How The Simpsons Embraced Its Fervent Fan Base

Time​ Magazine

24-07-2025

If ever there were an episode that perfectly encapsulates the passionate, joyful, absurd, and at times toxic fandom of The Simpsons, it would be Season 8's 'The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show.' In the acclaimed 1997 episode, Krusty the Clown threatens to cancel the ridiculously violent Itchy & Scratchy cartoon from his program due to spiraling ratings. Following a farcical kids focus group, cynical executives push the writers to create Poochie, a hat-to-the-back, rapping 'dog with attitude' to reenergize the violent and laughably one-sided Herman and Katnip send-up.
Homer auditions for the voice of the obnoxious canine and lands the gig. But Lisa is skeptical. 'Adding a new character is often a desperate attempt to boost low ratings,' she says. On cue, a 'hip' new face, cousin Roy, suddenly appears at the dinner table: 'Yo, yo! How's it hanging, everybody?' It remains one of the ultimate meta Simpsons episodes, ending with fans revolting against Poochie, who is unceremoniously killed off of the program.
'Poochie is particularly bad because at the time the network wanted us to add a new character,' recalls Simpsons executive producer and writer Al Jean, who has been a part of the series since its 1989 inception. 'We've added characters before, but I've always been resistant to generically planting a character the way a sitcom does. They bring in an actor to play six out of 13 episodes. That's not The Simpsons.'
But what began as a sly middle finger to meddling Fox executives ultimately became a full-blown commentary on fan culture. For years there has been chatter from a segment of hardcore fans that The Simpsons has lost its mojo, criticism that the show's writers famously responded to in a classic exchange between Bart and fan-favorite Comic Book Guy (voiced by Hank Azaria).
When the sarcastic know-it-all owner of Springfield's The Android's Dungeon & Baseball Card Shop levies his sneering disgust at the revamped Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show, TV's most iconic 10-year-old (with all apologies to Eric Cartman) pushes back.
'Hey, I know it wasn't great, but what right do you have to complain?' contends Bart. 'As a loyal viewer, I feel they owe me,' responds Comic Book Guy. Bart is taken aback. 'What? They're giving you thousands of hours of entertainment for free. What could they possibly owe you? Ifanything, you owe them,' he says. Comic Book Guy then delivers this memorable mic drop: 'Worst. Episode. Ever.'
'That actually came from online,' explains Jean, alluding to a fan who, after watching the 1992 episode 'Itchy and Scratchy: The Movie,' posted a succinct three-word 'worst episode ever' takedown on alt.tv.simpsons, a throwback online Usernet newsgroup inhabited by dedicated followers. The sardonic Comic Book Guy line would go on to become one of the series' most ubiquitous catchphrases. 'One of the writers, David Cohen, put it in the show,' continues Jean. 'It resonated with the people because it comes from the people.'
In conversation with the fandom
For decades, Simpsons writers have leaned into the show's hardcore fandom. In the early '90s prehistoric age before the internet lived up to the promise of a worldwide web, and before the dawn of social media, Simpsons obsessives freeze-framed their VCRs to spot inside jokes in background scenes.
Back then, the relationship between diehard viewers and the series' creatives exuded a seemingly innocent, communal spirit. A 2013 Slate article titled 'Best Message Board Ever' documented early Simpsons internet fandom. Like-minded diehards frequented these exclusive spaces, where they could discuss plots and Easter eggs and post lists of their favorite characters and chalkboard and couch gags.
Not only did former Simpsons producer Bill Oakley lurk on alt.tv.simpsons, he also posted a July 25, 1993, preview of Season 5, a bold move that in today's soulless streaming biz would give showrunners night sweats.
'The 'NOT YET WRITTEN' portion of the post mentioned the working titles of future classics, including 'Lisa's Hockey Team,' 'Summer Swimming Pool/Rear Window Parody,' and 'Bart Gets a Girlfriend,'' wrote Slate's Alan Siegel.
The Simpsons team even dropped on-air shout- outs to its dedicated hive. In the 2002 episode 'The Frying Game,' Homer, after discovering that an old lady has been stabbed to death with a pair of scissors, unleashes a 'SNUH cascade.' The inside baseball reference was a wink to fans who turned a Season 2 Marge protest sign gag, 'Springfieldians for Nonviolence, Understanding, and Helping' (SNUH), into one of the earliest memes.
This is the same fervent group that mourned the 2024 death of background character Larry the Barfly, who for 35 years was a quiet, inebriated regular at Moe's Tavern. One viewer's emotional online post summed up the collective gut punch: 'Just learned they are killing off Larry on The Simpsons tomorrow. I need a minute.'
That same year, fans brought out the pitchforks when there was talk that The Simpsons would end a long-running gag of Homer choking Bart, which was hinted at in the Season 35 episode 'McMansion & Wife.' 'See, Marge, strangling the boy paid off,' Homer says. 'Just kidding, I don't do that anymore. Times have changed.'
Longtime executive producer and series co-creator James L. Brooks dismissed the notion altogether. 'Don't think for a second we're changing anything,' he told People. 'Nothing's getting tamed. Nothing, nothing, nothing…. He'll continue to be strangled—[if] you want to use that awful term for it. He'll continue to be loved by his father in a specific way.'
Affectionately lampooning fan culture
Indeed, outside of the Star Wars universe, you would be hard-pressed to find a more impassioned fan base. Jean got his first taste of the Simpsons phenomenon early in the show's run during a vacation in Orlando, Fla. 'I remember I was wearing a Simpsons show jacket at Disney World right after the first episode had aired,' he recalls. 'And people were walking up to me and asking, 'Ah, man. Can I buy that?' I was like, 'Whoa!' That had never happened to me before.'
