For many, the name Matt Groening is synonymous with The Simpsons and Futurama and maybe contains brief echoes of the Tracey Ullman Show. But the inimitable cartoonist, screenwriter and producer owes his prime time animated successes to Life in Hell, the comic strip that launched his career 35 years ago. Groening produced the final installment of weekly newspaper cartoon on Monday, but the strip’s legacy lives on in the hearts of diehard fans and in the annals of cartoon genius.
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Life in Hell chronicled the angst-filled travails of Binky, Bongo, Sheba, Akbar and Jeff. Binky and Bongo, anthropomorphic rabbits, and Akbar and Jeff, homosexual partners, encapsulated many of Groening’s views of religion, life and relationships, all with a healthy dose of doom and gloom. (Groening often included likenesses of these characters in episodes of The Simpsons.)
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In honor of the venerable and dearly departed comic strip, NewsFeed rounded up some of The Simpsons and Futurama‘s finest life lessons, as inspired by Life in Hell.
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Whichever teacher told him he could never make a living out of drawing certainly wishes they could bite their tongue now. Though Groening never shied away from ridiculing the inanities of primary education, he shifted to more serious topics in later years. This clip, from the Bender’s Game DVD, highlights his knack for satire and the absurd that he first displayed in Life in Hell.