Top 20 Times The Simpsons Went Too Far
Welcome to WatchMojo and today we’re counting down our picks for the Top 20 Times The Simpsons Went Too Far. For this list, we’ll be looking at moments in the long-running adult animation that have been considered to be in extreme bad taste, undermined a developed character, or is just questionable all around. What “Simpsons” moments are too far for you? Let us know in the comments!
#20: Troy McClure’s Abnormality
“A Fish Called Selma”
Oh, sure, you might remember him from some obscure movie back in the day but what you might not remember is that McClure is a bit odd. Rumors have been swirling about his personal life and seem to have killed his career. Things begin to take a turn when he starts dating Selma and he starts to be seen as marketable again. It’s never made explicitly clear what the rumors are but they have something to do with fish. Several characters comment on it and Troy himself says it's something that has to remain hidden at all costs. That’s enough for us to not need anymore details.
#19: Homer Finds Waylon Smithers Sr.
“The Blunder Years”
After being hypnotized, Homer begins screaming uncontrollably. The screaming itself is too far for us but it’s actually what Homer finds that’s troublesome. When he was 12, he, along with Lenny, Carl, and Moe, went to dive into a quarry to swim. However, the quarry was empty and Homer discovered there was a blockage in a nearby drain pipe. There he discovers the corpse of Waylon Smithers Sr. It’s definitely an unsettling image for a young Homer to have to face, especially since the corpse lands right in Homer’s lap and has maggots coming out of it.
#18: The Simpsons Go to Brazil
“Blame It on Lisa”
The Simpsons traveling to Brazil should have been a fun little adventure to the South American continent. Lisa reveals she’s been sponsoring a young boy named Ronaldo and after he goes missing, the family travels to Rio de Janeiro to find him. While typical “Simpsons” hijinks occur during the episode, critics and government officials weren’t happy with the country’s portrayal. They were upset with how Rio was made to look like it was rampant with street crime, slums, kidnappings and rat infestations. Further, they also didn’t appreciate how the show used stereotypes from surrounding nations such as characters having Spanish accents.
#17: The Real Seymour Skinner
“The Principal and the Pauper”
Perhaps one of the most controversial episodes of the series, everything we know about Seymour Skinner has been a lie. While Principal Skinner is being honored by the townsfolk, a man claiming to be the real Seymour Skinner shows up. The man we all thought was Skinner, quickly reveals that he’s actually Armin Tamzarian and he took on the identity of Skinner when he couldn’t tell Agnes that her son had seemingly died. Of course, this twist undermines the audience’s understanding of Skinner’s character. It’s not only fans and critics who took issues with this episode but so did Harry Shearer, Skinner’s voice actor, as well Matt Groening saying it’s one of his least favorite episodes.
#16: Homer Jumps the Springfield Gorge
“Bart the Daredevil”
Bart develops an obsession with professional daredevil Lance Murdock. After some initial missteps, Bart begins to develop his skill at jumping over things with his skateboard. As he improves, he becomes popular and he seeks out more challenging jumps. He decides he’ll jump Springfield Gorge, even though it’s highly likely he won’t make it. Understandably, Homer tries to stop his son from doing something so reckless to no avail. In the nick of time, Homer stops Bart but winds up attempting the jump himself. Predictably, he falls well short of making it and painfully falls to the bottom of the gorge. Not only is the fall brutal but it was a painful road to recovery.
#15: Bart Hates Himself
“The Boys of Bummer”
During a Little League baseball game, Bart misses a catch that would have won Springfield the championship. It’s understandable that some townspeople would be upset with Bart's performance but their reaction is too much. Not only does the crowd pelt Bart with objects but he becomes a pariah in the town. It gets to the point where he spray paints the phrase “I hate Bart Simpson” all over the place. Even after he falls from the water tower and is recovering in the hospital a crowd gathers to chant that he sucks. Bart’s just a kid and in no way does he deserve this kind of treatment.
