"22 Short Films About Springfield" is the twenty-first episode of the
seventh season of the American animated television series ''
The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, ...
''. It originally aired on the
Fox network
The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations ...
in the United States on April 14, 1996.
[.] It was written by
Richard Appel
Richard James Appel (born May 21, 1963) is an American writer, producer and former attorney. Since 2012, he has served as an executive producer and co-showrunner of ''Family Guy'' on Fox. He attended Harvard University and Harvard Law School. As ...
,
David X. Cohen,
Jonathan Collier
Jonathan Collier is an American television writer, best known for his work on ''The Simpsons'', ''Monk'', ''King of the Hill'' and '' ''Bones'. He worked as an executive producer on Mike Reiss's DVD movie, '' Queer Duck: The Movie''. He attende ...
,
Jennifer Crittenden
Jennifer Crittenden (born ) is an American screenwriter and producer. She started her writing career on the animated television series ''The Simpsons'', and has since written for several other television sitcoms including ''Everybody Loves Raymo ...
,
Greg Daniels
Gregory Martin Daniels (born June 13, 1963) is an American screenwriter, television producer, and director. He has worked on several television series, including writing for ''Saturday Night Live'' and ''The Simpsons'', adapting ''The Office (Am ...
,
Brent Forrester,
Dan Greaney
Daniel Greaney is an American television writer. He has written for ''The Simpsons'' and ''The Office''. He was hired during ''The Simpsons'' seventh season after writing the first draft of the episode " King-Size Homer", but left after season e ...
,
Rachel Pulido
Rachel Pulido (born January 26, 1967) is a television writer. She graduated from Harvard University, where she was a writer for the college humor magazine the Harvard Lampoon. She has written for ''The Simpsons'' and '' Mission Hill''. She is mar ...
,
Steve Tompkins,
Josh Weinstein
Josh Weinstein (born May 5, 1966) is an American television writer and producer, known for his work on the animated comedy series ''The Simpsons''. Weinstein and Bill Oakley became best friends and writing partners at St. Albans School; Weinst ...
,
Bill Oakley
William Lloyd Oakley (born February 27, 1966) is an American television writer and producer, known for his work on the animated comedy series ''The Simpsons''. Oakley and Josh Weinstein became best friends and writing partners at St. Albans Sc ...
, and
Matt Groening
Matthew Abram Groening ( ; born February 15, 1954) is an American cartoonist, writer, producer, and animator. He is the creator of the comic strip ''Life in Hell'' (1977–2012) and the television series ''The Simpsons'' (1989–present), ''Fut ...
, with the writing being supervised by Daniels. The episode was directed by
Jim Reardon
Jim Reardon is an American animator, storyboard artist, television writer, television director, and screenwriter. He is best known for his work on the animated TV series ''The Simpsons''. He has directed over 30 episodes of the series and was cr ...
.
Phil Hartman
Philip Edward Hartman (; September 24, 1948 – May 28, 1998) was a Canadian-American actor, comedian, screenwriter and graphic designer. Hartman was born in Brantford, Ontario, Canada, and his family moved to the United States w ...
guest starred as
Lionel Hutz and the hospital board chairman.
The episode depicts brief incidents experienced by a wide array of Springfield residents in a series of interconnected stories that take place over a single day. The episode's concept originated from the end segment of the
season four episode "
The Front", and serves as a loose parody of ''
Pulp Fiction
''Pulp Fiction'' is a 1994 American crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, who conceived it with Roger Avary.See, e.g., King (2002), pp. 185–7; ; Starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Vin ...
'', which gave the staff the idea of a possible spin-off from ''The Simpsons''. The title is a reference to the film ''
Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould
''Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould'' is a 1993 Canadian biographical anthology film about the pianist Glenn Gould, played by Colm Feore. It was directed by François Girard, with a screenplay by Girard and Don McKellar.
The film is presen ...
''.
The episode received positive reviews from critics and is noted for its popularity among fans, with the "Steamed Hams" segment becoming a popular
internet meme
An Internet meme, commonly known simply as a meme ( ), is an idea, behavior, style, or image that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. What is considered a meme may vary across different communities on the Internet ...
in 2016.
