The Simpsons have been on the air for a long time, and when a show has that many episodes, there are bound to be some errors. Some may be subtler than others, although executive producer Matt Selman noticed a pretty massive but hilarious one from Season 6. Check out this scene with Marge telling Homer she's pregnant with Maggie, and see if you can spot the blunder before reading Selman's post:
It appears someone on The Simpsons staff forgot to update the household for the flashback episode and used a background that features Maggie in a picture even though she's still in utero. It didn't take long for Matt Selman's social media post to reach fans, some of whom tried to explain the goof away, noting it could be Lisa in the image, and that Maggie's sleeper is a hand-me-down. Another even went so far as to say the child in the photo could be locked up in the attic along with Bart's "evil," twin Hugo, which if true, would be hilarious.
Fans were ready to make excuses for The Simpsons' blunder, but other members of the show's staff admitted the mistake upon seeing it. Executive producer and showrunner Al Jean was quick to respond to Matt Selman's tweet, as well as snarky fans channeling the nerds asking questions to Homer in "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show," noting,
Other Simpsons royalty, including Lisa Simpson's voice actress Yeardley Smith and former showrunner Bill Oakley, popped up in the comments, as well, with Oakley joking the blunder will be addressed in Season 5 of Disenchantment. More fans piled on with the whoops moments, and another screenshot post showed a photo of Lisa as a baby and a picture of child Lisa and Maggie just over the character's shoulders.
The Simpsons staff has already committed to the fact that this is a blunder, although there is a chance the writers can still use this blunder to their advantage for a future episode plot or even a movie. We already know the show is really good at predicting future events, so perhaps there's something weird happening in Springfield that has made its citizens subconsciously clairvoyant? Maybe Homer or Marge painted those pictures and they just happened to look exactly like their future children! It's a crazy premise and it's unlikely the staff would run with such a concept outside of a "Treehouse of Horror" episode, but wouldn't it be great to see a canon explanation of how these pictures are present in the past?
The Simpsons returns to television on Fox starting on Sunday, September 30 at 8:00 p.m. ET. Keep up with all the shows coming to television this fall season with our fall premiere guide.
