The Random Explosion Scene On The Simpsons That Always Blows Fans Away
With over 730 episodes since 1989, "The Simpsons" has had plenty of times to establish long-running jokes that have a tendency to pop up when one least expects it. Recurring jokes on the popular television series have included jabs about the true location of Springfield, which is still up for debate even now. Previously, there was the always popular Troy McClure (voiced by the late Phil Hartman) who used his celebrity in order to promote all sorts of things and introduced himself with the phrase, "you may remember me from." Other jokes from the show involve made-up words, prank-calling gullible bartenders, elaborate and fantastic couch gags, and the ever-shifting lifelong dreams of Homer (Dan Castellaneta).
Another joke that tends to pop up throughout "The Simpsons" is the over-the-top violence in the "Itchy and Scratchy" segments, and in an interview with The New Yorker, legendary writer John Swartzwelder said of their creation, "Everybody did "Itchy & Scratchy" cartoons, but I certainly did more than my share. They were fun for me. I didn't create them." Swartzwelder later clarified that along with the late Sam Simon, he created the nice, overly polite version of the cartoon cat and mouse for the episode "Itchy & Scratchy & Marge."
One of the longstanding sight gags on "The Simpsons" is when random objects that shouldn't explode do so, and things that normally explode are pushed up to cataclysmic proportions -– think of Bart (voiced by Nancy Cartwright) and his April Fool's Joke that exploded a beer can that was shaken to an unstable degree. So which random explosion scene tends to resonate most with fans?
Fans love Homer's explosion fake-out
Starting the conversation on the subreddit r/TheSimpsons, u/G-Unit11111 asked what people's favorite fire or random explosion on the show has been, and posted an image of Homer making a bowl of corn flakes, which immediately ignites for no apparent reason. It seems, though, that most fans actually like a slightly inverted version of this gag that plays with fan expectation, with the highest upvoted comment from u/Kann0n2 reading, "For me it's when Homer squeezes that bottle of gas onto a bbq, every single drop, and then he lights the match and throws it in resulting in a small flame."
u/TobyMcToby100 replied, "Especially given how they used the same gag a couple of seasons prior and it resulted in that huge fireball. That anticipation for fans that it would be the same really made the gag that much better." u/CampfireGuitars noted that Homer not only emptied one bottle of lighter fluid, but two, and then gets a perfect start-up with a match, while u/astem00 said that this scene has to be the very best of the "random explosion" bit.
Some other honorable mentions were from u/mikeymiggz, who suggested Dr. Hibbert (formerly Harry Shearer, now voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson) removing an appendix that explodes like a grenade, u/brutusgrunt, who mentioned Homer being hooked up to a lie detector, and u/three_putts_one_cup, who brought up how Hans Moleman's (Dan Castellaneta) car exploded upon the slightest of contact. Luckily for fans, it seems like there is still more "Simpsons" on the horizon for the foreseeable future, as the show has just been renewed for Season 33 and 34. And that means there will likely be plenty more opportunities for random explosions (or fake-outs).