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" Everybody doesn't have to get every joke. People really appreciate not being condescended to. "
Matt Groening
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Joke
People
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" 'The Simpsons' from the very beginning was based on our memories of brash '60s sitcoms - you had a main title theme that was bombastic and grabbed your attention - and when you look at TV shows of the 1970s and '80s, things got very mild and toned down and... obsequious. "
Matt Groening
Memories
Look
Down
" As astute followers of 'Life in Hell' will notice, Akbar and Jeff wear the same striped T-shirt as Charlie Brown. 'Peanuts' was very important to me. "
Matt Groening
T-Shirt
Life
Will
" The scary thing about the future... there will be tiny cameras everywhere, and they'll be flying around like mosquitoes and drones. That will be bad. Drones are scary. You can't reason with a drone. "
Matt Groening
Scary
Reason
Flying
" When DVDs finally disappear, I'm going to be sad. I'll miss the commentaries. "
Matt Groening
Sad
Miss
Going
" Here's to alcohol: the cause of, and answer to, all of life's problems. "
Matt Groening
Life
Problems
Answer
" With 'Futurama,' I was just worried that somebody would beat us to it; it seemed so obvious that there should be an animated science fiction show set in the future. And one of the reasons why it's not, I learned, is that it's really, really difficult. "
Matt Groening
Show
Why
Difficult
" I loved literary science fiction. In fact, as a kid, when I was reading science fiction, I thought 'I can't wait for the future when the special effects are good' to represent what was in these books by Arthur C. Clarke, Alfred Bester, Philip K. Dick, J.G. Ballard, Jack Vance. "
Matt Groening
Reading
Thought
Future
" The conundrum that I face on a daily basis is that I have two sons who have grown up watching 'The Simpsons,' so they know exactly what buttons to push. They know how Bart irritates Homer, and they use these lines against me to tell me that I'm not funny anymore. "
Matt Groening
Funny
Face
Daily
" I draw a weekly comic strip called Life in Hell, which is syndicated in about 250 newspapers. That's what I did before The Simpsons, and what I plan to do for the rest of my life. "
Matt Groening
Hell
Rest
Plan
" Back in high school, I wrote a novel about a character named Bart Simpson. I thought it was a very unusual name for a kid at the time. I had this idea of an angry father yelling 'Bart,' and Bart sounds kind of like bark - like a barking dog. "
Matt Groening
Time
Dog
Father
" I'm a writer who just happens to draw. "
Matt Groening
Happens
Who
Just
" Sometimes people try to read into my strip and find out what my state of mind is. And I can say if I'm in a good mood, generally the comic strip starts out in a good mood, but the punchline is very negative and sour. "
Matt Groening
Mind
Good
People
" A lot of people believe that if everybody just did what they were told - obeyed - everything would be fine. But that's not what life is all about. That's not real. It's never going to happen. "
Matt Groening
People
Never
Real
" On 'The Simpsons,' I will say that we definitely like to comment on what's going on in the world, and we try to be funny. If we can figure out a way of being funny about it, then we've gone part of the way of accomplishing our task. "
Matt Groening
Try
Task
Say
" We did 'The Simpsons Movie,' which took almost four years; it was the same people that do the TV show, and it just killed us. So that's why there hasn't been a second movie. But I imagine if the show ever does go off the air, they'll start doing movies. "
Matt Groening
Doing
Air
People
" I may be biting off more than I can chew, but with 'The Simpsons' and with 'Futurama,' what I'm trying to do in the guise of light entertainment, if this is possible - is nudge people, jostle them a little, wake them up to some of the ways in which we're being manipulated and exploited. "
Matt Groening
I Can
Light
People
" I think when 'The Simpsons' first came on, there was an uproar. People got used to it. They realized the show's really funny, it's got a heart, so I think it's pretty safe. "
Matt Groening
Heart
People
Show
" I went through a phase where people would introduce me at parties as a cartoonist, and everybody felt sorry for me. 'Oh, Matt's a cartoonist.' Then people further feeling sorry for me would ask me to draw Garfield. Because I'm a cartoonist, draw Snoopy or Garfield or something. "
Matt Groening
Sorry
People
Ask
" The writers led by Mike Scully are fantastic. And they're creating original stories that not only don't repeat what we've already done, they also don't repeat anything I've seen on television. "
Matt Groening
Original
Done
Creating
" I think there is a certain charm to the hand drawn image that I like. My problem with CGI is that it's so rich in texture that my eyes actually get tired. Everything is in focus down to the littlest leaf. "
Matt Groening
Tired
Focus
Eyes
" The thing about a cartoon is, you can do whatever you want. The tightrope that we are walking on 'The Simpsons' and 'Futurama' is 'How do you continue to surprise the audience, but make them good surprises?' Not every surprise is good, but you want to continue jolting people. "
Matt Groening
You
Walking
Surprise
" When The Simpsons came around, there really was nothing else like it on TV. It's hard to imagine, but when Fox first took the plunge with it, it was considered controversial to put animation on prime time. "
Matt Groening
Animation
Hard
Fox
" Because good writing in a TV cartoon is so rare, I think the animation on The Simpsons is often overlooked. "
Matt Groening
Think
Rare
Writing
" We've been running a little behind schedule. But only by about 15 years or so. "
Matt Groening
Only
Years
Behind
" Charles Schultz is a really interesting case. He wrote that comic strip and drew it himself from beginning to end, and it's a work of genius. It's very simply drawn, but it has some really deep emotions that you don't expect in a silly-looking comic strip. "
Matt Groening
End
Interesting
Work
" I think 'Family Guy' and 'American Dad' have definitely staked out their own style and territory, and now the accusations are coming that 'The Simpsons' is taking jokes from 'Family Guy.' And I can tell you, that ain't the case. "
Matt Groening
You
American
Family
" My standard comment is, 'If you don't want your kids to be like Bart Simpson, don't act like Homer Simpson.' "
Matt Groening
Act
Like
Want
" I know for a fact, obviously, because my kids grew up watching the show, that there are some things they are introduced to from 'The Simpsons', and then later in life they see the thing we're parodying. My kids had not seen 'Casablanca,' and we'd done parodies of 'Casablanca.' "
Matt Groening
Life
Watching
Know
" I always say that 'Futurama' is real, and 'The Simpsons' is fiction. "
Matt Groening
Fiction
Always
The Simpsons
" Nihilism in American comedy came along way before 'The Simpsons.' There was a fairly nihilistic point of view to 'Saturday Night Live,' for instance, back in the beginning, and a lot of really dark comedy had a really anti-sentimental take on life. "
Matt Groening
Live
Life
Beginning