History ValuesDissonance / TheSimpsons

* While the BarbaricBully antics of Nelson, Dolph, Kearney and Jimbo veered straight into FictionIsntFair territory even in the 90s, the wave of suicides on the news linked to school bullying in the 2010s make it hard to believe that even a SuckySchool like Springfield Elementary School would tolerate such brutal bullying due to a fear of the school becoming the latest news scandal or getting a lawsuit, forcing these bullies to move to more subtle methods lest risk getting a quick ticket to juvenile hall.

** This also applies to the entire show as a whole when considering [[SocietyMarchesOn how quickly society changed in the 90s]]--The fact that the series was ever considered shocking and controversial enough to cause outright [[YouCanPanicNow moral panics]] (even involving then-President UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush, who invoked them in a campaign speech in 1992 and eventually became the genesis for the 1996 episode "Two Bad Neighbors") when it premiered seems baffling, especially considering that ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' and ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' as well as [[AllAdultAnimationIsSouthPark further modern adult cartoons]] never have generated such levels of controversy in spite of these being much cruder than ''The Simpsons'' would ever attempt.

* While the BarbaricBully antics of Nelson, Dolph, Kearney and Jimbo veered straight into FictionIsntFair territory even in the 90s, the wave of suicides on the news linked to school bullying in the 2010s make it hard to believe that even a SuckySchool like Springfield Elementary School would tolerate such brutal bullying due to a fear of the school becoming the latest news scandal or getting a lawsuit, forcing bullies to move to more subtle methods lest risk a quick ticket to juvenile hall.

* In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E10LisasFirstWord Lisa's First Word]]" Marge expresses concern that Homer's plan to just have Bart sleep with them in the master bed in leiu of buying a new bed for the baby would warp Bart to which Homer blows off, stating his cousin Frank did it and turned out fine. When Marge presses Homer casually and obliviously reveals that she's now Francine and joined a cult. This now comes off as an ''extremely'' insulting depiction of transgender people.

* In two episodes [[note]] $pringfield and the Otto Show [[/note]], the now-slur "gypped" has been used to mean tricked.

* In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E10LisasFirstWord Lisa's First Word]]" Marge expresses concern that Homer's plan to just have Bart sleep with them in the master bed in leiu of buying a new bed for the baby would warp Bart to which Homer blows off, stating his cousin Frank did it and turned out fine. When Marge presses Homer casually and obliviously reveals that she's now Francine and joined a cult. This now comes off as an ''extremely'' insulting depiction of transgenderism.

* In "[[Recap/S4E10LisasFirstWord Lisa's First Word]]" Marge expresses concern that Homer's plan to just have Bart sleep with them in the master bed in leiu of buying a new bed for the baby would warp Bart to which Homer blows off, stating his cousin Frank did it and turned out fine. When Marge presses Homer casually and obliviously reveals that she's now Francine and joined a cult. This now comes off as an ''extremely'' insulting depiction of transgenderism.

* In "[[TheSimpsonsS4E10LisasFirstWord Lisa's First Word]]" Marge expresses concern that Homer's plan to just have Bart sleep with them in the master bed in leiu of buying a new bed for the baby would warp Bart to which Homer blows off, stating his cousin Frank did it and turned out fine. When Marge presses Homer casually and obliviously reveals that she's now Francine and joined a cult. This now comes off as an ''extremely'' insulting depiction of transgenderism.

* In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E10BartGetsHitByACar Bart Gets Hit by a Car]]", Lisa asks Dr. Nick (in his debut episode) if he's a shyster. The term has since fallen out of usage due to anti-Semitic connotations.

** This also applies to the entire show as a whole when considering [[SocietyMarchesOn how quickly society changed in the 90s]]--The fact that the series was ever considered shocking and controversial enough to cause outright [[YouCanPanicNow moral panics]] (even involving then-President George H.W. Bush) when it premiered seems baffling, especially considering that ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' and ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' as well as [[AllAdultAnimationIsSouthPark further modern adult cartoons]] never have generated such levels of controversy in spite of these being much cruder than ''The Simpsons'' would ever attempt.

