Homer Never Nods

‘KIDS, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is: Never try.” Is this the sort of lesson we want Homer Simpson to be teaching our kids? That’s the question people who don’t understand The Simpsons have been asking, for a very long time. Indeed, The Simpsons is now the longest-running sitcom on television, and it recently became the longest-running cartoon in television history, surpassing The Flintstones.

In 1990, drug czar William Bennett picked a fight with Bart Simpson, the show’s spiky-haired brat. Visiting a Pittsburgh drug-treatment center, Bennett saw a poster of Bart with the caption, “Underachiever and Proud of It.” Bennett responded, “You guys aren’t watching The Simpsons, are you? That’s not going to help you any.” The firestorm caused the normally intractable Bennett to back-pedal, saying he really didn’t know anything about the show. (His wife, however, told the New York Times in 1998 that their kids still weren’t allowed to watch the program.)

About the Author

Jonah Goldberg

Jonah Goldberg is a National Review contributing editor.

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‘KIDS, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is: Never try.” Is this the sort of lesson we want Homer Simpson to be teaching our kids? That’s the question people who don’t understand The Simpsons have been asking, for a very long time. Indeed, The Simpsons is now the longest-running sitcom on television, and it recently became the longest-running cartoon in television history, surpassing The Flintstones.

In 1990, drug czar William Bennett picked a fight with Bart Simpson, the show’s spiky-haired brat. Visiting a Pittsburgh drug-treatment center, Bennett saw a poster of Bart with the caption, “Underachiever and Proud of It.” Bennett responded, “You guys aren’t watching The Simpsons, are you? That’s not going to help you any.” The firestorm caused the normally intractable Bennett to back-pedal, saying he really didn’t know anything about the show. (His wife, however, told the New York Times in 1998 that their kids still weren’t allowed to watch the program.)