The Simpsons has drawn mixed reactions from fans after its latest episode saw Homer become a victim of so-called “cancel culture”.
The episode, which aired on Sunday (13 March), is called “You Won’t Believe What This Episode is About – Act Three Will Shock You!”
In it, Homer becomes a social pariah after he is wrongly blamed for intentionally shutting the family’s dog, Santa’s Little Helper, inside a car on a hot day, and accidentally knocking Reverend Lovejoy out of the window of the church.
Homer also meets a character seemingly modelled on the controversial podcaster Joe Rogan.
The Rogan lookalike appears only briefly in the episode and does not talk, but instead invites Homer into a building signposted as a “Right-Wing Podcast House”.
Fans of the long-running cartoon satire shared their thoughts about the episode on social media.
“Simpsons Joe Rogan making me spiral,” wrote one viewer.
“Little late there guys,” wrote another. “When the Spotify flap was going on the other month it would have made sense to do this but overall everybody has moved on from [Rogan] since Spotify won’t budge on him.”
“Ngl kinda sad cuz I feel like a peak Simpsons episode could have deffo tackled a Joe Rogan episode in an excellent way (with an original character ofc),” wrote someone else.
“Homer gets ‘cancelled’ in the new Simpsons episode,” another person wrote. “I don’t know exactly what they were trying to say. There wasn’t really a solid through-line.”
Others pointed out that the show had already tackled the topic of public shaming back in 1994 with the episode “Homer Badman”.
“Modern Simpsons is so bizarre,” wrote one fan, “because recently [there’ll] be a few sparse good episodes. But then they still do Joe Rogan Homer gets cancelled. They already did Homer gets cancelled in 1994.”
The episode will be available to watch in the UK on Disney Plus later this year.
