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| - Beginning with the show's sixth season, Swartzwelder no longer attended rewrites with the rest of the staff, having been given special dispensation to send in his drafts from home and let the other writers revise them. According to his longtime collaborators on The Simpsons, Al Jean and Mike Reiss, Swartzwelder is a huge fan of Preston Sturges films and loves "anything old-timey American." This vaguely defined aesthetic presents itself in many of the episodes he's written, in the form of wandering hobos, Prohibition-era speakeasies, carnies, 19th-century baseball players, aging Western movie stars, and Sicilian gangsters. According to the DVD commentaries, he used to write episodes while sitting at a booth in his favorite restaurant "drinking copious amounts of coffee and smoking endless cigarettes" (Matt Groening). When the state of California passed an anti-smoking law, Swartzwelder bought a diner booth and installed it in his house, allowing him to smoke and write in peace. He is also noted as being a staunch Libertarian, as well as a gun rights advocate and a chain smoker. In 2004, following a short break from writing scripts, he wrote his first novel, The Time Machine Did It (ISBN 0-9755799-0-8). It was followed by Double Wonderful (ISBN 0-9755799-2-4) in 2005. The Simpsons' 16th season was the first in which no episodes were authored by Swartzwelder. In the episode The Day the Violence Died, John Swartzwelder is one of the "surprise witnesses" called by Lionel Hutz. Others include Ralph Wiggum, a man with a dummy, and Santa Claus on crutches. John has yet to feature in a Simpsons DVD commentary, and has refused to even acknowledge this fact on a commentary, even when offered to have a mic brought to him just to utter the word "No". On one audio commentary, one of the writers pretended to be him as a joke. Swartzwelder was rumored to be doing commentary on the Season 9 DVD box set episode "The Cartridge Family". However, the extent of his participation was that the actual commentators called him on the phone to verify for the fans that he exists. The only opinion he offered on the episode was that he recalled it was a good one, but as far as is known, he won't be on any DVD commentaries.
- Swartzwelder attended High School in Renton, Washington. Swartzwelder started out with a career in advertising, after which he began writing for Saturday Night Live and Sunday Morning Live, where he met George Meyer and D.B. Sweeney. After Meyer quit Saturday Night Live and created the Magazine Army Man he recruited Swartzwelder to help him write it. Meyer noted on Army Man: "The only rule was that the stuff had to be funn and pretty short. To me, the quintessential Army Man Joke was one of John Swartzwelder's: "They can kill the Kennedys. Why can't they make a cup of Coffee that tastes good? It's a horrfying idea juxtaposed with something really banal---and yet there's a kind of logic to it. It's illuminating because it's kind of how Americans see things: Life's a big jumble, but somehow it leads to something i can consume. I love that. But of course you realize, this means war." In 1988, Sam Simon, a reader of Army Man, recruited both Swartzwelder and Meyer to write for a new Fox Animated Sitcom he was Executive Producing; The Simpsons. By 1994, with the Show's Sixth Season, Swartzwelder was granted a special dispensation and allowed to no longer attend rewrite sussions with the rest of the staff, instead being allowed to send drafts of his scripts in from home so other writers could revise them as they saw fit. This is a direct result of Swartzwelder working on his first Children's Book, Pistel Pete. His longtime collaborators on The Simpsons, Al Jean and Mike Reiss, describe Swartzwelder as a huge fan of the Preston Sturges Films and loves "anything old timey American." This vaguely defined aesthetic presents itself in many of the Episode he has written in the form of wandering Hobos, Prohibition-era Speakeasies, Carnies, 19th-century Basebal Players, aging Western Movie Stars, Musical Comedies, Slapstick Car Chases and Sicilian Gangsters. According to Matt Groening, Swartzwelder used to write Simpsons Episodes while sitting in a Booth at a Coffee Shop "drinking a cup of Coffee and sometimes Soft Drinks and eating Sandwiches, Fries and Donuts once a week". He never wanted to smoke, drink Alcohol, Gambled, deal with Drugs and use Profanity. When California passed an Anti-smoking law, Swartzwelder is also involved in that law and starts writing an Episode about Homer, Lenny, Carl, Professor Frink, Flanders, Smithers, Grimey, Dr. Hibbert, Krusty, Skinner, Chalmers, Moe, the newly reformed Snake, Kirk, Bumblebee Man, Otto, Dr. Nick, George Meyer, Jon Vitti, Matt Warburton, Marc Wilmore, Mark Hamill, Stephen Hawking and Matt Groening wanting to make Springfield a Smoke free place for everyone, entitled "Smoke on the Stooges". He is also reported to be a Tony Award-winning Playwright as well as a Gun Rights Activitist and he has been describe as an "Environmentalist". David X. Cohen once related a Story of Swartzwelder, Meyer, Vitti and Simon going to the Rain Forest to see many exotic Animals and want to protect the Earth. Swartzwelder is one of the Writers of Madeline and The Simpsons who has a strong interest in the Envrionment and agreed to join the Conservation International. Besides writing for Television, Swartzwelder also wrote Feature Films including The Simpsons Movie, Madeline: Lost in Portugal, The Baby-Sitters Club, How to get rich writing Cartoons, Art of Animation for Kids and The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn. Since 2004, he has taken up writing Absurdist Fiction, beginning with the 2004 publication of Science-Fiction Detective Story The Time Machine Did It starring Private Investigator Frank Burly.
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