The year is 1989. George Herbert Walker Bush has succeeded Ronald Reagan as president. Films like Batman, The Little Mermaid, and Road House are entertaining American moviegoers. Poison, Milli Vanilli, and Paula Abdul are dominating the pop charts. And on Sunday, December 17, exactly 25 years ago, a little animated series about a yellow family and their town full of maniacs debuted on the upstart Fox network with a holiday episode titled “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire.”
Yup, that’s right. Today is the 25th anniversary of the debut of The Simpsons as a sitcom on Fox. Since then it has spanned four decades and over 560 episodes, revolutionized television comedy, been discussed and written about by everyone from you and your stoner college buddies to the world’s leading academics and political figures, and been named the greatest sitcom in history by a number of outlets that proclaim things like that. It’s hard to overstate the show’s impact on the past quarter century.
It’s also hard to properly memorialize it, by the way, because we have all been memorializing in one way or another for about 24 years now. Why, just this summer — at the height of the FXX marathon and the Simpsons World hubbub — we all had a nice little conversation about our favorite moments from the show. We still left a bunch of good ones on the table, as watching like 70% of the marathon this summer drove home for me.
So, let’s do this: Consider this post a Simpsons quotes open thread. Drop your favorites in the comments throughout the day. I think that’s appropriate. Here, I’ll get us started.
