Getting animated: Who are the best and worst Simpson-ised celebrities? By Johnny Dee 22 Feb

 Is there still a certain cachet attached to being a guest star on The Simpsons, or has it become just another tick box on the celebrity bucket list?

The Simpsons: guest starring the voices of Nick Park, Ricky Gervais, JB Smoove, Russell Brand and Halle Berry. Image: 20th Century Fox

On Sunday, Russell Brand became the latest in a long line of celebrities to have appeared in The Simpsons. The dandy comedian joins an illustrious list of actors, musicians, authors and politicians who have been Simpson-ised during the show's 21-year history. Some have been great, some terrible and some – sadly, including Brand's own appearance – a little pointless. 

 In one of the best Simpsons episodes for a while, called Angry Dad: The Movie, Brand appears as himself at The Golden Globes where he hands out an award to Bart. He gets to make one tame joke about rehab but his appearance is overshadowed by his co-stars, Ricky Gervais and Halle Berry, not to mention a hilarious Pixar parody called The Condiments. There was also a lovely Wallace and Gromit pastiche (with Nick Park doing his own voice) called Better Gnomes and Gardens, starring "Willis and Crumble".

There is a growing opinion that The Simpsons has become just another tick-box on the celebrity bucket list – something a star must appear on or be parodied on in order to show they've truly made it – and that it's sold out to the glamour of securing star names. That certainly appears to be the case in the last two series when an increasing number of stars have made appearances as themselves – not least Brand's wife Katy Perry who featured in a live-action sequence in last year's four-part Christmas special.

But the policy has also given us some of The Simpsons' most memorable characters – Dustin Hoffman as Lisa's supply teacher Mr Bergstrom, Michael Jackson as an inmate in a psychiatric institution who believed he was Michael Jackson, Johnny Cash as the voice of a coyote in Homer's hallucination and Ricky Gervais as Marge's seducer in Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife.

The problems with guest stars on The Simpsons often come when they appear as themselves – especially if they're not used to acting (although Mel Gibson has no excuse). The Williams sisters' appearance in Tennis The Menace was only saved by the fact that Andre Aggasi was even worse, while Tony Blair's appearance on the show was embarrassing on several counts – first, it was terrible, second, didn't he have something more important he should have been doing at the time?

Oddly musicians tend to make excellent guest stars – the cast of Glee excepted. Aerosmith were great on the show as was Elton John who changed the words to Your Song to provide a romantic serenade for Apu and his wife. My favourite band on the show though has to be The Smashing Pumpkins who appeared at a rock festival in Springfield and gave Homer one of his finest lines: "Pumpkins, thanks to your depressing music, you've stopped my children dreaming of a future I can't possibly provide."

Three quarters of The Beatles have appeared on the show, of course – and all excellent. Although Paul McCartney's contractual stipulation that Lisa Simpson turn vegetarian seemed to be his main motivation for appearing on the show, for most it appears to be a vanity project. But what do you think? Are there too many celebs on The Simpsons and what are the show's best and worst guest stars?

©guardian.co.uk