The shelf-life of memes can be terribly perilous things. One day, you’re on top of the world, right up there with Pagliacci jokes and the plums in the icebox. The next day, you’re little more than so much used Impact font. So, hey: Here’s to “Steamed Hams,” the 24-year-old TV scene that keeps on giving—and often in shockingly inventive, technically innovative ways.
Take the above submission to the “SH” canon, from animator James Morr, who recreated the “22 Short Films About Springfield” sequence with absolutely fantastic (simulated) Lego work. It’s full of great little touches, from the way Morr recreates the “kids eaten by snakes” bit from the segment’s theme song—often sorely overlooked by the “Steamed Hams” community—to the way he recreates the bit where Principal Skinner runs to the Krusty Burger in the background by having the Skinner figure pop out of frame, then replacing him with a much smaller piece.
Presumably, we’ll reach a point where the last good “Steamed Hams” idea has been had, and then executed—truly a dark day for the internet. In the meantime, though, we can enjoy Morr’s work, and contemplate a grim future in which only “The Tomfoolery Of Professor John Frink” remains for internet weirdos to endlessly riff on.
26 Comments
I wish I could say “sorry, not sorry” or some such meme-ish shit. But why are legos reenacting ‘iconic’ scenes from “The Simpsons?”Watching “Robot Chicken” do this is hilarious because it does such wonderful mashups. But scene by scene renditions from legos? This is a Millennial thing, right? Mills don’t like “The Simpsons” cause it’s ‘old people shit’?
Older Millennials were raised on The Simpsons and Legos
“Wonderful mashups” is maybe overstating Robot Chicken’s quality *just a bit*. The strength of the Steamed Hams meme boils down to it being a good comedy sketch.
The best examples of these are ones where there is a recontextualizing of the sketch with the new material. Here that clever use of lego scale played into it. My favourite is this one, making fun of 90s anime fan-subbing culture:
Well, and “22 Short Films About Springfield” was a fairly underrated episode for a long time. There’s a lot of medium to not-great sketches in there (the Cletus shoes sketch, god), and watching the whole thing tends not to be as rewarding as full plot episodes from that era. But the escalating lies and awkwardness of ‘Steamed Hams’ along with the perfectly paced dialogue shines and was just waiting to be rediscovered by this fully-operational battle sta – I mean, more advanced internet that already loves that era of The Simpsons.
…many millennials are in their mid to late 30s. Prime Simpsons age. Do you not know what Gen Z is, or are you too busy writing comments about how millennials killed the bath mat industry or some such garbage?
Millennials grew up with ‘The Simpsons’. It’s very much our thing. I don’t know if the guy who made this is an millennial or not, but it seems like this was done with a lot of affection.
You calling Robot Chicken “hilarious” and “wonderful mashups” really says a lot. And that’s before that weird millennial spiel.It’s a tribute to a good, enduring sketch. Why is it so hard to get and why assign some weirdly nefarious motivation to what is obviously a tribute?
Because pissy-pants troll up there doesn’t like anything, and if you disagree or argue with it too much, it will dismiss your post. I think it just likes hearing itself talk.I’ve had a bit of experience with it, you see.
Oh, I’m very well aware of the poster, who seems sometimes like a bot programmed to bait people into answering with “ok boomer”.
It always comes off like my 70-year-old aunt yelling at me for watching cartoons.
Actually millennials – most of whom are now in their late twenties to thirties – grew up with The Simpsons and love them unconditionally.
Taking established media and chopping it out of context into something bizarre and absurd is very much a Gen-Z style of humor.
Ok, but this is not really out of context OR bizarre or absurd.
i don’t even understand the question? are you asking why someone did this? same reason we’re all posting on the internet. it’s something to do for a bit.
Or for that matter, why are there Lego video games when they won’t let you build anything in them?
Lol. Don’t know. I never played with legos. May have stepped on a few. I don’t get the fascination. Seems a strange choice for a video game..
“It’s a building block meme.”“Well, I grew up with Duplo and I’ve never heard of ‘steamed hams’.”“Oh, no, not Duplo. It’s a LEGO meme.”
“And you call them LEGO burgers despite the fact that they are clearly Mega-Bloks.”“I… uh… Excuse me one moment.”
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What’s confusing to me is that he wasn’t cooking steamed clams anyway. If it hadn’t caught fire he would have brought out a roast. So he’d already changed the menu and prepared the “steamed hams” lie?
He only lied about steamed clams after he’d found out the roast was ruined. He said “steamed clams” to try and excuse the smoke coming from the oven as “steam”.I can’t believe I have to explain this. Is this your first day on the Internet? If so, welcome and it only gets worse from here!
By god, you’re right! What a chump I am.
buddy have you never seen a joke before?
I enjoy how in the opening credits of this version of ‘Skinner & The Superintendent’, there are scenes from their previous adventures. One of which involves them riding a merry-go-round, another being stalked by a giant snake, and yet another in which Skinner is piloting an X-Wing.Reminds me of the opening credits of ‘Mike Tyson Mysteries’, where nothing that happens in them actually takes place in the show itself.
Thanks for the coverage! Been reading AV Club for years and it’s a trip seeing something I made on here.