The Simpsons: 10 Dark Jokes That Took You By Surprise

While ostensibly a family show, The Simpsons has always catered for those who prefer their humour a darker shade of yellow. After all, a running gag about a former children's entertainer tirelessly plotting to kill a ten year old boy is surely the antithesis of 'kid-friendly'. In fact, the more time you spend in Springfield, the more you realise just what a sordid little burg it is. It's a town where corruption creeps like ivy through every corner of power. A town where its young are indifferent, its elderly ignored. A town that lives in constant threat of a nuclear meltdown. Still, think of the comic potential. And so this list is a celebration of the show's more unexpectedly macabre moments (although please note that Treehouse of Horror episodes are excluded here); like the line you can't quite believe you've just heard or the sight gag that sneaks past the censors and heads straight for your subconscious. Put simply, here are the jokes that make you wonder whether to laugh or cry. Enjoy!

10. Bobsled Crash ('Any Given Sundance')

We begin at the Sundance Film Festival, where Lisa's warts-and-all documentary 'Capturing the Simpsons' is due to premiere. Principal Skinner and Superintendent Chalmers, who have tagged along to promote both Lisa and their own 'Chalmskinn' production company, are finding themselves increasingly out of their depth. After being refused entry to an exclusive VIP tent, they are pushed onto a bobsled - which slides downhill and crashes through a Mormon Church. As they emerge from the other side, several brides now inexplicably placed in their laps, Skinner looks at Chalmers and shouts ''This can't be real!'' ''It isn't'' smiles one of the brides,''You crashed and now you're lying unconscious in a snowbank.'' We suddenly cut to reality where, sure enough, the sled has reached an abrupt stop, throwing Skinner and Chalmer's lifeless bodies face down into the snow. As if that weren't bad enough, guest star Jim Jarmusch later appears to announce that he is directing 'Cheaper By The Dozen 3'. The poster shows Steve Martin's character mourning a dozen gravestones arranged in a row.