Although his speech was titled "The Simpsons and Other Gentiles I Have Known," Mike Reiss kicked off his lecture by saying he didn't care what religion audience members were -- Muslims, Christians or "miscellaneous."
"Whatever you are, we all worship the same God," Reiss said. "Joe Paterno."
Reiss, a producer and writer of the hit television show The Simpsons, entertained about 300 students last night in the HUB Heritage Hall. Sponsored by the Jewish Studies Program and Penn State Hillel and co-sponsored by the Departments of Telecommunications and Film/Video and Media Studies, the often irreverent speech focused on Reiss's Jewish upbringing, his work on the Simpsons television show and movie, and his new cartoon series Queer Duck.
Reiss began the speech by talking about growing up as one of the only Jews in a small town.
"I'm Jew ... ish," he said. "By that I mean I would never eat a ham sandwich ... in a synagogue ... on Yom Kippur ... if anyone was watching."
After graduating from high school, he left his hometown to attend Harvard University.
"If you're curious as to what a Harvard education is like, go out to your backyard and burn $150,000," he said. "That's a lie. It's actually $180,000."
One question Reiss said he is always asked at speaking engagements is: "Why are Jews so funny?"
"Well, there's no heavy lifting, no experience necessary," he quipped. "Actually, it's something their culture embraces."
The writing staff of The Simpsons is 50 percent Jewish, a figure Reiss called low by television standards. In addition, three of the six cast members are Jewish, including the voices of Rev. Lovegood, Apu and 'super-Christian' Ned Flanders, Reiss said.
The show is a hit in every country except two -- Japan and France, Reiss said.
"It's not a hit in Japan because the Simpsons have four fingers and this implies they are in the Japanese mafia," he said. "And it's not a hit in France because the French suck."
As to the celebrity guest voices, long a staple of the show, Reiss said the writers have a trick up their sleeves when enticing celebrities to provide voices.
"If a celebrity has kids, his kids will make him do the show," he said.
The Simpsons has played host to a variety of celebrity guest voices, but Reiss said they're still missing one very important guest.
"We've asked every president from Gerald Ford on if they would do The Simpsons, and they've all turned us down," he said.
Reiss offered plenty of trivia for diehard Simpsons fans, including the fact that Smithers, the only openly gay character on the show, was originally black and that the original model for bartender Moe was a gorilla.
After 19 years, there is "no end in sight" for the Simpsons, Reiss said.
"I am a lucky, lucky man to have this job ... it just keeps going and going," he said.
