The Simpsons / Headscratchers

Headscratchers for The Simpsons. Also check out the page for the movie.

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An Advertisement That Only Plays on ONE TV?

In the episode "Funeral For A Fiend", why is it in that episode when Sideshow Bob creates his fake restaurant, "Wes Doobner's World Famous Family Style Rib Huts", as part of his plot to murder the Simpson Family, how come no one else came to his fake restaurant except for The Simpson Family considering he had a whole TV commercial/advertisement that broadcasted on cable TV to get people to come to his fake restaurant? It makes no sense considering other people in the city of Springfield and surrounding regions most likely would've seen the commercial too, so why did none of Springfield's other residents, or even residents from other nearby cities and locations, come to his fake restaurant? And no one probably believe this was ever explained in the episode, so it makes no sense. I find it hard to believe that even if the target was just the Simpson Family, that no one else who saw the commercial or anyone else who even just drove by the restaurant wouldn't have tried to stop in and see what it was all about.
- The guy who probably gave the Simpsons the remote probably was working for Bob. Bob even made the TiVo cable and hypnotized Marge into a lot of ads. As Lisa says "Cartoons don't make any sense."

Frink's Critique

The memetically-famous critique about Itchy playing Scratchy's skeleton like a xylophone, and different notes sounding despite the same rib being struck twice, is there any way it could be plausible? Although I haven't studied music, I do believe it could be because when the rib was struck the second time, it was still vibrating from before, so the impact made the vibrations faster and increased the pitch. Try it for yourself with a tuning (or carving) fork.

Homer's Baldness

In Simpson and Delilah, after Homer lost all of his hair why couldn't he just get a wig? I don't see how they can be that expensive.
- As much as there's a stigma against male pattern baldness, there's also a stigma against hiding it, at least by wearing a hairpiece (though, paradoxically, shaving one's head to hide a receding hairline is considered okay). I have no idea why, but that's just how it is.

Elvis is White

In the season 4 episode, The Front, Bart, and Lisa write the Itchy and Scratchy cartoon, Little Barbershop of Horrors and they show Scratchy getting blasted into a tv where he gets shot by Elvis. How is Elvis white when the only white characters are Asians? We know it's Elvis because the Simpsons wiki page on the cartoon short has not only his name but the actual event it was based on under the trivia section. Since we know Elvis exists in this universe, how can he be white? Then again in New Kids on the Blecch, we see a picture of Elvis getting his hair cut while he was in the army and he looked like a combination of yellow and white.
- Has any other human ever appeared in Itchy and Scratchy? I think they live in a Funny Animal world where everyone else is some other variety of furry and Elvis was the only exception, and considering that in the Simpson white humans are represented as yellow it would make sense that in-universe is the other way around (if it was voluntary and not just that the animators overlook it then is a very clever thing).

Manjula in MENSA

In "Frink Gets Testy", why is Manjula in MENSA?
- Apu works all the time, so she may have joined so she can get some social time with other adults.

Vice Principal

Does Springfield Elementary School even have a Vice Principal? If not why don't they have one?
- Springfield E is constantly cash-strapped, Seymour can't afford to employ one. He's also more than a little controlling so probably enjoys or feels compelled to be taking on their duties himself anyway. Either that or it is Willie.
- In a "Doylist" sense, Law of Conservation of Detail. A recurring Vice-Principal character would probably not add that much or have any more of a role that couldn't be filled by either Principal Skinner or the regular teachers we see. Same reason we don't see any other teachers for other years that often despite the fact that they presumably also exist. If you need to, just handwave it with the assumption that they probably exist, they're just not interesting or relevant enough for us to focus on in any great detail.
  - This problem could've been solved if they'd had the foresight to make Skinner the vice principal and Chalmers the principal instead of the superintendent. Anyway, what if Leopold is the vice principal? You know, the big angry-looking guy occasionally seen with Chalmers? Is his job title ever actually stated? He could be the Springfield Elementary vice principal.

What Kind of Saxophone?

Can anyone tell me what kind of saxophone Lisa uses (alto, baritone, etc?) And how can you tell (if you can) from the drawing of it? Thanks.
- It is a baritone and you can tell by the drawing. A baritone sax has the largest bell, a tenor has a medium-sized bell, an alto has a small bell, and a soprano has no bell (it's straight like a clarinet.) You can also tell by the pitch, a baritone sax is the lowest and a soprano is the highest, just like with singing voices. Confirmed in the show in some episodes (such as the one where Homer prepares for the end of the world and meets up with other doomsday preppers.)

Abe's Hair

Does Abe have blonde hair despite having brown hair in the past... or does he have a weirdly shaped bald head?
- He's gone mostly bald, with just a little tuft of very lightly-colored hair remaining. His hair is drawn/colored like that to match Bart, Lisa, and Maggie's seamless skin-hair transition.

How Would the Law Punish Springfield?

I and my friend were debating this... if Surprisingly Realistic Outcome occurs in the episode The Simpsons S18E18 "The Boys of Bummer", how exactly would the LAW punish the ENTIRE town of Springfield for the crime of harassing and bullying Bart to the brink of suicide... and continue this treatment once he survived the suicide attempt. Besides Chief Wiggum being fired and blacklisted from Law Enforcement due to you know... BEING A F**KIN' COP AND CONTRIBUTING TO BART'S SUICIDE ATTEMPT, How exactly would actual competent law enforcement penalize an entire town for this heinous crime?
- One thing for sure is that Springfield would be permanently blacklisted in sports, with all of its teams being forced to disband, and anyone originating from the town banned from joining other teams. Wiggum would be fired, indeed, and probably charged with attempted murder. Tourism would be hit very badly, as people would not want to visit a town full of people who are willing to hurt children, mentally or physically, for petty reasons. And the Simpsons would be placed into Witness Protection for Bart's safety, maybe even forced to change their names.
  - And then there's Joe LaBoot. He's cited as an example of someone who made a similar mistake as Bart but still became famous. But when Bart goes to meet him, and LaBoot finds out who he's speaking with, he joins in on the bullying, driving Bart towards the Despair Event Horizon, and telling Lisa off when she calls him out on his hypocrisy. End result: LaBoot is disgraced. He'll be hated by everyone, stripped of all of his titles, become an Unperson and fair game for mockery, and will most likely have criminal charges laid against him, especially if he attacked other children. He'll become baseball's Jimmy Savile.
- The town as an institution probably wouldn't be punished by law enforcement, but state politicians could do everything from "conveniently forgetting" to provide for Springfield in state budgets to discouraging businesses from investing there to publicly condemning the town's actions. And while law enforcement couldn't punish the town itself, they could make the townspeople's lives miserable by nailing as many individual citizens as possible to the wall with as many charges as will stick. Those citizens could be tied up in court for years, ruining everything from their finances to their public reputations.

Dealing with the Dummies

How exactly can Marge and Lisa deal with the stupidity of Homer and Bart? They treat it like it's the norm and don't do a damn thing to end it.
- Homer is stupid because of a genetic trait, and Bart's not stupid - just naughty (or uninterested in traditional learning topics & methods and therefore fidgety; see the episode where Chalmers teaches Bart about Theodore Roosevelt.). They can deal with it because they like Homer.
- Depending on the Writer Homer’s stupidity is more naive, especially in early seasons making him kind of innocent and lovable, he later became more sociopathic in later seasons due to Flanderization. Bart is not stupid, his intelligence is average or he may even be more clever than normal he just doesn’t use it for good deeds or academic achievements.
- They often don't put up with it. Many episodes where Homer and Bart screw up really badly upset Margie and Lisa, causing conflict and Homer and Bart being punished for their antics. As for why Marge sticks around despite Homer being a gluttonous, accident-prone oaf, she knows that Homer really cares for her and has demonstrated his loyalty to her on multiple occasions. Lisa also loves Bart deep down even though he's teased/pranked her a lot over the years because she knows he cares about her and would never attempt to seriously hurt her (besides "Lisa on Ice" where they were both trying to hurt each other).

Presidents

In The Simpsons, the episodes always take place in the year they were produced. Early in the show, we see that Bush Sr. was President, and it's been shown Obama's president in recent episodes. The Simpsons Movie obviously takes place in 2007, so why is Arnold Schwarzenegger president? It was even said he was elected. Does this mean the movie is the true finale or what?
- One of the staff said they didn't want the movie to become dated, so they substituted Bush for a fictional president, which will only become dated when Schwarzenegger dies.
- Which could have been completely sidestepped if they had just used Rainer Wolfcastle
- They probably picked Schwarzenegger because he's like a hippogriff, something that is literally impossible and it was somewhat topical as there was discussion about him becoming President. ^note

Have You Seen These Exes?

In "Moonshine River" Bart goes back to his old girlfriends just to get rejected. How come they didn't feature Laura Powers, Jessica Lovejoy, Greta Wolfcastle, or Shauna from "Beware My Cheating Bart?" Could they not get the voice actresses to return or was the guest star list at maximum capacity?
- The guest stars probably didn't want to have to come all the way back to the voice recording studios just to say one short line. Also, I agree that the guest star list was at maximum capacity.
- Laura never dated Bart because he was too young for her. He broke it off with Jessica, she didn't reject him, so dating her wouldn't go against Lisa's claim that all his girlfriends left him. Shauna, someone had to look up, but from what is remembered, she had loose morality like Jessica and is also Laura's age, something he could have realized when thinking about his old girlfriends as a whole. I can't think of an in-universe reason to skip Greta.
  - Jessica was also like Nikki. She got Bart seriously injured and covered in glue and she framed him for stealing the donated church money.
  - Greta clearly states that she needed time alone from dating.
- Laura was more of a one-sided crush. He did have a picture of Jessica. No idea about the others.

Futurama but No Simpsons

It's well established that Matt Groening exists in the universe of The Simpsons, where he's the creator of Futurama. This mostly averts the Celebrity Paradox, but it makes you wonder...would Futurama still have gotten made if Groening hadn't become famous as the creator of the mega-hit The Simpsons? Also: if he wasn't occupied with The Simpsons early in his career, did Futurama come out a lot earlier in this universe? Did Futurama start out as shorts onThe Tracey Ullman Show? (It kind of makes you wonder what the 1987 versions of the cast look like...)
- Plausible answer: his career started with a different show in The Simpsons that, unlike The Simpsons, eventually ended at, I dunno, season 7, and was fantastically popular. Futurama came afterward, on a different network, that canceled it after...say...fourteen episodes, just long enough for it to become a cult sensation.
- Probably the above scenario with the different show being Life in Hell, the idea Groening originally intended to present to The Tracey Ullman Show before deciding against it at the last minute. Supported by the Life in Hell merchandise sometimes seen around Springfield, and offering an interesting take on What Could Have Been.
  - It is explained in the infamous "That '90s Show" episode: Matt Groening was poor, but made "Futurama" in the 90s.
  - What if he threw together the Futurama characters to pitch to Fox instead of The Simpsons?

Logic Behind the Ballet Mistake

In "Marge on the Lam," why did Homer get ballet confused with seeing a little bear driving a mini-car at the circus?
- Hell, he's not the only one. Lenny had exactly the same misconception.
  - Because they're stupid, and that's funny.
  - Bear + Valet = Ballet?

Who Evolved from Whom?

In the Homer's Evolution couch gag showing Homer going through evolution (with Moe devolving into a rat creature): Does this mean Moe evolved from rats or did the rats evolve from Moe?
- Yes.
  - Probably the latter, considering he's devolving, but it's probably just a sight gag about Moe's ugliness and primitive nature.
  - It also could have been because he was going in the opposite direction.

Did Bart Really Die?

Does a lost episode called "Dead Bart" really exist?
- No. It was made up by people on the internet.
  - Whew. That's a relief.

Not-So-Special Guest Voice

Why did Marcia Wallace keep being called a special guest voice in the credits? Shouldn't she have been in the Also Starring category?
- I asked this question in real life a few years back, and the answer seemed to be because of name recognition. People know who Marcia Wallace is and so they don't want to relegate her to the "also starring" category, because the "guest star" category is more prominent. Of course, as someone who knows far more about Tress MacNeille and Russi Taylor than Marcia Wallace, it does seem strange.
  - Marcia Wallace was known for her live-action role on The Bob Newhart Show, so she was probably more well known to the general audience, while the others mainly just did voice roles.
- Casting and prominence is a dark art at the best of times, basically her agent wanted her to be a Special Guest Voice and the show wanted her to be on the show. That is why. We have a trope for this: Fake Guest Star.

Baby Translator

Why didn't the Simpsons buy one of those baby translators for Maggie?
- Why didn't Herb give them one free? Why NO ONE has one in later shows? Why? WHY? WHYYYYYY??? (Maybe weekly reset, or they don't care about Maggie enough.)
  - The baby translator, as previously said, had ramifications so far-reaching and society-altering that the writers placed it under Negative Continuity.
  - Would you want your baby's cries, coos, and gurgles translated into Uncy Herb's voice?
  - Who WOULDN'T want to hear Danny DeVito's voice instead of a screaming baby?
  - The translator doesn't work on pacifier-sucking noises.
- See Reed Richards Is Useless.

Too Many Doctors Spoil the Surgery

While the episode "Round Springfield" was a superb episode, one part seemed a little strange. Why are both Dr. Hibbert and Dr. Nick performing surgery on Bart? Isn't that like mixing oil and water? On the other hand, it did give us this:
Dr. Nick: Hey, I smell gas. Pleasant gas. Night-night gas.
- Maybe the surgery was so complex that it would have required two doctors to perform.
- The Question should be why two General Practitioners, one of them a Pediatrician, are performing complex surgery in the first place.
  - Limited cast. Dr. Hibbert has also pulled duty as an orthopedic surgeon (i.e. casting Bart's broken arm), a nephrologist (Homer Simpson In Kidney Trouble), an Ear, Nose & Throat surgeon (Marge and Homer go to him to fix Homer's snoring in "Half-Decent Proposal", and he recommends surgery)... memetically, the only job he doesn't hold is a florist.
  - The question was more why Dr. Hibbert and a certified quack ("Calm down, you're going to get skin failure.") are doing surgery.
  - There are several episodes where it's hinted that Hibbert is a bit of a quack himself.
  - Even if so, it's not nearly as blatant as Dr. Nick, and as the original poster said: oil and water.
  - I'm assuming Riviera was only there for sedation, not as an actual surgeon.

Too Smart for His Own Genes

If there really is a "Simpson Gene" that makes the male Simpsons into complete idiots at age 8, then how does that explain Bart when he is shown to be clever with pranks at age 10? Is this really a non-canon episode?
- It seems like the writers forgot about it. Another later episode (HOMR) proved that Homer was actually a genius, he just had a crayon lodged in his brain. Bart is also shown to be extremely smart when he's on Focusyn.
  - I also noticed that this episode is written by Ned Goldreyer, who also wrote the non-canon Treehouse of Horror VIII.
  - Goldreyer only wrote one segment. Beyond that, are you seriously thinking that any Treehouse of Horror episodes are canon? How could "Bart Simpsons Dracula" be considered more canon than this?
  - It could be that the gene does not make you dumb per se, but make you a loser, intelligent people can be unsuccessful in many ways and Homer even after the crayon is removed is still unable to adapt and becomes socially awkward, not dumb but still without enough social skills. In Lisa’s Wedding episode Bart is shown to be a demolition worker with three divorces that expends his time at Moe’s but there’s no indication that he’s dumb. However, the most likely explanation is that the episode is non-canonical. And yes, non of the Halloween episodes are canon.

Weird Idea of Dignity

Maximum Homerdrive: "Maybe it's time we ditched the high-tech gizmos and went back to driving like our daddies did... Using our hands and our wits... it has meaning and dignity... Nah. Let's just find some other scam."
- So in this world, there really is a chip that can drive a truck for you, flawlessly, around windy cliff roads? And the "dignified" thing to do is to hide its existence from the world and continue to make a living driving with your flawed (and speed-addled) brains and hands? I'm pretty sure that *is* another scam.
- Reed Richards Is Useless.

Marge the Prude

Don't get me wrong; I loved the episode "Homer to the Max", but one part of it was a little confusing. Why was Marge grossed out, or at least very weirded out, by the idea of actually having sex with Homer instead of just snuggling with him? Remember the escapades of "Natural Born Kissers"?
- It was Homer changing his name to Max Power that weirded her out, not the sex.
- And it was also Homer describing sex with Max Power as "Strap[ping] yourself in and feel[ing] the G's." It was Marge basically reacting to how out of character Homer has become due to his name change.

Disliking Her Own (Partial) Creation

This troper has always been annoyed by the ending of the episode "The Front". Grampa wins a writing award for the Itchy & Scratchy episodes Lisa and Bart wrote with his name on them, and at the ceremony, he goes off on a rant about how sick and horrible the cartoons (which he'd never seen before) are, and gets booed off the stage. Okay, whatever. But why does Lisa agree with him about a cartoon she helped write?
- Maybe she wanted to express her creativity in a way that the public would see. As a child and a fan of Itchy and Scratchy, she saw the medium of ghostwriting episodes as a way of doing that. Sure the show goes against her morals, but at least her work got on TV. I watch some things that I wouldn't agree with in the real world, but that doesn't mean I'm going to stop watching them. And before you go on about how she doesn't get any credit on the work, she's a child. Children don't get credit for writing professionally! Haven't you read Ender's Game?
- Didn't she satisfy her goals? Wasn't the basis of the plot that Lisa and Bart thought they could write better episodes than the ones they had been watching?

Correctly Crazy

Why did Homer and Marge take Bart off of the Focusyn? Sure, it was making him crazy, but he was completely correct about everything he freaked out about. Plus overdosing didn't appear to have any negative side effects.
- Because they were being good parents and decided that Bart's happiness was more important than grades?
- He might have been right, but he went completely insane. I mean, he steals a *tank* for God's sake, I'd take him off the drugs too.
- Even in the real world, drugs can have good effects but be unsuitable for a person. Birth control can regulate hormones and make periods less severe and painful but can worsen depression, OCD medication can reduce destructive thoughts but cause a person to have migraines, and mood stabilizers for Tourette's syndrome can cause kidney damage. Sometimes the risks outweigh the benefits.
- Bart may have been right about everything, but in the universe of The Simpsons being right isn't actually worth all that much. It's a recurring theme in the show that intelligent, talented people are doomed to failure and misery while idiots blunder their way into success and happiness (see "HOMR", "Lisa's Rival", "Homer's Enemy"). That's what's going on here: Bart uncovered Major League Baseball's diabolical conspiracy, but no one cared so long as they got to watch a guy hit some dingers. The Simpsons live in an insane world, and Focusyn made Bart far too sane to survive in it.
- It's like when you run across something that talks about things that Alex Jones got right. Once in a while even a paranoid conspiracy theorist is going to get something right.

No MENSA for Martin

Why isn't Martin Prince a member of MENSA? His IQ is 216, which is higher than the other members.
- Maybe he was planning to after he heard that Lisa had joined, but after the crazy stuff the MENSA members did, he figured it would just be better just to settle for the Super Friends (the local school's nerd group, not the superhero one).
- Funny enough, in the game Tapped Out, he is a new member of MENSA.
- When Bart reveals he cheated on the IQ test, he doesn't say how he cheated, just that he cheated, so Martin's intelligence goes unnoticed at the time. They probably just never bothered to administer a second IQ test.
- Being in the top 2% of intelligent people only qualifies one for MENSA. It doesn't make one a member automatically. Just because he can doesn't mean he'd choose to — especially with the local chapter being very tiny and entirely adults until Lisa joins. It doesn't really have much to offer him.

Only One Church

When Reverend Lovejoy and his wife leave Springfield, why does Marge say, "It's as if God has left Springfield"? Is it possible that their church is the only church in the whole town, even only considering Presbyterians?
- Because, as seen in "Homer the Heretic", "She of Little Faith" and "The Father, The Son, and The Holy Guest Star", Marge has absolutely zero respect for other religions or alternative forms of worship. Reverend Lovejoy's departure probably means that the one true way to worship or contact God is gone, at least to Marge.
- It's possible. Springfield only has a population of about 25,000. Unless the writers need it to be bigger, of course.
  - Wait. Does Springfield have a set-in-stone population?
  - My town of 8000 has more than fifty churches. Just sayin'.
  - 1400 people. At least 4 churches, maybe more.
  - 1600 people in my hometown. 2 churches that I knew of when we moved, and now there's a new one. May be more besides those three.
  - Yeah, and what about in the episode where they have the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) church that Dr. Hibbert and his family go to? I think the episode was called "Milhouse of Sand and Fog".
- Presbylutheran. To be more precise, Western American Reformed Presbylutheran. Anyway, other episodes have established E-piss-copal (Lovejoy's phrasing, not mine) and Catholic churches. I can't remember if "She of Little Faith" included other Christian places of worship, but it's clear that other ways of finding God, as it were, exist in Springfield.
  
  Though to answer your question, it's possible that Lovejoy is one of the most highly influential men of faith in Springfield of any faith and that's how losing him would be like losing God.
- Dr. Hibbert began attending a more "boisterous" church.
- It's not just the only church, it's the only religious building in Springfield. I mean, Krusty attends the church despite being Jewish, because there is no other way to worship God in Springfield. The only problem with that is the Catholic School Bart once attended.
  - Actually, it's been shown in other episodes that there are not only synagogues, since Krusty's father is a rabbi and his temple has been shown several times, but also a Buddhist temple. Like so many other Simpsons things, it's simply a matter of what is convenient for the plot. Lovejoy's church is a common scene for the show, since it's the one the Simpsons and Flanders attends, and rather than filling up the seats with generic background characters, they put in supporting characters, even if it makes no sense for them to attend, like Krusty and Apu.
  - Yeah about that, why is Apu seen in that church even though he is Hindu? I bet someone got fired for animating that mistake!
  - Again, it's not a matter of consistency, characters frequently appear in settings that make no sense, it's simply a matter of having familiar characters wherever the main characters go rather than having to design a dozen new ones. Apu and Krusty have no reason to be in Lovejoy's church but go there anyway because they're among the most recognizable supporting cast.
  - "For no reason, here's Apu."

Why Doesn't Lisa Know About PETA?

Lisa and PETA. You'd think a girl like her would know about them. Then again, she does go back and forth between being wise beyond her years and having the mindset of a child. Plus, not that many people know much about PETA.
- Maybe Lisa believes all those crazy stories about PETA are just propaganda made up by the conservative media?
  - Didn't Bart say that Lisa was in PETA after Marge refused to let him sign up for the army? "I think she just answers the phone", was Marge's response.
- Easy: PETA are jerks. Now, I agree that animals have no right to be treated badly because they are not human beings. But they are not the best people for the most part when it comes to talking about what's right in my mind. So after Lisa joined (as the troper above pointed out), she saw how bad they were: their leader using insulin (something that was invented using ANIMAL TESTING), trying to Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp" by naming fish "Sea-kittens," trying to get McDonald's to treat their animals better by flipping them off (yes, because a multi-Billion dollar company is going to change the way it does things because a bunch of people gives their employees the bird) and about 96% percent of the animals they get are put down. And that's just the REAL LIFE PETA. Since this is the Simpsons (who exaggerate things), they would be the type who burns down half a town, knock out a family, take their kitten, and 'free' it by dumping it off in the woods. Lisa, wanting people and animals to share the Earth without trouble, quit after seeing what PETA really is. FYI, no offense to PETA, but I just don't think they are effective at what they try to do.
There was the PETA-like group in "Lisa The Tree-Hugger". Except that they disappear after the end of the episode. Given that they had gotten live news coverage for their Krusty Burger protest, it's highly implausible they just stopped committing them and stayed out of trouble. And the publicity they "wood" have gotten for the Lisa Land redwood wreaking havoc across the United States would have established them in peoples' consciousness.

Gonna Run All Night... Why?

In "In Marge We Trust", why did Ned keep running from the bullies throughout the night? Surely it would've been better to just give in and just let them beat him up?
- It wasn't just the fact that he kept running that was weird. Apparently, Ned's impressively ripped muscles are just for show.
  - Impressively ripped muscles or not, Ned is a total sissy. He wouldn't consider letting himself get beat up, or beating up the bullies as an option.

Why Don't Ralph & Martin Change Grades?

If there was an episode about Bart and Lisa both being in the third grade, then why not have an episode about Ralph Wiggum in the first grade and Martin Prince in the fifth grade?
- Because the entertainment from that episode comes from the conflict of Bart and Lisa being in the same grade. It also has quite the plot twist with Bart actually doing a lot better than Lisa.
- It isn't like Springfield Elementary has a stellar track record for consistency.

