The Simpsons is among the most beloved television shows of all time, as it changed the nature of comedy, animation, and popular culture forever. The early seasons of The Simpsons contained some of the greatest works of comedy in American history, and although the quality has not always been consistent, the series still continues to churn out interesting installments.
Considering that the series has now reached its 36th season and has shown no signs that it may be slowing down, it is not exactly a shock that not every episode of The Simpsons is of the highest quality. While the number of good episodes of The Simpsons greatly supersedes the bad, there are some truly unwatchable installments that feel like a betrayal to the characters and world that have been growing a fanbase for generations. Here are the ten worst episodes of The Simpsons, ranked.
10 "Homer vs. Dignity"
Season 12, Episode 5 (2000)
“Homer vs. Dignity” marked the beginning of the end for The Simpsons, as it was around the twelfth season that most fans agreed that the series had officially ended its “Golden Era.” While there were still some notable episodes and seasons released in the decades since, “Homer vs. Dignity” turned The Simpsons into just another animated sitcom that was largely indistinguishable from Family Guy or American Dad.
The issue with “Homer vs. Dignity” is that it seems to hate the characters, as a majority of the episode features Homer being embarrassed, and ultimately attacked by a panda. While the series has always gotten away with some dark jokes, especially involving the familial dysfunction, “Homer vs. Dignity” reached a level of mean-spiritedness that suggested that the show’s writers were incapable of writing the characters and their qualities in a nuanced way.
9 "The Greatest Story Ever D’ohed"
Season 21, Episode 16 (2010)
“The Greatest Story Ever D’ohed” is one of the laziest “vacation” episodes of The Simpsons, as the show has never quite excelled when it takes the central characters on a visit beyond Springfield. The episode involves Homer getting lost in Jerusalem and getting into yet another feud with Ned Flanders; despite the havoc he causes, nothing about Homer’s life seems to significantly change by the time the episode concludes. It’s yet another episode in which Homer acts like a jerk for no apparent reason.
“The Greatest Story Ever D’ohed” settled for suboptimal humor, as the episode mostly focused on random gags, rather than an actual storyline. While most comedy shows could settle for this type of comedy, a series like The Simpsons which has built its reputation on being subversive and challenging owes it to the audience to do something more groundbreaking and inventive.
8 "The Bonfire of the Manatees"
Season 17, Episode 1 (2005)
“The Bonfire of the Manatees” is one of the worst premiere episodes in the history of The Simpsons, as it set fans up for a rather disappointing season that indicated that the show had long since passed its prime. The narrative revolves around Marge going out on her own to save a group of manatees, all whilst Homer is forced to repurpose their home for illicit purposes.
“Bonfire of the Manatees” simply doesn’t have very many jokes that land, and features a rather underwhelming celebrity cameo from Alec Baldwin. While The Simpsons is known to take on hot-button issues that may have been within the public discourse at the time, the deconstruction of how endangered species are treated was simply half-hearted, as the show did not take the real issue as anything more important than a punchline.
7 "Werking Mom"
Season 30, Episode 7 (2018)
The Simpsons has certainly evolved in how it depicts its LGBTQ+ characters, as iconic figures like Smithers have been given more agency over the course of the series. However, there are some episodes that simply have not aged well, and “Werking Mom” is chief among them because of how outdated some of the stereotypes and caricatures already are, even though the episode itself is less than a decade old.
“Werking Mom” involves Marge becoming a drag queen as she begins to feel more distanced from her family, which leads her to live a “double life” that she does not tell Homer about. The jokes made at the expense of actual drag queens are simply lazy, and the episode also showed that fans generally didn’t want to see moments in the show where the feud between Homer and Marge got generally nasty.
6 "Saddlesore Galactica"
Season 11, Episode 13 (2000)
“Saddlesore Galactica” was the first episode in which The Simpsons fans really began to fear that the show was declining in quality, as the eleventh season was significantly less successful than its direct predecessor. A commonality within many of the worst episodes of The Simpsons are narratives that are simply not very well articulated, and “Saddlesore Galactica” is so generic that it almost feels like it has become the sort of storyline that the show would generally be poking fun at.
