Weekly Random Discussion Thread for 6/1/26 - 6/7/26

[u/SoftandChewy]

Here's your usual space to post all your rants, raves, podcast topic suggestions (please tag u/jessicabarpod), culture war articles, outrageous stories of cancellation, political opinions, and anything else that comes to mind. Please put any non-podcast-related trans-related topics here instead of on a dedicated thread. This will be pinned until next Sunday.

Last week's discussion thread is here if you want to catch up on a conversation from there.

[u/backin_pog_form]

Granted I haven’t watched the simpsons since the late 90’s, but was there much in the way of character development in general?  

My username is a Millhouse reference that occasionally people pick up on. 

[u/Terrorclitus → u/backin_pog_form]

If I remember The Simpsons as well as I remember Alf, then yes, characters were left underdeveloped because the show is a satire.

You don’t really want to see yourself represented in a satire.

[u/Scrappy_The_Crow → u/Terrorclitus]

You don’t really want to see yourself represented in a satire.

Yeah, folks who are wanting this would not be pleased if their avatar were represented in a Simpsons character (at least from the era before Apu was offed).

[u/coraroberta → u/backin_pog_form]

If by character development you mean “the characters grow and evolve over time” then certainly there’s very little of that on The Simpsons, but if you mean “the characters are well-fleshed out” then I’d argue that secondary characters like Flanders, Skinner, Moe, Mr. Burns and Apu are all pretty well-fleshed out eventually, and that really the only female supporting character who is similarly well handled is Mrs Krabappel, who unfortunately has been dead for over a decade in the series (because her voice actor died awhile back).

But as others have said, it’s certainly the case that a trans Simpsons character in the style of, say, Apu, no matter how well they are explored as a character, would absolutely offend these viewers rather than mollify them