Editor’s note: Newsarama contributor and Olympics fan Seth Robison joins Blog@ to highlight “tangentially Olympic-related” comics and pop culture moments. You can read more from Seth on the Olympics at his blog Off The Podium.

By Seth Robison

When a show’s been on as long as The Simpsons — since 1989, or 1987 if you count the original Tracy Ullman Show shorts — you can’t blame them for going to the same well once in awhile for story ideas. So with 12 Olympic Games taking place (six of each season) during that same span, inspiration struck the show’s writers several times, with sexy results.

In the 10th season episode “The Old Man and the ‘C’ Student,” the International Olympic Committee improbably responds to Lisa’s impassioned plea for the Olympics to come to her fair town. The application is accepted, but Bart’s racially charged stand-up routine at the committee’s reception dooms the town’s effort. Tragically this spells the end of the Homer-designed official mascot, Springy the Springfield Spring.

Who, according to Kent Brockman, will miss his chance to join the ranks of Olympic Mascots such as the Atlanta Whatzit and the Montreal Vampire. While the Vampire is sadly fake — the real mascot of the 1976 Summer Games was Amik the Beaver — the Atlanta Whatzit, later known as Izzy, was the real and controversial character conceived for the 1996 games.

In the end it’s Homer’s thousands of useless and flushed springs that save Grandpa and Bart from the latter’s ill-conceived attempt to fulfill his punitive community service at the Retirement Castle.

In the 14th season’s installment “I’m Spelling as Fast As I Can,” Lisa’s erudition earns her a berth at an annual orthography competition, the “Spellympics,” being held in Calgary (home of the 1988 Winter Games). Lisa soon rises to the top and faces off against Korean Sun Moon and the contest emcee (and apparently contest organizer, president and hot plate impresario) George Plimpton’s predilection, a photogenic youth named Alex. Lisa declines to throw the bee for Alex in exchange for a scholarship to one of the “Seven Sisters” Colleges, but loses it anyway with her “intransigence.”

Sadly, there will be no riposte for the runner-up, as George Plimpton announces that the Spellympics is being sued by the Olympics for their employment of the suffix, ‘-lympics.’ This is, in fact, justified under the update to the copyright-securing 1976 Amateur Sports Act, which is now known as the “Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act of 1998.” In honor of the senator from Alaska who helped form the United States Olympic Committee and deserves a gold medal for his infamous “Series of Tubes” speech alone.

Finally, “Lisa’s First Word,” the tenth episode of the fourth season, is a flashback to the heady days of 1984 from the ‘present’ of 1992. America, fresh off the rush of the introduction of the Macintosh and the publishing of William Gibson’s seminal cyberpunk novel, Neuromancer, experienced the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

Krusty the Clown, who has signed his burger chain up to provide the “Official Meat-Flavored Sandwich of the 1984 Olympics,” hatches a scheme to rig a “If the US wins the Gold, you get a free sandwich” contest toward Eastern Bloc-dominated sports. But when the Soviets boycott, Krusty loses millions. And so did McDonald’s when this happened to them in 1984, when preprinted contest scratch cards could not be recalled in time to save the franchise from having to pay out a fortune in free burgers, fries and even cash prizes.

Each time, the show lays the Olympics bare, but without being cruel, and that satire is when The Simpsons takes home the gold.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 21st, 2008 at 8:30 am and is filed under Animation, Pop Culture, Television. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.