The Simpsons: 20 Moments More Important Than You Realised

The Simpsons has outlived presidents, monarchs, religious leaders, and even entire countries

making us mostly laugh the entire time. And while the show is most famous for the big jokes and in-your-face humour that it throws at viewers at a rapid pace

there are also subtler moments in The Simpsons that are far more important than they first appear

So with that in mind, I'm Josh from WhatCulture.com, and this is The Simpsons, moments more important than you realised

Homer becomes a safety inspector. In the season 1 episode, Homer's Odyssey, Homer loses his job at the Springfield power plant after causing an accident at work

After his dismissal, Homer falls into a deep depression and even contemplates suicide

However, after seeing his family nearly get run over, he finds a new purpose in life and becomes an advocate for safety in the town

This results in Homer being rehired by Mr. Burns as the power plant safety inspector

and at the time who would have thought that Homer would still be working in that same job over three decades later

Homer's job title has come up a few times across the show's history and has played its part in the plots of some episodes

It has also become a key part of his character and it all stems from one episode in the show's very first season

And considering that pretty much everything resets in Springfield after an episode ends

it's remarkable that Homer's profession has remained consistent over the years. Tom Landry's Hat. In the classic Season 8 episode, You Only Move Twice, Homer gets a new job in the

town of Cypress Creek. His new boss is none other than Hank Scorpio, business tycoon and the world's

greatest supervillain. Despite his dastardly intentions, Scorpio inspires a new level of

confidence in Homer, and this, in turn, inspires him to make an extravagant purchase. In doing so

he buys himself a hat that is signed and was worn once by legendary NFL player and coach Tom Landry

He then wears the hat while working, instructing his colleagues as if he were Landry coaching a

team. It's a funny gag in the episode and a neat easter egg for American football fans

but who would have guessed that this hat would become a recurring figure in the show? The hat

itself turns up in season 9's Bart Starr, where Homer becomes the coach of his son's

little league team. It appears again in numerous sports-themed episodes, including when Marge

wears it to make Homer's fantasy football picks for him. Used as a motif by the writers

when they want to show a character taking sports seriously, the Tom Landry hat has far

surpassed its predicated lifespan, Sideshow Bob's family. Sideshow Bob is of course one

of the Simpsons' greatest recurring characters. Originally beginning life as Christy the Clown's

long-suffering sidekick, Bob takes on a dark edge when he is revealed to have framed the Harlequin

for armed robbery. Over the years, Bob has become one of the show's most reliable villains, as he

goes to more and more extreme lengths to get revenge on the person who sent him to prison in

the first place, that of course being Bartholomew J. Simpson. The character got a nice little bit of

backstory in season 8 when we were introduced to his brother Cecil as well voiced by David Hyde

Pierce and this is very important because the casting is a very meta nod to another classic

comedy show. That's because Pierce plays Niles Crane in Frasier the brother of the title character

and who plays Frasier Crane? Well it's none other than Sideshow Bob's own voice actor Kelsey Grammer

Not only is this a very clever, very subtle joke, but it also acts as foreshadowing for another member of Bob's family to come

See, in Season 19's Funeral for a Friend, we meet Bob and Cecil's father, as voiced by the late John Mahoney

And who is John Mahoney? Well, of course, he's the actor who plays Frasier and Niles' father in Frasier, which is just, yeah, it's brilliant

Jam's head takes over the quickie mart. In the episode Homer the Heretic, Apu leaves his young nephew Jamshead in charge of the quickie mart while he's away

After proclaiming that he's been waiting for this day to finally come, the young boy then pulls out a shotgun and aims it at some shoplifters

Now the youngster must have gotten a taste for business that day as 24 years later, it now a grown up Jamshead once again takes over the store

In the season 27 episode Much Apu About Something, Jam's Head, or Jay for short, acquires his father Sanjay's shares in the business

and Jay transforms it into an all-natural health store, and ousts his uncle as its head

For a modern episode of the show to go this far back in time to bring a character back is kind of admirable

and it was a great decision to give long-term viewers a neat little payoff to this character

rewarding them for their loyalty over so many years. In doing so though, we've kind of all got to just agree to not think about how Jay has grown up, but Apu has stayed the same age

Yeah, Simpsons logic isn't real logic after all. Don't stick your arm out the window

As the grouchy owner of Springfield military antique store Herman Herman yes that is his real name is one of the Simpsons most recognisable figures owing to the fact that he only has one arm When Bart first meets him in season one he asks the rather impertinent question of how