* Similarly, an episode of the ''Adventures of Radioactive Man'' TV show from the 1950s shown in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E21ThreeMenAndAComicBook Three Men and a Comic Book]]" has an EnforcedPlug for Laramie Cigarettes, with Fallout Boy asking for a smoke. The title character tells him to wait until he's sixteen.

* Apu has caught flack from contemporary viewers for being an EthnicScrappy whose entire character is deeply rooted in Indian stereotypes (especially the "dishonest shopkeeper" part). One major point of contention is that he's voiced by [[Creator/HankAzaria a white man]] [[ModernMinstrelsy doing a broad, exaggerated Indian accent]], and while the show is known for having a cast full of stereotypes, these stereotypes mostly come from different parts of European and/or white American culture (like Scotland, Italy, the DeepSouth etc.) or make fun of archetypes such as the rich white businessman (in this case, Mr. Burns). The problem is that, with a mostly white cast, and very few minority characters, it can feel to some viewers like the show is punching down when mocking Apu, and by extension Indian Americans as a whole[[note]]This could also even apply to African-Americans (Carl has been {{flanderized}} into a vindictive {{flat character}}, Dr. Hibbert and Judge Snyder are portrayed to be philanderers on top of being ineffective, and Officer Lou has become Chief Wiggum's somewhat less corrupt [[CloudcuckoolandersMinder retainer]]) and Hispanic-Americans (Bumblebee Man is a parody of how Americans see Mexican TV shows and Dr. Nick is pretty much the worst doctor ever) to some extent[[/note]]. His stereotypical nature is highlighted in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E12TeamHomer Team Homer]]" where his bowling team loses to another one called "The Stereotypes", made up of [[DeepSouth Cletus,]] [[OliveGarden Luigi,]] [[TalkLikeAPirate The Sea Captain,]] and [[ViolentGlaswegian Groundskeeper Willie.]]

* In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E19SweetSeymourSkinnersBaadasssssSong Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song]]", Ned replaces Skinner as the school principal. Bart makes several attempts to get Flanders fired, but what finally does get him fired? Saying "bless the lord" over the intercom. While most nations do believe in separation of church and state, especially in regards to education, in the United States, prayer of any sort of religion endorsed by a teacher of a public school is illegal. European viewers wondered what the deal was, or found it amusing that Flanders was fired over that of all things.

* Furthermore, "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS13E9JawsWiredShut Jaws Wired Shut]]" features a gay parade even featuring dogs, something that makes the family go to the movies instead. Nowadays this would be considered to equate homosexuality with bestiality, even if the actual purpose of the joke was totally unrelated.

* When Patty comes out as a lesbian in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS16E10TheresSomethingAboutMarrying There's Something About Marrying]]", it's revealed that her planned fiance Veronica is actually a man cross dressing - who is presented as manipulative and deceptive, and it's meant to be an awesome moment when Patty rejects him to announce "I like ''girls''". This comes across as incredibly transphobic, as it plays into the stereotype that trans people attempting to pass for a different gender are out to trick cisgender people into sleeping with them. While the issue here is more that 'Veronica' was lying to Patty (and even if he was really a trans woman, such a detail is something that probably should be disclosed if you've progressed to ''marriage''), it's still played for an UnsettlingGenderReveal and any confusion about sexuality the fiance may be having is ignored completely.

* In “Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy”, the family at one point expresses exhaustion with Lisa’s endless moral crusades, particularly when Bart cites the fact that she made them all march in a gay pride parade (Bart ended up on the newspaper's front page), which is presented as a fairly extreme thing to subject your family to. Today, not only is it common for families to attend Pride, later episodes show the Simpsons themselves doing so without any discomfort.
* Furthermore, the episode "Jaws Wired Shut" features a gay parade even featuring dogs, something that makes the family go to the movies instead. Nowadays this would be considered to equate homosexuality with bestiality, even if the actual purpose of the joke was totally unrelated.

