‘Simpsons’ Pixel Art Fan Tribute Will Become The Show’s Next Opening

There’s more than one way to achieve a goal. For example, let’s say you want to direct the opening couch gag for The Simpsons. You could:

1.) Spend decades becoming a famous figure in the animation world and hope that the producers of the show will one day invite you to work with them,

or

2.) Don’t ask for anybody’s permission—just animate your own damn couch gag, drop it on the Internet, watch it become an overnight hit, and let The Simpsons producers come to you.

Indie Australian animators Paul Robertson and Ivan Dixon chose the latter approach when they created this pixel-art fan tribute and posted it online on February 1st:

Within a day of uploading it to YouTube, Simpsons producers had contacted them to license the opening. The opening will air in front of this Sunday’s broadcast of The Simpsons, which was confirmed in a tweet yesterday by showrunner Al Jean:

.@thesimpsons Pleased to announce Simpsons pixel couch gag will be at head of 2/15 ep. Thx Ivan, Paul & Jeremy! https://t.co/qaAtfhDy8S

— Al Jean (@AlJean) February 10, 2015

The initial email that producers of the show sent to Ivan Dixon went to his spam folder. “I actually thought it was a hoax,” Dixon told the Sydney Morning Herald. “We secretly hoped they would pick it up, but it all came so fast.”