The common belief is that, by 2000, The Simpsons had grown long in the tooth – and that that tooth wasn’t half as sharp as it had been a few years prior. The golden-age showrunners had all left the programme, as had such stellar writers as Conan O’Brien and Mike Reiss. Heartfelt episodes and impactful satire were well in the rearview mirror, with loony antics replacing genuine substance.
However, during season 11’s It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Marge, The Simpsons showed it still had some semblance of parodic power. And it did so at heavy metal’s expense. At the start of the episode, school bus driver Otto reveals to Bart that he’s about to pop the question to his girlfriend. “We met in the summer of love,” he fondly reflects when asked how he met his other half. “Woodstock ’99!”
