TREEHOUSE OF ERROR

Even though the Simpsons are now Coca-Cola spokesmen, that hasn’t stopped the soda giant from spreading lies about Our Favorite Family. Over the past year, Coke has made a big push to emphasize its historical roots, including resuscitating its long-dead founder, Dr. John Pemberton. Without mentioning names, an interactive Coke history quiz attributes the “Diet Coke and Mentos” fad that swept the nation in the 2000s to Bart Simpson:

diet coke bart simpson

They should have checked their factoids. Barring some forgettable Season 15 episode, the only Simpsons moment that comes close to that is the immortal scene from “Homer Badman” when Homer macgyvers a can of the fictional Buzz Cola and a bag of Pop Rox to form an improvised grenade, and presumably kills dozens with the resulting explosion, which you can see in this animated gif I just spent 15 minutes looking for:

homer pop rocks explosion

Now, why in the world would those corporate fatcats at Coca-Cola want to distance themselves from that? Why even bring The Simpsons into this at all? You may have won the Cola Wars, Coke, but that doesn’t give you the right to rewrite history. [Coke Time Machine]

GROEN DRAIN

matt groening Yes, even rich people get jury duty sometimes! Simpsons creator Matt Groening has been been selected to be a juror in a five-member jury two states away in Park City, Utah. What the heck? Is Utah so desolate that they have to call in people from other states to serve on their juries? Weird. [The Salt Lake Tribune]

AZTEC THEATRE

First, some background: in fall 1990, Fox moved The Simpsons to Thursday nights in a heavily publicized move to compete head-on with The Cosby Show, which was then the reigning television champion. Eventually, The Simpsons managed to overtake Cosby in the ratings, and in June 1991, Bill Cosby announced the following season would be the show’s last. The final episode of The Cosby Show aired on April 30th, 1992. The Simpsons paid its respects with a hastily-assembled homage added to that night’s episode, a rerun of “Three Men and a Comic Book,” with Bart issuing an awfully prescient warning for viewers. It only aired that one time and was thought by many to be lost to the sands of time. Luckily, anything that has ever aired on television in the past fifty years will eventually resurface on YouTube:

Yes, Golden Age Simpsons managed to burn the current incarnation of the show from years in the past. The ownage levels are off the charts. [YouTube via No Homers Club]