With over 30 seasons of The Simpsons now available, fans have many opinions on which of the 700 episodes did the show's perceived "golden age" ended. With so many plots, ranging from poignant to outlandish, some just didn't quite hit the mark with fans.
Every long-running, beloved television show has a moment that fans consider "jumping the shark". The idiom refers to the Happy Days storyline where Fonzie waterski jumps over a shark, and broadly refers to a storyline where a show's quality took a turn for the worse. Of course, The Simpsons has proven to be guilty of this and fans took to Reddit to discuss and debate when they believe the show's quality and humor changed forever.
Troy McClure's Departure
Troy McClure was a recurring character in The Simpsons' first ten seasons. He is a washed-up actor that frequently makes informational films, and was briefly married to Selma Bouvier in an attempt to revive his ailing career, before the character was retired after voice actor Phil Hartman's tragic death in 1998. His last appearance was in season 10's "Bart the Mother".
Redditor Munchguy argued that McClure and Hartman's other character, Lionel Hutz, "were the mirrors on a society that placed value on celebrity and litigiousness. It was a devastating blow to the show to lose such perfect angles on their stories". The loss of Troy McClure meant that the show lost its lampooning of pop culture, instead becoming embroiled in pop culture.
Principal Skinner is Armin Tamzarian
In the season 9 episode "The Principal and The Pauper", it is revealed that the long-running character Principal Skinner had stolen someone's identity, and his real name is Armin Tamzarian. The real Seymour Skinner, who Tamzarian thought died in the Vietnam war, shows up to confront him.
This is thought to be the end of The Simpsons' "golden age" of best seasons for some fans, as the episode is the show's abandonment of character development and consistent storytelling, in favor of a more meta style of humor. Reddit user TehSantos cites this as the show's shark-jumping moment due to the show's shift to the "lack of emphasis on the plot and climax and more emphasis on the oddly placed jokes", and that "the writing was lazy".
Maude Flanders' Death
In a rare permanent storyline change, The Simpson family's long-suffering neighbor Ned Flanders becomes a widower when his wife, Maude, is killed by a T-shirt cannon that was meant to be targeted at Homer, causing a crisis in Ned's Christian faith, before renewing his faith and beginning to date other women.
Redditor LeChuck99 said that Ned went from a "happy go lucky Neighbourino" to "a sad sack and descended into a borderline bigot" in later episodes. Some fans see Ned Flanders becoming a widow as a key point in "Flanderization", the phenomenon of Ned's religiosity becoming exaggerated over time until it changed into the character's core personality trait.
Homer The Astronaut
The season 5 episode Deep Space Homer, in which Homer is chosen by NASA to become an astronaut, was well received at the time for its well-written humor and parodying of 2001: A Space Odyssey. However, it has been cited as unrealistic by a number of critics, including Simpsons creator Matt Groening himself, according to the commentary on the episode.
Redditor PIP_SHORT agreed with Groening, in that "He developed Homer as an 'everydad' kind of character, not a 'wacky hijinks' character". For some, the episode marked a departure from more family-based storylines in episodes to increasingly outlandish ventures for Homer, who is supposed to represent the average working man and dad.
Frank Grimes
In "Homer's Enemy", a new worker at the Nuclear Power Plant meets Homer and is quickly flabbergasted at how Homer's lack of work ethic and intelligence have made him so lucky both at work and in his family life. In a fit of outrage trying to point out the ridiculousness of Homer's life, he grabs some high voltage wires and dies, and Homer snoozes at his funeral.
Fans consider this episode the end of fatherly Homer Simpson, and his fool-with-a-heart-of-gold personality is gone in favor of him consciously choosing to be a jerk. Rather than learn lessons from his stupidity and follow his moral code, user jrhazell points out "Homer's entire character was summarised and punchlined completely in that episode".
Homer Meeting Celebrities
Celebrity cameos are a common occurrence in The Simpsons, with many beloved characters being voiced by famous actors. However, celebrities frequently appeared more in the show as themselves in a less parodical manner, notably in the episode "When You Dish Upon A Star" in season 11, starring then-married couple Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger.
Reddit user nomoreH8ingmyself cited the episode as "the first time they did the 'have celebrities on just to have them on' thing that they would later do more and more often". The celebrity cameos in the episode lack the self-parody previous episodes have had, instead pivoting to a kind of celebrity worship where characters are ecstatic to see the celebrity make a cameo.
Tomacco
Season 11 saw Homer create a highly-addictive drug named Tomacco, a blend of tobacco and tomato. The business becomes worth $150 million, but creates a plague of now-addicted crazed animals on their farmland that eat all the Tomacco crops.
Many Reddit users saw this episode as a sign of the show struggling to stay fresh. User theMightyGalactus said that "Tomacco was the end for me". Honk_Zoinkerbork agreed, adding that the storyline was "definitely when it became imaginable the Simpsons writers could run out of good ideas".
Lisa Goes Gaga
The season 22 episode "Lisa Goes Gaga", in which Lady Gaga comes to help Lisa's unpopularity by teaching her the ways of Gaga, was panned by critics and viewers upon its release and has the worst reviews of any Simpsons episode. Lisa Goes Gaga was criticized for unironic celebrity worship and commercialization, with little and poor humor used throughout the episode.
For those who do not believe that the "golden age" of The Simpsons ended circa 2022, the episode was seen as the death of the show's lampooning of celebrity culture, rather than acting as a form of advertisement for celebrities. User PM_CUDDLES disliked the episode because it "felt fake and forced", and others felt that Lisa lost independence when only Lady Gaga could help teach her to be herself.
MyPod
The Simpsons' parody of Apple and consumer culture largely fell flat for many viewers. In the episode, Lisa becomes obsessed with her "MyPod" that she finds at the "Mapple store" and its amazing abilities, before racking up a substantial bill and being forced by "Steve Mobbs" to start working for Mapple.
Critics argued the episode failed to make ridicule Apple as well as they have ridiculed culture in previous seasons. On Reddit, sleepyotter92 called the Mapple parody "lazy", arguing that the reason the joke wasn't clever or particularly funny was that while they couldn't legally use the Apple name, "they just didn't want to imply they were making fun of Apple, they wanted to straight up laugh at Apple's face".
Homer Meets Mel Gibson
In the season 11 episode "Beyond Blunderdome", Home meets actor Mel Gibson, who is unimpressed by him, prompting Gibson to hire him to supervise his new movie, an action remake of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
The episode has many aspects hated by fans, including less parodical celebrity cameos, as well as a more mean-spirited Homer. On Reddit, user NowWithVitaminR argued that the episode "signified a change of style for The Simpsons. The plots and characters just had a different feel to them. Basically the show changed and not for the better".