‘The Simpsons’ 10 Finest Thanksgiving Episodes, Ranked
As of September 2022, The Simpsons, entered season 34, and is ranked one of many longest working scripted reveals in America, overtaking classics like Gunsmoke (which ran for 20 years), in addition to Scooby-Doo (which ran for 371 episodes, by way of a number of iterations). Whereas The Simpson’s didn’t typically have Thanksgiving specials, they did have a handful of nice reminiscences to go away us all feeling so totally grateful.
Identified for his or her wild household antics and their high quality vacation specials, The Simpson’s represented a standard, on a regular basis household. With plenty of give attention to Halloween and Christmas, typically Thanksgiving will get the brief finish of the stick. Sometimes, nevertheless, The Simpson’s delivered a tremendous episode that introduced Thanksgiving enjoyable into a pleasant 22-minute journey.
The Simpsons
- Launch Date
- December 17, 1989
- Most important Style
- Comedy
- Seasons
- 36
- Studio
- Fox
10 “Step Brother From the Identical Planet”
Season 34, Episode 8
Think about studying that you could have a step-brother that didn’t fairly sit effectively with you. Now, think about that very same step-brother being launched on probably the most aggravating time of the 12 months, Thanksgiving. You now know what Homer felt like within the Season 34 Thanksgiving episode “Step Brother From the Identical Planet,” which sees his father bringing house a girlfriend a lot youthful than he’s, and he or she, in flip, brings her son to the vacation festivities.
You possibly can perceive, considerably, the place Homer is coming from, as he’s anticipated to deal with her child as a step-brother. Whereas one would suppose that Grampa Simpson and his new girlfriend would anticipate Homer to bond together with her son, it doesn’t all the time end up that means, which led to an episode that’s each hilarious and heartfelt on the similar time.
9 “Poetic Interlude”
Season 33, Episode 3
Who would have thought {that a} “Treehouse of Horror” episode would give technique to one of many higher Simpsons Thanksgiving episodes? That episode was “Poetic Interlude,” which was a section from Season 33’s “Treehouse XXXII” episode. Right here, the late, nice Vincent Worth reads Maggie a bedtime story about how her son, Bart, pulls a prank for every month of the 12 months, with a type of pranks being a turkey carving prank for Thankgiving.
Whereas the story could appear gentle, the episode shortly turns into darkish, which lends this episode an eerie vibe Worth can be pleased with. With the animation of the episode matching the horror-tinged tone, “Poetic Inerlude” needs to be in your radar in order for you a facet of mind-bending terror to go together with the turkey and stuffing.
8 “Tis the thirtieth Season”
Season 30, Episode 10
Technically, this isn’t a Thanksgiving episode, but it surely does begin off with Thanksgiving dinner after which moves right into Black Friday purchasing and Christmas lists, and so on. It’s a enjoyable episode concerning the holidays, but it surely is not solely about Thanksgiving.
After Thanksgiving dinner, Bart and Lisa give Homer and Marge their Christmas lists, and evidently they need a massively costly TV. When Homer and Marge see that it’s on sale for considerably much less for Black Friday, they make plans to retrieve it. Lengthy story brief, they don’t get it and plenty of hilarious but heartwarming moments come about for the household.
7 “The Wettest Tales Ever Informed”
Season 17, Episode 18
Despite the fact that this episode is just not a conventional Thanksgiving episode, it nonetheless has references to the vacation. On this transient point out, the household has dinner ruined, they usually find yourself telling one another tales which are nautically themed in hopes of saving the night from complete catastrophe… and an octopus with knives.
Through the telling of one of many tales, Lisa tells of assorted variations of her relations on the Mayflower as they sail the seas. The tip of this bizarre and seemingly pointless story has the household assembly the Wampanoag tribe and becoming a member of them for the primary Thanksgiving feast solely to have this fictional version of Ned Flanders (Harry Shearer) reveal that they have been aspiring to take their land and kill all of them… good household Thanksgiving pleasure.
6 “Homer the Moe”
Season 13, Episode 3
What begins out as an odd episode having nothing to do with Thanksgiving, turns into a comparatively heartwarming and beautiful choice of moments. Moe (Hank Azaria) decides that he’s sad with the mundane nature of every single day being the identical at his bar, and displays on his time in school. As he leaves Homer in command of his bar (horrible mistake) to go go to his school, he finally ends up making the choice to revamp his bar into a classy and hipster hangout, making Homer and the remainder of the fellows hate it and go away.
Moe finally reverts his bar again to its common appear and feel. All the fellows find yourself again at Moe’s for a deliciously terrible Thanksgiving meal made solely of tofu and gluten. Such an odd episode, however because it ends, Homer solidifies his love for Moe by putting some cash in his tip jar on the bar.
