Way back in the heady days of late Season 13, viewers were presented with the tantalizing prospect of a Simpson family voyage to the mysterious continent of Antarctica:
Homer: The Simpsons are goin’ to Brazil.
Bart: Then I’ll have been on every continent.
Marge: Except Antarctica.
Homer: The Simpsons are goin’ to Antarctica … next year. This year Brazil.
But alas, a vacation to Antarctica was not in the cards for the following season (instead they went to EPCOT Center to help reunite Principal Skinner with Mrs. Krapabbel, who is now dating Ned Flanders for some reason). Although some fanfiction writers tried to keep the dream alive, the hopes of seeing Bart and Lisa hanging out with penguins slowly evaporated as the years went on and the Simpsons seemed to go everywhere except Antarctica (remember the time they went to Ireland? No? Good.) But now, finally, a decade later, THE DREAM HAS BECOME REALITY.
The Hollywood Reporter:
This season the Simpsons will achieve the landmark of having visited all seven continents: Yes, this means the Simpsons family is headed to Antarctica.
Now there’s no guarantee this will be a straight-up “vacation” episode like Bart vs. Australia or Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo. It could just be a brief stopover, like the time they went to Peru, or Homer’s visit to the Kwik-E-Mart head office in India. But I certainly hope it’s the former. Predictions: they go there because of something involving Lisa and global warming, Homer ignores the advice of the scientists in the research base and goes off alone, Homer fights with some penguins and gets bitten, a melting glacier becomes the setpiece of the obligatory action-packed Act 4 conflict. I can’t wait!
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My biggest beef with The Simpsons nowadays is how much it feels like fan fiction. Characters speak in the same stilted voice, their personality traits are either ignored or sacrificed so they can be crammed into a ridiculous situation, and storylines tend to revolve around shocking new revelations, origin stories, and pairing characters together. So I’m not surprised that the show is actually giving control to shippers.
This Sunday, after a new episode where Mrs. Krabappel (she and Mr. K should really get that divorce finalized) starts dating Ned Flanders, viewers will get to decide whether their relationship continues, in a half-assed attempt to generate “buzz.” It’s exactly like that Batman thing from the 1980s where readers decided whether Robin lived or died, except with “Nedna.” Yes, they’ve already coined a name for it.
The Simpsons has a good track record of cleverly subverting their shameless stunts: Mr. Burns was shot by the least likely suspect; a fan-created character was killed instantly. But I highly doubt even a hilarious twist could salvage this desperate gimmick. Will it be a forgettable waste of time? Or will it be a forgettable waste of time? (Answer: It will be a forgettable waste of time.) [TVbytheNumbers]
In case you ever need further evidence of the creative bankruptcy of Current Simpsons, look no further than the episode titles themselves. Here is a list of titles from Seasons 21 and 22.
- Bart Gets a “Z” – Reference to Bart Gets an F, which was also referenced later that season with Bart’s Dog Gets an F, and again in Season 10 with Lisa Gets an “A”
- Rednecks and Broomsticks – Pun of Bedknobs and Broomsticks, already parodied by Mypods and Boomsticks
- O Brother, Where Bart Thou? – Pun of “O Brother, Where Art Thou?,” a fictional novel from Sullivan’s Travels, already referenced by O Brother, Where Art Thou?
- Moe Letter Blues – Pun of Mo’ Better Blues, already referenced by Moe Baby Blues
- Elementary School Musical – Incredibly lazy parody of High School Musical that had already been used by a South Park episode
- Loan-a Lisa – Pun on Mona Lisa, already referenced by Moaning Lisa, Moe’N’a Lisa, and Mona Leaves-a
- Lisa Simpson, This Isn’t Your Life – Reference to the catchphrase from This Is Your Life, already referenced by Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife
- Flaming Moe – Presumably, this is the title to an upcoming episode where “Moe’s Tavern is converted into an ultra-trendy bar,” which given the homophobic tendencies of the current show, undoubtedly means “gay bar.” The title, of course, is a parody of Flaming Moe’s…. essentially making a gay joke out of a title that was already a gay joke.
After a duet with monster-entertainer Elmo was cut from Sesame Street for being too hot for educational TV, singer-songwriter Katy Perry has rebounded with puppet versions of Simpsons characters for some sort of gimmicky Christmas episode. Little known fact: Katy Perry is half-muppet on her father’s side. [Entertainment Weekly]
What do you do if you’re a long-running show that’s totally out of ideas? Do you scrounge up long-discarded episode ideas from the Trash Co. waste disposal unit and try to pass them off as new? What if you’ve completely exhausted that avenue? What’s your next recourse? Well, if you’re The Simpsons, you do the next best thing – scrounge up long-discarded fanfiction. 
It was only a matter of time before tween heartthrob Justin Bieber did a guest voice for The Simpsons. And now the inevitable has become reality, and the show’s producers are surely confident it’ll give them a huge ratings boost. It didn’t work last time with Lady Gaga – 
A Simpsons short starring Maggie the Baby is being shoved in front of the fourth Ice Age movie, flying into theaters this summer. The 
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Fox is always looking for new ways to encourage people to kill themselves. With their plans for an all-Simpsons channel having failed to materialize, it looked like their attempts to integrate The Simpsons into their master plan were dead on arrival.