Take note, Simpsons fans. Richard Dawkins has achieved the absolute pinnacle of fame in America: along with Tina Fey, he’ll appear as a “guest-voice” (I suppose that means he won’t be a real character) on The Simpsons tomorrow. Here’s the blurb from The Futon Critic via The Richard Dawkins Foundation:
THE SIMPSONS
Air Date: Sunday, March 10, 2013
Time Slot: 8:00 PM-8:30 PM EST on FOX
Episode Title: (SI-2409) “Black-Eyed, Please”
VIEW ALL LISTINGS FOR SIMPSONS, THE
[NOTE: The following article is a press release issued by the aforementioned network and/or company. Any errors, typos, etc. are attributed to the original author. The release is reproduced solely for the dissemination of the enclosed information.]SUNDAY, MARCH 10
[EDITOR’S NOTE: Audio descriptions (AD) for tonight’s animated programs are available on the SAP Audio Channel.]
“THE SIMPSONS” – (8:00-8:30 PM ET/PT) CC-AD-HDTV 720p-Dolby Digital 5.1
LISA IS HARRASSED BY A BULLYING NEW TEACHER ON AN ALL-NEW “THE SIMPSONS” SUNDAY, MARCH 10, ON FOX
Tina Fey and Richard Dawkins Make Guest-Voice Appearances
Flanders becomes jealous when his laid-back parents start to prefer Homer’s company over his and he faces unbearable guilt after punching Homer in the eye, as he desperately tries to reconcile with him. Meanwhile, Lisa is distressed by her new substitute teacher (guest voice Tina Fey), who bullies her for no apparent reason in the “Black-Eyed, Please” episode of THE SIMPSONS airing Sunday, March 10 (8:00-8:30 PM ET/PT) on FOX. (SI-2409) (TV-PG, D, L, V)
As we all know, Richard was also on an episode of South Park that was NSFW. This is a kind of fame that only a very few scientists can achieve.
Unlike South Park, when real-world people are written into the Simpsons they usually provide their own voices. Steve Gould did, among many others.
Of course, Prof Dawkins has already appeared as himself on Doctor Who, so what’s the big deal?
I would think “guest-voice” only means he isn’t a part of the regular cast of voice-actors.
Seth would have had a hand in this.
Well they had Thomas Pynchon on twice, there’s really nowhere to go from there.
I’d like to see Richard on “The Big Bang Theory”. I know he’s not a physicist, but I’m sure writing him in would be fairly easy to do. The show, so far, only alludes to the characters’ atheism, maybe it’s time to throw a right jab in that direction.
I do hope Dawkins encounters not only Ned Flanders, who will probably be rendered iddlydiddlyincoherent at meeting someone who doesn’t believe in God, but also, and has a long dialogue with, Reverend Lovejoy, who espouses some Sophisticated Theology™ and Mrs Lovejoy.
(That should be …”Theology™, and…” He espouses her by definition.)
(I, eh, s’pouse so.)
South Park was of course not at all sympathetic to Dawkins, and he did not participate in its production. He later seemed to be amused by it, and said he thought they could at least have given his character a proper British accent.
That’s the difference between South Park & The Simpsons. Piss-take vs guest spot!