Simpsons Chronology is getting more screwed up all the time!

There is something that doesnt make sense here... Watching last nights episode some things came to mind:

1. The power plant is open when the gang is 12?? previous episodes have told us that the plane opened when homer was graduating high school, at least 7 years later... Homer is handed a pamphlet for the plant that just opened up by his school counsellor as a career choice. unless just opened up means within the past decade suddenly.

2. How old is smithers? by the looks of that body, smithers' father was deceased what... a year, two max before homer found it. BUT... smithers was a newborn at this time... then again, smithers was hired at the plane before homer. this means that if homer was 12 years old and found the body, smithers was at the most about 3. that means that in seven years, smithers was hired, then homer. so smithers was not even hitting puberty when he was hired on at the plant i suppose.

i know that it is a cartoon, but it used to be the best damn cartoon on television. i blame Ian Maxtone-Graham. I havent seen an episode by him that didnt bother me yet.

Everything you mentioned has been mentioned... 3 times. Since the ages of the characters always remains constant, time cannot make sense. For example, if Bart is 10, then his birth date in 1991 was 1981, and now is 1991. So everything changes from episodes in one year to episodes in another. It may still show that there are some mistakes. We all know however that in these circumstances, a wizard did it. Or Scully. Scull did it. It's all Scully's fault.

Go knock down his house.

Drunk and full of pie, Katijaikat wrote:

I told you... Scully has your giant donut.

The Rack wrote in message news:[email]...

Or Moe. Go kill Moe.

...which, if true, will mean the death of us all. I'm Kent Brockman...

"Surly" wrote in message news:e6bR7.43540$[email]...

Scull

so

If you want to quibble about timelines, there are many many faults in the Simpsons, especially if you try to figure out what year it takes place. For instance, Homer had his high school prom in 1974, Bart was born in 1980, Lisa was born in 1983, and Maggie was born in 1990. Homer said he was 37 years old. Bart is 10. That would make the current year holding at 1990. Homer would have been 21 at his high school prom, and 27 when Bart was born and hired at SNPP. If Smithers is 12 years younger, he would have been 15 years old when Homer was hired. Smithers already had old frat buddies at 15 too. This means the Blunder Years took place in 1965. Also according to the 138th episode spectacular, "the real deal with Waylon Smithers is that he's Mr. Burns' assistant. He's in his early 40s, is unmarried, and currently resides in Springfield."

I know it doesn't make sense. My advice is to just relax, don't think about it too much (like I did) and enjoy the show.

remember: Lenny = white, Carl = black Dunc!

"Nathan Loeschman" wrote in message news:[email]...

know

studied

for

Smithers was born in 1954. In the episode The Old Man and the Lisa, he says he was born 25 years after the stock market crash.

Drunk and full of pie, Kevin Muckenthaler wrote:

How about just:

Yes. Change the punctuation to:

IOW, he was born in a different year in other episodes. There's no inconsistency; there's just no linear timeline in The Simpsons. The Simpsons is a slice-of-life, where the past and future change according to the dictates of _our_ present. It's the only way you can keep characters from aging. The characters were never supposed to age, lending credence to the idea that "The Simpsons" is supposed to be a slice-of-life commentary on American society. IOW, it's not a serialized drama about particular characters.

Charlie Brown, and many other cartoon characters are classic examples of the non-aging, slice of life ideal.

If the characters were real people that aged, then you could call these little "continuity" things "errors".

"Nathan Loeschman" wrote in message news:[email]...

In other news... tragic mixup in Cleveland... hundreds killed, uh... BYE!

Dr Music P.S. Parking was ample.

"calgary_user" wrote in message news:Ye7R7.109088$[email]...

hired

smithers

Eh, you can't get too serious about it. If the Simpsons never age, then everything else is open field for manipulation. Personally, I don't mind when they screw around with the timeline as long as it's not too insane, plus it has to be funny.

Now that episode where Principal Skinner is Armin Tamzarian is NOT funny or useful. That ep should be destroyed and made into some kind of dream sequence.

"Gabagimpy" wrote in news:zy7R7.174168$[email]:

There was one funny line in that one. Skinners say "this is Armin's copy of Swank." and then Homer says, "May I look at your copy of Swank Amrin?" But I agree I would prefer it if that espisode was never made.

Last nights ep sucked.

On Mon, 10 Dec 2001 18:34:32 GMT, "calgary_user" wrote:

A wizard did it.

Drunk and full of pie, calgary_user wrote:

I blame the internet, and the return of swing music.

