After 36 years on the air, it\u2019s pretty clear that\u00a0The Simpsons<\/i>\u2019 canon makes about as much sense as a Soviet-era children\u2019s cartoon.<\/span><\/p>\n Since time has no meaning in the world of Springfield, Simpsons <\/i>characters never age, although the years still pass, bringing with them cultural and technological change. This means that characters’ backstories constantly shift, a something<\/span> very apparent<\/span><\/a> earlier this season when Marge and Lisa bonded over \u201890s nostalgia in \u201cThrifty Ways to Thieve Your Mother,\u201d despite the fact that\u00a0The Simpsons<\/i> actually pre-dates the \u201890s.<\/span><\/p>\n Despite the frequent temporal wonkiness, fans still take issue with the show\u2019s apparent plot holes, such as when\u00a0<\/span>Homer seemingly forgot<\/span><\/a> that Marge came very close to having an affair with Jacques the bowling instructor in season 34\u2019s \u201cPin Gal.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Anyone still struggling to maintain a grasp on the chronology of this franchise likely finally gave up after this past Sunday\u2019s episode, “Bad Boys… For Life?” which featured a number of canonical oddities that may or may not have been designed to mess with the heads of IRL Comic Book Guy-esque sticklers.<\/span><\/p>\n For one thing, Homer is apparently older than ever before? Throughout the course of the show, the Simpson family patriarch\u00a0<\/span>has been 34, 36, 38, 39 and even 40<\/span><\/a>. But during this week\u2019s extended flashback, Marge mentions that Homer is 38. The scene is set four years in the past, meaning that modern day Homer must be 42.<\/span><\/p>\n Then there\u2019s a flashback within the flashback, in which we see Homer\u2019s dad mooning over his estranged wife Mona. As we\u2019ve mentioned before, Grampa\u2019s backstory was completely upended last season after the episode \u201cShoddy Heat\u201d revealed that Abe Simpson used to be a private detective in the 1980s,\u00a0<\/span>rather than a war hero in the 1940s.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n But in “Bad Boys… For Life?” he has a black and white photo of himself and Mona in which he\u2019s wearing an old-timey army uniform. Was it taken in the \u201870s?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Not to mention the fact that Homer\u2019s dog Bongo then shows up even though Homer had given him away years earlier.<\/span><\/p>\n Weirder still, when an adult Homer later takes a bite of a Ritalin-infused ice cream bar, he is suddenly able to organize all the details of his life, including \u201chow to tie your shoes\u201d and \u201cNed Flanders\u2019 Amex number.\u201d He then exclaims \u201cI remember where I parked at Itchy & Scratchyland,\u201d and recalls that he parked in the Poochie Lot, section 23.<\/span><\/p>\n Of course, Poochie was the proactive doggy character that Homer was hired to voice in season 8\u2019s \u201cThe Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show.\u201d So in this new\u00a0Simpsons<\/i> reality, Poochie already existed prior to Bart\u2019s interest in\u00a0Itchy & Scratchy<\/i>? Was he still voiced by Homer? And since the character\u2019s likeness was included in the theme park parking lot signage, does that mean that he was actually popular and\u00a0didn\u2019t<\/i> die on the way back to his home planet?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
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