The Simpsonsat its best excels at whatever genre it embraces—be itnoir,thriller,mystery, or anything else. It’s no different withscience fiction. There are so many great worksThe Simpsonscanparody, given theanimatedmedium’s ability to make such settings and situations come to life, and these episodes add a unique quality to the show. After all, it’s always good to freshen things up when it comes to any program. That goes double forcartoons, which can technically go as bonkers as they want.
The Simpsonshas donesci-fiin a variety of ways over the years: futuristic settings, space adventures, technological disasters, and so on. Of course, spicing things up a bit shouldn’t take away from thesitcom’s trademark humor, emotional strength, and character work. There are definitely times when the show has fallen on its face in its attempt to employ this genre (among others) into a number of story-lines, but not in these.The Simpsons Moviewon’t count here, as we focus strictly ontelevisionepisodes. A few Treehouse of Horror segments will be counted, but without going overboard and making this largely abest Treehouse-episodes list.Judging based on the consistency of their humor and science fiction elements, here are possibly the ten best examples ofThe Simpsonsshowing the animation world how funny sci-fi is done.
The Simpsons
10"Deep Space Homer"
Season 5, Episode 15
In season five’s famous entry, “Deep Space Homer,” NASA decides they need to boost their viewership by launching an average Joe into space. That will be Homer (Dan Castellaneta), who inexplicably got their number. Though NASA does launch things into space, the very notion of launching an idiot like Homer up there in the mid-90s makes this a borderline sci-fi premise already. Of course, the revelation that all the monkeys who were shot into space came back hyper-intelligent definitely qualifies.
As far as laughs go, there aren’t as many as in the other entries here. However, the strangeness of having Homer get shot into space and the charm ofJames Taylorforcing the astronauts to listen to him play carry things along well enough. One of the funnier moments is when Bart (Nancy Cartwright) tries to express how much pride he has for his father. Along with some gorgeous animation of space, this episode fittingly closes with references to both the beginning and the end ofStanley Kubrick’s2001: A Space Odyssey.
9"Itchy and Scratchy Land"
Season 6, Episode 4
This memorable Itchy and Scratchy episodesees the Simpsons taking a trip to the Itchy and Scratchy Land theme park. Things seem fine at first, as the audience learns about the cartoon cat and mouse’s old friends and views more of their violent shorts than usual. But things also get violent in the real world when all the giant robots in the park go haywire. Not like we should be surprised, since that helicopter pilot introduced Itchy and Scratchy Land as the place where “nothing can possib-lie go wrong.”
Suddenly the robots start attacking everyone in the park, and it’s up to the Simpsons to stop them. Although the majority of this episode isn’t sci-fi, it goes pretty intensely into the genre when that plot twist arrives. This dark spin on an amusement park provides both laughs and thrills, making for one of the most amusing examples of an evil-robot plot-line.
8"Simpsons World" from “Treehouse of Horror XXXIII”
Season 34, Episode 6, Segment 3
“Treehouse of Horror XXXIII” is one of the best Halloween-special entries of the 21st century, and its final segment ends surprisingly well. It’s called “Simpsons World,” in which the Homer from “Marge vs. The Monorail” is interrupted by intoxicated fans. We soon see that he’s merely a robot, a malfunctioning one at that. So this Homer is taken to a facility with some other Homers, showing Springfield to be part of an enormous fake world of intellectual property used to make a profit.
The first few minutes alone established this story as one of the most fourth-wall-breaking entries of all time, if not the most. Things only get crazier when Monorail-Homer increases his level of self-awareness via touchpad and makes an escape from his oppressors. He picks up a version of each of his family members on the way out, and there areso many Easter eggscondensed throughout this episode that you couldn’t possibly spot them all in a single viewing. Along with some decent laughs, “Simpsons World” tells us this long-running show can still come up with good sci-fi.
7"Time and Punishment" from “Treehouse of Horror V”
Season 6, Episode 6, Segment 2
The Simpsons' fifthHalloween special ranks among the best, and “Time and Punishment” is one of the reasons why. Homer is so bad at fixing toasters that he accidentally turns his into a time machine. It sends him to the dinosaur age, then sends him back to the present. Only the present isn’t the same, thanks to something that Homer did all those millions of years before. The butterfly effect has never been funnier.
In one alternate present, the world is run by a totalitarian Ned Flanders (Harry Shearer). With one single comment, Homer gets this version of his family taken to the “Re-Neducation” center. After he escapes, he makes his toaster bring him back to the dinosaur age to fix the present. But he does something stupid every time, leading to a back-and-forth that’s totally bonkers and a riot to watch. Overall, it’s sci-fi done short and sweet.
6"Lisa’s Wedding"
Season 6, Episode 19
Easily one ofthe bestSimpsons' episodes set in the future, “Lisa’s Wedding” is largely presented through a fortune-teller. We’re shown how Lisa (Yeardley Smith) falls in love with a young man from England. They have such similar interests that Lisa initially gets annoyed that he picks a book out of the library before her. Since Lisa’s in college now, this is a good time for the show to make somepredictions about the future.
