As The Simpsons enters its 37th season, co-showrunner Matt Selman has made it clear that Springfield will not try to mimic South Park’s race toward headline-chasing satire. 
Instead, the longest-running animated series on television continues to embrace its own slower, more reflective rhythm – one that looks at broad social changes rather than chasing yesterday’s chaos.
Selman explained that the creative process behind The Simpsons simply doesn’t lend itself to rapid-fire commentary. Episodes are scripted nearly a year in advance, and by the time they reach television, the political scandals or celebrity dramas of the moment may already be ancient history. “We’re not going to do the big stunt where the president shows up in Springfield every other week,” Selman told Entertainment Weekly. “We did that once with George Bush, but he was already long gone from office. The topical world moves too fast, too chaotically, to try to keep up.”
That approach sets The Simpsons apart from South Park, which famously turns around new episodes in just six or seven days. South Park thrives on immediacy and controversy, but even there, Selman notes, the pace of real-world madness often outstrips satire’s ability to respond. “More wild stuff happens in one week than they can fit into an episode,” he said. “It’s impossible to keep up.”
The new season opened with “Thrifty Ways to Thieve Your Mother,” a nostalgic look at Marge’s 1990s memories and Homer’s musings on how quickly films migrate to streaming platforms. That episode – like so much of the show’s later-era humor – found charm not in tearing apart the latest political fiasco, but in poking fun at universal experiences and shared cultural memories. “When you write something that won’t air for ten months, the pressure to respond to this week’s headlines just melts away,” Selman added. “We’d rather tell stories about ordinary people stumbling through an ever-changing world.”
For Selman, that philosophy is also a quiet stand against the noise of the culture wars. Referencing Jimmy Kimmel’s temporary suspension from television, he admitted he dislikes censorship, but insists The Simpsons was never designed to be a weekly response machine. “It’s about a town of good-natured dum-dums, as I like to say, who don’t really change. The world shifts around them, but Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie remain themselves.”
The rest of the season will balance that timeless formula with playful experiments. Fans can expect the annual Treehouse of Horror episode, which this year mashes up Jaws with The Blob, and the series is fast approaching its staggering 800th episode. That landmark story, Selman teased, will center on Santa’s Little Helper – the family’s beloved greyhound – who finds himself battling middle-aged weight gain. “Yes, the dog gets fat,” Selman quipped.
Beyond specific episodes, Selman hopes the show remains a common ground for audiences across America. “Ideally, people on both sides of the political divide can see Springfield as a place filled with people who are good at heart but easily misled. And depending on your point of view, you can apply that idea however you like.”
For longtime fans, the decision not to dive into frantic topical humor feels like a relief. In a media landscape where every comedy show seems to be dissecting the latest headline or political drama, The Simpsons’ insistence on timeless satire, character-driven stories, and quirky cultural parody may be precisely what gives it staying power nearly four decades on.
2 comments
satire cant keep up when real life already looks like the onion 😂
honestly glad they not going all political every week, i get enough of that irl 😴