Al Gore: Team Player, Fun Guy
On a blog that I contribute to at work -- found here -- my buddy EJ already wrote about this article, which reveals that next season The Simpsons will run an episode parodying literary culture, featuring the voices of Gore Vidal, Tom Wolfe, and Jonathan Franzen, among others.
I just felt the additional need to draw your attention to the following paragraph. It discusses the eagerness with which celebrities lend their voices to the show:
I just felt the additional need to draw your attention to the following paragraph. It discusses the eagerness with which celebrities lend their voices to the show:
"The fastest 'yes' I ever received was Elizabeth Taylor," says Bonnie Pietila, the producer in charge of casting. "I hung up the phone after leaving a message and she called back five minutes later." Some celebrities are so eager to appear on the show "that they have a representative call us on a monthly basis," Pietila says. "But we only have 22 episodes each season." Al Gore is one of the few to have turned "The Simpsons" down.Ah, Al Gore. How did he ever get a reputation for being a stick-in-the-mud? It boggles the mind, doesn't it?
posted by JMW at 12:30 PM
3 Comments:
Didn't Al Gore appear on an episode of Futurama? I seem to remember him making a joke about warning in his books "Earth in the Balance" and the more popular "Harry Potter and the Balance of Earth" that we have to guard against pollution and dark wizards. And I think I remember him playing Dungeons and Dragons as a "10th level Vice President." And at the end of the episode focusing on global warming, Gore said that he had to leave to collect cans on Jupiter ("Peace out, y'all.").
And since Futurama was just an updated (and unpopular) Simpsons, I wonder why he refused to go on the Simpsons. Maybe he thought it had jumped the shark. Or maybe it's just another example of his impeccable political judgment:
"'Mad About You'? I'd love to appear on that! 'The One' starring Jet Li? Absolutely! 'Bulworth'? It would be an honor! 'The Simpsons'? I would never lower myself to that level."
-The Comish (sic)
All right. This has been bothering me:
If you'd asked me whether a yellow shirt clashes with brown pants, or how to fix a leaky faucet, or how a carbuerator works, or how to cook a chicken, I probably would have just stared at you blankly, like you'd just asked me to locate the mythical "clitoris" on a woman's body (as if that area really exists).
But ask me about a cartoon that appeared for a short time on the Fox network, and all of a sudden I'm Mr. Britannica. Ask me about the lyrics to a 1980s rap song, and I'm gloating to Alex Trebeck about that poor, slow-witted Ken Jennings boy. Ask me to whom is Chandler Bing's TV Guide delivered on Friends (Miss Chanandler Bong), and I'm bending I-beams with the power of my mind.
"Would you mind making some meat sauce for our spaghetti tonight?"
Response: [crickets chirp]
"Why did the QB get sacked on that play?"
Response: [can't get me to shut up about blitz packages, blocking techniques, etc.]
We've all got our wheelhouses -- subjects about which we know more than the average person, areas in which we appear smarter than the average bear. But what does it mean when my wheelhouse a) has no practical applicability; b) is totally uninteresting to other people; and c) when I share it with other people, they are less likely to be impressed than to suddenly "remember" that they have to be somewhere else right at that moment?
-The Comish (sic)
Gore has appeared on several Futurama episodes as a floating head. One of his kids/relatives writes for the show thus his tendency to appear on it.
Futurama was in many ways better than the Simpsons although not as popular - it did find a nice following on Cartoon Network however its production price limited its ability to be resurected from cancellation.
By the by - Bulworth was much better than The One.
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