In Screaming Yellow Honkers (the episode where Marge gets a Canyonero) Homer causes the rhinos to stampede and when the family are chased out of the Wild Animal Kingdom they are followed by a guy with black hair, glasses and a goatee beard.
Who is that guy meant to be? He’s distinctively drawn and looks like he’s intended to be a caricature of someone, rather than the usual background characters, and it’s the only time he’s appeared.
My guess is that it was one of the animators inserting himself into the scene.
On a WAG:
He represents Jim Fowler from the old show Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom.
It’s been years and years since I’ve seen MoOWK, though, I’m probably wrong.
Another WAG:
Matt Groening, perhaps?
Didn’t he say something about warning them the fence was inadequate? Or mearning to warn them? When I heard that, I thought he might have been a caricature of the guy in the 1st Jurassic Park movie who was worried about the velociraptor paddock.
No, you guys are thinking of the “zookeeper” character with the tranquilizer gun.
The character I’m trying to identify only appears in one shot and has no dialogue, but his appearance is significant enough to make me sure it’s some kind of reference, it seems to be the “punchline” for that sequence.
I suppose it could be an animator on the show, or a writer. If it is then I guess it’s hard to know for sure.
The SNPP seems to speculate that it’s Groening.
It’s not Matt Groening unfortunately, he’s “appeared” on The Simpsons before and looks quite different to this mystery character.
This is Matt Groening’s Simpsons character. I wish I could find an image of the guy I’m talking about so I could put it up here.
It is Matt Groening, even if it looks different than the other caricature. I remembered exactly the scene you are talking about and knew it was Groening from the caricature.
http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/GuidePageServlet/showid-146/epid-1503/ (see Notes)
http://www.snpp.com/episodes/AABF10 (search the page for “Groening”)
There’s another Groening depiction, in the “Behind the Scenes” episode, which shows him as a snarly wizzened freak locked in a room drawing cartoons.
Bald, with a eye-patch, drinking shots of something evil-looking, and shooting at you… god, that’s half the males in my family tree.
Trust me, it can’t be Groening - the character I’m referring to has a dark “mullet” hairstyle and a small goatee beard and is slim-faced.
Matt Groening has brown hair and a full beard and is round-faced. The Simpsons artists are experts at caricaturing famous people with fairly basic character drawings so it doesn’t make sense that they couldn’t draw Groening’s face properly, of all people!
I realise some people would think it’s meant to be Groening, but only because he’s the most famous bearded spectacle-wearer involved with the show. If they inserted a character based on an anonymous Simpsons artist with a goatee and glasses as an in-joke no one would get it (hence this thread).
Here’s Futurama’s Matt Groening character, it’s slightly different from The Simpsons version but still instantly recognisable as Groening’s face and nothing like the “mystery guy”.
Sorry for the nitpick…
…I believe the episode you’re referring to is the 138th Episode Spectacular .
LSD-25, perhaps you have to open yourself to the possibility it really is supposed to be Matt Groening. I took it to be so, and so do others according to the links I posted.
Wasn’t there also a Treehouse of Horrors depiction of Matt?
I have no idea how that helps…
Sorry, but I just know it’s not Matt Groening, I’d be willing to stake money on that.
Like I said, I can quite understand why you and others would think that, but the only thing this guy has in common with Groening is a beard and glasses.
While we’re getting into Matt’s appearances though, I saw one recently where he appeared during the opening couch gag and drew the Simpsons.
If the guy in the show is thin faced with a goatee, he obviously isn’t supposed to be Matt Groaning. I don’t remember the character, so I can’t say for sure, but I’d have to agree with LSD-25 on this one. I wish we could find a picture…
Got It!
I didn’t think I would find the answer, but I tried doing Google-image-searches for various staff on the show (if only to back up my own assertion that it’s not Matt Groening).
It took a while but when I got to Mike Scully’s photo he’s got the dark mullet and goatee I was talking about.
Here’s Mike Scully’s Simpsons character, this is exactly the same character as the “mystery guy” I was trying to identify, the only difference is that his hair was darker in the show.
Q. “How does Matt Groening find the time to write and draw a new Simpsons episode every week?”
A. “Get outta my office! (BLAM)”
And quite a few of the females, come to think of it.
