The Simpsons' creators have always rewarded the loyal, the attentive and the truly nerdy amongst their legions of fans. Over the past 25 years, in exchange for roughly 23 minutes per week of our time, they have steeped us in obscure film and TV references, hidden jokes, blink-and-you'll-miss-them sight gags, abstract animation sequences and minute visual details faster than you can say 'I'm going to make a GIF of that for my blog'. And that's just within the opening credits. In the early days, who could forget the thrill of pausing the VCR at just the right point to see how much Maggie rang up as on the cash register, or when they changed the names of the cast and crew to spooky puns for the Treehouse Of Horror episodes, or that time when the family all rushed in and sat on the couch and nothing happened for once. That blew our minds. Over the years though, the opening credits have updated, diversified and expanded to offer an even greater variety of gags, including unsavoury billboards, pitch perfect pop culture parodies and some truly epic, guest directed couch sequences that may be eligible for awards in their own rights. They've even doubled the price of Maggie in line with inflation, although Bart is still chalking up his lines on the old school blackboard. We'll have to blame inadequate education funding in Springfield for that one... The more new gags they cram into the opening titles, the more you're likely to miss them. So, in case you haven't been lowering the frame rate as you watch, we've rounded up 30 of the funniest, rudest, most esoteric and insanely ambitious Simpsons opening credits gags for your enjoyment.