Wrong Voice

In "The Homer of Seville," why does Homer play Rodolfo and Count Almaviva although they are both tenor roles and Homer is clearly a baritone?
- Also, why on earth would Homer take part in an opera or any kind of musical theater judging by his obvious bias - he called the Phantom 'the gayest supervillain ever', and made fart noises during a performance.
- I am more pissed off by the fact that Homer, before that episode, has said "D'oh!" in a lying position so many times, and his wonderful musical voice is only noticed in this particular episode. And of course, it has no continuity whatsoever: he just keeps d'ohing in his regular voice after that.
  - I assume Homer got the ability to sing speak or D'oh operatically because of his injury, it says in Wikipedia (under plot) 'Dr. Hibbert concludes that when Homer lies on his back his stomach lodges underneath his diaphragm, which in turn helps propel his powerful singing voice.' and he loses the impressive ability because his body recovered and/or returned to the state it was before.

Where are All the Teens?

Why oh why, aren't there many teenagers shown in The Simpsons? I'd just thought of that, other than the bullies at Springfield Elementary (Dolph, Jimbo, and Kearney (even though later episodes reveal that Kearney isn't a teenager; he just looks like one), Laura Powers, the Squeaky-Voiced Teen, and the college geeks from "Homer Goes to College" and "Faith Off," the teenage population seems to be extremely low for a small town. It bothers me especially when later episodes show evidence of Springfield University, not to mention Homer/Marge's high school flashbacks.
- Possibly because there are no teenage Simpsons. There's a baby, some kids, adults, and seniors, but no teens.
- On the audio commentary for the short-lived cartoon series Mission Hill, Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein state that they created the show as a response to exactly this (well, not just teenagers, but also young college graduates. Close enough).
- Law of Conservation of Detail.

Ned Drives Illegally?

In the episode "Hurricane Neddy", it's stated that the Flanderses don't have insurance because Ned considers it a form of gambling. This wasn't a throwaway gag - the family's lack of insurance meant they couldn't have their house rebuilt, and the shoddy job the townsfolk did when they rebuilt it out of charity broke the dam and caused Ned to unleash all his pent-up anger. However, Ned is shown driving a car in several episodes. Maybe America is different, but don't you need insurance to drive?
- Ned probably has the legal minimum required insurance for his car. But it still doesn't make sense that he doesn't have homeowners insurance unless he owned that house free and clear. Mortgage lenders require the buyer to have property insurance as a way of protecting the lender's investment.
  - Who says Ned didn't buy the house in full in the first place? If he thinks insurance is wrong, surely he finds something wrong with loaning money.
  - It's also possible that he inherited the house.
  - Possibly, but keep in mind that he has at least ONE mortgage on it, since the failure of the Leftorium in When Flanders Failed caused the bank to repossess the house.
- America isn't different. You need insurance and your license on you to drive. This doesn't stop people.
  - Yeah, but Ned has always been shown to be incredibly law-abiding. Driving without insurance strikes me as exactly the sort of thing he wouldn't do.
  - Well it looks like he's got a moral de-diddly-lemma there. What do you do when your moral system says you should follow the law, yet the law goes against your moral system? He probably read over Matthew 22:15-22 a few dozen times, then called Reverend Lovejoy in the middle of dinner to resolve that doozy of a choosy.
  - Marry me.
  - In California at least, you have to have proof of insurance or a certain amount on deposit. Also, maybe Ned sees a difference between insurance against acts of man versus -against-acts-of-God.
  - We're talking about Ned Flanders, here. He sees EVERYTHING as an act of God.
- It's established in one episode that Ned is actually a senior citizen - chances are that he's already paid off any mortgage he originally took out on the house; and while he had a mortgage, he would've been required to have a certain minimum amount of insurance on the place by his mortgage lender, which he would have abided with; ditto with needing to have minimum insurance on his car. But he doesn't get any more insurance than is absolutely necessary (obviously he doesn't have any life insurance then).
- Real-life Muslims are against insurance for similar reasons, and usury is outlawed in Islamic countries. What do Muslims in the US do when buying a car? If they're super-religious, maybe they feel a little guilty while signing the papers. In Ned Flanders' case, just make that "very, very guilty".
  - Or they may set up a surety-bond, or certified deposit which many states allow as an alternative. It's also common for many Christian groups. Even the Amish.
  - There's actually no dilemma. The compulsory insurance required for driving is liability insurance i.e. the type that protects the other guy in case of an accident.
- Along with everything else, remember that the show has never been strong on continuity in the first place. In one episode, Rod and Todd tell Lisa that Ned considers dice to be wicked, and they only move one space at a time when playing "Good Samaritan". And yet, in another episode that includes a flashback to the 1980s, Rod, Todd, and Bart are shown playing the same board game with dice.
  - Well, Ned's religious fanaticism has increased so much over time that he's the namesake for Flanderization. It's possible that in the past he wasn't extreme enough to think that playing board games with dice is a sin. And even if we're supposed to think he's always been as extreme as he is, it's possible that it never occurred to him that it would be problematic to use dice for any reason - even for pure entertainment (as opposed to gambling)- until, say, he heard a televangelist say so.
  - Also note that in the flashback, the dice were in a plastic bubble that was shaken to move the dice, that is to say, kept the children from touching the wicked dice directly.

*Homer* the Mother?

I heard that the plot for "Bart the Mother" was actually a B-story that had been unused for a long time due to it having no place in the plot. The original story was about Homer finding a bird's nest in one of the nuclear plant towers and trying to find a home before winter comes. Did they ever use that plot? Will they ever use it?
- Yes, they used it in "Bart the Mother."
  - He meant the original idea, with Homer.
  - Probably not, since they used it in "Bart the Mother".

Yellow Skin

Why does everybody have yellow skin?
- That's just how the show portrays Caucasians. If you watch some of the early episodes (like the one where Marge goes to jail for a month), the show's Asian characters are depicted as having pale white skin.
- Because if they were blue and white, they'd be Smurfs.
- Alternate universe where man evolved slightly differently?
  - Then why do the Hills (of King of the hill, in their cameo appearance) and the Archie gang lack it?
  - Because that's what they look like in their home media; I guess that's honored when it comes to fictional guest stars.
  - Besides, this troper remembers the promos for 'Bart Starr' depicting the Hills with yellow skin, and it just looked weird.
  - Then why did The Critic's Jay Sherman appear yellow during his two guest appearances?
  - The Critic was a Gracie Films production. They were keeping it in the family; they might have considered animating the Hill family in the classic style an insult.
  - Because the whole joke with the Hills was that it was a split-second cameo from a rival cartoon series, and they wanted to make sure people got recognized them as quickly as possible. With Jay, since he was a guest character throughout the episode, they could use him for longer without worrying that people might not recognize him.
- Because Matt Groening can't draw.
  - The Animation Studio is the one that originally did that, not Matt.
- Or he lost his peach-colored crayon.
- If they were flesh-colored, some "hair" would actually be pointy bits of flesh, especially for Bart.
- I think they said it was originally to catch viewers' attention, and it stuck
  - This is true, they did it because they wanted people to think the color on their TV was off.
- Groening has also stated that he felt flesh-colored cartoon characters looked weird, noting the creepiness of Mickey Mouse being made Caucasian in Fantasia when he had always been a cartoony literal black and white. I guess he got over this by Futurama.
- IMDB.com says the characters were made yellow to catch the attention of anyone flipping through channels, and IMDB never lies.
- It was caused by radiation from the Nuclear Power Plant and waste run-off from the other polluting industries that Springfield seems to hold.
- Actually, the way I heard it was that all the Simpsons' odd anatomical stuff, like yellow skin, overbite, and hair that's indistinguishable from the skin, was because Groening's original drawings were intended just to give the animation crew a general idea. He was actually surprised when they copied his rough designs exactly.
  - Possibly, although Groening's no stranger to overbites.◊
- Matt's original drawings for The Simpsons (which he came up with in ten minutes while waiting outside James L. Brooks' office) were in black and white. It was the idea of one of the original color designers on The Tracey Ullman Show (her name escapes me) to make them yellow. The idea was so they would look different from anything else on television. Matt loved the plan and considers it one of the keys to the show's early success. Conversely, he refused to color the Futurama cast yellow because he wanted to send the message that the show wasn't just going to be "The Simpsons in space."
  - The yellow skin (and the blue hair etc.) was the idea of Gyorgyi Peluce.
  - Well, Why wasn't Sonic drawn with yellow skin in his three appearances.
  - Because that would make him Super Sonic.
  - Or worse, Soni Chu.
- I said SKIN (as in the muzzle, arms, and belly), not fur (the blue and possibly white stuff)!
  - There's a video on Youtube where David Silverman explains why the Simpsons are yellow. See here.

Hair

If Homer has brown hair, and Marge has blue hair, how are Bart, Lisa, and Maggie all blonde?
- Marge dyes her hair. She could be blonde, but I think she was brunette in a flashback episode.
- Homer's mom has red hair, and Marge's hair is naturally blue(but turned gray at 17). Marge once burned her hair brown with an iron and made her whole hair brown for the rest of the night.
  - Actually, (as far as I know) Marge's natural hair color is unknown. The reason her hair is blue is explained by Homer in the episode "Secrets of a Successful Marriage"; "She's been as grey as a mule since she was seventeen".
  - In "Fear of Flying" Marge is depicted as a 47-year-old to look exactly as she does today, except smaller. Same hairstyle, hair color, dress, and pearls.
  - Didn't women that went grey used to dye their hair blue? Around the time Matt Groening's mother would have gone grey?
  - One of my older aunts did, a very dark blue, so you might be onto something.
  - I don't think it was on purpose. I swear there's a trope for that... also other characters on the show have blue hair, like Milhouse and his parents. And a lot of children who are blonde as kids end up with brown hair as adults.
- Blonde hair is a recessive trait. In real life, two brown-haired people can produce a blond child, so Marge and Homer doing so aren't that unusual.
- According to "No Loan Again, Naturally" Bart is actually a redhead, and the sun bleaches it blonde. Might just be a one-off gag, but there you go.

How Did Moe Become Emperor?

I have another question about the Movie. While it was a funny joke, how did Moe become Emperor of Springfield? It seems more like something Mr. Burns or Sideshow Bob would do.
- Wasn't Bob in Italy at the time? As for Burns, when the situation went to hell, maybe the people decided to rise up against him and bring him down from his power for once. Heck, maybe Burns did become Emperor, but then got overthrown by Moe.
  - I forgot about the Italy part. Now that I think about it, maybe it's a good thing Sideshow Bob didn't become Emperor; he probably would have turned Springfield into an Amish community.
  - On the other hand, if Bob had been around, Springfield probably would have prospered under the dome. If only to get them to take off the dome so he could go find Bart and kill him.
- Um... was Moe ever Emperor according to anybody other than Moe?
  - Well that dome was making them all crazy.
- I mean there was hardly any opposition, the only people I can expect to rival him are Herman Hermann, Abe Simpson, and Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, and they all likely have excuses.

Don't Ditch the Ditz

For 400 episodes, how come Springfield still allows Homer Simpson to live? As far as I can remember, one of his few good accomplishments for the city was preventing a nuclear meltdown he himself caused by being careless. And, if you wish, in the movie, he was not only the one to blame for trapping the city in the dome and condemning the whole population to be exploded with it, but also ruined almost everyone's chance to escape the dome. Back to the question: what is keeping the people of Springfield from throwing him away from town (or even killing him)?
- To be fair, most of the really outrageous stuff only occurred in the later seasons, when they turned Homer into a Jerkass. Before that, his blunders were mostly personal or low-key, and not to the level of sheer lunacy he climbs to in later seasons.
  - They did try to kill him in The Movie. Also, did you watch the episode with Frank Grimes?
  - Yep, I know. But it's still too few times for my common sense to bear. Actually, every time I watch the series lately I think to myself "Yep, I know exactly how Frank Grimes felt now..."
- There was the 500th episode where they kicked the Simpsons out of town for property damage, but of course it didn't last long, and they can't have the same plot twice. As for killing, maybe they just don't have the death penalty?
  - Yes, they do. It's come up several times over the course of the show.
  - So is that the only thing stopping them from killing Homer?
  - Springfield does have a death penalty.
- If you're referring to "Homer Defined", Homer didn't cause the meltdown(s). He just averted it by randomly pressing buttons until something happened.
- If it helps, there’s a fan theory that says that every season of The Simpsons is one year in their lives in different universes (and that also would explain why the characters do not grow old and Bart and Lisa are always in the same grade), thus the most outrageous things Homer does (which I agree with other tropers is partly because the writers really ruined what was a dumb but still likable character in earlier seasons) would only happen once for the rest of the town.

Crass Cap

Did the offensive baseball cap actually say Show Me Your T its?
- The commentary says that the baseball cap says Show Me Your Tattoo, but you can take that as you wish...
- In the Spanish- Spain dub (I mean, not the Spanish-Latino), Rod and Todd start reading "Te...", which the viewers assume is "Tetas" (tits). Flanders then drives his kids away while assuring them it says "Teteras" (teakettles).

Why Not Eat It?

In the episode "Yokel Chords", if Bart was able to get spaghetti to fake a Dark Stanley murder, why couldn't he just eat the spaghetti instead of making up the story about Dark Stanley?
- Maybe he wasn't in the mood for spaghetti.
- They explained this, Bart himself came to the realization he made up Dark Stanley because he craves the attention (more than spaghetti).

No Scars

Something really bugs me about the episode Moms I'd Like To Forget: Negative Continuity aside, how come we've never seen those scars on Bart and those other kids before? It doesn't seem canon, like The Principal and the Pauper mentioned below. Even in other parts of the same episode(especially earlier on), it's not there.
- That kind of stuff is hard to animate, so they only show that kind of stuff if it's needed. Krusty has a number of things on his chest (a third nipple, a scar), but has been seen shirtless without those.

Worthless Waiting to Watch

In the episode "Itchy and Scratchy the Movie", couldn't Bart just get the Itchy and Scratchy Movie DVD instead of waiting forty years to see a replay in the theater? On another hand, why would Homer go as far as to ban Bart from seeing the movie ever? I think that was the first sign of Homer being a jerkass.
- Not if you take the ending as canon. Homer preventing Bart from seeing the movie made him straighten out and become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court instead of a sleazy male stripper. Or maybe Bart became both, like the late Earl Warren.
- DVDs weren't around when that episode was written.
  - VHS then, the same concept, really.
  - Because they had a Beta, and Snake stole it.
  - He probably did see it on DVD/VHS when he moved out but pretended not to for Homer's sake.
  - He probably just wanted to finally see it on the big screen. It's unlikely Homer was willing or able to prevent him from never ever seeing it, but sometimes for some people a film on DVD just isn't the same as at the cinema, especially one hyped up so much like this one — there are old movies I've seen that I'd drop everything to see at the cinema if I happened across a screening. He wasn't exactly hunting out the movie; they just happened to come across it, got to reminiscing, and decided 'what the hell'? As for Homer's line, he could simply have been joking.
  - Homer still allowed Bart to watch TV. What if he saw it on TV when Homer wasn't there?
  - Debunked! Tonight's new episode ends with The Simpsons seeing the re-released 3D version of "Itchy and Scratchy: The Movie" at a Drive-In and Bart was there and wearing 3D glasses too!
- There’s a similar episode of Married... with Children around the same time with Al trying to watch one of his favorite John Wayne movies (Hondo) and there’s a similar Seinfeld episode IIRC. People in the 80s and even at some point in the early 90s just didn’t have the same concept as we have today of watching a movie whenever they wanted, there was no Internet, no Netflix, nor DVD or Blue Ray, no buying on Amazon, nor Internet piracy if there’s no other alternative, and although VHS and Beta existed the movies last much longer to be available on it and the quality was never the best, so people really really was dependent on watching the movies they liked on cinemas or television. It's just that the episode didn’t age well.

Homer Should be Heavier

Why do the writers always give Homer such a low weight? According to one episode, he is 239 lbs. That might sound a lot, but for a heavily built man over six feet tall, and given how much he eats it isn't actually particularly much.
- Must be his metabolism.

Fat, but Fine

This annoys me too. He says he has to reach 300 pounds to get put on disability. I weigh close to 400, and I don't have to wear a muumuu.
- When he says he had a glandular condition, he's not in denial. He is only slightly overweight, but his glandular problem swells him out and makes him look fat.
  - What about the episode "King-Sized Homer" where Homer purposely gains weight so he can work from home? That wasn't a glandular problem.
  - Because he deliberately gained 61 pounds of pure fat in days?
  - The glandular problem described doesn't make any sense. If you have a glandular problem, it causes you to gain weight, not weigh the same and look plump. If something is swollen, what is it swollen with?
  - There are plenty of developmental disorders, congenital conditions, and drugs (primarily steroids or other therapy to treat autoimmune disorders) that result in low muscle tone and high relative body fat. Not to mention edema, which is essentially fluid buildup (an extreme version of this is actually the cause of elephantiasis). I've always imagined him to have a cartoon-surrealist version of lost muscle tone and edema brought on by extreme inactivity.
  - There's also the fact that, during the series' early days in the late 80s and early 90s, obesity wasn't as much of an issue as it is now. Obviously, obesity still existed at the time, but it's only in relatively recent years that obesity (both in America and elsewhere) has become a major problem. When the series first started, a weight of 239lb would have been considered much larger than today.

The Stench of Confusion

Major Fridge Logic in the episode "24 Minutes" (the 24 parody episode): how could Jimbo stay unmasked with the stink bomb opened, if one single drop made the hamster suffer that way?
- Jimbo has no doubt set off a lot of stink bombs in his time (why else are they making a much more potent one?), and he's probably built up an immunity to it.

Levels of Legality

In Girly Edition, how come Kidz Newz got replaced with the Mattel and Mars Bar Quick Energy Chocobot Hour even though that was barely legal as it is? Was the Kidz Newz even less legal because of child labor laws? And why was the Mattel and Mars Bar Quick Energy Chocobot Hour barely legal in the first place?
- Probably copyright issues.
  - No, it looked like an advertisement for Mattel in what we saw. It may be more along the lines of excessive chocolate plugging. Or a recurring villain themed on dental hygiene.
- Kidz Newz probably got replaced for the same reason it was put on the air in the first place: clueless Executive Meddling. The execs wanted more educational programming, but they made Bart into a co-anchor and allowed him to do his sappy human interests stories for ratings, which shows they weren't really interested in education anyway. In the end, they likely concluded that the Chocobot show would draw in more ratings. That, or Bart's influence crushed the educational value of the show so much, that the Chocobot Hour really did become more educational in comparison.
- The implication is that the ratings for Kidz Newz completely tanked after the Lisa-Bart revamp. It doesn't matter whether the show's more legal than the Chocobots, if no one's watching then it's gonna get taken off the air and replaced.
- The 'barely legal' part probably comes from the fact that the FCC has strict laws on shows that advertise toys and junk food to children. Namely, the show cannot actually portray the toy as is, otherwise, it is classified as a commercial (this is why the dub of Yu-Gi-Oh! changes the card layouts, among other reasons). Realistically, that shot of the "entertaining Mattel products" would get it canned in a heartbeat.

Homer's Changing Weight

In Homer the Whopper, why wouldn't they look at the Polaroids that compare Homer thin and fat in the Everyman costume and not have his weight constantly changing in the shots?

Shoe Shopping

Not something that bugs me, but is rather strange. At the beginning of the episode "The Last Temptation of Krust", Marge takes the kids shoe-shopping. Since when did Marge acknowledge the necessity of buying new shoes? In other episodes, she seems to think you only need one pair of shoes and you're set for life.
- When did Marge ever say that having just one pair of shoes for life was good enough? I don't remember anything like that.
  - It is suggested in the "Homer against New York" episode. Marge and Lisa are watching a pair of shoes in a store window. Lisa comments on how they are nice despite being made of an animal's hide, and Marge adds in a pitiful tone of voice: "If only I didn't already have a pair of shoes", which implies that she won't buy new ones until she wears out the pair she already has.
  - In one episode, she did react to someone having three pairs of shoes as "unnecessarily extravagant". But keep in mind that those shoes belonged to a fully grown woman; I'm sure she wouldn't object to buying her growing children a new pair of shoes occasionally. Also, keep in mind that she buys the shoes ridiculously oversized, so she probably only buys one pair every few years.
  - Owning three pairs of shoes at the same time is extravagant; buying new shoes when your existing shoes wear out is normal.
  - The quote above implies she's frugal, not that she'll only ever buy one pair of shoes in her life ever. Marge is the kind of woman who won't spend money on unnecessary fripperies if she can help it, and if she's already got one serviceable pair of shoes, then she's not going to buy another pair of shoes she doesn't need. She might have taken the plunge and bought them if she'd happened upon them at a point when she needed new shoes.
  - And of course, in a Doylist sense it's a meta-joke about how the Simpsons family have styles that never change.
- New CHURCH shoes. Marge goes all out when it comes to looking nice at church, probably for public opinion reasons.

Forgetting the Helicopter

In Bart's Comet, the airport may have been on the other side of the only bridge out of town (which of course begs the question of how would they drive to outside places on the other side of town. Yeah, yeah, flexible geography but that still bugs me) but clearly there is at least one working helicopter that Arnie Pye was flying, so wouldn't that be a way to airlift some people out of town? They could have just as easily had him saying something like "And as I own the only helicopter in town, I'm outta here!"

"Can" We Solve the Mystery?

What was really in that mystery can, according to Word of God?
- What mystery can?

Surrounding Celebrities in Springfield

Everyone is forgetting one thing that bugs this troper: how are The Simpsons able to go up to the celebrity guest stars without being pushed away by bodyguards and such, and what are all these celebrities doing in Springfield?
- Wouldn't you want to visit a town that seems to have everything? As well as that, when a celebrity visits Springfield and consequently, the Simpson family, they have a chance to meet the most interesting characters on the telly. Imagine the stories the family could tell!
- It's especially odd considering the fact that in the episode "When You Dish Upon a Star" from the tenth season, Homer was a court order to never be allowed within 500 miles of a celebrity.
- Not to mention it is small-town hell, maybe they may have heard of them but the insane fans are almost nonexistent. Annoyances maybe but when you are famous it is nice to be pushy for once and not worry about the Hollywood biz on your ass.
- Homer (and Barney, Apu, and Skinner) was a worldwide famous musician at one point, don't forget, Lisa is probably genius-level intelligent and Bart is probably nation-wide known for his antics and is the "Wasn't Me" kid. And then of course there's Krusty. They are probably small-level celebrities in some way. Not that is ever handwaved though.
- That's an interesting idea - Homer has also been an astronaut, an agent to performers, a fairly successful boxer, a choreographer to football players, a food critic, a television and film producer, an incredibly successful hairdresser, an opera singer, an assistant to celebrities, paparazzo, softball player, a voice actor, and a TV show host... it's almost more surprising that more celebrities don't know him.

Homer Knows the Schedule?

In "The Springfield Files" how how HOW does Homer know the "alien" appears every Friday night after only seeing it once? I've tried wrapping my head around it every which way, but I just don't see how he could have possibly known that.
- Homer's an idiot who based his hypothesis on insufficient data. He just happened to be right.
  - Not to mention that he said he saw the "alien" on Friday night, but he actually saw it at 1:00 AM, so technically it was Saturday morning.
  - And remember, there's a time frame, so they probably couldn't show Homer and Bart seeing the alien again. But you're probably right. Rule of Funny, yes?
- He was basing his theory on the alien's resemblance to Urkel. Which means there is no way he could have been wrong.
- That's great!
Homer: The alien has a sweet, heavenly voice... like Urkel! And [ergo] he appears every Friday night... like Urkel!

Was the Rapture Real?

So did the rapture actually occur or was Homer dreaming? It's possible that Moe may have sold his sushi place and gotten his bar back, and Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie could have been looking for him the whole time he was up there. Also, when did Bart and Lisa no longer have to wear those hairpieces that Marge made for them? Remember, we didn't see what happened to them at the same time when Homer was going up to the Mesa, or otherwise at 3:14-3:16 AM on Thursday, May 19th, 2005. Also, before we see Homer ascending into heaven, it's nighttime, and when we see God undo the apocalypse, it's sunrise.
- I wouldn't doubt it.

