History ValuesDissonance / TheSimpsons

* The season 10 episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS10E21MontyCantBuyMeLove Monty Can't Buy Me Love]]" from 1999, the people of Springfield are enamored by billionaire Arthur Fortune (a parody of Virgin Group founder and CEO Richard Branson), [[SomebodyDoesntLoveRaymond which frustrates Mr. Burns, who sets out to win Springfielders' hearts himself]]. By TheNewTens and TheNewTwenties, wealth inequality has grown so disproportionate that people are more likely to look at billionaires like Arthur Fortune with as much scorn as Mr. Burns, to the point where many wonder whether society should even allow people to become billionaires at all.

* In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS11E2BrothersLittleHelper Brother's Little Helper]]", during the fire safety assembly, Bart gets a kick out of Principal Skinner saying the names of various firefighting implements. One of them was "Retardant," which Bart found funny because it sounded like "Retard''ed''," which is now generally considered to be a ''very'' rude term for mentally disabled people (with some even considering it a slur), regardless of how funny that scene is.

* In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS11E2BrothersLittleHelper Brother's Little Helper]]", during the fire safety assembly, Bart gets a kick out of Principal Skinner saying the names of various firefighting implements. One of them was "Retardant," which Bart found funny because it sounded like "Retard''ed''," which is now generally considered to be a ''very'' rude term for mentally disabled people (with some even considering it a slur), though it is still funny.

* Audiences in TheNewTens and TheNewTwenties watching season 8's "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E23HomersEnemy Homer's Enemy]]" from 1997 are less likely to agree with Frank Grimes's TheReasonYouSuckSpeech about what a LazyBum Homer is, as it's become apparent that American workers are actually among the world's most ''overworked'' workers, lacking basic benefits like paid time off that exist in other prosperous nations.

* In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS10E23ThirtyMinutesOverTokyo Thirty Minutes over Tokyo]]" Homer has the family savings robbed at an internet cafe, so he and Marge attend a seminar about [[CuttingCorners extreme money-saving.]] One example that host Chuck Garabedian gives is a yacht with beautiful women, saying the yacht was cheap because "it smells like cat pee. And those beautiful women? They used to be men.", which {{squick}}s out the audience. Today, the latter comment comes off as ''horribly'' transphobic.

* Audiences watching season 8's "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E23HomersEnemy Homer's Enemy]]" from 1997 in the TheNewTens and TheNewTwenties are less likely to agree with Frank Grimes's TheReasonYouSuckSpeech about what a LazyBum Homer is, as it's become apparent that American workers are actually among the world's most ''overworked'' workers, lacking basic benefits like paid time off that exist in other prosperous nations.

* Audiences watching the season 8's "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E23HomersEnemy Homer's Enemy]]" from 1997 in the TheNewTens and TheNewTwenties are less likely to agree with Frank Grimes's TheReasonYouSuckSpeech about what a LazyBum Homer is, as it's become apparent that American workers are actually among the world's most ''overworked'' workers, lacking basic benefits like paid time off that exist in other prosperous nations.

* The season 10 episode "Monty Can't Buy Me Love", the people of Springfield are enamored by billionaire Arthur Fortune (a parody of Virgin Group founder and CEO Richard Branson), [[SomebodyDoesntLoveRaymond which frustrates Mr. Burns, who sets out to win Springfielders' hearts himself]]. By TheNewTens and TheNewTwenties, wealth inequality has grown so disproportionate that people are more likely to look at billionaires like Arthur Fortune with as much scorn as Mr. Burns, to the point where many wonder whether society should even allow people to become billionaires at all.

* The episode ''There's Something About Marrying'' from Season 16, Marge's sister Patty comes out as a lesbian and introduces the family to her fiancee Veronica. The ending reveals Veronica is a man named Leslie who dressed up as a woman to be allowed to play women's professional golf. When Leslie asks Patty to marry him anyway, Patty refuses, reaffirming her interest in women. While the episode was praised at the time, even getting a nod of approval from GLAAD, the plot of a man pretending to be a woman in order to be able to get into a relationship with a gay woman is seen as unintentionally promoting negative stereotypes.

