Indeed, Meyer rarely writes drafts of entire scripts alone, preferring instead to save his talents for the room, where the revision and perfection of others’ work takes place.

It is an alchemical domain, a magical space where scripts come in funny and leave splitting sides. But the room’s wizards often go uncredited—the room does not lend itself to stardom.

“At a very early point, they realized that George was too important to let out of the room,” Vitti says. “So there are a very small number of scripts that say ‘Written by George Meyer.’”

According to Internet archives, that number is 12. But this is a woeful understatement of Meyer’s impact on the show, those in the know insist.

“He’s the one in the room who writes more of the show than anyone else—his fingerprints are on nearly every script,” says Vitti. “He exerts as much influence on the show as anyone can without being one of the creators,” he adds.

Suffering for Humor

According to insiders, the approach Meyer uses to produce such stellar comic results at “The Simpsons,” involves an obsessive—almost inhuman—devotion to quality. “The physical pain lousy comedy costs George is incredible,” Vitti says. “You don’t want to be responsible for that.”

In this way, colleagues say, Meyer’s presence spurs other “Simpsons” writers to be funnier.

“Nobody’s opinion is more valued than George’s,” says Vitti. “He makes everyone try harder.”

But in addition to inspiring greatness in those around him, Meyer has spent his entire life coming up with his own gags—a talent he clearly has in abundance.

Meyer’s own jokes, Vitti stressed, are characterized by economy.

“It’s good for the show—but sad to watch—when you write a paragraph in search of a joke and George replaces it with a sentence which is funnier and clearer than what you had,” Vitti says.

Even among television’s greatest professional pranksters, Meyer stands out.

“A lot of great comedy writers will fall back on conventional things in a pinch,” says Vitti. “Once you’ve written sitcoms for a number of years, you can watch most TV shows and you could almost number the jokes: that’s 18a; that’s 32b.”

Meyer, though, is above such quick fixes.