Ep. 37 - The Magic Christian

Remember that time when Homer became Mr. Burns’ prank monkey? Adam and Nate watch The Magic Christian (1969), an adaptation of Terry Southern’s satirical novel that inspired The Simpsons episode “Homer vs. Dignity” (S12E5). Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr punking rich Brits to prove that everyone has their price—how could you go wrong? Well, let us tell you.

Also in this episode:

• Terry Southern’s influence on The Simpsons, Stanley Kubrick, The Beatles and beyond

• Is Peter Sellers’ talent as big as his ego? 

• The undeniable and underutilized magnetism of Ringo Starr

• How this movie became a pop culture vortex in the careers of The Beatles, Monty Python, Yul Brynner, and Roman Polanski

We’ll be taking a brief hiatus, but for our Non-Denominational Holiday Fun Fest on December 17th, we’ll be back to revisit The Terminator (1984) and “Grift of the Magi” (S11E9) with “the villain of Letterboxd” Matt Lynch.

Discover more great podcasts on the That Shelf Podcast Network.

Every Simpsons Reference to The Magic Christian

By our count, The Magic Christian has been directly referenced once in the first 13 seasons of The Simpsons. The first reference appears in “Homer vs. Dignity” (S12E5) from 2000, 31 years after the release of the movie.

Plot References

Homer vs. Dignity (S12E5): The plot of this episode was inspired by Terry Southern’s 1959 book, The Magic Christian, which was also adapted into the 1969 movie. Much like Mr. Burns with Homer as his “prank monkey,” Southern’s hero Guy Grand is an eccentric billionaire who decides to pull pranks in order to prove that everyone has their price.

While the episode is based primarily on the book, the scene where Homer buys a copy of The Amazing Spider-Man #1 from Comic Book Guy just to eat the pages in front of him bears a strange resemblance to a scene written by John Cleese for the movie where Guy Grand buys a Rembrandt just to cut out its nose in front of the seller. Notably, Terry Southern thought this scene was out of character for the version of Guy Grand he wrote in the book.

Mr. Burns’s grand final prank of throwing fish guts on a crowd at the Costington’s Thanksgiving Day Parade shares some of the gross-out sensibility of Guy Grand’s final prank in the movie of filling a pool with slaughterhouse waste and throwing in money to see if people will wade in to grab a few bucks. (They did.)

Extra Credit

Looking for more like this or an interesting double feature? Here are our recommendations.

• From Adam: A Shot in the Dark (1964)

• From Nate: Fight Club (1999)

Further Reading & Viewing

• Article: Dancy Mason, “Secret Facts about Peter Sellers, the Tragic Comic,“ The Shot, June 17, 2024.

• Video: NintendoComplete, “Yo! Noid (NES) Playthrough,” YouTube, August 2, 2023.

• Post: John Cleese, “Working with Peter Sellers & Sir Ringo Starr,“ Facebook, August 16, 2020.

• Review: Jay Gent, “The Magic Christian on DVD reviewed,” We Are Cult, May 1, 2017.

• Video: thefilmprojector, “Peter Sesllers: A Hard Day’s Night,“ YouTube, September 20, 2008.

• Video: Caio Badner, “Monty Python - The Mouse Problem,“ YouTube, December 22, 2006. This skit was originally written for The Magic Christian, but was reused on Monty Python’s Flying Circus after being cut from the final film.

• Interview: Lee Hill, “Terry Southern: Ultrahip,” Backstory 3: Interviews with Screenwriters of the 1960s (ed. Pat McGilligan), Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.

• Article: Tom Batiuk, “About Funky Winkerbean,” TomBatiuk.com, accessed November 16, 2024.

Documentary: Spike Milligan, Will the Real Mr. Sellers Please Stand Up, 1969. This short biographical film was created by Milligan to promote The Magic Christian (1969).