Former Rare Staff
“The Simpsons” is one of the greatest TV shows ever made. It’s not even up for debate.
Videos by Rare
Sure, it lost its way sometime in the late ’90s and probably should have ended at the same time as the decade, but seasons 3-9 are pretty much perfect. The writers went on a streak that has yet to be matched in the world of TV comedy writing. They created some of the most hilarious moments ever to conceived and propelled the show into Planet Earth’s pop-culture canon for the rest of time.
The show was so influential that many of its most memorable scenes still exist in cultural lexicon.
One such scene is the infamous “Steamed Hams” scene from the episode “22 Short Films About Springfield,” which originally aired on April 14, 1996 and was the twenty-first episode of the show’s seventh season.
The episode features a series of short skits, each showing a brief slice of life in Springfield after Bart Simpson, in a somewhat meta moment, ponders if anything interesting happens to the other residents of Springfield.
One of these skits revolves around Bart’s longtime target of ridicule, Seymour Skinner, the principal of Springfield Elementary. In the scene, chaos ensues when Skinner welcomes his boss Superintendent Chalmers to his home for dinner.
When Skinner inadvertently burns his roast before his guest arrives, he concocts a plan to disguise fast food from the Krusty Burger across the street as his own cooking.
It’s almost impossible to do the scene justice in writing, so you’ll just have to watch it:
Despite initially airing 22 years ago, the scene recently went viral after being meme’d on Reddit and YouTube.
The greatest minds of the internet have re-imagined the scene in various ways, like in the style of the video game Minecraft, a Guitar Hero cover and evoking the imagery of a David Lynch film, but one artist has really raised the bar.
An artist known as ARTFONPRO has rendered the scene as though it were a segment in the the 1991 “Simpsons” arcade game produced by Konami — and they’ve absolutely nailed it.
Just look at those beautiful pixels (or lack thereof.)
Steamed Hams but it's the arcade game from 1991. #pixelart #SteamedHams #Memes pic.twitter.com/KZ0OFGu2XH
— ARTFONPRO (COMMS OPEN) (@ArtFon1987) January 21, 2018
Steamed Hams but it's the arcade game from 1991. #pixelart #SteamedHams #Memes pic.twitter.com/lDYk6dof1n
— ARTFONPRO (COMMS OPEN) (@ArtFon1987) January 21, 2018
Does anyone else suddenly have the urge to play a retro arcade games? Preferably one based on a hugely influential animated comedy series.
Oh also, someone turned the dialogue from the scene into a piano dub:
RELATED: Man shares fake phone screen full of text messages, and we can relate
Please keep those very good “Steamed Hams” goofs going forever: https://t.co/5HAIgBnpz1 pic.twitter.com/qWU7a3CyRO
— Polygon (@Polygon) January 2, 2018
