Leave it to the longest running animated series on TV to crack some jokes about the modern day sports world.
The Simpsons is known for many things (beloved characters, unique writing, etc.), and it’s definitely made a major impact on society just from the many predictions it has gotten right about the future. When you have over 750 episodes, you’re probably going to get things right accidentally every once in a while.
On a recent episode, it wasn’t a prediction as much as it was a timely reference. Considering each episode goes through rigorous writing, recording, and editing sessions, the newest episode called “Do The Wrong Thing” had impeccable timing when it came out.
The episode tackled the topic of cheating, so naturally, it brought in some of the more prominent modern day cheating scandals. Obviously, that caused some of the jokes to come at the expense of a lot of sports teams and people famously caught for cheating.
Jokes directed at Bill Belichick (and the New England Patriots), the Houston Astros, and USC were plentiful within the jam-packed 22-minute episode. It all got started with Homer Simpson teaching his son Bart how to cheat by winning a rock-skipping competition (which was airing on TV right before “LIV Pickleball”).
Take a look:
Dan Patrick guested on The Simpsons to call competitive rock-skipping on the Trucker Hat Sports Network, which also features LIV Pickleball and barrel-scraping. pic.twitter.com/uaLzxXrqwe
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 25, 2023
Though most of those jokes, and the others throughout the episode, were funny, and all in good fun, there was one that acted as the show’s finale that landed better than all of the others. How The Simpsons knew that Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh would be in the midst of a sign-stealing scandal around the same time this episode would air beats me, but it is on par for how their show usually predicts things.
In the clip below, Bart can be seen teaching a course called “Intro to Cheating 1o1” at the “Jim Harbaugh Center for Competitive Imbalance.” As I stated earlier, this episode was put together well before Harbaugh got hit with a three game suspension at the end of this college football season for sign stealing, so props to The Simpsons for doing their thing:
And Bart Simpson is now teaching “Intro to Cheating 101” at the Jim Harbaugh Center for Competitive Imbalance. pic.twitter.com/2rH626QPso
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 25, 2023