* An unusual example of this trope's relation to ''The Simpsons'' is that it's directly responsible for Bart's MenaceDecay. In the 90s, Bart was a [[{{Jerkass}} legitimately]] [[VillainProtagonist nasty]] [[TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior kid]] a lot of the time, with things like repeated vandalization (spray-painting "El Barto" everywhere), truancy, pranks, and so forth, even if he did have some moral limits (like his shame after having stolen a videogame or running away from home after burning Lisa's Thanksgiving centerpiece). However, as the 90s rolled on, BlackComedy and DeadBabyComedy animated shows became increasingly mainstream. Thus, even with later seasons trying to use {{flanderization}} to keep Bart "menacing", to kids that are regularly watching shows like ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' (where the kids swear all the time and get involved in lots of violent or sexual situations) and ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' (where drug use, sex, gore and murder are routinely played for laughs), Bart seems laughably tame. This is perfectly lampshaded in the ''Simpsons/Family Guy'' crossover episode, where Bart finds Stewie's behavior horrifying and far too hardcore for him to handle. Ironically, Creator/MattGroening created Bart partly as a parody about how the titular ''ComicStrip/DennisTheMenaceUS'' didn't seem so troublesome to modern audiences.

* In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E12TeamHomer Team Homer]]", Springfield Elementary institutes school uniforms, which are shown to be [[AntiSchoolUniformsPlot soul-crushing and reduce the kids to listless and depressed zombies in a matter of days]]. Since outside North America almost all schools use uniforms ([[InvertedTrope except for a handful of private schools in some countries]]), international audiences found this puzzling and humorous.

* In “Lisa vs. Malibu Stacey,” the family at one point expresses exhaustion with Lisa’s endless moral crusades. As an example, Bart cites the fact that she made them all match in a gay pride parade, which is presented as a fairly extreme thing to subject your family to. Today, not only is it common for families to attend Pride, future episodes show the Simpsons themselves doing so without any discomfort.

* In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E7TreehouseOfHorrorII Treehouse of Horror II]]". Lisa dresses up as a Native American totem pole as a way of showing appreciation for indigenous people. If anything, Lisa would ''protest'' against that sort of thing come the 2010s because it would be seen as cultural appropriation.
* In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E9SideshowBobsLastGleaming Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming]]", Lisa wants to meet the first female stealth bomber pilot, casually (and gleefully) mentioning that the pilot (also named Lisa) dropped bombs on 70 mosques. If this episode was made today, Lisa either wouldn't have mentioned it at all or would only have mentioned it in a WhatTheHellHero fashion.

* In “Lisa vs. Malibu Stacey,” the family style one point expresses exhaustion with Lisa’s endless moral crusades. As an example, Bart cites the fact that she made them all match in a gay pride parade, which is presented as a fairly extreme thing to subject your family to. Today, not only is it common for families to attend Pride, future episodes show the Simpsons themselves doing so without any discomfort.

* In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E9SideshowBobsLastGleaming Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming]]", Lisa wants to meet the first female stealth bomber pilot, casually (and gleefully) mentioning that the pilot (also named Lisa) dropped bombs on 70 mosques. If this episode was made today, Lisa either wouldn't wouldn't have mentioned it at all or would only have mentioned it in a WhatTheHellHero fashion.

* Similarly, an episode of the ''Adventures of Radioactive Man'' TV show from the 1950s shown in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E21ThreeMenAndAComicBook Three Men and a Comic Book]]" has an EnforcedPlug for Laramie Cigarettes, with Fission Boy asking for a smoke. The title character tells him to wait until he's sixteen.

* In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E7TreehouseOfHorrorII Treehouse of Horror II]]". Lisa dresses up in Native American clothing as a way of showing appreciation for indigenous people. If anything, Lisa would ''protest'' against that sort of thing come the 2010s because it would be seen as cultural appropriation.

* In "Team Homer", Springfield Elementary institutes school uniforms, which are shown to be [[AntiSchoolUniformsPlot soul-crushing and reduce the kids to listless and depressed zombies in a matter of days]]. Since outside North America almost all schools use uniforms ([[InvertedTrope except for a handful of private schools in some countries]]), international audiences found this puzzling and humorous.
* In "Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song", Ned replaces Skinner as the school principal. Bart makes several attempts to get Flanders fired, but what finally does get him fired? Saying "bless the lord" over the intercom. While most nations do believe in separation of church and state, especially in regards to education, in the United States, prayer of any sort of religion endorsed by a teacher of a public school is illegal. European viewers wondered what the deal was, or found it amusing that Flanders was fired over that of all things.

