To celebrate their recent licencing of The Simpsons, FX is turning TV sets into a continuous stream of the cartoon by playing every single episode back to back. That’s a lot of episodes – 552 to be exact, and it’ll take 12 takes to get through them all.

The Simpsons

And, in case you were wondering, there is a precedent for this, sort of.  In February last year, Jeremiah Franco, 22, and Carin Shreve, 33, set a new record of Simpsons watching by consuming 86 hours and 37 minutes consecutively. So with FXX’s 552 stint – running from Aug. 21 through Labor Day - will someone try and beat that?

“I would definitely say I’m a hardcore Simpsons fan. I’ve been watching it since they were on The Tracey Ullman Show, because I used to actually watch that show back in the day,” explained Shreve to Entertainment Weekly. “I’m pretty much the exact age of The Simpsons – the actual show premiered three months after I was born. I’ve been watching it my entire life. In terms of crazy stuff, this is the first competition I’ve done,” added Franco. 

According to Jon Landgraf - chief executive of FX Networks - “It will be the longest continuous marathon in the history of television,.” But the marathon isn’t just a celebration of FX’s newly-purchases re-run rights; a new dedicated Simpsons app is also being launched, giving users unlimited access to the yellow family from Springfield. 

The Simpsons on their couchThe Simpsons lounge on their iconic couch

This new app will act “as a comprehensive, beautifully curated digital library of all things ‘Simpsons,’” Landgraf said . “I’m absolutely blown away by what I’ve seen. This could well be the best app I have ever seen,” he added. 

What do you think, are you going to try and beat Franco and Shreve’s ridiculous record?