Being a Long Runner, The Simpsons has made plenty of shots throughout the years.
- The writers have probably taken more shots at the Fox network than hunters have at actual foxes.
- One episode has Bart and Milhouse watching an obvious pastiche of South Park. The Stan-pastiche mentions that they're at a concert with a band consisting of Steve Guttenberg, Calista Flockhart, and Farty the Crippled Robot. Farty farts out OJ Simpson, who declares he's gonna kill everyone and says how he's gonna find the real killer. This is followed by Bart wondering, "How do they keep things so fresh after 43 episodes?" South Park had previously lampooned The Simpsons, noting that the show's extremely long run had made it hard to find new ideas.
- The show took occasional jabs at The Ren & Stimpy Show, particularly the long gaps between new episodes. "Another Simpsons Clip Show" also mocked their tendency to re-use old animation with newly dubbed voices, with a scene with Bart, Lisa, and Marge doing this and commenting on how Ren and Stimpy do this all the time.Marge: "Yes, and when was the last time you heard anyone talk about Ren and Stimpy?"
- It seems this rivalry is over, as John Kricfalusi did the couch gag for an episode in 2011, and again for "Treehouse of Horror XXVI".
- The show has ripped into Family Guy and American Dad! a couple of times, though Matt Groening has described his rivalry with Seth MacFarlane as "affectionate", and MacFarlane even contributed the opening song for the last Futurama movie.
- In "The Italian Bob", a wanted police book in Italy cites Peter for "plagiarismo" and Stan for "plagiarismo di plagiarismo".
- In "Treehouse of Horror XIII", Peter Griffin can be seen in the middle of a crowd of thousands of cloned versions of Homer.
- In "Missionary: Impossible", Betty White hosts a TV pledge drive, urging viewers to call right away "if you don't want to see crude, lowbrow programming disappear from the airwaves." As she says this, she turns off a TV that has the Family Guy logo on it. Notably, this episode first aired at a time when FOX was first threatening to cancel Family Guy and critics wrote the show off as a crude Simpsons knock-off with pointless jokes and Black Comedy.
- In "The Wandering Juvie", as Bart and a girl from the neighboring female juvenile delinquent facility exchange insults, Gina responds to Bart calling her a psycho and a future skank by calling him a "family guy."
- "Black Widower" takes swipe at Dinosaurs: "It's like they saw our lives and put it right up on screen!" In return, Dinosaurs had Earl commenting they've made one big successful show and now others are making cheap rip-offs of it. Baby Sinclair replies, "Don't have a cow, man," a regular catch phrase used by Bart Simpson.
- "The Last Temptation of Krust" references the trope itself, when guest star Janeane Garofalo mocks Krusty's TV dinner jokes: "Take that, Swanson's!"
- In "They Saved Lisa's Brain", when Mensa makes improvements in Springfield, the city moves up to #299 on the list of America's 300 most livable cities. Comic Book Guy shouts: "Take that, East St. Louis!"
- "Marge Be Not Proud":
- Bart hides the tape with Brodka's message in the place no one would look for it: a tape cassette cover for Allan Sherman's "Camp Granada".
- As Homer reprimands Bart for stealing:"We live in a society of laws! Why do you think I took you to all those Police Academy movies?! For fun?! Well, I didn't hear anyone laughing! Did you?! Well, except for the guy who did sound effects..."
- In "Sweets and Sour Marge", Chief Wiggum tosses a few Butterfingers into a candy bonfire only to see them repelled unharmed: "Even the fire doesn't want them." Take That, soon to be ex-endorsement! Earlier in the episode, Springfield is declared America's fattest city. Homer shouts "In your face, Milwaukee!"
- In the DVD Commentary tracks for the earlier seasons, the writers and producers of that time explain Take That as a taunt to counter unnecessary cheap shots at innocent targets.
- Matt Groening must really have something against Arby's.
- In "Das Bus", Sherri or Terri states, "I'm so hungry, I could eat at Arby's!" The other children gasp in horror and sympathy.
- In "Old Yeller Belly": "People do crazy things in commercials.. like eat at Arby's."
