Using AI image processing software, Hidreley Diao creates photorealistic portraits of familiar cartoon characters. The one of Moe from The Simpsons is kind of amazing — he's got the look of a long-time character actor who's developed so much depth over the years that he starts getting bigger roles and everyone's like, this guy is actually kind of enigmatic and attractive and fantastic.

You can find more of his efforts on Instagram, where he also makes AI-assisted portraits of people we don't have photos of (e.g. Michelangelo) and fictional people (e.g. Hercules and the Statue of Liberty).

See also the "Reverse Toonification" of Pixar Characters and What Homer Simpson Would Look Like in Real Life.

• artificial intelligence
• Hidreley Diao
• photography
• The Simpsons

The Simpsons Library Instagram account has been documenting all of the books, magazines, and other printed matter that has appeared on the long-running sitcom.

• books
• The Simpsons
• TV

Part of what makes this so good & funny is the obvious level of care put into making it, right down to the smallest details. The audio distortion? Perfect lip syncing? The Doppler effect?! It's just a meme, you didn't have to go so hard! (via the xoxo slack)

• Daft Punk
• Giorgio Moroder
• music
• remix
• The Simpsons
• TV
• video

This is one of those posts that's really easy to understand — it's the famous intro to The Simpsons recreated using stock footage, just like the title says right up there — but I've gotta write something here to take up a little space and time, so I end up just saying the same thing using the same words (intro, Simpsons, recreated, stock, footage) like you're all 3 years old or something. (Why do we need more than six words to describe this?) Anyway, this video is the introduction to the American television show The Simpsons recreated using only stock video footage. Enjoy.

See also: stock footage intros to Duck Tales and Friends and the stock footage trailer for Koyaanisqatsi. (via the morning news)

• Matthew Highton
• remix
• The Simpsons
• TV
• video

These mashups of fine art with The Simpsons are entertaining, but this one featuring Bart Simpson's iconic blackboard subtly replaced by Cy Twombly's 1968 chalkboard drawing Untitled (New York City) — perhaps the ultimate "my kid could have done that" piece of modern art — is a little bit of genius.

• art
• Cy Twombly
• remix
• The Simpsons
• TV

In the "couch gag" preceding The Simpsons episode that aired on May 3, 2020, they did a pitch-perfect parody of the opening title sequence of Succession, complete with the iconic theme song. (via @omcfarlane)

• remix
• Succession
• The Simpsons
• TV
• video

Move over, every other craft project — this Homer Simpson disappears into the bushes embroidery piece by Rayna of Hermit Girl Creations is the best embroidery in the history of the world. The scene is taken from a 1994 episode of The Simpsons called Homer Loves Flanders and has become a bit of a meme in recent years; here's the clip:

Check out her Instagram or Etsy shop — she does a lot of other Simpsons-based embroidery as well as Charlie Brown, The Office, Dr. Seuss, Frog & Toad, Stranger Things, and Futurama. Looks like she takes commissions via Instagram DM.

• art
• The Simpsons
• TV
• video

On Twitter, Hannah Woodhead posted a thread of screencaps from The Simpsons that uncannily encapsulate movies released in 2019. My two favorites are Parasite and The Lighthouse:

If you'd like, you can make your own using Frinkiac, the Simpsons screencap search engine. I did this one for Booksmart:

• Hannah Woodhead
• movies
• remix
• The Simpsons

If you're having withdrawals from Succession, perhaps this will help a little. A fan created these title sequences of iconic TV shows with the pulsing Succession theme song dubbed over them. The Wire, The Simpsons, and Mad Men are particular favorites of mine:

The Succession theme is to title sequences like what "Christ, what an asshole!" is to New Yorker cartoon captions — it even fits Happy Days (mostly):

If you'd like to try your hand at this, the theme song is available on Spotify. Its composer, Nicholas Britell, also scored Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk.

