Was that really Thomas Pynchon on the Simpsons tonight? It said Thomas Pynchon in the credits. Why did he decide to be on the Simpsons? Perhaps he discussed this in a recent interview.
I missed the episode… thank goodness her parents have TiVo… anyway, you apparently don’t see his face. 
Have you entertained the possibility that it was a joke?
I don’t know about you, but I don’t watch the Simpsons for jokes. It is people like you that get the writers to start playing for laughs.
Well, it certainly sounded like Pynchon.
were the Olsens really on too?
It was him. They couldn’t list him in the credits if he didn’t do it without getting in a heap of trouble. Sure they coulda hired some doofus named Thomas Pynchon and had him do the voice and then they coulda said well we never said which Thomas Pynchon but the truth is who cares about getting Thomas Pynchon to appear in your TV show?
Plus it definitely wasn’t the regular roster of voices. And he had a Long Island accent. And Pynchon is from Long Island.
I’ve got a question. I was only half paying attention to the episode and saw Homer in the ambulence. I haven’t watched in awhile and was only half watching the episode, but did homer get a new job or was it part of tonight’s plot that I missed?
Also, who’s Thomas Pynchon and why is it a big deal?
Author Thomas Pynchon is a reclusive’s reclusive. That’s why it’s such a big deal for him to “appear” on “The Simpsons.”
I’m tending to believe that it’s a joke. The producers list ‘Thomas Pynchon’ as a gag in the credits, and what’s he going to do? Sue? He’d have to come out of hiding, I’d imagine.
Then again, who can predict what someone that eccentric will do? Maybe he’s a ‘Simpsons’ fan?
I did a search on Google.
Pynchon News has an interview with a Simpsons producer about this. The news is about half way down the page.
He could certainly sue, but it’s irrelevant since it’s really him. He’s listed on SNPP, among other places, as well as the credits.
Pynchon is not “reclusive.” He is, by the accounts of those who know him, a perfectly normal guy, at least for a writer. He just doesn’t do interviews or stick his photo on his book jackets. J.D. Salinger, now that’s reclusive.
And that was most certainly Pynchon on tonight’s show. Fox’s lawyers would never let put his name in the credits if it wasn’t him, and the voice was obviously untrained as a performer.
By god, it makes me want to read Mason & Dixon all over again. Well done, sirs!
Incidentally, Pynchon has most certainly been photographed. When Mason & Dixon was published in '96, CNN had a report on the book and its author. Quite bizarrely, they did a weird thing where they showed a bunch of people walking on the street, then announced that (paraphrasing) “One of these people is Thomas Pynchon, though we can’t tell you which one he is.” It was easy enough to spot him in context, however. Perfectly ordinary guy, tall and thinnish, gray hair.
I have no problem with believing Thomas Pynchon and Mary/Kate/Ashley/Merlin Olson were in the show - but what’s the deal with including Dr. Marvin Monroe? He’s dead! They even named the hospital after him!
I liked Homer’s and Bart’s eye jiggle.
I think this is a case of the writers including a joke. I wish they would stop that.
That’s why I came here! I guess Marge’s “I haven’t seen you in years” was a nod to the joke, but what was the point?
“I vowed never to read a book after I read ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ and it gave me no practical information on how to kill a mockingbird …”
Marge painted that Moby Dick painting, correct? (in the Tax Evasion episode they say it, IIRC)
Can someone remind me in which episode he died? I can’t seem to recall it at all.