The Simpsons has spoofed a lot of movies over the years, both in actual storylines and several times in just small scenes that pay homage to films. Since the Matt Groening animated series debuted on the Tracey Ullman Show in 1987, it has become one of the most successful and beloved shows on television, with 37 seasons and counting. Not everything is great, but when The Simpsons is on the top of its game, few animated shows have as good a joke-to-laughter ratio as this series. It gets even better when it sprinkles in little jokes, almost like Easter eggs, as it spoofs movies, and there is no limit to how deep in film history the writers will go.
On Reddit, a user posted a thread and asked what Simpsons fans considered their favorite movie spoof on the animated series. What resulted was a plethora of great choices as people looked at where The Simpsons really delivered pitch-perfect looks at some classic scenes.
The OP had a brilliant pick as their favorite, as they show a GIF of Bart Simpson running down the stairs with Homer’s change jar while Homer, in his underwear, was rolling down after him. This, of course, was a spoof of the opening scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark, where Indiana Jones was running with the treasure as a boulder rolled after him. It was a low-key and brilliant spoof that didn’t slam the viewers over the head with it and made them think about what they were watching. This was from the Season 3 episode “Bart’s Friend Falls in Love.”
One of the most upvoted options, with 289 votes as of now, was a scene where Chief Wiggum interrogates Groundskeeper Willie in the Season 7 episode, “Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two).” This scene had Willie cross and uncross his legs over and over while wearing his kilt. The police got more and more ill since he was exposing himself, in what was a hilarious spoof of the classic Sharon Stone movie, Basic Instinct.
There were also mentions of The Shining, with one Redditor admitting that “they had so much fun with The Shining” and another wrote, “The Shinning is hard to beat.” One person posted an image of Homer Simpson acting out of order with a sign that said: “No Beer Make Homer Go Crazy.” Of course, it is also easy to remember the entire episode from “Treehouse of Horror” where The Simpsons spoofed the entire Shining movie.
There was also a great GIF of the episode where The Simpsons spoofed The Fugitive. The subplot of the Season 6 episode, “Lisa’s Rival,” had the FBI hunting down Milhouse after they mistook him for a criminal. This ends up with a scene mirroring The Fugitive, where Millouse is cornered in a dam drainpipe, and an FBI agent is closing in with his gun. The punch line was when Millhiuse said, “I didn’t do anything,” and the agent said, “I don’t care.”
Another fun gag came in the Season 4 episode, “Brother from the Same Planet.” This gag was a short one, and it had Principal Skinner looking out the window and seeing a house that looked just like Norman Bates’ home behind Bates Motel. As he stares up the hill at the house, Skinner says, “Oh, there’s mother now.” These are always the best movie spoofs because the writers just throw them out there and let the viewers who get it catch them before moving on quickly to the next gag.
There were several examples in the thread of these, where people had to figure out what movie the gag was from. Another Hitchcock spoof saw Homer and his kids slowly backing out of a room with a lot of little kids sitting around on shelves. It was from the Season 10 episode “Wild Barts Can’t Be Broken,” which also played as a Children of the Corn spoof. The Simpsons even spoofed One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Next, with Homer being institutionalized in the Season 3 episode, “Stark Raving Dad.”
What are your favorite movie spoofs from The Simpsons? Is your favorite not listed here? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
