History CouchGag / TheSimpsons

* Lisa plays a different solo on her saxophone. The solos are often recycled across several episodes -- some were reused more often than the (in)famous "chorus line" couch gag. Since the show's switch to UsefulNotes/HighDefinition, some episodes have featured Lisa playing another instrument such as a trumpet or violin (or, in one memorable instance, a ''theremin'') instead. See [[http://simpsonsarchive.com/guides/sololist.html here]] for a definitive guide to all Lisa's solos.

** "A Test Before Trying": "I will obey [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Oscar®]] campaign rules from now on."[[note]]The ''Simpsons'' theatrical short ''The Longest Daycare'' had been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Short Film; it lost to ''WesternAnimation/{{Paperman}}''.[[/note]]

** "The Incredible Lightness of Being a Baby": "School online"[[note]]...and Bart is not in the classroom, as this episode aired in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic ravaging America, enforcing what the chalkboard says.[[/note]] To compensate, the CouchGag has a VR-snowboarding Bart write "I must not write on mountain" with his board.

* Similarly, "Homer Scissorhands" had a guest star whose name was misspelled in the credits; the following episode, "500 Keys," had Bart writing the correct spelling on the blackboard over and over.

* In "Four Regrettings and a Funeral", as [[InMemoriam a tribute]] to the late Marcia Wallace (Mrs. Krabappel's voice actress), Bart writes "We'll really miss you, Mrs. K." exactly one time with a sad look on his face. [[TearJerker Grab the hankies.]]
* In "Married to the Blob", Bart writes "Music/JudasPriest is not death metal" on the chalkboard, a reference to the numerous Internet complaints about that description of the band as such in the previous episode, "Steal This Episode".

* In "The Incredible Lightness of Being a Baby", the first episode to air after the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic began to really affect America, has "School online," written once on the blackboard, with Bart nowhere to be seen.

** "The Incredible Lightness of Being a Baby": "School online"[[note]]...and Bart is not in the classroom, as this episode aired in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic ravaging America, enforcing what the chalkboard says.[[/note]]

* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ecYoSvGO60 Mathlete's Feat]]," an IntercontinuityCrossover with ''Franchise/RickAndMorty'' that, staff-wise, was written by ''Rick and Morty'' head honchos Creator/JustinRoiland and Creator/DanHarmon. ("No more guest animators, man!")

* A live-action version of the sequence, originally made as a promo on British TV network Creator/Sky1 (which, perhaps not coincidentally, was also a [=NewsCorp=] property), was eventually used as an actual show opening on the season 17 episode "Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife."

* "Homer's Adventures Through The Windshield Glass", the 750th episode, has "I will not try to cram 750 characters into the opening credits..." The classroom is packed with 14 characters (including Bart), and the rest of the opening sequence contains appearances from 736 more.

* "Beware My Cheating Bart," "Black-Eyed, Please," "Married to the Blob," "Lisa the Veterinarian," "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lfm-Mh3vfQ 22 for 30]]," "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbI8kJuSkkY 3 Scenes Plus a Tag from a Marriage]]," and "Manger Things," by Creator/BillPlympton. The couch gag for "3 Scenes Plus a Tag from a Marriage" is a Homer-themed ShotForShotRemake of Plympton's own ''WesternAnimation/YourFace''.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IXTbPChutA The Couch Gag]] for "Barthood" is animated by {{rotoscoping}}, done in the style of [[http://www.flatblackfilms.com/Flat_Black_Films/Rotoshop.html Rotoshop]] (the software used for ''Film/WakingLife'' and ''Film/AScannerDarkly'', two films directed by Creator/RichardLinklater, director of ''Film/{{Boyhood}}'' which "Barthood" is a WholePlotReference to). Homer fears that they'd be "Roto-Rootered" for the entire episode, and Bart complains about feeling sick from it, leading Lisa to revert the show to the standard animation and write the gag off as "a noble experiment that failed".

* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNdNLNFZBmk The Fabulous Faker Boy]]" and "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXzLju-4Su8 The Cad and the Hat]]," by Creator/StoopidBuddyStudios

''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' is the {{Trope Namer|s}} for the CouchGag trope, where the original opening sequence had several couch gags. Sometimes they just skip straight to the driveway and do the couch gag, or some other abridged opening:

* Lisa plays a different solo on her saxophone. The solos are often recycled across several episodes -- some were reused more often than the (in)famous "chorus line" couch gag. Since the show's switch to UsefulNotes/HighDefinition, some episodes have featured Lisa playing another instrument such as a trumpet or violin instead.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/batmancouch_592.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:[[{{Pun}} Bart]] [[BatFamilyCrossover Family Crossover]]]]

* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNdNLNFZBmk The Fabulous Faker Boy]]" and "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXzLju-4Su8 The Cad and the Hat]]," by the ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' staff

* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' crossover episode "Simpsorama" [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHjtlcLuggM replaces the title sequence]] (save the gathering-on-the-couch gag, wherein the couch has been replaced by Hedonismbot) with ''Futurama''[='=]s own couch gag, a usually irrelevant tagline underneath the show's name. In this episode's case, it's relevant and [[SelfDeprecation self-deprecating]] for both shows: "A show [[SeasonalRot out of ideas]] teams up with a show [[ScrewedByTheNetwork out of episodes]]." The episode's closing credits open with a SpecialEditionTitle of ''Futurama''[='=]s opening sequence featuring Homer singing over the theme song, ''Simpsons'' cameos and [[spoiler:a headless Scruffy cleaning up New New York after the Bart mutants' rampage]] in place of the Planet Express ship crashing into a TV screen.

