Answering mathowie's question about the real life Simpsons house

September 14, 2019 8:49 PM

I stumbled across this interesting site, covering the old Simpsons House giveaway from a couple many years ago. Here's what the house looks looked like, I wonder if the neighborhood allowed the owners to keep it looking that way. [Update: it was re-painted, but hints of its cartoony past remain]
posted by filthy light thief (16 comments total)

There have been shampoo samples for Marge and a flyer from PetSmart for Santa’s Little Helper.

Ahem, I believe you'll find it was addressed to Santos L. Halper.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:17 PM on September 14, 2019 [11 favorites]

How often do you think the people who own that house look outside, see a dude with a cameraman, and sigh deeply?
posted by Pope Guilty at 9:20 PM on September 14, 2019 [7 favorites]

Hopefully about as often as they look into the bathroom mirror in that horrible beige box, think about the joy they've stolen from the world, and sigh deeply.
posted by ZaphodB at 1:50 AM on September 15, 2019 [12 favorites]

Opening it for tourism was more or less prohibited; the homeowner’s association wanted the orange and yellow exterior repainted as soon as possible.

Why didn't developers protect the home from HOA killjoys? It was a brand new development they were selling afterall. They could have put in a covenant. Have a cow man.
posted by srboisvert at 5:19 AM on September 15, 2019 [12 favorites]

That last link was disappointing...if he'd tried, he could have done a Troy McClure.
posted by bonobothegreat at 7:08 AM on September 15, 2019

Why didn't developers protect the home from HOA killjoys? It was a brand new development they were selling afterall. They could have put in a covenant. Have a cow man.

It sounds like they had trouble getting anyone to take it as The Simpsons House, and the person who bought the house found the vivid cartoon coloring inside to be too much. And if it were to have stayed the same vibrantly colored exterior, the number of random visitors would probably be much higher. In short, it can get tiring living inside a super-saturated tourist destination.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:14 AM on September 15, 2019 [1 favorite]

The future looks brighter than ever for this northern Kentucky family.
posted by box at 10:42 AM on September 15, 2019 [2 favorites]

Gah, implausible logistics aside, it would have been delightful to have the The Simpson's House be on an ostrich and tobacco farm at the end of a dirt road in rural Kentucky.

a.k.a. "Flavor country."
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:34 AM on September 15, 2019 [1 favorite]

A house that was built as part of a marketing exercise didn't have all of the logistics figured out? Color me shocked.
posted by Aleyn at 2:21 PM on September 15, 2019 [1 favorite]

I like how the comments on the YouTube video are all "what monster would repaint and refinish everything." Meanwhile, I look at the original cartoon house and am horrified. It's fun as a cartoon recreation curio, but it's otherwise hideous. I can't imagine anyone ever living there for longer than two days without their eyes bleeding spontaneously.
posted by chrominance at 3:32 PM on September 15, 2019 [3 favorites]

How often do you think the people who own that house look outside, see a dude with a cameraman, and sigh deeply?

Or even the Google Street View car.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 4:57 PM on September 15, 2019 [3 favorites]

Wait, they somehow compelled Google to blur their house out in streeview? I've never seen that before outside of face-like objects.
posted by tavella at 7:35 PM on September 15, 2019 [1 favorite]

Famously, Dick Cheney got Google to blur out Number One Observatory Circle. Weird if this is the second place to merit the treatment.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:51 PM on September 15, 2019 [1 favorite]

Maybe the Simpson house was the undisclosed location.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:09 PM on September 15, 2019 [1 favorite]

The bungalow next to my apartment building is blurred so I looked it up -

How to get your property blurred:
Go to Google Maps and type in your address
Bring up the street view of your property
Look to the bottom right hand corner of the screen you should see an Icon Labeled: “report a problem.”
Click on “report a problem.”
You will get a page labeled “report inappropriate street view.”
Adjust the image so your house is inside the red box.
Fill out the form
Type the verification code at the bottom of the page into the box provided and click submit.
Check back in a few days to see if the image has been blurred.

Some FOX news host was supposedly upset that google took pictures of his open garage, so he was showing viewers how to do it. I remember the neighbour having a lot of Doug Ford signs on his property last election, so I'm getting a sense that it's a "MAH PRIV-ACY” thing.
posted by bonobothegreat at 8:27 PM on September 15, 2019 [3 favorites]

Huh! Wonder if it resets next time Streetview goes through, or if it is for forever.
posted by tavella at 12:18 PM on September 16, 2019