Summary
AlthoughThe Simpsonshas a lot of unsolved mysteries in its 35-year history, the show’s grossest moment remains unexplained thanks to a plot contrivance. By and large,The Simpsonsis not a gross-out comedy series. The show certainly features its fair share of boundary-pushing moments and, in its early years, the animated family sitcom was one of the more risqué cartoons on TV. However, compared to its later, edgier competitors likeSouth Park,Family Guy, andRick and Morty,The Simpsonsis pretty light on gruesome violence and disgusting imagery. This makes its rare macabre moments more impactful.
WhileThe Simpsonsseason 36might change this, the show typically keeps its gross-out moments to a minimum outside its annual Treehouse of Horror Halloween specials. OneGolden Age episode ofThe Simpsonsdid see Bart dislocate his shoulder and gain a head injury, but this outing was unusually dark in terms of tone. Similarly, season 11, episode 20, “Last Tap Dance In Springfield,” featured a memorably gross moment that was so unusually nasty that it became legendary online.The Simpsonsnever explained how this subplot resolved itself, leaving the show’s most stomach-churning visual an unsolved mystery.
The Simpsons Season 35’s Best Episode Highlighted A Major 35-Year-Old Mystery
The Simpsons season 35’s best episode brought up one of the show’s oldest plot holes but, interestingly, didn’t offer a solution to this mystery.
The Simpsons Season 11 Episode 20 Forgot The Show’s Grossest Gag
Homer’s Lazer Eye Surgery Recovery Was Swiftly Dropped
In “Last Tap Dance In Springfield,” Homer goes to the mall to get lazer eye surgery. Afterward, he dismisses the optometrist’s aftercare and his eyes almost instantly crust over in what is easily the most disgusting visualThe Simpsonshas ever offered viewers. The moment lives on in infamy via fan meme pages but, in the episode, Homer’s eyes are magically fine in the next scene. Homer’s gruesomely encrusted eyes remain unexplained, but the series does at least have a meta-justification for this.Homer’s eye surgery subplot was just a first-act distraction, which explains why his recovery is left unexplained.
Some ofThe Simpsons’ mysteriesare left unexplained because their answer would mess with the fabric of the show’s reality, but this enigma has a much simpler solution. As was typical in this post-Golden Age era, the episode’s first seven minutes followed a separate plot from the rest of the outing. Homer’s eye plot brought Bart and Lisa to the mall, where their real stories began. Once Bart and Milhouse were planning on hiding out in the mall to avoid a camping trip and Lisa had developed her interest in tap dancing, the eye surgery storyline was superfluous.
Why The Simpsons Never Solved Homer’s Lazer Eye Surgery Mystery
The Plot Set Up Another Two Divergent Stories
The unsolved mystery of Homer’s eye surgery is mirrored in two other outings from this era. In season 12, episode 12, “Tennis The Menace,” Grampa’s funeral plans were abandoned in favor of the family buying a tennis court while, in episode 2, “A Tale of Two Springfields,” a town-wide badger infestation gave way to a story about Springfield being divided into two warring mini-towns. This trend showcases just how much thereal-life stakes of earlierSimpsonsseasons gave way to increasingly outlandish plots. This contributed to the critical decline ofThe Simpsons, although recent seasons took steps to reverse this.
