Summary

• The Simpsons writers struggled but eventually found a perfectly dumb answer to a tricky plot point.
• The show's balance between smartness and stupidity remains a key appeal, even in season 35.
• Homer's inspired stupidity saves the day as the writers crack a seemingly impossible joke during the Golden Age.

Although one joke confounded The Simpsons season 36 may change this, part of the show’s appeal has always been its ability to switch between these two modes in the same storyline.

Since The Simpsons Golden Age episodes were stumped by a joke they couldn’t work out. Luckily, inspired stupidity saved the day.

Lisa’s Beauty Pageant Loss Stumped Multiple Writers In The Simpsons’ Golden Age

The Classic Episode’s Ending Was Almost Impossible To Solve

In season 4, episode 4, “Lisa the Beauty Queen,” Lisa’s lack of self-confidence led Homer to enter her into a beauty pageant. After an accident involving the pageant’s original winner, Lisa was crowned Little Miss Springfield. However, she took issue with both the pageant’s sponsor, a tobacco company, and Mayor Quimby’s corruption. The pageant’s organizers immediately realized they needed to disqualify Lisa, but this led to a problem for the writers. According to Mike Reiss, no joke in the Golden Age of The Simpsons was harder for the writers' room to crack than how the corrupt judges justified disqualifying Lisa.

In Springfield Confidential, the book he co-authored with Matthew Klickstein, Reiss itted that the writers’ room spent what seemed like forever trying to work out this gag. The Simpsons sidelined Bart and Lisa's stories in season 35, and it is possible that these plot holes are the reasons that Homer tends to take precedence as the show’s de facto protagonist. After all, it was a typically inspired bit of stupidity from Homer that eventually allowed the writers’ room to solve the mystery. The late comedy writer Frank Mula came up with a gag that answered the troublesome question.

The Simpsons Answered This Plot Hole With A Perfect Gag

The Show Leaned Into Homer’s Dim-Witted Demeanor

Eventually, Mula pitched a perfect solution when he suggested that Homer wrote “Ok” on the entry form in the box that read “Do not write in this box.” This simple, stupid move got Lisa disqualified, thus allowing the writers to wrap up the story with a twist that was fitting for numerous reasons. The silliness of Homer’s error underlined what a lovable buffoon he was, while the harmlessness of the mistake proved what craven cynics the bureaucrats disqualifying Lisa were. The Simpsons used Homer’s idiocy to great effect when the writers’ room worked on cracking this seemingly impossible gag.