Thomas Pynchon Edits His Lines on The Simpsons: “Homer is my role model and I can’t speak ill of him.”

In 2002, the elu­sive nov­el­ist Thomas Pyn­chon made two cameo appear­ances on The Simp­sons. Of course, we did­n’t actu­al­ly get to see Pyn­chon. His car­toon depic­tion wore, rather humor­ous­ly, a bag over his head. But, we did get to hear Pyn­chon’s voice. And appar­ent­ly that, alone, was a first.

This past week, Matt Sel­man, an exec­u­tive pro­duc­er for The Simp­sons, shed some more light on those play­ful cameos. On Twit­ter, he post­ed a copy of the script Pyn­chon edit­ed and faxed back to the show’s writ­ers. (Click on the image above to see it in a larg­er for­mat.) In some cas­es, Pyn­chon, always the writer, tweaked the lan­guage to make it flow as he liked. In oth­er cas­es, he added his own mate­r­i­al to the script — new sound effects, jokes, and puns. (The word “Scrump­tious” gets turned into Vi-licious.) And, in one case, he removed a joke. Delet­ing the words “No won­der Homer is such a fat ass,” Pyn­chon scrawled the com­ment: “Sor­ry, guys. Homer is my role mod­el and I can’t speak ill of him.” Final­ly, Homer gets some respect.

via The Wall Street Jour­nal

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Before The Simp­sons, Matt Groen­ing Illus­trat­ed a “Student’s Guide” for Apple Com­put­ers (1989)

Before The Simp­sons: Homer Groen­ing Directs a 1969 Short Film, The Sto­ry, Star­ring His Kids Mag­gie, Lisa & Matt 

Take a Cin­e­mat­ic Jour­ney into the Mind of Thomas Pyn­chon and His New Book, Bleed­ing Edge