The Simpsons has seen a few characters leave for different reasons, and those who have stayed through the years have gone through changes – some less notorious than others, and sometimes for the better, but that’s not the case with Ned Flanders. Created by Matt Groening, The Simpsons debuted on Fox in 1989, and recently celebrated its 30th anniversary. The series has become the longest-running American scripted primetime television series, and is currently enjoying its 31st season, with a 32nd already confirmed.
The Simpsons follows the lives of the title family in the fictional town of Springfield, as well as those of their friends, enemies, and other colorful (and eccentric) characters. Among those is Ned Flanders, the Simpsons’ next door neighbor who is always willing to help, even if Homer has done him wrong many, many times. Ned lived with his wife, Maude Flanders, and his sons Rod and Todd, though Maude died in season 11.
Ned Flanders has become a fan favorite, even becoming a meme thanks to the “Stupid Sexy Flanders” moment on the episode “Little Big Mom”. However, Ned Flanders has changed a lot through the years, to the point where these changes became a trope. Here’s what happened.
How The Simpsons Ruined Ned Flanders
Ned Flanders is, perhaps, the only genuinely well-meaning, good-natured person in Springfield, to the point where a lot of people take advantage of him. Still, he’s considered to be an ideal neighbor, which is the complete opposite of what Homer is. In fact, that was the point of the character: to serve as Homer’s opposite, with this one even envying and loathing him for being cheerful, successful, and an attentive father (among many other things). Like any other cartoon character, Ned has his own quirks and traits, among those being a devout Christian – again, unlike Homer, who only goes to church because Marge makes him.
With time, Ned went from nice, successful, ideal neighbor, to obsessively religious. The team behind The Simpsons decided to make his beliefs the center of his character, and his life pretty much revolves around church and religion now. This change has been labelled as “Flanderization”, and is now considered a proper TV trope, one that is described as “the act of taking a single (often minor) action or trait of a character within a work and exaggerating it more and more over time until it completely consumes the character”.
Surely, there was a point in this transition where the mix of the original Flanders and the obsession with religion was funny, but now it’s just tiresome. At this point, it’s highly unlikely Ned Flanders will go back to his old ways, but at least this change created a trope that is now used to describe many other characters that go through the same.