Herman lost his arm. The store owner replies, implying that it was ripped off by a truck

when he stuck it out the window of a bus. This suitably freaks Bart out, but he probably

shouldn't have been too surprised by this tale, as he'd actually heard it before

In the aforementioned Homer's Odyssey, Bart goes on a field trip with his class to the power plant, and before the children leave on the school bus, Mrs. Crabapple warns them about sticking their appendages out of the window because of a young man who had his arm torn off by a truck

Now, who does that sound like? It's clear that the writers were foreshadowing Herman's appearance with this line, who was meant to play a much bigger role in the series than he actually did

Nevertheless, it's still a neat little tidbit. Homer's Secret Genius the writing team on the simpsons is full of maths nerds there's even been a book written about all

the different mathematical references in the show and one such example is in the season 10 episode

of the wizard of evergreen terrace in which homer becomes obsessed with inventing something to rival

thomas edison in one scene we see him writing equations on a chalkboard and this might just

seem like a random collection of numbers to the untrained eye but to the mathematical geniuses

out there or those of us who looked it up on Google, this is very close to one of science's

greatest recent breakthroughs. That's because Homer has actually written an equation to solve

the mass of the Higgs boson, a subatomic particle important in the world of particle physics

In 2012, the boson was finally discovered after years of searching, and yet Homer wrote his

equation in 1998. Now this suggests that the Simpsons patriarch is actually a genius

something that is proven two seasons later when it's discovered that Homer's genius IQ is being inhibited by a crayon lodged in his brain

Was this a clever bit of foreshadowing or was it just writer David S. Cohen messing about

You decide. Chunky lover 53. Homer isn't always the world's greatest father

In fact, he's rarely ever even a decent father, let alone the best on the planet

and he realizes this in season 14's The Dad Who Knew Too Little

and hires a private investigator to learn more about Lisa's life. When he's talking to the PI, Homer gives out his email address

which is chunkylover53 at AOL.com. An extended joke is made at the address's expense

but in the real world, it's actually no laughing matter. See, writer Matt Selman had actually registered the Chunkylover53 handle

before the episode aired. He wanted to see if anyone would actually email it, and this was definitely before the peak of the internet when we know they definitely, definitely would, and naturally, even at the time, people did

Once the episode aired, Selman checked the inbox and found that it was full

Selman then started to reply to the emails with witty responses, but this got understandably quite tiring after a while and he started to use a stock response instead

However what began as a nice little bit of fan service almost got Selman in big trouble when an account with the name chunky lover 53 used a fake link to an online exclusive episode of the show or so people thought to actually install malware on people's computers

Patty's sexuality. Though Smithers finally came out in season 27 Marge's sister Patty beat him by a full decade when she came out in the episode there's something about marrying

In this episode she comes to Homer for help as he's the only person in town who will perform same-sex weddings

The episode also deals with Marge's troubling response to her sister's revelation and her eventual acceptance of who she is

Although she probably should have figured it out as there were plenty of signs before this

See in Treehouse of Horror 3, Patty says, There goes the last lingering thread of my heterosexuality upon seeing Homer naked

The biggest canon clue to Patty's sexual preferences though came in the episode Jaws Wired Shut, where she and Smithers could be heard participating in a pride parade from inside the closet

What was just a throwaway gag to begin with hinted not only at Patty's future revelation then, but also at Marge's future obliviousness

As in Jaws Wired Shut, she also says that it would be great if the man and woman in the closet got together

Oh Marge, B-Sharp's royalties. Have you ever wondered how the Simpsons family can even afford the lifestyle they have

Three kids, two pets, two cars, a large house, paying for grandpa to live in their retirement home

and we know how expensive that is from The Sopranos, all their trips out abroad and all their many vacations

all on a single income. How the hell do they do it

Well, the simple answer is Homer still gets royalties from his time in the B-shops

As revealed in the season 5 opener Homer's Barbershop Quartet, Homer used to be part of a very successful musical group alongside Principal Skinner, Apu and Barney

Chief Wiggum was also there for a little bit but don mention that he still a bit bitter The B as they were known were a total sensation of their time They topped the charts performed at national events and even won a Grammy

They may have disbanded after just a month or so on top, but presumably their songs are still being played somewhere

Thus, Homer must receive some royalty checks. Now, it might not be a lot of money

but it would certainly be enough to support his family and afford them the comfortable life that they enjoy

Macca's influence on Lisa. Sir Paul McCartney is one of the most influential musicians of all time

As a member of the Beatles, he helped shape modern music as we know it and influenced generations of

fellow singers and players to come. He, along with his first wife Linda, also revolutionized

vegetarianism with their range of meat-free products. Oh, and he also single-handedly

changed The Simpsons forever. See, Paul and Linda made a guest appearance in the episode

