this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2025
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I just think they're neat!
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? There were many Simpson celebrities in the 90's that played themselves. Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Wade Boggs, Bob Hope, Leonard Nemoy...
They weren't the centerpiece of the episode, like Jack Black as the new comic guy
they didn't use their real names of course but you could tell it was them
Pretty sure they used their real names...
Not every time. Those mentioned were mostly the exceptions. Tons of people were on the show not as themselves. Daniel Radcliffe wasn’t himself or Harry Potter on the show. He played a character that was a parody of Twilight. It had a somewhat decent enough joke and wasn’t just hey look at this famous person we got. Look how cool they are. Ooohhhhh ahhhhhhh
It does depend on how they are written into the show. Leonard Nimoy in the Monorsil episode is a caricature of himself and it works well.
And those were the exceptions and not an every episode occurrence. Some of those also had good points to make like Lisa going vegan. Very much not how the modern cameos go.
Somewhere around the point of Lady Gaga driving into Springfield on a magical train it became celebrity ads.
Exception? Wiki shows 221 "himself" and 37 herself in the first 20 seasons.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Simpsons_guest_stars_(seasons_1%E2%80%9320)