On 19 September 1991, The Simpsons opened its third season with an episode called “Stark Raving Dad.” Homer gets committed to a mental institution after wearing a pink shirt to work, and his roommate is a heavyset, balding white man named Leon Kompowsky who is absolutely convinced he is Michael Jackson. The joke is that he sounds exactly like Michael Jackson. Because he was Michael Jackson. And the show credited him as “John Jay Smith.”
The whole thing started because Jackson was a fan. He rang Matt Groening himself and offered to do a guest spot, then turned up with several story ideas of his own. At the table read, the room reportedly went completely silent. As writer Al Jean remembered it, “no one said a word, we just sat there waiting.”
Stark Raving Dad, Michael Jackson Simpsons
Then Jackson laid out his conditions, and they were unusual. He would do it only if he went uncredited, and only if his singing voice was performed by somebody else. The show agreed. A professional Jackson soundalike named Kipp Lennon was brought in to record all of Leon’s musical parts, and the two men recorded at the same time, with Jackson apparently finding the impersonations very funny.
There are two competing explanations for the swap, and both are worth knowing. The dull one is contractual: Groening has said Jackson’s record label would not allow him to sing on a project made by another company. The much better one, as told in the DVD commentary, is that Jackson wanted to play a prank on his own brothers by leaving them unable to tell whether it was really him singing. The fake credit finished the trick for everybody else.
Michael Jackson & Bart Simpson – Happy Birthday, Lisa
What he definitely did do was write the song. “Happy Birthday Lisa” is an original Michael Jackson composition, written for the show, and it remains the emotional center of the episode. Bart has forgotten his sister’s birthday again, and Leon helps him write her a song instead. It has become one of the most beloved musical moments in the entire series.
The secrecy held for years. Groening appeared on Jay Leno and refused to confirm it outright, dropping heavy hints instead. The show itself later winked at the audience in a different episode, when Lisa mentions that certain famous people had made cameos and “they didn’t use their real names, but you could tell it was them.” Jackson also recorded scenes in a standard booth alone and did not use the special trailer that had been set up for him.
There was nearly a sequel too. The writers planned to bring Leon Kompowsky back with Prince voicing the character. Prince read the script and turned it down, and the episode was scrapped.
One last thing fans should know, because it explains something confusing. “Stark Raving Dad” is no longer in circulation. In 2019, the producers pulled it from all future releases and streaming platforms following renewed allegations against Jackson, and it is the only episode missing from Disney Plus. Whatever your view of that decision, it means an entire generation of Simpsons viewers will never stumble across the strangest cameo the show ever pulled off.