However, because the show has been on the air for over 35 years, the timeline is full of contradictions. Here is a guide to the different ways to interpret the setting.
Beyond character ages, the material world of Springfield proves the impossibility of a fixed setting. The Simpsons’ home contains a rotary phone in one episode and a smart speaker in another. The family watches “The Itchy & Scratchy Show” on a cathode-ray tube television in 1990, yet by 2010 they own a flatscreen. Apu’s Kwik-E-Mart transitions from accepting cash to scanning QR codes. This technological anachronism is not sloppy writing; it is the show’s lifeblood. If The Simpsons were truly set in 1989, it could never have satirized Facebook, cryptocurrency, or Donald Trump. The floating timeline allows the show to remain a living artifact, commenting on the present while wearing the comfortable, yellow skin of the past. what year is the simpsons set in