I Am Furious (Yellow)

Plot

Milhouse's father, Kirk, gives a speech to the kids at Springfield Elementary about his occupation of assistant flyer distributor. Due to how boring the speech was, Principal Skinner and Mrs. Krabappel take Lisa's advice and visit the Springfield Writer's Forum to find a better speaker. They find Jeff Jenkins, creator of a popular TV cartoon, Danger Dog. He comes to the school to give a presentation on Danger Dog, including showing them a sneak preview for the next Easter special, and fascinates the kids by telling them about the cartoon industry. Much to Skinner's horror, Jenkins tells the students how easy his job is and how he never needed to work hard to get his job. Later, every kid in school creates their own comic book, all of which are actually rip-off versions of Danger Dog. Bart also creates his own comic Danger Dude (which is actually a dog) and tries to sell it to Comic Book Guy, who criticizes his work. Stan Lee enters Comic Book Guy's store and tells Bart that his comic is bad, but that he should keep trying to "find his own voice."

At home, Bart comes up with a character called Angry Dad, based on the frequent angry outbursts of his father, Homer. Bart rolls out the first issue of Angry Dad, which becomes a hit with the kids in school. During an autograph signing session in the schoolyard, Bart is approached by a spokesman for an Internet entertainment site. He wants to make Angry Dad into an online animated cartoon series, and Bart agrees in exchange for stock. The cartoon becomes an Internet hit, becoming the single most popular non-pornographic website of all time. The only one still unaware of Angry Dad is Homer, who finds out one day at work. Once the humiliated Homer gets home, he finds Bart and strangles him. Marge and Lisa stops him and calms him down, and Homer agrees to suppress his anger from that point on.

The next day, Homer stays true to his word and remains calm. However, his new calm demeanor has taken away Bart's inspiration for his cartoon, so Bart and Milhouse set up a trap for Homer to trigger another outburst. Later, they go to the Internet company office, where they find the company has gone bankrupt. Homer reaches home and happens upon Bart's trap, but he keeps his calm throughout its run, causing lumps to develop on his neck. The trap ends with Homer falling into a pool full of green paint, prompting him to go berserk and storm through town. The police restrain him and Homer is admitted to the hospital. Dr. Hibbert arrives and tells Marge that Bart actually saved Homer's life by enraging him. Hibbert explains the lumps on his neck were actually boils caused by suppressed rage and would have otherwise overwhelmed his system. Homer thanks Bart by taking him fishing, where he continues to make his father angry.

Production

"I Am Furious (Yellow)" was written by John Swartzwelder and directed by Chuck Sheetz. It was first broadcast on Fox in the United States on April 28, 2002. The episode's storyline was pitched by Simpsons writer Matt Selman. In the DVD audio commentary for the episode, he stated that Matt Groening, the creator of the series, would usually tell the writers about how he was the class clown and did not pay attention in school, and yet grew up to become very successful. After hearing this, Selman thought that if Groening went back to his school to talk about his career, it "[would be] the last message that a principal and the teachers would wanna hear." Selman pitched the story because he thought it would be "humorously infuriating" to teachers. The episode was also partly based on some of the Simpsons staff members' experience with making internet cartoons, such as Queer Duck and Hard Drinkin' Lincoln, both of which were created by Mike Reiss.

The Angry Dad internet cartoon, as well as the other internet cartoons in the episode, were originally going to be animated using Macromedia Flash, however, the department of Film Roman that handled Flash animation would not be able to complete the scenes in time. Because of this, director Sheetz had to draw the scenes himself, mimicking the look of Flash animation. At the end of Bart's trap, Homer falls into a pool of green paint, making him resemble the Hulk. Selman originally wanted Homer to fall into blue paint, since the blue paint mixed with his yellow skin would make green, however the idea never came to fruition.

The episode features comic book writer Stan Lee as himself. In John Ortved's book The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History, Lee stated that he attended the episode's table read, and was impressed with the size and quality of the creative staff, who all sat around the conference table. Lee recalled in 2009, "Honestly, there was so much genuine talent around that table that you could have cut it with a knife." Afterward, Lee met the writers of the show, and was pleasantly surprised to find that they were familiar with his work and he was with theirs. Afterward, executive producer Al Jean took Lee out to lunch, who he called "one of the nicest and most unassuming guys you could hope to meet." Lee continued, "Of course, I probably said something wrong to him, or he didn't like my table manners, because I haven't been invited back for another guest shot. But hey one lives in hope." The voice actor who plays Angry Dad in the episode was portrayed by Dan Castellaneta, who also does the voice for Homer among other characters in the series. The design of the character is also based on Castellaneta.

