The Simpsons Season 33 Proved Homer Forgot The Show’s Pilot

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Although The Simpsons season 33 proved that Homer forgot the origins of Santa’s Little Helper, this isn’t a retcon as it fits well within the show’s established reality. The Simpsons has not been shy about retconning its past plots in recent outings. The show changed Homer and Marge’s ages as well as Homer’s relationship with his mother in 2021 episodes, and that’s without even addressing The Simpsons season 33 copying an earlier episode's plot.

However, one of the show’s most recent apparent retcons comes with a clever, in-universe justification. In “You Won't Believe What This Episode is About — Act Three Will Shock You!” (season 33, episode 14), Lenny asks Homer where he got his dog, Santa’s Little Helper. The answer was provided in the show’s very first episode, «Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fire»—but Homer doesn’t know that.

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When Homer tells Lenny he has no idea where Santa’s Little Helper came from (and guesses that he came free with the Simpsons' family home), it is a tacit admission that the infamously dim-witted hero of The Simpsons doesn’t even remember the pilot episode of his own show. Unlike many of The Simpsons season 33’s canon breaking gags and plots, however, this line isn’t a full-blown retcon. Instead, the joke works since it doesn’t undo the classic episode’s events. If anything, it is deeply in character that Homer would forget such a momentous event in his family’s history. While Homer has no memory of where the dog came from, this fits with his traditional characterization as a bumbling, buffoonish oaf who often forgets to go to work and can’t remember a birthday or anniversary to save his life.

While a lot of Simpsons fans have