Talk:Matt Groening

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Another pronunciation problem: (name rhymes with "complaining", SAMPA ['grEniN]) -- these don't match!

name rhymes with "raining" would work better.

I've modified the pronunciation guide to actually rhyme with raining (it previously would have been something like "grenneeng") and also converted to IPA which is after all the recommended standard for Wiikipedia. rossb 16:20, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Where's the IPA? Did someone delete it? Theshibboleth 02:33, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

Once and for all (because I hear this rumor all the time), was Matt Groening ever a nuclear Electronics Technician in the US Navy? -Ryan Callahan

I very highly doubt it. -Kaizersoze 22:41, Jan 28, 2005 (UTC)

It could be his brother Mark Groening, as he's a Vietnam veteran. -Kaizersoze 23:34, Feb 13, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Net Worth

Anyone know how much his net worth is and how much money the simpsons, liscensing, syndication rights, etc have made him?? I heard 150 million but believe it to be far more.

[edit] Life Is Hell

Groening also had a series of cartoon books based on a stip he did called either Life in Hell or Life Is Hell. The books had titles like "School Is Hell". Anyone know more about the strip? He drew a one-eared bunny and had two gay characters, Akbar and Jeff, if I recall.

Yup, Life in Hell. Bunch of books, Love is Hell, Work is Hell, School is Hell, Childhood is Hell, Big Book of Hell, Huge Book of Hell, a few others, all really funny stuff. It was about the bunny protagonist Binky, his one-eared son Bongo, and his girlfriend Sheba, as well as the relationship and entrepreneurial adventures of Akbar and Jeff.--STLEric 08:01, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Family names

Could we get a cite on the anecdote that Groening didn't name Abraham Simpson after his own grandfather? It seems unlikely that after naming six other characters after family members he would suddenly balk at naming one more. It also seems a little suspect that other people supposedly chose an uncommon name like Abraham in a random coincidence. MK2 05:22, 30 Mar 2005 (UTC)

He himself mentioned it on one of the episode commentaries on The Simpsons DVDs. I believe the name was chosen as an homage to Abraham Lincoln. --Kaizersoze 17:51, Apr 1, 2005 (UTC)

This page should really mention the fact that he writes for The New Republic.

Re Abraham Simpson: It's on the commentary track for the episode "The Front" on the DVD box set of series 4 (I think it was 4 anyway)

My dad's Physics professor at Portland State University was Homer Groening, so Homer's job at a nuclear plant presumably has some connection to the real Homer's training and profression. - omega at NOvcoloSPAM dot com

Groening's son is named Homer too. He did this to make up for naming the big buffoon after his father. (Interview in Season 2 DVD) --Fizan 03:22, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Family Members

"Matt stresses that aside from occasional sibling rivalry, the Simpsons is not like his family." and in the trivia "The Simpsons family is based on Matt's own family." good job. Ill edit it saying that theyre named after some family members.

[edit] Student Body President

I can't find a cite for either of these contradictory statements, so I removed them, as it seems to read a little off to my eye.

but was stripped of this title when he tried to amend the constitution to make him an all-powerful president for life. (When asked at a recent party for his publishing company, Bongo Comics,Matt said he liked the myth better, but he did finish his term and was not stripped of his title) Steve block 09:52, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] help for German Wiki

The german Wiki on Matt Groening claims that he is gay, but the writer fails to come up with sources. Any information on this fact? Thank you! 85.74.3.187 05:55, 18 August 2005 (UTC)

He's not gay, he used to be married to a woman by the name of Deborah Caplan and is currently (as far as I know) dating a singer by name of Lauren Francis Rubber cat 05:45, 3 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Akbar????

Wikipedia:List_of_encyclopedia_topics/Biographies_G2 (section 14, number 41) lists him as having the middle name akbar, and so does this webpage, is this right? Martin - The non-blue non-moose 10:07, 7 September 2005 (UTC)

Seems unlikely. Probably, someone down the line got it mixed up with Akbar and Jeff. RMoloney (talk) 16:03, 5 November 2005 (UTC)

Groening is in fact still dating writer Lauren Francis (she has collaborated on a book with Groening and appeared as an advice columnist on a syndicated television show; I'm not certain she's chosen to pursue a singing career), who has said with certainty that Groening's completely straight. Perhaps the misunderstanding about Groening's orientation has arisen simply because he was tolerant and empathetic enough to have written a strip for the Village Voice ("Life in Hell") that often featured two identical gay characters named Akbar and Jeff. It wouldn't surprise me if the artist's middle name really were Akbar, or if he did identify with the two gay characters, since they seem to symbolize self-love. That emotion seems particularly hard-won for Groening, who, purportedly, was not always treated well by his father. Besides, Groening isn't the first person to have written movingly about people of other genders, races, religions and sexual orientations.

