot of what I really respect and enjoy about the show is represented in the approach they’ve taken to putting this together, and realizing that... the creeping sensation of watching someone get something exactly right... is one of this summer’s most pleasant surprises.

The other thing that is nice is the movie keeps up the tradition of respecting Ned Flanders as an honest man trying to do good, despite all peer pressure. The last few seasons the writers have played with that formula and weakened the character considerably. This time, it is front and center (except for one line) and it is a welcome return. Cynicism only really works in the presence of at least one truly sincere person.

Lessons from Simpsons for Guys

We saw the Simpsons Movie tonight (review probably coming tomorrow), so this article seemed strangely appropriate. It is a compendium of quote from the series with life lessons for guys. (Note, I said GUYS, not MEN. There is an important difference.)

5. Compassion for Your Fellow Man:
Homer: Well crying isn't going to help. Now, you can sit there feeling sorry for yourself or you can eat can after can of dog food until your tears smell enough like dog food until your dog comes back, or you can go out there and find your dog.
Bart: You're right.
[Gets up and leaves]
Homer: Rats. I almost had him eating dog food.
No matter how bad your buddy is feeling, you'd be remiss if you let an opportunity pass to screw with him while he's vulnerable.

Make Yourself a Simpsons Character

Back in September of last year, Sean posted The Simpson Character Generator which, unfortunately, appears to be down. Now, Burger King has up a way to take a picture of yourself and turn it into a Simpsons' character. I haven't gotten it to work yet, but that's probably because it was mentioned on Wired and too many people are using it right now. If you create an account, it appears you can even e-mail your character to impress friends.