10 Greatest Musician Cameos On The Simpsons

10. The Ramones

The immensely influential Ramones gained their fame through the playing of lightning fast bubblegum punk songs. They’d rarely stick around for much more than two minutes, but in that time they’d manage to produce fully formed, insanely catchy tunes before moving on to the next one.

To this end, The Ramones’ Simpsons cameo in season five’s “Rosebud” is perfectly pitched. They’re on screen for all of 20 seconds, ill-advisedly invited to serenade Mr Burns at his birthday bash. They unleash their brand of sneering punk rock, before delivering the immortal line “go to hell, you old bastard”, and with that, they’re gone.

It’s a testament to the sheer power of The Simpsons at this time; they’re able to book The Ramones just for the fun of having them very briefly play Happy Birthday, then curse Burns out. They need just a fraction of screen time to get the joke across, and then they’re gone again.

The band were huge Simpsons fans, and one could easily enough draw a through-line of pop cultural irreverence from the Queens four piece to the animated sitcom. With The Ramones basically over at this point, this effectively acts as their final brief, hilarious hurrah.