Some inconsistencies I've noticed with The Simpsons

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cbdrumergirl

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And relax, this is not another thread about why the Simpsons don't age, or complaints about horrible out-of-continuity eps like the ep where Homer/Marge grow up in the 90's instead of the 60's/70's. I have some other things to note:

1. Apu was revealed to not eat meat. Yet in one episode at a party thrown by Sanje, we see Apu pick up a hot dog off the grill and eat it. Are we to believe this is a tofu hot dog like the ones he served Lisa?

2. In an early season, Mr. Burns says he's only 82. Yet later on he says he's 104 years old. Why the inconsistency with his age?

3. In Apu's flashback in the ep where he gets his citizenship, we see Manjula is only an 8 year old girl. Are we expected to believe Manjula is a decade or two younger than Apu when they later get married?

4. In the episode where they flashback to how Maggie was born, we see a scene in the backyard where their dog buries something in the backyard. But how can this be? They didn't get Santa's little helper until much later in the Christmas episode after Maggie was born. So how can there be a flashback to before Maggie was born, and they owned the same dog?

5. In the same episode when Marge's friends throw her a baby shower, we see the woman with the red bandana. She's the mother of the girl who Bart had a crush on, I forgot her name. But how can this be? She didn't move into Springfield and meet Marge until much later, so how can she be in a flashback before Maggie was born?

6. Why is it in some episodes Homer and Bart seem much smarter than usual, where they solve problems that in other eps they'd be too stupid for? Is this an inconsistency among writers?

7. How can Ned Flanders be 60 years old when we see a flashback of him as a kid with his parents in the 60's? That would mean he should only be 40 or so, not 60.

8. How can Principal Skinner not really be related to his mother, when in the Abe Simpsons WWII flashback, we see Skinner's grandfather with the same last name.

9. Why is their inconsistency with Mr. Burns strength? Sometimes he can barely lift his arm to hit something or crush a paper cup, yet in other eps he kicks Bart or smacks people around as if ts nothing.

10. Sort of an odd question, but how is Apu and Sideshow Bob able to have kids, which mean time passes for them, but not for Maggie or anyone else?

11. Why does Homer seem to have a different life-long dream in many episodes, and in each ep Marge reveals he already did it. Is this an inside joke?

12. We see Bart graduate the 4th grade in a few episodes, yet eps later he's always in the same grade. Why?

This is all I can think of right now, I may have more later.
 
But these are mostly examples from the earlier years of the Simpsons. And many of these are from the "golden" seasons (3 thru 8).
 
With regards to #2, Mr. Burns comes across as senile at times---> he can't even remember who Homer is, at least in the old episodes.

The others can probably chalked up to writing inconsistencies and the magic of cartoons (e.g. Bart being in 4th grade for twenty years).
 
The Answer is Simple My friend..Its a Cartoon & Therefor the Laws of Reality are Irreliavent to it, I can have as many Inconsistaties & Time paradoxes as it wants & it'll make since, why. Because the writers say it does! LULZ.:anime::p:evil:
 
If these inconsistencies are just pointed out to have some fun. I love it. I think it's fun to point out consistency/continuity errors, as long as it's just for fun, and not as complaints.
 
The simple answer to the question is that it's a cartoon, and the various elements change whenever the script calls for it. Other things show this, for instance, exactly how many rooms are in the Simpson house? Or exactly how big is Springfield, when West Springfield is supposed to be three times as large as Texas? Many of these inconsistencies occur as jokes, and others only make one appearance. The writers try to keep many simple aspects of the show the same, but even some times those tend to change, such as Homer's age and weight, or even the Simpsons address. It's just the way things go.
 
The writers don't devote the effort to remembering this kind of minutiae, and they've openly admitted that. Why else do you think they always get crushed by the fans in those trivia contests they have at any sort of big FOX-sponsored Simpsons event?

As for things like Homer's lifelong dream being different in every episode, yes, that's a running joke. Note that they're all absolutely ridiculous things for a guy like Homer to set for himself as a life goal (i.e. being a monorail conductor, being a blackjack dealer, owning the Dallas Cowboys, etc.).
 
Yes

He was lying when he said he was 82. C'mon, we all do it when we get older...

Yes

Whoever was recounting the flashbacks misremembered

"We are all stupid, and we are all intelligent. The line dividing the stupid from the intelligent goes right down the middle of our heads."
--Philip Pullman

He wasn't a kid, he was a well-preserved twentysomething.

That was the grandfather of the real Skinner who, by a bizarre coincidence, looked and sounded remarkably like the fake one.

He takes steroids sometimes.

Yes

He's just a big dreamer.

The school's just really badly run.
 
Somebody who would have a list like this has way too much time on their hands, and is overthinking. It's best not to overthink.
 
Eh, you can never expect a show like this to be consistent. It'll just endlessly reset its facts. Skinner's being revealed as a fraud, and then everything going back to how it was before at the end of the episode, was a perfect example.
 
Sometimes the writers purposely put in inconsistencies as gags. I don't think that's the case with anything on the list but they'll try and get humor out of anything. Like how West Springfield is three times the size of Texas (and the same shape of it) which is obviously impossible. The geography of Springfield specifically is what gets mucked around with the most and it's usually on purpose.

And one more thing: if I recall Moleman's age jumps all over the place throughout the show too. He's in a retirement home and they call him 80 in one episode, but in another he says smoking ruined his life and he's only in his 30s or something.
 
I noticed a few more:

15. In the early seasons, Ms Hoover's hair randomly changes from blue than to brown in some eps, then finally settles on Brown.

16. Wiggum's hair is black in a lot of early eps instead of blue.

17. When Bart wore the "Down with homework" shirt, why was Ralph in Bart's class? Ralph is in the 2nd grade in Ms. Hoover's class, yet in the ep he was in the classroom eating paste under the table. Ralph should not have been there, how is this explained?

18. Mr. Burns said he graduated College in 1914. How the hell does that make sense? This is in the ep when he's reunited with his lost son. How old is Mr. Burns?

19. In the ep where Mr. Burns turns into an alien, Homer puts up a video showing him, Lenny and Carl working in the 70's. But Homer did not get the job in the power plant until Bart was born in the 80's. How can this be explained? Could they have still be in the 70's groove in the early 80's?

20. We see a glimpse of Nelson's dad in an early ep, yet later we find out his Dad went nuts. What gives?

21. If Homer/Apu/Skinner all preformed the B-sharps together in the early 80's, then howcome Apu and Homer act like they never met in the first season?
 
You know, this is exactly the kind of fan behavior that the writers love to make fun of. They never claimed that "The Simpsons" had some sort of all-encompassing inter-episode continuity that tied every event to every other event; the fans just assumed it. There's no concrete history for these characters - the writers are basically just making this stuff up as they go along. It's gotten to the point where it's actually become a joke in itself, where the writers will deliberately make one episode conflict with another just so the fans will drive themselves crazy trying to make them connect.

As for changing hair colors, that's just an animation goof.
 
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