The Simpsons: 10 Absolute Worst Episodes Ever

8. Double, Double, Boy In Trouble

See if this narrative sounds familiar: the protagonist of a sitcom meets a doppelgänger from a wealthy background they find emotionally unsatisfying. In a moment of epiphany, one of the characters suggests that the two of them should take up each others' lives. What follows is then a series of comic misunderstandings the two characters realise that their previous lives were not as bad as they thought, and return to the status quo content with their lot in life.

Of course it's familiar. It happens frequently enough to be classed as a cliche.

It's a dumb, easy story that audiences have seen time and time again, and unfortunately, The Simpsons chose to make it their own. That would be acceptable if it was done in one of the earlier series, but this storyline came in during the twentieth, inviting further accusations that the writers had run out of steam.

And frankly when you're copying a plot that had been done two years previously in Garfield: A Tail Of Two Kitties, you should probably go back to the drawing board.