* The episode ''There's Something About Marrying'' from Season 16, Marge's sister Patty comes out as a lesbian and introduces the family to her fiancee Veronica. The ending reveals Veronica is a man named Leslie who dressed up as a woman to be allowed to play women's professional golf. When Leslie asks Patty to marry him anyway, Patty refuses, reaffirming her interest in women. While the episode was praised at the time, even getting a nod of approval from GLAAD, it's impossible to overlook the transphobic plot nowadays, especially as the idea of men pretending to be trans women to get advantages in sports has become a favourite transphobic talking point and allowing trans people to be categorized in the gender they identify as becoming more controversial over the years.

* In "Mayored to the Mob" the Bi-Mon-Sci-Fi-Con ad disparagingly calls [=R2D2=] and [=C3PO=] "the gay robots from ''Star Wars''". Borderline edgy at the time, but not seen as funny nowadays and would likely lead to demands for the ad to be pulled and those who made it getting criticized for it.

* While it always bordered on edgy, the RunningGag of Moe [[BungledSuicide attempting to kill himself]] via hanging is more likely to make modern viewers feel uncomfortable rather than [[BlackComedy laugh]] now that suicide is being taken FAR more seriously, up to the point where if such a joke were to be made in a show today, it would receive heavy backlash. For this reason, the gag can come across as insensitive at best and downright offensive at worst. The writers seemed to have realized this and tried to address the problem in [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS24E19WhiskeyBusiness "Whiskey Business"]]… with mixed results.
* In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E20TheCanineMutiny The Canine Mutiny]]" when it's revealed that the blind guy who got Santa's Little Helper is carrying marijuana and Wiggum, Lou and Eddie decide not to arrest him for it on the grounds that it might be "medicinal" so they can smoke it with him and party is treated as blatant police corruption as at the time of the episodes airing only two U.S. states allowed marijuana and only for medical issues (and the Clinton Administration was vocally opposed to even that). In the following decades many states have since legalized Marijuana and people being arrested over merely smoking a joint is now largely seen as an example of abuse of authority and institutional racism (as the vast majority of people put in jail over possession of pot were black) so in today's climate the Springfield P.D. electing not to arrest someone over mere possession of weed now looks downright reasonable.

* In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E25SummerOf4Ft2 "Summer of 4 Ft. 2"]], a depressed Lisa sighs that her only friends are writers like Creator/GoreVidal, "and even he's kissed more boys than I ever will." Marge quickly tells her that boys kiss ''girls''. When the episode first aired in 1996, it was common to portray a character uncomfortable with mentioning homosexuality as just slightly behind the times or clueless (or both -- part of the joke is that Marge has no idea who Vidal is[[note]]he wasn't the type who liked to label his sexuality, but "not hetero" is the consensus[[/note]]). To a modern viewer, it is quite startling to hear such a homophobic comment from someone like Marge, even more so to have it go unchallenged. Stranger still, less than one year later, the episode "Homer's Phobia" had Marge have no problem with homosexuality at all.

* The episode ''There's Something About Marrying'' from Season 16, Marge's sister Patty comes out as a lesbian and introduces the family to her fiancee Veronica. The ending reveals Veronica is a man named Leslie who dressed up as a woman to be allowed to play women's professional golf. When Leslie asks Patty to marry him anyway, Patty refuses, reaffirming her interest in women. While the episode was praised at the time, even getting a nod of approval from GLAAD, it's impossible to overlook the transphobic plot nowadays, especially as the idea of men pretending to be trans women to get advantages in sports has become a favourite transphobic talking point.

* [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E1BartGetsAnF "Bart Gets An F"]] is seen as ValuesResonance for its depiction of Bart struggling with his studies mirroring those with a learning disability. Where it falls back into Dissonance are his attempts to get help from the school or his family falling on deaf ears (which is sadly TruthInTelevision far more than it should be, but the episode views this as potential LaserGuidedKarma considering [[KidsAreCruel how Bart typically acts]]). The HardTruthAesop of the episode is supposed to be "sometimes you try your hardest and still fail," which is ''not'' something you tell a child with a medical condition that isn't being treated...

