Bubble Crum, Malk, & Allied Biscuit
Taking a trip to whatever state Springfield is in
I was 7 years old when my brother Zachary taught me how to use Google Images.1 I searched “maggie simpson” and carefully copy and pasted about 100 different pictures into a Word document, then printed it out. Despite being an animated show from adults, The Simpsons, as a piece of culture, is an indelible part of my childhood. Its particular color palette and genius jokes are somehow as fresh as the day they aired while still providing maximum comfort to me, which is why I still like to end every day by watching 1-2 canonical episodes, in bed.2 Though Perfect Designs surely abound in the real world around me (it’s summer!), I’m feeling a little less inspired this week — so instead, I’ll turn to a familiar friend and share some of my favorite screencaps from my favorite show.
In addition to being quite beautifully drawn (at least in its classic era), the in-show universe of The Simpsons is chockfull of designed objects, particularly objects with lots of type. While some of these are background or filler, most of them actually serve as a reference for a character’s joke, or as a standalone visual gag. Like most good satire, the choices the animators make here belie a deep understanding of the subject matter — in this case, graphic design. It’s way funnier for Allied Biscuit to look like an actual Nabisco box, or for Homer’s homemade website to fully capture the Web 1.0 look. The Simpsons was at its best when it nailed the details, and visual specificity helps drive the jokes home.
For more perfect Simpsons design, I highly recommend perusing this fun Instagram account (it’s not me, I swear). My favorites, below!
Chris and his roommates host a weekly movie night in which they spin a wheel to determine what movie we’re watching. A few weekends ago they hosted The Wheelies, which is central Brooklyn’s DIY answer to the Oscars. The awards were doctored VHS tapes that Ben designed, and they were insane.
Almost every British person I know was at Glastonbury this year.
Movies I’ve watched in the last month include: Little Miss Sunshine, The Mummy, and Paper Moon. We also saw Robot Dreams at BAM and I cried so hard!
I’m going to eat at least three hot dogs on Thursday.
Have a good week! I’ll be back soon with a lil interview with my friend Yisel, plus hopefully some more roundups. 🆗
Something I discovered while writing this post: Google Images was introduced as a response to the most-searched query of 2000 — the green Versace dress J.Lo wore in February of that year.
I don’t care if this is bad for me. I imagine that what I feel about my tv-in-bed habit is akin to what a smoker feels for a cigarette.