Itâs been said that The Simpsons has predicted everything from Donald Trumpâs presidency to the horse meat scandal. Recently, itâs emerged they also got there first with news bulletins being broadcast from home (Kent Brockman, abiding by an under-70s curfew in 1999 episode ‘Wild Barts Can’t Be Broken’) and Tom Hanks self-isolating (itâs just him telling fans, âIf you see me in person, please, please leave me be,â supposedly a nod to his Coronavirus diagnosis but only if you try really, really hard to make it fit, like a piece of jigsaw you know isnât really in the correct position but youâd already lost the will to live when you decided you were bored enough to attempt a jigsaw).
Whether itâs evidence of Charlie Brooker-style Black Mirror techno-wizard sorcery on the part of the writers or proof of the old adage that if you throw enough shit at the wall some of it will stick is up to you. But hereâs a weird thing. The second episode of the second-to-latest season of The Simpsons (season 30, broadcast in 2018) features Homer and Marge self-isolating some two years before any of us were unlucky enough to be familiar with the term.
Heartbreak Hotel sees the couple compete on reality TV show The Amazing Place, from which theyâre ejected in the very first round. Due to secrecy around the show, theyâre then legally obliged to hide out in an airport hotel until the entire season has wrapped filming. What follows will likely resonate with many couples in quarantine, whether longtime partners like Homer and Marge or newer couples thrust into a new arrangement due to coronavirus.
At first, for Homer at least, itâs all a novelty, a chance to spend time without the kids and enjoy the bounties of an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet and Sundries gift shop in the foyer. Such a good time is Homer having, he sings an Elvis Presley-style song about it, âAirport Hotelâ, one of the funniest musical Simpsons moments in years. âThe poolâs so chlorine-y, baby/The towelâs so teeny, baby/Not a lifeguard to be seen-y/We could dieâŠâ.
Marge, meanwhile, is in self-loathing mode for having crapped out of her favourite TV game show, and is begging the housekeeping staff to let her do her own housework. Soon, the reality of the situation sets in for both Homer and Marge, and the episode becomes that much more relatable to UK isolators in week two of lockdown, at the point when tolerance for the way your partner chews/breathes/looks at you has depleted to almost nothing, youâre breaking out in a chronic case of the cabin fever and youâve Googled how much rat poison you could slip into someoneâs food without affecting the taste.
So when the cinematography shifts into black and white, weâre into a pastiche of Whoâs Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?, in which a dishevelled Homer accuses Marge of âbrayingâ every time she opens her mouth and a gin-soaked Marge cruelly flirts with Nick, another show reject whoâs been invited to their room for a party. âBoy, last night sure was a searing portrait of a marriage in turmoil,â says Homer over the breakfast buffet the following morning. âItâs still in turmoil, you chocolate-gobbling dream-killer,â replies Marge.
Does it end happily? Not particularly, no. But this is The Simpsons, Homer and Margeâs marriage is made of famously stern stuff, and the 30-year-long status quo is, of course, reset by the next episode.
Really, itâs well thought of as a handful of dos-and-donâts for couples cohabiting in these strange times. Donât go to bed on an argument. Donât overdo the gin (it makes everyone cry-y). Be sensitive to your partnerâs feelings. And donât write off the latter-day Simpsons episodes, finally available to non-Sky subscribing Brits thanks to the recently launched Disney+. Theyâre really much better than the prevailing groupthink would have you believe. And, really, have you got anything better to be doing?
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