Although The Simpsons had a chance to clear up the Dr. Hibbert/Bleeding Gums Murphy paradox in season 33, the show instead made the issue more confusing than ever. The Simpsons, like any long-running television show, occasionally runs into weird issues with continuity and canon. These aren’t helped by the fact that The Simpsons has an inconsistent approach to the idea of canon, sometimes bringing back long-forgotten characters while retconning entire episodes in some instances.

However, The Simpsons season 33’s retcons are not to blame for the show’s Dr. Hibbert/Bleeding Gums Murphy paradox. The fact that original Bleeding Gums Murphy voice actor Ron Taylor passed away tragically young in 2002—only a few years after The Simpsons character was killed off—resulted in the character being voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson in recent episodes. Meanwhile, The Simpsons replacing original Dr. Hibbert voice actor Harry Shearer with Richardson is what led to a complicated internal paradox for The Simpsons.

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During “Round Springfield,” the episode that killed off Bleeding Gums Murphy, The Simpsons revealed that he and Hibbert were secretly biological brothers, unbeknownst to each other. This throwaway gag was never referenced again, but it did cause a Dr. Hibbert/Bleeding Gums Murphy paradox on The Simpsons when Richardson took over both roles. The episode “The Sound of Bleeding Gums” (season 33, episode 17) could have allowed The Simpsons to address and clarify this, but the show failed to mention the bizarre plot hole. When Bleeding Gums Murphy talked to Dr. Hibbert during his son’s doctor appointment, The Simpsons fumbled a perfect chance to address the fact that the two are long-lost brothers.

The simpsons bleeding gums recasting Dr Hibbert

Not only did The Simpsons episode not mention this, but it also didn't address the fact that both characters were now played by the same actor. This resulted in a surreal scene wherein one actor played two characters, both of whom were brothers, and neither of whom knew it. Bizarrely, bringing back Bleeding Gums Murphy’s story didn’t necessarily mean that The Simpsons needed to reference Dr. Hibbert at all, so the episode could have just ignored the internal paradox of Kevin Michael Richardson pulling double duty and voicing both characters.

However, instead, The Simpsons seemed to intentionally draw attention to the paradox, only to then not do anything about it. Having Bleeding Gums Murphy appear in flashback form (rather than just as a ghost only visible to Lisa) allowed him to interact with Dr. Hibbert, and having Hibbert appear in the episode could naturally have led viewers to assume The Simpsons would address either the fact that they were brothers, the fact that they share a voice, or both. Instead, The Simpsons season 33 completely ignored this paradox and continued with the episode’s unrelated story, meaning The Simpsons still hasn’t explained whether the duo ever found out they were related or why they now share the same voice.

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