Hank Azaria: “The Simpsons"

This week, “The New Yorker” has a long interview with the semi-reclusive John Swartzwelder, who wrote some of the greatest “Simpsons” episodes before retreating into obscurity many years ago:

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/john-swartzwelder-sage-of-the-simpsons

The piece is terrific, and full of gems. “If you’re writing Homer, just imagine he is a large dog. Everything grows of out of that.” “Write a really bad first draft, and then the re-writing process is such a pleasure.” “Season Three was the best, because we had learned how to tell a strong story, and we hadn’t yet exhausted our material.”

Swartzwelder’s remarks led my family to “Homer’s Enemy”--a classic episode from Season Eight. In this one, Homer meets a man called Grimes (a reference to Grimes from “The Easter Parade”--?) -- and Grimes just really wants to work hard. After once passing an exploding silo, Grimes lost several limbs, but intensive surgery means that Grimes can “breathe once more, and feel pain.”

Grimes intends to get ahead at the nuclear power plant, but he is distracted by Homer’s awfulness. “You just get everything you want,” Grimes says, “and you’re an idiot.” Homer shrugs. “I could show you footage of my moon landing,” he replies. “Or would you like to see my Grammy?”

“Homer’s Enemy” is dinged for being “too dark,” and maybe for helping to start the excessive “meta” trend, a problem that plagues “The Simpsons” to this day. But the controversy just makes the thirty minutes more interesting.

I liked that this script gave Hank Azaria a chance to shine.

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