Feelin' stressed out? Hopefully not, because it's the weekend and you deserve to relax. But sometimes you get roped into working more than you'd like and the stress overtakes you. We can only hope that this roundup of memes helps to make you feel a little more relaxed, even just for a brief moment.
the simpsons
Over its three decades, a good chunk of The Simpsons has been written by Harvard University alumni, but in the future, it might be written by Simpson University alumni? Ok. Maybe not.
But maybe, because a class on the philosophy of The Simpsons is coming to the Glasgow University.
According to The Daily Mail, “Glasgow University will examine the wisdom of Homer Simpson and his family alongside the words of great thinkers such as Aristotle, Socrates and Voltaire.”
The class, “D'oh! The Simpsons Introduce Philosophy,” has already been stirring up a lot of interest online.
“The Simpsons is a very sophisticated work of popular culture, with a broad scope and depth, and is full of philosophical themes, said the course's creator, John Donaldson. "Very pleasingly, the course has proved to be incredibly popular on social media. It has gone viral. We've never really had a response like this before.”
The class is £30, open to the public, and will be held on January 14.
Let’s take a look at what philosophical ideas we hope will be unpacked:
Via Luana
In the past few days, The Simpsons has been looked at as some sort of cartoon crystal ball, after successfully predicting Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential win in the year 2000.
Now that the prophecy has come to pass, many wanted to know why they even bothered to make that joke in the first place. Well, wonder no longer. For as it was written, The Hollywood Reporter interviewed the writer who made the joke.
"It was a warning to America," said writer Dan Greaney. “The important thing is that Lisa comes into the presidency when America is on the ropes, and that is the condition left by the Trump presidency. What we needed was for Lisa to have problems that were beyond her fixing, that everything went as bad as it possibly could, and that's why we had Trump be president before her.”
"I am tickled we are getting all this attention, but I don't think it's going to trigger this well-awaited re-evaluation of my episode that I was hoping for.”
So there you have it: It wasn’t a prediction, it was a warning that we failed to heed. Everything’s fine. Well, now that that’s settled, who wants to get some frosty chocolate milkshakes? Anyone? Anyone?
Via avclub
Finally, Waylon Smithers has announced what fans of 'The Simpsons' have known for years. The show had a 'coming out' episode about Mr. Burns' faithful assistant. And it only took about 26 years for them to get around to it. Homer even threw him a gay mixer to try to set him up with someone who isn't old, evil and oblivious to his affections.
Via frinkiac
This website makes it easy to find perfect image to match your favorite Simpson's quote. Frinkiac allows you to search "nearly 3 million" screencaps of Simpsons episodes. Once you find an image that looks right, you can actually go frame by frame to find the best moment before adding text to make a meme. 
Via Reddit
Redditor doobieschnauzer has seen the light.
After watching The Simpsons and taking the psychedelic drug LSD for two days, he has concluded that the animated series is "the greatest comedy show ever made."
Here are some of the highlights from his trip to sparkly, swirly, bulging Simpsons land.
We are all Bart.
We are all Lisa.
We are all Marge.
We are all Homer.
We are all Maggie.
Far out, dude.
Via TV Line
Come on out, Mr. Smithers. We're all waiting for you.
The Simpsons new season, which just began Sept. 27, might have some lasting changes to the cast. Specifically, Mr. Smithers just might admit his sexuality to Mr. Burns.
It's long been known that Mr. Smithers is gay, for a while it was used as the only aspect of that character, but it's remained hidden from the dastardly Mr. Burns for the duration of the two's working relationship.
Speaking to TV Line, Executive Producer Al Jean revealed a little teaser about what's to come in the 27th season:
"In Springfield now, most people know he's gay, but obviously Burns doesn't," Jean notes. "We deal with that in two episodes. … We actually do a lot with Smithers this year; he gets fed up with Burns not appreciating him and considers his options."
I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
But don't worry Mr. Smithers. It gets better.
Via Okilly Dokilly
Some bands just gotta have a gimmick, whether it's Gwar's costumes or Kiss' make up. For Pheonix's Okilly Dokilly, they are doubling down on The Simpsons' very Christian, very polite neighbor Ned Flanders.