Plot
The episode is a series of shorts ranging in length from under half a minute to over two and a half minutes, each showing daily life in
Springfield, after
Bart
Bart is a masculine given name, usually a diminutive of Bartholomew, sometimes of Barton, Bartolomeo, etc.
Bart is a Dutch and Ashkenazi Jewish surname, and derives from the name ''Bartholomäus'', a German form of the biblical name ''Bartho ...
wonders if anything interesting happens to the town's citizens.
# Bart and
Milhouse
Milhouse Mussolini Van Houten is a recurring character in the Fox animated television series ''The Simpsons'' voiced by Pamela Hayden and created by Matt Groening. Milhouse is Bart Simpson's best friend in Mrs. Krabappel's fourth grade class at ...
spit and squirt condiments from a highway overpass onto cars, then go to the
Kwik-E-Mart
The Kwik-E-Mart (spelled "Quick-E-Mart" in "Bart the General") is a convenience store in the animated television series ''The Simpsons''.
It is a parody of American convenience stores, such as 7-Eleven and Cumberland Farms, and depicts many of th ...
.
#
Apu closes the Kwik-E-Mart for five minutes to attend a party at
Sanjay's house, trapping
Moleman in the store.
# Bart unknowingly throws
gum in
Lisa's hair, and
Marge
Marge is a feminine given name, a shortened form of Marjorie, Margot or Margaret. Notable Marges include:
People
* Marge (cartoonist) (1904–1993), pen name of Marjorie Henderson Buell, American cartoonist
* Marge Anderson (1932–2013), Ojibwe ...
tries to remove the gum by putting peanut butter and mayonnaise on her hair.
# Lisa's hair attracts a swarm of bees, one of which flies away.
# While bike riding with
Mr. Burns
Charles Montgomery Plantagenet Schicklgruber "Monty" Burns, usually referred to as Mr. Burns, Monty, or C. Montgomery Burns, is a recurring character and the main antagonist of the animated television series ''The Simpsons'', voiced initially by ...
,
Smithers suffers an allergic reaction to the bee's sting and rides to the hospital, but the orderlies admit only Burns.
#
Dr. Nick
The American culture, American animated television series ''The Simpsons'' contains a wide range of minor and supporting characters like co-workers, teachers, students, family friends, extended relatives, townspeople, local celebrities, and even ...
is criticized by the hospital board for his
unorthodox medical procedures, only to treat
Grampa with an electric light socket, saving his career.
#
Moe gets robbed by
Snake
Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more ...
after
Barney gives him $2,000 to pay for a portion of his $14 billion bar tab.
# While hosting
Superintendent Chalmers for lunch,
Principal Skinner burns his roast and bluffs his way through the meal.
#
Homer
Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...
accidentally traps
Maggie in a newspaper vending box.
#
Chief Wiggum
Chief Clancy Wiggum is a fictional character from the animated television series ''The Simpsons'', voiced by Hank Azaria. He is the chief of police in the show's setting of Springfield, and is the father of Ralph Wiggum and the husband of Sara ...
,
Lou, and
Eddie compare
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hambur ...
and
Krusty Burger
Springfield is the primary fictional setting of the American animated sitcom ''The Simpsons'' and related media. It is an average-sized, fictional city within an indeterminate state in the United States. The fictional city's geography, surroundi ...
.
#
Bumblebee Man
The American animated television series ''The Simpsons'' contains a wide range of minor and supporting characters like co-workers, teachers, students, family friends, extended relatives, townspeople, local celebrities, and even animals. The write ...
arrives home after a horrible day at work and his house is destroyed, causing his wife to leave him.
# Snake runs Wiggum over, and their ensuing fight ends with
Herman
Herman may refer to:
People
* Herman (name), list of people with this name
* Saint Herman (disambiguation)
* Peter Noone (born 1947), known by the mononym Herman
Places in the United States
* Herman, Arkansas
* Herman, Michigan
* Herman, Min ...
capturing them at gunpoint in his store.
