The Best Couch Gags in the History of The Simpsons

Coy Jandreau

Updated August 1, 2023 99.6K views 32 items

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5.3K votes

1.1K voters

Voting Rules

Vote up your favorite couch gag (or series of gags) from the opening of the long-running series.

The Simpsons is not only the most iconic show of modern television, but arguably the most important cartoon ever created. Seemingly everything has been referenced by, and in turn referenced, The Simpsons. The Fox animated sitcom is a mainstay that pretty much defined at least two entire generations and became a cultural institution over the decades.

Its influence is truly immeasurable. Without The Simpsons there would be no South Park, no Family Guy, and no Futurama. The entire television landscape would be unrecognizable. The Simpsons made the adult cartoon the staple of entertainment it is today. There have been over 550 episodes, more than 600 guest stars, and countless recurring characters, but just one famously consistent element on the show: the couch gag.

The couch gag actually began as nothing more than a clever way to fill time. If an episode ran long, then they'd create a short gag. If an episode was a bit short, they'd create a long gag to pad out the runtime. But over the years it became such a fixture of the show that the intro began morphing into it's own separate art form. As it stands now, the couch gag is essentially a short film playing before every episode of The Simpsons.

Vote for your favorite couch gags, whether you love the quick jokes and visual gags of the early years or the longer, more conceptual gags by guest animators over recent seasons.

1
284 VOTES
Homerazzi
Video: YouTube
Season 18. Episode 394.
Millions of years of evolutionary history in a couch gag. Homer evolves from a single-celled organism into a more complex lifeforms, first as a jellyfish, then a fish. Emerging from the ocean and outwitting predators, Homer morphs into a lizard, a rat, a sloth, and a monkey, becoming more apelike as he swings through the jungle. He then strolls through an ice age, going from Neanderthal to Cro-Magnon to upright walking caveman. Homo sapiens Homer rides out several historical eras until finally, he's arriving home at 742 Evergreen Terrace. Marge, already sitting with the kids, asks, "What took you so long?"
284 votes
2
481 VOTES
Mathlete's Feat
Video: YouTube
Season 26. Episode 574.
Rick and Morty of the Adult Swim series Rick and Morty suddenly crash into the TV room, instantly and gruesomely killing the entire Simpson family. The alcoholic scientist and his put-upon grandson go to great lengths to wipe out any evidence of the accident, eventually creating hideously mutated Simpsons clones, with Bart declaring, "No more guest animators!"
481 votes
3
292 VOTES
Treehouse of Horror XXIV
Video: YouTube
Season 25. Episode 532.
This phantasmagoric opening directed by Guillermo Del Toro is jam-packed with references to horror, fantasy, and science fiction, including Lisa falling through a hole à la Disney's 1951 Alice in Wonderland and ending with homages to del Toro's own Pan's Labyrinth and the Hypnotoad from Futurama.
292 votes
4
211 VOTES
The Fabulous Faker Boy
Video: YouTube
Season 24. Episode 528.
Everyone and everything in Springfield is animated in the stop-motion style of Robot Chicken, ending with the family getting strapped to the couch and forced to watch The Simpsons by that Adult Swim show's half-robot, half-chicken creature.
211 votes
5
176 VOTES
Four Regrettings and a Funeral
Video: YouTube
Season 25. Episode 533.
A parody of The Hobbit in which the family embarks on an epic journey to the couch.
176 votes
6
203 VOTES
Simpsorama
Video: YouTube
Season 26. Episode 558.
The Simpsons sit on the couch, but it turns out to be the Hedonismbot from Futurama.
203 votes
7
87 VOTES
Simpsons Time
Video: YouTube
Season 28, Episode 1.
The Simpsons offered a playful take on Adventure Time in the opening episode of Season 28, with Bart standing in for Finn the Human (Bart the Boy) and Homer playing the role of Jake the Dog.(Dog Named Homer). The dizzying sequence, which moves with disorienting fluidity, moves through various classic Simpsons moments - the three-eyed fish, Lisa playing her saxophone, Bumblebee Man buzzing over Springfield - before landing on Finn Bart and Jake Homer in a tree house. They sniff each others's butts and have a wee adventure before ending up on the couch, which is perched on the top of a mountain.
87 votes
8
137 VOTES
I Won't Be Home for Christmas
Video: YouTube
Season 26. Episode 561.
A message that reads, “Now for obligatory Frozen reference. Sure enough, there's a snow couch, where Lisa, looking an awful lot like Frozen’s Elsa, is sitting. Bart hits her with a snowball and she immediately creates a giant ice palace, stranding Bart at the top. Homer appears as Olaf the Snowman, and is disappointed to discover his nose is a nutritious carrot.
137 votes
9
141 VOTES
Seasons 1-5 Couch Gags
Video: YouTube
Seasons 1-5. Episodes 1-103 (lots of repeated intros in those days).
The original couch gags, which are much shorter and much harder to find individually, have been gathered up for consideration as a whole.
141 votes
10
69 VOTES
The Originals
Video: YouTube
A blast from the past. The first run marking the very beginning of the couch gags!
69 votes