Bowling Skills or Lack Thereof

There was an episode where Homer headed up a bowling team, and Mr. Burns became a member because he sponsored it and could use his position to do so. With the exception of Mr. Burns, both teams seem to roll nothing but strikes. So, there comes a point where Homer's team is two points behind and Mr. Burns is the one that has to score the points. How does that work when it was shown that each of the Holy Rollers was as good as the good members of Homer's team?
- Homer's team seemed to have improved greatly over the course of the season. They might actually have been better than the Rollers when you consider that they made it to the league championship despite the handicap of having Burns on the team.
  - Yes, but if everyone on both teams but Burns was bowling a strike every turn, they should have been much further behind than two points. Maybe God only gives Flanders strikes? What probably happened is that the Holy Rollers weren't bowling strikes every turn (strikes are, even for professionals, more or less luck) and that shot was just for a sight gag. Did we actually see the scorecard?
  - I don't think luck has much to do with a pro bowler getting a strike any more than luck has anything to do with a professional in any other sport doing something he's practiced repeatedly.
- Speaking from experience, two really good bowlers can lift a mediocre bowler quite a bit. WE tied for second place and I was scoring just over 100 points a game. This is not as far-fetched as it seems.

Frank Grimes's Son Questions

The son of Frank Grimes. That bugs me on several levels. Firstly, that Frank Grimes has a son in the first place. Secondly, he looks just as old as Frank at the time of his death. What, did Frank sire him at the age of three? Thirdly, we discover that the long-suffering, inspiration-TV-snippet-inspiring Frank Grimes sired his son because he happens to like hookers. And finally, if Junior is an illegitimate child of a hooker and a good man too busy trying to improve his sad lot in life, how is it that he knows anything about his father's misfortune? I would have accepted the motivation of "Homer is a Jerkass and is deserving of killing" better than this "avenge my father" bullshit.
- Frank seems like he was an absentee father to me. Junior probably has all sorts of dad issues, and Frank's death just brought it all to the surface and cause him to snap (insanity seems to run in the family.)
  - It may run in the rest of the family, too, given that Frank Grimes Sr.'s parents were the type who would abandon a child at the side of a road.
- As surprisingly dark and edgy as "Homer's Enemy" was for The Simpsons, I got to admit it was kind of funny when Frank Grimes, Jr. said his father happened to like hookers. So, Mr. Perfect had a dark side.
  - It sounds more like a thoughtless Hand Wave. You can imagine some exchange between producer and writers: "Wait, but how does Grimes have a son? Wasn't he lonely in that episode he appeared?" "Um... he liked hookers?" "Well, that'll have to work..."
  - Possibly, he was born of a hooker and a man who might have looked like Frank Grimes, but wasn't. So, therefore, his mother tried to pass it off as being born to Grimes because Grimes was a hard worker. Hey, Wild Mass Guessing, why not?
  - Grimes' life has been miserable. Being alone and not getting any respect, he visited a hooker to relieve stress.
- Again, time may pass differently on the outside. Grimes, Senior, and Junior may have spent most of their lives outside Springfield and only came in when the former found work and the latter had the opportunity to avenge his father.
- I think what bugs me most is the fact that Junior would call himself by the last name Grimes, rather than his mother's last name.
  - Either Frank Jr. is ashamed of his mother for being a hooker (wouldn't you be?), he was raised in an orphanage and never knew his mother (in which case how did he learn about his father and Homer, yeah yeah, I know), or he took his father's name out of sentiment and/or so Homer would know damn well who he was avenging. Take your pick.
- My two cents: Perhaps, to explain the age thing, Frank was really young, say, thirteen-fourteen? Bad schooling or growing up poorly, friends all had girlfriends who put out, he didn't, hired a hooker to compensate? Then, a few years later, the hooker came back and dumped the kid on him? Then, unable to hold him, a friend looked after the kid while Frank tried to keep him in his son's life, but had to transfer to Springfield. Maybe the friend was a mechanic, and Grimey Jr became one while living with them.
- Frank Grimes was grievously injured in a silo explosion on his 18th birthday and it took him a long time to fully recover. It's clear that he had a very miserable childhood and his life as a teenager must have been very lonely. He probably got into contact with a prostitute out of sheer romantic desperation shortly before the silo explosion, where he had unprotected sex resulting in the conception of his son. If Frank Grimes had his son at age 17 and died at age 35, his son would have been about 18 years old by the time of this episode, old enough to get a job as a mechanic. Perhaps he just looks and sounds older than his age (also, it's possible that Frank Grimes was close to his 36th birthday, which would make his son closer to 19 years old).

Why Hasn't Ned Become a Man of the Cloth?

Why hasn't Ned become a man of the cloth himself? He obviously knows the Bible cover to cover and does the best he can to live by it. He isn't even Catholic so being married and having children isn't a problem. What is stopping him?
- A lot of gags hinge on his "Christian humility" being grotesquely hypertrophied; he really doesn't think much of himself. Why else would he treat Reverend Lovejoy as an authority on anything at all?
- Maybe he just doesn't have the time? He's a single father running his own business, after all.
- Ned isn't that much of a Bible expert. He forgets which animals the Four Horsemen ride and he seems to think God will flood the Earth again. Played for laughs, of course.
- Given how he frets over everything from "coveting" his own wife to feeling that he could be meeker to stepping on a worm (given Reverend Lovejoy's sarcastic comment when Ned called him late at night), Ned probably doesn't think he's worthy enough for the priesthood.

Why Take the Babysitter Home?

In the episode "Homer Badman" he had to take the babysitter home. Why? She showed up at the house without his help. She's a college student so she's definitely old enough to take care of herself. It doesn't seem likely that she walked to the house since it looks like Homer's driving her through downtown to get her back home, so it isn't an issue of letting someone walk home in the middle of the night. The only reason for it is to set the plot of the episode in motion. And usually, that's just fine with me, but I woke up this morning with this gnawing on my brain and it's really, really bothering me. Let the most likely over-age-21 babysitter take her damn self home!
- Perhaps it was meant to be a kind gesture for looking after the kids. Also, things can get rougher in some places when it gets dark.
- It was a cheap way to get the plot going (i.e., the plot of Homer being branded a pervert when he takes the missing Venus candy off the babysitter's butt and the babysitter mistakes it for sexual harassment). The Simpsons does this a lot.
- Possibly she had a ride to the place (say her friend) but no ride back. Or maybe she took the bus which only ran till a certain hour. Or perhaps she took a taxi and Homer was just being nice for taking care of the kids. Or maybe Springfield isn't a safe place after dark for young women.
- There have been many, many gags about Springfield being a Wretched Hive, and it'd only get worse at night. It's one thing for a fat middle-aged guy like Homer or Barney to walk the streets at night, but it's another thing entirely for a young college girl barely out of her teens to do it.

Why Does Homer Not Believe in God?

I know this might not sound like much of a Headscratchers entry, because I also know Homer isn't exactly the brightest bulb in the hardware store, but one of his running gags does just bug me. Why does Homer keep saying God doesn't exist when he's actually met Him? Sure it was by way of dreams, but still.
- Negative Continuity.
- The fact that he only met God in dreams seems like a pretty good reason to me.

Why Didn't Smithers Lend a "Hand"?

In the episode "When Flanders Failed", Mr. Burns is attempting to open a can but cannot because he is left-handed. All this while Smithers, who is right-handed, was just standing around doing nothing. Why didn't he just ask Smithers, considering Mr. Burns doesn't usually have any problem admitting to having trouble doing basic tasks that he could be expected to do, let alone one that would require some seriously counter-intuitive torquing?
- Burns eventually does give in and ask Smithers to open the can: it's possible that it was a point of pride for him.
- And this was well before "Homer the Smithers".

Poverty and Alcoholism and Resurrection, Oh My!

What's with Gil's poverty, Barney's alcoholism, and Moleman's many deaths?
- Rule of Funny.

What Became of Colin?

What happened to Colin after the movie and the 19th season premiere's opening?
- Maybe Bart was right when he sang, "Lisa's got a boyfriend, that's she'll never see again!"
- This one really bugged me, too. It would have been neat to see what Lisa would be like with a boyfriend. My guess is that it would change the series too much. He probably moved after the whole dome fiasco. A guy like that must've had a girlfriend back where he came from, too. If his dad's a musician he must move a lot.
- Bart and Lisa always having different girlfriends/ boyfriends and dumping them, or being dumped, is just a recurring gag. For instance, in "Trilogy of error", Lisa also met a boy she liked, Thelonius, in West Springfield Elementary. They promised they would meet again in high school. Thelonius hasn't been mentioned again so far, though they both live in Springfield and Lisa could have easily met him again before high school. I assume she just forgot Colin too.

Only a Mostly-American Man

Hmm, how and why would Mr. Burns, a self-proclaimed all-American man, have Red Chinese masters?
- I'm guessing it's a reference to The Manchurian Candidate, so maybe Mr. Burns underwent the same kind of brainwashing procedure as the soldiers in that movie? Even if there's no brainwashing explanation, this is still the same man who expressed no guilt about stealing a trillion dollars from the U.S. government, nor for his actions that resulted in the trillion dollars going into Fidel Castro's hands (just as he was about to give up on maintaining the communist regime because it was bankrupt.) If the Chinese paid Mr. Burns off, it fits with his character that he would do their bidding.
- You do know that Burns also made shells for the Nazis, like Oskar Schindler, don't you? Except that his worked, dammit!
  - I still like him more than George Steinbrenner.
- Mr. Burns is also an asshole and hypocrite who would sell out his own mother if he thought he'd get a decent profit from doing so. The fact that he might not be so patriotically wedded to his country that he wouldn't sell it out for his own benefit should not come as a huge surprise, it must be said.

Attracted to Someone Much Older?

Seriously, what's the deal with Smithers? I'm not talking about his being gay—that's perfectly normal. What I'm scratching my head over is the fact that he's attracted to a 100+-year-old trilobite, as Snake once aptly described Mr. Burns. Is he one of those people who's just attracted to much older partners?
- I don't think he is ever being shown as finding other old men attractive, so that's probably not it. More like, working with Mr. Burns and having to do everything for him gave him a lot of time to get to know him and spend with him, and seeing his power and personality and himself liking to be subservient... something clicked.
- "As you can see, the real deal with Waylon Smithers is that he's Mr. Burns' assistant. He's in his early forties, is unmarried, and currently resides in Springfield. Thanks for asking!"
- He might be attracted to Burns' power as well as the man himself. Then add on the fact that Burns is personally and professionally dependent on him...
- Meh. As far as this troper is concerned, that's Smithers' business and his alone.
  - Just remember that Burns is Smithers' substitute father (after indirectly causing the death of his real father). He loves his "daddy", a little too much.
  - No evidence of him being a substitute father. Burns probably sent him to live with a foster family until he was old enough for boarding school. He was probably a mentor figure for the young Waylon.
- Love doesn't have to be rational.
  - That was actually kind of sweet.
- Word of God says that while Smithers is gay, he's really attracted to Mr. Burns, "if Burns was a woman, Smithers would be straight, he's a "Burnsexual"
  - Doesn't explain his dates with John and other gay men.
  - If It's You, It's Okay. Smithers identifies as gay and is presumably attracted to other men, but his attraction to Burns trumps his homosexuality to such a degree that if Burns was female, he'd still be attracted to her.
- Seems that Burns just melts Smithers in the right way, but Smithers is aware that Burns is (presumably) uninterested. He'll always love Burns, but Smithers has still got his own life, and he's living it.
- As a child I never even categorized Smithers as gay. It's only in some of the later seasons (which at this point is like the mid-seasons) when they started leaning into more gay stereotypes did I realize he's meant to be gay. Like I'm pretty sure in one episode there was a flashback wherein he had a wife who left him due to his obsession with Mr. Burns. Call it the casual homophobia of the 90s, but the fact that it's weird that he's infatuated with Mr. Burns is the entire point. It's sycophancy taken to the extreme.

What's Wrong with Marge's Sundaes?

What is wrong with Marge's sundaes?
- Cyanide. Or maybe it's the fact that she actually wants them to eat it. Would spinach have been so bad if your mom didn't dog you to eat it so much?
  - Hey, I ''like'' spinach.
- Or maybe it has blue hair in it, like the soup from the Mary Poppins parody or the casserole on the episode where Marge goes to jail for shoplifting.
- On the subject of food, in the episode "Grade School Confidential", what was wrong with the oysters that they gave Martin's party guests terrible stomachaches?
  - Seafood in general goes bad very easily if it's not properly refrigerated. The weather might have been too warm, and considering the Crapsack World this series is set in, the people handling the oysters probably didn't do a good job storing and transporting them.
  - That would explain why Martin's father was annoyed: "I told you we should have served cake instead of oysters!"

Where Did the Others Go?

In "To Surveil With Love", the British guy they hired brought together seven people to monitor Springfield to keep crime down. Seconds later, when we see the surveillance room next, only Marge and Ned Flanders are left. What happened to the other people who were supposed to monitor things?
- And how was it that nobody ever thought of knocking out the cameras until the end? They clearly didn't like the cameras being there.
- The others got bored with it and quit. They were volunteers; the city didn't have the budget to pay full-time officers to man the station. And the citizens were either too afraid to knock out the cameras or didn't want to. Remember the cameras were approved by nearly everybody at the town meeting.

The Pen Didn't Pay

In the episode "Springfield Up", Homer fakes being rich by borrowing Mr. Burns' summer home and explains that he did it by inventing a condiment pen. How on earth did he not get rich with that pen? It was a genius idea!
- He was too dumb to actually try patenting it, and by the time someone pointed out what a good idea it was someone else had already stolen it? Or maybe he didn't actually invent one, and was somehow faking it when he demonstrated? I thought the same thing.
- What bugs me is that no one has made it in Real Life.
- Challenge accepted.

Why Not Sell the Recipe?

In the episode "Flaming Moe's", when Moe steals his idea, why doesn't Homer just sell the recipe to someone else? (OK, Homer's not too bright, but he tells his family, so any of them could have had the idea).
- I think that's the theme of the episode. Homer is so enraged at being betrayed that he'd rather destroy Moe than profit himself.
- Also, Bart gives a show and tell in which he intends to make Flaming Moes for the class, so clearly he didn't recognize the value of the recipe. Furthermore, Mrs. Krabappel confiscated the ingredients Bart brought, so she should know the recipe too.
  - She only confiscated it because it was alcohol. She told Bart he could "have what's left at the end of the day". Even though he did bring enough for everyone.
- In the episode, Lionel Hutz actually grabbed the Smart Ball for once and looked up the case law showing that you can't patent a beverage recipe. That's why Homer couldn't sue Moe for stealing the formula. Those law books didn't just make Hutz's office look good, they were full of all sorts of interesting legal tidbits just like that!

Lisa Eating Pepperoni

Everyone's talking about the couch gag for the most recent episode ("MoneyBART"), but what's with Lisa eating pepperoni pizza with the Little League team to celebrate their recent win?
- It was an animation error. After the initial shot, Lisa's pizza appears to be topped with mushrooms and green peppers which would make sense.
- Speaking of MoneyBART, during the couch gag in the sweatshop we see the laborers painting on cells. Why? The Simpsons have been painted digitally for years, making all their labor pointless.
  - Exactly.

Running for Hours

In "Trilogy of Error", Bart's story eventually connects with Lisa's story (specifically, when he exits the sewer and is bumped on the head by Marge's car). This basically means Bart and Milhouse were running away from Fat Tony and his goons in the caves for HOURS until he crossed paths with Marge. Seems pretty unlikely, unless both parties agreed to take a breather before resuming the chase a few times. This plot hole was even addressed in the audio commentary on the season 12 set.
- You answered your own question.
- This plot made no sense! Tell the people!

Living on Water

"I'm a level five vegan. I won't eat anything that casts a shadow." So... he just drinks water and that's it?
- Well, it could be water with vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients dissolved in it at low enough concentrations not to make the water opaque. I suppose it depends to some extent on how you interpret "casts a shadow."
- Keep in mind he also says he was into Yoga "before it was cool". Either he's in his 40s or he enjoys making things up to sound impressive.
- Given how he acts in his reappearance in Tapped Out, I have my doubts about him making stuff up.
Cast a shadow how? In theory, that means you could eat crackers, as they are thin enough that they won't cast a shadow when laid flat. You could eat honey, as it's translucent.

Waylon's Age

Is Waylon older or younger than Homer? In one episode we see Waylon Smithers as a baby and Homer is 12. But Troy McClure said that Waylon was in his forties. Mutation from the plant?
- Older, I bet. His dad's body was partially decomposed.
  - That doesn't happen over a few days or weeks? He was hardly preserved, especially where Homer discovered him.
  - It doesn't help that some episodes show Smithers and Homer in High School together.
  - Your argument is moot. Waylon Smithers Sr. was killed prematurely. If it helps, Waylon Jr was an infant when Waylon Sr. died.
  - Smithers Sr. was found by Homer at age 12, but it didn't happen instantly after Smithers Sr. was dumped in the pipe, the debris probably built up around his body over the years, then years later, the water dried up on a hot day and Homer found the body.

A "Dog Gone" Mystery

In the episode where Santa's Little Helper gets a mate and impregnates her, The Simpsons give away the puppies, but what happened to their mother? (Also, why did they let Mr. Burns make money off the Puppies racing? Homer says at the end he's depressed he gave them away, but they didn't, Burns stole them!)
- They were giving the puppies away for free, actually. They just didn't want to give them to Burns, hence his dastardly scheme of stealing them out of the box while the Simpsons' backs were to him. In the end, Lisa and Bart could see that Burns loved the puppies like any good owner, so they let him keep them. Homer was depressed because they turned out to be champion racers. As for the female greyhound, I'm guessing she eventually was given away as well.
  - Didn't the greyhound belong to Dr. Hibbert?
  - No, that was a poodle, Rosa Barks. Like any unneutered male dog, Santa's Little Helper probably has fathered innumerable children along Evergreen Terrace. My question: why would Groundkeeper Willie buy one of his pups if he, having owned SLH briefly, has gone on record saying "I [h]ate him".

How Much Does Homer Actually Know About Music?

It bugs me that Homer starts out not knowing a thing about music, but as the show progresses, Homer is seen to have musical talent in several forms: he was in a boys' choir, and he could sing opera if he was flat on his back, he was in a barbershop quartet that won a Grammy, he could play a rake with a leaf and make it sound like a guitar, he went to some kind of rock and roll camp and he was in a grunge band for several years after high-school. Many of these examples mess up the continuity of the show. For example, if Homer was a grunge rocker, then why didn't anyone recognize him when he was doing the thing where he gets shot in the stomach with the cannon? If he can sing along with a quartet, why does he sound so bad when he sings by himself?
- Why, it's almost as if the writers are making things up as they go along!
- I'm gonna go with the guess that every season has a different continuity. It would make sense that Homer doesn't remember - what with the brain damage and all. And he could be insecure and feels the need to sing with others.
- Sadgasm was a minor footnote in music history, overshadowed by Nirvana, STP, Pearl Jam, etc, just like a lot of real-life bands who never got a contract.
  - Not really. Several events have been alluded to across seasons, like Sideshow Bob's escapades, Homer being an astronaut, Maggie shooting Mr. Burns, Bart owning Stampy, Maude dying, etc., etc. That said, the show mostly adheres to Negative Continuity.
- It's the same as Homer being able to speak french in a high school flashback, yet unable to understand Bart when he speaks it (and I wouldn't be surprised if the show forgets that Bart can speak french as well). Consistency and the Simpsons rarely make for good bed partners. Generally speaking, if the show doesn't bring it up again later such as the examples the above troper mentions, it's probably best ignored. They could have just as easily had Sideshow Bob show up in the very next episode as Krusty's sidekick and had nobody in the cast bat an eye.

Marge's Misaligned Morals

Why is it that Marge tries to be a Moral Guardian (at least in the earlier seasons), but in one of the Halloween episodes, she has no objection to Bart dressing up as Alex deLarge?
- It's a classic film. That makes it okay.
- There's also the possibility that Marge just doesn't know who he is. Marge never struck me as the type of person who was very well-versed in movie trivia, especially that kind of movie.

Very Speedy Delivery

Here's a bit of Fridge Logic from the third season episode "Black Widower," when Sideshow Bob and Aunt Selma are married. During the episode, the Simpson family is seen watching a VHS recording of Bob and Selma's honeymoon ("And after we watch this, we can tape over it! Heh heh heh."). The events on the tape, which portray Sideshow Bob's need for a gas fireplace (plot point), end with Selma asking that they make love. This cuts (almost immediately, if I'm not mistaken) to Bob running to the bathroom to clean up after having sex with Selma. This implies that little if any, time was allowed for the VHS tape to travel from the hotel to the Simpson's home. Like most of the inconsistencies in the show, I presume this is another case of Rule of Funny.
- It's possible they were having sex on another occasion. Bob would have to continue playing the role of a loving husband, after all. But the way it was cut just makes it funnier.

Unprotected Stomach

In Homerpalooza, why doesn't Homer wear something to protect his stomach? sure it would've ruined the act he was doing but he wouldn't have ended up having donuts from HFIL
- Because apparently, part of his act is to appear topless to prove that he isn't cheating and protecting his stomach. It is a freak show...

What are the Un-Smelled States?

In Homer's Paternity Coot, a sign near the tire fire says it's now smelled in 46 states. What are the four states that it's not smelled in? I'm pretty sure it might include Alaska and Hawaii, but I'm not sure what the other two could be.
- Maine and Florida? They're both on the longitudinal extremes of the Eastern Seabord, so a smell that can be smelled elsewhere might not be smelled there.

Where's Mr. Largo?

In "Flaming Moe", what happened to Mr. Largo? He found his soulmate, got replaced, and then... his replacement moved away but... he didn't come back. What becomes of the music class? Unless there was a scene showing him coming back and I just missed it...
- You didn't miss anything. He's back as the music teacher (showing up as recently as Season 30), but how and when has never been so much as alluded to.

No Voiceover

Can we find a version of Diatribe of a Mad Housewife without the voiceover? Like, maybe on the Season 15 DVD?

Why Spend Money on People with Housing?

At the end of "Old Money", Grandpa Simpson decides that the money he'd inherited from a short-term romantic partner should go towards improving the facilities at the retirement home. This is after having selflessly decided not to spend the money on himself after Lisa convinced him that those who really deserved the money were the homeless/sick/needy, and after visiting a casino in an attempt to increase the total amount available (figuring that he could help more people that way). So why does he still spend the money on people already living in private accommodation and who are being looked after by full-time careers, when he'd previously decided there were people far more deserving of the money?
- To be fair, the treatment the people in that home received has been consistently shown to be terrible. It's a little selfish to spend it on his own home, yes, but those old people must have pretty miserable lives, living in the cheapest retirement home their families could find, and apparently hardly ever getting visits. Grampa seems better off than the rest of them.
- You obviously didn't watch the episode. Grandpa's rest home suffered from a leaky roof, damaged furniture (the pool table didn't have any netting in the pockets, for example), and was generally falling apart. As the previous poster noted, Grandpa and the other rest home tenants were living in squalor, something which is often Truth in Television, sadly enough. Fixing the retirement home allows the residents to live in comfort and dignity, something that Grandpa Lampshades in the last line of the episode when he invites the other residents into the Beatrice Simmons Memorial Dining Hall.
- AND it's shown in later episodes that the staff is all either lazy (Destroying the "Zii" so the old folks would go back to being listless, and therefore easy to care for; A nurse swapping an IV drip and a full colostomy bag in order to speed up the end of his week...) or negligent ("Okay, let's start by doubling your medication!"). The episode itself depicts one member as a two-faced "bloodsucker" who admits to being apathetic to Grandpa despite his newly gained money. At least the BUILDING is nice for the old folks.
- He'd previously decided to spend the money on people more deserving rather than just spending it solely on himself. As the episode (and the tropers above) make abundantly clear, spending the money on renovating the retirement home is both spending it on people other than himself and spending it on people who would benefit from it. He doesn't spend it on the homeless/sick/needy etc. because even with his wealth he still doesn't have enough to solve the problem in a way he considers satisfactory, and by gambling it he risks losing it all.

Why Did Bart Wuss Out?

In the episode where Marge starts hanging out with some old friends, and Bart has to hang out with her friend's children, they pressure him into sliding down a hill on an ice cube or something. And Bart has DOUBTS about it, finding it "too dangerous", and doesn't want to hang out with the other boys much. Seriously, Bart is supposed to be a "bad boy". Hell, past episodes have shown him doing MUCH more dangerous things. What was the deal with that?
- It could be a sign that Bart is starting to mature or remember that Even Evil Has Standards. Or he knew that sliding down the hill was obviously dangerous and didn't realize how dangerous some of the other things he has done were.

Why Kill Selma?

