# 12/8 Simpsons Narration Joke **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 9, 2002, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-8-simpsons-narration-joke/141509 "2002-12-09T14:31:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-8-simpsons-narration-joke/141509/1 "2002-12-09T14:31:55Z")
We watched it last night and found it hilarious in that they did a take-off on THE most annoying thing: The fact that pbs shows have a narrator who talks **everything** the characters do or move. We hate it(me and my son). I am glad they did a spoof on it and I wish it would quit on pbs. What? Is it for blind children watching? ---
**Author:** ![kingpengvin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9dc877/32.png) [@kingpengvin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kingpengvin)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-8-simpsons-narration-joke/141509/2 "2002-12-09T14:38:17Z")
I missed it but did you have the SAP on your TV instead? They have a service in which the the actions are in fact described for **the blind**. I believe the Simpsons on fox has this feature in which case you may want to check your TV. That would also explain you PBS situation. By they way do you have an inordinate amout of Spanish channels as well? ---
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-8-simpsons-narration-joke/141509/3 "2002-12-09T14:51:33Z")
I don’t know what SAP is, but we a;lso watched King Of the Hill and it wasn’t on that show. The SImpsons were parodying it, and rightfully so. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-8-simpsons-narration-joke/141509/4 "2002-12-09T15:02:58Z")
Vanilla, that happens with my tv as well. It comes on for Simpsons, turns off for King of the Hill, and comes back on for Malcolm. I turn on the VCR and it somehow kicks off the voice over. It wasn’t a parody. You were listening to the real thing. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-8-simpsons-narration-joke/141509/5 "2002-12-09T15:03:40Z")
Thread title changed to reflect content. Please be a bit more specific…don’t title a thread “Shakespeare” when your aim is to debate whether Cobweb or Mustardseed was the cooler fairy in _A Midsummer Night’s Dream_. ---
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-8-simpsons-narration-joke/141509/6 "2002-12-09T15:07:14Z")
Enderw, but at the beginning of the show, they mentioned pbs. I wonder now…we thought it was intentional. ANd HOW can I shut it off?(my son messes with the controls sometimes) ---
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-8-simpsons-narration-joke/141509/7 "2002-12-09T15:13:33Z")
Did I miss something last night? I got a repeat of Treehouse of horror 13. Is this what everyone else get or did I get ripped? ---
**Author:** ![Rue\_DeDay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/41988e/32.png) [@Rue\_DeDay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rue_DeDay)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-8-simpsons-narration-joke/141509/8 "2002-12-09T15:15:05Z")
Your remote probably has a “menu” function that shows up on the TV screen. Scroll around untill your find “SAP = On” (or equivalent) and turn it off. Just a guess based on my TV. ---
**Author:** ![3waygeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/e95f7d/32.png) [@3waygeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3waygeek)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-8-simpsons-narration-joke/141509/9 "2002-12-09T15:16:57Z")
**Edward The Head** , you’re not the only one; we got TOH13 here in Atlanta. Immediately before the show, the Fox announcer claimed it was an all-new episode – of course, this is the same network that broadcasts crap like _Alien Autopsy_ and _Joe Millionaire_, so integrity isn’t their strong suit. ---
**Author:** ![NYR407](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@NYR407](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NYR407)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-8-simpsons-narration-joke/141509/10 "2002-12-09T15:19:11Z")
Thanks Ed I thought I missed something last night. I too had the Treehouse episode. So, was there an actual voice over or did vanilla’s kid hit a button?😕 ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-8-simpsons-narration-joke/141509/11 "2002-12-09T18:03:38Z")
I get Fox NY - WNYW. I did see a promo at 7:30 that said “All new Simpsons in 30” - the ep was the Halloween show (first aired early November). There is a SAP (Second Audio Program) feature called ‘Sight for the blind’ which has someone describing the scene and poses. It works best with “Masterpiece Theatre” and other such PBS dramas (the only channels I’ve seen/heard it). I’d be suprised if it were used on a network - with all the quick scene changes. Usually, as on “The Simpsons”, the SAP is Espanol. ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-8-simpsons-narration-joke/141509/12 "2002-12-09T18:25:54Z")
