12 TV Moments Made Unintentionally Depressing By Real Life Events
7. The Simpsons: The World Trade Center Episode
With a show like The Simpsons that has made jokes about nearly everything for the past 30 years, it's inevitable that moments like these will happen, and there are dozens of unintentionally depressing jokes from throughout the series. However, The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson has to be the absolute worst offender.
Originally aired in September 1997, the whole plot revolves around Homer's car being stuck in the plaza of the World Trade Center, and there's a really unfortunate gag about halfway through the show. Two guys peek out from the windows of each tower and start shouting at each other, with one of them saying, "Sorry about that guy. They stick all the jerks in Tower One."
Oh, no...
In the DVD commentary recorded after 9/11, you can practically hear the pain in the writers' voices as they look back on this, calling the episode "emotionally wrenching" to watch. They definitely aren't wrong.
In response, Fox pulled The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson from syndication for several years after September 11th. Even all this time later, it isn't any less sad.