Simpsons Writers Take Credit For Broadcasting Success of Peyton and Eli: ‘We Started The Mannings’ Comedy Career’

The Simpsons writers and producers Matt Selman and Brian Kelley want credit for helping launch Peyton and Eli Manning’s broadcasting careers.

ESPN’s “The Manningcast” has drawn high praise and a large audience since launching earlier this year. The first five Manningcasts on ESPN2 averaged 1.59 million viewers.

Before Peyton and Eli co-hosted the popular ESPN2 broadcast, they appeared on the 449th episode of The Simpsons which aired in 2009. In the episode, Peyton appeared in a dream that Bart Simpson had, along with Eli and Cooper Manning.

“I think we started the Mannings’ comedy career when they were all on The Simpsons,” Matt Selman said on the latest episode of The Adam Schefter podcast. “Because now they are like these funny goofballs commenting on games on ESPN2 and everyone’s having fun and joking around. They did that on our show ten years ago.”

“I never realized that The Simpsons, Matt Selman and Brian Kelley, were the ones who launched the Mannings comedy career,” Adam Schefter jokingly chimed in.

“They hadn’t heard of comedy before us,” Brian Kelley replied.

“They didn’t know it existed. They were just these soulless machines that just threw footballs perfectly. We introduced them to the whole idea of joking around and having fun with the game,” Kelley continued. “They’re really funny.”

Selman explained that of the three brothers, the one who wasn’t in the NFL at the time enjoyed being on The Simpsons the most. “Cooper was the one having the most fun,” Selman said. “I’m not sure the other two were loving it as much, but they all were good sports.”

Watch above via The Adam Schefter podcast.

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