- In "Treehouse of Horror XVII" short "Married to the Blob", Homer eats a space-blob of goo that is trying to escape his body. Homer then proceeds to say "If I can keep down Arby's, I can keep down you!" After many ruthless escapes going as far as out his nostrils and ears.
- From season 8's "A Milhouse Divided":
Neighbor: "A possum drowned in the pool. You have any garbage bags?"
Kirk van Houten: "Just throw it over the fence and let Arby's deal with it."- In Season 28's "Fatzcarraldo", Homer searches for a good restaurant with non-healthy food to eat at, but all he could find are Kentucky Steamed Chickpeas, Tofu Bell, and Arby's.
- The Simpsons has also taken a jab or two at Mountain Dew, the most memorable of which being from "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson".Homer: That khlav kalash was pretty bad, do you have anything to drink to get rid of the taste?
Vendor: Mountain Dew or Crab Juice.
Homer: Blech, ewwww! I'll take a Crab Juice! - In "Dude, Where's My Ranch?", Homer and Bart were offered a drink. As soon as they started drinking it, the man offering it said it was bear urine, which causes Homer and Bart to pause. The man then says it was really Fresca, wherein Bart and Homer spit it out.
- The show has itself been the target of a real-life Take That: George Bush Sr. once held a speech with the phrase "We're going to strengthen the American family to make them more like The Waltons and less like The Simpsons." This was a bad, bad move on the part of the presidential speechwriters, because the show retaliated by having the January 30, 1992 reairing of the Season 3 episode "Stark Raving Dad" open with a reworked scene from "Simpson and Delilah" where Bart sees the speech and remarks "Hey, we're just like the Waltons. We're praying for an end to the Depression too." The moral of the story is that you probably shouldn't pick on people who make a living out of comedy.
- There's also "Two Bad Neighbors", where Bush senior moves into a house opposite the Simpsons. He gets to be the butt of nearly every joke.…while somehow providing one of the few sympathetic portrayals of Barbara Bush to be shown in an American sitcom. (But only as a pastiche of Mrs. Wilson.)
- Completely and utterly averted in his first appearance, when after Lisa exposes a corrupt Senator's land deal (taking bribes to allow drilling for oil on top of Mount Rushmore), an emergency expulsion bill is sent to President Bush. He signs it, commenting "This ought to make my bosses happy... all 350 million of them!" note This is probably the only time in Simpsons history that politics has NOT been used as fodder for a Take That. Of course, this scene could be taken as satire, showing such an over-the-top positive view of American politics that it's easier to imagine as yet another Take That after all.
- The Comic Book Guy acts as a walking Take That to geeky overcritical fans everywhere.Comic Book Guy: Last night's Itchy & Scratchy was, without a doubt, the worst episode ever. Rest assured, I was on the Internet within minutes, registering my disgust throughout the world.
Bart: Hey, I know it wasn't great, but what right do you have to complain?
Comic Book Guy: As a loyal viewer, I feel they owe me.
Bart: What? They've given you thousands of hours of entertainment for free! What could they possibly owe you? If anything, you owe them!
Comic Book Guy: *beat* Worst episode ever. - There's a real good take that in "Homer Badman". If you pause the television when the apologies at the end of the episode are showing, you can clearly see "If you're reading this, you have no life" and "If you're writing this, you really have no life"
- In "Marge on the Lam", the Simpsons watch a public TV telethon, which was currently doing a live reading of A Prairie Home Companion, and Homer starts banging his TV screaming, "Be more funny!"
- In "Bart Has Two Mommies", Lenny and Carl are at a church ring toss game, and Carl remarks, "Ah, it's all a big scam." Lenny asks, "This booth?" Carl replies, "No, religion in general."
- Similarly, in The Simpsons Movie, as Grampa starts speaking-in-tongues in church:
Lisa: Dad, do something!
Homer: (reading a Bible) But this book doesn't have any answers! - MAD magazine seems to come under fire a little as well, with most of the "hilarious" satire being shown as weak and simplistic by the show's standards.
- "'Round Springfield" has Mufasa appearing in the clouds only to say to Lisa "You must avenge me, Kimba... I mean... Simba." An obvious stab at the theory surrounding The Lion King plagiarizing the anime series.
