Buzz in for “The Simpsons”

by Dan

Every good Quizbowl player has a secret weapon. Mine is The Simpsons.

When I first started watching The Simpsons in fourth grade, I watched for the jokes. Today, since I’ve already seen every episode several times, I rewatch for the obscure references packed into each scene. Interestingly, Quizbowl has also been the most useful tool in my journey towards Simpsons enlightenment.

Quizbowl is a buzzer-based academic competition in which teams compete to answer questions on science, history, literature, and art. When first joined in freshman year, I was exclusively a science player. However, after sitting through hundreds of questions every week, I got better at other subjects, acquiring crucial knowledge for my intellectual and spiritual growth… that is, for understanding The Simpsons.

I picked up art history knowledge, for example, which enhanced my watching experience of Season 1, Episode 11 The Crepes of Wrath. After flushing fireworks down the school toilet, Bart is forced into a foreign exchange program. He arrives in France, cycling towards the chateau where he will be working, over Monet’s Water Lily Pond, through Van Gogh’s Wheatfield with Crows, and past a group of picnickers in a forest having Manet’s Luncheon on the Grass. My Quizbowl studying was paying off in Simpsons dividends, allowing me to spot art history Easter eggs I had never noticed before.

Over time, however, The Simpsons has also improved my Quizbowl ability, by giving me an anchor to link facts to episodes. One of my favorite Simpsons characters is Krusty, a TV clown, who helps me remember history. In Season 5, Krusty interrupts his show with the emergency announcement that “THE FALKLANDS HAVE BEEN INVADED",” then, several years later, he accientally re-airs the episode with the same announcement. In Season 6, a flashback shows Krusty hosting a late-night show where he discussed collective bargaining agreements with AFL-CIO Chairman George Meany. Nowadays, whenever I hear a question about the Falklands War or labor unions in Quizbowl, which is more often than you’d expect, I thank Krusty the Clown.

But there is another way The Simpsons and Quizbowl intertwine in my life, a subtler and stranger one, regarding philosophy and religion. I like to think of Quizbowl as an endless quest for knowledge, wading through a stream of questions. Especially in the month leading up to nationals — on the bus, between classes, at tournaments — the stream never stops. For a long time, I fought the current, wanting to know everything, and became frustrated whenever I missed a clue.

However, I now believe that a good Quizbowl player (and Simpsons watcher) acts in accordance with the Taoist doctrine of Wu Wei, which refers to action without excessive effort. During a Quizbowl match, I forget about the score and immerse myself in the stream of questions, allowing the words to wash over me. When a familiar clue floats by, I cup my hands, scoop it out, and buzz! But immediately afterwards, I let it slip away because another is already coming.

I stream Simpsons episodes in a similar way. During each rewatch, I am not going frame-by-frame, trying to extract every reference. Instead, I go with the flow, soaking up as much as I can along the way. Become fixated on a single joke for too long and I will miss the next. This persistent yet passive mindset is the essence of Wu Wei, and it guides both my Quizbowl playing and Simpsons watching.

What began as a one-sided relationship, with my Quizbowl knowledge enhancing The Simpsons, has evolved into a symbiotic Yin and Yang. They are contradictory, yet they compliment each other perfectly. They are The Simpsons and Quizbowl, my life’s unlikely pair.