5 Best ‘The Simpsons’ Episodes About Movies Ranked
The Simpsons has been commenting on pop culture for over 30 years. In that time, they have done several episodes revolving around movies. From the early ‘90s to today, the landscape of Hollywood has changed dramatically. This has allowed The Simpsons to comment on movies at different eras, many before they even released their own Simpsons Movie in 2007.
Here are five of the best Simpsons episodes about movies. They’re all great, but ranked in increasing order of greatness. All episodes of The Simpsons stream on Disney+.
‘Homer the Whopper’ made Homer Simpson a movie superhero
Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg wrote the season 21 premiere of The Simpsons. In Homer the Whopper, Comic Book Guy creates his own comic book, Everyman. In 2009, this was right at the beginning of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, though after about a decade of X-Men and Spider-Man movies. So when Hollywood inevitably made an Everyman movie, they cast Homer.
They hired Homer a trainer to get into superhero shape, but once production began Homer stopped following his routine. It’s a perfect combination of Rogen/Goldberg’s inside baseball observations and The Simpsons’ irreverent take on the world.
‘Steal This Episode’ tackled reboots and movie piracy
In this season 25 episode, the Radioactive Man has survived a reboot, so much so that the fans demanded the original Radioactive Man return. So they debooted the reboot. This brilliant satire of how convoluted movie franchises have gotten leads to Homer discovering movie piracy. Of course, in The Simpsons, movie piracy makes Homer a crime lord, not for the first or last time.
It also pokes fun in Hollywood’s overwrought claims about the damage piracy does. Yes, piracy is wrong but the notion that it’s cutting into profits doesn’t hold much water when movies continue making a billion dollars. Hollywood focuses on the targets when post-production facilities run rampant. There’s no Homer Simpson running a lucrative piracy ring, but it’s hilarious that he does on The Simpsons.
‘Radioactive Man’ is an all time classic ‘Simpsons’ episode
Now we’re getting into the all timer episodes of The Simpsons. In season 7, Hollywood came to town to make a movie out of Bart’s favorite comic book, Radioactive Man. Bart wanted the role of sidekick Fallout Boy but he was too short, despite growing half an inch overnight. His best friend Milhouse got the role but it burnt Milhouse out.
This Simpsonized take on moviemaking is nothing short of classic. Rainier Wolfcastle’s lament “The goggles do nothing” remains one of the most quotable Simpsons lines ever. This episode also features absurd animation jokes like Bart checking six corners of his square treehouse. Obviously, Radioactive Man movies got made after this episode since decades later they were onto the deboot.
‘Itchy and Scratchy: The Movie’ foreshadowed movies’ ubiquity in pop culture
The Simpsons introduced “Itchy & Scratchy” in season 1 as the violent cartoon that Bart and Lisa like. By season 4, there was an Itchy & Scratchy movie. The Simpsons Movie would also begin with another Itchy and Scratchy Movie, during which Homer would mock the audience for paying to see something that’s free on television.
Back to this episode, Homer has to learn to give Bart stronger discipline, so as punishment he forbids Bart to see the Itchy & Scratchy Movie, and sticks to it. Bart’s plots to sneak into a screening are foiled, while he’s forced to hear Lisa and friends discuss the monumental pop culture milestone. In the epilogue, as old men Homer finally lifts the punishment and they go to see the movie together and realize it doesn’t live up to the hype.
‘Beyond Blunderdome’ represents a bygone era of movies
Once The Simpsons got Michael Jackson and Elizabeth Taylor to do voices, they could land A-list guest stars. The season 11 premiere had Mel Gibson as himself. Gibson held a test screening of his Mr. Smith Goes to Washington remake in Springfield, and he wanted honest feedback, which only Homer would give him.
The problem was, in changing the ending to make it more like Gibson’s Lethal Weapon films, Homer landed Gibson in more Hollywood hot water. The Simpson family ultimately join Gibson in a Simpsonized version of Hollywood. This was a brilliant episode in its day about the Hollywood development process, with Gibson taking a good natured ribbing at his own expense.
Now it also represents Hollywood at the turn of the century, when Gibson was among the most beloved personalities in Hollywood. Simpsons producers have assured that Gibson was nice to all of them while recording the episode, and it’s not to drag The Simpsons into Gibson’s anti-Semitic, racist and misogynistic incidents, but it is a testament to how The Simpsons has outlasted many of the subjects it has addressed. That we can go from “Blunderdome” to “Steal This Episode” is more than a full circle. It’s the entire sphere of satire.
