While The Simpsons Season 34 tried to break the fourth wall with a nod to a largely-forgotten earlier episode, the long-running animated comedy making a rookie blunder in the process. The Simpsons is no stranger to self-referential comedy. Since its inception, the series has mocked the tropes of family sitcoms and, at its most ambitious, The Simpsons has lampooned the conventions of television itself with ambitious, fourth-wall-breaking jokes. However, while the experimental impulse behind these gags should be commended, it does not mean that all of them worked.
While The Simpsons Season 34 parodied its own decline successfully with an episode about the titular family becoming dispassionate sellouts as he gains fame, this clever outing soon followed by a meta joke that fell flat. To be fair The Simpsons Season 34, Episode 13, “The Many Saints of Springfield,” the joke featured in the episode was a clever one. The only problem is that his reference to a piece of behind-the-scenes minutiae is wrong, and the writers of The Simpsons It is not clear that the error was broadcast the episode.
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The Simpsons refers to a non-existent episode
There is no “CADF12” episode of The Simpsons
In “The Many Saints of Springfield,” Flanders reminds Marge that he was once Bart’s substitute teacher, and claims that the mnemonic “CADF12” was all Marge needed to remember his short time on the job The Simpsons Season 34 swaps Bart and Lisa’s roles as Bart collaborates with Skinner, Ned remembers that Marge’s son was still a Hellion during his time studying. “CADF12” is supposed to represent Bart’s grades and the days he missed, but the repeated phrase was transparently a reference to the actual episode’s real-life production code. The problem is that episode of The Simpsons Does not exist.
No episode of The Simpsons produces the product code “CADF12.” There is, however, an excursion with the code XABF12. The Simpsons Season 29, episode 19, “Left Behind,” is the episode where Ned works as Bart’s teacher, and, not coincidentally, XABF12 is the episode’s production code. While earlier mistakes almost killed The SimpsonsThis misstep is unlikely to cause any dramatic fallout. However, it is strange that The Simpsons Draws attention to the code, only for the code itself to be meaningless thanks to an altered letter.
Is This Simpsons Season 34 Screw-Up Intentional?
The writers referenced a non-existent episode on purpose
As it turns out, the creators of The Simpsons Added this mistake to the show on purpose. Getting a real-life production code not quite right would be an easy way of trolling long-time viewers, but the actual explanation for the gag is much more mundane. As the episode’s writer, Al Jean, noted in a tweet, Ned’s comment needed to start with a letter to make sense, and even Bart can’t get an “X” at school.
While The Simpsons Season 34 breaks its own rules regularly, usually in service of a surprising twist or a clever gag setup. this time though, The Simpsons Season 34 barely missed a real-life reference thanks to the show’s relative fidelity to reality. Oddly, the joke might have been even funnier if Ned had used the proper XABF12 code. Not only would the Easter egg make more sense, it would beg the question of what Bart Simpson actually did to deserve an X grade.
The Simpsons have made other mistakes in the past
The “CADF12” error may be deliberate, but there are also genuine continuity slip-ups
The Simpsons Season 34 may have made a deliberate mistake for some meta-humor when it referred to the non-existent episode “CADF12”, but there have been similar mistakes throughout the show that were completely accidental. Of course, continuity is incredibly loose in the simpsons, And the show has even referred to it as part of some jokes. Considering how long it was on the air, it’s no surprise that the timeline constantly shifts to account for the years that have passed, as seen in the story of Marge and Homer’s first meeting repositioning to later decades several times.
However, the mistakes in The Simpsons Are not the inevitable continuity changes, but genuine and inexplicable mistakes that have little-to-no explanation. These are more notable in earlier seasons, but the show still slips occasionally. A key example of this easily avoidable error is what class some students at Springfield Elementary actually belong to, with some minor characters showing up in both Bart and Lisa’s classes at various points.
Ralph Wiggum, for example, is in second grade with Lisa, much to the frustration of their teacher, Miss Hoover. However, there are multiple times when Ralph can be seen in Bart’s class in earlier seasons. There was never an explanation provided for this, or, and It seems to be a case of the animators using Ralph as a background character.
The same can be said about the twins, Sherry and Terry. Sherry and Terry are in fourth grade with Bart. However, in the season 13 episode “Little Girl in the Big Ten”, the pair compete alongside Lisa in a gymnastics competition. It is never explained why Sherry and Terry attend a second grade classAnd there seems to be no justification for it beyond the writers overlooking an established part of the show’s continuity.
Another final example of a notable error relates to Bart’s murderous nemesis, Sideshow Bob. Sideshow Bob is introduced in The Simpsons Season 1, and found himself in prison at the end of his debut appearance. It wasn’t until the season 3 episode “Black Widow” that Bob was out from behind bars (although, as always, it wasn’t long before he was incarcerated again).
However, he can also be seen singing carols with a group of Springfield residents in season 2’s “Bart Gets An F”. Just as Ralph occasionally shows up in Bart’s class, this is a clear example of animators on The Simpsons Make an avoidable mistake and use an established character to fill background space.