There's something I've never been able to figure out about the episode, "Black Widower", and this, why? Why did Sideshow Bob want to kill Selma? The episode indicate that it was premeditated, but what was the motive? I doubt it was revenge because Bart doesn't strike me as someone who would miss Selma too badly.
- It's said earlier in the episode that Selma won a lot of money in a lawsuit. Sideshow Bob probably didn't plan her murder until sometime after they met and fell in love.
- Possibly it was a long con. As soon as Sideshow Bob found out who Selma's family was, he was probably planning her death. As soon as he marries her he's technically part of the family. After her tragic death, he was probably counting on the Simpsons being kind and hospitable enough to allow him to stay with them while he "grieved". Voila, instant access to Bart.
- He seemed genuinely happy with her until he discovered her MacGyver obsession. So while it's incredibly petty, especially for him, it looks like he just grew to hate her over a TV show.
- Bob's pettiness is absolutely legendary, probably second only to his ego. One or the other trait powers all his schemes. Probably just knowing that she loved MacGyver as much as she loved him would do it.

Why Two Versions of the Credits?

Why are there two versions of Treehouse of Horror XVII? I noticed there's a normal credits version and a Halloween credits version.

Why Worry About Homer?

While I enjoyed the episode "Homer the Great", there was one part about the ending that was a little confusing. #1 laments that "As long as we are Stone Cutters, he will control our lives." Wait a minute, what are they worried about Homer controlling their lives for? He can barely run on his own.
- I think that's the point. Instead of being the power behind the scenes, they're going to spend all their time re-enacting the civil war with monkeys.

Why Not Skip Church?

The episode where Homer decided not to go to church - Marge and the kids go to church, despite it being so cold that they end up being trapped inside the church due to the ice. Why couldn't Marge just skip one day of church? Why would she risk the lives of her and her children like that?
- Honor Before Reason.
- Also, it's not like she goes to church knowing that the church's heating is on the fritz and it's going to get so cold her family is going to be locked inside.

What Race are the Simpsons?

What race are the Simpsons? It seems that "Yellow" is the equivalent to "White" for Caucasian people in the Simpson's universe, for example, Jessica Lovejoy refers to part as "Poor yellow trash" and prior to her birth Homer says it doesn't matter if Maggie is a boy or a girl as long as she has "Yellow skin and four fingers and toes" or something to that effect but the show has referenced "White" people on a few occasions, such as a black comedian on TV comparing white and black drivers and I think on a few other occasions as well.
- Speaking of this, why did they add the notion that their art style is the actual anatomy of the people? Most cartoons make it seem like an art style, but they're supposed to look like we do in real life.
  - Probably by the time celebrity cameos and other people that were not the original cast started to be depicted in a more-or-less realistic manner. In fact, the Simpsons(the family) might be the only people in the show with that anomaly where your hair and your forehead are indistinguishable(yes, I know, a lampshade was hung).
  - Technically, apart from albinos, no one is really "white", at least in the literal sense, what is commonly known as White in the Anglo-Saxon world is a kind of pinkish skin tone, similarly, it might depend on the country, some people in Latin America or Mediterranean Europe would be considered "brown" by US, Northern Europe or Russia's standard but they are called white in their home countries. Is the same case as how Asians are not really Yellow by any means nor do Native Americans have really red skin, they just have close enough skin colors.
- Back to the original question, it's probably impossible to know where the Simpson family really comes from, thanks to a mix of Grandpa's senility and Negative Continuity. Having said that, from what little we know about "The Old Country" that Grandpa grew up in as a boy (see: 'Much Apu About Nothing'), it's implied to be Ireland, Scotland, or perhaps Wales.

What's Wrong with Staying Inside?

In the episode "The Ned-Liest Catch" (season 22 episode 22) what exactly is so bad about Krabappel having to stay in a room all day with pay? I'd use that time to catch up on my books and TV shows. Or, if I was feeling more ambitious, it sounds like the perfect time to study and change into a career that's not so soul-crushing.
- Maybe I need to watch it again, but I think they didn't allow any such thing to be brought in. It's punishment, after all.
  - They were allowed. The rules were - shoes remain on, cellphones remain off, and no Wi-Fi.
- Not everyone likes cooping themselves up inside with books and TV as their only partners.
  - True, but in the episode, people were resorting to staring at cracks in the wall. I think anything else would be better than that.
- A simple thing called cabin fever. The longer you spend in the same small, confined space without being able to leave, the more you want to leave. And no matter how much you like reading or watching TV, eventually, you're going to get sick of doing that and are going to want to do something else — preferably outside the room.

Conning Your Companions

It just hit me: how can Homer and Bart start playing con tricks on Kent Brockman, Dr. Hibbert, and the salesman when pretty much everyone knows them? It really hit me with that trick where Bart pretends to be blind. And to have a deaf sister. And apparently, be Homer's brother. Yes, what.
- They're just idiots. Next!
  - You know what the real headscratcher here is? Did they actually plan for Willie to be arrested and not tell him about it?

Ned Knows Kramer?

From "The Ned-Liest Catch" that kind of bugged me: How can a straight-laced, ultra-vanilla conservative Christian like Ned know who Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer is, especially to the point that he recognizes him by sight alone? Just doesn't make sense.
- Ned has Guilty Pleasures like the rest of us, he was once shown liking sitcoms, and he is a fanboy of the Beatles. Rock music is probably another one of his hobbies that he does not like admitting.
- Lots of Conservative Christians enjoy rock music.
- Or he just learned about Aerosmith on a Christian Parent's Guide To Sinful Music website.

Why Attend a Concert You Hate?

In "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Marge": If Becky hates heavy metal, what was she doing at a concert during Otto's flashback?
- It may have been a music festival with metal and other types of music.
  - Correct. The episode says that they met specifically at Woodstock '99, which was most definitely not just Metal acts.
She may have changed. People do that.

Maggie's Only Smarter for Now

In the episode where Maggie is believed to have an IQ higher than Lisa, why is it that someone as smart as Lisa is unaware that age is a factor in calculating someone's IQ?
- Because she's 8?
- Even though she’s 8, she’s a genius for her age, so she should definitely know that.
- Very few people know how IQ is actually calculated (and even fewer know how discredited it is, though the episode may have come out before that). Even if the writers knew, they probably figured that Viewers Are Morons.

Why Do the Kids Still Help Krusty?

I've had one that's been weighing on my mind since I was 12: Why is it that Bart (and, to a lesser extent, Lisa) still helps Krusty out of every single problem that he has (one or two choice exceptions aside)? Krusty can't even remember Bart's name, let alone all he does for him, which is actually referred to in one episode where after Krusty asks his name, Bart tells him how he saved him from jail, reunited him with his estranged father AND saved his career, none of which Krusty can remember. True, Krusty is a jaded drug addict and cares little for anyone, but you'd think he'd remember such monumental occasions, and you'd also think that Bart would begin to see his "Hero" as not all he's cracked up to be (As I recall, he shrugs off the occasion that Krusty smoked crack in front of him). This may seem nitpicky, but am I really the only one who's been wondering?
- Bart knows how bad Krusty is, but chooses just to idolize the character he plays on Krusty the Klown Show anyway. In what episode its shown that Homer is such a bad father that Bart looks for father figures everywhere, including Krusty. As for the second problem, the drugs might be affecting Krusty's brain, and Krusty spends most of his time drunk and is not able to remember anything anyway.
- In Like Father, Like Clown, Bart does lose faith in Krusty after refusing to come to dinner.
- Bart helps Krusty for the same reason Hank Hill still helps Buck Strickland. In Bart's mind, everything Krusty does is at worst a minor inconvenience, as Krusty at his worst is still in Bart’s eyes exponentially better than Homer who repeatedly ignores him, physically abuses him, and constantly tells him he’s an unloved accident.

No Ageing

Are the characters ever going to age, even a little?
- In Season 1, Marge had a birthday. Homer's had a few birthdays. Bart and Lisa both had birthdays in season 3, plus others later. Yes, I know this barely helps.
- I mean that's true, but they keep having the same birthday over and over.
  - If they age there's no average family, their aging is for scenarios about the future

Assuming Milhouse Loves Lisa?

Ok, this is bugging me for a long time and I have no idea how it even works. Ok, in "Homer Scissorhands", Taffy breaks up with Milhouse because she thinks that Milhouse is still in love with Lisa just because Lisa stalked them. WTF!!! I mean there isn’t a single scene, nor even a single line of dialogue, where Milhouse shows himself to still be in love with Lisa, he never mentions her in front of Taffy and he doesn’t even let out a swooning sigh when Lisa intrudes on them at the end. Just what is wrong with Taffy? I mean if I introduce someone I was once with to my fiancee' then this wouldn't happen. I'm guessing Taffy really is so thinly conceived and her story so flat that she’s only in three scenes... and they couldn't even spell her voice actress' name right. But seriously she breaks up with Milhouse just because Lisa stalked them... EXPLAIN EPISODE, EXPLAIN!
- Two Things: Seasonal Rot and Fanon Discontinuity. Remember them.
  - I actually don't know what those mean. Explain, please.
  - Have you tried clicking the links?
  - Seasonal Rot is when fans hate a particular season. Fanon Discontinuity is when they pretend something didn't happen because they dislike it.
- Alternately, Status Quo Is God.
  - I still say that is the worst excuse for a break-up ever. Also, they never reveal why Taffy liked Milhouse in the first place.
- Would you want to date a guy whose kinda-ex creepily stalked you through the woods? I'd blame him and say he was still in love with her just so I didn't end up buried in somebody's basement.
  - I like to think she had a crush on Lisa, saw that her plan to get Lisa jealous was upsetting her, and just wanted her to be happy.
  - Actually the problem is why didn't Taffy get mad at Lisa for stalking them while instead, she blames the whole thing on Milhouse who had nothing to do with Lisa's meddling?

Ridiculous Reason for Dumping

In that one flash-forward episode, why did Bart's girlfriend dump him just because he was leaving to save his sister?
- Bart's girlfriend wanted somebody who could do something with his life and well Bart just can't do that. The reason why he saved his sister, was because she had a brighter future than he did.

One Flop Costs a Company

What kind of terrible car company only has 82 thousand dollars between it and bankruptcy? Granted the "Homer" was a massive flop, but that one prototype cost Herb his entire company?
- I'm not sure that it was the cost of the car that ruined Herb's company, it was the fact it was so god awful. He was effectively saying that he's ruined because said car was going to absolutely wreck his reputation on top of costing a huge amount of money to make.
- Further, when Herb reappears one senses we are meant to take at face value the fact that Homer ruined him. But in a very real way, Homer was a bystander to those events. There was no malice in Homer's actions, just ineptitude, but the true ineptitude was Herb's, since he entrusted the fate of his company to a virtual stranger and even ignored all advice to the contrary. I find I watch the later episode with more sympathy for Homer than Herb, who is being vindictive while ignoring the fact that the real blame is his.
- You're misunderstanding the episode. Herb's company didn't only have $82,000 left, but each "Homer" car would be priced at $82,000. That's an absurd amount of money to be paying for any car, even a high-class one. The price, combined with the fact that the car was so ridiculous that no one would ever buy it, meant that Herb's reputation was ruined. There are also signs that Powell Motors was in trouble long before Homer came along. In a few conversations with his executives, Herb mentions that Powell Motors is losing ground to the Japanese and "getting killed on the foreign market." Chances are that this was Herb's make-or-break effort to save his company.
- High R&D costs. All those weird features mean an entirely new chassis design, so producing the prototype probably cost five to ten times that. Given that Herb didn't even bother looking at the thing until the public reveal, he may already have started pre-production, which sends the waste into the millions.
- As mentioned, there were signs that Powell Motors was already in serious trouble long before Herb met Homer. Given that Herb unveiled The Homer to his stockholders as the greatest thing since Jesus, they were probably already pretty unhappy. The Homer was probably the final straw for the stockholders and confirmed their views about Herb's incompetence. The stock price plummeted, allowing Kumatsu Motors to buy the company for cheap. If a lot of Herb's money was in Powell Motors stock, he probably lost it all when the stock became worthless. The stockholders might have even decided to sue him, which would have wiped out anything he had left.

Stupid Before the Crayon

In HOMR, it's explained by the researchers that Homer sticking crayons into his nose must have been the cause for his stupidity. Seems reasonable at first, but he would have to be stupid enough to shove sixteen crayons into his nose in the first place. Especially at age six.
- Maybe he was experimenting with something and it backfired.
- See the seventh question above, which mentions that age is an important factor in intelligence: a smart 6-year-old still probably doesn't understand the stupidity of shoving crayons up your nose. Another question is, "After three decades, how was that crayon extracted so easily, and wouldn't it have permanently damaged the brain tissue it got lodged in?" Also also, "How did it not melt and run out Homer's nose within an hour of being inserted?"

Headscratcher Blues

In "Bart The Fink", Krusty apparently dies in a plane crash. At the funeral, Troy McClure announces more funeral services later, adding "You must be over 18 for the ten o'clock. It gets a little blue." What does this mean?
- "Blue" can mean "obscene".

Why Care About the Church?

Lisa is an atheist, right? But wasn't there an episode where Mr. Burns bought out the town's (only?) church? And then Lisa goes on a crusade to end Burns' control of the church, right? But if she's an atheist, why should she care?
- She's a Buddhist IIRC.
- That was actually the episode where she became a Buddhist. Before that her religious beliefs were basically whatever suited the episode best.
- Because Burns is somewhere between Darth Vader and Voldemort on the list of "evil tyrants who do horrible things", and Lisa is afraid of what he might do with that kind of power. The rest of the Simpsons still attend church, so they might be caught up in whatever Burns tries to do.

90% Dumb, 10% Geniuses, Why?

Why exactly is 90% of Springfield's citizens idiots and there is a handful of smart ones like Lisa and the members of the Springfield Mensa. Oddly enough the African American citizens are shown to be more smarter and competent with their work like Carl, Officer Lou, and Doctor Hibbert, and they don't pull similar mistakes the other citizens would pull.
- The Simpsons world is a Crapsack World that doesn't have the same secretly alluring awesomeness that the Warhammer 40,000 universe does.
- Most of the time when the citizens of Springfield are acting truly, woefully stupid, they're doing so en masse as part of a mob or a fad. Like Agent K said, "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it."

Lisa Can't Have Wine, But with Bart, it's Fine?

How come Marge objects to Lisa having wine yet is okay with Bart?
- Because Lisa has a hope in hell of being successful.
- Bart did visit France once as an exchange student, he has already tried it. OK, maybe Marge isn't going to completely give in, but a glass of wine as a reward or for a special occasion is fine.

Inconsistencies

What's with the increasing inconsistencies in the show? Throughout the series, Homer's dead dream to be a rock star was mentioned from time to time. He was never able to fulfill the dream because of family, and there was even an entire episode dedicated to this. Yet in a newer episode, Homer was shown as inventing the Grunge genre and being a successful rock star for a period of time. What?
- Negative Continuity.

How Did Ned See the Fire?

In "Homer the Heretic", the fire which burns the Simpson's house takes place during church, so how could Ned (who attends the same church as the Simpsons) see the house on fire?
- For that matter, when is church in Springfield? Other episodes have it taking place on Sunday morning, but in "Lisa the Greek", church is seen happening the same time as the Superbowl. The Superbowl doesn't usually start until early evening, and even pregame coverage isn't until the afternoon.
  - Some churches hold evening services.

Why Did Homer Jump the Wormhole?

Homer's unbelievable stupidity aside, in the Treehouse of Horror VI vignette Homer³, why did he try to jump across the massive & ever-expanding wormhole in the 3D plane, when he could have at least attempted to run around◊ it and reach Bart safely?
- Because Bart told him to?
- Not counting his idiocy, Homer's brain functions in a very bizarre manner. My position is that Homer realized it was a shorter distance to go straight across the hole. It would be longer to go around. On a more logical level, Homer may have thought the hole would have sucked down the sides by the time he ran around. Maybe it was just a gamble on Homer's part.
- Child in danger = Papa Wolf = precipitous, thoughtless action.

Speed Bike

In "Girly Edition", it's established that the junkyard is a long distance from the studio, long enough that Lisa wonders if Bart will be able to make it in time on his bike. So how did Lisa get to the junkyard so quickly on her bike?
- Because she rode it very fast?
  - We're talking a distance so far that Bart would rather take the chopper instead. Is it really likely that Lisa was able to make it to the junkyard on a bike before the Bart's People segment concluded? I doubt it.
  - Or maybe the junkyard isn't that far and Lisa was just goading Bart because she knows who Bart will encounter when he gets there. Claiming to have a chopper could have been Bart goading her right back. Did we ever actually see it?
  - Besides, even if the chopper is real, Bart is definitely the type of person who would take a helicopter on such a short trip just because he can.

Mixar

Why is it that in-universe, there's the movie company "Mixar", but Lisa says she's all their movies... Except Cars?!
- Presumably in this universe, Cars was made by Mixar. Since it's a transparently obvious Bland-Name Product stand-in.
- It's probably a Take That! towards Cars being seen as one of Pixar's weaker movies.

Reference?

In the Halloween segment "Time & Punishment", Homer says "I'm the first non-Brazilian person to travel backwards through time!" What's that a reference to? Admittedly, when I was a kid, I thought he said "brilliant."
- According to The Simpsons Archive it was probably a reference to Carlos Castaneda.

Why Not Ask Lisa?

In "Marge's Son Poisoning", Marge is sad that nobody wants to ride her tandem bike with her, yet she only asked Homer, Bart, and Maggie. Why was Lisa left out?
- Knowing Lisa, some silly ultra-liberal reason.
- She secretly hates Lisa for being a vegetarian. Remember her mentioning that she slips a little meat into Lisa's food?
  - That was Homer especially after getting rid of the roasted pig everyone was going to eat. Though while Lisa was shoving the pig away with the lawn mower she did say, "Lisa, no!"
- Uh, I think Lisa could simply be busy at that moment and we just don't see what she was doing when Marge asked her. Man, you overcomplicate something that could be easily responded.

Nedna's Status

So Nedna's official. But I'm confused on the status: are they married, engaged, or simply dating?
- Dating.
  - No, they're married now.
  - Edna died, remember? Ned’s single now.

Having a Cow

The Treehouse of Horror episode "Don't Have a Cow Mankind" makes no sense to me. How many supplies did the Simpsons have to last almost a month trapped in the house? Why did the writers make a real illness like Mad-Cow Disease the cause of the zombie apocalypse? Why wasn't the burger at Krusty Burger spoiled from sitting there for a month? Why didn't the military just take a sample of Bart's blood to make a vaccine? Why was Bart immune in the first place? Why was Shelbyville a safe zone? Why was it that Marge didn't know about communion? Was that a shot at Christians? Did Seth McFarlane make that joke? How does Bart bathing in soup make a cure? How was the cure administered to the munchers? Why the heck wasn't Homer cured? It just raises too many questions.
- Okay, let's try to answer these in order:
  - The Simpsons have been seen to have a bomb shelter, as in the Tracey Ullman shorts, plus Marge has been seen to stock up on literally hundreds of cans of soup from their version of Costco; not to mention that as long as they can force Homer not to eat it, their fridge probably has weeks and weeks worth of a normal person's caloric intake contained within.
  - The same way that 'mutated rabies' was the cause of 28 Days Later. It's specifically mentioned that the mad cows are ground up and fed to OTHER mad cows, and then again a THIRD time. So possibly the virus may have mutated as a result of that.
  - Tainted meat being the source of the virus is a reference to Zombieland
  - It's a KRUSTY burger.
  - Because the anti-muncher enzyme probably requires Bart to be continuously made.
  - Because he eats so much Krustyburger that he's immune?
  - Because all the remaining nuclear radiation from the NUKE going off there in 24 Minutes stopped the virus from manifesting?
  - Communion is a Catholic tradition, and Marge has been shown not only to not understand Catholics, but openly despise them. My guess is that the Western Branch of American Reform Presbylutheranism doesn't practice it.
  - Skin and hair flakes, possibly they contained the materials needed to stop people catching the disease.
  - Probably because immunisation doesn't mean it's a cure.
- The Halloween episode doesn't make sense? Surely not.

Pointless Food Wife?

Did they make "The Food Wife" just to say "WE KNOW WHAT VIDEO GAMES AND FOOD BLOGS/FOODIES ARE!"?
- Was this question even needed to be asked?

Name Inconsistencies

The Simpsons occasionally decides to slightly misname celebrities (as "Woodsy Allen," for example) and licensed characters, but does this so rarely that it's jarring. In one episode, Marvel characters are renamed "The Thung" (The Thing) and "The Mulk" (The Hulk)... why? I'm guessing Stan Lee, who has guest starred on the show, will not sue!
- Especially when weighed against the startlingly accurate portrayal of D.C. copyright characters like Plastic Man and Marvel ones like Iron Man in "Homer the Whopper."
- Marge saying "Woodsy Allen" was just a joke about her not knowing his name.
- The show frequently mentions the real franchise Star Wars. Yet in "Co-Dependent's Day", Star Wars apparently doesn't exist and is replaced with an expy franchise called Cosmic Wars. I know it's done for the purposes of parody, but it's still very strange.
- To address this and the point above about "Mixar", if you want to refer to another property not owned by your production company directly, you generally have to get explicit permission or pay royalties to the actual owners to use their stuff. Especially for something like Star Wars, this can potentially get expensive. So while the occasional one-off reference might slip under the radar or might come pretty cheap, or the original owner might be fine with you using their character, it's usually even easier, cheaper and less of a headache to come up with some kind of Bland-Name Product Expy that tweaks things juuuuuuust enough so everyone knows what's really being made fun of while simultaneously working out a bit cheaper for you in the long run. Presumably whether they use the real thing or not varies depending on the above. Whereas a living person's name obviously cannot be copyrighted, and there really isn't anything anyone can do about their likeness being used without permission unless they can afford to bring a lawsuit and prove that the offending character is a clear imitation of them, which entails showing that there couldn't possibly be anyone else who possesses or exhibits the traits being displayed.
- Stan Lee ... doesn't own Marvel Comics ... it wouldn't be up to him to make that call.

How Many Boys vs. Girls?

Of Apu and Manjula's octuplets, how many are male and how many are female? The show is never clear on this.
- They gave us a good glimpse and their names in their debut episode. I don't remember, personally. But there are at least 3 girls, I know that.
- There are four girls: Poonam, Sashi, Pria, and Uma. And four boys: Anoop, Sandeep, Nabendu, and Gheet.

How Famous is Krusty?

Krusty. On some episodes he's practically unknown local low budget kid's show host, in other episodes he's a media empire on par with Disney.
- 15 Minutes of Fame ... or something like it.

Lisa in Denial About Friends

Why does Lisa constantly say that she has no friends despite her friendships with Janey, Ralph, and Alison? it doesn't make sense! Or she just forgets she has friends.
- Janey has recently suffered Chuck Cunningham Syndrome, possibly due to being a Flat Character.
- Lisa seems to have a lot of emotional problems. Perhaps she just can't manage to commit to friends. Or perhaps she's really very shy and only acts pedantic to hide her shyness.
- They were never very consistent with that part of her character. One episode she has friends, the next she doesn't. In the same season no less.
- Lisa is just happier thinking that she is way too smart to have friends. It has been shown several times that she can't stand meeting a girl of her age that is as smart or smarter than herself. So even if she meets some intelligent, sensible girl she could be easily friends with, she decides not to, so she can keep thinking of herself as a tragically sensitive misunderstood child.

Bart's Too Bad a Boy for the Baby?

It may be just me, as I haven't seen every episode, but have Bart and Maggie ever had any sort of character interaction at all?
- Well, he gave her that teddy bear...
- In "Homer Defined", Milhouse's mother forbids him from playing with Bart, so Bart tries playing with Maggie instead.
- How many ten year old boys do you know that enjoy spending time with babies?
- Took 'em two and a half decades, but yes. Season 27's 'How Lisa Got Her Marge Back' has them star in the B-plot together.

How is Moe Poor?

I don't get how Moe can be completely poor when he runs his own business. He has a pretty damn successful bar with many regular customers, and yet he resorts to using a rope for a belt in one episode?
- He only has about half-a-dozen regulars - Homer, Lenny, Carl, Barney, Sam and Larry and there doesn't seem to be much passing trade, judging by the reaction when someone new comes in. And he probably owes a lot of money to the bank for those times he has re-vamped the bar into an English pub, a theme restaurant and a hangout for hipsters.
  - Most of the regulars never end up paying their tabs, and only do if they have the money on them or are threatened by Moe.
  - He sent Barney's bar tab to NASA for them to calculate it,if that's any indication.