“Saddlesore Galactica” involves Bart getting a racehorse to help compete for the family, and despite what the title suggests, does not contain any references to the acclaimed science fiction series Battlestar Galactica. Although Bart has been a fan-favorite character since the beginning of the show because of his youthful qualities, “Saddlesore Galactica” may be one of the worst episodes that he has ever been the star of.
5 "What To Expect When Bart's Expecting"
Season 25, Episode 19 (2014)
“What To Expect When Bart’s Expecting” is one of the strangest episodes of The Simpsons, but not in a good way. While the show has always flirted with some supernatural ideas, “What To Expect When Bart’s Expecting” went fully into the fantasy genre after Bart accesses the power of Voodoo, which somehow gives him the ability to help couples conceive.
The entire episode has uncomfortable similarities to debates about women’s issues and child conception in the United States, and Bart simply acts out of character for the majority of the adventure. Despite the fact that Bart is arguably the single funniest character in the entire series, he has very few clever one-liners within the episode, which seems to be more interested in getting really weird than it is actually saying anything about any of the characters that live in Springfield.
4 "Every Man's Dream"
Season 27, Episode 1 (2015)
The Simpsons is often at its worst when Homer and Marge are at odds with each other, as although there has always been tension within their marriage, the fans don’t actually want to see them at each other's throats. While even the most tense argument between Homer and Marge can generally be resolved by the time that an episode wraps up, “Every Man’s Dream” went one step too far when it suggested that they might be hooking up with other partners after a feud.
A reveal that the episode was all a dream made all the stakes feel cheap, especially after Homer came to recognize his faults. While it would be one thing to simply torment The Simpsons fans with an uncomfortable storyline, to do so within the confines of an alternate reality was downright insulating to anyone who had grown up loving the series.
3 "Lisa Goes Gaga"
Season 23, Episode 22 (2012)
“Lisa Goes Gaga” is one of the worst celebrity-centric episodes of The Simpsons, as the plot of the episode revolves around Lady Gaga appearing as herself as a mentor to Lisa, who has been struggling with her lack of confidence and depression. While it is amusing when The Simpsons has celebrities appear on the show to play highly comical or self-deprecating versions of themselves, Lady Gaga’s appearance seemed to have no value other than to promote her upcoming album.
“Lisa Goes Gaga” simply wrote Lisa in an underwhelming way, as while she has often struggled with her mental health issues, she never became completely reliant on a celebrity that she had never met to instill within her a sense of confidence. Lady Gaga is clearly a talented actress who has given great performances in A Star is Born and House of Gucci, so it's disappointing to see her skills wasted in such a terrible episode.
2 "Moe Goes from Rags to Riches"
Season 23, Episode 12 (2012)
“Moe Goes from Rags to Riches” is among the most baffling episodes in the history of The Simpsons because the concept is so ludicrous that it sounds like a parody. The episode is told from the perspective of Moe’s bar rag, which is somehow a sentient entity that has existed since Medieval times, and has a perspective on various historical events.
The writing for the episode is absolutely abysmal, as the “gag” of having a rag talk about his life was not very funny to begin with, and only gets more obnoxious as the episode continues. It’s also an episode that is downright mean-spirited in its depiction of Moe; while Springfield’s bartender is often the butt of several of the best jokes on The Simpsons, depicting Moe as a friendless, talentless loser who has no greater aspirations simply felt cruel in a way that the show didn’t generally become.
1 "The Musk Who Fell to Earth"
Season 26, Episode 12 (2015)
“The Musk Who Fell To Earth” is by far the worst celebrity-centric episode of The Simpsons because it contains almost no elements of satire. While everything in The Simpsons is filtered through a comic lens, Elon Musk shows up himself and somehow earns the admiration and respect of everyone in Springfield overnight. There’s not much of a conflict in the episode, as it primarily serves as an excuse for Musk to show Homer some of the different pieces of technology that he is responsible for.
There isn’t much of a plot to “The Musk Who Fell to Earth,” as a majority of the episode focuses on Musk being reminded how successful and powerful he is. While the episode was always a failure because of how thoroughly bland its story was, Musk’s recent problematic real-life actions have made “The Musk Who Fell To Earth” even more difficult to rewatch.
Your comment has not been saved