10 Incredibly Subtle Jokes From The Simpsons You Might Have Missed

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.