• Mad Men
• music
• Nicholas Britell
• remix
• Succession
• The Simpsons
• The Wire
• TV
• video

The Simpsons has never exactly portrayed its characters in a flattering light, but this version of the show's title sequence reimagined as a Russian art film by Lenivko Kvadratjić is downright depressing. (via bb)

• Lenivko Kvadratjic
• remix
• Russia
• The Simpsons
• TV
• video

For an ad campaign running in the United Arab Emirates, Ikea recreated the famous TV living rooms from three shows using only Ikea furniture and housewares. See if you can guess which shows these are from...

(via @mkobach)

• advertising
• Friends
• Ikea
• remix
• Stranger Things
• The Simpsons
• TV

Welp, I want to unsee that. 3D rendering courtesy of Miguel Vasquez, who did the same thing for SpongeBob awhile back.

(via @roeeb)

• Miguel Vasquez
• SpongeBob SquarePants
• The Simpsons
• TV

OMG, this is super nerdy and I am so here for it. Like it says on the tin, this is the scene where Principal Skinner has Superintendent Chalmers over to dinner for "steamed hams" presented as if it were a Guitar Hero song. (via @andymcmillan)

• Guitar Hero
• remix
• The Simpsons
• TV
• video
• video games

The Simpsons is the longest-running series in primetime TV history. The show's 27 seasons hold much potential treasure for data scientists. Todd Schneider downloaded the scripts from every show and analyzed which characters spoke the most and where. The results reveal a heavy focus on Homer and a large gender imbalance in terms of dialogue.

The colors of the bars in the above graphs represent gender: blue for male characters, red for female. If we look at the supporting cast, the 14 most prominent characters are all male before we get to the first woman, Mrs. Krabappel, and only 5 of the top 50 supporting cast members are women.

Women account for 25% of the dialogue on The Simpsons, including Marge and Lisa, two of the show's main characters. If we remove the Simpson nuclear family, things look even more lopsided: women account for less than 10% of the supporting cast's dialogue.

See also Film Dialogue from 2000 screenplays, Broken Down by Gender and Age.

• gender
• The Simpsons
• TV

Vox recently took a look at every single job that Homer has ever had on The Simpsons in an attempt to see where his average salary falls on the economic spectrum in America.

Over the show's 596-episode run, Homer has had at least 191 jobs. They've ranged from executive positions to service jobs, and have dotted the entire economic spectrum, from ultra-rich to the poverty line.

In the list below, we've compiled the real-life salaries for 100 of these jobs. Seasonal jobs (like "mall Santa"), and jobs that were virtually impossible to find salary data for ("beer smuggler") were excluded, as were any repeats (he was an Army private twice, for instance). His full-time gig as a safety inspector is highlighted in yellow, for reference.

He gets a lot of flack, but Homer is actually the most interesting person in America by a wide margin, even though he's not well compensated for it.

See also Homer Economicus: The Simpsons and Economics.

• economics
• The Simpsons
• TV
• video
• working

There are tons of movie references in The Simpsons, but the show leans more heavily on referencing Stanley Kubrick's films than perhaps any other director. As you can see in the video, there are dozens of references to 2001, Dr. Strangelove, The Shining, and even Eyes Wide Shut sprinkled throughout the series.

• movies
• Stanley Kubrick
• The Simpsons
• TV
• video

The couch gag on last night Simpsons episode was illustrated in the style of an Ikea instruction manual. See also the Ikea instructions for making Dick in the Box.

• Ikea
• The Simpsons
• TV
• video

When a show spans 27 seasons and almost 600 episodes, you're bound to hit your futuristic mark at least some of the time. Here are ten instances in which The Simpsons predicted inventions which have since come to pass, including smartwatches you can talk to, baby translators, and left-handed stores.

• lists
• The Simpsons
• TV
• video

Hot Wheels released a die-cast version of The Homer, the "everyman" car designed by Homer Simpson in season two episode of The Simpsons. Designed for his half-brother's car company, the car was so bad and expensive that it drove (ha!) the company out of business. And now it can be yours!

• cars
• Hot Wheels
• The Simpsons
• TV

In this Simpsons couch gag, the show pays homage to some classic Disney animation styles. Featured are Steamboat Willie, Cinderella, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Jungle Book and Fantasia. The animation was done by Eric Goldberg, who worked at Disney on films like Aladdin and Pocahontas.

