Talk about kicking a man when he’s down.
Cast your mind back, if you will, to season eight of The Simpsons, specifically 'A Milhouse Divided', where poor old Kirk Van Houten really hit rock bottom.
As if a separation with wife Luann wasn’t enough, the same episode saw Milhouse’s dad lose his job at the cracker factory.
Refresh your memory:
But it could have been worse still. In a deleted scene revealed by writer Josh Weinstein, Kirk’s misery was compounded by a flock of seagulls swooping from the sky and making off with his severance pay (a box of crackers, obviously). Hardcore Simpsons nerds will also appreciate the extra line in his dismissal meeting. After the “you're letting me go?” bit, he would have pleaded: “I know I've been crying at sales meetings, Sir, but–.”
Josh Weinstein shared the draft script, which he notes was the work of fellow writer Steve Tompkins.
Bleak (but very funny).
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Matt Tate is a freelance journalist and contributor at for Shortlist. Formerly Stuff Magazine’s news editor and based in the UK, he’s been writing about consumer tech for around eight years, with a particular focus on gaming.
For his sins, Matt is a huge Tottenham Hotspur fan and unfortunately spends a lot of his time scanning his published work for Spurs-related digs that may have been slyly inserted by editors. Otherwise, he’s often buying Lego sets he can no longer accommodate and trying to perfect his carbonara recipe. He can be found tweeting (mostly about football and video games) at @MattWTate.