Yellow fever

Beer factor

Even if you don’t remember Maggie’s first (and only) word (it was Daddy, from Episode 9F08—Best. Flashback ep. Ever.), you can still pull up a stool and chug $3 Bud Lights at Fort Greene pub Moe’s (80 Lafayette Ave at South Portland Ave, Fort Greene, Brooklyn; 718-797-9536). Although more lounge than downright dive, it’s named after Springfield’s only watering hole that “smells like tinkle.” The Brooklyn outpost once served a cocktail-cum-fire-hazard called the Flaming Moe, a pyrotechnic mixture of Bacardi 150 and Wild Turkey 151 inspired by a Season 3 episode, but don’t expect a theme park dedicated to Homer and the gang. Allusions to the Fox show are subtle, including a portrait of hangdog bartender Moe by the DJ booth and a draft pull of Duff (really Miller Genuine Draft). And the young, diverse crowd, which mobs the crescent-shaped bar, keeps the Barney factor low here.

Idiot box

Formerly the Museum of Television & Radio, the recently renamed Paley Center for Media (25 W 52nd St between Fifth and Sixth Aves, 212-621-6800; $10) offers 80 Simpsons-related programs, including early interstitials that aired on The Tracey Ullman Show. Sure, you could Netflix past seasons, but what’s not on available at home are the Center’s recorded panels with creator Matt Groening, executive producer Al Jean and Bart voicer Nancy Cartwright.

New York dolls

“When Playmates came out with a line of Simpsons action figures, I knew I had to get my hands on them,” says Jeremy Wilcox, a 27-year-old database manager who, since 2000, has been amassing plush toys, bubblegum machines, watches and Krusty cereal, among other items related to the cartoon. He runs the website Simpsons Collector Sector (simpsonscollector.com), devoted to all things yellow. “The Simpsons has such a rich world,” he continues. “It’s Chief Wiggum, Ralph and all the other characters—not just Homer and Bart.” Currently, his collection—which encompasses hundreds of items (“I’ve never counted it”) and sprawls throughout his Flushing, Queens, bedroom (“There’s very little room for me at this point”)—includes rare merchandise such as a plastic likeness of the Springfield-dwelling clan at the beach that was a freebie from Australian fast-food chain Hungry Jack’s. He says true collectors should head to cult imports boutique Toy Tokyo (121 Second Ave between St. Marks Pl and 7th St, second floor, 212-673-5424); “They have a pretty good selection of things that aren’t sold in the U.S. such as foreign fast-food premiums and giveaways.” Equally obsessed with hoarding yellow-skinned playthings is Graham Frazier, a 39-year-old video editor for The Daily Show: “I started collecting Simpsons toys back in 1999 on a trip to Belgium,” says Frazier. “Now I have 13 sets of six characters and about 20 environments,” he adds. “My prize pieces are four ‘Treehouse of Horror’ sets; they are definitely the coolest.” Though the idea of a late-thirties male collecting dolls intended for six-year-olds might strike potential lovers as a bit creepy, this real-life Smithers has never encountered problems in the boudoir: “I have them displayed on a huge shelf in my bedroom, which the ladies seem to love.”

Ink well

“This tattoo is the least regrettable one that I’ve gotten,” says Nathan Frohnhoefer, a 24-year-old bartender at Park Slope bar Cattyshack, of his indelible image of Homer as a jack-in-the-box. He got the work done seven years ago, when he went to Greenpoint ink studio Cherry Bomb (it’s now called East River Tattoo, 113 Franklin St at Greenpoint Ave, 718-532-8282) because “I really love The Simpsons and I try not to take myself too seriously.” Another New Yorker unafraid of sporting a permanent mark of fandom is Frohnhoefer’s friend Fuji Ruiz, who bears a Krusty the Clown seal of approval on his right forearm. “I’ve been watching it from the first episode when I was, like, eight years old,” says Ruiz, a 25-year-old coordinator for salon Bumble and Bumble. “What can I say? I’m a clown.” For Pete Ruppert, who works at American Apparel in Williamsburg, the show’s dark humor inspired his three-eyed koi fish tat. “I’m from Paterson, New Jersey, and grew up across the street from the Passaic River,” he says. “I used to go fishing in this polluted water and all you would catch is oil cans.” As a child of the ’90s, Ruppert grew up on The Simpsons. “If you’re in my age bracket, it’s a big deal. It was the last thing you watched on the weekend after Martin, Married… With Children and 21 Jump Street.”