Category Archives: Tiki on TV

Tiki on “The Simpsons”: Part Three

Posted by The Tiki Chick in Tiki on TV and tagged with , ,

IMG_7766After the Trader Joe’s spoof, I didn’t think I’d be spotting tikis on “The Simpsons” for awhile. But I was proved wrong by the episode “A Totally Fun Thing that Bart Will Never Do Again,” which aired on April 29.

IMG_7775The Simpsons take a family vacation on a cruise, and the ship hosts a South Pacific Pool Party complete with a beachy backdrop, tiki torches and a tiki table centerpiece that looks sort of Mayan to me (though I’m no expert on pre-Columbian sculpture).

IMG_7777Earlier in the episode there’s a musical number with the lyric: “Here Hawaiian shirts are cool; back home, well, not so much,” while later the disgraced cruise director laments, “After this I’ll be lucky to get work on a clothing-optional Jimmy Buffett cruise.” Leave it to “The Simpsons” to go for the clichés. Well, at least they didn’t refer to tiki as tacky.

Related Posts:
Tiki on “The Simpsons”: Part Two
Tiki on “The Simpsons”: Part One

Tiki in The Pirates! Band of Misfits Movie

Posted by The Tiki Chick in Tiki on TV and tagged with , , , ,

The Pirates!

Aardman Animations, the studio behind “Wallace and Gromet” and “Chicken Run,” released a new film over the weekend called “The Pirates! Band of Misfits” (or “The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists” if you’re one of my daily handful of UK visitors).

The Pirates!

As a fan of stop motion animation and quick British wit, I’d been looking forward to this movie for months — even more so when I spotted a Moai in the trailer.

moai

In a sequence of shenanigans at Charles Darwin’s house, the pirates knock into an Easter Island head that comes crashing after them down the stairs. (Watch the trailer for that scene.) Aside from the relative proximity of the Galapagos Islands and Rapa Nui, I didn’t really see the connection, but anyway…I found the movie quite enjoyable, with lots of visual jokes in the background. (There’s also more Moai to be seen towards the beginning.) What more could you want in a film than pirates, tikis and a monkey butler?

Tiki on “The Simpsons”: Part Two

Posted by The Tiki Chick in Tiki on TV and tagged with , , ,

IMG_7440It’s been several seasons since Mr. Baseball actually enjoyed watching “The Simpsons.” I think he only keeps tuning in to spot tikis for me. (Like this one from awhile back.) He came through again when he brought my attention to “Exit through the Kwik-E-Mart” (season 23, episode 15), which aired on March 4.

IMG_7444Homer kicks off the episode by taking a Puree-Station 3 (these are the jokes, folks) to be autographed by TV chef Paula Paul at Swapper Jack’s, a parody of Trader Joe’s. Accompanied by a lap steel guitar version of the famous “Simpsons” theme, the family walks past signs that advertised “Grass-fed Lettuce,” “Six Aisles of Olives,” and “Salmon so fresh you might get a sperm in the eye.”

IMG_7445My local Trader Joe’s has lost some of its decor over the years so I liked that Swapper Jack’s was decked out with a thatched roof, bamboo, outrigger canoes, fish netting and buoys, and a couple tikis (plus more tikis on this guy’s shirt).

IMG_7448Homer comments, “Finally, a supermarket with a clear premise…Island Something,” while Bart says, “It’s like going to Hawaii without all the murderous locals.”

IMG_7449However, Apu feels threatened that his customers will stop shopping at the Kwik-E-Mart and cheat on his store at this “South Seas Sugar Shack.” (Excellent name for a tiki bar, in my opinion.) After fighting Homer with plastic toothpick swords, Apu has to be restrained with an aloha shirt.

IMG_7452Then there’s some subplot with Shepard Fairey and everything gets resolved somehow. Anyway, here’s a picture of a tiki that I think looks like one of The California Raisins.