#
Reverend Lovejoy urges his pet
Old English Sheepdog
The Old English Sheepdog is a large breed of dog that emerged in England from early types of herding dog. Obsolete names for the breed include Shepherd's Dog and . The nickname ''Bob-tail'' (or ''Bobtail'') originates from how dogs of the bre ...
to use
Ned Flanders
Nedward "Ned" Flanders Jr. is a fictional character in the animated television series ''The Simpsons'', voiced by Harry Shearer and first appearing in the series premiere episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire." He is the good-natured, ch ...
's lawn as a toilet.
# Various townspeople advise Marge and Lisa how to remove the gum stuck in Lisa's hair.
#
Cletus offers
Brandine some shoes he found on a
telephone line
A telephone line or telephone circuit (or just line or circuit industrywide) is a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system. It is designed to reproduce speech of a quality that is understandable. It is the physical wire or ot ...
.
# Milhouse tries to use the bathroom in
Comic Book Guy's Android's Dungeon, but is forced to leave the store before he can use it.
# Milhouse goes with
his father to use the bathroom in Herman's store and accidentally knocks out Herman with a
flail
A flail is an agriculture, agricultural tool used for threshing, the process of separating cereal, grains from their husks.
It is usually made from two or more large sticks attached by a short chain; one stick is held and swung, causing the othe ...
, saving his father, Snake, and Wiggum.
#
Jake the barber cuts the gum out of Lisa's hair, leaving her with a different hairstyle. At first she's pleased until Nelson mocks it.
#
Nelson laughs at an extremely tall man in a small car, who then publicly humiliates Nelson to teach him a lesson after his attempts at calmly explaining the reality of his situation failed.
# Bart and Milhouse squirt ketchup and mustard onto Nelson from the overpass, and conclude that life is interesting in their town after all.
#
Professor Frink attempts to tell his story but is cut off by the ending credits.
Production
The episode's principal idea came from the
season four episode "
The Front", which contained a short sequence entitled ''
The Adventures of Ned Flanders'', featuring its own title card and theme song, at its conclusion. The scene has no relevance to the main plot of the episode and was designed solely as
filler to accommodate the episode's short runtime.
The staff loved the concept and attempted to fit similar scenes into other episodes, but none were short enough to require one.
Show runner
A showrunner (or colloquially a helmer) is the top-level executive producer of a television series production who has creative and management authority through combining the responsibilities of employer and, in comedy or dramas, typically also the ...
s
Bill Oakley
William Lloyd Oakley (born February 27, 1966) is an American television writer and producer, known for his work on the animated comedy series ''The Simpsons''. Oakley and Josh Weinstein became best friends and writing partners at St. Albans Sc ...
and
Josh Weinstein
Josh Weinstein (born May 5, 1966) is an American television writer and producer, known for his work on the animated comedy series ''The Simpsons''. Weinstein and Bill Oakley became best friends and writing partners at St. Albans School; Weinst ...
decided to make an entire episode of linked short scenes involving many of the show's characters, in a similar style to
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, dark humor, non-linear storylines, cameos, ensembl ...
's ''
Pulp Fiction
''Pulp Fiction'' is a 1994 American crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, who conceived it with Roger Avary.See, e.g., King (2002), pp. 185–7; ; Starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Vin ...
''.
[ The title "22 Short Films About Springfield" was decided upon from the start of the episode's production,][ even though there are not actually twenty-two stories in it.] Originally there were more scenes, but several of them had to be cut out for time.[ To decide who would write each of the segments, all of the writers chose their top three favorite characters and put them into a hat, the names were drawn out and the writers were assigned their parts.][ Oakley wrote the Superintendent Chalmers story,][ Weinstein did the ]Comic Book Guy
Jeff Albertson, commonly known as Comic Book Guy, is a recurring fictional character in the animated television series ''The Simpsons''. He is voiced by Hank Azaria and first appeared in the second-season episode " Three Men and a Comic Book", wh ...
