This Brilliant Generator Matches Simpsons Quotes With Stills

The Simpsons

 might be the most quotable show of all time. The long-running sitcom is jam-packed with one-liners and witticisms that are all too ripe for meme-making, and that process just got a little easier with Frinkiac—an incredibly helpful search engine that finds stills to match given Simpsons quotes. The extensive generator has over three million screenshots from the first 15 seasons, so no matter how insignificant the line, it can be paired with the corresponding image. 

The ingenious website was created by Sean Schulte, Paul Kehrer, and Allie Young. “We had the idea several years ago when we were quoting The Simpsons at each other all day long, and it was surprisingly difficult to find an image of the scenes we were quoting on Google,” Schulte told WIRED. The actual execution of the project didn't start until about six months ago, but once it began, the process was quick. Schulte continued: "The majority of the code was written in about a week, to parse the video files and upload them to the server and index them and search them.” Young then spent a few weeks fixing up the user interface. 

The way Frinkiac works is fairly simple. As Kehrer explains, the process involves separating each scene into 100 parts and then examining the color scheme of each part. If there's enough difference between the next image and the last image saved, then a new image is created. Frinkiac also parses subtitles that are in line with the visual to match the quotes with the images. Only Season 11 is slightly off, so be warned: those quotes might not be as accurate as others. 

On the whole, Frinkiac works incredibly well. Just type in "can't talk, eating" or "go banana!" and the search engine provides you with stills in real time as you type. Once you find the perfect image, you can click on it and it'll provide the full quote. Next you can edit the text and it will appear right on the image. There's no save option, but you can take a screenshot of the finished product. You can also take a look at the whole episode broken down scene by scene with chopped up lines of dialogue.

Here is just a small sample of the fun you can have with the interface:

[h/t: WIRED]