10 Exact Moments The Simpsons Stopped Trying

After 22 seasons, and almost 500 episodes of the show, it would be unreasonable to expect the writers of The Simpsons to have the same quality of ideas as they did in the first few years and throughout the Golden Years. However, some stories were simply lazier than others.

At the end of season 22, the show brought together Ned Flanders and Edna Krabappel, two characters that had been lonely for such a long time. There was nothing inherently wrong with this story line, in fact it had potential to be quite interesting, however the writers simply couldn't be bothered to write the entire thing.

Instead, the show left it up to the viewers to decide what happened next - whether the couple dubbed Nedna would stay together or split up. Instead of constructing a full narrative for the characters to play out, the writers passed responsibility to the fans.

This was done as a way to get people excited for the reveal, and ensure they came back to see how the vote turned out, however it came off as lazy, having to resort to gimmicks and public votes for audiences rather than well written, creative episodes.