Other Multi-Job Characters

Now we know why Lindsay Naegle has different jobs (She's a sexual predator) and with Gil it's obvious, but is there a excuse why Squeaky Voiced Teen, Sarcastic Middle Aged man, and "That jerk who always says "M'yeeeesssss"?" have different jobs every time we see them? This is never explained yet Lindsay and Gil are the only ones with reasons behind their different jobs.
- The man who says "yeeeesss" is identical to a character who appeared many times on The Jack Benny Program, where he was played by Frank Nelson. So if you want to know why he's had so many jobs, ask Jack Benny.
- The man who says "yeeeeeesssss" revealed in one episode that he talks that way because he once suffered a heart stroke. If he has a condition that forces him to be in medical leave often (as a heart condition may be), it may be difficult for him to keep a job.
- Perhaps they're Identical Strangers?
  - I don't think a teenager can hold one job for long thus explaining Squeaky Voice Teen's changing of jobs. As for the other guys, I don't know.
  - There are at least three different Squeaky Voiced Teens, at one point we see all three together.

Why Didn't the Kids Talk with Their Principal?

In the episode "You Only Move Twice", wouldn't Bart and Lisa have met with their new principal and discussed their strengths and weaknesses before heading to class? Or do the teachers at that school use the "sink or swim" approach? The remedial class notwithstanding.
- Meeting with the principal is actually very unusual. Generally school officials would just glance over their records and throw them into gen pop.
- What you're describing is very unusual for an American school. I've never heard of a Principal meeting and discussing anything like that with a new transfer student. They'd just look at the student's file, assign them to a class, and they'd be told what classroom to go to, and that's it.

A Very Bad Prank

Pranks and Green: This episode has one annoying problem. Why did Andy prank Skinner so badly in the origin for Skinner's strictness? I could understand if it was a small friendly prank, or if Skinner was an a-hole, but he trapped him in a pool full of worms for three days, and turned the cool principal the kids actually liked into a super strict militant principal.
- Andy's shown to be a huge dick.
- Yeah, but still, that was a massive Kick the Dog moment. Principal Skinner was shown to be an awesome and fun loving guy who actually made school fun for the kids, and he decided to lock him without food or water in a pool full of worms for DAYS. Just replacing the water with worms was enough, he didn't have to then close up the pool to keep him trapped.
- It was so distant from the original, fun tone of the Simpsons' golden age and Dude, Not Funny!

What More Proof Does Skinner Need?

In "The Boy Who Knew Too Much", why does Skinner need Bart to admit he was at the Quimby party as proof that he was skipping school, when he *saw* him skipping school, *and* they have his forged letter giving an excuse?
- He may have not realized he could prove it with those things.
- Why doesn't Bart give a pseudonymous depositation?

Why a Million Years?

In Homer Goes To College, why wasn't Krusty allowed to show ''Burning Down The Mouse'' (the one where Scratchy wins for a change) again in a million years?
- It might have just been an exaggeration on Krusty's part.
- It might have been too unbelievably violent and gory even for an Itchy & Scratchy cartoon. It's not uncommon; a lot of Looney Tunes cartoons are permanently banned from television for various reasons, too.
  - It's pretty much just the Censored Eleven, and almost entirely for racism.

Why Didn't Someone See Homer's Face?

In "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes", when Comic Book Guy clicks onto Homer's website (which is meant to be confidential as to who is running it), you can clearly see Homer's face in the frame for a second, until the bag goes around his head. Why didn't someone see Homer's face and figure out that he was running the website? It bugs me.
- Most Springfieldians are idiots and that bugs me as well. I mean if Springfieldians were smart then they would know "El Barto" is Bart but with a "El" and a "O" added to it.
  - Yeah, but in an earlier episode, Comic Book Guy was shown in Springfield's Mensa group. You'd think he would notice.
- This requires about as much explanation as the fact that Apu's mother is never suspicious of Marge's claim to be married to Apu on the grounds that the children don't look remotely Indian, or the fact that the patrons of Lollapalooza characterize Homer as a "fat Jamaican guy" solely because he's wearing a Rastafarian hat. In other words: part of the joke.
  - In the case of Apu's mother, it seemed she was suspicious but went along with it because she knew Apu would not be able to keep up the charade for long, and he would have to confess that he was not married after all.
  - So you mean that the sheer stupidity of Springfield is played for laughs, it just horrifies this troper if there really was a entire city full of morons and the stupid have power while the smart are outcasts... then again can the "smart" characters be funny too?
  - What do you mean? The "smart" characters are often hilarious for many reasons, just not for dumbness, Skinner and Professor Frink are two of the funniest characters, especially Skinner with all his quirks, his Norman Bates-like relationship whith his mother and his Vietnam background. That said, as other tropers point out, most of the citizens are not stupid, they're just average and the humor comes from things like cynicism, satire, dark humor and other stuffs that may be confuse for stupidity for the not very careful viewer.
  - I'm not sure if depicting a character (or everyone) as comically oblivious is the same thing as depicting them as stupid.
  - Maybe Comic Book Guy doesn't know who Homer is?
- Why has everyone failed to mention just how exactly did Homer's actual face show up on the website? We're expected to believe that he put a picture of himself on the website, then went to all the trouble of finding a picture of a paper bag and layering that over the picture of his face? Why didn't he just use a picture of himself wearing the paper bag mask that he clearly owns? And why, oh why, oh why, doesn't Comic Book Guy have a faster internet connection? In the episode where Homer sets up his Hypo-global-mega-net company, he's shown to have a very advanced knowledge of computers, and I'm fairly sure he plays MMORPGs, which would require a decent internet connection...
  - I know I'm the original poster, but I'm fairly sure that this was part of the joke. Homer is so stupid that he would do that. And about the internet connection, in the Compu-Global Hyper-Meganet (I looked it up) episode, it took him about a minute to download a pornographic image. The Computer Wore Menace Shoes was made 2 years after this episode. I know The Simpsons uses Negative Continuity, but he could have got a bit faster. Also, as a website programmer, I'm sure that you can't layer pictures on top of one another.
  - Maybe it was a .gif?

Why Isn't Martin at the Gifted School?

In Bart the Genius, Bart wrote his name on Martin's intelligence test papers, which allowed him to attend a gifted school. At the end of the episode, he admitted to cheating on the test. So shouldn't Martin be attending the gifted school instead of continuing to attend Springfield Elementary?
- Maybe because he personally doesn't want to?
- Bart admitted to Homer that he cheated on the test; we don't know if the school board was ever informed. It's possible Bart just dropped out of the gifted school without publicly coming clean about having cheated.
  - He told the psychologist.
- Maybe he never said how he cheated, and the school didn't pursue it? If they didn't know what he did, they wouldn't know there was another boy who qualified at Springfield Elementary. Skinner certainly wouldn't have helped them, as he's desperate to keep his good students where they are.

Employee Name Amnesia?

This troper and a friend are still debating about this, now Mr. Burns is known for constantly forgetting Homer's name, now she thinks it's because Burns is a evil boss and evil bosses are known for forgetting names on purpose For the Evulz, now I believe the reason he forgets his name is because Mr. Burns is senile, he is so senile that he believes Greta Garbo is still alive... so which one of us is right?
- It has been well establish that Mr. Burns is senile. He also seems to be stuck in the late 19th century.
- He also has hundreds of employees and he doesn’t care for them at all, nor seem to remember the names of any other than Smithers, in fact this is shown in the episode when he develops a crush on Marge. Of course you would think he would remember after all the protagonism that Homer had in several episodes but that's part of the joke, that he cares so little about even him.
- Homer has so often antagonized or humiliated Burns, sometimes in spectacular fashion you'd think would cause a permanent grudge (e.g. "Two Cars in Every Garage"), it doesn't make sense why he wouldn't remember him. That's why I've interpreted his failure to remember him more as a continuity-reset gag along the lines of "They killed Kenny!" from South Park.

Why Do Only the Octuplets Age?

Why is it that Apu's children age (going from newborn babies to toddlers attending preschool) when no one else does?
- Same thing with Sideshow Bob's son, Gino. It's probably because toddlers are easier to work with - they can do a few things older children can do, but still require the same amount of care and attention babies do.
  - Also, Mary Spuckler also seems to have aged between Apocalypse Cow and Moonshine River. Those episodes are between 4 and 5 years apart.
  - Ling also looked a little older (preschooler's age).
  - Also, there was Apu's nephew, Jamshed who first appears as a toddler in his debut but later a teen/young adult.

Ralph & Milhouse Aren't Smart, Right?

In "Bye Bye Nerdie", Lisa concludes scientifically that school bully Francine Rhenquist, purely on instinct, only beats up the smart kids. Then why did she also pick on Milhouse and Ralph Wiggum? Milhouse may be nerdy, but he's not particularly smart, and Ralph Wiggum...well, he a former trope namer for the exact opposite of "smart".
- Well if Lisa's theory about Francine is true then why do the bullies pick on Bart? Bart is not a nerd he's a bad boy just like them but with standards.
- Personally, I think that Francine would just beat up almost anyone she didn't like and that Lisa's explanation was a coincidence.
  - Milhouse's intelligence varies depending on the episode. In certain episodes it shows Bart calling him book smart and has him applying Chemistry analogies to every day situations. And in others, he's not. And Ralph Wiggum was in the locker with Milhouse, but he never said that Francine put him in there. For all we know, Ralph stuck himself in the locker on his own.
  - Doesn't help that it's mentioned and implied three times in the series that Milhouse is inbred and that can explain why he's a dumbass.

Why You Little *What*?

One would wonder what comes after "Why you little.." every time Homer shouts it?
- In Wedding For Disaster, Homer says, "Why you little bastard!"

How was Skinner a Soldier?

In Sweet Seymour Skinner's Badass Song, Skinner is shown to be a trained soldier and decorated sergeant. This would count for his records, his reputation with his fellow soldiers and senior officers as well as some numerous mementos from his days in Vietnam, including a photo of him and his platoon. So if The Principal and the Pauper is to be considered canon, how the hell did Skinner get away with flying so low under the radar within the army that not one single person ever realized that they were leaving the lives of many soldiers in the hands of a single untrained punk from the streets with no actual experience in command, even if his own men hated him?
- Simple. They don't. Skinner, who had been reached and changed by the real Skinner, says he asked that he be one to notify Mrs. Skinner that her son was dead, and when she mistook him for her son, it's only then that he pretends to be Skinner. But aside from a one-off joke when Lisa, after losing Snowball II and her replacement cats, decides to save on new dishes when she finds a cat identical to Snowball (Skinner questions the morality of this, Lisa calls him by his real name, Skinner drops it), it doesn't seem canon due to the show's severe Negative Continuity.

Why Weren't They Suspicious?

In the episode Miracle on Evergreen Terrace, wouldn't the other Simpsons have gotten suspicious when Bart nonchalantly said "including the tree" between sobs, even if the crying was staged? Or is it like Seinfeld, and they don't ask those kinds of questions anymore?

Homer & Marge Tracking Bart Questions

A lot of the sequences with Homer and Marge tracking Bart on the website in "Lost Verizon" bug me. First, Bart is tracked by his own face. How weird is it that they somehow hacked the website to show Bart's own face wherever he was? Second, the website was upgrading Bart's position about 100 times a second. How? Third, Marge somehow was able to continue tracking Bart via the Internet while she was in a car. How? HOW? Fourth, the bullies have their own position on the map. Invasion of privacy, much? There's a couple of others, but those are the ones that stand out...
- Rule of Funny, Rule of Funny, Rule of Funny, annnnd Rule of Funny.

Why is Homer's Life Great?

What I don't get about the Frank Grimes episode is why does Frank say that Homer's life is so great? I mean, if he looked into Homer's life a bit more, he would know: His mother left him when he was young (giving him major issues for a good part of his life), his house is falling apart, his car is a shoddy jalopy made from old Soviet tanks, his wife was going bald from stress, his son is failing in school, his oldest daughter is a bullied outcast, working at the plant has killed his sperm, he has massive head injuries and a heart problem, when he was sent into space a carbon rod stole his thunder (for the SECOND time), he when he met Smashing Pumpkins it was through a mix of his kids calling him old and almost KILLING HIMSELF in a side-show, had a long, drawn out fight with former president Bush, and dropped out of the public eye after winning a Grammy.
- Maybe it's because of all the Jerkass and idiotic things Homer has gotten away with why Frank says that Homer's life is so great.
- That's just it; he didn't look properly into Homer's life. He saw Homer getting away with idiotic stuff, and when he was at the Simpsons house, they were trying to win him over, so everything was presented as best they could; Frank was already too angry at Homer to realise they were making an effort for him, and assumed that the kids were always polite, and they always had the best, and he didn't ask for the stories behind the pictures. If he'd got to know more about Homer, he'd have realised how things really were, although even then, Homer still has more than he does, for less work, and no matter how being an astronaut and winning a Grammy turned out, those were both still amazing experiences for Homer. Basically; Frank didn't see everything about Homer's life, and even if he had, it was still better than his.
  - It's true that Homers life is better than Grimes', but not nearly to the extend he seems to think
- (a) Consider the source of the complaint. Frank Grimes was abandoned at the age of four, spent most of his life either working in menial drudgery or studying, was once blown up in a silo and had to teach himself how to use his body and feel again, is nevertheless single, ignored, overlooked and downtrodden, and lives below a bowling alley and above another bowling alley. He's bitter and resentful, and compared to what he's had and got, anything is an improvement. (b) Grimes isn't exactly wrong here. Homer's still got a pretty great life and family, has won a major music award, toured with some of the biggest acts of the 1990s, met two former Presidents and been to space. Regardless of the chaos involved in all of them, that's still nothing to sniff at.
Grimes was partially to blame for his own measly life: he was a anally-retentive perfectionist with No Social Skills (I don't see him acing a job interview, he's lucky that Mr. Burns personally wanted him) and a short temper. Though Homer is prone to fits of anger, apathy, idiocy and laziness, he can make friends and isn't predisposed to maliciousness, which is good enough to have a good life. The special moments (meeting ex-President Bush, going to space) were sheer good fortune (Bush chose to move into the Simpsons' street, Homer made himself known to NASA at exactly the right moment they decided to send an average Joe into space).

More Incompetent Than a Carbon Rod

How did the carbon rod steal Homer's thunder in Deep Space Homer twice? Why did the carbon rod become worker of the week and take all the credit for saving the day? I guess everyone must really hate Homer, and they felt that he never deserves to be happy or succeed/achieve at anything.
- Well, it's kind of a good metaphor for real life. Lots of people don't get credit. There's the man who works hard all the time but stays in the same low-level job, while some idiot who doesn't know what he's doing gets onto the chairroom board just because he's related to someone. Or take a movie. This is something even this show pointed out; the director, lead actors and guys like that get awards, but not the boom-mic operators or guys like that. Sure, their names are in the credits, but most people don't read all of them. Or take history. We celebrate Columbus for finding the new world, but native people had been there since the stone age and Vikings landed in Nova Scotia in the Dark Ages. Thomas Edison got credit for the inventions, but he had hundreds of men helping him make prototypes. Elvis is famous for Blue Suede Shoes, but Carl Perkins sang it first. Lots of people don't get credit for their hard work, (albeit, most of them were likely not as big of jerkasses as Homer), and some of them are OK with that, just being happy that they worked hard to make something great.

Carbon Rod, Part 2

Why, in God's name, does Burns give the award to an inanimate carbon rod??
- One, it's Rule of Funny, two, it's a running gag of how Mr. Burns doesn't know who Homer is (even after the many times he's crossed paths with Homer and his family), and three, it shows that Mr. Burns only cares about money and material goods rather than people (like when he hired a rescue dog to be vice president in "Homer's Enemy," how he had a brick replace Homer while he was in the hospital on "Homer's Triple Bypass," and how he nearly pulled the plug on Homer because it was costing Burns too much money to keep him on life support in "So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show.")
- We simply could not function without his tireless efforts.
- It's also a joke at how shit Homer is at his job. He's so bad at it that an inanimate piece of carbon is more deserving of being named employee of the month than he is.

Forgetting Bart and Lisa?

How did Mrs. McConnell forget Bart and Lisa on the field trip to Capital City when they were going back to school? Wouldn't she have noticed if they weren't there?
- She's an adult in The Simpsons. She may be smarter academically than most of the others, but she still has idiotic tendencies; her's being that she relies completely on the buddy system, and therefore only notices when one child is on their own. If everyone is paired up, she assumes everything is fine.

Kang and Kodos are Canon Now?

The Man Who Came To Be Dinner. What are Kang and Kodos doing in a canon episode? Have the show makers forgotten their own rules?
- They also appeared in Gump Roast.
  - Yes, but I heard that that episode is also considered non-canon. Maybe this episode will also be!
  - In The Springfield Files, the FBI asks Homer which alien did he see (Kang or Kodos was among them) and in Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming had a small yellow alien with a probe. So at this point I think it's safe to say that aliens do exist in canon episodes.
  - Actually, The Springfield Files is also non-canon, so the only alien known to exist in canon episodes so far is the one from Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming.
  - There is nothing to suggest 'The Springfield Files' is non canon except for Mike Reiss describing the single scene showing Kang as "the most illegal shot in Simpsons history". Also, there is an alien featured in Homer The Great, named Number 51.
- Also, while we're on the subject, given that The Simpsons is notorious for Negative Continuity describing any episode as a "canon" episode quickly starts to put us on shaky ground.

American Kid, Indian Accent

In the Season 16 episode Future-Drama, Apu and Manjula's son Anoop talks to Bart. Why does a child born and raised in the United States speak English in an Indian accent? It's highly unusual for second generation Americans not to have American accents. Unless he's spent his entire life in a room with only his parents speaking English to him, he would develop an American accent at school and from public and media. I say this as a second-generation Australian. I have a general Aussie accent. My parents don't.
- As a fellow Australian, you must have met young Vietnamese and Chinese children that speak English with an accent due to learning their parent's native language at home before learning english later on. Presumably Apu and Manjula speak Hindi to each other at home (and have been shown to in episodes). The children would pick up on that, as well as the accent; they would probably lose it as they start coming into contact with more American-accented children, such as in preschool. But at such a young age, it's not strange.

Lisa in the Woods

What's up with Lisa in "You Only Move Twice"? She seems to be out in the woods (without a grown-up, I might add) at the same time Bart is in school. What's up with that?
- Perhaps the second grade class is on holiday?

Why Does Marge Sell Expired Meds?

In "We're On The Road to D'Ohwhere", Marge is perfectly happy to sell expired prescription drugs - but how could someone like Marge even consider doing something like that?!
- She might be consider it a good thing, to be giving people who need medication at far cheaper prices than normal, and too naive to realize people were abusing them.
- Marge may be naive, but she'd usually have enough sense to realise that selling expired medication to others is extremely dangerous.
Maybe it was a way to earn money? The family has as a rule always been lower-middle class, no matter the state of the economy, and most episodes make jokes or plots about them barely scraping by and being unable to accrue any significant savings.

Marge's Hair Length

Watched the episode The Way We Was a year ago, Marge's hairdo was just as tall when she first styled it the way it is for the senior prom as it is in the show's present. Earlier in the same set of flashbacks, though, it was shorter and straight. Even with filling, there is no possible way it could have reached as high back then as it does nowadays.
- Extensions?

Cast of Amnesiacs?

I've been meaning to ask this but why do characters contradict themselves and forget events from previous episodes and in turn create lots of series continuity errors? Such examples are when Marge thought Grandpa was gay just to brag to Helen Lovejoy, why doesn't she remember that her sister Patty is a lesbian, also in "Fear of Flying" Marge had a fear of flying the whole time yet she flew to Washington in "Mr. Lisa goes to Washington" without throwing that fit. Or why was Sideshow Bob watching "That 30's Show" on TV yet in his previous appearance he almost nuked Springfield unless they get rid of all television. Plus there's the whole issue of Cosmic Wars existing in the Simpsons verse even though Star Wars has existed the whole time and was parodied and mentioned by name hundreds of times. Why do they allow Continuity errors to happen? Aren't the writers afraid of being fired of making a continuity error so bad that it might confuse a viewer and die hard fan? The only time someone pointed out a continuity error is when Comic Book Guy pointed out that The Simpsons did have a horse and Marge did have a gambling addiction.
- Bob wasn't against television as a whole; his beef was with Lowest Common Denominator sitcoms that insult the viewers' intelligence and (in his view) drag down actors renowned for their sophisticated reputation ("I'm hauling ass to Lollapalooza!"). Given the long-ago setting, "That 30's Show" might not be well-understood by the unwashed masses because most of the jokes and references are obscure, thus the show appeals to Bob's insufferable-genius taste.
- I've said it before and I'll say it again: Negative Continuity.
  - The question is why does Negative Continuity even happen, let alone allowed to happen?
  - A better question is why is continuity important?
  - So they would remember the things they did in the past and it would make sense. It's like the only time Continuity is canon is if a character died and they stay dead... yet Dr. Marvin Monroe and Dr. Nick Riviera somehow survive their "deaths".
  - Negative Continuity happens because The Simpsons is fundamentally absurdist, depends mainly on Rule of Funny, has been running for almost thirty years while the characters haven't aged at all, and the same people writing it today aren't necessarily the same people who were writing it two/five/ten/twenty years ago. For these reasons, adhering to a strict continuity would probably only make things worse, or at least harder than they had to be. At least the writers are honest about it.
  - Well, I recommend you the Youtube channel The Real Jim and his "The Simpsons Mysteries" episodes were he examines some of these stuffs. One fan theory is that every episode of The Simpson happens in the same year, if you take every single episode and take away the episodes where all the family is together some episodes may have happened simultaneously (for example, those starred by Bart and/or Lisa and those starred by Homer and/or Marge), another theory is that The Simpson actually exist in a multiple universe reality with different seasons and/or different episodes been in parallel realities which would explain things like having Bart passing to the same grade more than once or having them celebrate the same Xmas several times, and an interesting declaration from the current showrunner that if the show ever ends he would like for the last episode to have them preparing for the Xmas school event that they went in the first episode thus ending the show in a eternal loop, so in short, their timeline make no sense and we can't even be sure if the episodes are concurrent (for example, if Lisa Goes Washington is after Marge got over his fear of flying).
- The writers think that continuity is disposable if it hinders the story. Thankfully they only get rid of it either when it would seem like nitpicking or when it would conflict with a decent story. That's good...unless we're talking about "The 90's Show." That's bad.
  - But it comes with a free froghurt!
  - However in “Saddlesore Galactica” the Simpsons DID forget the time they owned a horse in “Lisa’s Pony” until Comic Book Guy showed up and pointed this out. Fridge Brilliance kicks in that Homer yells in response “Does anyone care what this man thinks?” Because he probably Just remembered the Kwick E Mart job he took to afford the pony. Later in the episode Lisa was about to point out Marge might develop a gambling problem only for Comic Book Guy to again point that out too due to the events of “$pringfield”.

Why Aren't Futures Canon?

Why are futures even considered non-canon in the first place?
- Zee Rust, mostly.
  - Probably also because the characters never age.
- Nobody said they're non-canon. It's just that Comic-Book Time means they can't take place at certain dates, and won't be relevant until the inevitable end, making it borderline on discontinuity. Then again what is canon anyway?

Two Questions Regarding Lisa

You know what grinds my beans about Lisa, are two things: First, she thinks failing gym class will stop her from becoming President. Hasn't she heard of Franklin Roosevelt, who was secretly crippled due to polio? Second, in the ending of Pranks and Greens, she called Andy a loser, even after getting a writing job for Krusty. I mean, what the heck?
- Hypocritical Humor, Soapbox Sadie, and Know-Nothing Know-It-All. We might as well combine all three and call it The Lisa.
  - Can you be more specific please?
  - Read the tropes. Lisa is practically a poster child for all three.
  - The way this Troper sees it, with the first point, Lisa hates failing anything. She feels that any blot on her permanent record will stop her from succeeding in the future- remember when she pitches a fit because she gets less than an A for conduct at the end of the year? Also, at the end of Pranks and Greens, she calls Andy a loser because she views him as being unoriginal, as he is planning to use the exact same material he was using back in Elementary school, meaning that he hasn't grown up in the slightest. It's been a long time since this troper saw that episode, though, and with many other episodes in between, it may be a bit fuzzy now. Feel free to argue, the recollection of the episode Pranks and Greens may be less than perfect.
- Remember, Bart and Lisa are 10 and 8 years old. They are prone to having overactive imaginations (Bart thinks $500 was a fortune after all) because they are very impressionable. So just because what they think is true, doesn't mean it is.
  - Would her attitude on University of South Carolina ("I will not be a Gamecock!") and thinking people from Brown wind up as frequently wasted bus drivers like Otto add up to that?
- Following on from a couple of the above points, think about Lisa's position. She isn't exactly the most popular child at Springfield Elementary, and she's been shown being bullied. Certain previous episodes have explored her feelings that she's not as pretty or mature as her classmates, and she's prone to developing crushes on boys who may not reciprocate her feelings (which is completely normal for an eight-year-old girl). All she feels she has left is her intellectual ability, which is far beyond that of her classmates, and even some of the students older than her. She's set herself impossibly high standards for academic achievement, because she feels like it's the only thing she's good at (with the exception of her sax), and if she fails in that, then she must be a failure in general.
- Lisa, like a lot of rather neurotic people, has a tendency to catastrophize. In her mind, any problem will automatically have the worst, most disastrous outcome rather than a rather more likely, less disastrous outcome.
It should be noted Franklin Roosevelt caught polio as an adult, and his decision to hide it for political purposes led to the development of his upper body. He ranks pretty high in terms of Presidential athletic capabilities.

