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Movies & TV

12th Jan 2015

JOE’s 11 favourite musical cameo appearances in The Simpsons

Sting's appearance is 23-years-old this week

Tony Cuddihy

Sting’s appearance is 23-years-old this week, yet another anniversary that makes JOE feel like cranking out the walking stick.

Remember it? Bart pretends to fall down a well, becomes little Timmy O’Toole, a crowd forms and a charity single is born for what turns out to be a walkie-talkie.

Sting does a bang-up job of sending himself up, as do the following musical acts during their cameo appearances down through the years.

REM

Moe modernises the bar, prompting Homer to set up a rival establishment in his garage. REM play in the bar at the height of its popularity, and later on Michael Stipe provides a Thanksgiving turkey made entirely out of tofu and gluten.

Smashing Pumpkins

Billy Corgan. Smashing Pumpkins. Homer Simpson. Smiling politely.

U2 

The only known example of the word ‘wankers’ appearing in a popular animated series.

The Rolling Stones

Barney fainting gave us a bit of a laugh, but otherwise this one fell flat on its arse.

Aerosmith 

One from the golden age, when Wayne’s World dialogue was still acceptable, the Flaming Moes episode featured this cameo from Aerosmith.

Barry White

The soul crooner rages against Whacking Day in the best way possible…

Ringo Starr

Frenchman Jacques the bowler wasn’t the only man to come between Marge and Homer – a certain former Beatle brought out Homer’s jealous side too…

Spinal Tap

Harry (voice of Kent Brrrrockman, Smithers and Mr. Burns to name but three) Shearer once had a role in the most famous mockumentary of all time.

http://youtu.be/gXuYYUS6C1o

James Taylor

Plays second fiddle to an inanimate carbon rod when Homer goes into space, but still one of our favourite musical guest appearances.

Glen Hansard

When we first saw The Frames in Whelans back in 1998, little did we know that the ginger bombshell fronting the band would appear on the best animated series ever made. His Oscar-winning song from the film Once changed everything.

http://youtu.be/GW4kQh4mgKc

Michael Jackson

Best. Musical. Guest. Appearance. Ever.

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