Life Imitates The Simpsons

Radley Balko | January 24, 2007

The mayor of a small village in Spain has been shot, and everyone in town is a suspect.

Unlike Monte Burns, the mayor didn't survive the attack.

Thanks to Bill Cook for the tip.

Comments

|1.24.07 @ 5:10PM|#

Did the mayor try to block out the sun like Monty Burns?

|1.24.07 @ 5:15PM|#

This guy was mayor for 12 years but was hated by everyone in town? How did he keep getting elected?

|1.24.07 @ 5:18PM|#

I tried to look up the town on Google Earth, but there's just a giant circular-shaped structure blocking out the whole area.

|1.24.07 @ 5:19PM|#

It took a village...

|1.24.07 @ 5:22PM|#

If they charge someone, will the jury convict?

|1.24.07 @ 5:27PM|#

Mediageek,
try 42 degrees, 44'08.90" N, 0 degrees, 52'00.12" W. Looks like a quaint, peaceful little mountain town from 8000' in the air. :)

Graphite|1.24.07 @ 5:45PM|#

I've had it up to *here* with these damn rickets!

Thomas Paine\'s Goiter|1.24.07 @ 5:55PM|#

I guess Mad Scientist's don't get jokes.

|1.24.07 @ 6:04PM|#

Down in Texas they'd say, "That boy needed killin."

It's a valid plea comparable to not guilty.

lunchstealer|1.24.07 @ 6:06PM|#

Everyone knows that it was Sauruman that killed Grima

|1.24.07 @ 6:21PM|#

*Nerd Alert*

Wasn't it the other way around? Grima killed Saruman (though Saruman wasn't really mortal), and then the Hobbits killed Grima?

lunchstealer|1.24.07 @ 6:30PM|#

Oh, right. So it was the whole village, except for Sam and Frodo. Oi!

|1.24.07 @ 7:29PM|#

Uh, Monte Burns isn't the mayor of Springfield
Quimby's the mayor. And he's more prone to accepting bribes and banging hookers than getting shot.

|1.24.07 @ 7:36PM|#

Monte burns is not the mayor of Springfield...Quimby is and The Simpsons "who shot Monte Burns" story arc was riped off of the the night time soap Dallas's season end cliff hanger "Who shot JR".

so "Life Imitates The Simpsons" becomes "Life Imitates Simpson's Imitating some lame 80's TV reference".

|1.24.07 @ 7:42PM|#

It's even nerdier to pick apart a nerdy reference than it is to make it.

I'm a jerk.

Ray G|1.24.07 @ 8:53PM|#

Well, that's not gonna help bring the tourists in. . .

|1.24.07 @ 8:56PM|#

It's even nerdier to pick apart a nerdy reference than it is to make it.

Hence the alert.

|1.24.07 @ 8:56PM|#

I think the Telegraph was more on target than *Reason* when it invoked the Agatha Christie analogy. I was in a play based on one of her mysteries, in which the victim was universally hated so everyone was a suspect. In fact, the conceit of "widely-loathed bastard gets killed, and everyone's a suspect" is quite common in mystery stories -- either the Christie influence, or because you want as many suspects as possible so the reader doesn't guess the killer, or because you don't want the reader to sympathize too much with the dead guy (that would be too depressing, and mystery stories are supposed to provide light entertainment).

|1.24.07 @ 8:57PM|#

Quimby hasn't been shot, but remember that he's modeled after a guy who *was* shot.

|1.24.07 @ 9:05PM|#

After being told that Mayor Grima had been murdered by al-Qaeda, Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero reportedly dove under his desk, shrieking, "Just give them what they want! Just give them what they want!"

Curiously, the very day before the mayor was killed, Zapatero reassured him that he was perfectly safe under his leadership.

Yes, I'm deliberately trying to provoke the commenters here. I like The Simpsons and LOTR too, but this thread has stretched way above the nerd-line, and somebody's gotta reel it back in.

|1.24.07 @ 9:41PM|#

"Another villager, who refused to be named because he had been told by a judge that no one was to speak publicly while they were under suspicion, said: "Revenge is a dish best served cold. I'm not saying anything more than that.""

Does anyone besides me suspect this mystery villager is Khan Noonien Singh? I now think I have *my* prime suspect. "Ah, Grima, my old friend. Surely I have made my meaning plain. I have disrupted your quiet walk home and when I shoot again, I mean to deprive you of your life."

|1.24.07 @ 10:38PM|#

Oh, no, jp. I'm sorry if that applied to you, too. Once the Lord of the Rings references start flying, I just stay out of the way. I was referring to the Simpsons nerds.

Guy Montag|1.25.07 @ 1:27AM|#

joshua corning,

(spoiler warning)

So this story was only a dream?

Alan K. Henderson|1.25.07 @ 1:43AM|#

Talk about term limits...

Screech Powers|1.25.07 @ 9:56AM|#

I believe the origination of murder mysteries was the classic Saved by the Bell episode in which the gang wins a radio contest. *Spoiler Alert!* Lisa is in on it the whole time.

|1.25.07 @ 10:09AM|#

highnumber -- No problemo.

|1.25.07 @ 10:47AM|#

Suspicious-looking American named "Leon" sought for questioning.

/Resident Evil 4? ...anybody? ...anybody?

|1.25.07 @ 11:18AM|#

"The next day the battered body of Mr Grima was discovered in a roadside ditch. He had been shot at least four times in the head and chest at point-blank range."

I favor suicide.

|1.25.07 @ 1:20PM|#

What's with the LOTR chatter? Fago is in the province of Aragon, not Aragorn.

|1.25.07 @ 2:06PM|#

I am so glad this sort of thing can't happen here.

Larry A|1.26.07 @ 2:58PM|#

In fact, the conceit of "widely-loathed bastard gets killed, and everyone's a suspect" is quite common in mystery stories

There seem to be three main types of victims in mysteries:
1. The person everyone hates.
2. The person who doesn't have an enemy in the world.
3. The person with only one enemy, who turns out to be innocent but is being framed.

|1.26.07 @ 7:42PM|#

This guy was mayor for 12 years but was hated by everyone in town? How did he keep getting elected? - Brian24

¡Juan Queri habría sido peor!

Kevin