15 across: Spooner’s body art forged by 18-down (Simpsons) villain (3, 4)
I’m almost certain that when I get an explanation for this it will end up in the DA Gold section. Alas, all I’ve got is Simpsons villain = Fat Tony.
18 down: The likes of 2-down (Bart) captured by the likes of 2-down (Bart), by 10 & 26-across (Matt Groening) (8)
The answer here is Simpsons, but that could just as easily be because the likes of Bart = Simpsons as much as it could be because by Matt Groening = Simpsons.
14 across: Mostly tense drama, eclipsed medic show of 26-across (Matt Groening) (8)
Here, show of Matt Groening = Futurama, but other than the rama being a sizeable portion of drama, I can’t work the rest out.
3 down: (Bart) …m-marble one below 24-across (Lisa)? (6)
Thanks to the theme, one below Lisa = Maggie. No explanation for the rest of it, though.
23 across: Wires hack lads without notice, holding back carer of… (Lisa) (10)
Carer of Lisa = Marge and back carer of lisa = egram giving a significant portion of cablegrams = wires, but the cabls I can’t explain.
4 down: Remove 18-down (Simpsons), frequently (4, 6)
Remove = take off, but I can’t see how that has anything to do with Simpsons, frequently.
Yep, 15 across does deserve to be in DA Gold.
body art = tat, forged = phony, Spooner’s body art forged = fat tony!
14 across:
Tense as in “future tense”. Mostly tense = futur. Medic = Dr. Drama eclipsed medic = ama. Thusly, FUTURAMA.
23 across:
Hack = cab (in the sense of taxi, either automotive or horse-drawn). Notice = ad. Lads without notice = ls. The rest works as you suggest.
4 down:
I can only think that “take off” is used in the sense of satire (the MO of the Simpson’s show)?
Well that makes a whole lot more sense!
And I never knew hack was slang for cab or taxi.
I think I might start using it.
Grrrrr. Simpsons not Simpson’s. I seem to be having apostrophe trouble lately. Not as much as this duo however:
“A bizarre campaign against grammatical incorrectness has landed two young Americans in deep trouble. The pair, Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson, who have roamed across America using marker pens and Tipp-Ex to correct bad spelling and grammar on less-than-literate signs, went a little too far when they amended a historic, hand-painted noticeboard at Grand Canyon National Park. They were arrested, given probation, ordered to pay a $3,035 (£1,640) repair bill, and banned from all US national parks.”
Full story at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/tippex-kids-fined-for-correcting-americas-missing-apostrophes-907226.html
18-down works as follows: 2 down = BART, obviously. The likes of Bart = SONS and IMPS, which together make SIMPSONS. This was a bit nasty without an intuitive leap, as working through the clues in order requires understanding LISA as a synonym for “daughter” in 24-across. It’s a bit of a circular reference, as you need to have LISA to get MAGGIE for 3-down, which then gives BART for 2-down, and thus SIMPSONS for 18-down.
Or, of course, you could stare at ____ | G_O_____ for long enough to see that it’s Matt Groening, which is what both I and AS appear to have done.
It’s quite amazing how a few letters greatly improve your chances of getting a word out. I’m sure there’s been a thesis written on just this subject, not to mention the memory-aiding effects of alliteration.
It’s funny: I got out sons and imps, but, for some stupid reason, I thought imp wasn’t a word, perhaps because it doesn’t look like it should be a word. I’ve noticed this happen a lot with cryptic crosswords: that a word, perhaps because it’s being interpreted as a series of letters, does not register as a word with a meaning.
And 3 down remains unexplained. It looks like it would be a funny one.
I don’t know what’s happened, but there was an NC comment here once before that got to the bottom of the 3 down clue.
Somehow, though, NC’s and my own comment in response are gone.
Anyway, NC discovered that an aggie is a schoolboy word for a marble, which then makes 3 down quite an elementary clue.