It doesn’t have a setting as extreme as in other episodes, but that winds up going in the episode’s favor. Lisa has lots of anxiety regarding the prospect of her beau meeting her family, leading to a heartwarming depiction of the Simpsons family and yet another touching portrayal of Lisa. Furthermore, the futuristic elements that are here work quite well. The “picture-phone,” for instance, impressively predicts both video-calls and the awkwardness when older people don’t quite know how it works. Along with a funny World War III joke and more, “Lisa’s Wedding” marries its setting with its characters splendidly.
5"Holidays of Future Passed"
Season 23, Episode 9
Amongthe best holiday episodes in the show’s history, “Holidays of Future Passed” has so many sci-fi details in this futuristic Springfield that there’s always something else to notice when you watch it again. The holographic Itchy and Scratchy and the concept of plugging yourself into a laptop to spend time in the virtual world are just a few of the standouts. As wild as the setting is, however, what makes this so great is that the show’s emotional strength remains intact, too.
The Simpsons are all trying to get together for Christmas, which isn’t so easy now that they’re all grown up and have kids of their own. Mostly, anyway—Maggie’s on the verge of giving birth, and her odyssey home is hilarious. “Holidays of Future Passed” was originally meant to be the series finale ofThe Simpsons. Surely many fans out there are glad it wasn’t, but it’s strong enough to see how the writing team really brought their all to make sure the show would go out in style.
4"Hungry Are the Damned" from “Treehouse of Horror”
Season 2, Episode 3, Segment 2
The very first “Simpsons Halloween Special” brought us the beloved Kang and Kodos, who are so iconic that they’ve been recurring characters to this day. However, theyweren’t always the evil creaturesthey’ve long been portrayed as. In their first appearance, they treat the Simpson family to a seemingly never-ending meal of delicious foods. Granted, they did abduct them against their will, one of several things that makes Lisa suspicious of their intentions.
In a hilarious parody ofThe Twilight Zone’s “To Serve Man,” Lisa thinks the aliens are trying to fatten them all up for a meal of their own. When she shows her family the aliens' cookbook, the misunderstanding of what’s going on is eventually resolved in classicSimpsonsfashion. With humorous details (like the Simpsons and the aliens sharing the same language), cool animation aboard the spaceship, and excellent direction, there’s nothing not to love about this short and sweet sci-fi adventure.
3"Who Shot Mr. Burns?"
Season 6, Episode 25 and Season 7, Episode 1
Mr. Burns (Shearer) has done so many monstrous things before that it’s hard to think of the very worst thing he’s done. Well, his scheme throughout the two-part “Who Shot Mr. Burns?” certainly ranks high on that list. Besides stealing oil from a public school that could really use the money, he decides to block out the sun and consolidate his monopoly on power in Springfield. The water, the nuclear power, the oil, and the electric companies are all his. Solar is all that remains.
It’s such a despicable act that everyone in town is infuriated by the old man’s actions. So many people consider killing him that people in a town hall meeting show up visibly stroking guns. Even more telling, Mr. Burns is shot—and there are so many major suspects that no one can figure out who really did it. The element of mystery melds so well with humor in the season six finale and season seven premiere that it provedThe Simpsonscould excel with longer, sci-fi story-lines long before the movie came out.
2"You Only Move Twice"
Season 8, Episode 2
Season eight’s “You Only Move Twice” isa classic extended parodyofJames Bondtropes. When Homer gets a new and higher-paying job at Cypress Creek, his boss (Albert Brooks) is so ridiculously nice that something has to be wrong. Ironically, Hank Scorpio is a super-villain of Bond-movie proportions. When he’s not running in a community marathon, bringing gift baskets to new employees, and giving people directions to the nearest hammock stores, Scorpio is blowing up buildings, firing lasers at Europe, and threatening world leaders.
His gadgetry is quite advanced, and his more polished nuclear power plant facility makes for a terrific backdrop to these cartoonishly evil scenarios. At one point, Scorpio has a man called Mr. Bont tied to a table as a laser slowly works its way up to his body. Bont escapes, but Homer tackles him and the man is immediately shot. There are many more hilarious moments throughout, making this a sci-fi entry for the ages.
1"The Springfield Files"
Season 8, Episode 10
“The Springfield Files” is spooky all the way through. From the moment that guest starLeonard Nimoyintroduces the tale, the audience deduces that this is going to bea weird episode indeed. Homer thinks he spotted an alien emerging from the woods, which ultimately leads to Bart joining him in his attempt to find it again. Eventually, the entire Springfield community becomes curious—some humorously selling memorabilia to take advantage of the situation.
There is more than just one alien in this episode, however. Somehow,The Simpsonswere able to get a whole police line-up of famous aliens throughout film and TV, and two FBI agents come to investigate the case alaThe X-Files. There is no subplot here, either; the story goes all-in on the science fiction elements, and they pay off spectacularly. There areso many famous movie parodieshere that it almost makes other episodes' rate of references seem lazy by comparison. Overall,The Simpsonshas never otherwise done sci-fi this comedically and this intensely at once.
