The Simpsons opening sequence enter this cartoon universe of "The Simpsons". Finally, after a couple of decades, they've gotten closer to what I had in my mind. Not perfect, but better." The two original variations were further expanded to these variations: The billboard gag is a running visual joke added to the opening sequence with the updated 2009 high-definition opening. In the gag, a billboard is seen on the roof of the building across the street from the elementary school as the camera pans through the town. The billboard changes every episode. The first episode with a billboard gag was "Take My Life, Please"
A picture is worth a thousand words the sides of streetcars. The December 8, 1921, issue carries an ad entitled, "One Look is Worth A Thousand Words." Another ad by Barnard appears in the March 10, 1927, issue with the phrase "One Picture Worth Ten Thousand Words", where it is labeled a Chinese proverb. The 1949 "Home Book of Proverbs, Maxims, and Familiar Phrases" quotes Barnard as saying he called it "a Chinese proverb, so that people would take it seriously." Nonetheless, the proverb soon after became popularly attributed to Confucius. The actual Chinese expression "Hearing something a hundred times isn't better than seeing it once" (,