It’s been a big week and year for The Simpsons. Congratulations to the Matt Groening and the Simpsons on:
- Reaching their 500th episode and becoming the longest running sitcom in television history! (We know it happened a few weeks ago, but we had to wait until after our Bed Bug Humor series began to blog about this important milestone.);
- Sort of revealing which state the “town of Springfield” in the show is in;
- Unveiling Homer’s first true love in a very subversive credit sequence (D’oh – it’s not doughnuts, but it is someplace bed bugs are often found);
- Scheduling the rebroadcast of its first full television episode for this Sunday (April 22, 2012); and
- The Simpsons cartoon shorts debuting 25 years ago today on the Tracy Ullman Show (according to our “We love 80s” desk calendar and Wikipedia.)
The Simpsons have always been a barometer and predictor of current culture and politics – well before Willie the Groundskeeper taught a French class and greeted the students as “cheese eating surrender monkeys.” But who knew that in the very first animated short, the writers were decades ahead of their time by knowing how scary bed bugs are?
Watch this clip of “Good Night” to see the horror that Homer and Marge instill in their kids on bed bugs and other topics. Congratulations again!