The Big Problem The Simpsons Fans Have With The Billie Eilish Short
Celebrity cameos have been a staple of "The Simpsons" for decades, going all the way back to the guest appearance of actress and comedian Marcia Wallace in the 1990 episode "Bart the Genius," which longtime fans will remember was just the second episode of the series. (Wallace would later have a recurring guest role as Bart Simpson's teacher, Edna Krabappel.) Since then, hundreds of celebrities from all walks of life have made their way into "The Simpsons," sometimes voicing some new character, and other times playing a fictionalized version of themselves.
In fact, the series currently holds the Guinness World Record for most guest stars in an animated television series, with over 800 cameos to its name. Some of the most memorable celebrity guest stars from over the years include Michael Jackson, Leonard Nimoy, Gordon Ramsay, and Johnny Cash — the latter of whom actually didn't even voice a human character, but appeared as a coyote that Homer (voiced by Dan Castellaneta) meets during a chili-induced hallucination.
Still, not all of those celebrities got an entire short film dedicated to them, which is exactly what happened in the recently released Disney+ short "The Simpsons: When Billie Met Lisa." The short sees Lisa Simpson (Yeardley Smith) joining Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas in the studio to record music. This lighthearted short has actually been surprisingly controversial amongst fans of the series, specifically due to the way it portrays one main character.
Fans were outraged when Lisa said that Homer doesn't support her
At the very end of the short, Billie asks Lisa if her dad Homer ever supports her music, to which Lisa replies, "If you give him enough beer and a pair of earplugs, and then tell him that he can be in another room... No." Fans on Reddit were outraged at this line, claiming that it is seriously inconsistent with Homer's previous actions throughout the series. "New Simpsons doing homer dirty," wrote u/BetterCallMurdock, linking three separate pictures of times when Homer had supported Lisa's music in the past. The most obvious example of Homer being supportive is the episode "Lisa's Sax," wherein Homer sacrifices the money he has been saving for an air conditioner to buy Lisa a new saxophone, and later bought her a second one after Bart (voiced by Nancy Cartwright) broke the original. Once again, he uses his air conditioning fund to pay for the instrument. This was a point brought up by u/dead_trim_mcgee, who summed up the frustration of other fans who recall Homer being very supportive of Lisa.
Meanwhile, some fans chose to play devil's advocate, clarifying that Homer absolutely has a history of complaining about Lisa's saxophone, though admitting that he is still very supportive of her. "Homer doesn't support her music. He finds it annoying and would prefer she not play it in the house," explained u/Jasole37. "But he loves Lisa more than he hates saxophone music." All told, it appears that "The Simpsons: When Billie Met Lisa" is despised by a large portion of the show's fans, and will most likely be remembered solely for its inaccurate portrayal of the Simpson patriarch.