- "Treehouse of Horror XV" has Ned, after getting The Dead Zone-esque powers of predicting people's death by touch, commenting upon seeing that Rosie O'Donnell's musical being closed down that he "didn't need special powers to know that was coming!", an obvious take that on the quality of the musical. Also falls into Hilarious in Hindsight (or Harsher in Hindsight) when Rosie O'Donnell's revived talk show ends up being cancelled without even a series finale.
- Similarly to its cousin Futurama, the show takes a jab at Brown University, the Dean of Harvard snorting with derision when reassuring Lisa she still get into Brown.Lisa: Oh no! Not Brown! (echo) Brown, Brown, Brown...
- In one episode, the credits were "dedicated to those who died in the Star Wars movies." At one point, this comes up.Unfortunately not Jar Jar Binks.
- Another episode has Moe scold Homer something along the lines of "Hey! Don't knock America! Compared to the rest of the Third World, we're doing fine."
- In "The Mansion Family", Homer complains that he didn’t win anything at an awards show. When Lisa reminds him he won a Grammy, Homer says he meant an award worth winning. A disclaimer notes "Mr. Simpson's opinions does not reflect those of the producers, who don't consider the Grammy an award at all."
- In the "Treehouse of Horror XXIV" Dr. Seuss parody "Oh, the Places You'll D'oh!", when Homer's character The Fat in the Hat is on the verge of death, he declares "I'm frightened of nothing, not even Hell's fires. Just don't let me ever be played by Mike Myers!"
- The writers were once "asked" to introduce a new character to liven up the show. The result was "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show": an episode which has a new character be introduced to the titular cat and mouse duo which utterly ruins the show and is universally despised by everyone except Homer who voices him. Meanwhile, a character named Roy appears out of nowhere, is treated as if he was always a part of the Simpsons family, and vanishes without a trace in the end. Lisa even bluntly points out the writer's stance on it:Lisa: Adding a new character is often a desperate attempt to boost low ratings.
- While waiting in line for the last "Angelica Button" (Harry Potter with the Serial Numbers Filed Off) book in "Smoke on the Daughter", Lisa's "Angelica" costume is criticized by Comic Book Guy for its inaccuracy - only for Lisa to inform him that she based her costume on the series' books rather than its movies.
- When Homer meets Gal Gadot in "Bart's Not Dead", he claims to only know her from The Fast and the Furious movies, despite her being most famous for playing Wonder Woman. When Gal brings up her role as Wonder Woman, Homer says that he's never seen any of those movies because he falls asleep every time he sees the DC logo.
- The "Treehouse of Horror XXVI" Godzilla parody does a jab at the 1998 version directed by Roland Emmirichnote , by having Homerzilla get an American remake (with the title being shortened to "Zilla") which ended up bombing greatly.
- In the Cold Open of "Treehouse of Horror XXIX", a sea captain tells Homer he's going to be sacrificed to "an evil god from the ocean depths" (Cthulhu), to which a horrified Homer first guesses SpongeBob.
- In "The Ziff Who Came To Dinner", with The Wild Dingleberries Movie, to a time where Disney and Nickelodeon were milking their televised cartoons and slapping them on the silver screen for an extra helping of profit, and permanently killed off any substantial interest in theatrical 2D animation (or at least for three decades and counting).
- In a reversal of Biting-the-Hand Humor, after Disney bought out the Fox studios along with The Simpsons, a reel was made announcing the show's new streaming home of Disney+. In the reel, an autographed photograph of former Fox owner Rupert Murdoch is seen in the trash can, and the Fox logos on some balloons have been taped over.
- In "Gone Boy", Bart refers to Cirque du Soleil as "Cirque du So Lame" and Sideshow Bob asserts that "they're pretty much all the same".
- In the "Dial 'Z' for Zombies" segment of "Treehouse of Horror III", some of the gravestones in the pet cemetery read "Family Dog", "Fish Police", and "Capitol Critters". All three were animated shows trying to mooch off The Simpsons' runaway success in breaking through the Animation Age Ghetto, and were very short-lived, having "died" by the time the Simpsons episode aired.
- In "Home Away from Homer", Homer walks past Bart and Milhouse laughing at something on the computer and demands to know what it is. "And if you say Jimmy Fallon, I'll know you're lying!"
