Springfield is full of mysteries, and a fan theory about The Simpsons suggests the town is hiding various clones of none other than Hans Moleman. The Simpsons began as a series of animated shorts in The Tracey Ullman Show in 1987 and was developed into a half-hour prime time show three seasons later, making its official debut on Fox in 1989. The Simpsons has been unstoppable ever since and shows no signs of stopping soon, with over 30 seasons and counting.
The Simpsons follows the adventures of the title family in the fictional town of Springfield, along with those of their closest friends, other family members, and even a couple of enemies. Springfield is a big town full of very colorful and eccentric characters, of which many are no more than background and minor characters, but they have become very popular with viewers as most are involved in different running gags. Such is the case of Hans Moleman, who has very bad luck, but there might be a dark explanation to how he manages to survive so many accidents and injuries.
Hans Moleman (voiced by Dan Castellaneta) is a very old man living in Springfield who has a tendency of getting involved in serious accidents that either leave him severely injured or kill him, but he always returns to the series (and because of that, some viewers refer to him as the Kenny McCormick of The Simpsons). He’s best remembered for his 10-second-short film Man Getting Hit By Football in season 6’s episode “A Star is Burns”, and he’s mostly a background or minor character living at the retirement home or just simply walking around town, and he has died in multiple ways over the course of the series – from car explosions to heart attacks and has even been buried alive, but as he always comes back, fans have come up with a theory that involves clones of good old Hans Moleman.
Posted on Reddit, the theory suggests that there are various clones of Hans Moleman in Springfield, supported not only by the fact that he always “survives” every single accident he’s involved in but also because in season 13’s episode “Sweets and Sour Marge”, when the town’s citizens collapse and form a giant ball, two Hans Molemans are seen in it. Other Reddit users added that there’s a “race of human-mole hybrids” that live under Springfield and their plan is to gradually take over the world, so they take jobs around town one by one – but their luck is such that they keep dying, which would actually be a good thing as they can’t fulfill their plan. Hans Moleman, then, and unlike the rest of the citizens of Springfield, would be a completely different man every time he appears in The Simpsons, as he keeps getting replaced by clones that might be living in the sewers.
How these clones came to be and why, of all people, Hans Moleman is being repeatedly cloned is unknown, but stranger things have happened in Springfield in over 30 years. Of course, this is nothing more than a fun fan theory about one of the most mysterious characters in The Simpsons, and it’s up to every viewer to decide if Hans Moleman has a mix of very bad and very good luck (to survive all those accidents) or if there really is an army of Molemans somewhere in Springfield.