My Favorite Stuff from the B(art) Exhibit

By that, I mean welcome to this post. 

Appleton's Trout Museum of Art has an exhibit of animation cels from The Simpsons. As I write this, it's winding down; the last day of the display is Sunday, May 28th. I saw it twice this spring, and I may even rally the troops to see it one last time on Memorial Day Weekend. I'll be sad when it's gone. But also, a few minutes after that feeling of sadness, I'll get over it. 

The man who amassed a few hundred of these perfectly cromulent cels goes by the name William Heeter. (William, I don't use the word "hero" very often, but you, sir, are the greatest hero in American history.) Heeter began collecting in 1993, when Simpsons artwork was finding its way into galleries, to the delight of superfans with a buck or two to spend. He's been hunting, networking, bidding, and collecting ever since--although no new cels exist after 2003, season 14, when the show switched to a more advanced digital system to speed up the process of animation.

I totally get why that change occurred. The move was cost-effective, efficient, and inevitable. Technology, like shit, happens. 

But I'm so grateful to see how the old stuff was made. Plus, in this case, the "old stuff" coincides nicely with my favorite stuff, from the '90s and early 2000s. 

I'm posting this only a couple days before the exhibit goes the way of the dodo. If you still haven't seen it, but you'd like to, and you live fairly close to Appleton, let this be a sign. If you're one of my friends in New York or Florida, or if I don't even know you and you live somewhere far away like Brockway, Ogdenville, or North Haverbrook, I hope this lil' peak at the B(art) Exhibit Scratchy's that Itchy of Simpsons fandom. Enjoy. 

"Ay Caramba." It's the new "Cheeeese." Here I'm posing beside Homer in a giant sombrero, which basically means I could do no wrong in this moment. Even better, we can see an image from "Treehouse of Horror III" in which monster ape King Homer falls in love with Marge and tries to climb the Empire State Building. "King Homer" is one of my favorite Halloween-special segments. Somewhere beneath that beard I'm smiling big. And it's a smile that's almost as big as Homer's sombrero. 

Let's start with what we all came here to see: Hardcore nudity! In this image from "Treehouse of Horror VIII," in the "Homega Man" segment, Springfield gets nuked by France, but Homer lucks out by browsing through a fallout shelter at the moment of impact. Early on, he thinks he's the sole survivor, so that's a bummer. But he cheers himself up by dancing nude in church. He sings: "War! Huh! Good God y'all! What is it good for?" This man is my hero. 

From "Krusty Gets Kancelled," Homer offers the perfect target for Krusty to regain his form as a first-rate pie-slinger. The double cel continuation of this scene is a cool, neat treat... Much like pie. Mmm... pie. 

Sorry about the glare on the left panel, but on the right side, I hope you can see a slight pop-out effect used on the crazy old man with his pants around his ankles. It was cool to see the layering of characters in the foreground standing out against backgrounds to make the image more striking. You can see the details that go into bringing these characters just a bit closer to us. Up close, the subtle 3-D appearance is a trip. 

I'm in the Simpsons living room, sitting on the couch, wearing a Springfield Isotopes shirt. Dreams come true. (I've had some pretty wacky dreams.) 

Lusty Burns voice: "Happy birthday, Mister Smiiithers." This is a nod to Marilyn Monroe singing Happy Birthday to President Kennedy. The two were (allegedly) having an affair at the time. I've always enjoyed connecting Simpsons references to things that happened in real life--events in politics, pop culture, and sports. Hand to Jebus: the show has great educational value. 

...But there's no educational value here! Ha ha, which is 100% fine. To explain: While Marge is out gambling too late (because she is caught in the neon claws of Gamblore), a sleeping Homer is awakened by Lisa, who says she had a nightmare about the Boogeyman. Well, Homer freaks the eff out. He's instantly terrified of this Boogeyman creep. Marge returns home to this delightfully messed-up scene. 

This is a twice-amount of silly. I'm seeing double here. Four sillies! 

In this classic routine from "Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part 2)," Moe is exonerated in a lie detector test. But then the thing buzzes him into admitting that he's going to spend the night alone at home ogling the girls in the Sears catalog.  

I want that jacket so bad! Like, I gotta fall in love with someone soon, then drop not-so-subtle hints about how awesome it would be to have a custom-made Mr. Plow coat as a Christmas present. In return I can teach my true love how to sing the "Mr. Plow" jingle. Let me dream!!!

I'm a big fan of this image because it's the perfect encapsulation of the "Grimey" episode. Homer is asleep at the funeral of Frank Grimes, a coworker at the nuclear power plant who despised the Simpsons patriarch.

Homer's Enemy had valid reasons for his disdain, but Homer is like the dumb, beloved family dog, and fans love Captain Wacky (later renamed Homer) despite and because of his multitude of flaws. 

Homer be like, "Change the channel, Marge." 

And Lenny be like, "That's our Homer!"

It's a beautiful moment at Grimey's funeral. 

Flanders is so chill when he realizes Homer is about to hit him on the head with a lead pipe. Springfield's saint has tickets to a football game and Homer is willing to take them by force. But Flanders invites his neighbor to come along with him to the game. He even laughs about the weapon: "What, were you gonna give my noggin' a floggin'?" 

If your kid insists he's not going to smoke any of these cigarettes because he's hiding them for the mob, and it turns out he's actually telling the truth, then you gotta redeem yourself by telling your kid "I'll never doubt you again." 

If I have to explain ^this, really, what are you doing here?

One of Krusty's trading cards. If you think this is a banger, you gotta get a load of "Krusty visits relatives in Annapolis, Maryland." 

One of my favorite images at the museum for the way it tells a story. It's a sight gag worth 1,000 words.

A heatwave comes to Springfield. This is my man's solution. I remember turning to my friend and doing my best Homer voice: "I got the idea when I realized the refrigerator was cold." Oh Homer, you are so 

S-M-R-T.

In the couch gags section of cels, this was my favorite. It's an homage to the painting "Relativity," by the Dutch artist MC Escher. Intellectually, I'm pretty hit-or-miss, so I really do treasure learning new stuff from The Simpsons. I hope you learned a thing or two as well. Like, I showed this to my niece, and we looked up a few other surrealist paintings, like the one with the aqueducts pouring water down, yet on the same level--and we had a nice little chat about optical illusions and perception. That was cool, so I saved this one for last. 

Hope you enjoyed this post!

In the words of Spinal Tap, "Goodnight, Springden! There will be no encore."