animation: an interdisciplinary journal 2015, Vol. 10(3) 175–188 © The Author(s) 2015 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1746847715602403 anm.sagepub.com How Time Works in The Simpsons Amy M. Davis, Jemma Gilboy and James Zborowski University of Hull, UK Abstract This article uses two groups of case-study episodes to explore the complexities and perplexities that arise from the long-running use of a ‘floating timeline’ within The Simpsons. First, the conflicting representations of the youths of Homer and Marge in two ‘flashback’ episodes (‘The Way We Was’ and ‘That 90’s [sic] Show’) are examined. The logical quandaries presented by departing from a floating timeline and introducing fixed (but multiple and contradictory) historical reference points in individual episodes are outlined, and it is suggested that it may be better to accept the fictional paradoxes created rather than to try to resolve them. Second, the episodes featuring ‘Sideshow Bob’ are surveyed, and Bob is offered as being granted the unusual capacity (within The Simpsons’ fictional universe) to experience the passage of time and accumulate and retain an eventful history. This is contrasted with the temporal experiences of the Simpsons themselves, for whom there is eventfulness without progression. The article concludes by suggesting that The Simpsons’ status as an animated programme allows it to exhibit in a particularly pure and sustained form some of the relationship to time, history and the everyday of situation comedy and television more broadly. Keywords canon/canonical, the everyday, fan communities, floating timeline, prime-time animation, retroactive continuity, series television, Sideshow Bob, The Simpsons, situation comedy, time Introduction: ‘Floating timelines’ and other ‘TV tropes’ It is not unusual for animated television series to run for years without time seeming to pass in the show’s fictional world. Very occasionally, changes will connote the passage of time: Fred and Wilma Flintstone eventually have a daughter, Pebbles (and Wilma’s pregnancy was included in the show); Stan, Kyle, Kenny, and Cartman eventually progress from the third grade to the fourth in South Park (1997–present). But these events are uncommon in the animated sitcom, and even in and of themselves they are limited in scope; changes happen rarely in animated sitcoms, and tend to be permanent when they do occur. Pebbles never progresses beyond an infant stage in the origi- nal run of The Flintstones (1960–1966). 1 The boys of South Park Elementary have been in the Corresponding author: Amy M Davis, University of Hull, Film Studies (Larkin Building), Cottingham Road, Hull HU6 7RX, UK. Email: a.davis@hull.ac.uk 602403ANM 0 0 10.1177/1746847715602403AnimationDavis et al. research-article 2015 Article at University of Hull on October 28, 2015 anm.sagepub.com Downloaded from