* 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]] most 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 video game or running away from home after burning Lisa's Thanksgiving centerpiece). However, as the '90s rolled on, BlackComedy animated shows became increasingly mainstream and later seasons had to use {{flanderization}} to keep Bart "menacing". This is perfectly lampshaded in the crossover with ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', where Bart finds Stewie's behavior horrifying and far too hardcore for him to handle. Ironically, Bart was partly created as a parody about how Matt Groening didn't think ''ComicStrip/DennisTheMenaceUS'' was all that troublesome, and that he came across as outright benign to modern audiences.

* 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]] most 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 video game or running away from home after burning Lisa's Thanksgiving centerpiece). However, as the '90s rolled on, BlackComedy animated shows became increasingly mainstream and later seasons had to use {{flanderization}} to keep Bart "menacing". This is perfectly lampshaded in the crossover with ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', where Bart finds Stewie's behavior horrifying and far too hardcore for him to handle. Ironically, Bart was partly created as a parody about how ''ComicStrip/DennisTheMenaceUS'' didn't seem that troublesome to modern audiences.

-->'''Bart:''' Whoa. Thinking back, I'm kind of surprised Mom and Dad let a crazy man spend all night in my bedroom.\\
'''Homer:''' [[ComicBookTime Simpler time]].

* While it always bordered on edgy, the RunningGag of Moe [[BungledSuicide attempting to kill himself]] via hanging is more likely to make modern viewers feel uncomfortable rather than [[BlackComedy laugh]] now that suicide is being taken FAR more seriously nowadays, up to the point where if such a joke were to be made in a show today, it would receive heavy backlash. For this reason, the gag can come across as insensitive at best and downright offensive at worst. The writers seemed to have realized this and tried to address the problem in [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS24E19WhiskeyBusiness "Whiskey Business"]]… with mixed results.

* While it always bordered on edgy, the RunningGag of Moe [[BungledSuicide attempting to kill himself]] via hanging is more likely to make modern viewers feel uncomfortable rather than [[BlackComedy laugh]] now that suicide is being taken FAR more seriously nowadays, up to the point where if such a joke were to be made in a show today, it would receive heavy backlash. For this reason, the gag can come across as insensitive at best and downright offensive at worst. The writers seemed to have realized this and tried to address the problem in [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS24E19WhiskeyBusiness "Whiskey Business"]]…with mixed results.

* "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E1BartGetsAnF Bart Gets An F]]" is seen as ValuesResonance for its depiction of Bart struggling with his studies mirroring those with a learning disability. Where it falls back into Dissonance are his attempts to get help from the school or his family falling on deaf ears (which is sadly TruthInTelevision far more than it should be, but the episode views this as potential LaserGuidedKarma considering [[KidsAreCruel how Bart typically acts]]). The HardTruthAesop of the episode is supposed to be "sometimes you try your hardest and still fail," which is ''not'' something you tell a child with a medical condition that isn't being treated...
* In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E8NewKidOnTheBlock New Kid on the Block]]" Marge is visibly uncomfortable around her new neighbor, a divorced single mother. This attitude was almost quaint when it was first aired, but now it makes Marge look rather closed-minded.
* 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/TheSimpsonsS8E4BurnsBabyBurns Burns Baby Burns]]", the Simpson family discusses the awful things Mr. Burns has done to them (i.e. sexual harassment, injuries, and other actions [[ForTheEvulz done for the sake of evil]]), with Homer finishing by saying that Burns made fun of his weight. In 1996, this was meant to be a case of ArsonMurderAndJaywalking, with the latter offense being ridiculously benign compared to the others. While it's definitely still seen as less egregious than some of Burns' other actions, nowadays fat-shaming is taken far more seriously than it used to be. As such, many modern viewers won't find the contrast between that offense and the others to be nearly as ridiculous as it was intended to be.
* 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 "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E25SummerOf4Ft2 Summer of 4 Ft. 2]]" a depressed Lisa sighs that her only friends are writers like Creator/GoreVidal, "and even he's kissed more boys than I ever will." Marge quickly tells her that boys kiss ''girls''. When the episode first aired in 1996, it was common to portray a character uncomfortable with mentioning homosexuality as just slightly behind the times or clueless (or both -- part of the joke is that Marge has no idea who Vidal is[[note]]he wasn't the type who liked to label his sexuality, but "not hetero" is the consensus[[/note]]). To a modern viewer, it is quite startling to hear such a homophobic comment from someone like Marge, even more so to have it go unchallenged. Stranger still, less than one year later, the episode "Homer's Phobia" had Marge have no problem with homosexuality at all.
* In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E14LisaVsMalibuStacy Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy]]" the family at one point expresses exhaustion with Lisa’s endless moral crusades. In particular, Bart cites the fact that she made them all march in a gay pride parade (with a clueless Bart ending up on the newspaper's front page), which is presented as a fairly extreme thing to subject her family to. Today, not only is it common for non-LGBT+ families to attend Pride, later episodes show the Simpsons doing so without any discomfort.

