Over its 30 season run, The Simpsons have embraced plenty of bizarre plotlines over the years. At this point in the show’s life, almost every character has gone through dramatic personality shifts that have seen them take on unexpected jobs or go through surprising changes in character dynamics, even if just for an episode.
However, a number of those shifts were predicted years in advance by a 1997 reality-altering issue of The Simpsons comics series.
In Simpsons Comics #33, by Scott M. Gimple, Phil Ortiz, Tim Bavington, Jeannine Black, and Nathan Kane, an invention of Professor Frink ends up malfunctioning due to the mistakes of his advanced monkey assistants. The resulting outburst of energy results, in reality, being overwritten and radically altered, with only Frink being aware of the changes to the world. While the basic structure of the world and Springfield still exists, a number of deviations reveal it to be a far different world than the traditional Springfield. In this world, many of the classic Simpsons characters have traded lives with one another, and the resulting changes leading to new scenarios for the classic cast of characters.
One of the most obvious differences between the worlds is the fact that here, Homer and Marge were never married. Instead, Marge remained with her high-school boyfriend Artie Ziff and had a single daughter, Lisa, but she eventually divorced him after becoming elected Mayor of Springfield. Meanwhile, Homer became a member of the mafia, served under local crime-boss Comic Book Guy and ended up finding love with Mindy from Season 5’s “The Last Temptation of Homer.” Together, she and Homer had two children, Bart and Maggie. But Mindy left him after meeting Jacques, completing an affair that Marge considered but resisted in Season 1’s “Life on the Fast Lane.” Notably, in this world, Bart is a far more forgettable figure in Springfield Elementary, with Milhouse instead becoming the chief trouble-maker.
As Frink explores Springfield, he discovers more unique changes to the town — such as Bleeding Gums Murphy becoming a doctor instead of Doctor Hibbert, Joe Quimby replacing Kent Brockman as the chief newscaster in town and Lenny and Carl becoming police officers. Mr. Burns never amassed his massive wealth and instead spends his twilight years at the Retirement Castle. While Bob Terrwiliger never became Sideshow Bob, his brother Cecil became a successful clown, and his assistant Sideshow Krusty was eventually arrested. Bob instead became the Principal of Springfield Elementary and a dedicated enemy to Milhouse. Milhouse even ends up the target of the mafia, with Homer being ordered to assassinate the young boy for interfering with too many of their criminal plots.
Luckily, Milhouse spending time with Bart and Lisa keeps Homer from killing him, and he instead ends up at Moe’s Tavern — who remains perhaps the only character not radically changed by the new reality. Running into Marge at the bar, the pair quickly hit it off and head out to find their children as they skip school with Milhouse. Meanwhile, Frink — with the help of Krusty, who learns the truth about how his life should have gone — is able to help arrange for things to be revered back to normal, restoring reality.
Notably, the single issue actually teased a number of minor plot beats that would eventually occur in the core-Simpsons series, with these odd concepts actually coming to fruition. Marge briefly became the Mayor of Springfield in Season 29’s “The Old Blue Mayor She Ain’t What She Used to Be.” Milhouse replaced Bart as the cool kid at school in Season 19’s “Little Orphan Millie.” Homer briefly joined the mafia in Season 18’s “The Mook, the Chef, the Wife, and Her Homer.” There was even a tease of the world that could have been if Marge had remained with Artie Ziff in Season 24’s “Treehouse of Horror XXIII.”
In its own way, this single issue ended up being a surprising predictor of future plotlines in the show, eve if none of the changes lasted that long.