Warning: Spoilers for The Simpsons season 34, episode 22.While The Simpsons season 34 finale was filled with surprising revelations, perhaps the biggest twist in the episode was its canonical confirmation that Maggie can speak. Maggie Simpson is a mysterious character. Depending on what episode of The Simpsons a viewer is watching, Maggie could be an ordinary baby or a child prodigy masking precocious abilities via her wordless veneer. While Maggie might seem to be a normal baby in most episodes, she was the one who famously shot Mr. Burns, she led a revolt at an authoritarian nursery, and she even saved her father and brother from the villain of The Simpsons Movie.
As such, it is not too shocking to discover that The Simpsons season 34 finale proved Maggie was concealing another surprising achievement. While The Simpsons made Fat Tony Maggie’s godfather in season 33, for the most part, she has not played a major role in season 34. However, this did not stop the long-running animated comedy from confirming one vital bit of Maggie lore for fans in The Simpsons season 34, episode 22, “Homer's Adventures Through the Windshield Glass.” When Homer meets Maggie’s toy doll during a traumatic car crash, he is surprised to learn Maggie knows her name. This joke comes with a pretty significant implication for Maggie's character.
The Simpsons Season 34 Finale Sees Maggie Calls Her Doll “Goobie Woo”
Homer says that Maggie calls her Happy Little Elf doll “Goobie Woo.” This prompts a displeased Goobie Woo (voiced by Lizzzo) to announce that that is her real name. This means that, after years of The Simpsons plots repeatedly teasing the possibility, the show revealed that Maggie can speak. She might not talk to her parents comprehensibly, but the fact that Maggie can say her doll’s name implies she does know how to talk. Her speech is pretty limited, but the ending of “Homer's Adventures Through the Windshield Glass” sees Maggie clearly annunciate Goobie Woo’s name when reunited with her lost toy.
Of course, it is possible that the doll's name is not Goobie Woo. After all, the Happy Little Elf toy is a figment of Homer’s imagination as he has a near-death experience at the beginning of “Homer's Adventures Through the Windshield Glass.” However, the rest of the episode’s events seem to “really” happen within the world of The Simpsons. The ending reveals that Marge really has a bank account where she hides money from Homer, her father really did leave this money to support her due to Homer’s incompetence, and Homer did really narrowly survive a car wreck. Thus, in the “real world” of The Simpsons, Maggie can say her toy’s name.
The Simpsons Has Teased Maggie Talking Before
Over the decades, The Simpsons have teased the possibility of Maggie speaking. Most famously, Elizabeth Taylor voiced Maggie’s first word (“Daddy”) in The Simpsons season 4, episode 10, “Lisa’s First Word.” However, the rest of the family missed this moment, and most of Maggie’s other words have been confined to a couple of non-canon Treehouse of Horror episodes. More recently, however, Maggie used emojis to communicate with her family in a Minecraft-style video game. This subplot from The Simpsons season 34, episode 10, “Game Done Changed,” proves that The Simpsons was getting ready to reveal Maggie’s secret skill in the season 34 finale.