Once upon a time, The Simpsons was untouchable. The show’s golden era, roughly seasons 3 through 9, struck the perfect balance between warmth and wit. Every Springfield resident had layers of heart and soul underneath the biting satire. However, as the decades have passed, the show (recently renewed through to its 40th season) has lost much of its nuance. Many beloved characters have become parodies of themselves, and some have even been hollowed out to the point of being unwatchable.
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These Simpsons favorites went from being good neighbors and bright prodigies to bigots and self-righteous moralizers. In their current iterations, they’ve come to represent the most dumbed-down extremes of our culture, often feeling more like Twitter feeds than the complex Springfield citizens we’d come to know and love. As with most shows that overstay their welcome, the idea engine in the Simpsons writers’ room has long since run dry, and these three characters have gotten the worst of it.
3) Moe Szyslak
In the early seasons, Moe was The Simpsons’ secret weapon; a gruff, chain-smoking, loose cannon who ran the seediest dive bar in town. Between fielding Bart’s prank calls and threatening patrons with a shotgun, Moe emitted a sort of miserable charisma as he attempted to get through each day. His resentment was relatable, and moments of humanity, seen in episodes like “Flaming Moe’s,” allowed him to transcend two-dimensional territory.
Then came the tonal shift of the late ‘90s, when Moe lost his edge and became a sad, sleazy caricature. He went from a surly bartender to a boring cautionary tale about loneliness. In the Al Jean era, the Moe subplots all seemed to revolve around failed dates and suicide gags. He was no longer a cynic with depth, who we could all relate to on our worst days; he’d become nothing more than an excuse to churn out low-effort pity jokes.
2) Ned Flanders
Ned Flanders started as a brilliantly written supporting character, and before he became a punchline, he was a crucial counterpoint. Both religious and good-natured, Ned’s cheerful disposition offered the perfect contrast to Homer’s grumpiness and negligence without ever making him sanctimonious. In episodes like “When Flanders Failed” and “Homer Loves Flanders,” he was a sweet neighbor who happened to be religious, but wasn’t a jerk about it.
Over time, though, Ned was reduced to an obnoxious, overbearing zealot. New Ned judges everyone around him, moralizes endlessly, and serves mainly as a machine for jokes about Christianity. A mean-spirited caricature replaced the once subtle satire. His downfall was so hated, in fact, that the term “Flanderization” became slang for a character’s personality being flattened to the point of being defined by only one or two traits. It’s hard to imagine a more tragic trajectory for a character who was once the nicest dude on Evergreen Terrace.
1) Lisa Simpson
At her peak, little Lisa was The Simpsons’ heart and conscience; a gifted child trying to stay good and curious in a world that rarely rewarded either. Episodes like “Lisa’s Substitute” and “Moaning Lisa” were some of the best the series had to offer, showing her intelligence as both a gift and a burden. She was idealistic, flawed, and one of the most human characters on the show.
Somewhere along the line, this nuanced portrait of budding intellect morphed into a megaphone for moralizing. New Lisa lectures more than she learns, and it seems her personality has been taken over by self-righteousness and superiority; yet another mean stereotype that seems to lampoon young idealists without much complexity. Even worse, her downfall reflects the family as a whole. The tender moments with Bart are fewer and farther between, and the family dynamic has eroded to the point that each Simpson feels like they’re in their own unrelated show. With Lisa a shell of her old self, the beating heart seems to be missing entirely.
For all that has gone wrong with The Simpsons in recent decades, we can still consider ourselves lucky to have experienced the show during its golden age. While it’s tough to recapture lightning in a bottle time and time again, the reruns will always be as good as they were in the early ’90s.
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