Amusing to hear John Humphrys incredulous at something I felt was well-known & obvious: The Simpsons has maths jokes http://t.co/jSJO7Or0yp

— Peter Rowlett (@peterrowlett) October 2, 2013

That’s a reference to comments made by presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, John Humphrys, in a segment that you can hear at BBC News. If you, like Humphrys, were unaware of the plethora of mathematical in-jokes in episodes of the long-running US TV cartoon/sitcom The Simpsons, don’t worry: author and general maths legend Simon Singh has written a book about it. The book comes highly recommended by various people on Twitter, including Aperiodipal Helen Arney:

Reading @slsingh‘s Maths of the Simpsons outside our local cafe – couple stopped to ask about it, now buying for daughter’s xmas present :)

— Helen Arney (@helenarney) October 4, 2013

Simon’s also engaging what appears to be an insanely relentless schedule of talks around the UK to publicise the book. If you’d like to meet him in actual person and congratulate him on the awesomeness of his books/verticalness of his hair/the fact that he’s basically always credited as ‘Author of Fermat’s Last Theorem’ (strictly that was Fermat), here’s some dates:

• 14th October: Cambridge University Physics Society
• 18th October: Belfast (as part of the Belfast Festival)
• 20th October: Sheffield University Student’s Union
• 20th October: Leeds Skeptics in the Pub
• 21st October: Chester Literature Festival
• 22nd October: Southbank Centre, London
• 23rd October 2PM: Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh
• 23rd October 8PM: Newcastle Skeptics in the Pub
• 24th October: Guildford Literary Festival
• 26th October: Manchester Blackwell’s
• 1st November: MoMath, NYC, USA
• 6th November: Smithsonian, Washington DC, USA
• 7th November: Town Hall, Seattle WA, USA

More information

Simon Singh’s website

The Simpsons and their Mathematical Secrets is out now, in a lot of countries.