Broadcast and re-release

In its original American broadcast on April 28, 2002, "I Am Furious (Yellow)" received a 7.4 rating, according to Nielsen Media Research, translating to approximately 7.8 million viewers. It finished in 26th place in the ratings for the week of April 22–28, 2002, making it the most watched program on the network that night. Combined with a new episode of Malcolm in the Middle, The Simpsons beat CBS's Everybody Loves Raymond special ("Everybody Loves Raymond: The First Six Years") in the ratings, besting the special by a full rating point and a half among adults between ages 18 to 49. On August 24, 2010, the episode was released as part of The Simpsons: The Complete Thirteenth Season DVD and Blu-ray box set. Matt Groening, Al Jean, Matt Selman, Mike Reiss, Chuck Sheetz, Don Payne, Tom Gammill, Max Pross, David Silverman, and Stan Lee participated in the DVD audio commentary for the episode.

Critical reception

Upon the episode's release, a promotional image of Homer mimicking the Hulk caused some of the series' internet fans to speculate that the show had jumped the shark. "[...] I still remember the publicity it [the episode] got," Jean said in the DVD commentary for the episode. "The internet people were like, 'They jumped the shark. They're having Homer turn into The Hulk.' [...] We clearly did it in a logical fashion. He's not really super strong." Following its broadcast, "I Am Furious (Yellow)" garnered critical acclaim from reviewers, and is often considered a fan favourite. Colin Jacobsson of DVD Movie Guide called the episode one of the better installments from Season 13, referring to it as "very good" and saying that "the series has milked Homer's rage [as one of its chief sources of humor] for years, but it does so in creative and satisfying ways here." R.L. Shaffer of IGN described "I Am Furious (Yellow)", along with "Brawl in the Family" and "Half-Decent Proposal", as being "cleverly written" and the best episodes of the season. Aaron Peck of High-Def Digest stated that the episode is one of his "personal favourites," and Ron Martin of 411Mania called it a "standout episode." Adam Rayner of Obsessed With Film gave the episode a favorable review as well. He wrote that, even though it is not "as rooted in reality as the great episodes," the episode is "consistently hilarious." He concluded that the episode is "great comedy from start to finish."

Blu-ray.com's Casey Broadwater called it a "strong character-centric episode," and added that the episode's title is one of his "favourites." Writing for Project-Blu, Nate Boss wrote "Just when you think The Simpsons is broke, we get Angry Dad. To quote Stan Lee: 'Broke? Or made it BETTER?' That's right. Stan 'the man' Lee." Jennifer Malkowski of DVD Verdict gave the episode a B+, describing "Homer's random exclamation while running around on fire, 'Oh, I hope no one's drawing this!'" as the episode's "highlight." Ryan Keefer of DVD Talk described the episode as being "flat out funny." Lee's appearance in the episode was also praised. Rayner called his performance "one of the all time great cameos," and Jacobson called it "fun." Broadwater considered Lee's appearance to be one of the season's "highlights," and Total Film's Nathan Ditum ranked Lee's performance as the 12th best guest appearance in the show's history, describing it as "a deranged, childish and brilliant version of himself."

Legacy

The episode has been used as an indicator to the growth of internet companies. In his article "Best Indicator Ever: The Simpsons Foreclosure", Jonathan Hoenig of SmartMoney wrote that the twentieth season episode "No Loan Again, Naturally", an episode in which the Simpsons are foreclosed from their house, could have indicated that "the worst of the housing crisis" at the time the article was written, was over. Hoenig based this theory on the fact that shortly after "I Am Furious (Yellow)", which satirizes the dot-com bubble, aired, the dotcom stocks "began a massive rebound from bear-market lows."

"I Am Furious (Yellow)" inspired the idea for the twenty-second season episode "Angry Dad: The Movie", which originally aired on February 20, 2011 in the United States. In "Angry Dad: The Movie", Bart and Homer create a short film based on the Angry Dad cartoon seen in "I Am Furious (Yellow)", but after the film wins a myriad of prizes, the two start fighting over who created the series.