The Simpsons: 30 Best Newspaper Gags

By Jay Anderson / January 14, 2015

Even after twenty-six seasons and counting, it's impressive how much effort The Simpsons puts into the little things. Case in point: Everyone knows and loves the couch gag, and Bart writing on the blackboard, but there€™s another running joke on The Simpsons that has continued for years - the newspaper gag. It consists of funny headlines, sometimes 'legit' while at other times attached to obviously fake articles, mostly appearing in The Springfield Shopper, though occasionally, they'll turn up in other sources as well. "President Simpson Wins Superbowl," "Obese Nerd Eats Humble Pie," and in a rare bit of dark world play, "Deadbeat Dad Beat Dead." These are the sorts of headlines that sometimes go unnoticed in the background of an episode, but have been painstakingly placed there by the writers. Prior to the DVD and PVR age, fans would need to have a good eye to catch some of these headlines, especially the secondary articles appearing in the paper. They were tucked away in just a few frames of animation, after all. So it was wither have a good eye, or record the show on a VCR and jam the pause button. It's a lot easier these days, but, especially in the early years of the show, it's almost as if the producers expected fans to be crazy enough to take note of every single one of these jokes. Even blown up grainy shots of early season episodes can elicit a few chuckles, and it speaks to the thoroughness of the show's producers: every little iota of the show really is planned out. There have been well over a hundred of these newspaper jokes on The Simpsons to date, more than can be easily listed, and not all of them hit the mark - but many do. So lets take a look at thirty classic newspaper gags from The Simpsons!