John Swartzwelder
John Joseph Swartzwelder Jr. (born February 8, 1949)[1] is an American comedy writer and novelist, best known for his work on the animated television series The Simpsons. Born in Seattle, Washington, Swartzwelder began his career working in advertising. He was later hired to work on comedy series Saturday Night Live in the mid-1980s as a writer. He later contributed to fellow writer George Meyer's short-lived Army Man magazine, which led him to join the original writing team of The Simpsons, beginning in 1989.
John Swartzwelder
John Joseph Swartzwelder Jr.
February 8, 1949
Seattle, Washington, U.S.
The Simpsons: 1990–2003, 2007
Novels: 2004–present
The Simpsons
Frank Burly
He worked on The Simpsons as a writer and producer until 2003, and later contributed to The Simpsons Movie. He wrote the largest number of Simpsons episodes (59 full episodes, with contributions to several others) by a large margin.[2] After his retirement from the show, he began a career as a writer of self-published absurdist novels. He has written more than a dozen novels, the most recent of which, The Spy with No Pants, was published in December 2020.
Swartzwelder is revered among comedy fans and his colleagues. He is known for his reclusiveness, and gave his first-ever interview in 2021, in The New Yorker. Per Mike Sacks, "Swartzwelder’s specialty on The Simpsons was conjuring dark characters from a strange, old America: banjo-playing hobos, cigarette-smoking ventriloquist dummies, nineteenth-century baseball players, rat-tailed carnival children, and pantsless, singing old-timers."[3]
Early life[edit]
Swartzwelder was born in Seattle, Washington, on February 8, 1949,[3] the son of Gloria Mae (Matthews) and John Joseph Swartzwelder, Sr.[1][4] He attended high school in Renton, Washington.[5]
Political views[edit]
Swartzwelder has been referred to as a libertarian and a "hardcore conservative".[9] He is a gun rights advocate, and despite having written many of the environmentally themed Simpsons episodes, he has been described as an "anti-environmentalist".[19] Simpsons writer David Cohen related a story of Swartzwelder going on an extended diatribe about how there is more rainforest on Earth now than there was 100 years ago.[19]
Reclusiveness[edit]
Swartzwelder is reclusive, and rarely makes media appearances.[13] At one point, fans of The Simpsons debated his existence online; some theorized that "John Swartzwelder" was actually a pseudonym for when writers did not want to take credit for an episode, or for episodes that were penned by several writers in concert.[20] Comedy writer Mike Sacks described Swartzwelder as the "Thomas Pynchon of the comedy world".[6]
Swartzwelder declined several requests to participate in the audio commentaries on The Simpsons DVD sets. Executive producer David Mirkin once invited Swartzwelder to make a brief appearance in a prerecorded bit in which he would be asked if he wanted to take part, to which he would respond with "No" as an ironic punchline, but he refused. During the recording of the 2006 commentary for the ninth-season episode "The Cartridge Family", show runner Mike Scully called Swartzwelder's home. After presumably speaking with him for a minute, the man on the other end of the phone said, "It's too bad this really isn't John Swartzwelder." Scully and the others laughed, replied "Bye, John". After he had hung up, Scully said, "I know he's gonna sue us."[21]
In 2016, Swartzwelder created a Twitter account. It was confirmed official by several of his former Simpsons colleagues.[22][23] The account only tweets excerpts from Swartzwelder's books.[23]
In 2021, Swartzwelder gave his only interview to date, with Mike Sacks in The New Yorker.[3] Swartzwelder said he agreed to the interview out of his fondness for The New Yorker and the writers whose work it has published.[3] Swartzwelder said he was humbled by the praise he has received from colleagues and Simpsons fans, and that he was proud that The Simpsons encouraged fans to keep track of the writers of their favorite television shows.[24][25]
Legacy[edit]
Swartzwelder is revered among comedy fans.[6] Fellow Simpsons writers have spoken highly of his writing and impact on the show. Matt Selman wrote an article for Time about Swartzwelder, extolling him as "one of the greatest comedy minds of all time. He is the comedy writer whose words makes [sic] the best comedy writers in the world laugh out loud."[18] George Meyer said: "Even among comedy weirdos, he stands out. He's irreplaceable."[9] Fellow writer Dan Greaney described Swartzwelder as "the best writer in the world today in any medium".[13] Mike Sacks writes "It’s been nearly twenty years since the reclusive, mysterious, almost mythical comedy writer John Swartzwelder left The Simpsons, and yet, to this day, one of the biggest compliments a Simpsons writer (or any comedy writer) can receive is to have a joke referred to as 'Swartzweldian.' Meaning: A joke that comes out of nowhere. A joke that no one else could have written. A joke that sounds almost as if it were never written, as if it’s always existed." Sacks cites the following, from "Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment": "To alcohol: the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems!"[3]
References on The Simpsons[edit]
Swartzwelder has been animated in the background of several episodes of The Simpsons. His animated likeness closely resembles musician David Crosby, which prompted Groening to state that anytime that David Crosby appears in a scene for no apparent reason, it is really Swartzwelder.[26] Groening said that the appearance of the character Herman was based on Swartzwelder, with the exception of his one arm.[27]