• In this episode of The Teachify English Podcast, Lewis is here to talk to you all about The Simpsons.  Like the last time he spoke about two case studies, here you have the transcript, or at least, most of it as there's a limit for characters which can be added in this description.
• That means that you can read and listen at the same time, so answering questions about it will so easy peasy...enjoy, any questions you know to contact [email protected]

Yes there it is, the theme tune for the Simpsons, I’m sure it rings a bell and takes you back to when you were a child watching episode after episode of this popular cartoon all over the world.  But have you ever watched The Simpsons in English or did you watch it dubbed, in Spanish?  

You know what I’m going to tell you now, check it out in English, in the original version and I bet you’ll enjoy it much more.  

It may take a while to get used to the different voices if you’re used to listening to all of the characters speakING in Spanish, but, give it a go, give it a chance, give it an opportunity and you’ll get used to it in no time. 

Talking about characters…who’s your favourite Simpsons character?  

I think my favourite character is ned Flanders, because, let’s be honest, everybody knows someone who reminds you of ned Flanders.  Somebody who has a perfect life, never breaks the rules and is quite frankly, quite annoying, they get on your nerves a bit.  

Moving on, let me tell you a few interesting facts and curiosities about the Simpsons that maybe you didn’t know. 

1. Initially the distinctive yellow color skin was chosen, in part, to make them stand out when flicking through channels and it worked
2. The name Springfield was chosen because it’s very generic, there are in fact 30 different Springfields in the US
3. TIME magazine voted the Simpsons as the best TV show of the 20th century, would you agree with that? 
4. Homer’s signature catchphrase, D’oh has been added to the Oxford English Dictionary and an expression he frequently uses has inspired a common toast “to alcohol, the cause of, and solution to, all of life’s problems.”  
5. There are countless facts I could list but I’ll let you do some research into other ones, so the final fact is that…there are only six main voice actors for the show who create the voices for practically all of the characters…in the early days they got paid just 30 thousand dollars per episode, whereas nowadays that figure has reached over ten times that amount.  They’re rich!  They’re minted!  They’re loaded!

In recent years I have to admit that I haven’t actually been watching the Simpsons very much, maybe if it’s on tv when I’m having lunch but that’s it and even then, I don’t really watch normal TV anymore.

I have, on the other hand, been seeing lots of memes and articles which highlight the success of the Simpsons in predicting the future.  For example…Did you know that The Simpsons foresaw that Donald trump would run for president? We know what happened in real life, unfortunately, thank god that’s over… Did you know that the Simpsons wrote a script about horsemeat back in 1994?  Well, there have been similar scandals in the uk, us and Ireland since

What else? 

They predicted smartwatches, Disney buying 20th century fox, the ebola outbreak, autocorrect and much, much more.  Anyway, that’ll be enough for today…usually we focus on two case studies but I thought that the Simpsons deserved an episode all to itself, so I hope you enjoyed it and learned a thing or two…if you haven’t watched the Simpsons in English then maybe you can start doing it sometime soon.  

As Bart would say, I didn’t do it…ay caramba or I’m bart Simpson, who the hell are you!?