** They addressed this in season 29's "No Good Read Goes Unpunished", [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything with Marge rediscovering her favorite childhood book, but becoming alarmed by its overt xenophobia]]. And when she wonders whether she can still like it, Lisa looks at the viewer and says "[[AsideComment Something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive is now politically incorrect. What can you do]]?", [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall panning to a photo of Apu afterward]]. The fact [[SoapboxSadie Lisa]] spoke directly at the audience instead of in a less obvious way ticked many viewers off. In 2019, Azaria announced he would stop voicing the character and that an actor of Hindi descent would be eventually selected to take over the role.

* When Patty comes out as a lesbian in "There's Something About Marrying", it's revealed that her planned fiance Veronica is actually a man cross dressing - who is presented as manipulative and deceptive, and it's meant to be an awesome moment when Patty rejects him to announce "I like ''girls''". This comes across as incredibly transphobic, as it plays into the stereotype that trans people attempting to pass for a different gender are out to trick cisgender people into sleeping with them. While the issue here is more that 'Veronica' was lying to Patty (and even if he was really a trans woman, such a detail is something that probably should be disclosed if you've progressed to ''marriage''), it's still played for an UnsettlingGenderReveal and any confusion about sexuality the fiance may be having is ignored completely.
* In "I Love Lisa", Chief Wiggum gives Ralph some advice to get a girl that isn't interested in him (in this case Lisa), telling him he must insist until she gives in. Such a comment nowadays would be seen as encouraging stalking.
* The season four episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E3HomerTheHeretic Homer the Heretic]]" (where Homer abandons organized religion for his own system of beliefs) will meet with Values Dissonance these days for many atheists, agnostics, or lapsed religious people as the ending implies that people who abandon organized religion will be punished for it (Homer being saved from the house fire by Flanders [a Christian], Krusty the Clown [a Jew], and Apu [a Hindu]). It helps that Homer is put in danger not by God, but by his own arrogant hedonism (smoking a cigar while taking a nap). What's odd is that, outside of that ending, the episode actually has ValuesResonance these days for the same people who think the ending is outdated for modern times.

* In the episode "Bart is Hit by a Car", Lisa asks Dr. Nick (in his debut episode) if he's a shyster. The term has since fallen out of usage due to anti-Semitic connotations.

* One Duff Beer ad from the 1950s shown in "Duffless" carries a double bundle of this. The commercial has a cartoon doctor advising the viewers to drink the beverage because of its "goodness", but also indicates the company is also a "proud sponsor" of ''Amos 'n' Andy'', a very popular radio (and briefly) TV show that ran between 1928 and 1960 [[OvershadowedBYControversy mostly remembered nowadays]] for being an example of {{Blackface}} (even in spite of being quite FairForItsDay).
* Similarly, an episode of the ''Adventures of Radioactive Man'' TV show from the 1950s shown in "Three Men and a Comic Book" has an EnforcedPlug for Laramie Cigarettes, with Fission Boy asking for a smoke. The title character tells him to wait until he's sixteen.
* Another in-universe example: When Krusty ran for office in "Mr. Spritz Goes to Washington", his opponent attacked him showing one of his sketches about the U.N., portraying obviously offensive characterizations of [[CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys France]], [[TheStoner Jamaica]] ''[[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and]]'' [[CampGay San Francisco]]. Krusty justified himself by mentioning it was a different time... 1998 (the episode first aired in 2003), even though it would have been extremely offensive by then.
* One interesting in-universe example occurred in the episode "Orange is the New Yellow", where Marge is arrested ''for letting Bart [[FreeRangeChildren go to the park alone]]'', mentioning that her parents let her stay outside all day back in the 60s, and in fact Bart and Lisa (even Maggie) have been featured roaming on their own in the 90s and 2000s (most notably in "Bart Gets Famous"[[note]]A 1994 episode in which Bart sneaks out of a school field trip and ends up as Krusty's assistant[[/note]], "Lost Our Lisa"[[note]]A 1998 episode in which Lisa gets lost trying to go to the museum on her own[[/note]] and "Midnight Towboy"[[note]]A 2007 episode in which Maggie goes to the grimy town of Guidopolis to save a kidnapped Homer[[/note]]). However, this also doubles with TwoDecadesBehind, as since the 1980s, and particularly after the mid-2000s, allowing young children alone has become increasingly looked down upon (especially in suburban and urban areas) due to fears that they will be kidnapped, injured, get lost, etc.
* In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E7TreehouseOfHorrorII Treehouse of Horror II]]". Lisa dresses up in Native American clothing as a way of showing appreciation for indigenous people. If anything, Lisa would ''protest'' against that sort of thing come the 2010s because it would be seen as cultural appropriation.

