IKEA instruction manuals getting a send-up with the time-honoured Simpson’s
Couch Gag gave me a tickle.

Surely a bigger accolade than more ephemeral recognitions like being doodled (though still no smål achievement), this running visual joke began as a buffer to make the episode adhere to scheduled commercial-breaks has been a regular sequence since 1989 (with some repetition but used as an element of fore-shadowing as well). This news also makes me realise that I’ve no idea when the show premieres for domestic audiences, as the last I recall,
The Simpsons was airing on Thursday’s line-up and led to the demise of the
The Cosby Show, with its similar signature opening fanfare.