The Simpsons has become famous over the years for the many couch gags that help to kick off each episode, but there are a lot fewer of them than you would think after 35 years of the animated series. The Simpsons is now airing the second half of Season 36 of the animated series, and has been renewed for four more seasons as part of a legendary deal with Fox. As it gets ready to continue through the foreseeable future to get to Season 40 of the series, there are bound to be many more couch gags helping each new episode get fans ready for the wackiness to come.
Videos by ComicBook.com
There are currently 784 episodes of The Simpsons as of the time of this publication with Season 36 currently 15 episodes into its stretch. When accounting for the number of couch gags that are entirely unique, and skipping over those that had small changes or adjustments with future appearances, there are actually much fewer couch gags for the series overall than you’d expect. The current total when counting each unique couch gag across these 36 seasons is 456, but does account for a little over 58% of the animated series’ history.
How Many Couch Gags in Each Season of The Simpsons
When accounting for unique couch gags in The Simpsons, and not counting those with just small adjustments, the breakdown of couch gags per season is as such:
- Season 1 – 5
- Season 2 – 10
- Season 3 – 12
- Season 4 – 12
- Season 5 – 12
- Season 6 – 11
- Season 7 – 13
- Season 8 – 14
- Season 9 – 17
- Season 10 – 11
- Season 11 – 16
- Season 12 – 11
- Season 13 – 10
- Season 14 – 11
- Season 15 – 12
- Season 16 – 15
- Season 17 – 13
- Season 18 – 13
- Season 19 – 13
- Season 20 – 18
- Season 21 – 17
- Season 22 – 17
- Season 23 – 13
- Season 24 – 19
- Season 25 – 19
- Season 26 – 18
- Season 27 – 16
- Season 28 – 18
- Season 29 – 12
- Season 30 – 14
- Season 31 – 13
- Season 32 – 9
- Season 33 – 7
- Season 34 – 8
- Season 35 – 5
- Season 36 – 3 (So Far)
This count also does not factor in any of the special makeovers for the opening credits as those are different from the classic couch gag itself. These are the Simpsons Family entering their home to sit on their couch, and something wacky happens. As noted through these counts, there are some interesting trends heading into the later seasons of the animated series.
RELATED: The Simpsons Star Discusses If He’ll Ever Return To Legendary Role
The Simpsons’ Couch Gags Have Become Less Important
The interesting shift when looking back on all of the couch gags through The Simpsons thus far is that by the much more recent years there are far less unique couch gags. Starting in the 20s, The Simpsons instead moved away from repeating couch gags as well. Many of the classic episodes would reuse a particular couch gag later in the season, but this became less common in the high definition era. Instead, many of the openings were cut short entirely to fit more story into a particular episode.
Rather than repeating, these chances for couch gags would be removed entirely. It meant a longer episode overall (as the opening theme sequence does take important time away from the 21-22 minute allotted for each story), but it is something of note as part of the many changes to the series over the years. With over half of The Simpsons’ run overall featuring a unique couch gag to start them off, however, it really has been a good run so far. As the show gets closer to Season 40, there are likely going to be even more to come.
Most Viewed
-
Image Credit: Warner Bros.
