Talk:Life in Hell

Older discussion
Speaking of Hell, the opening salvo in this article makes me suffer:


 * "Life in Hell is a weekly comic strip by Matt Groening featuring anthropomorphic rabbits and gay lovers exploring the wide world of love, sex, work, and death. In short, Life in Hell is described as a cute little comic strip full of fun, merriment, laughs, and frivolity, not to mention angst, alienation, self-loathing, and the meaningless of our impending doom."

The first sentence has what could be a poorly placed modifier "exploring the wide world of love, sex, work, and death." I don't know enough about the comic to tell whether the article's author intended to express that the comic features explorations of love, sex, and death, or that the rabbits & Co explore these topics.

In the second sentence "is described" indicates that someone once described it using those words. If someone did, the words that follow could be put in quotation marks. Otherwise, "meaningless" is meaningless, and "our" should be omitted.

--Defenestrate 21:14, 3 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * Well actually, the characters themselves describe it using those exact same words in one strip. See link: http://art.dahm.com/LifeInHell/beginners.gif --Kaizersoze 21:01, Feb 16, 2005 (UTC)
 * Defenstrate got owned.

Will and Abe
Does Matt Groening have two sons named Will and Abe in real life? Because I read somewhere he has a son named Homer. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.214.200.130 (talk • contribs)
 * As far as I know, Homer is Will's real name, but he goes by Will --Rubber cat


 * Groening's parents are named Homer and Marge (Margaret.) He has a son Abe, and a son Homer "Will", according to his own WIkipedia entry.  Ehurtley 08:38, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Akbar & Jeff

 * it's erroneous to refer to akbar and/or jeff as homosexuals or gay lovers. it's accurate (not to mention funnier) to refer to them as groening would from time to time:  "brothers or gay lovers, possibly both." Streamless 17:05, 3 February 2006 (UTC)


 * While whether it's funnier or not is subjective, it's not erroneous to refer to them as homosexuals. In this 1991 interview, which deals mostly with homosexuality, Groening says "I act coy when people ask whether or not they are gay. I say they are either brothers or lovers or possibly both. [Whispering] But they're gay. Actually, I say what would annoy the questioner the most. In most cases, that means saying Akbar and Jeff are gay.... I mean, it's obvious, right? " Rubber cat 04:12, 4 February 2006 (UTC)


 * i think then that the article should state as follows: "Akbar & Jeff are, as stated in printed Life In Hell comics and as mentioned by Matt Groening in an interview, 'brothers or gay lovers, possibly both'" Streamless 15:11, 7 February 2006 (UTC)
 * whatever dude Rubber cat 22:44, 8 February 2006 (UTC)


 * not tryin' to be a jerk, but it is the description i've read most often in the strip, and i think it's hilarious. Streamless 15:15, 10 February 2006 (UTC)


 * During the controversy over Bert and Ernie being gay, Groening had a quote in his hometown local paper where he was asked, and I still remember his answer: "They're brothers or gay lovers, whichever offends the reader more." Ehurtley 04:07, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

One Crazy Summer link?
In numerous attempts, I cannot find any official link between the movie One Crazy Summer and Life in Hell creator Matt Groening, yet the animation sequences in the movie bear striking resemblances to characters in LiH. At the same time, my research has shown that the animation team in One Crazy Summer did indeed go on to do The Simpsons on The Tracey Ullman Show. Again, it appears that this link only appears AFTER the making of this movie, though. Does anyone have any confirmation one way or the other regarding the One Crazy Summer rabbit and the Life in Hell rabbit? Ehurtley 04:08, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Life.gif
Image:Life.gif is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

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New Name
Matt Groening stated in an LA Weekly article that he semi-officially changed the name of the strip to "Life is Swell" this year. Should the article name be changed? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Special:Contributions/ (talk)


 * The name of the strip has "changed" multiple times, usually as a one-strip thing - Life Noah Diablo Canyon, What The Hell, Hellabaloo, Hell², Laffs in Hell, Hell Ahoy, Life in School, Wife in Hell, Hell-Bent, Lxfx xn Hxll, Your Little Own Life in Hell, U.S. Out of Hell, The Cartoon With Those Little Rabbits In It, Life Under Reagan, Like Hell I Will, Life in Whatever, Xmas is Hell to name but a few, and those are just from strips included in The Big Book of Hell. "Life is Swell" just happens to be a more-than-one-strip thing. As you said yourself, the switch is only semi-official and in the unlikely event that all subsequent merchandise bears the name Life is Swell, *perhaps* the article should be retitled or "Life is Swell" should redirect to this article. Until then we're sticking with Life in Hell because that's been the title of the strip for nearly 30 years. --Rubber cat 23:28, 22 July 2007 (UTC)


 * In addition, the article does not say the name changed, but just what he wrote on it. They're not asking newspapers to carry "Life Is Swell," and there's been no name change announcement.  So saying, "it no longer says Life in Hell" isn't sufficient. Calbaer (talk) 03:42, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Big Book of Hell.gif
Image:Big Book of Hell.gif is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

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BetacommandBot (talk) 04:22, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Groening apple ad.jpg
Image:Groening apple ad.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

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BetacommandBot (talk) 23:44, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

WikiProject Comics B-Class Assesment required
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C-Class rated for Comics Project
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Life in Hell cartoon
I'm trying to clean up alt.tv.simpsons and one line is really bugging me. It is:
 * "In a 1994 Life in Hell cartoon Matt Groening implied that he read the newsgroup."

The reference for it is:

The line was there before I started to work on the article and I want to know what exactly Matt Groening was implying in that cartoon. It needs to be more specific. Does anyone have that cartoon and is able to help me? --Maitch (talk) 05:07, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

"greedy guru" theme
Seems to have been the theme of quite a few comics in the 2000s... AnonMoos (talk) 08:05, 13 August 2010 (UTC)

Name Origin?
How did this comic strip get this name? Is there any explanation for its origin? King of smart alecks 16:36, 2 May 2011 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070206214505/http://hell.capefeare.com:80/items.php to http://hell.capefeare.com/items.php
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20140718102055/http://vintagezen.com/zen/2013/2/26/matt-groenings-artwork-for-apple to http://vintagezen.com/zen/2013/2/26/matt-groenings-artwork-for-apple

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Little pig
In the section Recurring jokes..., is it worth adding the often used, and illustrated, work-place advice of "Using an eraser and push pins, make a little pig?" JoJo Anthrax (talk) 12:06, 8 February 2017 (UTC)

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“Real photos” of drawings…?
The article contains the following confused sentence: “Groening also worked real photos into the covers, such as drawings from Jules Verne’s books or a picture of his family’s living room.” While I can imagine what a “real” photo of his family’s room is like, what is one meant to make of a “real” photo of a Jules Verne illustration? Not having seen the publication, I can’t tell if it was a trope of the cover design to feature images of photos (that is, an image depicting within it a photograph, and that photo might be of an illustration or a real-life scene), or whether this is an attempt at saying that Groening would repurpose photo elements - by collage, for example - to create new images. If this latter, it might be clearer to say that Groening would combine photos and old illustrations; “real photos” of drawings just doesn’t seem to work to me. Jock123 (talk) 09:22, 29 August 2018 (UTC)


 * I agree with your point. It would be wiser to be more specific and write that he would combine the use of photos and old illustrations, as "real photos" does have some subjectiveness to it, especially when it can be easily confused between photos and drawings, or photos of drawings. Perhaps it should be expanded with sources as well, to clarify. Pkay1999 (talk) 01:44, 1 April 2019 (UTC)