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The upcoming fiscal cliff is something that's particularly worrying to a number of folks. What exactly is this "fiscal cliff," and why are so many people concerned about it? Well, those are excellent questions. Thankfully, The Simpsons have already saw fit to answer these particular concerns. The ever-popular and savvy Mr. Burns has even deigned to explain things himself. That's just how important this particular political snafu is. We won't spoil, but, well, it's certainly hard to argue with conclusions like his.

I can get past the anthropomorphic furniture, the cross-species relationship,  the concept of a couch-based strip club, and the sleazy hotel called "Sleazy Hotel" but come on: There is no way Marge would have let him bring it back into the house. No way.

In an interview with Smithsonian Magazine, The Simpsons creator Matt Groening revealed the one and only burning question fans of the show have ever wanted to know: Where is Springfield?

Some may say The Simpsons hasn't been good for years -- double-digit years, even -- and whether or not that is true, the writers of the show have seemingly been trying to appeal to a very specific audience the past couple of seasons. Not too long ago, the Simpsons family went to E3 and there were a load of video game parodies, including God of War, then last week, the show's iconic title sequence did a stellar parody of the Game of Thrones title sequence. Last night, toward the beginning of the episode, we have a Portal gag. The writers sure seem to be attempting to appeal to the geekier audience lately. We're not opposed to it. Full scene after the break.

The Simpsons opening is subject to much attention, probably in part due to the show's storied past, as well as the little details that change in each episode's opening. Last night's episode brilliantly parodied the opening from HBO's Game of Thrones, and what do you know, you can watch it right here if you missed it. Enjoy.

For Homer Simpson, there is only one beer: Duff. However, Matt Groening is on the record as saying that he will never allow an officially licensed Duff beer on the grounds that it will encourage underage drinking. That surprisingly thoughtful stance has prevented an official cash-in, but that hasn't stopped some breweries from either trying to push counterfeit Duff, or just coincidentally producing a beer with the same name. If you're keen to drink Duff, real Duff beer, then these are the best you can get.

What you see above is only a tiny piece of a larger mural done by Ulises Farinas that depicts Mos Eisley -- the most wretched hive of scum and villainy in the Star Wars universe. However, this version of the Tatooine crossroads of ne'er-do-wells is full of characters from other science fiction series. You'll see just about every Star Wars character from the original trilogy in the image, as well as some visitors from Star Trek, Doctor Who, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Simpsons, Predator, Batman, The Wizard of Oz, Fallout, and many more besides. It's a veritable Where's Waldo Lando of Sci-Fi goodness.

The history of beer is almost as old as human history, and it would be quite true to say that our love affair with the stuff has only grown with modern brewing practices. Given beer's pervasive place in human history, it's not surprising that the geeky pastimes of drinkers would eventually rub off on the beers themselves. The result is a veritable cornucopia of nerdy beers, from Star Trek, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and a few others that fit in quite nicely with your nerdy lifestyle. Like Pizza Beer -- it's more efficient than eating both separately! So sit back, crack open a cold one, and enjoy this astounding and some times mouthwatering collection.

As it stands, the current Guinness World Record for continuous television watching is 86 hours, 6 minutes, and 41 seconds, and was set all the way back in 2010. However, it might not last much longer as an over four-day-long marathon of The Simpsons is being planned to commemorate the 500th episode of the series. Does this sound like a plot line from The Simpsons disconcertingly come to life, or is it just me?

In 20 seasons of The Simpsons --that's about 9,207 minutes (441 episodes at about 22 minutes of non-commercial footage) or 153.45 hours, or 6.39 weeks-- Homer spends about 4 minutes and 24 seconds just saying "D'oh." How do I know this? Because I have basic math skills and Andrewjcm painstakingly created a supercut of every instance of D'oh! in the Simpsons from seasons 1-20. It's an impressive feat and a worthwhile watch, but now I just want someone to rearrange some of these D'ohs and maybe autotune them into a song. New musicalgenre? I hope so. It beats dubstep, right? Right?!

In Cordoba, a group of fishermen caught the above three-eyed wolf fish in a lake near a nuclear power plant. They didn't notice the fish had the third eye on its head at first, but once they got it under better light, it was a little difficult to miss.

"We were fishing and we got the surprise of getting this rare specimen. As it was dark at that time we did not notice, but then you looked at him with a flashlight and saw that he had a third eye."

To use a phrase South Park coined, "Simpsons did it."

Every year, there are a dozen or so shows on television that are cancelled or never make it to the point where they are even given the green light to begin. It’s more often that pilots are picked up and dumped after a few episodes than just about anything else. It is just the nature of the game. Less frequently, an already established show teeters on the edge for one reason or another. Something has gone wrong and the show nears the brink for a combination of reasons, but typically with one main driving force behind them. It is unusual for more than a handful of shows to be so close to the abyss. Now, that’s not to say that all of these shows will be cancelled, but merely that there are a number of factors in play that could significantly threaten them. We at Geekosystem present, a list of good television shows that are threatened by their own decisions.

If you didn't catch The Simpsons last night because you're one of those people who frequently claim that they only like the first five seasons and the show isn't good anymore, you missed a couch gag animated by John Kricfalusi (generally known as the much more pronunciation friendly John K), the creator of The Ren & Stimpy Show. The couch gag was insane, and you can watch it above.

The Simpsons kicked off its 23rd season last night, and what better way to celebrate than watch the show's famous opening segment recreated in Minecraft? Watching the episode from last night? What kind of fandom is that?

(CraftedMovie via reddit)

For reasons unknown though much appreciated, TehMontageFactory has put all of the best moments of hapless Simpsons character Hans Moleman into one succinct supercut. (THD via GorillaMask)