10 The Simpsons Characters Who Were KILLED OFF!
The Springfieldianites who died and never returned...
For a show that has been running for as long as The Simpsons has, the writers have been fairly reluctant to kill off any of their major characters.
Perhaps this shouldn't be such a shock for a show that is primarily aimed at entertaining families, but it hasn't prevented other sitcoms from covering this sensitive subject. Death is, after all, a certainty, and although Bart and Lisa may never actually age, it doesn't mean that characters within The Simpsons universe shouldn't come and go with the natural order of things.
That's not to say that people haven't died or been killed on The Simpsons - it's more a case that these deaths have largely been left to characters who we haven't grown any real attachment to, or exist simply within a bubble to further a story. Oh, and also pets. Lots and lots of pets.
There are exceptions to every rule of course, and that is just as true when it comes to The Simpsons. Even in a show that never seems to age, characters can grow stale or out of vogue, and the only option for the writers is to kill them off...
10. Snowball II
The Simpsons have had many different pets over the years, but none quite so memorable as their fur ball vomiting, furniture scratching flea bag Snowball II. We first encountered Snowball II during the timeless Christmas pilot episode “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire”. As Marge explained in her annual festive letter, the cat served as a replacement for the original Snowball, who had sadly died after being run over by a Chrysler.
Unlike her namesake, Snowball II would have a much more productive life and featured frequently for the first 15 seasons of the show until meeting a similar fate to OG Snowball, this time at the hands – or rather wheels – of Dr Julius Hibbert.
Attempts to replace Snowball II proved disastrous, as seen in the episode “I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot” in which Snowball III drowns in a fish tank, and Snowball IV commits suicide. The family eventually end up rehoming Snowball V, a seemingly indestructable feline, but opt to call the cat Snowball II to save spending any more money on new cat bowls.