and Milhouse
Milhouse Mussolini Van Houten is a recurring character in the Fox animated television series ''The Simpsons'' voiced by Pamela Hayden and created by Matt Groening. Milhouse is Bart Simpson's best friend in Mrs. Krabappel's fourth grade class at ...
scene,[ David Cohen penned the Reverend Lovejoy sketch, as well as the deleted ]Krusty the Clown
Herschel Shmoikel Pinchas Yerucham Krustofsky (; ) better known by his stage name Krusty the Clown (sometimes spelled as Krusty the Klown), is a recurring character on the animated television series ''The Simpsons''. He is voiced by Dan Castel ...
scene. Brent Forrester wrote the Krusty Burger scene,[ while ]Rachel Pulido
Rachel Pulido (born January 26, 1967) is a television writer. She graduated from Harvard University, where she was a writer for the college humor magazine the Harvard Lampoon. She has written for ''The Simpsons'' and '' Mission Hill''. She is mar ...
wrote the Bumblebee Man
The American animated television series ''The Simpsons'' contains a wide range of minor and supporting characters like co-workers, teachers, students, family friends, extended relatives, townspeople, local celebrities, and even animals. The write ...
one.[ ]Richard Appel
Richard James Appel (born May 21, 1963) is an American writer, producer and former attorney. Since 2012, he has served as an executive producer and co-showrunner of ''Family Guy'' on Fox. He attended Harvard University and Harvard Law School. As ...
wrote a deleted "elaborate fantasy segment" revolving around Marge
Marge is a feminine given name, a shortened form of Marjorie, Margot or Margaret. Notable Marges include:
People
* Marge (cartoonist) (1904–1993), pen name of Marjorie Henderson Buell, American cartoonist
* Marge Anderson (1932–2013), Ojibwe ...
, the only remnant of which is her cleaning the sink during the first Lisa scene, and also a scene with Lionel Hutz that was dropped.
The episode's first draft was 65 pages long and needed to be cut down to just 42, so numerous scenes were cut for time or because they did not fit into the overall dynamic of the episode.[ To solve this problem, a scene before the second act break, where the townspeople go to the Simpson house to provide advice of how Lisa can get the gum out of her hair, was created to include every character that did not appear anywhere else during the course of the episode.][ Weinstein and writing supervisor ]Greg Daniels
Gregory Martin Daniels (born June 13, 1963) is an American screenwriter, television producer, and director. He has worked on several television series, including writing for ''Saturday Night Live'' and ''The Simpsons'', adapting ''The Office (Am ...
were responsible for ordering and linking together the episodes, and director Jim Reardon
Jim Reardon is an American animator, storyboard artist, television writer, television director, and screenwriter. He is best known for his work on the animated TV series ''The Simpsons''. He has directed over 30 episodes of the series and was cr ...
had the challenge of segueing between each section in a way that did not make the change seem abrupt. Those that were hard to link were put before or after an act break or were given a theme song, one of which was cut from the Apu story, but was included as a deleted scene on ''The Complete Seventh Season'' DVD.[
Bill Oakley wrote the Chalmers scene because he is his all-time favorite character from the show. The main reason he loved him was that, until Frank Grimes was created for the season eight episode "]Homer's Enemy
"Homer's Enemy" is the twenty-third episode of the eighth season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons''. It was first broadcast on the Fox network in the United States on May 4, 1997. "Homer's Enemy" was directed by Jim Reard ...
", Chalmers was the only character that "seemed to operate in the normal human universe".[ In previous episodes, Skinner and Chalmers' scenes together revolved around one joke: Skinner tells Chalmers an unbelievable lie, but Chalmers believes him anyway. So, their scene in this episode is made up of a string of thirteen interconnected lies.][ The dialogue between him and Skinner was something that had never been done before, in that it is just a long relaxed conversation with nothing important being said at all.][ The idea behind the scene was to make fun of the classic sitcom trope of taking the boss home for dinner, the boss doubting his employee's lies and ultimately believing them. Oakley wrote all the scene in one afternoon and the finished product resembles almost exactly its first draft. Layout artist Sarge Morton was given the task to storyboard the whole scene, as he had an affinity for scenes featuring both Skinner and Chalmers.]