I propose that the Nuclear power plant was either a) still under construction when Homer was 12, or b) SNPP expanded significantly as Homer was graduating High School. Both could be probable excuses for why the plant was there when Homer was 12 and was 'opening' when he was in his late teens. Now I'm sure you nuclear scientist out there will find something wrong with this. Obviously the real reason is that the writers either forgot about or didn't care about the previous events from previous episodes, but take my story if it will help you sleep at night.

Maybe a security camera with a microphone? Arrr, I'm trying too hard.

Well I have some thoughts on this that doesn't solve the problems but helps a little. First there's nothing to say that the plant was OPEN when Smithers, Sr. died. It takes a very long time to construct a nuclear power plant and even after the physical plant itself is built it's still awhile before it's fully functional. You could assume that at the time of the death that it had just finished being built but wasn't operational yet...still testing and what not. Then of course after the accident you would assume there would be quite a delay before it would be working. I think the timeline is still stretched a little (especially after my thoughts on the dead body below) but hey, they are allowed to take that liberty.

That body looked pretty decomposed to me so it could have been dead for several years and if you consider that it had been long enough for the water that was in the quarry before the pipe got clogged to dry up already...that's a pretty long time. So that would put the death much earlier than what you are thinking and so Smither's was probably in his early to mid teens when Homer got the job at the plant...which would make sense because if Mr. Burns raised him then why wouldn't he be his assistant that young? The only problem with this theory is that it makes the timeline of the power plant construction and opening even longer.

But I personally didn't think it was a major issue...I don't expect continuity in minor details to be perfect and I don't think anyone else should either. There are just way to many episodes written by way to many different groups of writers over the years for them to catch every little thing...even if us nerds on the internet do.

Kevin

The lack of aging still doesn't excuse Smithers being portrayed as a baby when
Homer was 12!
________________________________________________________________

If love of money is the root of all evil, why do churches want it so badly?

Remove "bination" to reply.

true enough... im glad that SOMEONE saw it this way.

"Sydney Assbasket " wrote in message news:[email]...

when

badly?

"Sydney Assbasket " wrote in message:

when

I don't live in the States so I haven't seen this episode, but I think that the 12 year-old Homer found the body of Smithers Senior years after he died and that it was not at the same time when Smithers Junior was shown as a baby (when Burns first announced his father's killing by Amazon women). There was a time difference between the announcement of Smithers Senior's death and the discovery of his corpse.

Am I right to assume this?

Was Smithers' dad killed in an accident at the plant? I'm curious to know how Mr. Burns got away with an employee's death at his plant when it must've been witnessed by other workers. Maybe he did alot of bribing that day!

Drunk and full of pie, Becks wrote:

Actually, since cover-ups were "all the rage" back then, he thought he'd just jam the corpse down his "corpse hatch". :)

What are you people doing in my corpse hatch? That cracked me up. Hey, there's another error...Burn's has never had a corpse hatch in his office before...jeez they just can't get anything right.

Kevin

"Kevin Madden" wrote in message news:[email]...

What about the trap door?

"Huh?" "The painters moved your desk, sir." "Ah, yes."

Or the tube?

"Smithers, where does that tube go?" "I don't know, sir, it was there when we moved in."

Dr Music P.S. Parking was ample.

Having watched a lot of shows on the Discovery channel I will say this:

A body left in the open environment will decompose fairly quickly. With the right conditions a full body can be skeletonized within a week.

Homer could have found Smither's Sr body within a few weeks or months of the accident. Also we never saw Smither's Sr body right after the accident. It could have been badly damaged and Homer could found it shortly afterwards.

Tim

Kevin Madden wrote:

"Tim" wrote in message ...

the right

the

It could

I don't know about this. Wasn't Smithers Junior shown as a baby when his Dad died?

Waylon is a few years older than Homer so Homer wouldn't have even been born when Smithers Senior was killed.

The Blunder Years storyline would've been far more credible if Dad HAD died when Homer was 12 and his son was in his teens. Then, as you suggested, Homer could've found his partially decomposed body a few weeks or months after the accident.

Isn't the Discovery Channel great? I've learnt all kinds of amazing crap watching it too! If the conditions are right, corpses can remain virtually intact for hundreds for years (for example, in a part of Chile where it's meant to be the dryest place on Earth, they're often digging up bodies, perfectly preserved, that are 2,500 years old). But in Smithers Senior's case, his corpse was left in a place where it couldn't possibly decompose any faster. It's difficult to accept that it still hadn't rotted away in the 12+ years before Homer discovered it.

Just as well this is a cartoon otherwise I'd be muddling over this one!

He said it was the security cameras except that it was film which is odd...buy hey.