People go into cartooning because they’re shy and they’re angry. That’s when you’re sitting in the back of a classroom drawing the teacher. Matt Groening Read Quote
The Simpsons’ basically – and ‘Futurama’ – are really smart shows. They’re kind of disguised as these goofy animated sitcoms, but the references within the shows, if you’re paying attention, are pretty smart and pretty sophisticated. Matt Groening Read Quote
Adult Swim’ on the Cartoon Network is unbelievable. And ‘South Park’ continues to do great stuff. And ‘Family Guy’ and the various other Seth MacFarlane projects are amazing. Matt Groening Read Quote
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 Read Quote
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 Read Quote
I gave away ‘Life in Hell’ when it was a little ‘zine, and sold it at record stores for $1, and I knew from the time that I first did it that I would continue to do it, because it was fun. Matt Groening Read Quote
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 Read Quote
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 Read Quote
The tendency in comedy is to have a character who’s stupid get more stupid, because you’re trying to top yourself and not just repeat. Matt Groening Read Quote
I like all of the early relationship strips that were collected in ‘Love Is Hell,’ where I pretended to be an expert in relationships and did comics like ‘The Nine Types of Boyfriends,’ ‘Sixteen Ways to End a Relationship,’ ‘Twenty-Four Things Not to Say in Bed,’ and other arbitrarily numbered lists. Matt Groening Read Quote