Ellie Abraham
Mar 15, 2022
The Joe Rogan Experience
A new episode of The Simpsons has disappointed fans over a storyline where Homer is “cancelled” and meets Joe Rogan.
During the episode titled, “You Won’t Believe What This Episode is About—Act Three Will Shock You!”, controversial podcast host Rogan is spoofed but never actually named.
According to Newsweek, in the episode, Homer leaves the Simpson’s family dog Santa’s Little Helper in a hot car and is shamed publicly for his mistake.
While trying to apologise for his error, things get even worse as he accidentally knocks Reverend Lovejoy out of a church window and the whole debacle is captured on camera.
The footage of the incident goes viral on social media and Homer is ostracised by friends and family and becomes increasingly isolated.
Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter
That’s when Homer meets up with the only person who will see him: the “Right-Wing Podcast” host – a bald, muscular character very much resembling Rogan if he were in Simpson character form.
The episode has not gone down well with many critics as they question what The Simpsons creators’ aim was by including such a controversial character and story.
Cathal Gunning writing for Screenrant called the episode of the show’s 33rd season a “self-contradictory mess” and “bizarrely misguided”.
Gunning also took exception to the episode for putting Homer, who was “cancelled” for completely innocent and accidental reasons, into the same category as people like Rogan who have said and done things people have deemed offensive.
Nathan Kamal also had thoughts on the episode, writing on Giant Freakin Robot: “It seems like the producers of the show are aware of the concept of people being publicly shamed, and felt they needed to weigh in, but ultimately they did not really have anything to say.”Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
Top 100
The Conversation (0)