Lisa the Vegetarian, where they help convince the Simpson child to stick to her anti-eat

meeting stance. And after this episode, Lisa never willingly eats meat again, and that's all down to the

former Wings frontman. As one of the conditions for coming on the show, McCartney requested that Lisa must not

revert back to being a meat eater for the rest of the series

And so, the writers obliged, and Lisa's character was changed forever. Now, the idea of Lisa Simpson eating meat seems laughable these days

as her vegetarianism is so deeply ingrained in her character. However, it took the writers seven years to get there

and even then, they required a push from one of the most famous men on the planet

Homer owns the Denver Broncos. Homer is able to fund his family's eccentric lifestyle

through royalty checks from his days in the B-sharps. It is a fanciful theory for sure, but if that crazy idea doesn't suit you

then how about this one involving an NFL franchise? In the much praised season 8 episode, You Only Move Twice, Homer receives a gift from his former boss

the megalomaniacal supervillain Hank Scorpio. After Homer inadvertently assisted Scorpio in his

quest for world domination, the mega rich nutjob decided to splash some cash and buy his former

employee, the Denver Broncos. This comes after a conversation where Homer revealed to Scorpio

that his dream was to one day own the Dallas Cowboys. Well, you've got to start somewhere

I suppose. Many Simpsons fans online then have suggested that this might be yet another source

of income for the family. Owning a football team would rake in some serious coin, and the Broncos

have only gotten better since You Only Move Twice was released, or at least so I'm told. So yeah

it kind of turns out Hank was a nice guy after all. Well, if you discount all of the people that

he murdered in cold blood, but who's counting? The Olmich head. In season two's Blood Feud

Bart saves Mr. Burns' life when it's discovered that the two share the same rare blood type

To thank the boy and his family for keeping him alive, Burns sends them the generous gift of a

thank you card. There wasn't even a check inside. This escalates then to the point where the

billionaire's about to fire homer when he realizes the error of his ways. To make up for a rubbish

first present, he sends the Simpson family a very unique offering. In fact, he bestows upon them a

colossal Olmec head, a large carving of a human head in the style of the Olmec people of ancient

Mesoamerica. Whilst the family are initially baffled by the head, they do eventually accept

it when Bart decides he likes it. Although, to be fair, he was happy with the crowbar used to open

the crate in the first place. While you might have thought this was just a one and done affair, the head has appeared in the background of dozens of episodes over the show, most often in the family

basement. And seeing it in newer episodes is a nice reminder of the show's humble beginnings

even if the head itself doesn't actually do anything. Mary Spookler. This episode of The

Simpsons is kinda all over the place. Thankfully, it's called Apocalypse Cow, which is a name so

great that it kinda makes up for all of its other shortcomings. In said episode, Bart ends up raising

a baby cow going mad in a field, then rescuing it from slaughter. He does this with the help of

Mary Spookler, the most intelligent offspring of Cletus and Brandine. Although that's damning with

faint praise of the highest order. There's a plot where Mary and Bart almost get married as well

but the episode remains mostly about the cow. This all changes though when Mary comes back into

Bart's life five seasons later. In Moonshine River, another great title, Bart tries to convince

Mary to be in a relationship with him after he figures that he's only got so many chances left

at love. But wait, isn't Bart like 10? If he's got no chance at love, then I guess the rest of us

are just screwed. Well, Mary herself turns up a few more times across the show, most notably

in the episode Love is a Many Splintered Thing. Few could have expected though that Mary would

appear in multiple episodes of the show when she first arrived, but hey, that's young love figure

I guess. Homer becomes sterile. The second and final appearance of Homer's half-brother Herb

so far anyway, comes in an episode called Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes? While this story ends

with her patenting a baby translator in an attempt to rebuild his fortune, it starts with Homer

getting some rather bad news about his swimmers. See, a medical examination reveals that years of

working in close proximity to nuclear radiation has left Homer sterile. Now, Homer and Marge

didn't plan to have any more kids anyway. Well, that was the case for 21 seasons, until the episode

Adventures in Baby Getting came along. In this one, Marge reveals her hidden desire to have another

child, only for Homer's sterility to be re-revealed. And we're not sure why, I mean, considering

she'd known about it for over two decades. Maud at Lisa's wedding

When The Simpsons first did an episode set in the future it was fine it was cool to see older versions of our favourite characters and what the world of tomorrow looked like Now though they done this trope all the flame and time and it gets really really boring because nobody cares about Bart stupid kids

but the episode where we first get a glimpse of things to come is Lisa's wedding from season 6

when the middle Simpson kid comes across a fortune teller in the woods. Set in the long

distant future of 2010, we follow a grown-up Lisa and her ill-fated engagement as snobby Englishman

Hugh Parkfield. Guests at the doomed wedding include a wheelchair-bound Christy, a recently

defrosted Mr. Burns, Ned and Maud Flanders, and wait a second, Maud Flanders? The same Maud

