Lizzo is on “The Simpsons,” and it’s about damn time.
The “Good as Hell” singer, who won Halloween 2022 with her Marge outfit, voices a cartoon version of herself and children’s doll Goobie Woo in Sunday’s Season 34 finale (Fox, 7 p.m., streaming on Hulu). The milestone 750th “Simpsons” episode is also a bucket-list achievement for Lizzo, 35, who was born the year before TV’s longest-running sitcom’s premiere.
“I don’t know a world without ‘The Simpsons.’ It is just synonymous with living,” Lizzo tells USA Today. “‘The Simpsons’ are in my DNA.”
The surreal episode, “Homer’s Adventure Through the Windshield Glass,” shows the moments after Homer flies through his windshield during a seemingly deadly car accident. The Goobie Woo doll, part of the backseat clutter jettisoned with Homer, gets significant screen time as a tough-love, Marge-supporting spirit guide.
“I was basically able to play with Homer for the entire episode,” says Lizzo, who admits to fangirling over Dan Castellaneta, who voices Homer, in the recording studio.
Onscreen, Goobie Woo slaps Homer around and Lizzo belts the song, “It was Marge, Bitch” to emphasize how clueless he is about his wife. Lizzo’s famed instrument Sasha Flute also makes its “Simpsons” debut in Goobie Woo’s song reprimanding Homer.
“I love that ‘The Simpsons’ allowed as much flute as possible,” Lizzo says. “Even Goobie Woo gets to play, and she twerks a little bit around Homer. That was so great.”
Another twerk busts out from Marge’s robot butler in a scene depicting Homer’s nightmare, before her husband comes to realize (with Goobie Woo’s help) how great his wife is.
“It was great to give the insight that leads to a Homer epiphany,” says Lizzo. “Marge is such a sweetheart, a great wife and mother and just the baddest.”
Getting animated by “The Simpsons” was an extra bonus treat for fans, and Lizzo. “I’ll show my kids and grandkids,” she says. The show’s artists portrayed the Yitty shapewear CEO wearing her company’s apparel: “I’m definitely on brand.”
Lizzo backed up her “Simpsons” love by demonstrating dorky knowledge of the show’s history in the studio. She even dropped the correct term for Lisa’s saxophone during one improvisational moment.
“I was like, ‘Yo Lisa, how about I get Sasha Flute and you get your saxamaphone,” Lizzo recalls. “Everyone was like, ‘Dang, you really know your ‘Simpsons.’ And I was like, ‘Everyone knows that how Homer says it.’”
D’oh, not everyone.
“The saxamaphone line was incredible. But Lizzo’s command of Simpsons lore surpassed my own,” says executive producer Tim Long, who wrote the episode. He was pleasantly surprised when Lizzo asked to perform a line for a Homer-in-hell scene that satirically shows gay residents being upgraded to heaven due to changing societal views.
“Lizzo loved that joke. And she wanted to be one of those people going to heaven,” says Long. “So if you listen closely, you can hear Lizzo saying, as they’re getting transported to heaven, ‘It’s about damn time.’”
The final “Simpsons” jam session features Lizzo moving to the beat of Lisa’s saxamaphone and Bart repeatedly slapping Homer. “The way they animate me dancing is so expressive, so super lifelike. I love it,” says Lizzo. “Once Homer started getting slapped and that beat kicked in, I was grooving.”
The “Simpsons” appearance comes in a power-packed 2023 for Lizzo, who won record of the year at the Grammys, played a cookie flute on “Sesame Street” with Elmo and broke into the “Star Wars” universe in an April episode of Disney+’s “The Mandalorian.”
“It’s been an amazing year,” says Lizzo. “I’m just gonna keep doing what I’m doing and not put a limit on my dreams. Because you can always dream bigger.”
Read more at usatoday.com