History UnintentionalPeriodPiece / TheSimpsons

** Similarly, for most of the show's run, not a single recurring married woman or mother has a job (and even later on, the few who do tend to work at the school or have other jobs that were common for women in the 5s.) Lindsey Naegle, the one "career woman" in the early seasons, has it as her defining character trait and specifically hates kids; one-off episodes where Marge gets a job are similarly treated as strange temporary outliers. Even in the 80s and 90s when the show was getting started this was already a bit unusual, since two-income families were already the norm for the middle class; in the modern day it seems bizarre.

** Similarly, for most of the show's run, not a single recurring married woman or mother has a job (and even later on, the few who do tend to work at the school or have other jobs that were common for women in the 50's.) Lindsey Naegle, the one "career woman" in the early seasons, has it as her defining character trait and specifically hates kids; one-off episodes where Marge gets a job are similarly treated as strange temporary outliers. Even in the 80's and 90's when the show was getting started this was already a bit unusual, since two-income families were already the norm for the middle class; in the modern day it seems bizarre.

** The episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E24Homerpalooza Homerpalooza]]" (1996) focuses on the pop culture at the time, more precisely on alternative rock, hip-hop, and the first incarnation of Lollapalooza (here fictionalized as "Hullabalooza"). Among the episode's guest stars were Music/TheSmashingPumpkins, including drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, who was fired from the band two months after the episode aired after the band's touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin (who doesn't appear in "Homerpalooza") died of an overdose while taking drugs with him. In another scene, the record store clerk has no idea about Apple computers, one year before UsefulNotes/SteveJobs returned to the company. That said, the overall plot of the episode -- about Homer feeling like he's out of the loop with current trends and desperate to prove that he's still 'hip' -- is one that will remain timeless; the fact that the trends in question are no longer relevant only makes the episode's central theme about how being cool is overrated [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools stand out that much more]]. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGrfhsxxmdE One scene]] in particular, a flashback in which a teenage Homer gets into a fight with his dad over the '70s rock music he listens to, has gained new currency in the internet age for this reason.

** Similarly, for most of the show's run, not a single recurring married woman or mother has a job (and even later on, the few who do tend to work at the school or other jobs that were common for women in the 50's.) Lindsey Naegle, the one "career woman" in the early seasons, has it as her defining character trait and specifically hates kids; one-off episodes where Marge gets a job are similarly treated as strange temporary outliers. Even in the 80's and 90's when the show was getting started this was already a bit unusual, since two-income families were already the norm for the middle class; in the modern day it seems bizarre.

** The show's earliest seasons occasionally referred to Marge as "Mrs. Homer J. Simpson". In the early 1990s, it was still the norm for married women to be referred to as "Mrs. (full name of spouse)", a naming convention that became much less common after the mid-'90s.

** The show's earliest seasons occasionally referred to Marge as "Mrs. Homer J. Simpson". In the early 1990s, it was still the norm for married women to be referred to as "Mrs. (full name of spouse)", a naming convention that fell out of use after the mid-'90s.

** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E6ItchyAndScratchyTheMovie Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie]]" (1992): With movies and TV shows being readily available online and the "films on-demand" option on many modern cable packages, Bart would nowadays be perfectly able to watch "The Itchy & Scratchy Movie" without having to go to the movie theater (and Homer and Marge would have to use parental controls to keep Bart from seeing the movie online and on-demand but even then, Bart is tech-savvy enough to watch it via piracy). Even the VHS existed when the episode first aired, right down to Snake being disappointed he didn't steal a VCR in VHS format in that episode, allowing Bart to watch the movie on video, making it already an unintentional period piece in 1992!

** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS11E19KillTheAlligatorAndRun Kill the Alligator and Run]]" (2000) features the "party-hard" youth culture of the '90s and '00s at its pre-9/11 peak, even having Music/KidRock perform and Creator/{{MTV}} actually broadcasting music (including a joke about the age of their [=VJ=]s). The episode also began with a reference to the [[RightWingMilitiaFanatic Militia of Montana]] (which, like K-Rock, had become yesterday's news by the time the episode aired).

** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS14E21TheBartOfWar The Bart Of War]]" (2003): The episode ends with the people at the Isotopes game singing [[CanadaEh "O Canada"]], with the line "True patriot love in all thy sons command". In 2018, Canada voted to amend the line to the gender-neutral "in all of us command".

** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E6ItchyAndScratchyTheMovie Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie]]" (1992): With movies and TV shows being readily available online and the "films on-demand" option on many modern cable packages, Bart would nowadays be perfectly able to watch "The Itchy & Scratchy Movie" without having to go to the movie theater (and Homer and Marge would have to use parental controls to keep Bart from seeing the movie online and on-demand). Even the VHS existed when the episode first aired, right down to Snake being disappointed he didn't steal a VCR in VHS format in that episode, allowing Bart to watch the movie on video, making it already an unintentional period piece in 1992!

** ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsonsMovie'' (2007) features references to ''WesternAnimation/HappyFeet'', ''Film/AnInconvenientTruth'', ''Series/AreYouSmarterThanAFifthGrader'', ''Franchise/HarryPotter'', Music/GreenDay performing the theme song at the beginning, and a joke about "President Schwarzenegger", all of which date the movie to the mid/late-2000s.

** Similarly, for most of the show's run, not a single recurring married woman or mother has a job (and even later on, the few who do tend to work at the school or other jobs that were common for women in the 50's.) Lindsey Naegle, the one "career woman" in the early seasons, has it as her defining character trait and specifically hates kids. Even in the 80's and 90's when the show was getting started this was already a bit unusual, since two-income families were already the norm for the middle class; in the modern day it seems bizarre.

** Similarly, for most of the show's run, not a single married woman or mother has a job (and even later on, the few who do tend to work at the school.) Lindsey Naegle, the one "career woman" in the early seasons, has it as her defining character trait and specifically hates kids. Even in the 80's and 90's when the show was getting started this was already a bit unusual, since two-income families were already the norm for the middle class; in the modern day it seems bizarre.

** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS18E22YouKentAlwaysSayWhatYouWant You Kent Always Say What You Want]]" (2007) parodies the raunchy programming the Fox network was known for during the 2000s. There is also a fleeting reference to Website/YouTube's "star rating" system, which was soon after replaced by the "like/dislike" system.

** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E10Springfield $pringfield]] (1994):

** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E22RoundSpringfield Round Springfield]]" (1995) falls into this partly for the same reason as "Bart Sells His Soul", with a joke about the "Ultimate Pog" which bears the likeness of Creator/SteveAllen - like the above episode from a season later, it was made at the height of the pogs craze, and the "outdated fad" is supposed to be Steve Allen.

** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E13TwoBadNeighbors Two Bad Neighbors]]" (1996):
*** The fact that [[UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush President Bush]] is referred to simply as "George Bush" rather than "George H.W. Bush", "Bush Senior", or "Bush 41" to differentiate him from his son ([[AccidentallyCorrectWriting whose name drop in this episode was a coincidence]]) firmly dates the episode to pre-2000.
*** The "hip" kids Lisa makes friends with in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E25SummerOf4Ft2 Summer of 4 Ft. 2]]" (1996) embody the "indie" atmosphere of the time as much as the Hullabalooza acts.

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS10E1LardOfTheDance Lard of the Dance]]" (1998), Lisa's new classmate has a cellphone. It was supposed to serve as an indicator of how mature and grown-up she is, or at least is attempting to act. Today, with cellphones being far more common (to the point that some kids her age may actually have one, whether or not it was at their parents' insistence), viewers these days are probably more likely to complain about how bulky and primitive 1990s cell-phones looked instead of the idea of a second-grader actually having a cell-phone in the first place. Alex's [[AgeInappropriateDress fashion "sense"]] (and her eagerness on hooking up with boys) would have been common, if quite scandalous in the late '90s and 2000s, [[ValuesDissonance but it becomes downright cringe-worthy]] on the eyes of the 2010s.

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS21E1HomerTheWhopper Homer the Whopper]]" (2009), Jeff the Comic Book Guy, is told that the film based on his superhero comic ''Everyman'' (starring Homer) was so bad, the projectionist hung himself with the last reel. A few years on, physical means of film distribution were replaced by digital formats.

** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E9ItchyAndScratchyAndMarge Itchy & Scratchy & Marge]]" (1990) is a parody of the [[TheNewRockAndRoll moral panic]] the series received upon its premiere (as well as Terry Rakolta's campaign to cancel ''Married... with Children'') with Marge forming a [[MoralGuardians concerned parents group]]. While the focus of attention shifted to [[AnimatedShockComedy other cartoons]] soon after, these kinds of campaigns lost steam by the later years of the decade.

** The advent of caller ID aside, the early RunningGag of Bart's [[PrankCall prank calls]] to Moe's Tavern relies on the assumption that the only way to get in touch with someone at a bar is to call the bar and ask for their name, which will seem odd to any viewer too young to remember a time before cell phones entered common usage.

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E22KrustyGetsKancelled Krusty Get Cancelled]]" (1993), the Music/RedHotChiliPeppers appear as guest stars with guitarist Arik Marshall in the lineup. Marshall joined the band in the summer of 1992 after John Frusciante left the band. However, Marshall's time in the band was brief; he would leave the band in February 1993, three months before the episode featuring him aired.
** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E5TreehouseOfHorrorIV Treehouse of Horror IV]]" (1993): In "The Devil And Homer Simpson", UsefulNotes/RichardNixon nowadays can no longer use the excuse that he is not dead yet because he died six months after the episode aired (though the implication that he sold his soul to become U.S. President and/or not be implicated in the Watergate scandal [since he resigned rather than face the consequences of his actions] is still funny and does explain a lot).

*** Special guest Creator/RobertGoulet died in 2007.

*** Siegfried and Roy (the magician duo who inspired the Ernst and Gunther characters) retired their long-running show in 2003 [[CareerEndingInjury after the latter's real-life tiger attack left him disabled]] (though the actual attack made the one in this episode relevant when it happened on October 3, 2003). And both men died with a year of one another; Roy Horn would die in 2020 due to complications from COVID-19 while Siegfried Fischbacher died of pancreatic cancer in early 2021.

*** Henry Kissinger appearing in this episode, considering that he died in 2023, at the age of 100.

** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E5SideshowBobRoberts Sideshow Bob Roberts]]" (1994) lampoons the popularity of conservative talk radio in the mid-'90s. Conservatism's battles with the cultural liberalism of the time led to it slipping out of the mainstream for almost two decades.
** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E4ItchyAndScratchyLand Itchy & Scratchy Land]]" (1994) has a joke where Marge notes the bartender at a '70s-style disco bar looks like Creator/JohnTravolta, and the bartender looks from side to side before responding "[[YourCostumeNeedsWork Yeah,]] ''[[YourCostumeNeedsWork looks]]'' [[YourCostumeNeedsWork like]]...", very neatly dating it to pre-1994 and Travolta's CareerResurrection with ''Film/PulpFiction''.[[note]]The episode actually came out '''after''' ''Pulp Fiction'' hit theaters, but went into production before--''The Simpsons'' [[ProductionLeadTime has a really long lead time]][[/note]] It also shows a cut-away to a completely empty Euro-Itchy & Scratchy Land near the end, a reference to the very difficult time Euro-Disney[[note]]The theme park was still called by this name at the time, before becoming Disneyland Paris[[/note]] had establishing itself in France, a situation that is today somewhat rectified (it finally turned a profit in 1995 and is now one of France's most popular tourist attractions).

** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E8LisaOnIce Lisa on Ice]]" (1994)
*** One scene is a TakeThat to the Apple Newton's terrible handwriting recognition system, wherein Dolph attempts to write "Beat Up Martin" but has it registered as "Eat Up Martha". The Newton was discontinued in 1998 after Steve Jobs returned to the company, though this scene was apparently referenced often internally by Apple engineers when [[https://www.fastcompany.com/3017039/how-the-simpsons-fixed-apples-iphone-keyboard developing the iPhone's keyboard]].
*** Channel 6 News opens with a BaitAndSwitch headline: "President Reagan dyes... his hair". UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan would die in 2004, about 10 years later.
** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E15HomieTheClown Homie the Clown]]" (1995): One example of [[RichInDollarsPoorInSense Krusty's wasteful spending]] is him sending 3,000 roses to Creator/BeaArthur's grave, despite her being alive. She would die in April 2009. In the same episode, Homer (in his Krusty guise) gives an award for "Most Promising New Cable Series" to reruns of ''Series/StarskyAndHutch''. At the time, cable was seen as a dumping ground for old movies and shows while "premium" channels such as HBO were prohibitively expensive, often charging extra for special events. By the late 90s and early 00s, cable broadened its appeal while "premium" services became cheaper and dropped the PPV angle, turning instead to original productions.

** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E22RoundSpringfield Round Springfield]]" (1995) falls into this partly for the same reason, with a joke about the "Ultimate Pog" which bears the likeness of Creator/SteveAllen - like the above episode from a season later, it was made at the height of the pogs craze, and the "outdated fad" is supposed to be Steve Allen. Moreover, Allen died in 2000.
** The episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E24Homerpalooza Homerpalooza]]" (1996) focuses on the pop culture at the time, more precisely on alternative rock, hip-hop, and the first incarnation of Lollapalooza (here fictionalized as "Hullabalooza"). Among the episode's guest stars were Music/TheSmashingPumpkins, including drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, who was fired from the band two months after the episode aired after the band's touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin (who doesn't appear in "Homerpalooza") died of an overdose while taking drugs with him. Smashing Pumpkins singer Billy Corgan is shown in the episode as having a full head of hair, but he shaved his head bald in late 1995 after the episode was animated but before it aired, and he has kept that look ever since. In another scene, the record store clerk has no idea about Apple computers, one year before UsefulNotes/SteveJobs returned to the company. That said, the overall plot of the episode -- about Homer feeling like he's out of the loop with current trends and desperate to prove that he's still 'hip' -- is one that will remain timeless; the fact that the trends in question are no longer relevant only makes the episode's central theme about how being cool is overrated [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools stand out that much more]]. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGrfhsxxmdE One scene]] in particular, a flashback in which a teenage Homer gets into a fight with his dad over the '70s rock music he listens to, has gained new currency in the internet age for this reason.

*** The overall plot where Homer gets into a fight with former President UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush, became this after Barbara Bush's death in 2018, followed by George's own death seven months later, but the ending where Homer becomes friends with UsefulNotes/GeraldFord already became this after Ford's death in December 2006. UsefulNotes/MikhailGorbachev's impromptu appearance with a housewarming gift became this after his passing in August 2022.
*** Additionally, the fact that Bush is referred to simply as "George Bush" rather than "George H.W. Bush", "Bush Senior", or "Bush 41" to differentiate him from his son ([[AccidentallyCorrectWriting whose name drop in this episode was a coincidence]]) firmly dates the episode to pre-2000.
** The "hip" kids Lisa makes friends with in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E25SummerOf4Ft2 Summer of 4 Ft. 2]]" (1996) embody the "indie" atmosphere of the time as much as the Hullabalooza acts.

** Kent Brockman's news report in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E10TheSpringfieldFiles The Springfield Files]]" (1997) (which itself is dated to the peak of Series/TheXFiles' popularity) begins with a report on a man who has just come out of a 30-year long coma, whose first question is "Do Music/SonnyAndCher still have that god-awful show?" Kent tells him "No, she won an Oscar and he's a Congressman." Unfortunately, Sonny Bono would die on January 5th, 1998, less than a year after the episode premiered.

** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E4TreehouseOfHorrorVIII Treehouse Of Horror VIII]]" (1997): In "The Homega Man", Homer watches a Creator/ChrisFarley and Creator/DavidSpade movie at a movie theater almost two months before Farley passed away (although his last films, ''Film/AlmostHeroes'' and ''Film/DirtyWork'', [[PosthumousCredit came out several months afterward]]).

** The show's earliest seasons occasionally referred to Marge as "Mrs. Homer J. Simpson". In the early 1990s, it was still the norm for married women to be referred to as "Mrs. (full name of spouse)", a naming convention that fell out of use after the mid-'90s.
** There are quite a few appearances/mentions of UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush and later UsefulNotes/BillClinton, where they are described as "the President".

** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS13E13TheOldManAndTheKey The Old Man and the Key]]" (2002): The Simpson family sees a stage show in Branson, Missouri comprised of old "performers you thought were dead" (the city being "Old Timers' Vegas" at the time). As of this writing, two of those performers are no longer merely mistaken to be dead: Charlie Callas, who died in 2011, and Bonnie Franklin, who died in 2013.

** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS15E4TheReginaMonologues The Regina Monologues]]" (2003):
*** UsefulNotes/TonyBlair's appearance as the Prime Minister of England dates the episode to before he stepped down on June 24th, 2007.
*** The Simpsons decide to bring Music/{{Madonna}} back home to the U.S.A. and kidnap her in a travelling bag. This is a reference to Madonna's marriage to Creator/GuyRitchie (and related move to Britain), which lasted from 2000 to 2008.
*** [[UsefulNotes/ElizabethII Queen Elizabeth II]]'s appearance in the episode dates it to before her death on September 8th, 2022.
** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS15E8MargeVsSSCCATAG Marge vs. Singles, Seniors, Childless Couples and Teens, and Gays]]" (2004) has Lindsay Naegle expressing her desire for profanity on broadcast television. During the second half of the '90s and early '00s, American networks increasingly pushed the envelope, with the inclusion of full nudity and blue language, most famously the sex scenes and the constant use of "shit" on ''Series/NYPDBlue'', being the next logical step... until the Super Bowl halftime scandal (which occurred just weeks after the episode's first airing) largely put an end to that. Even as cable and later streaming productions continued to push the boundaries well into R-rated territory, broadcast television have retreated into PG levels of sex and language while keeping PG-13 levels of violence.

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS16E10TheresSomethingAboutMarrying There's Something About Marrying]]" (2005), the main plot of the episode concerns the topic of same-sex marriage which became legalized in all 50 U.S. states and all American territories on June 26th, 2015.

** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS17E3MilhouseOfSandAndFog Milhouse of Sand and Fog]]" (2005) deals in part with Maggie (and then Homer) getting chicken pox, with the varicella vaccine having only become widespread in 2002. There is also a parody of ''The O.C.'' halfway through the episode.
** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS18E14YokelChords Yokel Chords]]" (2007) features Brandine Spuckler as a soldier in the Middle East.
** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS18E22YouKentAlwaysSayWhatYouWant You Kent Always Say What You Want]]" (2007) parodies the raunchy programming the Fox network was known for during the 2000s. There is also a fleeting reference to Website/YouTube's "star rating" system, which was soon after replaced by its current "like/dislike" evaluations.

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS20E7MypodsAndBoomsticks Mypods and Boomsticks]]" (2008), Homer becomes suspicious about the family of Bart's new Muslim friend. There's also a parody of Apple with no equivalent to the [=iPhone=] (launched a year earlier), as well as of its founder Steve Jobs, who would pass away in 2011.

** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS20E12NoLoanAgainNaturally No Loan Again, Naturally]]" (2009) directly alludes to the mid/late-2000s financial crisis, with the family defaulting their mortgage for the umpteenth time, but the bank is now unable to give them yet another loan. Thus, they end up facing homelessness. Between post-production and broadcast, Lehman Brothers collapsed.

** Several appearances by UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush described as "the President".

** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS26E12TheMuskWhoFellFromEarth The Musk Who Fell from Earth]]" (2014) involves Tesla's Elon Musk trying to reshape Springfield while befriending Homer. This was made at a time Musk's generation of tech tycoons were revered by the American public, whereas this wouldn't be the case a few years later (Musk in particular became a punchline for "eccentric inventor" and CorruptCorporateExecutive jokes, and would become a complete laughingstock by the time he bought Twitter, fired most of its employees, changed its name, and basically made it less fun for everyone).
** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS28E18LookingForMrGoodbart Looking for Mr. Goodbart]]" (2017) features Homer and Lisa obsessing over a mobile game in a parody of the ''VideoGame/PokemonGo'' craze of 2016. Note that ''Pokemon GO'' is still popular even a few years after the episode's airing, though not as popular as it was in 2016.

** Numerous references of UsefulNotes/BarackObama as "the president" in episodes made during the first half of the decade.
** Jokes about the UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump campaign and eventual presidency are firmly set as post-2015.

** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS15E21BartMangledBanner Bart-Mangled Banner]]" (2004) is a 22-minute TakeThat aimed at the Patriot Act. Also it references the then-popular CNN debate show "Crossfire" with "Headbutt". "Crossfire" would be cancelled not long after the episode aired (though it did get a brief revival in 2013-2014)and CNN would soon move away from those kinds of "head-butting debate shows"