Warning: Spoilers for The Simpsons season 34, episode 11.While The Simpsons season 34 brought back Bart's prank calls to Moe, the gag was now done via text, and the previously harmless practical joke also became a dramatic plot point. The Simpsons season 34 is refusing to rest on its laurels. Although the long-running animated comedy has been on the air for 35 years now, The Simpsons is trying — for better or worse — to do something new with the show’s premise in season 34.
This can be seen in outings like The Simpsons season 34, episode 10, “Game Done Changed,” which saw Maggie Simpson speak to the Simpson family for the first time — albeit via emojis — in its B-story. Similarly, The Simpsons season 34, episode 11, “Top Goon,” brought back a joke that has been around since the earliest episodes of the show as Bart crank-called Moe. However, not only was the technology used to pull off this practical joke updated but The Simpsons season 34 also delved deeper into the reason Bart was acting out and the effect that this prank had on Moe.
Why Bart Pranks Moe In The Simpsons Season 34
In “Top Goon,” Bart felt he was not getting credit as the lead scorer for a hockey team that Moe coaches thanks to Nelson’s work as an enforcer. While season 34 saw Bart and Skinner team up in an earlier outing that saw the Simpsons boy show a surprisingly mature side, Moe’s dismissal proved too much for the character. As a result, Bart pulled a prank on Moe with a modern update, sending him a cryptic text message that hid a dirty second meaning when read aloud. This led Nelson to lash out violently at Bart, a gag that changed how one of the show’s oldest jokes played out.
How The Simpsons Plays With Its Oldest Gag
In the early seasons of The Simpsons, Bart prank-called Moe because he was a misbehaving kid who did stuff like that for fun. However, in “Top Goon,” he’s hurt, and this leads him to mock Moe, which in turn makes Nelson attack Bart to defend Moe, giving the show a more introspective outlook on both characters. As The Simpsons season 34’s revision of Homer and Grampa’s relationship proves, the show is not always interested in delving deep into the psyche of its character and, to the contrary, the cartoon comedy is often happy to reduce its characters to their silliest attributes.
In “Top Goon,” both Bart and Nelson get a chance to prove that they are not thoughtlessly destructive, but rather are good-natured kids who don’t know how to handle disappointment. Whether it’s Nelson attacking Bart over a prank or Bart humiliating Moe because he’s hurting, both characters are granted a level of humanity that The Simpsons doesn't always afford them. Particularly when a recent episode broke up Lisa and Milhouse's reliable Simpsons future to pair her off with Nelson, this episode’s story provided further proof that The Simpsons can flesh out even its silliest characters and their oldest jokes when the show wants to.
New episodes of The Simpsons air on Fox on Sundays.