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The Sporkful · Dan Pashman

Lunchtime With The Simpsons (Reheat)

February 13, 2026·37 min·2 clips
A Simpsons writer reveals the 10-foot sandwich scene that made him want to write for the show.
Dan has a favorite show, and this reheat does not hide it. With The Simpsons nearing its 800th episode on February 15th, he goes back to his visit to the writers' room. The plan is simple enough: talk with the writers, meet creator Matt Groening, and ask why food keeps turning up in Simpsons jokes. The best stuff starts small. A salad ordered in the morning already feels like a bad call by lunch. Then chicken arrives, and a riff on thigh fat turns into a very Sporkful argument, with Dan and Matt landing on opposite sides of what sounds good. Matt Selman gets the main stretch. Dan brings up The Food Wife, one of his favorite recent Simpsons episodes, because it sends Bart, Lisa, and Marge into food blogger mode while Homer stays out of it. The clip treats global food culture as fun, performative, and a little ridiculous. Selman says the timing mattered. Food blogs were big, and he was deep in a foodie phase, driving around for tacos, Ethiopian food, and Korean bone-neck stew. Dan catches the satire right away. The Simpsons saw the smugness inside food culture and went after that. Selman leans into the idea: find the bragging in a culture, then make the joke there. That is where the rap song comes in. Food writing and hip-hop both have boasting built into them, so a song about what someone has eaten has a real comic logic. When Dan asks whether Selman was also making fun of himself, the answer lands as yes, with a grin. The reheat feels personal: a fan visit, a food culture autopsy, and a chicken fat debate packed into one Simpsons lunch break.

As heard by us

The Sporkful uses Simpsons food jokes to get at appetite, status, and the comedy of taking lunch too seriously.

Dan Pashman's visit to The Simpsons writers' room gives The Sporkful a lively excuse to treat food as more than a lunch order. Framed around the show's 800th episode, the reheat moves from writerly food obsession and midday salad regret into the strange comic power of appetite:…

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Why you'd press play

You've always suspected The Simpsons writers care more about lunch than the script.

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