Video Game Characters Turning Evil?

In "Marge Be Not Proud", when Bart is thinking about stealing the Bonestorm video game, why are Mario, Luigi, Donkey Kong, and Sonic, the good guys, persuading him to steal?
- Because the point wasn't that they're good guys, but that they're video game characters.
  - And they're Bart's imagination, likely his way of justifying stealing the game.

Karl

The character Karl in "Simpson and Delilah" really baffles me; I mean, he basically shows up out of nowhere, throws his entire life under the bus for Homer, a man he's only just met, and then disappears forever. One could say it's Rule of Funny, except his character, by Simpsons standards, is played pretty seriously. Seriously, does anyone have ANY ideas about the logic behind his actions?
- It's been suggested that he's gay; the Simpsons Wiki at least has a lot of info on the subject matter. He was also supposed to reappear with his male lover in a later episode, but his voice actor declined. To summarize, he's probably an extremely intense man who also happens to have a serious crush on Homer, and probably vanished after he realized his advice did Homer wrong.
- He got fired from his job, probably realised that Homer wouldn't return any feelings he had for him, and decided to just leave town and start anew somewhere else. He wouldn't be the first.
- A popular fan theory is that he was Homer's guardian angel. Presumably before he decided it would be better to appear as Colonel Klink.

Burns is Younger Than Abe?

Abe Simpson is generally somewhere in his 80s, bordering on his nineties. If Mr Burns isn't treated super-ancient for laughs, he's a centenarian. If so, why in "Curse of the Flying Hellfish" is WWII-era Burns treated quite younger than the 40-year old looking Abraham? Not just in appearance, but in attitude as well.
- Negative Continuity. This was before they decided to make Burns a one note joke about being incredibly old (it was around this time that he told Homer that he was only 81). As to why Burns looks 20 years younger than Abe in the flashback, it could be that Abe is older but takes somewhat better care of himself in his senior years, and in general is built differently than Burns. It could also be that Burns, in his youth, just looked young for his age.

Nonsensical Line Writing

Now we know in the opening Bart would write messages in the chalkboard because he is being punished by Mrs. Krabappel but why are there times Bart writes things that make no sense and have nothing to do with bad behavior such as "I am not a 32 year old woman", "All work and no play makes Bart a dull boy", "There are plenty of businesses like show business", "This is not a clue... or is it?" (this made people think Mrs. Krabappel shot Mr. Burns), "I'm so very tired", "Does any kid still do this anymore?", "Je ne parle pas français ("I do not speak French.")", "Have a great summer, everyone", "I will not wait 20 years to make another movie.", ""End of Lost: It was all the dog's dream. Watch Us." and "It's Kristen Schaal, Not Kristen Schall". Now why would Mrs. Krabappel make Bart write these nonsense messages?
- Because it's a credits gag joke and nothing more.
- In some cases (such as him claiming to be a 32-year-old woman), it's likely a combination of Bart Simpson insisting on making outrageous claims and Mrs. Krabappel looking for any excuse to punish him. It's also possible that she leaves for a smoke before Bart starts writing so he's free to write whatever he wants.
- As for the "I am not a 32 year old woman" one, it's obviously a reference to Nancy Cartwright, Bart's voice actor, a female who was in fact 32 years old at the time that gag aired!
- "All work, no play" might've been because he was slacking off and just happened to resemble The Shining, "There are plenty of businesses like show business" might be because Bart was saying, "There's no business like show business" over and over to be annoying, "I'm so very tired" might've been because Edna asked Bart to take a break and he said no on account of not being tired, "Je ne parle pas français" might've been because he falsely claimed he could speak French to be impressive, and the Kristen Schaal one might've been to correct his spelling. Still no clue on "This is not a clue", "Does any kid still do this anymore?", "Have a great summer", "I will not wait 20 years", and "End of Lost", though.

Why Does Marge Affect the Chick Vote?

In Homer Alone, Mayor Quimby demands that Marge be released from prison because otherwise he would "kiss the chick vote goodbye". While it's obvious Quimby would care about the chick vote, why would Marge being in jail affect how the chicks voted? And Marge's opinions usually don't seem to be popular with the public (like in A Star is Burns when Marge has a reputation for suggesting ideas that the townspeople don't like, or in $pringfield where they all expect Marge to be against legalized gambling, though those instances came after this episode). Although before that she was successful with her SNUH campaign in Itchy and Scratchy and Marge, but for the most part it seems the townspeople (especially the women) don't really respect her enough.
- It's not so much Marge that the other women sympathize but the situation that got her arrested — too much pressure from the relentless demands of being a stay-at-home mother. Other stay-at-home mothers often feel overwhelmed by the burden of putting the rest of the family above themselves and it especially galls them when they think their sacrifices are not appreciated.
- Quimby doesn't seem to have a lot of respect for women in general, given what a sex-obsessed sleaze he comes off as, so he probably figures all women would stand together and didn't account for individual different opinions. Also, like about 99% of Springfield, he's not particularly smart.

Why are Bart and Grampa Idiots?

If the Simpson gene is now considered non-canon and it's a crayon up Homer's brain that makes him dumb, then what explains why Bart and Grampa are idiots? They can't have crayons up their brains too!
- Grampa's senile and Bart is actually shown to be quite clever on occasion, he just can't be bothered most of the time.
  - Bart also uses television as an excuse for not remembering things. And for the same reason as Naruto, Bart was neglected and put down one time too many by a heartless kindergarten teacher. As a result, he had to focus more on making a spectacle of himself just so he could be noticed. Whoa.....
  - So Bart is dumb by choice? Is it even possible to be dumb by choice?
  - Barts intelligence varies depending on the episode, but most likely its a combination of ADD, poor attention span, and plain old "just does not give a shit". Bart doesn't care about school, he doesn't care about learning, or much of else for that matter, which translates into what looks like low intelligence.
- I don't really understand the question. Why would you need a specific explanation for why Bart and Grandpa are stupid? Some people are less smart than others—isn't that explanation enough?
- Not being academically smart doesn't make you an idiot, that way of thinking was over like in the 60s, by psychology, neuroscience and pedagogy at least. The multiple intelligence theory (and theory in the scientific sense of fact, not hypothesis as is commonly thought) says that Albert Einstein and Michael Jordan are equally smart, just that one has high logical-mathematical intelligence and the other has high bodily-kinesthetic intelligence. That said, Bart shows examples of high bodily-kinesthetic and social intelligence, much more than Lisa who obviously has logical-mathematical and musical intelligence. The Grandpa was not dumb by any mean in any of the flashbacks and is technically not dumb in the present, he's just too old and borderline senile.

Live-Broadcast Soap Opera

In Pygmoelian, why is a daytime soap opera being broadcast live?
- Maybe it was a special episode, like (fairly) recent episodes of Eastenders and Coronation Street which were broadcast live.

Why Kill Maude?

When Maggie Roswell quit the show, why did the writers specially kill off Maude Flanders and not Helen Lovejoy, Luann Van Houten, or Ms. Hoover?
- Better yet, why kill her off at all?
- Word of God states the writers liked the idea of Flanders dating. They were also aiming to get some emotion out of the story. Other than being Flanders' wife, she didn't have much of a personality and was a Satellite Character. The other characters mentioned are more developed than she is.
- Because she contributes much more to the show dead than she did alive. There have been several episodes about Ned trying to move on—there's her death in "Alone Again, Natura-Diddily," and there's the amusement park dedicated to her in "I'm Goin' to Praiseland." Then there's Ned dating a new woman in "A Star Is Born Again." That's three entire episodes that only were made possible thanks to her death.

Why Was Lisa Jealous?

Another Lisa-related question: Any reason why she was jealous when Milhouse was dating Taffy, despite snubbing his advances numerous times?
- While we're on this subject, why did Taffy think that Milhouse was still into Lisa? Because Lisa was stalking him?
- Maybe she just enjoyed the attention?

What Was in the Room?

What was in that one room at the box factory that made it the most popular part of the tour?
- It's impossible to know, that's what makes it funny.
- Consider also the sheer dullness of the man making this claim. It probably wasn't any more exciting than any other room in the factory except for a TV playing adverts for boxes or something.

How are Uulmer and the Leprechaun Canon?

If the Treehouse of Horror episodes are strictly non-canon then how did Üter (he was introduced in Treehouse of Horror VI) and the Leprechaun end up in the main canon?
- There's no reason why elements that start out as non-canonical need to stay that way. We have a trope for this: Canon Immigrant.
  - But the Leprechaun clearly came from a Simpsons canon that is supernatural and surreal, but normal Simpsons canon is supposed to be normal and surreal, oh let me a guess... a wizard had something to do with it!
  - This is a different matter to canonicity, and comes close to transgressing "Headscratching is not complaining."
  - Canonicity, especially multiple canons, are not that useful of a concept when it comes to The Simpsons, as it takes place in this extensively plastic universe (try to resolve "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes," for example, with the rest of the series). By and large, it works on the concept of Broad Strokes — broadl fect.) Ignoring the inaccuracy of the statement, why would Marge say this, when she is (in and out of universe) one of the few characters known not to have shot Mr. Burns?
- I guess Marge is as dumb as the other Springfieldians after all because DNA does NOT work like that at all!
- Lisa rolls her eyes when Marge says it, because she knows Marge is wrong.
- This is the joke. Marge clearly doesn't understand DNA (although it's a bit harsh to call her "dumb" — DNA is pretty complex).

Calling Your Father-in-Law "Grandpa"?

How come Marge always calls Abraham Simpson "Grandpa" and never "Abraham", she never refers to him by his actual name and that's a strange way to address her father-in-law. Well this trouper finds it weird she does that!
- Force of habit and, perhaps, she considers him "actual" family rather than an in-law? My Grandfather is an in-law but I refer to him as Grandfather, as does my Mother who is similarly (and biologically) unrelated to the man.
- I know a lot of folks who refer to members of the family by their "titles", even if that title doesn't apply to the person speaking. For example, my grandfather will call his wife "Mom" if he's asking a question for their daughter, and my mom will refer to her parents as "Grandma" and "Papa" if she's talking about them to my siblings. Marge probably calls Abe "Grandpa" in front of the kids because that's what he is to them, and doing so avoids confusion.

What Was Edna's Maiden Name?

I've heard somewhere that Edna Krabapple's last name is actually that of her ex-husband, and that she kept it even after he left her. Bearing that in mind, what was her original last name?
- Krabappel probably is her real name. She made reference to a "Mister" Krabappel to make it easier for the children to understand because there probably is no point in identifying her ex-husband.
- However, she's referred to as Mrs. Krabappel and not Ms. Krabappel.

Why Didn't Bart Check Out the Leftorium?

Despite being left-handed, Bart never checks out The Leftorium in When Flanders Failed. Made all the more odd considering he was at the mall several times for (allegedly) his karate lessons. He probably didn't know about the left-handed nunchucks.
- Homer's wish for the Leftorium to fail probably affected Bart the same way it did everybody else, in that no one would buy anything from it. Not to mention that Bart lost interest in karate when he realized how much study it required. He only kept going to "lessons" so he could spend Homer's money at the arcade. He wouldn't have cared about the nunchuks by that point even if Homer's wish wasn't ruining the Leftorium.

Why Did Burns Lose Approval So Slowly?

"Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish": Why did it take until Burns spitting out the three-eyed fish for his approval ratings to drop? Earlier in the episode, he was caught on camera saying "When this announcement's done, every Johnny Lunch-pail in this state will be eating out of my hand.", which should've easily been enough to sink his campaign. Think Mitt Romney's 47% remark.
- Well, not that The Simpson are a realistic show to begin with, but that's exactly the joke, that people from Springfield nor even notice or care for what he said.
- Real life politicians have gotten away with much, much worse, from being photographed wearing blackface to joking about grabbing women by their private parts, and still gotten elected. Compared to that, Burns's Johnny Lunch-pail quote is almost nothing.

Took Them Long Enough

Why the hell did it take over 25 years to FINALLY touch upon how Clancy Bouvier died... and somehow Marge and her sisters never knew the full details? Now I know the reason why Mona Simpsons was finally introduced is because many people asked whatever happened to Homer's mother but why did it take even longer to finally answer the whereabouts of Marge's father?
- The writers probably didn't find it worth bringing up the reason since neither he, nor Jaqueline were major characters and he was rarely bought up.

[

Casper

Found this on Simpsons Wiki but did it actually happen? Sounded very plausible too since Simpsons veterans starred in the Casper cartoon at one point:
Homer and his family goes to Casper's house on Casper (voice by Nancy Cartwright), Fatso (voice by Dan Castellaneta), Stretch (voice by Dan Castellaneta) and Stinkie (voice by Rik Mayell) on Casper in the house, Casper with slidestair, Casper: Hi I'm Casper, Homer's scream, Casper is too late, Ghosts around, roaring ghosts, Family screaming, Ghosts's laughing.

Buddhist God?

In "Homerland", when Marge prays, she says "thank you Christian God", after which Lisa objects loudly. It's weird, since I thought Buddhists didn't have a God? And the Christian god is the same as the Muslim and Hebrew God... And Lisa has been told to respect other religions beforehand. So, what, is this a fluke on the writer's part, or just another jab at Christianity that the show loves to do?
- Whether the Christian God is the same as the Muslim and Hebrew god is debatable. For instance, the Christian God is also Jesus, while the God that Muslims pray to and the God that Jews pray to is not. On-topic, Marge sounds like she's passive-aggressively specifying that she only wants to thank the Christian god and none of the others—that is to say, she's doing it as a jab at other religions. Of course that would annoy Lisa. (Also, perhaps Marge thinks that Buddhists worship a god and means it as a jab against that guy too.)
The show makes the same mistake most every non-Buddhist does: the fat guy seen is a Chinese demi-god named Budai. Gautama Siddartha is depicted as a thin guy with braided hair. Go to any new-age store, or even a garden store (he is a common lawn ornament) and see for yourself. It is possible to be venerated without having godhood; Christianity has hundreds of saints who people worship.

Why Comic Book Guy and Not Apu?

In "The Girl Code", doesn't having Apu join CONRAD as the token male (and person of colour) make more sense than Comic Book Guy? I mean Apu did graduate at the top of his University with a degree in Computer Science.
- With the type of people they were lampooning, they wouldn't dare to kick out an ethnic minority.

Why Did Jamsheed Age?

OK... HOW THE F**K DID APU'S NEPHEW JAMSHEED AGE 20 YEARS WHILE NO ONE ELSE ON THE SHOW AGED?!?
- WMG says that Springfield exists in a world of its own where no one ages, he could've aged since he left town. That doesn't explain why Ling and the Octuplets age while Maggie stays the same age though.
- This was amusingly lampshaded in Tapped Out.

What's The Town's Beef with People Who Don't Eat It?

OK, in "Lisa the Vegetarian", why exactly does the town and the school have a hatred towards vegetarians anyway? This made little to no sense...
- For the school, it's not so much her vegetarianism in and of itself; it's the fact that she's refusing to conform. Note how when she refuses to dissect a worm, and later on asks for a vegetarian option at lunch, both Miss Hoover and Lunchlady Doris press the "Independent Thought Alarm." Which is why Skinner later shows the Troy McClure propaganda video on how eating meat is the right thing and vegetarians are ignorant — it's an attempt to repress the "independent thought" and make Lisa conform and accept that the school doesn't cater to vegetarians, rather than go through the trouble of actually having to provide a vegetarian option. The other kids buy into the propaganda, so they begin mocking Lisa because Kids Are Cruel.
- For the rest of the town, they don't hate vegetarians; it's just that they have a negative reaction to Lisa being really pushy and annoying, just taking it for granted that everyone will see things her way ("Good news, you don't have to eat meat! I've made enough gazpacho for everyone!") and then ruining Homer's BBBQ with her pushing away the roast pig. After that, nobody except Homer really seems to care about her being a vegetarian, it's just that she keeps running into reminders that most Springfieldians eat meat (like the ad for the "beef-flavored chicken") and in her mind that's the world telling her that she should eat meat too.
- Vegetarian options were a lot less common in the 1990s than they are now (towards the end of the 2010s decade). Tofu was still largely seen as a gross health food, nobody had heard of quinoa, and faux meats had not become common grocery options, unless one happened to live in an area where there were large populations of vegetarians. Springfield is clearly not one of those places.

Sideshow Bob's Accent

What accent does Sideshow Bob have? I've heard him use words like "rubbish", but he doesn't sound particularly British to me.
- Sounds upper east coastish to me. I think "rubbish" etc. are just used to show how sophisticated he is.
- Sounds more Mid-Atlantic to me.
- Kelsey Grammer uses the same voice for Sideshow Bob that he does for Frasier, who lived in both Boston and Seattle. Grammer himself grew up in New Jersey and south Florida, and the accent sounds nothing like either.

How Did Homer Survive the Blowfish?

In "One Fish Two Fish Blowfish Blue Fish", Homer ate a poison piece of blowfish, and is told he will die in the next day. However, at the end he survived. How did Homer survive the blowfish?
- The characters said that they had reason to believe that he had eaten the poisonous part of the blowfish. Clearly, the part he ate wasn't poisonous.
- Hibbert never says it was certain, he always says it was a big possibility like 99% chance.
- There are two possibilities:
  - One is that the assistant chef (who had to cut up the blowfish after the head chef stepped out to have sex with Mrs. Krabappel) did an excellent job. He cut it just right so that only the safe part was served to Homer.
  - Alternately, Homer managed to No-Sell the poison. Later episodes depict him as capable of eating everything from tulips to fancy bathroom soaps to dishwashing liquid to plastic lobster props to multiple barrels of nuclear waste with no ill-effects. Compared to all that, what chance did the blowfish poison even have?

Is it Really an Error?

A lot of people say the episode, "The Blunder Years", has a massive continuity error when it come to the age of Waylon Smithers Jr. relative to Homer's, but does it really? We don't know how long his father's body was down in that sewer pipe. For all we know, it could have been down in the sewer pipe for years before Homer found it.
- Also the episode itself doesn't confirm when the accident happend. Then again in moisture place a human corpse rots more faster and Smithers Sr's body looks relatively fresh...

Why Didn't the Parents Sue?

In "Worst Episode Ever", when Comic Book Guy banned Bart and Milhouse from his store for talking Martin Prince's mom out of selling him Martin's rare and invaluable Star Wars items for only five dollars, why didn't they have their parents sue him for banning them on such a petty charge (similar to Homer being kicked out of the Rusty barnacle before he had all he could eat).
- Because Homer's all-u-can-eat lawsuit had a semi-logical basis—he had not gotten all he could eat. But it's perfectly legal for Comic Book Guy to ban the kids from his shop. There's no law saying that his reason was too petty.

Why Live in a Bad Town?

If Springfield is such a Crapsack World, why are there so many people living there?
- Most of them are too stupid to move anywhere else. The rest of them are either too stuck in their ways, they have something that ties them to the town, or they're children who can't move anywhere else on their own.

Why Not Become a Sex Worker?

If Lindsay Naegal is a sexual predator (which explains why she constantly keeps changing jobs). Why doesn't she get a job where sex is required like a prostitute?
- It's a very risky job. Usually pays worse than her kind of businesswoman jobs, too.
- Prostitutes are not sexual predators.
  - Indeed. It's not like her self-description is "sex-crazed" or something.

How Talented is Lisa?

Can somebody who knows something about saxophone tell me how talented Lisa actually is, in general and for her age? Thanks.
- Considering the fact that Lisa is depicted as being 7-9 years old (7 in the earliest episodes, 9 in the newer episodes, and 8 in most episodes), she's ridiculously talented, almost a child prodigy.

"Like Father, Like Clown" Questions

In 'Like Father, Like Clown' - We see Krusty is meant to come to the Simpson home for dinner as thank you to Bart. Surely Bart having saved him from prison means Krusty should be hosting him or doing something? Also, in the same episode, Marge waits until Bart has dressed in a suit and psyched himself up for Krusty coming to dinner to tell him it's not happening. Why'd she wait?
- For the former, while I imagine either would probably satisfy, it is perhaps a little bit more special to have a major celebrity visit your humble home, and demonstrates a bit more effort and respect on their part.
- Marge probably waited to tell Bart because she knew that telling him would break his heart, and she just couldn't bring herself to do that again. Or maybe she was hoping that Krusty would come after all.

Treehouse of Less Horror?

Is there a reason why the Treehouse of Horror episodes have gotten more comical and less scary over the years? The tone is different now. In the early seasons, the stories were a lot more scary and disturbing such as the one where the school staff were eating children. Is it censorship and executive meddling?
- I highly doubt it's either. Imagine for a moment you've got the task to write Halloween Specials for almost 30 years. That will undoubtedly take damage on a horror-imaginative mind, and eventually you can't afford too much experimentation. You'll just have to think of anything before reaching the deadline if you want your paycheck. Later Specials aren't as frightening, but it's something. (However, if you ask me, some newer episodes, like Sideshow Bob finally killing Bart in the 2015 special, was really creepy).
- Treehouse of Horror is pretty much an excuse to write episodes that ignore established rules the show has set. Also, I'd like to argue that King Kong isn't necessarily a horror and the Monkey's Paw segment wasn't suppose to be scary.
- Also, the show in general has become a lot more surreal in general. In the early days, while not without an absurdist side The Simpsons was always a lot more down-to-earth, and the "Treehouse" episodes were an opportunity to cut loose and do more off-the-wall things. Since the show in general is a lot more surreal and absurdist, the "Treehouse" episodes don't really stick out as much, but they just do them out of tradition.

Why is Homer at the Tavern?

So I'm watching "Principal Charming" as I type this, and when Skinner ordered Bart to call Homer, why does the card that lists Homer's number show Moe's Tavern? And why was Homer at the tavern when he would normally be at the Nuclear Power Plant?
Was it just coincidence that when Bart prank called Moe that Homer happened to be there?
- That's the joke. Homer is a known alcoholic.
- Considering how much of his time Homer spent at Moe's probably not. In fact, making the call when his father was at Moe's would make it less likely that his father would catch him making the prank phone call to begin with.
- We've seen Homer repeatedly ditch work in the middle of the day. He's done everything from disguising himself with a comb to rigging the security cameras to set up a dummy with a tape recorder. Bart almost certainly knows this, and he also knows that Homer would probably be at Moe's when he skips work. He wouldn't be worried about Homer catching him at prank calling Moe, either. When Skinner takes the phone from Bart and yells at Moe, Moe assumes it's a bad connection. If Moe never figures out Bart is the one prank calling him, there's no chance that Homer would.

Something is Afoot

Krusty Get Busted – Where & when exactly did Bart (or indeed Lisa) actually manage to get a view of Bob’s bare feet? The scene in Bob’s office? Actually look at the scene and pay attention to where Bob’s feet are in conjunction with Bart & Lisa’s eyes – there is a desk obscuring the former from the latter. Bob’s feet go behind and under the table before Bart and Lisa enter the room and remain there until Bob puts his shoes on, remaining below the level of the table top, only then emerging from behind his desk.

Why Didn't Bob Quit?

If Sideshow Bob was tired of Krusty treating him like a Butt-Monkey, why didn't he just quit his job?
- Because he didn't just want to quit; he wanted to take over Krusty's place as the beloved children's icon. As well as being sick of putting up with all of Krusty's bullshit, he felt that Krusty's low-brow Lowest Common Denominator programming was poisoning children's minds, and he initially wanted to be a better role model to children than Krusty.
  - The thing is Bob didn't want the job in the first place. It was later revealed he only went to ensure Cecil became Krusty's sidekick.
- Bob may not have originally wanted the job, but he accepted it when he thought he he could create genuinely uplifting children's television. Unfortunately, he never had the chance since Krusty kept subjecting him to lowbrow slapstick and humiliation. Framing Krusty and getting him kicked off the show would give Bob the chance to finally realize his dream.

