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Springfield Confidential
- Jokes, Secrets, and Outright Lies from a Lifetime Writing for The Simpsons
- Narrated by: Mike Reiss
- Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Arts & Entertainment, Art
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What listeners say about Springfield Confidential
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Mr. Jason Lott
- 19-01-19
Suckiest book that ever sucked
This book was awful. I was hoping for a behind the scenes look at the Simpsons and instead it's mainly Mike Reiss retelling terrible unfunny jokes he made in a pile of other shows and movies. The Simpsons stuff he does talk about is hardly eye-opening. He comes across as patronising and full of himself, and the contributions he made to the actual good seasons of the Simpsons seem to be minimal. I found myself cringing repeatedly. Much of the book is "I made this joke in this episode or kids movie" and he then proceeds to re-enact the entire joke barely being able to contain his own laughter. I wouldn't mind if the jokes were actually good. Then there's testimonial after testimonial from famous people about how great and funny the guy is. It's just awful. What a waste of an audible credit. If this book gets translated into a language you don't understand download that instead - it'll be funnier.
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- Lucas
- 14-08-18
D'oh
A good listen but not fully about Simpsons. This is an autobiography of the author/narrator.
16 people found this helpful
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- Yvonne
- 12-08-19
Simpsons material great, but didnt care for rest
I feel like the title and the cover of this book are completely misleading. I blame the publisher, not the author.
I love The Simpsons, so I really enjoyed all of that material. It makes up probably 65% of the book. The rest, however, is about the rest of Mike Reiss's career. I was a fan growing up of The Critic and Teen Angel, so actually enjoyed those tidbits too. I also liked guest excerpts from people like Conan O'Brien and Al Jean.
What I did not enjoy was Mike Reiss's narration (he's a funny writer, but not much of a performer) nor his hubris. He seems to think that everything he does is right, everyone is wrong (especially Hollywood executives in his opinion), and he's a million times smarter than any of them. He sounds bitter and petty and towards the end, I couldn't wait until the book was over.
8 people found this helpful
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- Piccolo Jr.
- 05-01-19
Dad Jokes the book
If you enjoy a solid dad joke about every 2 minutes, then this is the book for you. The author enthusiastically delivers every joke, pun, & one liner with such pride, you can't help but chuckle at even the most cringe worthy jokes (which is almost all of them).
Also there was some stuff about the history of the Simpsons or something.
7 people found this helpful
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- VC
- 23-07-18
How Can a Book About The Simspons Not Be Good?
Must read for Simpsons fans. Seriously, you must or I'll release the hounds. Great stories about the creation of The Simpsons, the people who make the characters, special guests, episodes that did not make it to air, and everything else you can think of.
7 people found this helpful
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- Alex
- 25-01-19
The Narrator Is Just The WORST!
While the writing style may have been a bit droning, the narration was terrible.
I was hoping for an easy, entertaining listen with some comedy, but the authors appear to be afraid to go out on a limb (even a tinsey-winsey one), which is required to not feel like everything is padded in cotton wool. In addition to this, by choosing to narrate this himself, Mike Reiss, has shown us the height of folly and an inability to be realistic about the nasal annoying drone of his monotonous voice (Mike, I'm sure it's fine in conversation, just totally unsuited for an audio book). There are plenty of good narrators out there, there is no excuse for this.
Very disappointed, returning after less than 30 minutes. Don't waste your time or a credit.
5 people found this helpful
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- isac
- 19-07-18
Must Read for Simpsons fans
Loved getting an in depth look at what makes the Simpsons the king of sitcoms for the last 30 seasons.
Refreshing way of learning how comedy is structured and performed for the show.
4 people found this helpful
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- Harold
- 16-06-18
Interesting stuff.
Offers a great inside look at what it has taken to make The Simpsons so good for so long.
I do think it was a mistake having the author also do the narration. This guy can't deliver a line and
has a really annoying way of speaking. Not all good writers are also good performers.
Also, it's sort of weird having the author reading solicited praise for himself from his peers. Not really needed.
14 people found this helpful
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- P. D. N.
- 05-07-18
very very enjoyable.
I really enjoyed listening to this. the Simpsons stuff was great, and all the stuff about this guy's life was brilliant too.
2 people found this helpful
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- Tyler
- 20-06-18
Story was arrogant and the delivery was terrible..
While this is marketed as a Simpsons book, it's really a history in the career of Mike Reiss. While he does talk about The Simpsons the majority of the time, I quite frankly don't care which countries he hates or other TV Shows/Movies he loves.
Even the dive into The Simpsons was shallow and didn't really tell us anything new we couldn't get from listen to the commentaries. If you're looking for a Simpsons book that dives into the true history/legacy, I recommend, "The Simpsons
An Uncensored, Unauthorized History".
29 people found this helpful
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- Bradley
- 10-10-20
Writing a Presidents death is a book killer
Anytime you put in that you would rather our President go to the electric chair that is a book killer. We all should have respect for the office; even if we don’t like the person.
1 person found this helpful