5 “From Russia With out Love”
Season 30, Episode 6
Nothing says Thanksgiving fairly like a faux mail-order Russian bride, proper? Bart makes use of the darkish internet to order Moe a Russian bride as a result of he not responded emotionally to the prank calls Bart made. After a collection of wildly unrealistic occasions, Moe lastly decides to marry this gal.
Happily for Moe, although, Bart finds out that this mail-order bride who mentioned she had really fallen in love with Moe, is definitely a rip-off artist who was making an attempt to get all of the authorized rights to possession of Moe’s bar in order that she might steal all his web value. He breaks off every little thing, and he or she goes and pretends to be Scottish to seduce Groundskeeper Willie (Dan Castellaneta). And all of this is able to by no means have occurred if it weren’t for Marge asking Homer to uninvite a drink-too-much Moe to Thanksgiving dinner.
4 “Homer vs. Dignity”
Season 12, Episode 5
When Homer realizes that he can’t comply with by way of with a easy funds, and finally ends up thus far past broke that even in demise, he wouldn’t even come up with the money for for his grave to be attended. In a determined try to make some cash, he asks Mr. Burns (Harry Shearer) for a increase, who then proceeds to make use of Homer as his private courtroom jester, of kinds, and pays him small quantities of cash for ridiculous duties, like throwing pudding at a co-worker or consuming a uncommon comedian e-book in entrance of the Comedian Ebook Man (Hank Azaria).
After being Mr. Burns’ amuser for lengthy sufficient, Lisa lastly will get Homer to cease doing these wild duties. So, when Homer takes all his “earnings” and donates all of it to Costington’s Division Retailer, the proprietor means that Homer gown up as Santa Claus for the Thanksgiving Day parade handy out toys to all the youngsters within the crowd. After just a few extra wild moments, Homer is grateful to, and thanks Lisa for serving to him to save lots of his dignity.
3 “Holidays of Future Handed”
Season 23. Episode 9
Beginning with the tip of Thanksgiving dinner and the household speeding to take their annual Christmas card image, each Bart and Lisa protest as a result of they hate it and want to not need to do it anymore. Marge factors out that in the future they’ll look again and love these moments, particularly once they have kids of their very own and may recognize a majority of these traditions. Each vehemently point out that they’ll by no means have children as a result of they by no means need to topic the world to extra Simpson dysfunction.
Flash ahead thirty years and each Bart and Lisa at the moment are mother and father themselves, and are having important problem of their parenting and relationships. They find yourself at Homer and Marge’s home, and after some enjoyable adventures and heartfelt moments, the 2 notice that parenting is admittedly laborious, and acknowledge the effort their parents put in once they have been children. The episode ends with everybody gathering (nonetheless thirty years sooner or later) to take one other household picture.
2 “Thanksgiving of Horror”
Season 31, Episode 8
In an homage to the annual and ever-popular Treehouse of Horror episodes, The Simpson’s recreate that very same Halloween magic, however for Thanksgiving. There’s a disturbing model of the household as Turkeys in the course of the first Thanksgiving. There may be synthetic intelligence that Homer buys to quasi-replace Marge. And there’s a ridiculous area journey the place Bart inadvertently creates The Blob with cranberry sauce.
This episode actually does have every little thing, because it has references to so many well-known films and genres. The primary Thanksgiving section is a parody of Apocalypto, the A.I. section touches on facets present in numerous episodes of Black Mirror, and the area journey section clearly parodies the horrible movie The Blob, the place gelatinous goo turns into sentient and murderous. So, whereas not a typical Thanksgiving particular, it actually did ship with such a implausible number of enjoyable and pleasure and references that everybody will possible take pleasure in.
1 “Bart vs. Thanksgiving”
Season 2, Episode 7
In one of many earliest episodes of the collection, after moving into an argument with Lisa and breaking her selfmade Thanksgiving centerpiece and throwing it within the fireplace, Bart finally ends up working away from house. Whereas away, Bart finally ends up making an attempt to steal a pie, will get chased by guard canine, and makes use of a faux ID to promote blood, after which results in a soup kitchen receiving handouts for the homeless.
When Bart lastly returns house, we get to see a really loving reunion together with his household. After such a troublesome time, it’s very nice to see that Bart got here again, apologized, and that the Simpson clan was in a position to lastly spend a household Thanksgiving collectively, even when it was solely leftovers that they have been in a position to eat collectively. It actually was an ideal second to see all of them collectively and completely happy once more, actually having fun with what Thanksgiving is all about – household.