John Swartzwelder - An Unrecognised Hero

MOVED to Foreign Sitcom by SlagA

John Swartzwelder is a relative unknown. Scan the bottom of the screen of a hell of a lot of Simpsons episodes and you'll see his name. He's written over 60 episodes, more than anyone else.Many of them classics such as

'Homer at the Bat'
'Radioactive Man'
'Bart gets an Elephant'
'You Only Move twice'
'Homer the Vigilante'

And yet he gets very little or no recognition. Which is rather strange given the fact he's the Chief writer of the greatest television program ever(In a hell of a lot of people's opinions including mine). He has to be one of the greatest comedic writers ever.

Discuss...

Maybe he's ugly.

I think there a quite a few people on here who will agree with you. He has certainly been mentioned in high regard on other threads about best writers etc.

EDIT

Or maybe he's ugly?

Aren't all comedy writers ugly? I thought that's how we were created.

Quote: Electric Cornflakes @ September 9 2008, 12:57 AM BST

Aren't all comedy writers ugly? I thought that's how we were created.

View original

I'll certainly agree with that one.

I is mostest minging.

Just about all the best Simpsons episodes are a product of this guy.

Check out his contributions here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Swartzwelder

Listening to the Simpsons commentary tracks gives a good indication of the respect his peers have for him - they bang on about him non-stop.

He was that good at his job, apparently when they bought in a no smoking policy to the writers room (he was a two packs a day man) they said okay to him to working from home and faxing his writing in.

I recommend his books. I just finished a slim novella called "The Time Machine Did It" and there are more jokes on one page than in some sitcoms. It's exhhausting how funny this guy is. I would personally ass-carry his baby.

He's apparently something of a recluse.

Quote: David Bussell @ September 9 2008, 7:44 AM BST

Just about all the best Simpsons episodes are a product of this guy.

I recommend his books. I just finished a slim novella called "The Time Machine Did It" and there are more jokes on one page than in some sitcoms.

View original

I have just read the first six pages of this on Amazon.com online reader and its darn funny, worth a purchase methinks.

He's done four books, all of which are sheer brilliance. Just a stream of leftfield silliness.

He's one of America's best ever writers I think.

Apparently he used to sit and write / smoke in cafe booths until smoking was banned, so he simply bought himself a booth and had it fitted in his house.