Another week, another couch gag on The Simpsons. It’s business as usual … Except that this week’s couch isn’t a gag so much as a full-blown 1980s action movie fantasy streaming directly out of Homer’s brain and into yours.
The 90-second short, which opens the upcoming episode Teenage Mutant Milk-Caused Hurdles, is the the title sequence to a fictional show called LA-Z Rider, where a muscular, casual suit-wearing Homer fights crime with his teammate/ride, the Simpsons’ couch. Bart, Lisa, Marge, and Maggie all get a brief moment to shine, of course, as do many of Springfield’s familiar faces, including Lenny, Carl, Patty, Selma, Sideshow Bob, Spike, and a seriously chiseled Ned Flanders.
It touches on all those iconic ’80s cliches: pastels, giant cell phones, Miami, and large sunglasses. And of course, the whole thing is set to the tune of “Scarface (Push it to the Limit)” by Paul Engeman n… Ok, it’s really just a loose re-telling of Scarface. Except there’s a couch! And virtual reality!
We don’t know about you, but we would watch a whole show made like this.
The Simpsons has resorted to longer, more sensational couch gags in recent years, invoking everything from Minecraft, to Game of Thrones. The show has also handed over the reins to celebrity artists to play with the form, such as Banksy and Ren and Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi. The show has taken to even bigger swings this season, getting in the news by splitting Homer and Marge up (for an episode), and creating the first non-Treehouse of Horror Halloween episode. Of course, after 27 seasons, you do whatever you can to keep things fresh.
The “LA-Z Rider” couch gag, followed by the new Teenage Mutant Milk-Caused Hurdles episode, will air Sunday, January 10 at 8 p.m. EST.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?
YouTube is changing how its Home page works, giving viewers more control over what shows up there and making some of the app’s most-used sections easier to reach. Custom Feeds are now replacing the existing topic chips for eligible users, while YouTube is also testing a redesigned top bar on mobile that moves Subscriptions closer to the Home feed.
YouTube first started experimenting with Custom Feeds earlier this year, letting you type out what you wanted to watch and turning that request into its own stream of recommendations. Now, the feature is starting to look less like a side experiment and more like something YouTube actually wants people to use as part of their everyday Home page.