In the Mr. Burns story, every single word he yells at Smithers is real and used correctly. To maintain accuracy, the writers used a 19th-century slang thesaurus to look up words.[ Many of the Spanish words used in Bumblebee Man's segment are easily understood ]cognates
In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical eff ...
of English and not accurate Spanish; this was done deliberately so that non-Spanish speakers could understand the dialogue without subtitles. The very tall man was a caricature of writer Ian Maxtone-Graham
Ian Howes Maxtone-Graham is an American television writer and producer. He has formerly written for ''Saturday Night Live'' (1992–1995) and ''The Simpsons'' (1995–2012), as well as serving as a co-executive producer and consulting producer ...
,[ and the crowd on the street who laugh at Nelson includes caricatures of ]Matt Groening
Matthew Abram Groening ( ; born February 15, 1954) is an American cartoonist, writer, producer, and animator. He is the creator of the comic strip ''Life in Hell'' (1977–2012) and the television series ''The Simpsons'' (1989–present), ''Fut ...
, Bill Oakley, and Josh Weinstein. Oakley wrote in the script that the street was filled with Springfield's biggest idiots; the animators drew him, Weinstein, and Groening into the scene.[
]
Cultural references
The episode contains numerous references to Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, dark humor, non-linear storylines, cameos, ensembl ...
's ''Pulp Fiction
''Pulp Fiction'' is a 1994 American crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, who conceived it with Roger Avary.See, e.g., King (2002), pp. 185–7; ; Starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Vin ...
''. Like the film, the episode's plot is episodic, though the stories are interconnected. The policemen's conversation about McDonald's parallels the famous "Royale With Cheese" discussion,[ and the music played during the segment's beginning was also taken from the film.][ The story involving Chief Wiggum and Snake is a direct parody of the "Gold Watch" segment of the film. Snake runs over Wiggum at a red light, alluding to the segment of the film where the character of Butch Coolidge did the same to Marsellus Wallace, before crashing into a fire hydrant and beginning an on-foot chase.][ The two run into ]Herman
Herman may refer to:
People
* Herman (name), list of people with this name
* Saint Herman (disambiguation)
* Peter Noone (born 1947), known by the mononym Herman
Places in the United States
* Herman, Arkansas
* Herman, Michigan
* Herman, Min ...
's Military Antique shop, where Herman beats, ties up and gags the two, then waits for "Zed" to arrive, exactly as Maynard does in ''Pulp Fiction''. The Cheese brand "Cheesy does it" is a play on the album name "Eazy-Duz-It
''Eazy-Duz-It'' is the debut studio album by American rapper Eazy-E. It was released on November 23, 1988, by Ruthless Records and Priority Records. The album charted on two different charts and went 2× Platinum in the United States despite ver ...
".The writers were pleased that Herman already existed as otherwise they would have had to create another character just for this scene.[ The episode's title is a reference to the film '']Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould
''Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould'' is a 1993 Canadian biographical anthology film about the pianist Glenn Gould, played by Colm Feore. It was directed by François Girard, with a screenplay by Girard and Don McKellar.
The film is presen ...
''.
Reception
In its original broadcast, "22 Short Films About Springfield" finished tied for 73rd in the weekly ratings for the week of April 8–14, 1996, with a Nielsen rating
Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rati ...
of 6.9. It was the seventh highest rated show from the Fox network
The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations ...
that week.
On March 12, 2002, the episode was released in the United States on a DVD collection titled ''The Simpsons Film Festival'', along with the season eleven episode "Beyond Blunderdome
"Beyond Blunderdome" is the eleventh season premiere of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons''. It originally aired on the Fox Network in the United States on September 26, 1999 and was watched in around 8.1 million homes ...
", the season four episode " Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie", and the season six episode " A Star is Burns".
