Tony Roche (writer) Tony Roche (writer) Tony Roche is an English television, radio and film comedy writer and producer, best known as a writer of the HBO comedy "Veep", the BBC Television series "The Thick of It" and its film spin-off "In the Loop". He is credited with inventing the word omnishambles, which was named 2012 Word of the Year by the Oxford English Dictionary. After graduating from Warwick University with a degree in English, Roche became a stand-up comedian using material from a magazine he had produced in his final year. He was spotted at one of his stand-up comedy shows and
The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase well as having similarities to "My Mother the Car". The Love-matic Grampa machine singing "Daisy Bell" in a distorted manner when its electrical circuits are failing is a reference to HAL from the 1968 film "". Grampa also references "All Quiet on the Western Front", when Moe says he "wrote the book on love". Moe's date, Betty, looks somewhat like Tress MacNeille, the actress who voiced her. "The Simpson Family Smile-Time Variety Hour" is a parody of the 1960s and 1970s live variety shows. Mainly it is a parody of "The Brady Bunch Hour", a short-lived spin-off of the 1970s