Head Ned, Red Ned, Thread Ned, Stead Ned and Bled Ned make up what they describe as "the world's only Nedal band" and boy are they all about the puns. Obviously 'Okilly Dokilly' is just a metal riff on the classic Flanders catch phrase 'Okily dokily'.
They're even committed to dressing the part as well, although it doesn't seem like all the members where willing to commit to the trademark mustache (or 'push broom' as he calls it).
According to their Facebook page, most of their songs are based off of Ned Flanders quotes.
They will play their first show Sept. 5 if you're in the Phoenix area. They certainly know how to hype it up.
We're playing our first show. It will be Nedal. You will experience Nedal. You will know Nedal. Nedal will know you.
More details to come. Hold your dang diddly horses.
You can listen to some of their surprisingly serious scream-o songs here:
Via thedailywh.at
In a 1998 episode of “The Simpsons” called “The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace,” Homer knew about the Higgs boson (aka “God Particle”) many years before it was even discovered.
He is shown writing an equation on a chalkboard, which actually turns out to be a lot more than just a bunch of gibberish.
“That equation predicts the mass of the Higgs boson,” Simon Singh, author of The Simpsons and their Mathematical Secrets, told “The Independent”. “If you work it out, you get the mass of a Higgs boson that’s only a bit larger than the nano-mass of a Higgs boson actually is. It’s kind of amazing as Homer makes this prediction 14 years before it was discovered.”
Peter Higgs theorized about the particle in the ’60s, and it was finally discovered in 2012.
The writers on the show are all a bunch of math geeks, who have hidden easter eggs throughout the series since it premiered. Another of the equations Homer is working on in the same scene references Fermat’s Last Theorem, which Singh also has written about.
You can read more about the chalkboard scene and the math involved in this chapter from Singh’s book published at Boing Boing.
Here’s a more detailed explanation about the Higgs portion:
The first equation on the board is largely Schiminovich’s work, and it predicts the mass of the Higgs boson, M(H0), an elementary particle that that was first proposed in 1964. The equation is a playful combination of various fundamental parameters, namely the Planck constant, the gravitational constant, and the speed of light. If you look up these numbers and plug them into the equation,1 it predicts a mass of 775 giga-electron-volts (GeV), which is substantially higher than the 125 GeV estimate that emerged when the Higgs boson was discovered in 2012. Nevertheless, 775 GeV was not a bad guess, particularly bearing in mind that Homer is an amateur inventor and he performed this calculation fourteen years before the physicists at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, tracked down the elusive particle.
The Simpsons have also made headlines for “predicting” a number of other future events, including the Syrian civil war, the ebola outbreak, the Siegfried & Roy tiger attack, smartwatches andmalfunctioning voting booths.
But you would think as longest-running animated series in U.S. TV history that they would eventually get a few things right.
Fox has released latest couch intro for "The Simpsons" prior to this weekend's holiday themed episode.
Highlights: Otto smoking a candy cane bong, Mr. Burns as a snow queen in a sleigh of rottweilers and a brief but obligatory "Frozen" reference with Lisa as Elsa and Homer as Olaf.
With just a pencil and some paper, 15-year-old João A. Carvalho can create cool, 3D effects that make his drawings pop out of the page through a combination of line manipulation and shading.
Here is some of his amazing work, and you can view more on his Facebook page.
Via Fox
Watch Out Nate Silver. Bing Accurately Predicted 95% of the Mid-Term Elections [Bing]
Reddit Was on TV Sunday Night, But Not in a Good Way [WaPo]
Nude Subway Rider Proves New York is Becoming More and More Like Jerry Seinfeld's New York [New York Post]
Matt Groening's Worlds Continue to Collide with "Simpsons"/"Futurama" Crossover Episode [EW]
Via PYTburger
Philadelphia based PYT burger is famous for their outrageous burgers and this time they created as an homage to Homer Simpson. The burger features "a warm glazed donut filled with delicious bacon cheeseburger and topped with bacon sprinkles." My heart hurts by my stomach is growling.