• Disney
• Eric Goldberg
• The Simpsons
• TV
• video

I love these trippy Simpsons brand ids created for FXX by LA-based Laundry.

• The Simpsons
• TV
• video

From Celia Gomez, a supercut of some of the most notable movie references from The Simpsons. The Simpsons came out when I was 16 and while I loved it immediately, the show started making a whole lot more sense after I watched The Godfather, Taxi Driver, Citizen Kane, and Dr. Strangelove in my 20s. Lots of Kubrick in the Simpsons.

• Celia Gomez
• film school
• movies
• Stanley Kubrick
• The Simpsons
• TV
• video

Frinkiac searches through the subtitles from every episode of The Simpsons (in the first 15 seasons) and returns screencaps of all the times when the search term was used. For example, inanimate:

(via @emunn)

Update: Hi diddley ho! The Frinkiac now does animated GIFs. Like this one. (via @buzz)

• search
• The Simpsons
• TV

• The Simpsons
• TV
• video

That's Yoann Hervo's tribute to The Simpsons in the form of a glitchy opening scene. I watched this last week and wasn't going to post it but found myself thinking about it over the weekend so heeeeeere you go.

• The Simpsons
• TV
• video
• Yoann Hervo

The opening credits sequence of The Wire done using clips from The Simpsons. The theme song and clips are from the third seasons of the respective shows.

• remix
• The Simpsons
• The Wire
• TV
• video

Harry Shearer, who voices dozens of characters on The Simpsons including Mr. Burns, Smithers, and Ned Flanders, announced on Twitter that he will be leaving the show. A few things:

1. The Simpsons is still on?

2. Shearer also voices Principal Skinner, Otto, Lenny, McBain, Reverend Lovejoy, Kent Brockman, Scratchy, Dr Hibbert, and dozens of smaller characters.

3. Will they replace him? Or just not use those characters anymore? How can you do the show without Burns, Smithers, Flanders, and Skinner? But if they sound different, how can you do the show with them?

Update: Aaaaaand Shearer is back on the show.

Shearer has signed the same contract as did the other five primary voice actors — Dan Castellaneta, Yeardley Smith, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, and Hank Azaria — keeping the show's original cast fully intact, EW has learned. These deals, which run for four seasons (including a network option for seasons 29 and 30), are estimated at more than \$300,000 per episode. Fox recently renewed The Simpsons for a 27th and 28th season, which will bring its episode tally to 625.

• Harry Shearer
• The Simpsons
• TV

Artist JK Keller has digitally widened¹ episodes of The Simpsons and Seinfeld to fit a 16:9 HD aspect ratio. Watching the altered scenes is trippy...the characters and their surroundings randomly expand and contract as the scenes play out.

Keller also HD-ified an episode of the X-Files and slimmed an old episode of Star Trek into a vertical aspect ratio. (via @frank_chimero)

1. At least I think that's how they were created. The videos were posted without explanation — aside from their titles "LEaKeD TesT footagE frOM seiNfelD RemaSter In hiGh-defiNiTiON" and "animAtORs rEdraw old SimPsons epIsodeS fOr hdTv" — so it's hard to say for sure.↩

• art
• JK Keller
• remix
• Seinfeld
• The Simpsons
• TV
• video

An Hermes Birkin bag costs between $10,000 and $150,000, and women of a certain income bracket who own Birkin bags are putting their babies in them.

There are babies in blue Birkin bags, babies in green Birkin bags, babies in patterned Birkin bags, babies in unknown original color Birkin bags, and babies in bougainvillea ostrich Birkin bags.

This woman made her daughter a Birkin bag Halloween costume.

Who started the Baby-in-a-Birkin trend?

It appears Maggie Simpson is the culprit.

• babies
• Hermes
• The Simpsons

These crayon sculptures by Hoang Tran are amazing.

Select sculptures are available on Etsy. (via ignant)

• Hello Kitty
• Hoang Tran
• Sesame Street
• South Park
• Star Wars
• The Simpsons