For Simpsons creator Matt Groening, the initial appeal of the comically dysfunctional yet loving brood was rooted in Generation X fans' readiness to break from conservative family sitcom orthodoxy. 'Traditionally, family entertainment was designed not to offend anybody,' he explained in a 2000 Newsweek interview. 'What we tried to do was go for a show jammed with smart jokes and intelligent references, as well as the more obvious sight gags that animation does so well. It turns out that you can actually pull that off. Everybody doesn't have to get every joke.'
To understand the cult of The Simpsons, you have to go back to the rise of geek culture. During the '70s and '80s, attending a Star Trek, Doctor Who, or Star Wars convention was looked down upon by the mainstream as kids' stuff at best, and at worst a haven for nerds and social outcasts.
Groening—who grew up collecting MAD magazine and old EC comic books—and the equally geeky Simpsons staff, which over the years has included Jean, Cohen, and Oakley as well as Mimi Pond, John Swartzwelder, Mike Reiss, Jeff Martin, Conan O'Brien, David X. Cohen, Christine Nangle, and current showrunner Matt Selman, are all members of the same geek tribe.
Before it was cool, The Simpsons celebrated and affectionately lampooned fan culture—including Dungeons & Dragons, sci-fi, and prestige and trash television, as well as film classics, old-school horror flicks, Harry Potter books, rock-and-roll deities, highbrow literature, anime, and Lego toys. Being a Simpsons fanatic became a badge of honor for the 'weird' kids who attended Comic-Con years before it exploded into a multimillion-dollar pop culture event in the 2000s.
Even Comic Book Guy, once a parody of The Simpsons' most over-the-top haters, has nowbecome a beloved avatar for fanboys and fangirls, so much so that the writers gave him his own poignant origin story.
In the critically acclaimed Season 32 episode, 'The Dad-Feelings Limited,' we find him contemplating having children with his wife Kumiko (voiced by Jenny Yokobori) and confronting his estranged relationship with emotionally distant father Postage Stamp Fellow (Dan Aykroyd). He sheds tears! It's a far cry from the laughably disagreeable, one-note Comic Book Guy fans grew up imitating.
A Simpsons renaissance
These days, Simpsons fandom has been obscured in the wake of its louder, cooler, and significantly more profane children on Family Guy, South Park, and Rick and Morty. It's like trying to explain to a loyal apostle of LeBron James what Michael Jordan mania was like.
During its early '90s cultural peak, when 33.6 million viewers tuned in to watch the episode 'Bart Gets an F,' The Simpsons grossed billions in merchandise. And the appeal was transcendent. A 1990 Washington Post article reported on the explosion of bootleg Black Bart Simpson T-shirts: 'Young Black folks across the country have adopted the wisecracking lad from The Simpsons—that wildly popular cartoon satire of white middle-class family life—as one of their own….'
Simpsons fans snatched up everything: dolls, action figures, board games, music, even rolling paper. The album The Simpsons Sing the Blues sold more than 2 million copies in the United States alone, spawning the radio hit 'Do the Bartman.' But there has been some criticism for the record-breaking, long-running show that has seen its ratings decline like all other broadcast television shows in the age of streaming.
Let's start with one of the lazier critiques. Purists claim The Simpsons haven't had a good run since its 1996–97 season! And some have taken the claim to extremes: Mike Scully received disturbing death threats from unhinged fanatics on a fan site over his tenure as showrunner from 1997 to 2001. Jean was told to 'die in a car crash.'
A cursory search online will pull up think pieces, online fan posts, and YouTube videos from the last decade announcing the show's demise, with headlines including 'The Simpsons Is 20 Years Past Its Creative High Point,' 'Who or What Ruined The Simpsons?,' 'The Simpsons Is Begging to End,' and 'How the Internet Killed The Simpsons.'
The Simpsons crew has had mixed reactions to some of the fan angst. A diplomatic Groening responded in a 2018 USA Today interview. 'I give a piece of advice to people who grew up with The Simpsons and maybe think it's not for them anymore,' he said. 'Check it out again: The satire and the quality of animation are fantastic.' He added, 'I'm really proud of the group's efforts.'
But in a Hollywood Reporter oral history celebrating the 25th anniversary of 'The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show' in 2022, Yeardley Smith, the voice of Lisa Simpson, did not hold her tongue. 'My feeling today is most people say, 'The show hasn't been good since Season 10.' And it's like, f--k you,' she bristled. 'The piece that goes along with a comment like that is, 'I can't believe they don't try anymore.' That is so offensive to me. You'll never meet more hardworking writers, animators, and actors than at The Simpsons.'
Jean has a philosophical take on some of the 'Simpsons is not as good as it used to be' talk among the diehards. 'I've experienced it from the outside as a Star Wars fan, and as a Marvel fan, too,' he says. 'You love something, and then you find you are protective of it. You start going, 'No, they shouldn't do that with that character…it should be this way.' Every fan of every big genre, that's what they are like.'
The sobering truth is that The Simpsons is in uncharted territory. Recently, the show has been enjoying a resurgence. Noted Jesse David Fox in a glowing 2023 Vulture piece, 'the former members of the No Homers Club fan community, infamous for complaining about the decline of the show, agree that The Simpsons, in 2023, is undergoing a renaissance.'
The most recent 'Treehouse of Horror' episode, featuring a knockout parody of the Edgar Allan Poe story 'The Fall of the House of Usher,' would make the most cantankerous Simpsons fan's heart grow three sizes. And after more than three decades, Jean still gets excited when he talks about future episodes. 'I wrote one coming up on Bart's first prank, about the origins of his misbehavior,' he says in the voice of 12-year-old kid geeking out over his newest manga. 'So yeah, we are always looking for new ways to explore these characters that people love so much.'
This story is excerpted from the new special edition, Time: The Simpsons, which is available at retail and online .