WARNING! This article contains SPOILERS for The Simpsons season 34, episode 18.While The Simpsons season 34 did parody Taylor Swift’s viral “All Too Well” video, the show did so by mocking one of its own Golden Age outings. The Simpsons has never been afraid to make fun of itself. Since the show’s inception, The Simpsons has been dedicated to breaking the rules of TV writing, and this has often meant including some fourth-wall-breaking jokes that acknowledge the show’s status as a TV series. This allows The Simpsons to poke fun at itself, its fans, and its cultural reputation, as seen in one recent episode of The Simpsons when Bart asks Lisa whether any series could still be fresh after over 700 episodes.
However, in The Simpsons season 34’s latest Lisa-centric episode, the show took this a set further. The primary plot of The Simpsons season 34, episode 18, “Fan-ily Feud,” saw Homer blithely comment on his dislike of pop singer Ashlee Starling's music. Homer earned the ire of Ashlee Starling’s infamously obsessive fan army in the process, prompting a string of pranks that left him questioning his sanity. When Homer learned that Lisa was one of the fan army’s members, he teamed up with Ashlee Starling’s rival Echo, which in turn prompted Ashlee Starling to wine and dine Marge in an attempt to get dirt on the titular family.
The Simpsons Spoofed Marge & Homer’s Sweet Origin Story
When Marge told Ashlee Starling all about her relationship with Homer, Ashlee took all of her embarrassing revelations and turned them into a dramatic music video that was clearly a parody of Swift’s viral “All Too Well” video. However, The Simpsons made this joke darker when the video recreated scenes from The Simpsons season 2, episode 12, “The Way We Was.” Ashlee Starling’s music video turned the sweet ending of “The Way We Was” into Marge’s first introduction to Homer’s gross habits and questionable hygiene, a harsh gag that mocked the atypically romantic tone of that Golden Age episode of The Simpsons.
The Simpsons Season 34’s Taylor Swift Parody Worked
While The Simpsons has parodied all manner of pop culture, this spoof of “All Too Well” proved unusually effective. This was likely because the music video focused more on Homer’s shortcomings than the sequence did on faithfully recreating Swift’s original music video, meaning the spoof was firmly planted in the world of The Simpsons. Often, The Simpsons can forget about its characters while focusing on a spoof of something or someone famous, and The Simpsons season 34’s formula-busting experiments only made this possibility more likely in “Fan-ily Feud.”
Fortunately, “Fan-ily Feud” focused more on the Simpsons family members themselves and less on spoofing Taylor Swift and her musical output. While Swift was obviously a major inspiration for Ashlee Starling, Starling’s character also bore some resemblance to Billie Eilish, Charli XCX, and Ariana Grande. As such, “Fan-ily Feud” was able to spend most of the episode’s runtime mocking Homer’s plight, delving into Lisa’s split allegiances, and eventually reuniting the family for a cute coda. Ultimately, as evidenced by The Simpsons parodying itself alongside Swift, season 34 is at its strongest when it focuses on the family.