* One interesting in-universe example occurred in the episode "Orange is the New Yellow", where Marge is arrested ''for letting Bart [[FreeRangeChildren go to the park alone]]'', mentioning that her parents let her stay outside all day back in the 60s, and in fact Bart and Lisa (even Maggie) have been featured roaming on their own in the 90s and 2000s (most notably in "Bart Gets Famous"[[note]]A 1994 episode in which Bart sneaks out of a school field trip and ends up as Krusty's assistant[[/note]], "Lost Our Lisa"[[note]]A 1998 episode in which Lisa gets lost trying to go to the museum on her own[[/note]] and "Midnight Towboy"[[note]]A 2007 episode in which Maggie goes to the grimy town of Guidopolis to save a kidnapped Homer[[/note]]). However, this also doubles with TwoDecadesBehind, as since the 1980s, and particularly after the mid-2000s, allowing young children alone has become increasingly looked down upon (especially in suburban and urban areas) due to fears that they will be kidnapped, injured, get lost, etc.

* Apu has caught flack from contemporary viewers for being an EthnicScrappy whose entire character is deeply rooted in Indian stereotypes (especially the "dishonest shopkeeper" part). One major point of contention is that he's voiced by [[Creator/HankAzaria a white man]] [[ModernMinstrelsy doing a broad, exaggerated Indian accent]], and while the show is known for having a cast full of stereotypes, these stereotypes mostly come from different parts of European and/or white American culture (like Scotland, Italy, the DeepSouth etc.) or make fun of archetypes such as the rich white businessman (in this case, Mr. Burns). The problem is that, with a mostly white cast, and very few minority characters, it can feel to some viewers like the show is punching down when mocking Apu, and by extension Indian Americans as a whole. His stereotypical nature is highlighted in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E12TeamHomer Team Homer]]" where his bowling team loses to another one called "The Stereotypes", made up of [[DeepSouth Cletus,]] [[OliveGarden Luigi,]] [[TalkLikeAPirate The Sea Captain,]] and [[ViolentGlaswegian Groundskeeper Willie.]]
** They addressed this in season 29's "No Good Read Goes Unpunished", [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything with Marge rediscovering her favorite childhood book, but becoming alarmed by its overt xenophobia]]. And when she wonders whether she can still like it, Lisa looks at the viewer and says "[[AsideComment Something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive is now politically incorrect. What can you do]]?", [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall panning to a photo of Apu afterward]]. The fact [[SoapboxSadie Lisa]] spoke directly at the audience instead of in a less obvious way ticked many viewers off.

* In "I Love Lisa", Chief Wiggum gives Ralph some advice to get a girl that isn't interested in him (in this case Lisa), telling him he must insist until she gives in. Such a comment nowadays would be equated to stalking.

* One Duff Beer ad from the 1950s shown in "Duffless" carries a double bundle of this. The commercial has a cartoon doctor advising the viewers to drink the beverage because of its "goodness", but also indicates the company is also a "proud sponsor" of ''Amos 'n' Andy'', a very popular radio and TV show that ran between 1928 and 1960 [[OvershadowedBYControversy mostly remembered nowadays]] for being an example of {{Blackface}} (even in spite of being quite FairForItsDay).

* One Duff Beer ad from the 1950s shown in "Duffless" pretty much CrossesTheLineTwice. The commercial has a cartoon doctor advising the viewers to drink the beverage because of its "goodness", but also indicates the company is also a "proud sponsor" of ''Amos 'n' Andy'', a very popular radio and TV show that ran between 1928 and 1960 [[OvershadowedBYControversy mostly remembered nowadays]] for being an example of {{Blackface}} (even in spite of being quite FairForItsDay).