To Steam A Good Ham

“Steamed Hams” is the name given to a comedy routine from the beloved vaudeville era of The Simpsons television show. Here it is below in its entirety:

Many people know that Principal Skinner is voiced by the legendary SNL cast member Harry Shearer, but what most don’t realize is that The Simpsons does its animation first and fills in the dialogue later. This technique is now employed by Disney for their Avengers movies, where actors wait until the CGI is done before trying to add in a story.

Below is from the bonus section of the season 7 DVD, where we hear Shearer do the “rough draft” of the scene based on what the animators have completed (he may be forgiven for forgetting the Superintendent Chalmers character, as that one is voiced by Hank Azaria):

The final draft ended up borrowing a lot of ideas from various movies and TV shows, similar to virtually every Simpsons comedy routine. This video shows us the many varied inspirations that Simpson writers and voice actors drew from to refine this classic:

As you’d expect from any cornerstone of the Americana folk music canon, the scene has been interpreted by many different musicians and musical styles over the years. The following two are a piano cover and a Guitar Hero, respectively:

Here’s one that brings it back to The Simpsons silent film-era roots:

It’s also to be expected that famous comedy routines will find a second life as an educational tool to teach children about state capitals:

At this point things are getting a bit weird so I’m just going to put everything else I found at the end.

Well, I really hope somebody learned something from all of this, because I certainly did not.