The episode is Bill Oakley
William Lloyd Oakley (born February 27, 1966) is an American television writer and producer, known for his work on the animated comedy series ''The Simpsons''. Oakley and Josh Weinstein became best friends and writing partners at St. Albans Sc ...
's personal favorite episode, but he claimed that it is hated by two prominent (and unnamed) figures within the running of the show.[ When ''The Simpsons'' began streaming on ]Disney+
Disney+ is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned and operated by the Media and Entertainment Distribution division of The Walt Disney Company. The service primarily distributes films and television se ...
in 2019, Oakley named this one of the best classic Simpsons episodes to watch on the service. The episode is frequently cited as a popular one among the show's fans on the Internet.[
In 1998, '']TV Guide
TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program listings information as well as entertainment and television-related news.
The company sold its print magazine division, TV Guide Magazine LLC, in 2008.
Corpora ...
'' listed it in its list of top twelve ''Simpsons'' episodes.
''Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...
'', in 2003, placed the episode 14th on their top 25 ''The Simpsons'' episode list, praising the episode's structure and finding the ''Pulp Fiction'' references "priceless".
Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, the authors of the book ''I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide'', called it "an untypical episode, and a very good one", naming the Skinner and Chalmers story as the best.
In 2019, several sources cited the episode as one of the show's best, including ''Consequence of Sound
''Consequence'' (previously ''Consequence of Sound'') is an independently owned New York-based online magazine featuring news, editorials, and reviews of music, movies, and television. In addition, the website also features the Festival Outlook ...
'' who ranked it number five on its list of top 30 ''Simpsons'' episodes.
''Entertainment.ie
''Entertainment.ie'' is an Irish web company based in Dublin. The company provides news and reviews of programs and films for TV and the cinema. It also provides information on upcoming comedies, festivals, theater shows and music in Ireland, a ...
'' named it among the 10 greatest ''Simpsons'' episodes of all time, ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' named it one of the five greatest episodes in ''Simpsons'' history and while IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
named " A Fish Called Selma" the best episode of the seventh season, they added that "22 Short Films About Springfield" was "good competition" for the crown.
In 2004, ''Empire
An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...
'' named the episode's ''Pulp Fiction'' parody the seventh best film gag in the show, calling Wiggum and Snake bound and gagged with red balls in their mouths "the sickest visual gag in ''Simpsons'' history". The episode is the favorite of British comedian Jimmy Carr
James Anthony Patrick Carr (born 15 September 1972) is a British-Irish comedian, presenter, writer, and actor. He is known for his deadpan delivery of controversial one-liners and distinctive laugh, for which he has been both praised and criti ...
who, in 2003, called it "a brilliant pastiche of art cinema".
Legacy
Unproduced spin-off
The episode sparked the idea among the staff for a spin-off series entitled ''Springfield Stories'' or simply ''Springfield''.[ The proposed show would focus on the town in general, rather than the Simpson family. Every week would be a different scenario, such as three short stories, an adventure with young Homer, or a story about a background character that was not tied into the Simpson family at all.] According to Bill Oakley, the show was not just going to focus on secondary and minor characters, but also in other things that were outside of the normal ''Simpsons'' universe, with the episodes being "free-form", but Josh Weinstein recalls that executive producer James L. Brooks "didn't go for it".[ The idea never resulted in anything, as Groening realized that the staff did not have the manpower to produce another show as well as ''The Simpsons''.] By 2006, the staff maintained that it was something that they would still be interested in doing,[ and by 2007 that it "could happen someday".] "22 Short Films About Springfield" also helped inspire the '' Futurama'' episode " Three Hundred Big Boys".
"Steamed Hams"
In one segment of the episode, titled "Skinner & The Superintendent", Seymour Skinner invents the term "steamed hams" to refer to hamburgers, claiming that it is an expression in the regional dialect
The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena:
One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...
of Albany, New York
Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York C ...
. Starting in 2016, over two decades from the episode's premiere, the scene gained renewed popularity in Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
groups and pages relating to ''The Simpsons''. It has also spawned numerous parody and remix videos on YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
, many of them featuring "Steamed Hams But..." in their titles.
