The Simpsons: 10 Hidden Jokes Everybody Missed

9. The Numbers Up On The Jumbo Vision Screen Actually Mean Something (Marge And Homer Turn A Couple Play)

The Simpsons Jumbo Vision
Fox

In the episode, 'Marge and Homer Turn a Couple Play', there's a short sequence in which a poll is taken at Springfield Stadium about the attendance numbers and the answers are displayed on the massive Jumbo-Vision screen. At first glance, the three numbers displayed (8191, 8128, 8208) seem arbitrary with no real meaning behind them. As it turns out, these numbers are not random at all and in fact represent a perfect number, a narcissistic number, and a Mersenne prime respectively.

For those who don't like maths, maybe skip to the next entry. For those who do, read on.

A perfect number is one in which its divisors add up to itself. A narcissistic number is one where the number is the sum of its own digits each raised to the power of the number of digits. Finally, a Mersenne prime number is one in which there are no positive divisors other than 1 and itself. Okay, maths lesson over.

You probably should know that Al Jean, the long-time showrunner for The Simpsons, had actually studied mathematics at Harvard before going to write jokes for a living and the Simpsons writers room is also filled with over-qualified math geniuses.

Contributor
Contributor

My life story is nothing special. I haven't cured ebola, I'm nowhere near stopping terrorism, and I'm still working on that climate change problem. Instead, all I've done so far is put a few hundred words together in an attempt to make people laugh. You can follow me at @Fry_ying_pan but don't be offended if I don't tweet back. It's usually because I've spent too long trying to think up a witty response that the reply window has closed.