11
86 VOTES
Seasons 6-10 Couch Gags
Video: YouTube
Seasons 6-10. Episodes 104-226 (lots of repeated intros in those days).
The original couch gags from the back half of the show's golden age, gathered here together to watch as a whole.
86 votes
12
113 VOTES
The Kid Is Alright
Video: YouTube
Season 25. Episode 536.
A pretty deep cut reference of a couch gag, "MusicVille" is a cartoon short featuring every character as a musical instrument in homage to Disney's Silly Symphony short "Music Land."
113 votes
13
60 VOTES
White Christmas Blues
Video: YouTube
Season 25. Episode 538.
A holiday version of the regular intro providing a Simpsonian retelling of the poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (more popularly known as "The Night Before Christmas").
60 votes
14
106 VOTES
MoneyBART
Video: YouTube
Season 22. Episode 467.
This special opening overseen by enigmatic street artist Bansky beings with the family already on the couch before pulling back to reveal that they are, in fact, simply in a picture hanging in a sweatshop where factory workers (most of whom are women and children) produce merchandise and animation cels for the show under inhumane conditions. The camera pulls back further to reveal that the sweatshop is 20th Century Fox, which owns The Simpsons.
106 votes
15
98 VOTES
What Animated Women Want
Video: YouTube
Season 24. Episode 525.
A special intro parodying the the AMC dark series Breaking Bad. Marge makes blue cupcakes for a church bake sale while Homer spies on her. The entire sequence is watched by Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) in live-action.
98 votes
16
42 VOTES
Million Dollar Maybe
Video: YouTube
Season 21. Episode 452.
Homer runs to the couch first, pulling out a "myPhone" and opening the "Couch Gag" app to download Bart, Lisa, Marge, and Maggie. When Homer gets an incoming call from Mr. Burns, he screams and swallows the phone.
42 votes
17
74 VOTES
My Fare Lady
Video: YouTube
Season 26. Episode 566.
A pixelated version of the opening sequence by Paul Robertson, Ivan Dixon (directors/animators) and Jeremy Dower (music).
74 votes
18
58 VOTES
At Long Last Leave
Video: YouTube
Season 23. Episode 500.
A frame-by-frame montage of every previous couch gag starting with the one from "Bart the Genius" and ending with the one from "The Daughter Also Rises" is followed by a new one where the Simpsons sit on the couch, then the camera zooms out to reveal a celebratory "500" mosaic made up of stills from past gags. The mosaic falls apart and reveals tuxedo-wearing Homer and Bart strangling each other.
58 votes
19
96 VOTES
Clown in the Dumps
Video: YouTube
Season 26. Episode 553.
A surreal depiction of the show's past and future created by underground animation legend Don Hertzfeldt.
96 votes
20
34 VOTES
Super Franchise Me
Photo: FOX
Season 26. Episode 555.
A parody of the cover of the 1970 Cat Stevens album Tea for Tillerman with its title track playing over it.
34 votes

21
78 VOTES
Exit Through the Kwik-E-Mart
Video: YouTube
Season 23. Episode 501.
A spoof of the intro to HBO's adventure fantasy series Game of Thrones, with the buildings rising out of the ground, being driven by cogs, and a giant couch overlooking the entire town.
78 votes
22
50 VOTES
Luca$
Video: YouTube
Season 25. Episode 547.
This one's for Minecraft fans: the whole intro is executed in the style of the video game, adopting it's signature simplified, blocky design.
50 votes
23
40 VOTES
Love Is a Many Splintered Thing
Video: YouTube
Season 16. Episode 339.
The Simpsons all look like Moe Szyslak - maybe the fugliest man in Springfield - and announce that their unlikely and entirely fictitious new sitcom The Szyslaks has been canceled.
40 votes
24
56 VOTES
What To Expect When Bart's Expecting
Video: YouTube
Season 25. Episode 549.
This one - a mix of 2D animation and CGI by Polish filmmaker Michal Socha - travels inside Homer's body, with the rest of the family ultimately falling onto Homer's couch-shaped brain.
56 votes
25
56 VOTES
Dangers on a Train
Video: YouTube
Season 24. Episode 530.
Five dandelions bloom and turn white on the couch. The TV sneezes, blowing the white dandelion seeds in the air, which turn into multiple Homers, Marges, Barts, Lisas, and Maggies. This surreal couch gag was submitted by Cheryl Brown, who won The Simpsons Create-A-Couch-Gag contest in America.
56 votes
26
45 VOTES
I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot
Video: YouTube
Season 15. Episode 322.
In this confectionery couch gag, the couch itself is a cake onto which the Simpsons are squeezed out of a pastry bag just like frosting.
45 votes
27
54 VOTES
Diggs
Video: YouTube
Season 25. Episode 542.
As the Simpsons rush to the couch, the lights go off. Marge leaves to fix the fuse, and when the lights go up, the characters appear in a Triplets of Belleville-style French aesthetic. Bart plays with a do-it-yourself foie gras kit, Lisa plays an accordion, Marge cries out, "Maggie? Où est Maggie?" and Homer gets up and eats a snail off the TV... unaware that Maggie is, in fact, stuck between his butt cheeks.
54 votes
28
46 VOTES
Eeny Teeny Maya Moe
Video: YouTube
Season 20. Episode 436.
The screen is white. A cartoon left hand begins flipping through different animation cels. The hand flips one that has Homer's skeleton sitting cross-legged, flips another that has Homer naked, another where the rest of the family are fully clothed and sitting in mid-air, and another with the family seated. Marge notices Homer is still naked and pulls down an animation cel that has his clothes.
46 votes
29
45 VOTES
Simpton Abbey
Video: YouTube
Special Promo. No Specific Episode.
A mysterious intro that parodies the British soap opera Downton Abbey. So far, it has never used as the intro to any single episode but instead as a general promotion for The Simpsons on Fox.
45 votes
30
42 VOTES
Love Is a Many Strangled Thing
Video: YouTube
Season 22. Episode 481.
The entire couch gag is done in ASCII art, with Bart taking some of the letters that comprise the graphic art form and spelling "FATSO" on top of Homer, who responds via word balloon, "D'oh!"
42 votes