The end of season 36 changes the game for Bart and Lisa, but the screenwriters have other plans

From the wildest beginnings of Springfield to the most surreal current adventures, There is a couple who made (literally) explode every corner of the Simpson history: Scratch and Pica. But at the end of season 36, something has changed. Bart and Lisa, after decades of laughter in front of the TV, decide to have already had enough of that ultraviolent humor … And of course, who left more than one fan thinking: is it the last farewell of the cat and the most destructive mouse on TV?

The answer is: not so quickly. Although the episode Things of foreign (Yes, with that word game) it increases an emotional pause between the Simpson brothers following their disinterest The scratch and pica show, The screenwriter Tim Long has clarified that this does not mean that they disappear forever.

Continuity in the Simpsons: an elastic game

“I respect those who worry about continuity”, Tim Long says in an interview with Broken, “But I have always heard that you don’t really know what orders the events occur.” And it is that if something has characterized The Simpsons During his 37 seasons it is that ability to laugh even from his chronology. Here, the characters do not age, the events are restored and the changes, when they arrive, sometimes last a single chapter … or not.

Long is clear: “This is an entity that is self-generated. I understand those who bother you, but I would also say to make a series that lasts almost 40 years without having a certain flexibility.”

In other words, The Simpsons They are so long that the unwritten television rules have become almost … optional.

And what about Rasca and Pica?

Although Bart and Lisa seem to shoot the page in the last episode, The screenwriters have no intention of banning the animated duo. Tim Long takes up the Rodeo Sin: “Of course we will see Bart and Lisa who see Scratch and Pica. We will never eliminate them.”

This statement reassures the most veterans who have seen in this show within the show a constant satire for television consumption, the censorship and evolution (or involution) of the entertainment for children.

The logic of an eternal cartoon

The Simpsons They have never been a series with a strong logic. It is a series that sounds, exaggerates, parody and that has earned its place as a pop icon precisely for its mutant nature. Tim Long defines him with a phrase taken from a song from the seventies: “Keep fully, but don’t let you go.” That is, according to him, the philosophy of the team regarding continuity.

And yes, he explains why one day characters like Roy appeared to “live with the Simpsons” … and then they never mentioned. Because it is not necessary. Why The Simpsons They know when to break the fourth wall and when re -costrui it with yellow bricks (or pink, according to the decoration).

The legacy of scratch and pica

Although now Lisa prefers to read and Bart has new interests, Graffi and Pica are still part of the DNA of The Simpsons. They are more than absurd violence: they are a satirical mirror that has reflected, since the 90s, issues such as moral hypocrisy, the influence of television, the manipulation of the media or sensationalism.

And although in Things of foreign It seems that his days are counted, in the Simpsonian universe nothing is really dead (not even the characters who explode or are beheaded for the umpteenth time).

The Simpsons continue, and also scratches and pica

Jean’s showrunner and creator Matt Groening know what they do. Scratch and Pica will return, also as a bavaglio, a memory or a new reinvention. Because in Springfield, everything can change … but everything can also return.

And if not, as Homer would say: “¡D’Oh!”.