* Apu has caught flak from some 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, and the DeepSouth) or make fun of archetypes such as the rich white businessman. 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,]] [[RambunctiousItalian Luigi,]] [[TalkLikeAPirate The Sea Captain,]] and [[ViolentGlaswegian Groundskeeper Willie.]] In 2019, Azaria announced he would stop voicing the character( though the creators of the show had already recognized his problematic nature by phasing Apu out of speaking roles, with "Much Apu About Something" being his final speaking role and essentially addressing his stereotypical natural head on) and that he was supportive of the idea of a Hindu actor taking over as several non-white characters, not only on ''The Simpsons'', had their voice artists changed[[note]]Alex Desert took over as Carl and Officer Lou with Eric Lopez also replacing Azaria as Bumblebee Man, and Kevin Michael Richardson replaced Harry Shearer as Dr. Hibbert[[/note]], though the show later decided to just have Apu stop making appearances altogether as his reputation became so radioactive that there weren't any actors willing to become his new voice.

* In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E10Springfield $pringfield]]": Was Homer teaching Maggie to gamble supposed to come as a shock? If so, it'd be lost on a British audience. British gambling laws allow minors to gamble, albeit on arcade games that dispense tokens and/or tickets to the winners. It's kind of like what America has with Chuck E. Cheese, Dave & Busters, and other "family fun center" places which combine a restaurant with an arcade. In fact, gambling with real money (albeit small stakes - with maximum stakes of £1 and maximum payouts of £20.00) is not only legal for under [=18s=] in parts of the UK and Europe, but it's a normal part of growing up, teaching kids the valuable lesson of "Don't bet what you can't lose". In America, gambling on ''anything'' with real money has a hard minimum age of 18 years old; anyone caught gambling underage would be ejected and banned from the premises, at best. A parent teaching their kid to gamble in a casino could easily end up going to jail for it.

-->'''Bart:''' Whoa. Thinking back, I'm kind of surprised Mom and Dad let a crazy man spend all night in my bedroom.
-->'''Homer:''' [[ComicBookTime Simpler time]].

* "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E19SweetSeymourSkinnersBaadasssssSong Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song]]"

* While it always bordered on edgy, the RunningGag of Moe [[BungledSuicide attempting to kill himself]] via hanging is far more likely to make modern viewers feel uncomfortable rather than [[BlackComedy laugh]] now that suicide is being taken FAR more seriously nowadays, up to the point where if such a joke were to be made in a show today, it would receive heavy backlash. For this reason, the gag can come across as rather insensitive at best and downright offensive at worst. The writers seemed to have realized this and tried to address the problem in [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS24E19WhiskeyBusiness "Whiskey Business"]]…with mixed results.

* In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS11E2BrothersLittleHelper Brother's Little Helper]]", during the fire safety assembly, Bart gets a kick out of Principal Skinner saying the names of various firefighting implements. One of them was "Retardant," which Bart found funny because it sounded like "Retard''ed''," which is now generally considered to be a ''very'' rude term for mentally disabled people (with some even considering it a slur).