#14: Hiring the Yakuza
“The Twisted World of Marge Simpson”
Marge doesn’t seem like the type to invest money into businesses given that it can be a risky venture. In fact, it's her risk averse nature that gets her kicked out of her investment club, the Investorettes. To show them up, she invests $500 in Pretzel Wagon. While the pretzels are good, Marge can’t gain traction in terms of sales. To help her business, Homer hires the mob to wipe out the competition. The Investorettes are none too happy and hire the Yakuza to administer payback to Marge. Helen Lovejoy and Maude Flanders are part of the investor group and it’s wild that they would resort to gangland violence to take out Marge.
#13: Mr. Burns’ Villainy
“Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part One)”
Mr. Burns tends to be shrewd and cold hearted, so it’s not surprising when he does something terrible. In this instance, however, he goes way overboard. When oil is found beneath Springfield Elementary, he taps the well before the school can, denying the wealth and prosperity the school could have provided its students. His oil drilling company also causes Moe’s Tavern to close, injures Santa’s Little Helper and destroys the retirement home. The most egregious thing he does is block out the Sun in order to force everyone to have their lights on 24/7. It’s incredibly fiendish.
#12: Homer Abandons His Dad
“Homer Simpson in: 'Kidney Trouble'”
On a long drive back home from a ghost town, Grandpa really has to pee but Homer refuses to pull over. Grandpa’s kidneys explode and Homer volunteers to donate one of his own to his dad. However, on the day the operation is supposed to happen, Homer cowardly runs away leaving his dad to die. It’s a complete and utterly terrible thing for him to do. In shame, he decides to live at sea. On a ship he meets a group of outcasts and even they are disgusted by his actions that they kick him off the ship. We’ve seen Homer be careless and inconsiderate before but this is downright terrible.
#11: Panda Love
“Homer vs. Dignity”
Over the course of the series, Homer has gone through a lot. This episode adds to the indignities he’s faced in a pretty bad way. Needing some extra cash, Homer becomes Mr. Burns’ prank monkey. This typically involves Burns giving Homer money in exchange for doing something humiliating such as laying on the men’s room floor in a diaper. However, things go a little too far when Burns has Homer pose as a panda at an exhibit at the Springfield Zoo. There another panda mistakes Homer as a mate and drags him away unwillingly. Of course, it’s portrayed in a light manner but it is in fact deeply disturbing.
#10: Homer Straps Dynamite to Himself
“A Tale of Two Springfields”
The town of Springfield is divided when they discover that the poorer folks in town have been given new telephone area codes, while the wealthy get to keep the old one. The citizens gather in the Town Hall for a meeting. In this sight-gag that runs throughout the scene culminating in an angry mob, we see that Homer has arrived at the meeting strapped with dynamite. While the episode aired pre-9/11, given that so many public places have been the target of terrorist attacks in the early 21st century, the joke has not aged well.
#9: Jockeys Are Murderous Elf-Like Creatures
“Saddlesore Galactica”
The episode begins like classic Simpsons-fare: the family comes into possession of a pet they cannot afford and tries to come up with a creative means of supporting it. This time it's a horse, and Bart becomes a jockey. Things take a turn when the horse starts winning. It’s not the mafia, or corrupt bookies that insist Homer throw a race, however - it’s singing, murderous, elven jockeys. It’s one thing to canonize that there are brain-eating elves living by a chocolate stream under Springfield Downs racetrack, but to literally dehumanize people of small stature, a cruel stereotype against which little people grapple daily, is much worse.
#8: Lisa Enjoys Second-Hand Cigarette Smoke
“Smoke on the Daughter”
When a ballet academy sets up in Springfield, Marge decides to fulfill a life-long dream to become a ballerina. While she has skill, she's too old. However the instructor notices Lisa’s naturally perfect posture and wants her to join. To Lisa’s frustration, she discovers she's bad at it … until she hangs out with the other girls on their smoke break. After inhaling the second-hand smoke, she feels like she does better, leading her to want to smoke cigarettes. While the episode is good overall and reminiscent of a classic-era Simpsons morality play, having level-headed Lisa pick up cigarettes and contemplate something so harmful is decidedly uncomfortable.
