Biography

Ex brother-in-law of Janeane Garofalo.

Brother of fellow television writer Robert Cohen.

Brother-in-law of Jill Leiderman.

[on his influence as a writer for 'The Simpsons'] It's possible that at one point I had a Canadian influence on the show, but now I feel like I have Stockholm Syndrome, where I affiliate with my captors. I feel like I've been indoctrinated into its sense of humor rather than me bringing anything in from the outside.

[In 'The Simpsons] we get away with a lot because we're animated, but by this point [2014] we're almost one of the milder animated shows. There are lots of other shows that are raunchier or more controversial.We were subversive when we started, but now we're subversive in more acceptable way. We're there if someone wants a nice soothing pool of subversiveness they can bathe in and not feel bad about themselves.

[explaining the longevity of 'The Simpsons'] The characters don't age.You can turn on a TV right now, somewhere in the world, and an episode is on and you don't know if the characters are in season 2 or 22. There's something comforting about that. It established this sense of humor and now it's evergreen.