By: Dr. Michael Robinson
March 24th will mark the thirtieth anniversary of one of my favorite things. “A Fish Called Selma” was the 147th episode of The Simpsons. I’m not trying to rank episodes here, and if I were, I couldn’t tell you whether this would be my number-one episode of all time. But the episode is something that I just love.
In discussing “A Fish Called Wanda,” I do not want to fall into a familiar trap that plagues any conversation about this long-lived series. It’s too easy to argue that The Simpsons is not what it used to be. The point here is not to elevate or even to compare. Rather, it is to celebrate.
The season seven episode “A Fish Called Selma” centers on Troy McClure, an actor whose career has largely fizzled since his early-1970s success. Up until this point, Troy typically appeared in short media-related bits. For example, earlier in the same season (“Lisa the Vegetarian”), when Lisa Simpson’s choice to pursue a vegetarian diet rocks the status quo of Springfield Elementary, Principal Skinner shows an educational film called “Meat and You: Partners in Freedom.” As Troy begins this pro-carnivore propaganda piece, he introduces himself with his signature bit: “Hi, I’m actor Troy McClure. You may remember me from such educational films as ‘Two Minus Three Equals Negative Fun’ and ‘Firecrackers: The Silent Killer.” Troy was voiced by the late, great Phil Hartman, who hit the perfect tone of celebrity overconfidence.
As “A Fish Called Selma” starts, Troy’s career is at a low. After being busted for driving without his glasses on, Troy has to go to the DMV. There, he meets Selma Bouvier, who, along with her sister Patti, serves as a constant sister-in-law nemesis to Homer Simpson. To avoid the glasses requirement, Troy takes Selma to dinner. A paparazzi’s photographs of Troy on a date reignite his career. Turns out, one of the things that plagues Troy’s career is rumors of his unusual sexual fetish. The episode never tells you what that is, but since Troy has a bedroom with a gigantic aquarium, it’s not hard to figure out what it is. Once Troy starts seeing Selma regularly, his career relaunches.
Troy’s first big break is my favorite part of the episode. He is cast in the expansive live musical theater revival of a classic sci-fi franchise. Soon, we are whisked to the opening of “Stop the Planet of the Apes I Want to Get Off!” where Troy stars as the human. The show is a perfect send-up of the grand versions of existing pop culture properties that were starting to fill theaters at the time. In the short segment of the show, Troy sings two songs: Falco’s “Amadeus” inspired “Dr. Zaius” and the broadway style closing number “I Hate Every Ape I See.”
In just over two-and-a-half minutes, The Simpsons does what it does best, bringing a wave of unrelated popular culture from a 1968 sci-fi movie blockbuster to 1980s pop to then-current theater trends into a hilarious combination. A synthesis which, even more importantly is highly quotable. In a curious way, The Simpsons figured out the secret long before internet memes did.
That quotability is another source of joy. My work friends at BGSU’s GradSTEP* and I were obsessed with The Simpsons, constantly quoting episodes and singing musical bits. All these years later, I still love to sing those songs. This became evident one day at Myrtle Beach’s Broadway at the Beach. My family and I had ducked into The Simpsons 4-D theater to enjoy a show and escape the oppressive South Carolina sun. As we waited for the next show to start, the random clip monitors hit Troy McClure’s musical numbers. And I began to sing. I belted out “I Hate Every Ape I See” like I was on stage myself!
The employees looked on with dead-eyed apathy. The job had worn them down. The few other people in line seemed to ignore me. My wife and daughter laughed themselves silly while my son, perhaps already a bit tired of my tendency to quote Simpsons episodes, looked at me with pre-teen horror. And I loved every second of it!
And that’s the joy I’m speaking of. A moment in television that stayed so much fun for thirty years. Say what you will about The Simpsons and its decades-long run, but that episode and its moments, and other moments like it, are a true gift.