Flanders that would be killed off an episode first broadcast in the year 2000? How the hell can this

be? Well, Maud's appearance in this episode proves that the Fortune Terror is talking a load of BS

and has no idea what she's on about. But of course, we'd only know that once Maud actually did bite

the dust. Marge's gambling problem. Every so often in The Simpsons, something will happen to a

character that permanently affects their personality. This happens to Marge in Springfield

or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling. Aside from having one of

the longest episode names in the history of the show, it also shows Marge developing a gambling

habit by spending too much time playing the slots. The ending of this episode is actually quite dark

as well, as Marge's issues don't get resolved and she just has to live with them, a startlingly

realistic approach to portraying addiction. Despite the bleakness of this ending though

many fans just assumed that we would never hear about Marge's problems ever again, but oh boy

do we. Her issues with gambling come up time and time again, more often than not for comic effect

There's a joke about throwing vodka in Maggie's face after a game of Candyland that would be funny

if it weren't so alarming, and Marge even goes full Danny Ocean and joins a team of card counters

to help fix the church in season 26. Principal Skinner's Prison Number

Now this one is actually kind of really clever. It's a well-known joke that Principal Skinner's

old Vietnam prisoner helmet, as shown in the episode Homer's Barbershop Quartet, displays the

number 24601. And of course, this is the same number that Jean Valjean is branded with in the

musical Les Miserables. And yeah, yeah, we know it was a book first, but honestly, who has time to

read all of that? Whilst this might just seem like the writers nodding to their favourite stage show

or I guess book, but I don't believe it, the comparisons between Skinner and Valjean run much

deeper than just a number. For instance, after being released from prison, Valjean must assume

a new identity in order to advance in society, and under his new name, he eventually becomes the

respected mayor of a large town. Now, think about Seymour Skinner, real name Armin Tamzarian. He too

took on a new name and used it to achieve a position of influence in the community, and like

his literary counterpart, his world also crumbles when his secret is found out. Clues about Skinner's

deception were there all along, and we just never saw them. Lisa and Nelson. Ralph Wiggum, Hugh

Parkfield, Daniel Radcliffe's Edward Cullen parody, freaking Milhouse. When it comes to guys

Lisa Simpson is fresh out of luck. And all of this is without mentioning Nelson Muntz

with whom Lisa had a brief attraction to in the episode Lisa's Date with Destiny

Well, as it turns out, this romance was far from brief, as it has cropped up a bunch of

different times over the show's subsequent episodes. In fact, Nelson is often shown

displaying favoritism towards Lisa, leaving her out of his bullish actions, and he even goes to

some pretty extreme lengths for him anyway to impress her including reading some books. The

idea of the pair ending up together actually came full circle in the season 34 episode when Nelson

met Lisa which imagines the life of the two if they got together in adulthood and this came a

whole 26 years after she and Nelson first became an item. This love story has been one of the most

enduring and surprising in the show's entire history. Maybe they'll pay it off fully one day

or maybe Nelson will leave Lisa at the altar to throw a coleslaw at Skinner's house again I don't

know, Homer in a coma. Now this one is purely speculative, but the theory really does hold some

water. In an episode titled So It's Come to This, a Simpsons clip show, Bart decides to prank his

old man by seriously shaking up a can of beer. However, Bart did such a good job that when Homer

opened the can, it exploded with the force of a neutron bomb. This left Homer in a vegetative

state for seven weeks and caused him to lose 5% of his brain. But did the coma do even more damage

to our beloved patriarch than we thought? Well, a popular fan theory is that Homer never woke up at

all, in that every episode after this one takes place in his head. And before you call everyone

crazy, there is some serious evidence to back this up. Not only would this explain why the plots of

the show get more outlandish over the years and why the timelines don't match up, but in the episode

Homer the Heretic, God actually tells Homer that he'll die in six months. And the clip show aired

almost exactly six months after Homer the Heretic, so are we reading too much into it? Probably. Is it

compelling anyway, you bet your ass it is. The first door. Homer's signature expression door

became so popular that it even entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 2001. Whilst the phrase did

exist long before The Simpsons came along, door was definitely popularized by Homer's voice actor

His delivery of the word is iconic, which makes it all the more impressive that he actually came

up with it all on his own. As is now a folklore whilst recording for The Simpsons when it was just

a shot on the Tracy Ullman show, it was one innocent line marked annoyed grunt that eventually

became the iconic doll that we know and love today. Little did anyone know at the time that

a piece of television had just been made by this weird improvisation, but the saying and the show

are now so synonymous with each other that you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who doesn't

immediately associate the sound with Springfield's most famous resident