Thing is some of his scripts are really stealthy. Like he wrote some pretty well done pro-environmentalism shows and yet the rumour is that he thinks that the Amazon jungle was doing just fine. He also has this reputation of being a straight joke man, not good at plotting or writing the more emotional episodes but actually wrote some of the best romantic comedy episodes.

One thing the book does say about John is that the content in Itchy & Scratchy segments were really his doing though I think the general concept was cooked up by Sam Simon. That really wasn't the impression that the fandom had of John's work, I don't think it was usual to tie him with slapstick or gore.