[edit] Pronunciation

Who says his name is pronounced like raining? On today's episode of The Simpsons, Homer pronounced it like owning, but then again it is Homer. Theshibboleth 06:32, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

He's been quoted a good billion times as saying that his name "rhymes with complaining." --STLEric 07:42, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Yes, and that's funnier than "raining"... AnonMoos 18:09, 15 April 2006 (UTC)

and there was that episode when Milhouse referred to him as it would sound like..groan-ing ^_-

Also Troy McClure Pronounced it like "raining" when he hosted The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular. --MJHankel 22:33, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Writing on the Simpsons

Didn't he write, or at least co-write what was going to be the first episode, "Some Enchanted Evening"?--STLEric 08:06, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

yeah Rubber cat 06:58, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] What is up with all this page's vandalism?

Matt's profile here sure gets vandalized a lot. Why is that do you think?--Kiyosuki 09:13, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

because u touch yourself at night~dragong4

Dude...that is so old. Your insulting yourself by using that. lol --Kiyosuki 12:59, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Is there some way to get this page locked from edits by new members or non-members? Dragon-Girl 04:04, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

This page actually isn't that bad compared to some (like Futurama) but yes, to do that you need to bring it up at Requests for page protection, though this page probably doesn't need it, see WP:SEMI. Stardust8212 04:15, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] can we get rid of the myths section

it's pretty useless imo Rubber cat 22:08, 4 May 2006 (UTC)
it's been more than a month and no one replied to this so i went ahead and got rid of it Rubber cat 22:21, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] He's An Agnostic Methodist?

Look at the categories... does that even make sense? --Lyght 05:46, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Because, while not denouncing or renouncing Methodism he still has has doubt that God even exists.--Greasysteve13 06:00, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

Are you sure that he was even a Methodist? According to [1], his father (the basis of Homer) was raised as a Mennonite.Homagetocatalonia 00:42, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Groening and Bodybuilding?

Jacky Wong is a bodybuilder from Hongkong, who operates two sports studios in Heidelberg, Germany. On the german Wikipedia-Page of Jacky Wong, it is mentioned that he and Matt Greoning are close friends, that he was a long time personal trainer of Greoning and that Greoning desgined the character of "Amy Wong" for him. I haven't fround any evidence for these claims on other webpages, especially not on the english Wikipedia. Are any of these rumors true?

[edit] Religion

It says he's Agnostic. Is there a source to confirm this? I've been looking around and couldn't find one. --Tuspm ^{[Leave Me A Message]} 17:46, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

Here you go. [2] Homagetocatalonia 00:43, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Education

Does anyone know what college Groening attended? I heard at one point he was at a Christian college for like a semester... seems far-fetched, but I thought I'd ask anyway... Johnny Panic 8:35, 3 July 2006

The Evergreen State College --Rubber cat 02:22, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Methodist or Agnostic?

Is he Methodist or Agnostic? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.29.23.7 (talk • contribs).

Look upwards a few sections, specifically the ones entitled "Religion" and "He's An Agnostic Methodist?" --Rubber cat 02:27, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Career

Not sure if this needs any clarification but on this page [3] Matt comments that "MG: Yes, I worked for a 93-year-old guy. Calling him a movie director is probably a little exaggerated. It's true, he directed a few B-Westerns, but he was mostly a behind-the-scenes guy in various guises. He didn't have much of a career.", this is a recent article of April 2006. My apologies if you consider this 'correction' trivial.Trig 23:19, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] The story?

Would it be appropiate to add his appearance in the movie "The Story"? http://www.archive.org/details/the_story --84.146.234.134 20:00, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sigma Chi

I heard somewhere that he is a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity.

He is _not_ a Sigma Chi -- check it out on the Talk:Sigma Chi#Matt Groening page. Firedancer414 21:25, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Formatting in "Career" section

The quote doesn't line wrap for me, cutting off as it hits the image to its right. Is this happening for anyone else?

