Summary
While I understand thatThe Simpsonsis constantly changing its canon, I’m still confused by season 36’s earliest retcons.The Simpsonsseason 36hasn’t even started yet, and already I have no idea what’s going on with the show’s canon. This is nothing new, as longtime viewers of the series can attest.The Simpsonshas always taken a playful approach to its continuity, frequently retconning events, changing the birthdates of central characters, and making use of the creative freedom that comes with its cartoon status. However, even in this context, I’m confused by season 36’s plans.
WhileThe Simpsonscharacters don’t age, this isn’t unique to the series. The characters ofSouth Park,Family Guy,American Dad, andBob’s Burgersall remained the same age for over a decade, and evenRick and Mortydoesn’t address the static, unchanging age of its heroes despite the show’s meta self-awareness. However,The Simpsonstakes things further by frequently altering the ages of the characters depending on the episode. Since Homer was around forty when the series began in 1989 and remains the same age in 2024, it’s not clear if he was born in the ‘60s or ‘80s.
This Underrated 1999 The Simpsons Episode Rewrote The Show’s Formula For The Next 20 Years
One underrated episode of The Simpsons changed how the show’s stories worked for 20 years before the series eventually needed to reverse this change.
The Simpsons Season 36 Reveals Grampa’s Past
The Supporting Star Reveals He Was A Detective In The ‘80s
Rather than clarifying this question with an answer,The Simpsonsseason 36 has made its own continuity even weirder with one Grampa-centric storyline. According toComicBook.com,The Simpsonsseason 36 will feature an episode where Grampa reveals his past as a detective in the ‘80s. This is bizarre sinceThe Simpsonsbegan in 1989 and Grampa was already an elderly man living in a retirement home at that stage. He served in WWII, which was set in stone as recently as the show’s season 35 finale. Season 35, episode 18, “Bart’s Brain,” centered its plot around Grampa’s war medals.
If Grampa was a detective during the ‘80s, he would already have been in his ‘70s.
Thus, it is bizarre to see season 36 retcon this by making Grampa a detective in his dotage.The Simpsonsseason 36 promises to changea lot of the show’s formula, with the same announcement heavily implying that Bart might finally turn 11 in this season’s premiere. However, this only makes things stranger. After all, if the characters inThe Simpsonsstart to age normally in season 36, the question of how Grampa has been alive since around 1910 becomes even more complicated. If Grampa was a detective during the ‘80s, he would already have been in his ‘70s by then.
Grampa’s ‘80s Career Is The Latest Simpsons Canon Change
Marge and Homer’s Ages Have Changed Countless Times
I’m confused by the revelation that Grampa was a detective in the ‘80s, but this is far from the first time thatThe Simpsonshas retconned the age of its main characters. Homer and Marge’s high school courtship was chronicled in season 2, episode 12, “The Way We Was,” and this outing revealed that the pair were in their teens during the ‘70s. A few decades later, season 33, episode 1, “Star of the Backstage,” retconned this by showing that Homer and Marge were teenagers in the late ‘90s. This episode revealed their high school musical was about the Millennium Bug.
I don’t know how viewers are supposed to keep track of this ever-changing canon, particularly whenThe Simpsonshas repeatedly retconned the same storyin different episodes. However, I’m not alone in thinking this is a weird creative choice. In season 19, episode 11, “That ‘90s Show,”The Simpsonsdepicted Marge and Homer as young adults in the ‘90s. This effectively retconned the show’s Golden Age, which portrayed the pair as middle-aged parents during this era. Season 7, episode 24, “Homerpalooza,” saw Home struggle to understand grunge culture, whereas “That ‘90s Show” saw him headline a successful grunge band in the ‘90s.
The Simpsons Season 36 May Finally Age Its Characters
Bart’s Birthday Could Signify A Big Change For The Show
AlthoughThe Simpsonsseason 36’s best trickis its Treehouse of Horror Presents episode, this is not the riskiest of the season’s creative decisions. If the episode centered on Bart’s birthday does finally age up one of the show’s protagonists,The Simpsonsmay change forever thanks to its characters aging realistically. Within a few years, viewers could reasonably expect that Maggie would learn to speak, Bart and Lisa would attend high school, and some older supporting characters might even die permanently. All of these changes would fly in the face of the show’s usual approach to its canon.
The Simpsons has killed off characters like Dr. Marvin Monroe, Dr. Nick, and Ralph Wiggum only to revive them without any explanation.
Typically, nothing changes in the world ofThe Simpsons. The show has killed off characters like Dr. Marvin Monroe, Dr. Nick, and Ralph Wiggum only to revive them without any explanation mere episodes later.The Simpsonsretconned Fat Tony’s deathbefore making him one of the show’s most-used villains, proving in the process that canon veracity holds little sway over the show’s creative choices.The Simpsonshas made a fine art of resetting its status quo after each episode’s standalone story, but the introduction of character aging would signal an unavoidable shift into a more serialized storytelling style.
Why The Simpsons Changing Their Ages Is So Confusing
The Simpsons Frequently Visits The Family’s Future
There is an argument to be made forThe Simpsonsaging its characters realistically precisely because this would avoid issues like season 36’s Grampa storyline.Grampa’s season 36 story could have made sense ifThe Simpsonsstarted aging its characters earlier, and the show could still clarify the plot’s timeline if it turns out Grampa was in his ‘70s during the episode’s events. Although this would make sense in this isolated incident, I still thinkThe Simpsonsshould introduce realistic aging for its characters more broadly. After all, the show’s current approach makes its timeline impossible to follow.
If the Simpson family started aging with each passing year, their futures would no longer be an open question.
In two separate episodes, Lisa has been a one-year-old baby and an engaged college student in 2010.The Simpsons’ future-set episodespromised various fascinating futures for the show’s heroes, but the characters never get any closer to these events. If the Simpson family started aging with each passing year, their futures would no longer be an open question that is only addressed by the occasional standalone episode. Instead,The Simpsonscould finally catch up with the future of its characters and depict the most exciting events in Marge, Homer, Lisa, Bart, and Maggie’s later lives.
