Every Death In The Simpsons Ranked

Death does not appear very often on The Simpsons, probably because it's quite hard to get much family-friendly comedy from it. That being said, The Reaper has made a few calls to Springfield over the years and we're going to decide which one of them was the best.

"Best" can mean a number of things in this scenario; it can mean the emotional impact a death had on the viewer; the storyline ramifications of the death; the way in which the death was done; or the lasting impact that it has had on the show's history.

We're not including any characters who died off-screen or whose deaths are merely mentioned but never seen. We're also not including any characters who seemingly die but whose fates are unconfirmed, so you won't be seeing Sherry Bobbins or Rex Banner in this list. We also won't be including any animals, so sorry to Snowball I and Pinchy, who will live on in our hearts forever.

Also, this list will mostly be light-hearted, but it will obviously be discussing death - a subject not everyone is comfortable with - and entries 21, 19,and 2 mention suicide, so read on at your own discretion.

With that out of the way, let's begin...

Our first perisher comes from the show's twenty-seventh season which would explain why it's at the bottom of the list. Marge gives Homer a bag of cash and sends him to buy the family a new washing machine. However, she should have learned by now that Homer cannot be trusted to organise a booze-up in the Duff Brewery, as he returns home with a new barbecue.

He bought the "smoker" from The Pit Master, a mysterious old man whom he meets at the roadside. The Pit Master is played by Edward James Olmos, who has appeared in some pretty big movies including Coco and Blade Runner. Sadly, he didn't get much of a chance to display his experience in this episode, as he was only on screen for about three minutes.

After Homer's family is (understandably) angry at him for wasting their money, The Pit Master appears in the clouds and tells Homer to win them back using the power of the grill. He then adds "Oh, by the way, I died", bringing this character's less than impressive arc to a swift end.

A totally forgettable character whose death serves as nothing but a punchline - next!