10 Incredibly Subtle Jokes From The Simpsons You Might Have Missed

By Dan Wakefield /

5. Jumping The Shark ('Gump Roast')

Yep, it's another clip show (this time framed around Homer's Friar's Club Roast) but make sure you stick around for the closing musical number/apology ''They'll Never Stop The Simpsons'', sung by Dan Castellaneta. For, amongst the stills of U2 raising a glass in Moe's and Sideshow Bob stepping on rakes, there's an image that we haven't seen before. It simply shows Homer, erm, waterskiing over a shark. For anyone fluent in TV terminology and aware of the growing concern that the show is becoming a shadow of its former self, the joke rings loud and clear. Right on cue, Castellaneta sings '' Have no fears/We've got stories for years'' before suggesting (threatening?) that The Simpsons intends to mine comedy gold from such implausible plotlines as 'Marge becom a robot' and 'a crazy wedding' in which Grampa appears to have tied the knot to both Patty and Selma. Of course, this sequence is completely tongue-in-cheek; with that superb, self-deprecating shot of Homer providing the perfect in-joke with which to silence even the most scathing of critics.