* Recent episodes now have had couch gags and even the whole opening done by guest animators:
** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX1iplQQJTo MoneyBART]]," storyboarded by {{Creator/Banksy}}
** "Bart Stops to Smell the Roosevelts" and "Treehouse of Horror XXVI," by Creator/JohnKricfalusi
** "Beware My Cheating Bart," "Black-Eyed, Please," "Married to the Blob," "Lisa the Veterinarian," "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lfm-Mh3vfQ 22 for 30]]," "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbI8kJuSkkY 3 Scenes Plus a Tag from a Marriage]]," and "Manger Things." by Creator/BillPlympton. The couch gag for "3 Scenes Plus a Tag from a Marriage" is a Homer-themed ShotForShotRemake of Plympton's own ''WesternAnimation/YourFace''.
** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNdNLNFZBmk The Fabulous Faker Boy]]" and "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXzLju-4Su8 The Cad and the Hat]]," by the ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' staff
** "Dangers on a Train," conceptualized by fan Cheryl Brown as the winning entry of [[OfficialFanSubmittedContent a contest where fans would submit short text pitches for a couch gag]].
** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtgYY7dhTyE Treehouse of Horror XXIV]]," storyboarded by Creator/GuillermoDelToro
** "Diggs," by Creator/SylvainChomet
** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ol7zhnpBY0 What to Expect When Bart Is Expecting]]," "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiPNCRZDLn4 Orange Is the New Yellow]]," and "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfXngyevrdw&feature=emb_title The Incredible Lightness of Being a Baby]]," by [[http://michalsocha.com/ Michal Socha]]
** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m78gYyTrG7Y Clown in the Dumps]]," by Creator/DonHertzfeldt
** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIZ_gDOrzGk My Fare Lady]]," by Creator/PaulRobertson and [[http://pug-of-war.tumblr.com/ Ivan Dixon]]
** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ecYoSvGO60 Mathlete's Feat]]," an IntercontinuityCrossover with ''Franchise/RickAndMorty'' that, staff-wise, was written by ''Rick and Morty'' head honchos Creator/JustinRoiland and Creator/DanHarmon. ("No more guest animators, man!")
** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZu5iDTtNg0 Teenage Mutant Milk-Caused Hurdles]]," by [[http://www.stevecutts.com/ Steve Cutts]]
** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qcY2ERwmaU Fland Canyon]]," by Creator/EricGoldberg

* Probably the most infamous of the couch gags was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX1iplQQJTo the one]] for "[=MoneyBART=]", storyboarded by subversive and [[TheFaceless reclusive]] street artist Creator/{{Banksy}}. It started with the typical intro (with 'Banksy' written over several billboards and walls, and Bart writing "I must not write on the walls", all over the room) ending with all the Simpsons on the couch. [[CrossesTheLineTwice It then panned out to a stereotypical Korean sweatshop animating the show, with small barefoot children washing the cels in biohazardous material, kittens being ground up to stuff Bart Simpson plushies which are then carted off by a starving panda and packed in boxes sealed with the tongue of a dolphin head, and a person making Simpson DVDs by smashing out the center holes on the horn of a dying unicorn chained to a wall. Then the camera pans out to reveal]] [[BitingTheHandHumor the sweatshop being inside the 20th Century Fox logo, which has a decrepit, prison-esque look, finally panning out to the Simpsons' TV.]] Needless to say, since this was one of the few couch gags by a guest animator where the guest only ''directed'' the scene, the animation was produced by the show's regular South Korean animators [[http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2027768,00.html who were not amused]].

* "Dad Behavior" has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h365_F5BzDg a title sequence]] that is either [[BlackComedy morbidly hilarious]] or [[NightmareFuel downright horrifying]]. It starts off with Barney breaking Bart's skateboard after being tired of Bart constantly hitting him with it in the newer opening sequence. This is unexpected and quite funny, especially when the music stops to emphasize this, [[MoodWhiplash but then in the next scene]], Homer ends up choking on the radioactive material he's handling until he collapses. After that, during the school band scene, RealityEnsues as Lisa's dancing out of the room whilst playing the sax leads to her banging her head against the wall and possibly even breaking her neck. But the worst part is when Marge falls asleep in the car and wakes up to find Maggie driving it, and her attempts to take back the wheel results in the car falling into a river, and a few seconds of silence before Marge's lifeless body floats up to the surface. And to top it all off, Bart arrives at home to find no one else there, is worried at first and pulls portraits of the family down to the couch as a memorial [[CrossesTheLineTwice but then realizes this means he gets the TV all to himself]].

** "Beware My Cheating Bart," "Black-Eyed, Please," "Married to the Blob," "Lisa the Veterinarian," "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lfm-Mh3vfQ 22 for 30]]," and "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbI8kJuSkkY 3 Scenes Plus a Tag from a Marriage]]," by Creator/BillPlympton. The couch gag for "3 Scenes Plus a Tag from a Marriage" is a Homer-themed ShotForShotRemake of Plympton's own ''WesternAnimation/YourFace''.

* In "Fears of a Clown", Bart writes "This is the last episode," only to flip the chalkboard around and reveal the message "April Fool," written in punishment style.

* In "D'oh Canada", Bart writes "HAW HAW!" and then flips the chalkboard around... to reveal Nelson taped to the other side.