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George Meyer is a producer and writer for The Simpsons, and arguably the writer who has contributed the most to the show over its long run. In 2000, Meyer was called the "the funniest man behind the funniest show on TV" by The New Yorker.

Biography

Born in Pennsylvania in 1956, Meyer grew up in Arizona, the eldest child of eight in a Roman Catholic family of mostly German descent. Meyer has made frequent jokes about his somewhat unhappy childhood, stating in an audio commentary that one of the frequent arguments in his household was "which family member ruined a holiday". He attended Doolen Junior High and Catalina High School in Tucson, Arizona.

An excellent student, Meyer later went on to Harvard University, where he served as president of the Harvard Lampoon, a comedy magazine at Harvard University. Despite his success, Meyer became depressed, wrapping Christmas lights around his bed in an attempt to cheer himself up. Meyer graduated from Harvard in 1978 with a degree in biochemistry.

After college, Meyer became a writer for Late Night with David Letterman, Not Necessarily The News, The New Show, and Saturday Night Live. In 1987, Meyer founded the legendary humor zine Army Man, which attained a cult following. Meyer decided to cease publication after offers to take the magazine national made Meyer fear that the magazine would lose its best qualities.

One of its readers was Sam Simon, who was a producer on a new animated sitcom called The Simpsons. In 1989 Simon asked Meyer to join the writing staff, and he has remained there intermittently ever since. In 2005 he wrote for the TBS special Earth To America. He is currently working on the upcoming The Simpsons Movie.

While woking at the Simpsons, Meyer became an atheist (he had previously been an agnostic), taking the advice of fellow Simpsons writer Mike Reiss. Meyer later called the position "wimpy".

His first child, named Poppy Valentina after Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, was born in the early 2000s.

Trivia

• Raised Roman Catholic, but later became an atheist
• A fan of the Grateful Dead
• Editor of "The Harvard Lampoon Book of College Life" (Doubleday & Co., Inc. 1978).
• His hobbies include gambling and collecting space travel-related memorabilia
• Once won a little over 2,000 dollars on Jeopardy!
• A strict vegetarian, as well as a practitioner of yoga
• According to fellow Simpsons writer David X. Cohen, Meyer once attempted to live on a "flavorless mush," believing it to be a moral victory if he succeeded. However, he did not last long in his attempt.
• He has a cameo in the 2004 film I ♥ Huckabees. He appears near the end as the annoyed tuxedoed man in an elevator with Jude Law and Jason Schwartzman.
• In 2005, a newly discovered species of frog from Sri Lanka was named Philautus Poppiae after Meyer's daughter, Poppy, for his and his girlfriend's dedication to the Global Amphibian Assessment.
• Wrote a full length screenplay for David Letterman, which was never produced after Letterman's talk show really took off. It is considered a masterpiece by those who have seen it, and a copy remains in The Simpsons re-write room that the show's writers occasionally consult when they are in need of a joke.
• Meyer can be seen in the audience of season 3 Mr. Show episode 310, "It's A No Brainer." He is visible in the first few minutes of the show as the long-haired, bespectacled man sitting behind the "protestors."

Credited Simpsons Episodes

• "The Crepes of Wrath" (with Sam Simon, John Swartzwelder and Jon Vitti)
• "Bart vs. Thanksgiving"
• "Blood Feud"
• "Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington"
• "Treehouse of Horror II" (contributor)
• "Separate Vocations"
• "Homer the Heretic"
• "Bart's Inner Child"
• "Sunday, Cruddy Sunday" (with Tom Martin, Brian Scully, and Mike Scully).
• "Brother's Little Helper"
• "Behind the Laughter" (with Tim Long, Mike Scully, and Matt Selman).
• "The Parent Rap" (with Mike Scully).

References

1. ^ Taking Humour Seriously by David Owen. Published in the New Yorker
2. ^ September 2004 Interview in The Believer

External links

• George Meyer at The Internet Movie Database
• Article from the Harvard Crimson
• Studio 360 episode "Cosmos, Spheres, Voyager" from January 12, 2002 featuring an original piece by Meyer on space collecting
• The Raffles Bulletin Of Zoology supplement from 2005 mentioning Meyer and the Philautus Poppiae frog
• Meyer pleads on behalf of the environment, BBC News
• New Yorker Magazine article profiling George Meyer

• 1956 births
• Living people
• American atheists
• American television writers
• American vegetarians
• Eagle Scouts
• Harvard Lampoon people
• Harvard University alumni
• Saturday Night Live writers
• The Simpsons producers
• The Simpsons writers