That happened to be too. “All new episode!” But in L.A. it was the treehouse ep. ---
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-8-simpsons-narration-joke/141509/13 "2002-12-09T19:27:26Z")
Good I’m glad I wasn’t the only one getting ripped. 😃 I ended up watching Peanuts instead. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-8-simpsons-narration-joke/141509/14 "2002-12-09T23:19:00Z")
I get WNYW on Dish Network and KTTV out of Los Angeles and they both had the repeat. ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-8-simpsons-narration-joke/141509/15 "2002-12-09T23:34:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Edward The Head \* > \*\*Good I’m glad I wasn’t the only one getting ripped. 😃 I ended up watching Peanuts instead. \*\* I did the same thing here in Chicago, my friend 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Muad\_Dib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-8-simpsons-narration-joke/141509/16 "2002-12-10T00:24:35Z")
WTF??? I got a rerun of the stupid halloween episode. I just turned to Charlie Brown instead. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-8-simpsons-narration-joke/141509/17 "2002-12-10T00:59:16Z")
[Simpsons SAP praise via TVBarn](http://www.tvbarn.com/archives/001655.html) > [@](#): > > If you’re a “Simpsons” fan, you may recall the following scene from the “Half Decent Proposal” episode that aired last winter. Containing no dialogue, it would mystify a sight- impaired user if not for this description spoken by the WGBH narrator: > > "Now our view moves out of Barney’s window and down the street to the Simpsons. As Homer’s snoring shakes the house, Marge lies wide awake next to him. On the nightstand an alarm clock and a lamp wobble! … She pinches Homer’s nose and his lips vibrate. She holds his mouth shut. His eyelids vibrate. She gives up and plops onto her back. > > “Morning, in the kitchen. She pours milk into a potted plant and serves it to Bart. Lisa pokes her fork into magazines covered in syrup.” > > A thing of beauty, ain’t it? > > Remarkably, the networks are providing this service to the nation’s 6 million or so visually impaired viewers under protest. If you recall the battle that the TV industry waged over mandatory closed captioning a decade ago, you’ll not be surprised to learn that its lobbyists are now defending the networks’ right to air audio descriptions voluntarily — which is a nice way of saying never. If you have trouble finding the SAP feature on your TV/VCR, let us know the model. It seems to me that, in North America, PBS was the only major broadcaster who made regular use of the SAP channel until pretty recently. [Hijack] What the hell is with Simpsons episode numbers? At first, TOH13 threw me off, because it was somewhat descriptive. How the hell am I supposed to infer what the blazes “DABF18” signifies? Why not “S14E4”? I assume the numbers refer to the production schedule rather than the air-dates, since the numeral portion makes sense but is out of order, and the alphabetic parts drift over the season boundaries. I hate having to look up every episode that floats by to see if it _might_ be a new episode. Drives me nuts. [/Hijack] ---
**Author:** ![SC\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@SC\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SC_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-8-simpsons-narration-joke/141509/18 "2002-12-10T01:50:16Z")
[The alt.tv.simpsons List of Inquiries and Substantive Answers (LISA)'s explanation of the simpsons production codes](http://www.snpp.com/guides/lisa-4.html#4.3.6) ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-8-simpsons-narration-joke/141509/19 "2002-12-10T02:07:30Z")
_Thank you_, **SC\_Wolf**! > [@](#): > > James L. Brooks said he got the idea for the Season One codes for The Simpsons from the fact that Homer works in sector 7G at SNPP. Ah, now things begin to make sense- James L. Brooks is a loon. ---
**Author:** ![Blackeyes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f6c823/32.png) [@Blackeyes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackeyes)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-8-simpsons-narration-joke/141509/20 "2002-12-10T02:21:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ukulele Ike \* > \*\*Thread title changed to reflect content. > > Please be a bit more specific…don’t title a thread “Shakespeare” when your aim is to debate whether Cobweb or Mustardseed was the cooler fairy in _A Midsummer Night’s Dream_. \*\* Hijack Heh. I used to play Bottom. 😉 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/12-8-simpsons-narration-joke/141509.md?page=2)