‘The Simpsons’ Latest Twist Doesn’t Jibe with the Show’s History

The 36th season of The Simpsons has been remarkably solid so far, vindicating those fans who didn’t bail on the show due to a perceived dip in quality, or because of Matt Groening’s “radical right-wing” politics.

This past Sunday’s “Shoddy Heat,” which parodied the steamy ‘80s neo-noir Body Heat, was no exception. The enjoyable one-off mystery found Lisa and Bart investigating a cold case involving Grampa Simpson’s missing partner from back to the days when he was a (surprisingly well-endowed) private detective. 

As we mentioned last week, producer Al Jean teased that the episode would “solve a mystery” that’s been puzzling him “since the beginning of the show.” Prior to the airdate, he even held a contest for fans, pledging to send signed scripts to social media followers who correctly guessed the nature of the mystery.

In the end (spoilers for “Shoddy Heat”), it turns out that Mr. Burns was responsible for Grampa’s old partner’s disappearance (although he wasn’t actually dead), and Abe kept quiet about it because Burns made a deal to give his son Homer a job when he grew up — one that he could never be fired from, “no matter how often and how badly” he messed up.

“And that’s why your son wasn’t fired for screwing up 742 times,” Mr. Burns explains. 

This revelation leads to a heartwarming scene between Homer and his father, featuring flashbacks to all the times Homer acted like a less-than-model employee and got away with it. But that’s not exactly accurate. Even one of the clips that was used during this montage was from a Season One episode in which Homer crashes a cart into a vent and immediately gets 86’d.

Technically, it’s Sherri and Terri’s dad who fires him, but it’s not like Burns hires Homer back immediately. He only reclaims the job after leading a public protest against the plant’s safety violations. 

Not to mention the multiple other times that Homer has been fired by Mr. Burns.

Okay, obviously trying to pin down continuity in The Simpsons is a futile, frankly embarrassing, endeavor. Nobody wants to be the fan bugging Lucy Lawless about the logistics of flying horses. 

The show’s timeline, by design, is constantly shifting, which is totally fine (World War II veteran Grampa Simpson was a middle aged private dick in 1982? Sure, why not?), but an argument could be made that attempting to explain Homer’s role at the nuclear plant undermines two broader jokes. 

One is how Mr. Burns, in the early years of the show, just can’t seem to remember Homer’s name. Part of the reason why Homer is never held accountable for his incompetence is because the plant’s owner is an elderly billionaire who can’t be bothered to retain any memories of the employee he’s constantly interacting with. 

The other is that making the slovenly, dim-witted Homer Simpson a life-long nuclear plant employee was seemingly one of the show’s early satirical aims. As Groening told Variety in 2006, “I made sure that Homer worked in a nuclear power plant, because then we can keep returning to that and making a point about the environment.” 

Incidentally, this strategy did not go over super well with the nuclear power industry. 

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