Talking Simpsons - I Am Furious (Yellow) With Ian Jones-Quartey

A few years ago, I was invited to a local high school to speak to a class of kids as a comic artist. Not only was it damn near impossible to get those kids to pay attention or ever give a shit, once the floor was opened up for questions, they knew exactly how to cut straight to the bone. One kid even cruelly asked "so do you make six figures doing this or what?" (I was part time at the time and used those funds to support my own side art gigs). When Ian JQ brought up how hard it is to talk to high schools as a guest artist, all those memories came rushing back. I was very grateful to have free access to the teachers lounge to calm my nerves afterwards, good lord.

John-Charles Holmes

Thanks for posting this. I was one of the designers on that game and getting to write dialogue for Stan was one of the highlights of my life! 😁

To Boldy Joe... Moore

There's some great points in the intro about Newgrounds-era flash and the people who've gone into the industry since then. One example that doesn't get mentioned (not that it was a comprehensive history ofc) is Smiling Friends, which is made by and co-stars a ton of young Newgrounds guys. I only mention it specifically because flash animation-era influence is sooo clear in SF, to the point that they have the Newgrounds creator voice The Boss and the Sick Animation guy guest star (IIRC)

trasparenti

I remember liking this episode A LOT as a kid, so much so that when I would revisit it on DVD later on I was always surprised at how late it fell into the run (especially after you read the commonplace complaints about Simpsons dying at season 8/9). And honestly, it still holds up REALLY well. It's hands-down my favourite episode of the season, and Stan Lee's role is just really entertaining and funny - the man really COULD voice act, which we kind of forget from how ubiquitous he became with his Marvel cameos in the next 16 years until his death. I'm definitely a nerd for superhero stuff, so that undoubtedly contributes to how much I enjoy the episode, and the same can be said for all the comic talk on the podcast! -- As always, Ian was a great guest!

Dylan (batmanboy11) Freitag

So is this the best episode of the season? I think so. It's funny and does a good job of mocking the internet cartoon culture of its era, but I have no idea how that plays on someone who is younger and didn't live through it. At least for them, the Marvel stuff plays as well now as it did then, if not better. And Stan Lee is low key one of the best guest stars Simpsons has had for the simple fact that he's willing to go along with the jokes even at his expense. I would argue Stan Lee was pretty mainstream even back when this premiered as he was always very good at self promotion. I know I'd see him interviewed on the news, and he was featured in cable biography shows and the like (he passed the parent test when this aired), but he's definitely even more well known now.

Joe Hodgson

WTF Ian J Quartey made Nock Force!?? I've seen every episode of this! I've had some of the dumb songs stuck in my head for 15 years now, like when they see a trap tile in a dungeon and sing "don't step on it". This reveal blew my mind!

Tom Brien

This was probably my first exposure to Stan Lee. I never read the comics as a kid. I was only familiar with the 90s X-Men and Spiderman cartoons. (And the games of course.) The way he crushes The Thing into the Batmobile with such fervor and confidence gets me every time. I love when people not only play themselves, but can take a joke. That's what made Adam West so great on Family Guy.

Andrew O.

Can't wait to listen to this. This is one of the last episodes I remember really enjoying before falling off.

“Let’s send him into one of his trademark fits!” Is a popular meme in our D&D group.

Hoonser

Tangential to "The Boring World of Niels Bohr," in 2008, the American Journal of Physics published an article with the title, "Would Bohr be born if Bohm were born before Born?" It isn't influential or anything, but very memorable, if a little "boring."

Bradford A Barker

I am happy to report that, in Lego Marvel Super Heroes, Stan Lee could indeed change into the Hulk at the press of a button. Excelsior!

