The Simpsons: 10 Funniest Episodes Ever Made

10. The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase (Episode 24, Season Eight)

Simpsons Spin-off Showcase
20th Century Fox

When the writers first unveiled The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase, they were concerned that audiences wouldn't get that the show had been written badly on purpose. For anybody who failed to understand the joke, this season eight episode must have felt totally and utterly nuts; for everybody else, it was likely the funniest instalment in recent memory.

The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase, after all, is an excellent and consistently hilarious lampoon of "spin-off" TV shows. Back when it was released, it marked a very different direction for The Simpsons, but has since come to be known as one of the show's funniest experiments. After all, this is The Simpsons as a sketch show; the pace is relentless for 22 side-splitting minutes as a smorgasbord of terrible spin-offs ideas are unloaded.

It could have been awful, but you can't deny the brilliance of segments such as "Chief Wiggum P.I." and "The Love-matic Grandpa." The laughter never lets up in this one.

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Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.