How Did Willie Know Bart Did It?

In "Girly Edition", upon getting taken away on a stretcher after his shack was destroyed, Willie was all "You did this, Bart Simpson!". How did Willie know Bart destroyed his shack? Willie was sound asleep when Bart put the creamed corn hose into his shack.
- Taking into account what a reputation Bart has for being a trouble-making little menace, it's not that farfetched an assumption he did it.
- You forget Willie had just taken Bart's skateboard. Willie also knew Bart had motive.

How Did Lisa Know the Shack was Destroyed?

In the above episode, Lisa gave a letter to Bart, claiming him to be one of "Bart's People", later revealed to be Willie. How did Lisa know Willie's shack was destroyed let alone where Willie had been ever since?
- Lisa might have gotten desperate and searched the dump to see if she could find a story there, and Willie told her when she found him there. And even then there's no way she wouldn't have known because that story would have been passed around all over the school and Bart likely would have bragged about it at home.

What was Skinner's Plan?

In the famous "Steamed Hams" sketch from 22 Short Films About Springfield, what was Skinner's plan when he went into the kitchen after saying "Excuse me for one second"? Presumably, he went in and saw the fire, then quickly changed plans and tried to rush Chalmers out the door before he saw the fire, but what was Skinner going to do before then?
- Pretty sure he just planned to gather himself and hope for something that would allow him to rally, saw the fire and knew he had to get Chalmers out of the house.

How Did They Kill the Boar?

In Das Bus, how did they kill the boar? These are still children going after a wild animals after all.
- You have to read Lord of the Flies or watch the movie adaptation for that, as the episode is a parody of it.

Do White People Exist?

So, is every white person on the planet yellow? The Family Guy crossover seems to suggest both yellow people and peach people coexist on earth.
- I know is often said but, the Family Guy crossover is by far non-canonic, almost as non-canonic as the Halloween episodes.

Why was Chalmers Suspicious?

Regarding the "Steamed Hams" segment, why was Chalmers suspicious about his burger being grilled? He'd already accepted Seymour's claim that "steamed hams" is a regional dialect term for hamburgers, so he shouldn't have expected his food to actually be steamed.
- There actually are such things as steamed hamburgers (though they're from Connecticut, not New York.) It's possible that Chalmers knew this and accepted that the hams may have been steamed, but once he realized they were grilled, he wondered why the people of Albany would go with a Non-Indicative Name for traditionally grilled hamburgers.

Was the Will Plan B?

Ok, so Mona made a perfect Plot Tailored to the Party scheme with multiple uses of the Chekhov's Gun that she left behind on her will... so we may accept that the missile to the Amazon jungle is maybe not the first time Burns has used the silo (so Mona may have obtained the intel for the plan)... was the will Plan B all along or she actually always factored her death in the scheme? Either way you see it, it just makes her die-hard Granola Girl attitude more monstrous towards Homer.

Why Does Ned Mind Being Locked in Church?

In "Homer the Heretic", why is Ned of all people so horrified that the church door is unable to be opened? One would have thought that he would have been pleased to be locked in Church. Is the idea that the weather is so cold that even Ned wants to escape the heating-free Church? Or are we perhaps seeing an example of the 'classic era' Ned, the one that wasn't quite as much of a Religious Right caricature?
- Even Ned, church lover that he is, probably isn't big on the idea of freezing to death.

Why Does No One Mistake Homer for Mr. Sparkle?

In "30 Minutes Over Tokyo" how come no one mistakes Homer for Mr. Sparkle when the family's in Japan? Comic Book Guy's wife Kumiko in "Married to the Blob" noticed the resemblance off the bat.
- The Mr. Sparkle ad campaign may have flopped, and the public forgot about it between the time the campaign ran and when the Simpsons visited Japan.

Not Knowing Your Own Middle Name

Rule of Funny aside, why wouldn't Homer know his own middle name? Surely he'd have a birth certificate somewhere.
- He's a fool, you can't expect him to remember his middle name or where he put his birth certificate to look it up.
- Given what his middle name is, he probably heard it a million times growing up and just assumed that he was hearing an initial.

How Did Skinner Get Bart to Go to the Movies with Him?

Exactly how did Principal Skinner get Bart to come to the movies in "Grade School Confidential"? If he had thrown rocks at the window to get his attention, then surely he would have been more dressed (even though Seymour seems more of the type to ring the doorbell.) Plus, how willing was Bart to attend the movies with him? Skinner was more or less pushing him to watch with them. Given that, Bart's reluctance and sleepiness and the wonder of how Skinner got the boy out of his home in the middle of the night, then thinking about it too long might become Fridge Horror...
- He could've told Marge and Homer that Bart got in trouble and had to help him out with a task, like when he made Bart learn astronomy in "Bart's Comet." Bart does get sent to his office later in the episode with a love note from Mrs. Krabappel, so it's not far fetched that was the case.
- Be that as it may, why wasn't he wearing shoes?

Why Does Duff Go Out of Business?

In "Homer Vs. The Eighteenth Amendment" why does Duff Beer go out of business due to prohibition in one town? Isn't the Duff Brewery in Capital City? Other episodes have shown that Duff is distributed in other areas around the world.
- "Duffless" implies that the Duff Brewery is actually in Springfield. If it was in Capital City, Chief Wiggum, Lou and Eddie couldn't have arrested Homer. And if your main production facility is in a town that imposes prohibition, you're going to run out of sellable stock pretty damn fast.

Why Does Skinner Look Like His Mother?

If Principal Skinner is really Arman Tanzarian, why does he show a family resemblance (in the face) to his mother?
- Tanzarian is an orphan. Agnes Skinner did not want Skinner to go to college, and her going along with him wouldn't work because of her implied promiscuous habits in a college town. What if Skinner really was Agnes's biological son that she (must have) abandoned after birth for reasons?
- A bit more plausible is that they just happened to look similar, and it's part of what drove him to pursue the ruse in the first place. Of course, the real reason is that this particular episode was a massive Ass Pull, and the creators almost certainly intended originally that Agnes and Principal Skinner were biological family.

Why Does Ned Celebrate Halloween?

If Flanders is a hardcore Christian, why is he shown celebrating Halloween in several episodes?
- Halloween is 'All Hallow's Eve', the day before All Saints Day. It'd make sense for a hardcore Christian to be engaging in what has roots in Christian tradition. Plus, he's one of the nicest guys in Springfield, it isn't out of character for him to play the role of candy-charity for the sake of children.
- Pre-Flanderized Flanders probably didn't think it was a huge deal and just harmless fun. Kind of like what Hank Hill thinks Halloween is despite being so uptight all the time.

How Did Weird Al Obtain the Prank Call?

How did "Weird Al" Yankovic obtain one of Bart's prank phone calls to Moe (used in his song "Phony Calls") before he even met the Simpsons? For that matter, "Why Does This Always Happen to Me?" mentions actually watching The Simpsons. How is that even possible?
- Al just made a cameo in "Three Gays Of The Condo". Homer knows who he is and Al said that Marge told him what happened. It could be a Celebrity Paradox of some sort.

Lying Waiter

In 'The Boy Who Knew Too Much', the waiter is apparently perfectly happy to lie in court and say Freddy Quimby beat him within an inch of his life. Aside from the final hilarity of falling out a window into a truck of mouse-traps, we don't know that he is properly punished for his lies, how is this not brought up?

Smithers' ID?

What happened to Smithers' ID card? It has not been seen in latest episodes.

How Did Bleeding Gums Murphy Die?

How did Bleeding Gums Murphy die? Why was he in the hospital in the first place? It was never explained.
- The guy was called "Bleeding Gums" and was over weight, the guy obviously had a lot of health problems. FWIW the Simpsons Wiki says it was due to an unspecified cardiac problem, but it could just as well be scurvy.

How is a 59% Possible?

In "Bart Gets an F", Bart skips a snow day just to study REALLY hard for his history exam (possibly even harder than Lisa) and not repeat his grade again. After asking Mrs. Krabappel to immediately grade the exam, he receives a 59%. What I don't get is, I counted 15 questions on the exam itself, so how would a 59% be mathematically possible? The exam would have to consist of exactly 100 questions and Bart would've gotten exactly 41 of them wrong to receive that grade. I doubt partial points are possible since it's a multiple choice exam, and I didn't see any other papers consisting of more exam questions, either. Also, I counted exactly 5 incorrect answers, not only from the number of times Mrs. Krabappel marks an answer wrong with her red pen, but also the number of X's on the exam paper itself when Homer was taping it onto the refrigerator. Bart really should've gotten a 66% (67% if you take rounding into account), which, based on this troper's assumed grading system, should've qualified him for either just a neutral D or barely a D+.

Nobody Believes Homer?

When Homer reveals the secret ingredient for the Flaming Moe, why would anybody believe him? Even if he wasn't being a nutjob, from everybody else's point of view, how did he figure it out, and he didn't have knowledge of the recipe so to them, what credibility does Homer have?
- Maybe they didn't. But figured it was worth a shot.
- The businessman from Tipsy McStaggers mentions that they've tried to figure out what the Flaming Moe's recipe was, but they couldn't identify the last ingredient. We even see Professor Frink's analysis claim that it was "love." None of the people trying to analyze the Flaming Moe probably thought to look for cough syrup until Homer mentioned it. Even if he's crazy, what have they got to lose by testing for it?

Why was Homer Relieved to See Gil?

In "Natural Born Kissers" why was Homer so relieved to see Gil when he and Marge were in the nude? Gil hadn't been established as a friend of the Simpsons at that point, and he seemed more interested in selling them a car than being of any practical help.
- Familiar face, I guess.

Blaming Bart

When Groundskeeper Willie puts rats to ruin that school festive. Why does everyone immediately accuse Bart. I know his record, but certainly Willie must of been acting suspicious, and they could of at checked all possibility.
- It was just Skinner and Lisa. Homer was upset about Bart getting expelled. As for why they accused Bart. Bart was given an uncool role as a barrel maker (the barrel burst open spilling its beverage all over Bart) and he was sent to a dungeon or something. The embarrassment would serve as a motive for ruining the festival. Bart's smart aleck comment when the rats were released didn't help him either.
- It's a case of Not Me This Time. Given the many, many pranks Bart has pulled on the school, its teachers and his fellow students, it's natural to assume that Bart is causing trouble yet again.

Crayons up your nose

The episode HOMR reveals that Homer's low intelligence is caused by putting crayons up his nose, one of which got stuck in his brain. If Homer is so smart, why would he put the crayons up his nose in the first place?
- Homer was in despair, he couldn't carry on as a smart guy in Springfield and got Moe to revert him to his usual stupid but funny self.

The Only Store In Town?

Another thing about "Hurricane Neddy" - everyone rushes the Kwik-E-Mart for panic buying before that big storm. But why did nobody go elsewhere in town for supplies? What about that supermarket or even that Monstromart from "Bart Gets Famous"?
- If a mere convenience store was that crowded, the big stores would be even worse. Similar to Black Friday. Target and Wal-Mart are packed, but a regular grocery store with food and possibly a pharmacy wouldn't be so bad.

When Bob frames Krusty

When it comes to body types between Krusty and Bob, Krusty looks more or less like Homer, while Bob is more lanky and skinny. So when he robs the Kwik-E-Mart, how exactly did Bob get the Homer body-type? Wouldn't that Krusty be lanky too?
- Bob probably put a pillow or something under his shirt so it looks like he has a potbelly like Krusty.
- But look at the other portions of the body besides his stomach. The Bob Krusty has fat arms and legs and the Homer headstyle, and Bob is much skinnier all around and has a tall and thin head, and that's not going into their vastly different hairstyles.
- Remember that Bob works for a TV studio and is a classically-trained actor, so he probably has connections in the costume and makeup department. He might have worn padding or a fat suit for the arms and legs, hunched his body to appear smaller, and used a wig cap to keep his own massive coif in place while wearing a hairpiece. Alternatively, since Krusty loves to stick his name on every kind of product imaginable, there might be a regulation Krusty the Clown costume out there; Bob bought or stole one for his disguise. There's proof of this in the episode where Homer goes to clown college and becomes an "official" Krusty; he and all of the other students get costumes and makeup to closely resemble the real thing.

HOMR

Considering that removing the crayon made Homer smart, why on earth does he send his safety report to the nuclear regulatory commission instead of giving it to Mr Burns as usual? Surely that’s the kind of thing that he would have done while dumb considering that the plant is a death trap and would inevitably get shut down if the NRC knew how unsafe and badly run it was.
- That’s the whole point. Homer is now smart enough to see the Plant is a death trap and knows Burns will do nothing about it, so he sends it to someone who will.
- Alternatively, even when smart, Homer is still an idiot. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Baptism

How come the Simpson kids haven't been baptised if Marge is a Christian? (Technically, Homer is too but he's less spiritual than she is).
- They're not as extreme as the Flanders, plain and simple.
- In addition to personal choice, plenty of denominations don't baptize.
- Another question— When Marge gets Maggie, she says, "You're a Simpson again!" and the kids tease each other by saying, "You're gonna be so-and-so Flanders!", but does baptism really change people's surname? This is purely anecdotal, but my dad claims he was born agnostic, was Catholic for a while, then went back to being agnostic and while he was Catholic, he got baptised but he still has the same surname now as he did at birth and we were having a long conversation about our family history and talked a lot about our relatives who'd changed their names, so I think he would've mentioned it if he had a different surname during his time as a Catholic.
  - They didn't say that because of the baptism (recall, they don't actually go through with the baptism, well except Homer inadvertently). It's because for that episode Homer and Marge had lost custody of the children to the Flanders.

Reading Chinese newspapers

In King of the Hill, when the executives tell Homer the energy bars are made out of apple cores and Chinese newspapers, Homer is able to read them. Disregarding how he's able to read newspapers in an energy bar, how is he able to read another language?
- Ruleof Funny. Homer will always be as smart or as stupid as he needs to be for the purposes of a joke. Recall 'Simpson Tide', where Homer could actually speak Chinese (and Mexican, and...penguin).

Bart being sent back to Kindergarten

In Sideshow Bob Roberts, after Bob becomes Mayor, his revenge on Bart is to... send him back to Kindergarten? Seems like an odd from of getting even, especially since in his previous and later appearances he tries to kill Bart (admittedly, he also tries to destroy the Simpsons' house as well).
- As stated elsewhere on this page, Bob is incredibly petty. Alternately, he's starting small, ruining Bart's life in minor, subtler ways as building up to just killing him. ALTERNATELY alternately, he knows that as Mayor, he actually can't kill Bart (or would have significant trouble getting away with it), so petty torture is the next best thing.

Mona's Dilemma

Why was Mona on the run for that long? Her hair has turned gray and there are wrinkles around her mouth due to aging and she has her hair in a different style now. How would anybody have been able to recognize her? Not to mention the trampling Mr. Burns incident which made her a fugitive. How does Burns know she was part of the attack on his germ lab and not just a simple passerby?

Brother From The Same Planet

The Bigger Brother company let Peppy stay homeless, apparently they were saving Tom for a kid that really needed him. They end up together at the end, but geeze.
- The office clerks aren't the most competent people around. He told the receptionist that he had no father and even dressed up like a street urchin. Its also implied that Tom knew Homer was alive and thus Bart was lying about being fatherless given his "If I ever meet your father..." comment at the baseball game yet stayed with him anyway. They also accepted Homer's reason of wanting to be a big brother as "revenge" (and the checklist consist of other reasons including spite, malice, profit, and boredom). For all of Tom's competence, the office department has some screwed priorities. Plus, Bart did all this because Homer was late picking him up from soccer practice, albeit during a storm.

Olmec Head

The Simpsons (particularly Homer) are very disappointed when Mr. Burns' gift to them is an ancient Olmec head instead of a monetary sum. But Burns spent several thousand dollars on the artifact! Why doesn't the Simpson family sell it to a museum or a collector and reap the benefits?
- The giant Olmec head is a very large and conspicuous artifact. If the Simpson family did sell it to a private collector or museum, this would most likely show up in the news, even in a niche, specialized news source. It's possible that the Simpson family never sold the Olmec head because they know that if they did so, Mr. Burns would find out somehow, and would either be extremely pissed, or offended by this, or both. So they kept the Olmec head to avoid incurring Burns' wrath any further. (Plus, at least Bart likes it- and he was the one who donated blood to Mr. Burns in the first place. Perhaps keeping the Olmec head was Homer and Marge's way of throwing Bart a bone, so to speak.)

Mr. Burns' Noodle Kugel

In "Two Cars In Every Garage And Three Eyes On Every Fish," Mr. Burns attends a televised family dinner with the Simpsons, and brings a small casserole dish of noodle kugel. Kugel is a popular Ashkenazi Jewish dish. Why would Mr. Burns, who's pretty well-known for being anti-Semitic at best and a former Nazi at worst, bother to make/bring a Jewish dish for this dinner? It's not like the Simpsons writers would be stupid enough to not realize the implications of making Mr. Burns Jewish-coded.
- Considering how insulated he is from inconvenient facts, if he likes kugel, it wouldn't be out-of-character for him to not be aware of its origins. Either nobody mentions it to him, or he ignores it if they do.

"Who's Drederick Tatum, anyway? Is he another hobo?"

Homer recognizes Lucius Sweet as "one of the biggest names in boxing," but the name of the champ Lucius is managing doesn't ring a bell?

Why does everyone call Charles Montgomery Burns 'Monty?'

Why does nobody (even Mr. Burns himself) refer to Mr. Burns by his first name? I think there's only been a handful of times when his first name was ever stated- everyone refers to him almost exclusively by his middle name instead for some reason. Even odder, in the episode "Frinkcoin," when Smithers refers to him as "Monty," Mr. Burns scolds him for thinking he can be on a "first-name basis" with him.
- My guess is that Burns doesn't like his real first name Charles, since it's not as fancy like Montgomery.
- Burns, being an arrogant patrician, likely doesn't appreciate anyone from the lower classes calling him by his first or middle names. Almost everyone addresses him as "Mr. Burns" except for Smithers, who calls him "Sir." When Homer quits his job in "And Maggie Makes Three", he makes a point of calling Burns "Monty", to Burns' visible annoyance.
- Years ago it was fairly common to use one's middle name instead of their first. This would be in the prime of Burns' youth.
  - Also, Skinner (who's younger than Burns) is S. Seymour Skinner.

Sterilize an already clean needle?

Why in the episode Blood Feud Smithers even asks Dr Hibbert to sterilize needle, since blood transfusion catheter needles are disposable and therefor don't even need that?
- Either Smithers wasn't aware of this fact, or he was so freaked out and distraught at Burns being sick that he wasn't thinking logically.

"Don't make the same mistake I made."

Near the end of "Rosebud," Mr. Burns says this line as he fails to get his teddy bear from Maggie and resigns himself to letting her keep it. The grave seriousness in which he says this line makes me wonder- was the "mistake" he was referring to giving away Bobo? Or was he maybe hinting at something a bit deeper- as in, "don't squander away the love and innocence in your life for money?"
- Or alternatively; "don't throw your childhood away too early". I think Burns was referring the latter.

The Be Sharps Gold Records

In The Simpsons S5 E1 "Homer's Barbershop Quartet", Homer never answers the questions about his time in the Be Sharps. While it can be implied Homer spent or wasted all the money made, that doesn't answer the question about his ensemble's gold records. How come we never see those hanging on the wall or in a display case? You'd think Homer would be proud of them given how he displayed his past achievements for Frank Grimes to see.
- Even with all the cartoon absurdity and Negative Continuity on the show, this episode stands out in its level of incongruity with the rest of the series. You have to believe that Homer, Skinner, Barney, Apu, and Wiggum are all not just skilled and trained at harmonic singing, but good enough at it to become world famous—despite never showing the slightest evidence of such an ability in any other episode (in fact often heard singing off-key in other episodes). You have to believe Homer in particular (who is otherwise shown to be consistently lazy as well as stupid) has the discipline to learn a skill this complex and to live a lifestyle as intense and demanding as that of a professional performer. You have to believe they must all have somehow quit their day jobs, left their families for extended periods of time, and then later returned to their original blue-collar existence while no one (least of all Bart and Lisa) seems to have any memory of it, and the supposed former bandmates never make any references to the shared experience and seem to barely know one another beyond acquaintance. It almost leads you to suspect Homer made the whole story up—though that leaves the mystery of why the record exists. All in all, it's probably just a case of the writers wanting to tell this particular Beatle-esque story and deciding to ignore any incongruities it created. Homer's refusal to elaborate is, to my mind, a way of lampshading this fact and casting doubt on the accuracy of his account.
- It's easy enough to explain him losing physical objects, a bigger question is why nobody, anywhere, ever seems to recognize Homer, despite him being in a band implied to have been famous on the level of The Beatles. Even if the other people in town recognize it and are alright with it, no visitor or stranger ever remarks on the fact that Homer ought to be the most famous person in town.
- Because there are plenty of One Hit Wonders out there who seemed like they'd be superstars at one point, only to disappear without a trace. I don't think the Be Sharps were on the same level as the Beatles, just that some of the episode's jokes involved the Be Sharps copying the Beatles' album imagery, quotes and even their eventual breakup. The Be Sharps were already on a downslide even before they broke up. Their music was becoming stale (Homer wrote songs about Surgeon General C. Everett Koop) or weird (Barney and his Japanese conceptual artist girlfriend used True Art Is Incomprehensible as their first songwriting rule), and Entertainment Weekly listed them as "Not" in their "Hot Or Not" lists.

Herb ruined

Homer's car destroyed Herb's car company, but why would that put him out of a job? I don't know how business works, but given the company was under new management under a different company, he wouldn't be the president anymore, but couldn't he still work there as a slightly lower executive or something?
- Homer's car completely destroyed Herb's reputation as a businessman. Even if he thinks the fiasco with Homer's car was Never My Fault, the Powell Motors stockholders probably disagreed. Given how much trouble Powell Motors was already implied to be in long before Homer came along, Herb was probably already on thin ice with his investors. The fact that he signed off on Homer's car pretty much confirmed to the investors that he'd become an incompetent boob, especially if word got out that he never even looked at it before the unveiling. Giving Herb a prominent position after that would have damaged the reputation of any company who bought him out (in this case, Kumatsu Motors.)

Homer in the intro

During the intro, why is Homer even gets to handle a rod of uranium with tongs if he's supposed to be a safety inspector?
- Because he didn't get that job until episode 3.

Another musician in the family

In "Covercraft", Homer learns to play the bass, which makes Lisa happily say "It's so cool to have another musician in the family!". Appearently, Lisa has forgotten at this point that Homer already plays the piano and the guitar, has had his own grunge band and his barber vocal quartet, and wrote the song "Everybody Hates Ned Flanders", that became a hit. She also omits the fact that Bart, although having failed at the guitar, proved to be a very talented drummer (until his wrist was ruined by one of Lisa's rescues). She also forgets that Abe Simpson also plays the piano occasionally. So, "another musician in the family" much? She already should be used to most of the family being musicians.
- Occasionally playing an instrument isn't enough to make you a musician.

Skinner's Eyes

How come most characters have their eyes stuck together unless they're Asian, but Skinner's eyes are separate and he doesn't look Asian?
- Skinner's not the only non-Asian character with that feature. Look at Moe, Carl, Dr. Hibbert, or for those closer to Skinner, Edna and Chalmers.

Did Riviera just cut his own arteries?

"The red thing's connected to my wristwatch, uh oh." What did happen exactly?

One of the body's red things got caught in his wristwatch.

Mid-Credits Scenes

Are the mid-credits scenes meant to be canon? When do they take place in the storyline? For example, in "Pranksta Rap," "The Book Job," "Bart vs. Itchy and Scratchy," and "The Dad Who Knew Too Little," they seem to take place after the events of the episode. And yet in "Fat Man and Little Boy", the mid-credits is Bart trying to get Nelson to knock his tooth out, despite him losing his last baby tooth early in the episode and causing the main plot. In "She Used to Be My Girl," the mid-credits scene is Chloe finding Lisa in her car trunk, despite that she had already left by the end of the episode. Are these two scenes meant to take place during the events of the episode instead of after?
My understanding is that most of these are scenes that would have been in the episode but had to be cut for time. So yes, they were supposed to occur during the episode but were shown during the credits as a little bonus.

Bart was never convinced Bob was Walt?

