The Simpsons
Joke That
Actually Saved
The Lives Of
Two Children
By JULIA SELINGER
TV - Movies
"The Simpsons" Season 3 episode "Homer at the Bat" is one of the show's most beloved stories, and featured a number of the biggest baseball stars in America at the time, including Darryl Strawberry, Don Mattingly, and José Canseco. However, for two young fans, the most noteworthy thing about this episode is that it saved their loved ones' lives.
In the episode, Homer chokes on a donut while his peers ignore a Heimlich maneuver instructional poster in the background, which shows a man choking on a whole lobster. In 1992, the year that "Homer at the Bat" aired, a 10-year-old boy in Auburn, Washington saved his younger brother from choking on an orange by using what he'd learned from "The Simpsons."
Thanks to the powers of syndication, another young "Simpsons" fan applied that same knowledge in 2007, saving his friend from choking on a ham sandwich; the young hero told the Sunday Express, "It just came into my head and I did it." Both of these events are even more impressive because the original "Simpsons" Heimlich gag was a blink-and-you'll-miss-it detail.