Classic New Yorker profile of Simpsons' writer George Meyer

Several years ago, Entertainment Weekly ran an effusive review of the television show "The Simpsons." The review's author, Ken Tucker, singled out a particular episode as "a masterpiece of tiny, throwaway details that accumulate into a worldview." That episode was written by Jon Vitti, who at the time was one of the show's most talented and prolific writers. "The article quoted five jokes from the show" Vitti told me afterward. "It was extremely flattering except that I hadn't written any of those jokes." Everything Tucker quoted from the episode was actually the work of a colleague of Vitti's named George Meyer. "That kind of thing happens to all the show's writers all the time," Vitti said. 'A show that you have the writer's credit for will run, and the next day people will come up to you and tell you how great it was. Then they'll mention their two favorite lines, and both of them will be George's"