The episode “The Bob Next Door” Bart had Chief Wiggum track him and “Walt” because he still was convinced he was Sideshow Bob. But didn’t Marge already show him Bob ( who turns out to have been the real Walt wearing Bob’s face) inside the prison? How did he still end up Properly Paranoid if he was just shown as far as he knew undeniable proof of Bob still locked up?
- Better safe than sorry. Bob's previous appearance had tricked everyone into thinking Bart killed him which turned the entire town against him and nearly succeeded in killing Bart. Bart knows things aren't always what they appear to be when Bob is involved.

Lenny on Growing Up Springfield

In "Springfield Up", at the age of 8, Lenny is deemed so boring by Desmond that he isn't focused on anymore. Later in the episode, when Lenny shows up in the present day, Desmond refuses to interview him because he's still uninteresting. However, in the clips he shows Homer, one of them is Lenny and Carl talking about how they would trade lives with Homer. If Desmond decided not to waste film on Lenny, why is Lenny in this scene?
- Its footage that includes Lenny, not solely Lenny.

Herschel Krustofsky's Clown Related Entertainment Program

In "Bart the Fink", where Krusty is caught for Tax Evasion, why is the Krusty the Clown Show taken over by the IRS? Even if Krusty the Clown owned the Show (which I don't think he did) and was a Producer on it (which I doubt he was), the show has other Producers who can pick up the slack and keep the show running properly without the major cuts that the IRS imposed on it.
- "Bart Gets Famous" establishes that Krusty actually is the producer of the show. When Bart shows his classmates the credits to Krusty's show to prove that he's Krusty's assistant, the first credit is for Krusty as the Executive Producer. Other episodes imply that Krusty also owns the show himself. There are references to everything from the "Krusty Korporation" that makes his merchandise (and Krusty seems to keep all the profits it makes, since he says in "Homie The Clown" he can just solve his money problems by making some new merchandise), his using his clown college to train a bunch of Krusty ringers to pretend to be him at paid appearances, his Krusty Burger restaurant chain (which was converted into "IRS Burger") and his licensing foreign versions of his show in a bunch of other countries. Krusty probably couldn't do all that if Channel 6 owned the rights to his show and image. He probably financed everything through the Krusty Korporation. When the IRS busted him, it garnished a large part of his corporate earnings to pay his tax debt.

Smithers' income bracket?

Has the show ever given us an idea of what Smithers' income bracket is; ie, upper-class, middle-class, etc? The fact that he attends various 'high society' black tie functions/events with Mr. Burns, and his extensive, expensive doll collection, suggest that he leads at least a somewhat posh upper-middle-class lifestyle. But certain scenes (Mr. Burns derogatory "go home to your can of mushroom soup" line, for instance, the fact that he almost died when he couldn't afford his medication, the conspicuous lack of a guest bedroom in his small apartment) suggest that he's middle-class and around the same income bracket as Homer, and that his extra "fun money" is just due to him not having kids or a house.
- Smithers probably only attends those black tie events as Burns's employee, not as a formal guest. Wealthy people might need bodyguards, and elderly people might need full-time caregivers, so those employees accompany them everywhere. His Malibu Stacy obsession might also be an example of Crack is Cheaper, where he spends a lot of his disposable income on it.

Why couldn't Marge do the taxes?

In "The Trouble With Trillions", Marge put the taxes on Homer's to-do pile which came out of nowhere as soon as she mentioned it. Considering Homer's comical tendency to do things the very wrong way, and that Marge is in charge of the household finances, why couldn't Marge do the taxes herself?
- What, and ruin the plot?

Why bother who shot Mr. Burns?

Mr. Burns has done so many horrible things that he can be labeled as a monster. And if he got shot, shouldn't Springfield celebrate that someone had the guts to put him down?
- Because Everyone Has Standards, and the people of Springfield were horrified that one of their own, (even someone as horrible as Mr. Burns,) was apparently gruesomely killed. The sight of a human being, (especially a frail old man,) bleeding to death on the ground would horrify just about anybody, no matter how much of a terrible person the victim was. The anonymity of the killer's identity made the situation even more disturbing for the average citizen, too- it's possible that the people of Springfield may have been fearing for their own safety, as well; in a "what if the killer comes after one of us next?" kind of way. Though Mr. Burns arguably deserved that bullet in his chest, it was still a crime, and Springfield took it seriously.
- The only people who really seemed upset about Burns being shot were Smithers (for obvious reasons) and the police, who are legally required to investigate the shooting. The townsfolk's main reaction was to take advantage of Burns being in the hospital to tear down his sun-blocking device. They aren't rejoicing in the streets (Springfielders usually only gather in the streets to riot and loot, not celebrate) but they consider Burns's shooting to be Laser-Guided Karma.

Holidays of Future Passed

In The Simpsons S 23 E 9 Holidays Of Future Passed, when Lisa is exploring the Internet, she finds Google using Dr. Seuss Imagery because "It's Dr. Seuss's Birthday"... Except the episode takes place on Christmas, and Dr. Seuss was born on March 2nd...

That headline... Yeesh

In "A Star Is Burns," it's stated that at one point, Mr. Burns somehow won a teen beauty pageant by bribing the judges. A headline of a newspaper shows Burns in a gown and sash, with the headline "Incontinent Old Man Wins Miss Teen America." It's also shown that Mr. Burns has at least some control over the media as well as his publicity, given how much money he has. So how/why the hell did he allow that embarrassing headline to be published? Surely Mr. Burns would be at least somewhat miffed that such a sensitive medical problem would be revealed to the public like that.

Marge and Public Broadcasting

In "Marge on the Lam", Marge pledges money to public television, saying it's for a good cause. Yet two seasons later, in "Bart the Fink", she berates Lisa for wanting to waste her money on donating it to public broadcasting. What caused Marge to turn sour on public television so quickly?
- Judging by both kids' answers to her question (I think Bart mentioned a TV made by Hopi Indians),Marge saw it as a frivolous and wasteful thing to do,hence the trip to the bank. But then,Marge only made a $30 donation while the kids got a lot more.

Shortening limbs is so unethical, criminal even

In "Eeny Teeny Maya Moe", Dr. Hibbert downright refuses shortening Moe's legs because it's compleatly unethical... Wait a minute, since when did he care about ethical issues?
- Hibbert usually cared about ethical issues in the past. For instance, he refused to help Homer gain weight. It's really only due to [[Flanderization]] in the Scully era that he became less ethical.

The "I Didn't Do It" show

Why exactly did everyone go to Bart's show in "Bart Gets Famous" when he is specifically known for saying "I didn't do it" if they were just going to get bored and leave as soon as he said it?
- Presumably it took until then for them to realize that they'd gotten bored with it. Ever have a song that's so amazing it gives you chills every time you hear it, until one day you listen to it and find out it doesn't anymore? You don't find out by not listening to it.

Marge kicking Homer out of his own house

Two question in one, really, but both related.
Firstly: What gives Marge the right to evict Homer from his own house? They both bought the house together, he has just as much right to live there as she does. Forget that. Homer has MORE right to onwership of the house then Marge does. I mean, he is the breadwinner of the family, the one whose earning the money to pay the morgage.
Secondly: Why does Homer LET Marge kick him out of his own house? Like I said before, Marge has no right to stop living in his own house. Why doesn't he just man-up and walk right in there and say "I'm not going anywhere, this is my house."? What could Marge (legally) do to him?
- This is Homer we're talking about. He doesn't understand any of the concepts you're talking about and doesn't see the world that way.

Virgin Moe?

In Flaming Moe's, Lisa asks Marge if she could have a "Virgin Moe" ( A Flaming Moe without alcohol). Since it was made by Homer mixing all kinds of alcohol (and cough syrup) together, how would a non-alcoholic variant be made?
- Well... you can get non-alcoholic versions of many spirits, even whiskey (though to what extent this was true thirty years ago, I have no idea). Substitutes for some liqueurs, like amaretto, could be made at home by mixing flavoring extracts with sugar and water. It does seem impractical, admittedly, and of course it wouldn't burn.

Muncher Manjula

The Treehouse of Horror segment "Don't Have A Cow, Mankind" has people turning into Munchers from Kent Brockman eating Krusty's new burger made by feeding cow meat to other cows. Apu is one of the survivors because he's vegetarian, even though Manjula was seen as a Muncher earlier. And a vegetarian diet wouldn't save him since they convert by infecting others through bite, which happens later on anyway.
- So someone bit Manjula and Apu got away from her before she could bite him. Whats's your question exactly?

Skinner's bad gun safety

In "Homer the Vigilante", Homer and some others are shown having trouble handling guns safely. One of these guys is Principal Skinner... who was a soldier. Shouldn't he know how to properly handle a gun?
- What, that no goodnik Tamzarian? He was a street punk who never paid attention.

Girl Scouts Run the South Side

In the episode The Bart of War Marge suggests the Pre-Teen Braves and the Cavalry Kids could co-exist, but Kirk shoots it down because "The Girl Scouts run the south side." And they couldn't just get rid of the Girl Scouts because why, exactly?

Marge Is Still The Boss At Home

At the end of "Itchy And Scratchy And Marge", why are Bart, Lisa and Maggie allowed to watch Itchy and Scratchy again? It doesn't matter that Marge's crusade is discredited, since as their mother she has every right to control what Bart, Lisa and Maggie can watch on TV.
- Because if she did, she'd be a hypocrite. She knows this and decided to give in rather than constantly be reminded of the fact.

Homer Buys Bart Shoes?

In "Bart the Cool Kid", Bart wants a cool new pair of sneakers. He goes into the kitchen, where Homer and Marge are cooking popcorn, and directly asks Homer to buy them. Marge advises him to do so. Why wouldn't Bart ask Marge, who does the family's clothes shopping anyways and is more responsible than Homer, to buy him the shoes? Marge isn't busy and doesn't have any objections against the shoes, so there's no reason she couldn't have done it.

Banning sandles is sexist? How?

In "Bart vs Itchy and Scratchy" there's a bit where Skinner bans sandles in school. This causes Lisa and her feminist friends to graffiti his office. Why? Why would feminists care about a school banning sandles? Is making students wear closed-toed footwear "oppressive" to girls or something?

Smithers in "Marge Gets a Job"

In "Marge Gets a Job," Marge is hired at the power plant and Burns falls in love with her, being, as usual, completely unaware of all the times he's encountered the Simpson family before. Throughout the episode, Smithers never tells Burns she's married (which, when he finally learns it from Marge herself, causes him to abruptly drop his designs on her), even when Burns extensively confides in him about his feelings, demotes him to bathroom duty in order to give Marge his office, and finally sends him to kidnap Tom Jones to entertain Marge on the date he has planned. Compared to Smithers' typical Crazy Jealous Guy behavior when anyone moves in on either Burns or his job, his total failure to clear up a situation that it would have made sense to clear up, regardless of how he felt about either, is very odd.
- He cares about Burns' happiness too much to ruin it, no matter how much it might hurt him personally. Plus its still early in the show's run, so some Early-Installment Weirdness probably applies.

Marge worrying in "Realty Bites"

In "Realty Bites", why is Marge so worried that something terrible will happen to the Flanders if they stay in the house? Though many people would not willingly move into a house where a heinous murder spree happened, is there any reason that the Flanders would be in real danger or is it just a product of Marge's overanxious mind? (The episode never mentions what happened to the murderer, whether he was caught alive or not.)
- It's probably just Marge. Given the Flanders' excitement at owning and living in a piece of Springfield history, it probably happened decades earlier. And any way, it sounded like the motive was directed at that specific family and not simply whoever was living in the house at the time.
- I got the impression she was mainly feeling guilty about misleading them by not disclosing the truth about the house, for she assumed they wouldn't have bought it if they'd known. It wasn't so much that she believed they were in real danger—though the notion may have been at work subconsciously, contributing to the scare later on.

"The Principal and the Pauper"

The real Skinner was captured in the Vietnam War, which ended in 1975. Sheldon Skinner didn't die until 1979, did he mistake Armin for his son too?
- To be blunt, maybe he had Alzheimers' or some other degenerative condition that stopped him realising the truth.
How would not!Skinner have been able to re-enlist under that name without being arrested for desertion and identity theft?
- Presumably everyone at the Springfield military base were people who were too young or new to work with not!Skinner in Vietnam, so they would have no idea. Or were too dumb/apathetic to notice.
The whole episode was a mass hallucination experienced by the people of Springfield due to Shelbyville spiking their water supply. Hence why Skinner is still able to have flashbacks of what really happened in Vietnam, while the "real" Skinner (who, let's remember, never actually existed) contradicts it.

"The Joy of Sect"

How'd they get away with this episode? Nancy Cartwright is a Scientologist!
- Evidently, she's the only Scientologist with a sense of humor.

Bart doesn't or does like girls?

The show seems to play fast and loose with how Bart feels about females. Some episodes have him thinking Girls Have Cooties. Other episodes don't; he can be enamored with females (like Laura Powers) or ogling them (like Princess Kashmir, Belle's burlesque ladies, etc). So does Bart like females or find them "yucky"?
- Yes. Bart is 10. He's at that awkward age where hormones are just starting to pump and awareness of sexuality is forming. Being slightly attracted but also slightly put off is perfectly normal for a 10-year-old.

Lisa's Christmas Present

In "Kill Gil, Volumes I & II", if the present Gil gave Lisa was meant for Mr. Costington's daughter, why didn't Mr. Costington keep it in his office or some other secret place as opposed to the stockroom? Any of his employees easily could have mistaken it as regular store merchandise. If he had just been more responsible, the Simpsons wouldn't have felt obligated to take Gil in that night, resulting in him staying for 11 months.

Why not the revitalizing tonic?

"Natural Born Kissers" had Homer and Marge's sex life going bad. But what about that Simpson & Son Revitalizing Tonic from "Grampa Vs. Sexual Inadequacy"? Why didn't Homer and Marge just use that? Given the fact that Homer helped his father make and sell the stuff, it's inconceivable that he just forgot about it.
- Of course it's conceivable that he forgot about it. Homer is a dunce to begin with, and all the beer he drinks doesn't help his memory either. Even if he did remember it, Homer might not want to use the tonic again after all the problems it caused the first time.

Flashback continuity

In the flashbacks in "Three Gays of the Condo" from the opening of Moe's Tavern, Homer and Marge appear to be in their late teens and Homer is playing an early 1980s video game. However, it is established that this took place a few days before Marge found out she was pregnant with Bart — which would logically make him around 18-20 years old at the time the episode aired, and not 10.
- Homer also says "We looked so young... in my memory." Suggesting that they're actually much older and the narrative is just showing us Homer's Self-Serving Memory.

Bart's Preference To Homer

Why does Bart sometimes call Homer by name and sometimes "Dad".
- It probably depends on how rebellious and/or annoyed with Homer he feels.

Baby Elephant Walk Pants Usage

Why didn’t "Blue Pants" use the original Mancini recording. Was it so Fox wouldn’t get a copyright. They have used a ton of licensed songs.

Family and Friends Jerk***es

Why doesn’t everyone take Bart’s story that he didn’t place the rats in the pie?

Guiltykeeper Willie

How does everyone find out Willie is guilty and is he fired from being a school groundskeeper?

Conservative Age Guidelines

What does minifigure Skinner mean by that and why does he say everyone know about it?

Greta Break-up

Why did Greta decide to officially break-up with Bart?

Dog Driving A Bus

Who was the dog driving a bus in "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie"? Was it Santa's Little Helper driving the school bus?

Bart's Circumsized

Why does Marge want to take Bart to get that? He's ten years old.

Punishment For Snitching

Milhouse was doing the right thing to snitch on Bart. There is 0 reasons for Lovejoy to punish him too.
- The joke is that he's treating both things equally.

You Think It's Cute

Why does Ned Flanders think that it's cute that the gremlin is trying to claw his eyes out?

Decapitating Mother Goose

Why does everyone cheer that the Paul Bunyan statue's axe sliced off the Mother Goose statue when Bart bumped into it?

Revealing The Truth About Jebediah Springfield

What would've happened if Lisa did spill the beans and that Jebediah Springfield was a fraud?
- Quimby would have her sniped.
  - But it's great to tell the truth.

Burns and Smithers' Work Hours

Shouldn't Mr. Burns & Smithers be at home because Homer was at home in "Lisa the Vegetarian"? They still are at the Power Plant when seeing the roasted pig fly from being blasted out of the dam.
- High-ranking executives and company owners sometimes have to work all kinds of odd hours, especially when they need to react to some major crisis right away. The episode "Two Cars In Every Garage And Three Eyes On Every Fish" features Burns leaving the plant late in the evening after he's been working most of the night. As for Smithers, he actually enjoys going to work, since he's close to Burns.
  - There was no big crisis except just Homer making a BBQ. Unless, figuring out donating money to orphanage and the duo is trying figure out how much to donate?

Santa's Little Helper's Temper

Why did Santa's Little Helper have to lose his temper so much that he had to bite Bart?

Jenda Attending Thanksgiving

Even though Jenda and Bart would be divorced, why couldn’t Jenda just attend the feast in "It's A Blunderful Life" just for the sake for her children?
- The feast there is specifically for the Simpson family. Maybe the children would later see her and her relatives separately.
  - But Patty & Selma were there despite being Bouviers.
  - Marge is the one hosting the dinner at her house, so it makes sense she would invite her own blood relatives.
  - But Jenda still gave birth to Jiffy and Skiff and probably has kept the Simpson name.
  - Her relationship with Bart ended poorly so she might not want to spend any more time near him than necessary and their sons are grown adults by this point, so they can probably handle their parents not being in the same place.

Bart's Unnamed Descendant

Who is the person in red at the Thanksgiving feast? Bart Simpson Jr. from "Bart Gets A F"?
- Probably a grandson.
  - Same for the children near Maggie or they could be Lisa's other grandchildren too.

Santa's Little Helper Alive

Shouldn't Santa's Little Helper be dead in 60 years in the future?
- Maybe the dog there is one of his descendants.

Nick's Death

Why is Dr. Nick still alive after the movie (which is canon)? Did he fake it?
- Perhaps Dr. Hibbert managed to revive him.
  - Or maybe they were clones or twins of him?

Homr's Brokn Typwritr

How did Homer manage to make half of his abortive food review "Screw Flanders" with a broken "E"? Scru Flandors?
- An error but in universe, maybe Marge lied or someone fixed it offscreen.

Maternity/Paternity Leaves

Shouldn't Apu have taken a paternity leave for his children? A lot of parents do.
- It probably simply isn't an option available to him. The Kwik-E-Mart may not have any paternity leave policies in place, and perhaps he and Manjula decided that he should work and earn a living while she takes care of their kids.
- Plus, he's been known to love his job so much he'll put it before his family. He might not want to take a leave.

Using Last Couch Gag

In the 500th episode, why did they have to make a collage to the previous Couch Gag?

Apu Calling The Fire Department

In "Homer the Hertic", Apu decides to form a fire department to put out the fire but couldn't he have just called the actual fire department? Were they all injured and this episode takes place after "Crook & Ladder"?
- Apu didn't need to call the fire department because he was the fire department. Specifically, he was head of Springfield's volunteer fire department. When he learned the Simpson house was on fire, he alerted his fellow firefighters and they raced to the scene. Springfield may have decided to go to a full-time paid fire department in later seasons.
  - Or maybe it's a mix.

Why The Hershey Bar

As a follow up to the fire, why did Santa's Little Helper just go for the Hershey bar Homer had instead of dragging him out? Why didn't he even drag Snowball II out?

Cat Wipe

Was there anything else Willie could've used as a wipe that wasn't Snowball?

Bart and Homer Catching Up

After Homer and Bart chase the roasted pig through the bushes, how were they able to go down the torrent past the Interstate? Is there a walkway under the bridge?

The Truth About Screws

What would happen if Milhouse snitched on Bart for unscrewing the screws in "The Good, The Sad, and The Drugly"? Will Bart be facing the suspension instead? What happened if Bart came out clean?

The Police Weren't Aware

How come the police don't notice the baby driving the car is Maggie driving Homer's sedan in "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie"? Surely, at least Wiggum would've recognized that it was Homer's sedan especially since Ralph is close to both Bart and Lisa and they have interacted in previous episodes.

Ralph In 4th Grade

It maybe a Series Continuity Error, but in "Team Homer", why is Ralph in the 4th Grade in-universe?

Duck Crossing

When the firefighters rush to the Simpsons' house on their fire truck in "Homer the Hertic", why did they stop to let a mother duck and her numerous ducklings cross? Firefighters never stop at crossings or red lights. Couldn't they have honked the horns or turn the siren very loud? Couldn't they have taken an alternative way?
- Rule of Funny
  - Regardless of Rule of Funny nothing is more important than firefighters making sure they arrive quick to the fire.

Why Put Child In Charge Of Store

Isn't Jamshed too young to be manning the Kwik-E-Mart while Apu is on volunteer firefighting duty? Then again, he is probably Younger Than He Looks and eventually is fixed to his actual age.

Kicked Off Skateboards

How come the kids on the swings be aware to not kick Bart and Nikki off their skateboards in "Stealing First Base"?

3 Questions & Question 1

Shouldn't Comic Book Guy say those respectively instead of "Questions 3" and "Question the first" in "Lost Our Lisa"?
- Questions 3 is supposed to be a Shout-Out to Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Snowball II Doesn't Want "To Be The Baby"

Why didn't Snowball want to climb into the baby carriage in "Lisa's Date With Destiny"?
- She's a stubborn cat who refuses to cooperate, like nearly all members of her species.

Do Sherri & Terri Hate Rock And/Or Roll?

When everyone is holding up torches in "Bart Sells His Soul", Sherri & Terri seem scared from singing "In The Gadda Da Vida". Why are they?
- That's not fear, it's exhaustion to the point of almost passing out.
  - Why are they then? People like Homer and Marge enjoyed it.

Doesn't Lisa Ever Get Tired Of Being Wrong?

When Lisa scolds her brother from using a remote control with plutonium as a battery, Bart says to her "Don't you ever get tired of being wrong?" Does Lisa really?

Couldn't Lisa Stay On?

In "Lost Out Lisa", couldn't Lisa just stay on the 22 bus and not get off at the End Of The Line and take the bus the other way until Crackton? Maybe Crackton has a bus connection that goes to the museum? Of course it was Lisa's choice but she wanted to go to the museum.

What Happened To The Cherry Picker?

What happened to the cherry picker that Homer was in after he was caught by the draw bridge?

Why School On Snow Day?

Why did Springfield Elementary School decide to not have the day off on a school day.
- Skinner's "Cal Ripken-like streak of school open-age", which is apparently strong enough to ignore common sense and safety.

Bus Driver Name

Why does the bus use the driver's name instead of the ID? At least in Boston, they use ID.

Moe's Preference To The Clinic

Why does Moe decide to change for a cab to the clinic from the bus because Lisa would be on board?
- She annoyed him enough to seek an alternate method.
  - She literally was just commenting on the bus. How is that annoying?

Agnes' Coin Purse

If Agnes Skinner is holding her coin purse, then why did say that the seat next to her is for her coin purse and place it down? Is she as mean as a her son?

Abe's Iron Cross

How exactly could Abe be inept enough at clearing minefields in World War 2 to be awarded this Medal of Dishonor without being subjected to Unfriendly Fire?

Santa's Little Helper At Alleyway

What is Santa's Little Helper doing in the alleyway eating trash at the beginning of "Dogtown"? Shouldn't he be at home? He's not a stray.
- He's still allowed to roam as he wishes, Homer doesn't care enough to do otherwise.
  - He also had his collar on.

Barney knowing the Duff quality person's name

In "Duffless", does Barney know the man in charge of the Duff quality control even though the tour guide never said what his name is?
- He presumably looked at his name tag or knew the person before working.

Child Labor

What happened to the kids that Burns sent them to labor?

Drawings In Restroom

Who did the drawings in the restroom?

Milhouse Appears

Where did Milhouse come from in dinner?

Things In Beer Jar

How do things end up in beer jars like two mice, a rat, a syringe, a nose, a gum of teeth, an ear, a candlestick, and Hitler's head end up in the jar?

Homer's Reason

Couldn't Homer have told everyone that he didn't want to run over Santa's Little Helper because he was his dog? He didn't want to kill his pet especially if he didn't want to see Bart devistated.

Maggie's Walk

How is Maggie able to walk all the way to Springfield Elementary School just to get her pacifier that her brother painted to pretend it was a car ornament?

Homer's Contacts

In "She Of Faith", we see that Homer has contact lenses but we never see him with glasses (unless for reading).

Headscratchers / The Simpsons

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Headscratchers / The Simpsons

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