The Simpsons Family Are All Secret Geniuses - Fan Theory Explained
The Simpsons has been around long enough to make way for a variety of theories, among those one that suggests the title family are actually geniuses, but they chose not to display their intelligence. Created by Matt Groening, The Simpsons began as a series of animated shorts in The Tracey Ullman Show in 1987, and it was developed into a half-hour prime time show after three seasons, making its official debut on Fox in 1989. The Simpsons have been unstoppable ever since, becoming the longest-running animated American series and successfully expanding to other media, most notably comic books and film.
The Simpsons follows the daily adventures of the title family in the fictional town of Springfield, along with those of their closest friends and a couple of enemies. Most of the time, the problems that the Simpsons get involved in are triggered by their bad decisions and not-so-brilliant moments, especially when it comes to Homer, who has stood out for not being the most intelligent man in Springfield, but he has very good luck. Each Simpson family member has shown different levels of intelligence, which has made some fans believe that they are only pretending to not be the brightest, and they are actually secret geniuses.
To better explain this theory, its supporters go all the way back to the younger years of Abraham Simpson a.k.a. Grandpa Simpson, who fought in World War II. The theory points out that, even though he appears to be senile, he was actually an intelligent soldier, a capable air pilot, and an accomplished pianist, and Homer’s mother, Mona, was also an intelligent (and fierce) woman. There wouldn’t be a reason, then, for Homer to be so dumb, and different flashbacks have shown him to be an above-average intelligent man. Marge has also been shown to have been an excellent student, Bart had very good grades when he started school, and Maggie, even though she’s a baby, has shown to be able to think logically and at one point was believed to be smarter than Lisa.
Speaking of Lisa, she’s the only one in the family who embraces her intelligence and chose it over happiness, while the rest chose to pretend to be dumb (some more than others) in order to be happy, as their intelligence brought them problems on different occasions. While the theory is interesting and can explain some moments in the series, there are some important pieces of evidence that play against it, mostly the crayon that got stuck in Homer’s brain when he pushed many up his nose, and also the “Simpson gene”. This one is described as a disorder that only affects the men from the Simpsons branch, which explains why both Homer and Bart were good students but their intelligence began to decrease, as they were pretty much succumbing to a hereditary disease. The Simpson women, on the other hand, are not affected by the gene, which is why Lisa and Maggie show no signs of being dumb like their father and brother.
The Simpsons is full of inconsistencies, which makes the “secret geniuses” theory possible to an extent, but there are also moments and elements that fully play against it. Still, it might be fun to keep it in mind next time you watch the series and see when it can apply and when it’s simply not possible for the members of the Simpsons family to be pretending to be dumb so they can be happy.
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