#7: Bart & Lisa Cover Up the "Murder" of Martin Prince
“Dial 'N' for Nerder”
The sleuthing of Bart and Lisa is a beloved plot-arc standby, and throughout the show they’ve foiled nefarious schemes together and brought corrupt men to justice. The tables are turned when a prank goes wrong, and they think they’ve killed classmate and goody-two-shoes, Martin Prince. Rather than do what you’d expect and tell an adult that Martin fell off a cliff and attempt his recovery, they cover the whole thing up. This naturally causes them a lot of mental anguish, and while it turns out okay you spend the episode thinking the kids might not be alright after all.
#6: Frank Grimes' Death
“Homer’s Enemy”
Frank Grimes has had it rough, and just wants to get his life going when he moves to Springfield. However, he immediately notices how insanely messed up Homer is. A somewhat meta episode, many people regard “Homer’s Enemy” as the end of the golden-era of Simpsons, when Homer’s buffoonery itself becomes the joke. Frank eventually goes over the edge – as any sane person might – when he realizes meets his end in a grisly fashion. And life, for everyone else, carries on as normal.
#5: Marge's Breast Implants
“Large Marge”
While out with Manjula, Marge, the sweet, beloved matriarch of the family is talked into getting liposuction. When she wakes up from surgery, she discovers that there has been a mix up and her tummy-tuck turned into breast implants. Not only was it a terrible departure for the character, but also it's just cringey as hell to see her so overtly sexualized in what felt like very obvious fan-service. At the end of the episode, putting a cherry on this cringe cheesecake, she flashes a crowd of people to save Homer, Bart and Milhouse from being eaten by an elephant.
#4: The Death Of Maude Flanders
“Alone Again, Natura-Diddily”
When Homer antagonizes the racetrack t-shirt cannon cheerleaders, Maude Flanders is struck with the clothing barrage, knocked off the bleachers, and into the parking lot, dying on impact. The shocking scene was highly anticipated, although viewers were unsure which Springfield citizen would kick the bucket. It was the first time a regular character was actively killed off, and it changed the dynamic of not just the show but also the character of Ned Flanders. In a show that, like so many others, resets at the end of each episode, this seemed like an awfully drastic step to spice things up.
#3: Homer Dreams of Killing His Father
“Papa Don’t Leech”
Abe and Homer's rocky dynamic has produced some of the series’ best moments. In the opening of this season 19 episode, we see them arguing during a drive home, and it seems there is nothing out of the ordinary. However, when the car goes off the road, Abe is too injured to get out. Rather than dial 911, Homer kills him. The dream sequence of Homer smothering his father as he struggles to breathe has no bearing on the rest of the episode, but somehow it makes the unnecessarily shocking scene worse. It might be a Sopranos’ reference, but it is still odd and disturbing.
#2: Moe Nearly Ends His Life
“Whiskey Business”
Moe Szyslak’s despair has been an off-color gag throughout the show's run – with ill-fated attempts, and accidentally saving Maggie while preparing to jump from a bridge. But things got especially dark in this episode, as Moe slowly walks up to a prepared noose in his bar, while Homer, Lenny, and Carl are in the other room none the wiser. Slipping the noose around his neck, he calls a helpline. Accidentally kicking the chair out, the boozehounds rush to the noise and find him on the floor, which is all played out for laughs.
#1: Marge Won’t Take ‘No’ for an Answer
“Strong Arms of the Ma”
What the hell, Simpsons?! The set-up here is that Marge has been lifting weights and juicing up as a way to feel back in control of herself, after she was mugged and developed agoraphobia. As a result, she becomes more aggressive. In one scene, she wants a little action in bed, and when Homer says he’s not up to it she tells him she wasn’t asking. The next morning, Homer is limping around the kitchen. Having Marge be so aggressive, to the point where she forces herself on her husband, goes against her character and is just plain horrible.