“I think the people who ran the Reader felt so guilty about how little they were paying people that they let--"

For some reason someone put it into a quote box. it's fixed now --Rubber cat 06:57, 24 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Futurama

I am going to try to be polite. I just started watching this cartoon on Adult Swim. Tonights episode (1-9-07) was about Fry and his dog Seymour. I thought this cartoon was suppose to be funny? Instead I got my heart ripped out and felt like I was going to throw-up at the end. I'm trying not to take this too seriously, it is only a cartoon but in the same regard it is a cartoon why did it have to be such a DARK ending? I tried to post this message directly onto Matt Groening's site but of course it has been under construction for so long of course I could'nt. I just needed to get this out there. Now I am going to go spend time with my 4 dogs and 1 cat and tell them how much I LOVE THEM!!!!!24.107.225.144 04:28, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Please remember this discussion page is for use to discuss changes to the Matt Groening wikipedia article, not your personal feelings about episodes of a show he created. See WP:TALK Stardust8212 14:49, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Reuben Award - 2002 or 2003?

The year Groening received the Reuben Award is not consistent between this article, the National Cartoonists Society article and the official Reuben Awards site.

Both the official Reuben Award site and the National Cartoonists Society article state that Groening received the award in 2002, where the Matt Groening article states 2003.

Is there a reason why this article states 2003, or is it, as I suspect, a mistake?

AaronRC 11:09, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

I guess it was a mix-up, this page says "Simpsons" creator Matt Groening receives the Reuben Award, San Francisco, 2003, so he received the award in 2003 for 2002. --Rubber cat 21:56, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Matt Groening is the creator of all characters of The Simpsons?

Given that the original characters which was to become of The Simpsons was created by Matt Groening, is it possible that all characters (including Jacqueline Bouvier) created by the same creator who created his original characters? -Bryan Seecrets 10:46, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] website??

You know, I was curious about the fact that it seemed to always be under construction so I decided to research it. Unless the very first release in 2000 was diferent, it has been "under construction" ever sense it started in 2000. I checked it on Archive.org, here is the link to it if you want to see for yourself [4]. I just figured that it is somewhat notable due to the fact that it has not just been under construction for a long time, but rather sense its inception. (unless those first two ones <which are missing> were actually diferent). --MJHankel 22:39, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

Also, in this interview from a while back [5], Groening points out that he has reserved this site so that he can archive his comic strips, though he also stated that he wanted to do it when he felt ready to get really into it. --MJHankel 22:47, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] GA Review

GA review (see here for criteria)

It is well written.

a (prose): b (structure): c (MoS): d (jargon):
It is factually accurate and verifiable.

a (references): b (inline citations): c (reliable): d (OR):
It is broad in its coverage.

a (major aspects): b (focused):
It follows the neutral point of view policy.

a (fair representation): b (all significant views):
It is stable.
It contains images, where possible, to illustrate the topic.

a (tagged and captioned): b (lack of images does not in itself exclude GA): c (non-free images have fair use rationales):
Overall:

a Pass/Fail:

1 (a) and (b) Prose and Structure:

He made his first professional cartoon sale to the avant-garde Wet magazine in 1978 (the strip, entitled “Forbidden Words”, appeared in the September/October issue), and by 1980 the strip had become so popular in the underground that it was picked up by the Los Angeles Reader, where he also delivered papers as well as doing some editing and paste-up. very long sentence. Split it into two.
He described trying to get the show on the air as "by far the worst experience of my grown-up life." --- This quote needs to be written as "by far the worst experience of [his] grown-up life" in order to make sense of the sentence.
Seeing as how you have only one award listed, do you really think it deserves its own section?

2 (a) References: Outright fail here. This is a biography of a living person, and as such, is held to a much higher standard in terms of citations. For instance,

birthdate needs citation
On the way there, his car broke down in the fast lane of the Hollywood Freeway.
He found work for a time as a chauffeur and "biographer" for an unsuccessful 88-year-old B-Western movie director.
Fearing the loss of ownership rights, Groening decided to create something new. Reportedly, he designed the look of the Simpson family in only fifteen minutes.
Comedy Central commissioned 13 new episodes to be aired in 2008.
The couple divorced in 1999 after thirteen years of marriage

are just a few of the things that need to be taken care of. Be very careful with articles about living people. It can get ugly.

