Every Time The Simpons REALLY Killed Characters

Whether or not you still watch it, the fact that The Simpsons has been on the air for a staggering thirty-one years now is an incredibly impressive feat - the question of whether it should continue on at this point is a whole other matter though.

Over the years, we've become accustomed to Springfield's colourful cast of oddballs but much like in the real world, death catches up to us all in the end and The Simpsons has never been afraid to off major characters in a heart-beat.

For the purposes of this list, we shan't be including any fictional characters such as Itchy, Scratchy, or Poochie - who as we all know, died on the way back to his home planet in that show's canon.

We will also not be including characters who were shown to die in flashbacks, Treehouse of Horror episodes, or one-shot characters who only appeared briefly in one scene and their death was a punchline. Confirmed canonical deaths of long-running or episode centric characters only for this one, otherwise, we'd be here for an absolute eternity.

So get the tissues ready, we're paying tribute to all of our favourite Springfieldians that have sadly perished.

Kicking off this list we have perhaps the strangest pet that the Simpsons have ever adopted - well, maybe aside from that Screaming Caterpillar, but the less said about that the better.

Initially, Homer's plan was to bring Pinchy home so he could fatten him up for eating, ensuring that he would have the best lobster dinner possible. However, as time went on Homer found himself becoming emotionally attached to him. Even going so far as to make Pinchy an honourary member of the family, taking him along for walks on the beach and other such wholesome activities - much to the chagrin of both his family and others.

Sadly Homer's brief foray into owning a lobster came to a very tragic end when he decided to give Pinchy a nice hot bath after he got dirty chasing birds in the backyard. In typical Homer fashion though, he made the bathwater far too hot and ended up boiling poor Pinchy alive.

Homer's visible anguish and grief at the loss of his beloved pet lobster should be one of the show's most heart-wrenching moments, but it's beautifully undercut by the sight of Homer devouring the poor critter's corpse whilst sobbing uncontrollably.