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Ay caramba! Quarantined family recreates 'The Simpsons' opening, couch gag and all
Mmmmm, quarantine donut ....
Few television shows have more iconic openings than The Simpsons. From Bart writing on the blackboard in detention, to Danny Elfman's delightfully wacky theme song, to the famous couch gags, the show goes out of its way to give us something new every time, even before the actual episode even gets underway.
That perpetual creativity is ripe for recreation as the self-isolating Sutherland family discovered when they decided to bring the cartoon's classic opening into the world of live-action. And before you ask, the answer is yes, there is indeed a cough gag.
Leading the charge on the beat-for-beat reenactment was Joel Sutherland, an award-winning children's author known for Haunted Canada and Summer's End.
"Like most other people, our lives just sort of went on pause with the spread of COVID-19," he tells SYFY WIRE. "It has been stressful and anxiety-inducing, like I am sure it has been for so many other people, and we wanted to engage our kids in a project to take their minds off everything going on in the world."
Watch below:
"Plus, all of our usual weekend plans were just suddenly gone," Sutherland adds. "We had time that we usually don't, and the costumes from a previous Halloween, so it just came together. We didn't expect it to go viral — I only have 1,500 followers as I am a children's-book author here in Canada — but have been so pleased that people seem to be enjoying it so much."
The Simpsons is currently in the midst of airing its 31st season. Last winter, Fox renewed the show (now owned by Disney after last year's corporate buyout) through 2021.
Seasons 1-30, as well as the feature film, are currently streaming on Disney+, although the platform needs to correct the aspect ratios for some of the older episodes.
For some other examples of creativity in quarantine, check out the following stories:
