‘Simpsons’ Fans Recall How the Show Blew One of the Best Movie Twists of All Time
Movie parodies are obviously a huge part of what makes The Simpsons tick, whether it’s subtle nods to cinematic classics, or more obvious homages to mainstream pop-culture staples. But for those fans who grew up watching the show, viewing the parodies often preceded seeing the actual movies being parodied.
Like, a lot of us saw “The Shinning” before we ever watched The Shining. And when we did finally catch up with it, we were surprised to learn that it doesn’t end with Jack Torrance watching the Tony Awards.
It’s not like there were any huge plot twists in The Shining that were given away by the Treehouse of Horror parody (except, perhaps, for the death of Groundskeeper Willy/Dick Hallorann), but over on Reddit, Simpsons fans have been sharing some of the most famous movie moments that were spoiled for them by the show.
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The biggest twist that The Simpsons blew for young viewers, according to the comments, is the ending of 1968 sci-fi classic The Planet of the Apes, which concludes with the reveal that the titular planet is in fact just Earth in the distant future (sorry if we spoiled that for you just now). We also learn this in the closing number of the Troy McClure-starring Planet of the Apes stage musical, which finds the famous fish fetishist belting out, “Oh my God, I was wrong, it was Earth all along!”
Although the original film doesn’t end with a flurry of fireworks and Charlton Heston randomly proclaiming, “I love you Dr. Zaius!”
This wasn’t even the first time that The Simpsons spoiled this particular twist. Two years before “A Fish Called Selma” aired, Season Five’s “Deep Space Homer” featured a scene in which Homer finally connects the dots and works out what happened at the end of the movie.
In The Simpsons’ defense, it had been over 20 years since the original Planet of the Apes came out. And, as we’ve mentioned before, even the home video cover art for The Planet of the Apes in the ‘90s had the Statue of Liberty on it, which is a little like if the DVD of The Sixth Sense featured Bruce Willis wearing a white bedsheet. Plus, a gag from Spaceballs gave away the Planet of the Apes twist years before Troy McClure got the chance to.
More than one Simpsons fan also cited an example of a reverse spoiler, which caused them to think that they knew how a famous movie would wrap up, when they really didn’t. Season Six’s “Bart of Darkness” finds a housebound Bart suspecting that Ned Flanders murdered his wife, à la Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window. But in the end, it turned out that Maude was away at Bible camp, and all Flanders was guilty of was overwatering a ficus plant.
People who’d seen that episode when they were younger were expecting a similar climax from Rear Window. Instead, it ends with the neighbor confessing to the murder of his wife, before straight up attacking Jimmy Stewart’s character.
Which would have been a surprisingly dark turn for the Ned Flanders character.
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