The Fascinating History of the ‘Just Stamp the Ticket Man’ on ‘The Simpsons’
The secret to success in show business is to always leave them wanting more — so I guess Flanders’ Leftorium wouldn’t have failed if he only stamped half the ticket, or something like that.
While it may seem from an outside observer’s perspective that the writers of The Simpsons are openly hostile to their own canon and care little for progressing the character arcs within the show in between each post-credits world reset, nothing could be mostly-correct-but-still-slightly-further from the truth. Yes, the ethos of The Simpsons necessitates that the town of Springfield will always return to neutral despite whatever seemingly world-shaking events take place in each episode, but even beyond the occasional killing-off of a beloved side character or the occasional adoption of a Chinese orphan, there are subtle, ingenious, multiple-season storylines woven into the world of The Simpsons that demonstrate the extreme level of care and inspiration that holds the floating timeline together.
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I recently stumbled upon a dissection of one such storyline that shows how even a character who never received a real name can lead a complex and fulfilling life in the background of The Simpsons. In a Twitter thread about a certain special scene from the Simpsons Season Three episode “When Flanders Failed,” one Simpsons fan linked this deep-dive into the cult-favorite character “Just Stamp the Ticket Man” that makes me grateful that the whole internet thing is still around:
Even though he’s curt, surly and habitually violent, there’s something reassuring about knowing that Just Stamp the Ticket Man is still a part of the rich human tapestry that is the Springfield citizenry after so many decades on the air.
We may never know the behind-the-scenes politics that led to his inclusion or exclusion from certain episodes, but the fact that neither Simpsons writers nor Simpsons fans like the video’s creator TheRealJims will ever forget about Just Stamp the Ticket Man is heartwarming enough to excuse all the other bullshit that comes from the internet.