Writing for ''Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...
'' in 2021, Dani Di Placido stated that the scene "serves as a nostalgic reminder of the show’s best years, when a single scene between two side-characters proved so memorable that fans were still quoting it, decades later, and so malleable that it can mutate into one of the internet’s most enduring memes."
In 2016, 20 years after the episode aired, around 1000 people commented on the Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
page of Australian supermarket chain Woolworths inquiring about "steamed hams". The company responded by posting an image of ham
Ham is pork from a leg cut that has been preserved by wet or dry curing, with or without smoking."Bacon: Bacon and Ham Curing" in ''Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 39. As a processed meat, the term "ham ...
s with the caption, "We've received a lot of feedback from you all in the last 24 hours about whether we stock 'Steamed Hams'. Please note that in Australia, we call them Hamburger
A hamburger, or simply burger, is a food consisting of fillings—usually a patty of ground meat, typically beef—placed inside a sliced bun or bread roll. Hamburgers are often served with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, bacon, ...
s. 'Steamed Hams' is an Albany, New York expression. Fans of ''The Simpsons'', this is for you." The continuing popularity of the segment caused an upsurge in fan-made YouTube remixes and variants.
In January 2018, Bill Oakley, the writer of the segment, posted the original draft for the segment on Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
. He said it believed it was the most famous thing he had written and one of his favorites.[
In April 2018, a reporter for ]GameSpot
''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
, during an interview with actor Jeff Goldblum
Jeffrey Lynn Goldblum (; born October 22, 1952) is an American actor and musician. He has starred in some of the highest-grossing films of his era, such as ''Jurassic Park'' (1993) and ''Independence Day'' (1996), as well as their sequels.
...
for the video game ''Jurassic World Evolution
''Jurassic World Evolution'' is a construction and management simulation video game developed and published by Frontier Developments. Based on the 2015 film '' Jurassic World'', the game was released in June 2018, for Microsoft Windows, Play ...
'', had Goldblum read the part of Skinner in a reenactment of the scene. Goldblum commented at the end of the read: "I like the writing, too—that was from what?" Oakley responded immediately on Twitter, writing " 'mnot a fan of fairly big companies like GameSpot having famous actors perform scripts I wrote, verbatim, without giving me any sort of credit whatsoever." The video was taken down within days of its posting.
In an April 2021 interview with ''The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly larg ...
'', Oakley, Weinstein, animation director Jim Reardon
Jim Reardon is an American animator, storyboard artist, television writer, television director, and screenwriter. He is best known for his work on the animated TV series ''The Simpsons''. He has directed over 30 episodes of the series and was cr ...
, voice actor Hank Azaria
Henry Albert Azaria ( ; born April 25, 1964) is an American actor, comedian, and writer. He is known for voicing many characters in the animated sitcom ''The Simpsons'' (1989–present), most notably Moe Szyslak, Chief Wiggum, Comic Book Guy, ...
and current ''Simpsons'' showrunner Al Jean
Alfred Ernest Jean III (born January 9, 1961) is an American screenwriter and producer. Jean is well known for his work on ''The Simpsons''. He was raised near Detroit, Michigan, and graduated from Harvard University in 1981. Jean began his wri ...
shared their thoughts about the popularity of "Steamed Hams". Azaria said he was confused about how popular the segment had become. Reardon became aware of it when his daughters pointed it out a few years prior. They shared their favorite "Steamed Hams" parodies, including one made with Lego animation, one animating the characters in the style of the music video for the song "Take On Me
"Take On Me" is a song by the Norwegian synth-pop band A-ha. The original version, recorded in 1984 and released in October of that same year, was produced by Tony Mansfield and remixed by John Ratcliff. The 1985 international hit version was p ...
" by A-ha, and one with the dialogue synchronized to the vocals of " Basket Case" by Green Day. Weinstein said that Groening also enjoyed the phenomenon.[
]
References
External links
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{{The Simpsons episodes, 7
The Simpsons (season 7) episodes
1996 American television episodes
Television episodes written by David X. Cohen
Film and television memes