The Best Nonsense Jokes in ‘Simpsons’ History

The Simpsons writers’ room may have been filled with every funny nerd Harvard University ever spat out, but the brainiacs never got in the way of what truly makes The Simpsons so great — nonsense.

If you polled a group of Simpsons fans on which characteristic they most associate with our protagonist Homer, “fat” or “stupid” are likely to be 1A and 1B among their answers. Stupidity is the lifeblood of The Simpsons — it’s what makes Homer episodes so great and Lisa episodes less great. Hand-in-hand with stupidity comes its brother nonsense, who provides the absurdist spin that both puzzles and excites us whenever we hear the word “embiggen.”

The Simpsons treats things like “logic” and “physics” as loose guidelines when building a gag, and over in the Simpsons subreddit, the superfans recently discussed which nonsense jokes are the greatest of the show’s entire run. Here are their picks…