The Simpsons joke about Carl topping Lenny is ‘for gay people’ says writer (The Simpsons/Fox)
A writer for The Simpsons has claimed a joke about Carl topping Lenny is “for gay people” despite another writer’s insistence that people “won’t get it”.
Johnny LaZebnik, a writer for the iconic cartoon, defended the joke which sees long-term Springfield residents Lenny and Carl being mistaken for a couple.
In the new episode, billionaire fashion designer Michael Le Graaf – Waylon Smithers’ new boyfriend – is critiquing the outfits of Springfielders. Lenny asks the designer what he thinks of his “top”, to which Le Graaf looks at Carl and says “very nice”.
LaZebnik, who was behind the joke, told Attitude: “I’m a huge Lenny and Carl fan… We worked on that scene a bunch of times, and I was like, ‘How can we get this joke to stay in?!’
“There are a lot of jokes for gay people that I had a hand in getting in there.”
He told the Attitude that his father, also a writer for The Simpsons, complained that “people won’t get the reference”.
“I was like [raises voice]: ‘We’ve got a Chernobyl parody! We’re doing this!’”
LaZebnik explained on an episode of The Gayest Podcast Ever that he was thankful to “lend a little more authenticity” to The Simpsons, after working on the episode “Portrait of a Lackey on Fire”.
He explained that his work on the animated series began when his father, Rob LaZebnik, asked him about the mechanics of using Grindr, to make sure his joke was realistic.
“That text is one of the funniest things I’ve ever received, period,” he said. “I think every gay man’s dream is for their father to text them that out of the blue asking how Grindr works.
“I think my dad’s specific question was like, ‘Do you swipe on Grindr?’ And I was like, ‘Absolutely not, you don’t.’
“That is the kind of thing that a straight person would throw in as a joke… then a gay person watching it would be like, ‘I feel so alienated by this content because you clearly don’t know what you’re talking about.’
“I was really happy to be included and really grateful that I was able to lend a little more authenticity to the world of gay that they were creating.”