Cypress Hill make 28-year-old ‘The Simpsons’ joke come true
In 1996, Matt Groening’s popular animated TV show The Simpsons featured a scene in which the hip-hop collective Cypress Hill played with the London Symphony Orchestra. Nearly thirty years on, the group has linked up with the Orchestra to make the fictional collaboration a reality.
On Wednesday, July 10th, Cypress Hill played a concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall to perform hits from their classic 1993 studio album, Black Sunday, to celebrate its belated 30-year anniversary. The album’s lead single, ‘Insane in the Brain’, is the band’s most iconic hit and was featured in The Simpsons episode, ‘Homerpalooza’ in 1996.
In ‘Homerpalooza’, Cypress Hill appeared alongside The Smashing Pumpkins in a cameo role while Homer tries to impress Bart and Lisa by trying to become a stunt performer in the Springfield music festival scene.
During the scene in question, a crew member comes backstage and says, “Somebody ordered the London Symphony Orchestra. Possibly while high.” His eyes glance over to Cypress Hill as the likely culprits, referencing the band’s famous penchant for cannabis.
None one of the members can quite recall whether they did order the orchestra as they huddle together. Still, one ultimately replies, “We think we did.” The band then rips into a backstage performance of ‘Insane in the Brain’ as the London Symphony Orchestra cut in with some surprisingly resonant classical instrumentation.
Over the past few decades, fans of The Simpsons and Cypress Hill have been putting the group under pressure to make god on the episode and team up with the orchestra. Cypress Hill finally organised the classical collaboration at London’s most prestigious concert venue to celebrate three decades of one of hip-hop’s most beloved records.
In 2017, Cypress Hill contacted the London Symphony Orchestra via Twitter/X, writing, “let make something happen for real.” Following a few years of silence on the topic, the group announced the collaboration in March 2024. “It’s been something that we’ve talked about for many years since the Simpsons episode first aired,” Louis Mario Freese told the BBC. “We’ve played a lot of historical venues throughout our career and stuff like that, but nothing as prestigious as this.”