FoxEverything you've ever known or loved about The Simpsons is a lie!
Maybe.
Reddit user Hardtopickaname has come up with a pretty mind-blowing theory about the long-running animated series. Just a fair warning: it might change the way you watch The Simpsons forever.
Basically, Hardtopickaname thinks that Homer has been in a vegetated state for most of the series, and that all the episodes after the start of his coma have been in his head.
In a season four episode called "Homer the Heretic" that aired in October of 1992, Homer starts his own religion and has some conversations with God. His final conversation with God, however, is where this theory starts:
Homer: God, I gotta ask you something. What's the meaning of life?
God: Homer, I can't tell you that.
Homer: C'mon! God: You'll find out when you die.
Homer: I can't wait that long!
God: You can't wait six months?
Homer: No, tell me now!
God: Well, ok. The meaning of life is…
So obviously the joke there is that Homer will die in six months. Guess what episode airs six months later?
"So It's Come To This: A Simpsons Clip Show," which is the episode where Bart accidentally puts Homer in a coma after his exploding beer prank goes seriously awry. In the end, Homer wakes up from his coma, but Hardtopickaname proposes that in reality, Homer didn't come out of his coma at all.
"I propose that Homer didn't actually wake up from his coma. He is still in a vegetative state and every single Simpsons episode afterwards is in Homer's imagination. This is why the characters don't age. Homer remembers Bart, Lisa, and Maggie as 10, 8, and 1 year old, so they will always appear that way in his dreams. He is subconsciously aware of time passing, so his mind will often "update" his memories so that the year they occurred matches up with the age he thinks he is (eg. That 90's Show contradicting other flashback episodes)."
Another bit of evidence he brings forward to support the vegetated Homer theory is that plot lines on the show following the April Fool's episode become "far more zanier" than usual:
Plot Examples Before April 1993
Bart cheats on an IQ test
Homer tries to give up drinking
Marge considers cheating on Homer
Lisa has a crush on her teacher
Plot Examples After April 1993
Homer goes into outer space
Principal Skinner is revealed as an imposter
Mr. Burns captures the Loch Ness Monster
Homer works for a supervillain who takes over the eastern US
Bart and Homer buy a racehorse and discover the secret land of jockeys
Also, celebrity after celebrity after celebrity
"This is clearly Homer's imagination running wild. With no real world restrictions, Homer's mind is able to dream up scenarios of him and his family in fantasies involving him winning a Grammy, his father fighting his boss for buried WW2 treasure, his wife getting breast implants, his infant daughter saving him from drowning, etc.
The massive amounts of celebrity appearances are easily explained as well. People in comas can sometime hear what people in the same room are saying. While Homer wouldn't physically react, his mind processes that information and includes it in his dreams."
His family visits and talk with each other about the new Mel Gibson movie they're going to be seeing after leaving the hospital. Next thing you know:
Finally, Hardtopickaname proposes that Homer did indeed find out the meaning of life, or at least, the meaning of his life:
"Well life can have different meaning for different people and a purpose or reason for one's existence can be as unique as their fingerprints. For Homer, his grand purpose is obvious – he is here to entertain. His dreams, his imaginative adventures, have provided billions with amusement and will continue to do so for decades."
And then there is this tweet from executive producer Al Jean about how he'd like to end the series. It doesn't exactly fit in with this Homer in a coma theory, but it is sort of theory-adjacent:
@EverySimpsons My idea for last episode -- ends w/arrival at Xmas pageant (beginning of first episode). Whole series a continuous loop...
? Al Jean (@AlJean) August 21, 2014Well, what do you guys think of this theory? Obviously, there are holes in his theory, but if you want to suspend belief for a bit, it's kind of mind-blowing, right?