The “Couch Gag” is easily the longest and most revisited gag in the many jokes that The Simpsons has given fans over the decades. The animated series has long featured an intro that sees Homer, Marge, Lisa, Bart, and Maggie racing toward their homestead and having a seemingly endless number of jokes revolving around the family couch. Unfortunately, every new episode of The Simpsons doesn’t have a new couch gag attached to it and there’s a reason for that. With a recent release, Matt Groening and Simpsons’ showrunners talk about the couch gag and various other aspects of Springfield’s finest.
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The Simpsons’ showrunner and executive producer Matt Selman recently spoke with the outlet Variety, along with series creator Matt Groening, regarding several topics surrounding the animated series. Selman laid out why each new installment couldn’t have its own original couch gag, “I wish we could do an original couch gag for every episode but money is a little tighter than it used to be… and you can’t cut a story short to add a couch gag. If a show is cut really tight and the jokes don’t breathe, the scenes seem too fast-paced. None of it really seems as funny or as engaging.” Groening confirmed Selman’s thoughts here, stating that “This is the kind of thing we agonize over,” when it comes to the editing process.
The Simpsons Vs Marketing
Considering the popularity of the franchise, it should come as no surprise that Springfield has received plenty of merchandising over the years. Surprisingly, Groening touched upon the fact that the team attempts to create stories and insert jokes into all merchandise whenever they can, “It is storytelling. Even merchandise—even a lunch box—we try to tell a little story, include a little joke.”
Selman joined in with Matt Groening for the merch chat, stating how there’s always been a balance when it comes to how merchandising can be presented to the fandom, “The Simpsons’ was always sort of able to have its cake and eat it too, in terms of selling a lot of merchandise but also satirizing the phenomenon of over-merchandising. It was like, ‘Look, can you believe we’re doing this?’” With The Simpsons already scheduled to run for more future seasons, all the way up until season forty, it should come as no surprise to see more merchandise arrive in the future.
While future seasons of The Simpsons have been confirmed, said seasons will be shorter than normal seasons that fans have witnessed in the past. Previously, twenty-two episodes were the norm for Springfield’s finest but future seasons have been narrowed down to seventeen episodes per season. This makes for a big change but that fact still gives us years of stories focusing on Homer, Marge, Maggie, Bart, and Lisa.
Want to see what Springfield has in store for its future seasons and beyond? Follow along with Team Anime on ComicBook.com for the latest updates on The Simpsons and hit me up directly @EVComedy to talk all things comics and anime.
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