2 (b) Inline citations:

Citations come after punctuation. I saw a couple here and there that are misplaced. On preview: I noticed that an editor took care of this. I change to a pass on this criterion.

2 (d) WP:OR:

It is questionable whether Marge’s sister Patty’s name comes from Groening’s sister or if it is a coincidence. --- Things like this (especially unreferenced) are examples of original research. Take them out. Avoid weasel words at all costs.

Because my only real reason to fail the article is because of its egregious lack of references, I'm going to fail the article and list it at Wikipedia:WikiProject_Unreferenced_GA/Nominations. After including some references, you can renominate it. Just to drive the point home, I want you to remember to be careful when writing an article about a living person. Cite everything. This article is basically GA quality otherwise, just address the points I made above. Good luck! –King Bee ^{(T • C)} 18:28, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

Excellent. I have reread the awards section, and it makes a lot more sense to me now. I like what you've done, good work on citing everything so quickly. I will now pass the article.–King Bee ^{(T • C)} 20:19, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Newspaper with Life In Hell?

It says in the Carrer section that the comic strip Life In Hell is still in over 250 weekly newspapers. What is the source for this? Does anyone know any specific newspapers with the strip? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Keshidragon (talk • contribs) 21:31, 20 March 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Categories...

I'm not sure, but it seems that someone had removed the Simpsons and Futurama categories from this article. Being that he is the creator of these 2 show, he belongs in those categories. - Adolphus79 15:33, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, please point out the specific cfd where the consensus was reached that series creators don't belong in the category of that series. -- Scorpion 15:38, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

CFD to delete the category for The Simpsons producers. Note that Scorpion specifically raised the notion of having Groening in the main Simpsons category and expressed his understanding that putting Groening in the main Simpsons category is inappropriate. He also got no support for the idea of creating a unified "cast and crew" category because of the strong consensus and precedent against it.
CFD to delete the category for The Simpsons crew members.
CFD to delete the category for The Simpsons directors.
CFD to delete the category for The Simpsons writers.
Those are the four dealing with production crew, establishing very clearly that consensus is strongly against categorizing the creators of series in the categories for those series. Scorpion participated in these discussions and his arguments in favor of keeping were found to be unpersuasive. The category system is not meant to be an exhaustive cross-indexing of everything that a person has ever done. The Simpsons is linked in the first sentence of Groening's article. Groening is linked in the first sentence of the Simpsons article and in other places throughout. There are lists of Simpsons writers, director, producers and cast members, all of which along with the articles on the show and Groening do a far better job of explaining Groening's role in the Simpsons than an entry in any category would. Otto4711 16:35, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

- It still doesn't say that he doesn't belong in that category. I think you really need to grow up and get over the fact that I nominated the article for your favourite model for deletion. -- Scorpion 16:51, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, I pretty much thought this was fallout from your fixation on deleting that article. I hate to bust your balloon, but he's not even close to my favorite anything, let alone model. My beef with you has always been your tactics, not your targets. You persistently engage in Wikilawyering and hyper-literal interpretations of policies and guidelines and then continually effect surprise when called on it. But fine, we'll do it your way. I propose the following. You create Category:The Simpsons creators and put Groening in it. I will nomoinate it for deletion. If it is deleted, then you agree that categorizing creator by series is not to be done and you stop doing it. If it stands, then you have your Simpsons creators category to populate as you choose. Otto4711 16:58, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Since consesnsus is so important, there is a discussion on the WPS talk page and the current consensus is that the article belongs in the category. BTW, you violated WP:3RR. -- Scorpion 17:03, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

"WPS" is, I take it, Wikiproject:Simpsons? Consensus of a Wikiproject does not override consensus of the community at large. Otto4711 17:49, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Only thirteen people voiced their opinions in the discussion regarding TV crew by series. It's hardly consensus of the community at large. ---Rubber cat 07:11, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

While I think Otto is correct in his interpretation of policy I have requested a (hopefully) unbiased opinion at Wikipedia:Categorization of people in order to resolve this issue. Stardust8212 17:17, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

I would be in favour of keeping this article in the Simpsons and Futurama categories. The so-called consensus is actually rather thin on the ground when you look at those CFD results, so there are no grounds for overzealous application. A few exceptions such as the creator of notable tv shows should be allowed. Tim! 17:49, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

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