Diamond Feit

If you think hbomber ended our boy Tommy...slopes game room buried him to hell. Check out his 4 hour epic on the amico

Frank Grimes

I know it's such a minor thing in the episode but the absolute best time to have experienced G4TV was to be like me: a 12 year old whose family had digital cable but still kept dial-up internet. Getting reliable info on games back then was a huge pain in the ass because user feedback could be dodgy (people in general are pretty awful about elaborating at why something does or doesn't work) and there were a LOT of bad professional reviewers too. As much as we now agree that Tommy Tallarico is history's greatest gaming monster, he and Victor Lucas on Judgment Day did give pretty decent reviews for that time. If nothing else they were waaaay ahead of X-Play, who (much like most of the review industry prior to the 8th console generation) would dock points from a release solely for being Japanese. One X-Play episode, no bullshit, actually made an autism joke in a JRPG review, which is probably why Adam Sessler doesn't want to release all the episodes on youtube even though he totally could. Either that, or he's got the cocaine shakes again and can't work his computer. Of course, it didn't help that the network was run like total shit and frequently abused its interns for most of its content. Their esports-esque show, Arena, was just them getting a bunch of said interns together and paying them in cheap pizza to provide network content at no extra pay. X-Play itself apparently used interns to write all the reviews and even had a ladder system where you had to 'earn' the right to play and review the hotter games. Though really, even if it wasn't managed so horribly it still would've gone under thanks to the ubiquity of high-speed internet and streaming. Why sit through commercials and dumb skits when I can load up any gaming news or info I want in five seconds? Nowadays if you're ever on the fence about something you can just look up footage for it and see if jives with you. Channels like Mandalore Gaming put a ton of effort into showing off both cool indies and classics (his video on the Marathon trilogy is an asbolute masterpiece). It's easier than ever to make an informed purchase. But, to me, it's still sort of a fun reminder of when I used to get excited about Hot New Games.

Professor Gascan

Always love hearing Ian on the show, and I appreciate the context you gave this episode. I remember liking it when it originally aired, although I don't know how many of the dot com bubble jokes I actually understood, but I'm surprised how well it still works, especially as a time capsule of that particular period. Coming off a streak of lame episodes in the back half of Season 13, maybe this shows that some of the writers put in more effort when they were fuelled by spite.

Christmas Ape

I was 6 years old when this episode premiered and it has been burned into my brain ever since. It was the first time I heard that you could be a cartoonist as a job, and I immediately started emulating Bart. I would hand draw my own comic books, staple them and hand them out to friends and family. Seeing Bart write his own animated show give me the creative itch that I’m still trying to scratch. I’m sorry a few months in development on a self funded cartoon pilot of my own, so I guess I owe that to this gem from season 13.

Ian is probably my favorite regular guest. And this is shockingly my favorite episode of S13, considering how much I despise Marvel Comics (and superhero comics in general). As you guys say, just a fun time capsule with a lot of great jokes and scenes. My bite-size opinion on the whole "true creator" chaos is that Jack Kirby was a long-standing comic veteran who knew exactly how the business worked and what to expect - so in that respect, he didn't get screwed. What was unexpected for him was how that Marvel garbage would explode in riches the way it did, or how much of a scumbag the ex-office boy turned out to be. (Sorry, no respect for Stan Lee here, and the elder abuse at the end of his life brings to mind, "What goes around comes around.") So yeah, Kirby was screwed ultimately. But towards the end of his days, he and Stan were OK. One correction: Little Lulu was licensed by Famous Studios for a series of cartoons (most of them insipid; the John Stanley comics with her are GREAT). After five years, Paramount decided that this mediocre character/series wasn't worth licensing and they put Little Audrey (who had appeared in a one-off Christmas cartoon while the Lulu cartoons were being made) in a highly similar series.

Thad Komorowski

Geoff Jenkins and Danger Dog actually reminded me the most of author/illustrator Dav Pilkey and his wacky characters like Captain Underpants or Dog Man, who also tells those "oh the teachers thought I was lazy and my silly doodles wouldn't amount to anything"-type stories that Geoff tells in the episode. I don't know if the writers were aware of Pilkey at the time, but he absolutely fits that same mold of cartoonist they were making fun of. I think the "When Dinosaurs Get Drunk" was yet another joke at "When Animals Attack!"-type trashy Fox shows, but that might just be me. To bring things full circle on the Little Dot/Audrey/Lulu thing, The Simpsons would later reference Little Lulu in the episode "Husbands and Knives", where Alan Moore reads (and sings the theme song of) Little Lulu to calm down after a rant against corporations destroying his ideas. There do exist Steve Ditko interviews out there, though they are (obviously) rare - interestingly, in the very early days of organized comics fandom in the '60s, Ditko was surprisingly public and active in the fan community. There was a time where you could MEET STEVE DITKO at early fan conventions, which would've been impossible just a few years later.

Harry Thornton