10 Best Simpsons Guest Stars (Who Played Themselves)

Moe’N’A’Lisa is one of the more divisive episodes of The Simpsons, featuring a lot of the issues which plague later series episodes while still having some decent laughs. One of the issues is overindulgence in guest stars, though Jonathan Franzen and Michael Chabon are at least bright sparks from the overstuffed cast.

The episode revolves around Lisa working with Moe on his poetry - a premise which makes a bit of sense - and him becoming a nationally famous poet after publishing just one poem - a premise which makes decidedly less sense. It features several guest stars, mainly authors, who seem to pop up just for the sake of being in it, just to disappear again.

Tom Wolfe sticks around, but exactly why is anyone’s guess. He greases the wheels of the plot slightly, but largely he feels out of place.

Franzen & Chabon though are so over the top that they more than justify their place in the overcrowded episode. The two authors are constantly fighting and trying to one up each other, eventually coming to blows. In a bit of a stuffy episode, they’re a much needed release.